Author Archives: graemelawrence

The Shout. On the grounds of an asylum, a cricket match is held involving visitors, staff and patients. A young doctor, Robert Graves, is chosen to act as one of the scorers and is warned by the chief medical officer about his scoring partner, a patient by the name of Charles Crossley, who claims hisContinue reading “The Cinema of 1978.”

January: The Chilean government wins a referendum on the legitimacy of Augusto Pinochet’s rule Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey The Holy Crown of Hungary is returned to Hungary from the US, where it was held since World War II Critic of the Nicaraguan government, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro Cardenal, is assassinatedContinue reading “The News of 1978.”

Assault on Precinct 13. Drunken Master. That Obscure Object of Desire. The Shout. Midnight Express. David Gilmour – David Gilmour. Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel. More Songs About Buildings and Food – Talking Heads. Hemispheres – Rush. Équinoxe – Jean-Michel Jarre.

January: Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot has its stage premiere (in its original French) as En attendant Godot at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris United States President Harry S Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb In Montréal, Marguerite Pitre is the thirteenth and last woman hanged in Canada EstonianContinue reading “The News of 1953.”

Sonny Rollins With The Modern Jazz Quartet. Sonny Rollins’ debut album as band leader features recordings as early as January 1951 with Rollins, of course, on tenor sax, and the rest of the Modern Jazz Quartet consisting of piano man John Lewis, Percy Heath on bass, Kenny Clarke keeping rhythm on drums and Milt JacksonContinue reading “The Sound of 1953.”

Stalag 17. December 1944. 630 US Air Force Sergeants occupy the German prison of war camp, Stalag 17. Manfredi and Johnson, two such prisoners from Barracks 4, attempt an elaborate escape during the night through a trapdoor and tunnel system their comrades helped establish. All of the occupants of Barracks 4 are optimistic of theContinue reading “The Cinema of 1953.”

Stalag 17. Él. I Vitelloni The Wages of Fear. From Here to Eternity. Sonny Rollins With The Modern Jazz Quartet – Sonny Rollins. The Duke Plays Ellington – Duke Ellington. Inca Taqui – Yma Sumac and Moises Vivanco. Black Coffee – Peggy Lee. Moondog and His Friends – Moondog.

Pop. Much like Yellow Magic Orchestra last week, German DJ Wolfgang Voigt aka Gas, is an artist I hadn’t heard of prior to their inclusion on my shortlist, but again I’m beyond glad I opted for their album; their fourth record under the Gas moniker, Pop, is an ambient classic. Initially soothing in it’s effervescentContinue reading “The Sound of 2000.”

January: Twenty Coptic Christians are massacred by Muslim villagers in Kosheh, Egypt The last natural Pyrenean ibex is found dead, apparently killed by a falling tree AOL announces an agreement to purchase Tim Warner for $162 billion, the largest ever corporate merger Dr Harold Shipman is found guilty of murdering 15 patients between 1995 andContinue reading “The News of 2000.”

Dancer in the Dark. Selma, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, cheats on an eye test in order to keep her factory job in 1960’s Washington. She suffers from a degenerative eye disease that will render her blind within a year; an affliction that is unknowingly inherited by her twelve year-old son, Gene. Selma saves up her payContinue reading “The Cinema of 2000.”