Arts « Wait until next year

November 25, 2011

Rock ‘N’ Soul Ichiban!

I know we now have huge-memoried mp3 players and Spotify and iTunes and downloads and pretty-much-immediate access to vast catalogues of music and that it is wonderful and all, but sometimes I like to hear something new, or different, or something I wouldn’t chance upon naturally through those aforementioned technical innovations that offer so much choice that I end up just a little bit overwhelmed and so curate myself into a cosy, familiar, safe corner. Sometimes I need someone else to choose what I’m listening to, to point my ears in an interesting direction. In short, I still love (and need) radio. Read the rest of this entry »

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September 15, 2011

Zero to Fifty Thousand

I’m afraid this is yet another one of those posts where I bleat on and on about writing without actually doing any of it. Well, of course, I am writing, but I’m writing about writing, which I could pass off as some sort of meta exercise, or as a meditation on the creative process, but it is nearer to an act of public self-absorption, or at least an avoidance of writing about something more worthwhile than the act of writing itself. Read the rest of this entry »

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April 26, 2011

The post where I try to review Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom through the prism (if that’s the right word) of some quotes from the author, in an ultimately futile attempt to do something different around a book that has been written about enough already

So, over the lovely long weekend I finally finished Jonathan’s Franzen’s Freedom. Is there anything new to say about this book? I doubt it, as it has probably been the most talked-about book of the last 12 months. How’s that for a terrible intro, readers? Read the rest of this entry »

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April 19, 2011

Peeking behind the curtain

Yesterday, I did a little catching up on the backlog of articles I’d allowed to build up on Instapaper. Reading Dan Kois’ piece for the New York Times, “Why Do Writers Abandon Novels?” helped kick my brain into some degree of action, to focus on some related issues that I’ve been mulling over for some time now. Why do we like peeking behind the curtain so much? Read the rest of this entry »

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October 13, 2010

The Organist Entertains

Apologies for my protracted absence. After hitting something of a brick wall, I’m now overwhelmed in terms of subjects I could blog about. There is all manner of subjects cluttering my brain/stimulating my brain, depending on the time of day/my general disposition/etc/etc. Read the rest of this entry »