A S H Smyth › Hiroo-worship

Skip to content

Tag Archives: army

Hiroo-worship

Monday, October 25, 2021

Review of Werner Herzog’s Das Dämmern der Welt – or (probably) The Twilight/Dawn (of the?) World. — For Perspective

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Arnold Schwarzenegger, Audible, audiobooks, Emperor Akihito, Ferdinand Marcos, German, Google Translate, Hanser, Hiroo Onoda, Japan, kochbananen, Lubang, non-fiction, Perspective, Philippines, the Falklands, the moon, the Stasi, translation, TS Eliot, Vietnam, war, Weltanschauung, Werner Herzog, WG Sebald, WWII | Comments (0)

Beneath the mountains

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Review of Alexandria: the Quest for the Lost City, by Edmund Richardson. — For The Spectator

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Afghanistan, Alexander (‘the Great’), Alexander Burnes, Bagram, Bamiyan, Bengal, Bombay, books, Buddhism, Charles Masson, China, Edmund Richardson, Harappa, India, Josiah Harlan, Kabul, Kharosthi, London, Macedonia, non-fiction, Pakistan, spies, the British Museum, the East India Company, the Great Game, the Hindu Kush, The Spectator, tigers, war, William Loveday | Comments (0)

Zooming windows

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Interview with members of the George Formby Society, as they attempt to break an online ukulele-playing record. — For The Critic

Filed in feature, interview, Journalism | Also tagged Alastair Cook, America, Australia, banjos, Batley, BBC, Bette Davis, bingo, Blackpool, Canada, Covid-19, cricket, Cyprus, dating, Ed Balls, Facebook, Falkland Islands Radio Service, France, Frank Skinner, friends, George Formby, German, Germany, grandmothers, Guinness, Gyles Brandreth, Harry HIll, Hawaii, Humphrey Bogart, Italy, jellyfish, lyrics, mental health, music, naturism, nuclear power, proletarians, Queen Elizabeth II, records, Royal Albert Hall, Russia, Simon Rose, smut, Swahili, The Critic, The Daily Telegraph, the George Formby Society, the Queen Mother, the RAF, Tottenham, ukuleles, Warrington Museum, Welsh, windows, WWII, Yorkshire, Zoom | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, November 2, 2020

. The Paris Louvre is in future to be guarded by watch-dogs. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Monday, July 13 1908 . A gold coin celebrating the assassination of Julius Caesar has been auctioned for more than $3m dollars. 50% of a man’s hair is gone before it becomes noticeable. Good socialists need not refuse […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged antisemitism, asteroids, biscuits, cigars, crime, death, dogs, Doris Lessing, Esperanto, gold, guns, hair, Indians, Jeremy Corbyn, Julius Caesar, LL Zamenhof, marriage, men, money, mountains, Nelson Evening Mail, news, Paris, police, roads, satire, security, socialism, Sri Lanka, stupidity, suicide, Sweden, The Democratic Party, the Louvre, Yorkshire | Comments (0)

The Gentleman’s Marathon

Monday, October 5, 2020

On my attempt to run 26.2 miles, in Pheidippides’ footsteps. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, artillery, Athens, Bosnia, Brett Raymond, champagne, Chariots of Fire, Charlton, Classics, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, death, gentlemen, Google, Greece, Haruki Murakami, health, hills, Homer, Honourable Artillery Company, Iraq, Joseph James Prosser, kilometers, London marathon, Lucian, Marathon, Merrell, miles, Olympics, Panathinaiko Stadium, Persians, Phaleron War Cemetery, Pheidippides, running, Silverstone, the Aegean, The Critic, war | Comments (0)

The One That Got Away – Munira Mutaher

Sunday, October 4, 2020

The Sri Lankan photographer and documentarian talks about the greatest shot she never got… and one she did. — For the Sri Lankan Sunday Times

Filed in column, interview, Journalism | Also tagged anthropology, Belipola, cameras, Colombo Design Market, family, Germany, GIZ, Harold Peiris Gallery. Goethe-Institut, holidays, Journalism, LTTE, Malaysia, men, Monash, Munira Mutaher, Olympus, Philippines, photography, Ranil Senanayake, Roar Media, Sarah Kabir, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), Switzerland, trees, war, work, Yemen | Comments (0)

Strength and honour

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

A love letter to 20 years of watching Gladiator. — For The Critic

Filed in column, Journalism | Also tagged Academy Awards, Alain de Botton, Classics, Cleopatra, Commodus, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, drink, Edward Gibbon, Facebook, film, Germans, Hans Zimmer, Harry Sidebottom, history, Holst, Jesus, Julius Caesar, Kent, Loeb Classical Library, love, Marcus Aurelius, Moravia, Morocco, music, Nick Cave, Odeon, Oxford, painting, religion, Rich Hardcastle, Ridley Scott, Rome, Royal Albert Hall, Russell Crowe, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Suffolk, Surrey, tattoos, The Critic, Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, war, YouTube | Comments (0)

May Day, May Day…

Monday, May 4, 2020

A lockdown letter from Colombo. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Amazon, Argentina, beer, children, China, Colombo, coronavirus, cricket, Dominic Hilton, drink, Facebook, food, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, health, letters, lockdown, May Day, Mel Gibson, money, Osama bin Laden, painting, peacocks, quizzes, Sanskrit, shopping, Singapore, Sinhala, socialism, Sri Lanka, swimming, the British, The Critic, UberEats, work | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, April 27, 2020

. A banker’s license in the United Kingdom costs £30 per annum. — The Nelson Evening Mail, Friday, July 17 1908 . Sri Lanka has only 500 cases of the Coronavirus. Germany has no elite universities. There are a lot of porno videos featuring Scarlett Johansson’s face. Mexico City is a good place to be an […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged America, boys, Chaucer, coronavirus, Danes, education, finance, Genghis Khan, Germany, Hamlet, health, Journalism, Mexico, Muslims, Nelson Evening Mail, Olympics, pornography, potatoes, satire, Scarlett Johansson, Scooby-Doo, Simone Biles, space travel, sport, Sri Lanka, Søren Kierkegaard, the internet, the Maldives, The Spectator, the UK, writers | Comments (0)

The Pelican

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Or; Some Further Notes Towards the Bestiary To the researches of the antiquary and scholar Jorge Luis ‘Vintage’ Borges, a few points offer further context on that most peripatetic of birds in this, our present century. . Learned reports come from South Asia, where the spotted-bill Filipino pelican (phillipensis) is found, with no small irony, only in Cambodia, the Indian peninsular, and in Sri Lanka (or the contemporary […]

Filed in Fictions | Also tagged America, animals, babies, basketball, Borges, British Library, Cambodia, Captain Scott, children, Colombo, Corpus Christi College, daughters, death, Egypt, employment, fables, food, Gartagena, General John Guise, Hebrew, hieroglyphs, Horapollo, India, Jesuits, John Grisham, Joseph Hall, King Lear, murder, oil, pelican, Post-modern Bestiary, psychology, Roald Dahl, Spain, Sri Lanka, St James's Palace, St James's Park, St Jerome, stupidity, the Bible, The Spectator, Thomas Aquinas, US Supreme Court | Comments (0)