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- Commentary (6)
- It's Alive!
December 30, 2011, 03:39
Those that regularly visited this site may have been under the impression that I died or became severely incapacitated on or around 16th of October 2011, since…
- Lucinda, the Chickadee, Margaret, and Lake Charles
September 14, 2011, 08:11
In which I track down the sad story behind one of the chickadee's favourite songs, reignite a love for South West Louisiana and Austin Texas, and learn about…
- How honest are we. Really. (updated)
August 15, 2011, 17:54
In all the middle-class hand-wringing about the riots, the universal refrain is that the looters are not like us. We look at them as though they are from a…
- Greece is the word
August 13, 2011, 08:01
Hustling through. Waterloo station on Friday, I noticed numerous identical little ladies in pink t-shirts collecting for what seemed to be 'Greek Animal…
- Murdoch and the death of New Labour
July 12, 2011, 09:27
OK it's schadenfreude, but it is enjoyable This was not intended to be a site that included topical commentary , but it would be remiss of me, if only for…
- Whitey Bulger and Fu Manchu
June 25, 2011, 07:37
A method formerly used to baffle fiendish mastermind Fu Manchu comes back into style It's been a while since the world was threatened by evil genius Fu…
- It's Alive!
- Concerts (14)
- The Neville strides out*
August 19, 2011, 15:43
Stride piano. Something that you don't hear every decade. The second album I ever bought, (after Astral Weeks), was called 'The Jazz Piano', and…
- Thomas Trotter thrillingly manipulates Albert Hall's massive organ in front of large crowd
August 11, 2011, 07:03
Pumping away vigorously, the monumental Albert Hall organ was given a sustained pounding by Thomas Trotter on Tuesday night, stunning promenaders, who gave…
- Jayhawks blow the bl**dy doors off in Kentish Town
August 7, 2011, 08:03
Also, new camera proves quite effective, so your correspondent doubly chuffed. I have always liked the Jayhawks - one of those bands that should have…
- Portugheis plays Debussy
July 27, 2011, 17:55
Friends and family probably don't think of me as an emotional person. Yet I do not by choice read books or watch films where the dog dies. I don't like it…
- London lunchtime chamber music venues
July 15, 2011, 20:44
Nice places to listen to chamber music at lunchtime in London. In a previous post I noted that it's possible to listen to chamber music at lunchtime almost…
- Lunchtime chamber music in London
July 7, 2011, 09:42
Where to listen to short chamber concerts every working day of the week In 40 years of travelling I have been to most of the big cities around the…
- Al Di Meola at the Union Chapel
July 3, 2011, 07:19
Gifted guitarist vigorously picks away. Eight years ago or so I was sitting 10 feet behind Chucho Valdez, as the big man played jazz piano in the Bluenot…
- Monty Alexander and successful Concertstuff trial
June 30, 2011, 09:44
West Indian piano wizard vigorously thumps away at keyboard in new Blues Festival - at least one audience member quite nicely set up for this. London has…
- ConcertBev
June 20, 2011, 00:15
At last: an end to 'sit in rock-hard pew for two hours waiting for concert to start without an adult bev or lose your place' misery. It's only fair to…
- Concertgripe
June 18, 2011, 17:24
Announcers at the beginning of concerts quite rightly request all phones and things that beep to be switched off. What they don't, and in my opinion, should…
- Concertcushion
June 17, 2011, 16:09
At last an end to aching backside caused by 90 minutes sitting on rock-hard pew at St Martin in the Fields misery. St Martin in the Fields (on Trafalgar…
- Jazzellerault 2011
May 30, 2011, 15:34
After half a lifetime of coming to France from the UK, I am still surprised how two countries 21 miles away at their closest point can be so profoundly…
- Melissa Kenny and the Billroth quartet
May 13, 2011, 13:44
Young Harpist plunks away to charming and dramatic effect. One of the joys of the lunchtime concerts at St Martin's in the Fields is their habit of…
- Choeurs au Diapason
May 9, 2011, 14:36
French choristers roar away to great effect. The French choir Choeurs au Diapason hail from Marseilles and are around 130 in number. Even in France the…
- The Neville strides out*
- Drollery (3)
- The Phoenix behind
July 9, 2011, 21:09
Famed family turn out to have quite interesting names after all I only occasionally go to the movies, and then usually only to foreign language films,…
- Roger Ebert's cartoon captions
May 31, 2011, 07:44
Roger Ebert, the celebrated Chicago Sun-Times film critic and general good egg, recently won a New Yorker caption competition after 107 attempts spread over…
- Pet care and the rapture
May 30, 2011, 16:05
An interesting quandary in the otherwise very certain moral world of the followers of Harold Camping, was described in a wonderfully deadpan way in a…
- The Phoenix behind
- Exhibitions and shows (1)
- Struth - what about them Hungarians then
August 13, 2011, 17:25
In the 20 years before the first world war, Hungary produced an extraordinarily high proportion of the worlds greatest ever photographers. Robert Capa,…
