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Jan 11, 2025 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Angus Colwell
The Extinction of Experience. At first hearing, the title sounds like a recondite essay by Schopenhauer. And as for its subtitle – Reclaiming Our Humanity in a Digital World – you may wonder what there’s left to say about smartphones being bad. It turns out, however, that Christine Rosen has plenty more to say: in what’s an engaging and snappy book, this American academic has constructed a well-evidenced and well-principled defence of human experience.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Angus Colwell
It may well be the biggest and most significant choice the Starmer administration will have to take. If Donald Trump decides to impose huge tariffs on China, potentially sparking a global trade war, the UK will have to decide whether it backs America, or tries to steer a softer path with the European Union. All the indications are that it will choose Europe.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Angus Colwell
In the Spectator offices, my colleague Mary Wakefield and I often end up talking about young people while we’re making tea. She thinks I’m a bit too cocky about civilisation. Apparently when she starts telling me something nutty that she’s seen my generation doing, my eyes start darting madly, looking for a way out. She probably looks at me and thinks I’d open the gates to the barbarians to avoid the horror of an earnest opinion. The re-election of Donald Trump has us feeling different ways too.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Angus Colwell
In the Spectator offices, my colleague Mary Wakefield and I often end up talking about young people while we’re making tea. She thinks I’m a bit too cocky about civilisation. Apparently when she starts telling me something nutty that she’s seen my generation doing, my eyes start darting madly, looking for a way out.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Angus Colwell
In the next few days Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and London. There are still some tickets left. The price is reasonable but the price doesn’t matter when the band are unequivocally one of the finest of live acts. By whatever means you can, go.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Angus Colwell
In the next few days Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds play Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and London. There are still some tickets left. The price is reasonable but the price doesn’t matter when the band are unequivocally one of the finest of live acts. By whatever means you can, go. When you get there, enjoy Nick Cave himself, of course. Prepare to be awed by ‘Tupelo’, converted by ‘Into My Arms’. Prepare to cry to ‘Girl in Amber’ and dance to ‘Stagger Lee’.
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Angus Colwell
An atom is made of protons, electrons and neutrons, and protons are made of quarks, and a quark is the size of the violin you’d play for a restaurant critic who complains about their job. It’s the best job in the world: go out for dinner on expenses with a friend or a lover, then bash out a thousand words.
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Angus Colwell
Text size Line Spacing Comments Share Share Angus Colwell Pity the restaurant critic Linkedin Messenger Email An atom is made of protons, electrons and neutrons, and protons are made of quarks, and a quark is the size of the violin you’d play for a restaurant critic who complains about their job. It’s the best job in the world: go out for dinner on expenses with a friend or a lover, then bash out a thousand words. Why, then, might we feel some pity for our restaurant critics? One reason could...
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Angus Colwell
Text size Line Spacing Comments Share Share Angus Colwell There should be a maximum smoking age Linkedin Messenger Email In January 2022, the New York Times ran a piece that declared that smoking was back, quoting Martin Amis’s daughter saying it seemed like it was. In the summer of 2023, the Guardian ran a piece that declared that smoking was back, because Lily-Rose Depp looks great when smoking. Last month, the Guardian again ran a piece that declared that smoking was back, because Dua Lipa...
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Angus Colwell
Text size Line Spacing Comments Share Share Angus Colwell Are monthly retail stats that useful? Linkedin Messenger Email So, we were all so impressed with the swashbuckling performance of Gareth Southgate’s team that we all rushed out and bought replica England shirts and packs of lager – to the point that retail sales in July were 0.5 per cent higher than in June. No, I don’t buy that either – even though it has been widely reported today in reaction to the latest statistical release from...
