Image is a link to: https://plinth.uk.com/collections/keepers-exhibition   Art, Barbie and the Women’s World Cup It’s July. The school holidays have started. Politicians are disappearing into rabbit holes to lick their wounds and invent ever more grotesque policies. The NHS staggers on, war rages in Ukraine and holiday makers are getting upset that 48 degree temperatures are turning beaches into no-go areas.  But, in the good old Roman tradition of bread and circuses, it’s the time of year when media attention often turns to blockbuster films and major sporting events, so let’s focus our attention there and try to make some sense of what’s going on.  ‘Keepers’ It’s worth taking a look at a rather interesting online art exhibition that has recently opened. Entitled ‘Keepers’ , it reminds us that men have long been the key gatekeepers and rule-makers for sport.  The exhibition is on until 31 August and includes a wonderful take on the table football game that still dom...

  Persist and Prevail! How many people realised, noticed or even cared that March 8th was International Women’s Day, or that the whole of the month of March is designated as Women’s History Month? The Radio Times The covers of the Radio Times during the first two or three weeks of March 2023 didn’t offer many clues. In fact, any passing alien looking at some of the front covers, would be hard put to know that women even existed. It wasn’t much better once you looked at the programme menus inside the RT, which, remember, does seek to inform much of the population about the multitudes of viewing and listening opportunities available every week. If you searched the pages covering March 8th (International Women’s Day), you might have noticed the occasional nod to it – Film4 screened ‘Little Women’ and Radio 3 valiantly celebrated forgotten women composers. BBC Sounds and Lucy Worsley did their very best too,  But there was not much else going on unless you believe that a repeat of...

ROSES ARE RED VIOLETS ARE BLUE SUGAR IS SWEET AND SO ARE YOU (OR MAYBE NOT) In the 1960s Jim Reeves and others warbled their way through treacle with their top-selling versions of this little verse. At the same time, and with casual cruelty, schoolchildren were subverting the song in each other’s autograph books (remember those?) and cheerfully writing: Roses are red Violets are blue A face like yours Belongs in the zoo. By the way, these sardonic little poets were probably the same diligent students who enjoyed rewriting Christmas carols. Hark the herald angels sing Beechams pills are just the thing But this is no time for digressions…. The cards, the poems, the heart shaped pizzas…… Let’s focus on the red roses, the chocolates, the satin hearts, the inflated  prices and the short-lived annual frenzy of Valentine’s Day on February 14. By now, of course, it’s the end of February so the roses have shrivelled, the leftovers have been sold off at half pri...