- Struth - what about them Hungarians then
- Out and About (1)
- Fratelli's Deli, Kingston
May 7, 2011, 15:38
My favourite Italian Deli in Kingston This post is really here to demonstrate to myself the ability of WordPress to make posts (with snaps!) from my …
- Fratelli's Deli, Kingston
- Snaps (2)
- Cape Town Photos Spring 2011 - the Argus bike race
June 14, 2011, 22:28
I had so much fun with my Sony Nex-5 plus old Nikkor lenses that I started to look for old Nikkors on eBay. To check which were the best ones for image…
- Cape Town Photos Spring 2011
June 12, 2011, 18:19
This Spring in Cape Town I got back into serious photography after a lapse of many years. My focus in the last 10 years or so has been in compact…
- Cape Town Photos Spring 2011 - the Argus bike race
- Technology (21)
- Wizards of Wonk
January 19, 2012, 13:54
The saintly Paul Krugman (of whom more later) often helpfully tags his columns in the NYT with the descriptor "wonkish", or "slightly wonkish", signifying some…
- Apple stuffing
January 8, 2012, 01:31
A while ago I wrote a series of posts on why I really didn’t care too much for Apple and it’s more recent products. This was matter of…
- The trouble they’re in – part 3: Google’s problems with Apple
August 25, 2011, 09:39
Apple's all-out assault on Android around the world is Google's biggest problem by far. And on the day that Steve Jobs retires, it's looking bad for…
- The trouble they're in - part 2: Google's problems with Oracle
August 20, 2011, 17:22
Google's Android problems with Microsoft and GNU might seem bad enough. But they are chickenfeed compared to the trouble they are in with Oracle... I…
- The trouble they're in - part 1: Google's patent problems with MS and Linux
August 18, 2011, 09:38
Google is in real trouble with patents, and it could threaten the whole company. This has been viewed as a background issue which they can make disappear,…
- London in 3D! - Google maps adds a dimension
August 17, 2011, 17:44
In a previous post I reviewed the Google Maps app for Android and iPhone, and lamented that the brilliant Android-exclusive '3D view' was not yet available for…
- The Aston-Martin Virage – Part 4: bodywork
August 10, 2011, 07:46
The Virage is one of the largest hand-built aluminium cars ever made. You would have thought that this would ensure a long-lasting corrosion free body. …
- on Portability - iPad vs Transformer update
August 7, 2011, 21:09
The iPad2 revisited in depth. How does it look now? Flicking through the web on the subject of the iPad2 vs other Android tablets, it's become clear…
- The Aston-Martin Virage - Part 3: maintenance
August 7, 2011, 08:55
Keeping this classic car running smoothly. The Virage can be had for relatively low prices, given it’s beauty (to the eye of this beholder) and…
- The Aston-Martin Virage - Part 2: The engine
August 6, 2011, 10:31
The 5.3 litre V8 of the Virage is at the same time the essence and the Achilles heel of the car. In the next post I'll describe how we solved all the major…
- The Aston-Martin Virage - Part 1: A thoroughbred classic
August 5, 2011, 09:29
One sunny Friday morning in May 2002, your correspondent was returning from his weekly commute to New York. Pulling up outside our modest lair in South London…
- On Portability – Transformer security and round-up
August 3, 2011, 09:18
In this, the last post of the Transformer series, I’ll cover security issues, look at accessories to get for it, summarize my assessment of this tablet…
- On Portability - the Asus Transformer software: part 2
August 2, 2011, 11:59
In prior posts I have covered the core browsing software for Android tablets as well as the soft and hard keyboards. In this post I will round things up by…
- On Portability – the Asus Transformer: keyboards (part 2)
July 28, 2011, 18:55
OK, enough with the sentimentality already. In the previous post I looked at the excellent Thumb keyboard software for the Transformer. Now let's look at…
- On Portability – the Asus Transformer: keyboards (part 1)
July 27, 2011, 08:56
The last post (mournful trumpet sound) on Portability covered the core systems and browsing experience of the Transformer tablet. Looking at things is a…
- On Portability - the Asus Transformer: software (part 1)
July 26, 2011, 21:18
The prior post was on the hardware of the interesting Asus Transformer Android tablet. In this post I'll cover the software. I'm only going to do this from…
- On Portability- the Asus Transformer:hardware
July 25, 2011, 17:40
In previous posts on Portability I've covered what I don't like or don't any more use. This time we'll look at something I actually do like, the Asus…
- On Portability - why I don't much like Apple
July 23, 2011, 16:40
This is the second in a series of posts about portable systems - focusing mainly on Android technology. As I mentioned in the prior post, that begs the…
- On Portability - breakthroughs
July 20, 2011, 19:20
On a brisk Spring day in March 1996 your correspondent was excitedly waiting outside the Aladdin's cave that was (and is) J&R World in down-town Manhat…
- The technology behind the new site.
