Sam Archer
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Behind the Wall of Sleep
The All-Nighter. No sleep. A feat that, for seven-year-old boys, surpasses mythical proportions. Midnight feasts; defying bed-time orders; going where no Me has ever gone before. I never made the grade, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Toby’s seventh… Continue reading
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72 Hours in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio is both like everywhere and nowhere that you have ever been. The idea of the place had long loomed large in my internal world of forms. So extraordinarily iconic. To my experience, the final continental frontier. I had never… Continue reading
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We Do Not Define Happiness By Material Possessions
We do not define our happiness by material possessions. But we all do own things. And when we lose them, it is pretty damn annoying. It’s been estimated that the average person in developed Western societies owns 175,000 differentiated things.… Continue reading
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48 Hours in Nassau, The Bahamas
Plastic flowers are worse than normal flowers. Why? They are unmoving, non-living, artificial simulacrums of the original; an original which is organic, imbued with life, and entirely true to itself. Such is the difference between one’s mental projection of Nassau… Continue reading
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Air Travel is Such a Trip, Man
The past three months have been the most absurdly disorientating of my life. Dream-like in every sense of the phrase. Jubilant, enriching, surreal, discombobulating, glorious, and profoundly derealizing. Since March 10th, I have flown just over 170,000km. The three months… Continue reading
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You’re Doing So Good
A child, named Tommy, sits on a step. Tommy is three. He likes dinosaurs and apples, and he is just learning to tie his shoelaces. As he does so, his inexperienced fingers get caught up in the loops he is… Continue reading
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Starting Over
The English language is rich with idioms related to the process of starting over. Picking up the pieces. Getting back on the wagon. Getting back in the saddle. Turning over a new leaf. Getting back into the groove. The process… Continue reading
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My Life in 100 Songs
The past is fascinating. It is the home of nostalgia, of infinite experiences, of different feelings, of different loves, selves, places and people. Since publishing My Life in 100 Films, I’ve been drawn again to collect experience under the umbrella… Continue reading
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Trainspotting (1993, 1996): A Tale of Two Tastes
In the landscape of cultural adaptation, few works demonstrate the metamorphosis of medium as starkly as Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Danny Boyle’s cinematic interpretation. Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting was one of the 90s’ defining works of cinema: fresh, exhilarating, narcissistic and… Continue reading
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The Zero in The Gnarled Pine Hollow: An Appalachian Tale
Featuring rolling, mist-covered peaks and breathtaking views, the Great Smoky Mountains straddle the border between North Carolina and Tennessee and include 71 miles of the Appalachian Trail. On the 1st of March, with FreshGrounds’ breakfast in my belly and a… Continue reading
