Category: Voice

  • A Splendid Day Out With The Bulls

    A Splendid Day Out With The Bulls

    A sweeper arrives on the scene of the matador’s latest conquest at the Málaga bullring in August 2011. The bull’s trail leaves an undignified smear across the arena.

  • Jesus Spotted in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles

    Jesus Spotted in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles

  • Dunwich: The Town That Keeps Falling Into The Sea

    Dunwich: The Town That Keeps Falling Into The Sea

    There was once a perfectly placed natural harbour at Dunwich but, while there was a Roman outpost there, it wasn’t until around 630 AD, when Saint Felix came bounding over from France holding the…

  • Paphos: Sex Centre of The Ancient World

    Paphos: Sex Centre of The Ancient World

    Everyone, everywhere in Cyprus, will at some point mention the goddess, be it to sell you a villa or a bottle of wine. I challenge you to name more heavily marketed deity. But there’s nothing new under the heavens and when it comes to exploiting the famously sexy lady, the ancients were equally adept. Thanks to establishing the island as a cult centre for Aphrodite, thousands of pilgrims from all over the eastern Mediterranean were drawn to the festivals held in her name, including the four day long Aphrodisia. We might think of it as sex tourism but to the pagan societies of the period, the fornication, rituals and orgies conducted in the name of Aphrodite were sanctified as well as advantageous. Sacred prostitution, mentioned in the Golden Bough, placated the gods and protected the land from famine and drought by activating the reproductive forces of nature. Stass Paraskos, author of Aphrodite, The Mythology of Cyprus, paints an interesting picture of Paphos, a city on the west coast, which was the centre of the cult.

  • Occupy Wall Street: Leadership Vacancy

    Occupy Wall Street: Leadership Vacancy

    ‘Inchoate’ was a word often used to describe the Occupy Wall Street gatherings. It’s unclear whether those watching from their armchairs would make the best candidates to lend some greater coherency to the movement. (Photo credit: Hana Seligman)

  • Photos: The World of London Boxing & Cage-Fighting

    Photos: The World of London Boxing & Cage-Fighting

    The trials and tribulations of Rocky and his life may tell a heart-warming story on the silver screen, but fight nights in London are less about the fortunes of a chosen few and more about a gamble on a cast of many; it is not uncommon to have around 24 fighters passing in and out of the ropes on a single saturday night.

  • Generation Skill: Playing Sonic The Hedgehog With my Mum

    Generation Skill: Playing Sonic The Hedgehog With my Mum

    I think video games are fascinating: as works of design, as a medium of art and as a development of cultural importance. As a consequence, I decided to attempt an…

  • Video: Qatari Investment in Marbella Includes Epic Orchestral Soundtrack

    From Nasir Bin Abdullah and Sons comes a €400 million mega-plan to attract wealthy visitors to Spain’s famously over-developed Costa Del Sol. The Al Thani Port appears to contain luxury residential property as well as commercial space. Once opened, it is unclear whether there will be a tax to inhibit or prevent poor people from marking up the new floors or asking how much things cost.

  • ‘Manhatta’ – a Short Film About a Place in New York

    ‘Manhatta’ – a Short Film About a Place in New York

    In 1920 two chaps called Charles Sheeler (an artist/photographer from Philly) and Paul Strand (a filmaker from New York) made this film, which apparently took inspiration from Walt Whitman’s lifelong work The Leaves of Grass. The track comes from The Cinematic Orchestra (Ninjatune).

  • Hackney Council Puts a Friendly Face on ‘Luxury Apartment’ Invasion

    Hackney Council Puts a Friendly Face on ‘Luxury Apartment’ Invasion

    I’m trialing this to see what happens if I try to make a main category image scale to one of the ‘Top 3’, too.