Tom Lennon • Freelance Writer: comedy and pop culture

Freelance writer specializing in comedy and the geekier end of the pop culture spectrum.

Latest Stuff

Blurt at the Curate’s Egg this Thursday

For the benefit of those who live in and around Birmingham, Al Hutchins and the Courtesy Group are hosting a Curate's Egg night with Blurt at the Hare & Hounds this Thursday. Here's the flyer:I hadn't heard of Blurt before, but their Wikipedia entry intrigues me:Blurt's compositions are based around repetitive minimalistic guitar and/or saxophone phrases with relentless, machine-like drum beats, over which Ted Milton orates his lyrics in a variety of "voices" that betray his days as a puppeteer. The overall effect is hypnotising, compelling and sometimes even unsettling.Blurt have a very strong live reputation due to the extra-ordinarytheatrical [...]

Strange New Words Revisited

I'm into neologisms in a big way. When I get bored, I make up new words. I got bored today, so I made up a new word. You can have it if you like.This may become a regular feature. Consider yourself warned.Q. If suicide is the pre-meditated murder of one's self and homocide the pre-meditated murder of another person, what do you call the pre-meditated murder of a football team? A. "Fivecide."

When Mr Bill came to Birmingham

My workpal Kuz has a second job working weekends on the front desk of the 4-star Marriott Hotel in Birmingham's city centre. Having a second job seems to be increasingly commonplace in this 21st Century economy. As I'm planning to reacquaint myself with the property ladder later this year I might have to do it myself. Not this week, though. I'm too knackered. With Hillary Clinton's victory in the New Hampshire primary in the news today, I'm reminded of a Birmingham Marriott-related incident from some years' back involving her illustrious husband Bill. You remember Bill, don't you? He was very [...]

Hail to The King, Baby

Hip-shakin' shoutin' in gold laméThat's how he earned his regal sobriquetBut he threw it all awayFor a porcelain monkey Warren Zevon - Porcelain MonkeyBefore Elvis there was nothing.John Lennon Today would have been Elvis Aaron Presley's 73rd Birthday. Assuming, of course, that you subscribe to the conventional belief that he died in 1977. If you believe he's still alive - and reliable sources suggest that many do - then I guess for you this is Elvis Aaron Presley's 73rd birthday.And if you're not convinced one way or the other, then there's always quantum mechanics. The Schrödinger's Cat paradox - the [...]

Previous 838485 Next