James Hamilton on Culture, Technology and Art
“..we hope, too, that through all the noise and excitement you’ll glimpse a single golden thread of purpose – the idea of Jerusalem – of the better world, the world of real freedom and true equality, a world that can be built through the prosperity of industry, through the caring nation that built the welfare…
It all began with me knocking on a door. I was a student, at the end of a bad year. My stepfather had absconded, my engagement ring had been returned, and my dearest relative had passed away suddenly. My 80s were dying in an inglorious ditch. It’s always the same advice in these situations: get…
It’s a matter of personal regret that I don’t keep books at my desk. There isn’t room; not if I want to write. Even the little netbook that comes with me to the National Library of Scotland leaves me nowhere to prop books, not really, and one glance around is enough to tell me that…
Even with minimum pricing on its way, it’s not out of the question, and anyway, it’s an interesting challenge. Do the lower-priced wines match – can they match – with the kind of food you can put together on a budget on a Baby Belling? And the answer has to be, ultimately, yes. It’s a…
When you’re living in a small space, or share a kitchen, ideas about how to live and eat well using one appliance are always welcome. Here’s another. The price of good slow cookers has been dropping in recent years, and a small slow cooker will now cost you no more than £20. And anyway, it’s…
One of the bigger issues around not owning your own place – or owning your own, very small place – is the difficulty of making it into a real home, getaway and refuge. One of the most alienating features of many cheaper living spaces is the smell: old carpet, stale air, other people’s cigarettes from…
One of the most difficult things an artist on a tight budget experiences is sourcing adequate canvas or watercolour paint to work on. After the essential paints and brushes, canvas – whether canvas paper, canvas board or stretched canvases – is the most expensive item on the kit list. And given that everything that can…
I was taught to cook by Italians. In a clapped-out 1970s kitchen, with little more than a couple of battered saucepans, a colander and a small cutting knife, they’d turn tinned tomatoes, “value†spaghetti, a bag of onions, some mushrooms and a block of cheese into delicious, aromatic meals. It was a lesson in food…
If there’s one advantage to the lingering conservatism of male clothing, especially mens’ clothing for work, it’s that it’s still possible to look extremely well-dressed for a relatively small amount of money. What’s more, that small amount of money is spread over a long period, because this is the kind of clothing that lasts. But…
Not that there’s anything wrong with Bisto, mind: but after a while, getting the lumps out, the excessive saltiness or unsaltedness (depending) of the stuff, the sheer sense of take-out about the whole exercise as your teaspoon circles again around the pyrex jug of brown gloop… No. There is a better way, and it’s a…
Of course, the advent of digital photography, disposing as it did with the endless cost sink of film and film processing, pretty much created Garreteer photography on its own. That, and the new trend to explore the possibilities of cheap, badly-made, often “joke” cameras, but there was always one other option open to the person…
If I was asked to describe how the British saw meditation, I’d reply, “weird relaxation”: the British see it as a suspect means of getting some peace of mind that’s tied up in alien religions and general absurdity. As a result, people go to meditation in search of peace and relaxation, and when they don’t…
