The Culture Club

Category: General

  • Video: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

    This video cuts together clips documenting the activities of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. It’s useful for putting names to faces when reading the book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZy2lK6WZ44]

  • Video: Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters

    This clip from a BBC documentary showcases Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and specifically the incident, documented in the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, when they arrive at Timothy Leary’s Millbrook base. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcstOdT1Pe0]

  • Thomas Albright on Art and Artists

    From Terry Teachout’s About Last Night blog – a great quote on the mysteries of art: It is perhaps the unique capacity of art that its most monumental achievements manage to embrace and resolve polarities which, in other areas of life–including philosophy–seem hopelessly unbridgeable: positive and void, the boundary between subjective and objective worlds. Where…

  • The Culture Club: Theme For June 2007

    This month we’re looking at the Beats: On The Road (Novel) – Jack Kerouac Howl (Poem) – Allen Ginsberg The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Non-Fiction) – Tom Wolfe Easy Rider (Movie) – Written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern, Directed by Dennis Hopper Also the following recordings by Charlie Parker: Billie’s Bounce Now’s…

  • The Culture Club: Theme For April-May 2007 (update)

    No theme this month (unless you count the fact that they’re all English, which is a bit tenuous). Here’s what we’re looking at (and we’re still waiting for more specific information on exactly which poems – come on KC!) in detail, now that KC’s provided us with the specifics: JH Prynne Living in History The…

  • The Problem of Authorial Intention

    In Reading Chekhov – A Critical Journey, Janet Malcolm discusses an aspect of Chekhov’s work that is focused on by the so-called Jacksonian critics, namely his repeated references to religion. It is a kind of ‘Purloined Letter’ situation: the references to the Bible and to the Russian Orthodox liturgy have always been there, but we…

  • Bill Bailey Reunited With The Famous Five

    Bill Bailey, the well known actor, comedian, musician and polymath, was reunited with myself and other members of the pop band The Famous Five on BBC2’s Comedy Map Of Britain. I’ve captured the relevant footage below. As for me (Tim), I’m on the far right at the table in the Moles club scene. But can…

  • The Culture Club: Theme For February-March 2007

    The BBC is currently programming The Tchaikovsky Experience across its radio and TV channels, and spotlighting the composer in the latest edition of BBC Music Magazine. Therefore, we here at the Culture Club thought it would be a good opportunity to focus on his 6th Symphony, the Pathetique, and to tie in with this other…

  • The Culture Club: This Month’s Theme

    The theme for the next month on the Culture Club is ‘Lost Love’. The works we’ll be discussing at our next meeting are: Le Grand Meaulnes – Alain-Fournier Lycidas – John Milton In Memoriam – Alfred Lord Tennyson Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan Casablanca – Directed by Michael Curtiz I’ll be posting thoughts,…

  • New Look Culture Club

    Yes I’ve changed the look of Culture Club to this Cutline theme. I’ve come to regard the old Fleur de Lys theme as a bit ‘fusty’, whereas this has a more contemporary feel. All views from are welcome – please leave a comment. I’ll be changing the image in the header from the default city…