May 26, 2011, 04:37
In an earlier post I described why I had to move the technology base of mcaughtry.com. In this one I'll cover what I moved it to and why. The reason for this…
- What happened to the old mcaughtry.com?
May 7, 2011, 11:50
I started mcaughtry.com in 1999 and used the best software at that time - FrontPage from Microsoft. As web design software it was very powerful and allowed…
- Wizards of Wonk
- Travel (9)
- The Otter Trail
February 15, 2012, 09:23
For years I have been wanting to go on the Otter trail - probably the most famous trek in South Africa, and certainly one of the world's great coastal…
- A Night at Ril's Steakhouse (vegetarians should not view this post)
January 11, 2012, 03:54
Those that prefer plants turn your eyes away now - This steak is medium rare! We finally got to sit down at the Chickadee and hubby Mr K's steakhouse…
- Bali jam
January 5, 2012, 00:15
On the plane back to KL there were a few moments to reflect on what is happening to Bali. Always a favorite place, we just had one of our best ever times…
- Ril's at the Warehouse - new photos and reviews
October 17, 2011, 16:47
The new restaurant above the Warehouse Gallery and Cafe in KL's chinatown has now opened. I haven't been yet, but there are some new photos and some rave…
- Angkor temples
October 8, 2011, 11:12
Finally I have got round to processing and uploading the photos from Angkor Wat. First tranche is from the smaller temples around Angkor Wat itself. You…
- French Lunch (in France)
September 26, 2011, 20:29
Following up on French wine in France, this post reflects on the parlous state of bourgeouis Lunch in France. This a potentially tricky situation - with only…
- Cambodian Images
September 22, 2011, 19:56
Some snaps from my recent trip from Phnom Phen and Siem Reip. Apologies for the earlier problem with MS Explorer. I have now tested this with Firefox,…
- The Warehouse gallery and cafe - Kuala Lumpur
September 6, 2011, 05:47
Brilliant new art gallery and cafe in downtown KL - best coffee in Chinatown, and coming soon, the best steak in the city! Now some may call me a little…
- Slow boat to Heathrow
August 30, 2011, 00:12
Over twenty-five years of intensive traveling, I must have made (I roughly calculate) more than a thousand trips to Heathrow and back. You would have thought…
- The Otter Trail
- Uncategorized (4)
- How to gain weight by drinking beaver anal gland juice
February 21, 2012, 08:39
A few fun food facts for you today - to both inform and revolt. Despite my tall and generally stick-like appearance, I can stack on the weight - in fact at…
- Some Malaysia travel snaps (with a little work from LR3 and Sagelight)
January 17, 2012, 08:13
As is my practice now, I only took my little Fuji F900EXR camera with me on our recent trip to Malaysia and Bali. I continue to be impressed with this tiny…
- Bali jam
January 5, 2012, 00:15
On the plane back to KL there were a few moments to reflect on what is happening to Bali. Always a favorite place, we just had one of our best ever times…
- Gerald Brooks on the legendary organ at the Abattiale de St Ouen
September 16, 2011, 09:45
A once-in-a-lifetime experience listening to a very unique instrument. In a previous post I wrote about a performance of the St Saens 'Symphony with Organ'…
- How to gain weight by drinking beaver anal gland juice
- Wheezes (3)
- French wine (in France)
June 22, 2011, 18:15
At last an end to locally-bought French wines that taste rather unpleasant misery Like many Brits of my age, I grew up with the ingrained belief that…
- ConcertBev
June 20, 2011, 00:15
At last: an end to 'sit in rock-hard pew for two hours waiting for concert to start without an adult bev or lose your place' misery. It's only fair to…
- Concertcushion
June 17, 2011, 16:09
At last an end to aching backside caused by 90 minutes sitting on rock-hard pew at St Martin in the Fields misery. St Martin in the Fields (on Trafalgar…
- French wine (in France)