Hauling Like A Brooligan

Stephen Gallagher

Author: Steve

  • Movies of the Year

    It’s awards voting time again and although in previous years I’ve kept a strict silence over my preferences, I’ve noticed that I seem to be the only one doing it. I suppose it’s hubris to imagine that anyone really cares… so in the interests of humility I’ll tell you what I’ve liked this year. I’ve…

  • John Wyndham and Me

    I haven’t seen the new adaptation of The Day of the Triffids yet – the parts are lined up on my hard drive, ready for when I’ve fought my way through all the BAFTA screeners in time for the next round of voting – but this review on the Blowing my Thought Wad blog inspired…

  • What I Learned in 2009

    It’s been in my mind to write a long post along the lines of “what I learned in 2009”, but until I can set some time aside to think-through and process the whole experience of relocating from one country’s industry to work in another, it’ll have to wait. It would be simplistic to say that…

  • Where Are They Now?

    Congratulations to Sir Patrick Stewart on his knighthood and to Marley Shelton on the birth of her daughter. Safe to say that I can claim no credit for either.

  • Daniel Defoe

    Channel Five have been running Crusoe episodes every day throughout the holidays. Despite any initial reservations, now that I’ve seen how they play I think it’s been a good piece of scheduling. The show makes good, old-fashioned holiday fare. The first hour of my 2-part finale went out today… one regret I have is that…

  • “Good Sentences, and Well Pronounced”

    Someone once asked me how to go about achieving a writing style. Like the caterpillar challenged about its coordination in walking, I stumbled as soon as I started thinking about it. I think the best answer I could offer was that you should try to state the obvious simply, and the style would take care…

  • Seen on Hollywood Boulevard

    On the open street just along from the Egyptian Theater, this charming and child-friendly scene: And when you look more closely:

  • A White Christmas

    Only the second in my own memory; my first was, I think, in 1966, and I can fix the date because That Darn Cat was playing at the Princes Cinema in Monton and the snow-covered marquee features in the first roll of film I shot with my Christmas present, a Regula 35mm camera. I spotted…

  • Christmas 2009

    We’re all safely home – on a day of closed runways and widespread flight delays, our flights weren’t held up at all… we stopped for a curry and a sleep in Ealing and then, on a day of countrywide blizzards and blocked roads, we sailed through West London and up the M6 like there were…

  • Happy Holidays

    Most years I’ve just about managed to get all my Christmas cards out by now, but this isn’t most years. Instead of my usual last-minute scramble I’m facing a scramble of another kind – my ticket home is for a British Airways flight, and right now I can’t say whether I’ll be spending Christmas in…