It’s fair to say I’d been a fan of Adam Smith’s shambling indie pop band, the Hector Collectors, for some time. A perfect example of a live band that skirts the line between brilliance and it all falling apart. Oddly… Read More »TOO MANY FIREWORKS. AN ORAL HISTORY, MOSTLY. 2MF003
In the cold winter of 2021, a singular moment of stupidity as I changed a roll of film caused my Leica M6 to drop from my hand and bounce on the concrete. Its storied life flashed before my panicked eyes.… Read More »The Leica M3: A Comprehensive Guide
This article was originally written in November 2023, when it was already clear that Israel had the full intention to commit genocide against the Palestinians. Almost 3 years on, Gaza has been destroyed, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are dead,… Read More »Free Palestine!
Every few years I find myself answering the Proust Questionnaire to see how my answers change over time. The famed questionnaire itself came from a French parlour game and, though not devised by Marcel Proust, he certainly popularised it with… Read More »The Proust Questionnaire
In 2010, Britain’s centre and centre-left sent a clear message to Gordon Brown’s Labour by voting for Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats in their droves. That electorate certainly didn’t want David Cameron’s Conservatives, and the expectation was that Clegg would enter… Read More »TOO MANY FIREWORKS. AN ORAL HISTORY, MOSTLY. 2MF019
In the mid-2010s, while I played in The Frozen North, the Polish music industry held several fairs in and around Warsaw. The weekly listings supplement Co Jest Grane 24, distributed with the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, organised the most famous event: a national… Read More »Too Many Fireworks. An Oral History, mostly. 2mf020
A fortuitous coincidence accompanied my move from Glasgow to Warsaw in 2010. Having then recently bought a piano, a set of strings samples, and Apple’s Logic Pro, I had been playing with modern-classical and ambient music. Following in the footsteps… Read More »Too Many Fireworks. An Oral History, mostly. 2mf013
On the 21st of January, 2002, a Glasgow post-punk band that had passed swiftly through the dark tunnels of indie pay-to-play hell to find itself in the city’s welcoming DIY scene, launched their debut e.p. with a show at the… Read More »Too Many Fireworks. An Oral History, mostly. 2mf029
I don’t remember when I met Heidi Kuisma, but I do remember that I had found a kindred spirit. A Finn, at that time living in Glasgow, Heidi was (and still is) a talented, creative photographer who moved in similar… Read More »We Sink Ships
Continuing my almost forgotten journey of watching each of the British Film Institute’s 100 best films of the 20th Century. Starting at 100 and working my way to Orson Welles’ The Third Man at number 1. This time, A Clockwork Orange.… Read More »BFI 100: 81 – A Clockwork Orange (1971)