Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Glory of Rails

Tony Judt (who we have had occasion to admire before) has also written 2 superb pieces on the railways. The Glory of Rails starts with this absolutely lovely Monet.


The man's prose is just lap-uppable. Bring Back the Rails is a plea to...well, bring back the rails. En passant I learned about Brief Encounter, which seems superb, and also resulted in a half hour spent in desultory viewing of clips from Ijaazat, including this one.


Finally, we leave our devoted readers with 2 videos and suggest that some inspiration may be involved.



Finally, finally, this is always fun. Especially live.

4 comments:

Aparna said...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=114202005903%3A1166058613&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

I have been everywhere man... I have been everywhere :)

(when I went, Fogg was closed and they had moved this temporarily to Sackler)

-- RMan

Space Bar said...

I have this memory of George Segal and Glenda Jackson watching Brief Encounter on TV in A Touch of Class but the wiki has no reference to it. I remember that scene so clearly; it's towards the end of the film, as it is in Brief Encounter and most affecting.

(Note to self: stop reading Heyer. Stop reading Heyer.)

And the Monet is superb.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the rail links. Agree that Judt-man is totally admirable. Have you read his Postwar Europe book? If not, go get. Then you can read it in trains and feel happy.

Ludwig said...

[Space] You have this movie somewhere kya? The Monet is indeed something else...

[Veenai] I have not read said tome. It is high on priority list. The suggestion to read said tome on trains is astounding in its succinctness and as a highly optimal stratagem for increasing wellness.

Hi.