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Space and Time in Namibia
8th April 2011 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Glaciers, rainforests, canyons – all epic natural wonders to behold, but for me there’s something even more wondrous about deserts: vast, empty and parched landscapes where life struggles constantly to survive. It was the sight that greeted me from my aeroplane window as I crossed the Angolan border into Namibia, sprawling endlessly into the distance before merging with the blank African sky.
After living so long on this damp leafy island... -
Tokyo – A Flight To Remember
6th January 2011 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
In 2009, with the downturn in full effect and editorial work thin on the ground, I fulfilled my lifetime ambition of independently travelling the world, visiting 19 countries in seven months. The first of those was Japan as I’d always longed to experience the culture shock for myself, but for me the bizarreness began the moment I stepped onto the plane to Tokyo. What transpired on that long overnight journey...
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A Slippery Slope to Disaster
5th October 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
So there we were in a desolate cottage in the Lake District in February 2006, my friend Neil and I, attempting to replicate the Withnail & I experience by spending a wintry weekend boozing and mucking around in a remote Cumbrian village (for the backstory of why we were doing this and how the first two days transpired: The Withnail & I Experience).
For our final afternoon we misguidedly decided to... -
Alex Higgins – Death of a Hurricane
4th August 2010 | 5 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
One day, about 15 years ago, after Alex had drunkenly abused a girlfriend one too many times she stabbed him with a large knife. He appeared in newspapers the next morning covered in blood and sporting the same bewildered look that publicans would have grown used to while ejecting him from their taverns.
For the man who had elevated snooker to an art form in the 70s it was one of... -
Boat Life: The Do’s and Dont’s of Cruising the Thames
1st July 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Rivers and waterways connect almost every major town and city in Britain, and offer a whole different watery world to be explored away from roads and traffic – this was the lowdown I received after coming across a namesake Thames boating operator called ‘Kris Cruisers’ at a London travel show, who convinced me to hire one of their luxury cruisers for a weekend voyage. No boating experience required I was...
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The Fall and Rise of Carnaby Street
22nd April 2010 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
“Carnaby Street (not what it used to be)” ran the final mantra of ‘Carnaby Street’ by The Jam, in which Bruce Foxton ruefully observes “The street is a mirror for our country, reflects the rise and fall of our nation”. Through his English rose-tinted specs, Foxton was referring to the classic Carnaby of ‘Swinging 60s’ London, where the UK’s cultural revolution and then dominance of the fashion world were symbolically localised.
Popularised at... -
Rolf Harris – a living legend still dodging the Stairway To Heaven
26th March 2010 | 3 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Sir Rolf Harris, celebrating his 80th birthday on Monday, is without doubt my favourite Australian of all time – an entertainment phenomenon who’s worked our screens since TV began, successfully crossing over from art to music to presenting without ever losing his cross-generational appeal.
Rolf was born in Perth on 30th March 1930 to Welsh parents who convinced him to flee Australia and seek his fortune back in Britain, where he... -
The Withnail and I Experience
25th February 2010 | 3 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Almost a quarter of a century after its original release, British cult classic Withnail & I has still been randomly bobbing up for air, both directly and indirectly, from the new Tory slogan “We can’t go on like this” echoing Withnail’s lament over his penniless plight, to Richard E Grant’s revelation at the recent Food Inc premiere that he became a lifelong vegetarian after being disturbed by the scene in...
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Crikey! It’s Steve Irwin Day
16th November 2009 | 4 comments | 2 people like this
So, once again it’s ‘Steve Irwin Day’ – an official day of remembrance for the crazy Aussie conservationist who met an untimely watery death in 2006. This year’s biggest commemorative gesture is the official naming of a newfound Australian snail species ‘Crikey Steveirwini’ (!)
My own personal gesture is to write this blog entry as I was fortunate enough to meet and interview the man a few years before he died,...
CONTRIBUTOR
Kris Griffiths
Kris Griffiths is a London-based writer with 10 years' experience covering culture and entertainment for regional and national publications. With an obsession for music and an eye for the alternative, he divides his time between shouting at the radio, twanging his guitar and playing with his cat Muse. Kris also enjoys DJing at private parties and terrorising local pub goers with his pool skills. His celebrity interview scalps include Steve Irwin, Nicole Kidman and boyhood idol Shakin' Stevens.
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