Ashleylister

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2180 )

• A Special Authority Figure ...

  If you're a regular reader of the blog, you will have probably noticed that my posts have been intermittent over the few months or so. Read more

  Posted on 27 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Libraries Gave Us Power..........

  

  This week we are talking about authority and I am resisting the temptation to write a rant about petty-minded or even sinister aspects of it. Instead I would... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Treasure

  In childhood the first seeds of taste are planted, and it seemed to me as a boy that Treasure meant possessions, material wealth, mainly as a result of... Read more

  Posted on 22 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Treasure

  

  Beauty is in the spellbound eye of the beholder; value in the calculating eye of the investor. Treasure transcends both assays in its immeasurable, infinite... Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• More Precious Than Gold

  

  This week we are looking at treasure, which, of course, means different things to different people. I have reached the conclusion that my memories are my... Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Skin

  

  Skin is motes of dust. Once knew life. Falls, like snow. Skin turned to dry rind. Stiff scales, no give. Cracked hard hide. Skin met the sun’s stroke And... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Skin...

  

  ...the largest organ of the body, a complex and multi-functional living boundary keeping the outside out and the inside in. John Donne said "No man is an... Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Face Looking a Bit Old? Easy, Just Airbrush It!

  

  In an idle moment last night, I was leafing through a well-known beauty products brochure and marvelling at the manipulative language employed in its sales... Read more

  Posted on 11 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Direction

  

  If I ask you to get lost, I’ll trust you not to take offence. Nowadays, any smartphone can commune with a secret cabal of satellites to plot your location to... Read more

  Posted on 09 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Direction Seawards

  

  Oh time out of joint! This week’s Saturday Blog appears on a Sunday. Blame chaos at Euston yesterday evening [trains delayed for three hours by a fatality on th... Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Which is Best .... East Or West?

  

  Having spent the first 10 years of my life in a village just outside York, I suppose that it's my 'spiritual' home. I love it over there because .... well,... Read more

  Posted on 06 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Back to the Future - That's One Direction

  

  Back to the future - that's one direction Yesterday's shock announcement that a 'sequel', written by Harper Lee before she wrote the phenomenon that is 'To... Read more

  Posted on 04 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Killer Indistinct

  This is a table of characters from poems, categorised according to whether I believe they have the killer instinct or not. Character Killer Instinct No Killer... Read more

  Posted on 01 February 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Killer Instinct

  

  Despite - or maybe because of - my Methodist upbringing, I've grown up an atheist; more accurately a Humanist with Buddhist tendencies and a Tangerine... Read more

  Posted on 31 January 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• The Silence of the Lambs

  

  Here's an account of a minor skirmish to illustrate my total lack of a killer instinct. Last night we went to the Grand to see the most excellent 'Classic... Read more

  Posted on 28 January 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Anticipation is Aces!

  I see you shiver with Antici... ...pation. My favourite line from one of my favourite films; The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Anticipation is aces! It’s, like wel... Read more

  Posted on 25 January 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Anticipation

  

  This week-end [24th and 25th January] it's the annual Big Garden Birdwatch. That had to hold out more promise of an exhilarating time than a trip down to Watfor... Read more

  Posted on 24 January 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• "I See You Shiver with Antici.......................pation!"

  

  Name that film! As cheesy as it is, it has to be one of my favourites. I go to the stage version when it comes to Blackpool and yes, I dress the part. Read more

  Posted on 23 January 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• To Travel Hopefully......

  

  Is to travel hopefully a better thing than to arrive? Robert Louis Stevenson seemed to think so, with his much quoted and misquoted observation. From this can b... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• Scent - the Closest Thing to Time Travel

  At times a scent can be the closest thing we have to time travel. It can instantly transport us to a point in our past when we are least expecting it. Read more

  Posted on 18 January 2015 BOOKS, CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION