Colin Bartlett

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit @ScottMcCreaWest A new Olympic Games event: reading a Henry James sentence aloud - winner is whoever reads out the most words in the sentence.
An endurance event, which is also cultural!

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@nguyenhdi @hairygit I'd like this to be true but suspect it's apocryphal. A late 19th century actor/manager was touring Ireland & the train he was on stopped at a rural station.
He enquired of a porter on the platform:
What country, friends, is this?
Porter: This is Illyria, lady.

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit @arthistorynews Well, at least "The Great Escape" is probably more historically accurate than Ridley Scott's "Napoleon"?

Not that that's saying much!
I have opined that Abba's "Waterloo" is more historically accurate than RS's N!
Despite: "At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender"
--No he didn't!

[Mukhtar @I_amMukhtar]

When Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard, Nigel Farage released a five-minute video urging people not to attack men or the police.

Today, in response to the murder of Henry Nowak, he called for "pure cold rage."

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

🚨 DAMN.

Ruby Bridges said the moment she finally understood what was happening during school integration was when a little white boy told her:

“My mom said I can’t play with you because you’re a nigger.”

She was SIX.

And she said hearing that felt like “a huge weight lifted,” because suddenly everything made sense.

Why the classrooms were empty.
Why adults were screaming.
Why U.S. Marshals had to escort her to school.
Not because of anything she did.

Just because of the color of her skin.

A six-year-old child realizing an entire country was angry at her for existing.

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit !

[Ash Jogalekar @curiouswavefn]

Who says theoretical physicists never do experiments.

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit @ScottMcCreaWest "The Devil Rides Out"??

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@gazeera1966 @DanNeidle Me too!

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit Am I to understand from this tweet that your primary consideration in deciding which Football World Cup games to watch is what drinks are associated with the opposing teams???!!!

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@PontWorld @DonaldHutera Your reminder that reportedly composer & novelist & painter & English eccentric Lord Berners reserved railway compartments to himself by at stops leaning out of the window and beckoning prospective passengers on the platform to join him in the compartment.

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@DanNeidle A grossly reprehensible error: your only recourse is to follow the example of the infallible actuary (Donald O'Connor) in the musical "Are You With It?" who misplaces a decimal point in a Nutmeg Insurance Company rates table, so resigns & joins Acres of Fun, a travelling carnival

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

Pope Leo XIV: "Among these ideologies, I consider particularly insidious the one that suggests that every person must earn or justify his or her own worth, to the point of attributing greater value to those who are more efficient or effective. From this perspective, persons end up being reduced to a means of achieving results, a resource to be used and exploited, and are no longer recognized as a proper end in themselves who should never be instrumentalized. The value of persons, however, does not depend on what they achieve or produce. There are rights that apply to everyone simply by virtue of being human, and no human power can legitimately deny or arbitrarily limit them." #MagnificaHumanitas

[Min Jin Lee @minjinlee11]

Congratulations, Class of 2026. “Thank you, Laude”

[Celluloid Echoes @CelluloidEchoes]

“Backwards Dance” in Give a Girl a Break (1953).
Debbie Reynolds, a young Bob Fosse and the set decorators turn a simple comic duet into something surreal: balloons pop back into existence, movements rewind, gravity behaves badly. Part dream sequence, part backstage fantasy, part technical gag.

The film itself is a modest MGM musical directed by Stanley Donen, with musical numbers credited to him and the film's star, Gower Champion, but several sources note that Fosse choreographed his own material.

What makes the number so delightful is that the reverse photography isn’t just a trick; it becomes choreography. The dancers perform for the camera with reverse motion in mind, creating this uncanny elegance where every gesture lands as both graceful and absurd. A tiny B-musical suddenly turns experimental.

One of the great pleasures of old Hollywood musicals is finding moments like this hiding in plain sight.
#DebbieReynolds #BobFosse #HollywoodMusical

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@PaulFMcNamee I thought I saw a Mens Doubles 5x Grand Slam winner sitting at the side of the court for Hsieh/Wang v Kasatkina/Osorio!

Making a drop shot in doubles is one thing, but doing it via a net-cord is another level :-)

[Justin🦩Boldaji @justinboldaji]

Was watching the Muppet Show with my 6 year old recently and saw this bunraku one for the first time, goes crazy when the puppet pulls out and operates her own tiny puppet

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@jamesmeredithd1 "plotting revolution"
--The first thing we do, let's kill all the Glyndebourne opera goers??

I've seen Glyndbourne touring productions, but I've never actually been to Glyndebourne, so I'm safe!

[The Tennis Letter @TheTennisLetter]

Naomi Osaka on why she chose to host a party for the black tennis players:

“You know I'm seeing a little bit of-
‘Why can't you love everyone for all skin tones?’ and ‘what if someone had an all white party?! First of all I do love everyone for who they are no matter their race + ethnicity, (I'm literally half Japanese lol). I can only speak from my experiences in my own life though, growing up as a tennis player I didn't see many people that looked like ME and I feel like it's important to celebrate them.

Secondly I feel like it's important to note that there have been all white dinners/parties. I don't know how else to tell you this, I literally seen them all the time and never had an issue with it at all. To the people who ask this question I want to ask you this question too, ‘What is it about POC getting together that unsettles you so much?’

I want to end this by saying I grew up watching my dad get discriminated against, having the cops called on him multiple times at the tennis court. There are multiple things I will apologize for in my life but celebrating being black and appreciating who we are will never be something I would consider saying sorry for. Thanks.

Actually I lied, I am sorry. I'm sorry for the people who cannot comprehend in their brains that this is not about exclusion, this is a celebration about how far we have come 🖤”

(via Naomi on Threads)

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit @drianpace My fallible memory correction: from the WWW I find that the three pianists in 1969 were Malcolm Binns, Roger Smalley, Thomas Rajna.

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit @drianpace Fun fact?
I first encountered Michael Finnissy in 1969: Lina Lalandi's English Bach Festival"programmed the first public performance of Nikos Skalkottas's 1939 Piano Concerto 3 for piano & wind & percussion, and MF was one of the 3 piano soloists: one pianist for each movement.

[Colin Bartlett @colinb8]

@hairygit @drianpace Later at a Society for the Promotion of New Music all-day event at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama one performance was Finnissy playing his "English Country Tunes" with a dancer, who I think described the piece as a Lament.
I can remember which lecture theatre it was in!