James Tawton

Let the Right One In/Let Me In

It’s a constant disappointment to me that English speaking peoples cannot watch films in other languages. It both confuses me and is no surprise whatsoever. The dichotomy here is centered around the fact that it’s simple and commonplace to read a subtitle, for it is simply a sentence or two, but that I know fullContinue reading “Let the Right One In/Let Me In”

Decline & Fall – Evelyn Waugh

As part of a genuine lineage of literary masters, born from an age of class brilliance, public schools, officers in world wars, country houses etc, Evelyn Waugh was one of those Englishman that Americans and Australians are convinced we’re all still like. Regretfully, we’re not. We are, of course, class mixed, socially removed from one-another,Continue reading “Decline & Fall – Evelyn Waugh”

Coffee

>In England, where people are good and noble, clean and impressive, tea is the drink of choice. Tea is balanced, healthy and of a heritage that is the envy of the whole world. It’s as ancient as civilization and the benchmark for its continuance. The development of tea drinking has accelerated over the last 30Continue reading “Coffee”

Beards

I originally composed this as ‘Facial Hair’ but, the more I thought about it, the more I realised what an enormous subject that truly is. So, I’ve started with the big one: Beards. Beards are the oddest of all stylistic accessories. They are theoretically accessible to any man (and some women of course), so areContinue reading “Beards”

Fight Club (film, not book)

>The film indeed. For it is this, and not the book, that has seared itself onto the public consciousness. In a multi-media age even the DVD of Fight Club seems old fashioned now, but the book is a practical irrelevance for too many people, so I’ll park that for now. Even Chuck Palahnuick himself wasContinue reading “Fight Club (film, not book)”

Fighting

One of the most significant films of the 90s, a sleeper hit that people in the know really weren’t sure would gain traction, is Fight Club. The subtext of fighting as an anathema to 20th century consumerism would, they said, go over people’s heads. The brawling in place of meaningful existences would, they said, passContinue reading “Fighting”

Hats

There was a time, long ago now, when men wore hats. They wore hats, because they were men and they wore a hat. This was nothing more than the done thing. When you left the house, you put on your hat. When you got to work, you took it off. When you left work youContinue reading “Hats”

Hiring a Van

For most men in this day and age, an age of information technology and electronic communication, we go to work, sit at a desk and tip-tap away at our keyboards and feel all very clever and important about whatever mindless and irrelevant form-filling and box-ticking we’re engaged in. There are few people in white middle-classContinue reading “Hiring a Van”

13 years ago…

>…I was 20, and I thought that everything would be oh so fucking sweet and cool, and everyone would be doing things they’d really love, and expectations would only grow and grow as achievements were continually being ticked off and logged away as successes in people’s life experience folders. The folders they keep in theContinue reading “13 years ago…”

Tombstone

Right, let’s not mess around here, I love Gunfight at the OK Corral. Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, great. But this film is something else altogether. It’s not so much a remake as an improvement and, yes, I dare say an improvement, because it’s just a better looking, directed, scripted, acted, produced and presented film. HandsContinue reading “Tombstone”