Category Archives: Point of View

Of Reyner Banham and Charlie Mingus

Posted on by
Reply

(We here at All Fried Up in the Big Smoke are doing our damnedest to adhere to a very strict American boycott policy. Since we don’t pay anyone for contributing to this site, technically speaking, we’re not purchasing a U.S. product with today’s post. And besides, our Los Angeles correspondent, Ned Teitelbaum, is one of the good ones. With the subject matter being public transit, a favourite topic of ours, look at it as endeavouring to build a bridge between two beefing allies, no tolls applied.)

*  *  *

Charles Mingus gave free concerts on the Red Car. Reyner Banham missed it. Continue reading →

The Odioussey

Posted on by
Reply

Oh, how I wish good ol’ Bucks was still with us to bear witness to this our Hellenistic summer of 2026. He would’ve cackled his ghoulish yap of a guffaw at the very idea of it. Ancient Greece making a comeback amidst the ruins of the modernity he so despised to the bottomless pit of his patrician soul? Continue reading →

When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Posted on by
Reply

We’re sitting, cooped up inside Elsie’s newish apartment, part of a larger assisted-living complex she moved to after parting with the old family home and cottage over the course of the last year or so.

“Not the best time to be unloading real estate, Barnaby,” she told me throughout the process, twisting and difficult at various points, “but absolutely necessary. For my state of mind.” Continue reading →