Sunday, April 06, 2008
Celebrating poetry ...
... Atlanta Sings of Poems Electric, Past and Present. (Hat tip, Judith Fitzgerald.)
Not so fast ...
... In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop.
This link has been sent to me by a number of my correspondents, so it's obviously an eye-catcher. Unfortunately, it's also a good example of why reporters should think before they write. Of course, this managed to make it into print, so more than just the reporter is at fault. What exactly do we have here? Two people who blogged died of heart attacks. And a person who blogged had a heart attack. How many bloggers are there? In excess of 100 million, I believe. Three out of 100 million hardly seems a representative sample. Or, as the reporter helpfully reminds us, "there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths."
So what's the point of the story then?
This link has been sent to me by a number of my correspondents, so it's obviously an eye-catcher. Unfortunately, it's also a good example of why reporters should think before they write. Of course, this managed to make it into print, so more than just the reporter is at fault. What exactly do we have here? Two people who blogged died of heart attacks. And a person who blogged had a heart attack. How many bloggers are there? In excess of 100 million, I believe. Three out of 100 million hardly seems a representative sample. Or, as the reporter helpfully reminds us, "there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths."
So what's the point of the story then?
RIP ...
... Film Legend Charlton Heston Dead at 84.
There is a terrible film of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar starring Jason Robards as Brutus. Robards's performance is one of the worst ever recorded. But Heston, as Marc Antony, is fabulous. His deliver of the "Friends, Romans, countrymen ..." is the best I ever saw.
There is a terrible film of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar starring Jason Robards as Brutus. Robards's performance is one of the worst ever recorded. But Heston, as Marc Antony, is fabulous. His deliver of the "Friends, Romans, countrymen ..." is the best I ever saw.
Get ready ...
... Coming soon: superfast internet.
By which time newspapers still will not have figured out how to meet the challenge.
By which time newspapers still will not have figured out how to meet the challenge.
Today's Inquirer reviews ...
... Jane Smiley on Jennifer Weiner: Weiner is talented enough to aim higher.
... Carlin Romano disagrees with Vladimir Putin (who recently said there would be no new Cold War): A look at Russia drifting backward to a new Cold War.
... Greg Feeley takes a close look at Michael Swanwick: Fiction and fact by Phila. author.
... a coach's life: Rutgers coach leads an inspiring life, on and off the court.
... Katherine Bailey likes a fictional poet: Into the heart of Robert Frost.
... Carlin Romano disagrees with Vladimir Putin (who recently said there would be no new Cold War): A look at Russia drifting backward to a new Cold War.
... Greg Feeley takes a close look at Michael Swanwick: Fiction and fact by Phila. author.
... a coach's life: Rutgers coach leads an inspiring life, on and off the court.
... Katherine Bailey likes a fictional poet: Into the heart of Robert Frost.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Odd fellow ...
... Unearthing Johannes.
Brahms is one of my two favorite composers (the other is Debussy), and he seems to have been a very strange person, not least because of the way he transformed himself from a very good-looking young man into a prematurely old one. Scroll down to see what I mean.
A Bidart roundup ...
... I just wrote a review of Frank Bidart's latest collection for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He's an interesting poet and it's an interesting book. Here's a couple of audio clips.
... They Roll In Outrage.
... She Whose Love You Failed Is Standing Next To You.
... They Roll In Outrage.
... She Whose Love You Failed Is Standing Next To You.
Something I missed ...
... by quite a bit, but I just came upon it, and I think it's interesting (and not because it involves me): Literary Memory.
I never did learn if Laurie had reviewed the book.
I never did learn if Laurie had reviewed the book.
Friday, April 04, 2008
A moving tribute ...
... to William F. Buckley Jr. from Kevin Holtsberry: Up From Mediocrity.
I think that's just a great piece.
I think that's just a great piece.
His first post ...
... and, with any luck, his last: Bloggers, critics and parking attendants. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
A most interesting line of thought ...
... The Incarnation and Film Noir.
The doctrine of the Incarnation has God, as it were, writing Himself into His own drama in order to correct the evil that is going on there by suffering from it Himself. It is the best theodicy I know of.
The doctrine of the Incarnation has God, as it were, writing Himself into His own drama in order to correct the evil that is going on there by suffering from it Himself. It is the best theodicy I know of.
Nature marches on ...
... the journal, that is: Online Video Streaming Archive. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
We link ...
... you decide: Autism and Poetry.
I have my doubts about this "epidemic." See Is the Autism Epidemic a Myth?
More here.
I have my doubts about this "epidemic." See Is the Autism Epidemic a Myth?
More here.
Attention woul be biographers ...
... Allan Massie has A subject in need of a writer. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I think the comparison of the religious right and Muslim fundamentalism is dotty, to say nothing of a cliche. There is certainly plenty on the left - and lots of other places besides - that is against nature and common sense.
Two views of April ...
An absence of presence ...
... Debbie and I recently visited the Cecilia Beaux Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Beaux was very a good painter and a very good portraitist as the show amply demonstrates. But both Debbie and I felt there was something missing. I think it was evident in one detail of the show, where a tiny reproduction of a painting Sargent did of one of Beaux's subjects sparkles more than anything else on the gallery walls. Beaux captures her subjects so well in large measure because she was so like them. Unfortunately, that also means she lacked a certain detachment from them - something Sargent seems to have had in abundance. So one really does enter Beaux's Mainline Philadelphia milieu - and feels as ill-at-ease there as one probably would in reality. One thing that struck me again and again was the look in her subjects' eyes. Most of them seemed lonely and afraid in a world where they had it made. I'm sure they laughed from time to time, but I wonder if any of them ever felt joy. Their world - and Beaux's - was simply too earnest to sparkle much. The one painting that does sparkle - New England Woman - is probably the best in the show. What makes it so good is the uncharacteristic (for Beaux) dazzle of the light on white contrasted with the all-too-characteristic melancholy look of the sitter.
Nige wonders ...
... In Dreams Begin... What?
"What would life feel like if we didn't dream?"
It would, I am afraid to say, probably feel like mine. I'm sure I dream, but I rarely remember my dreams, and those I do remember are almost always utterly prosaic.
"What would life feel like if we didn't dream?"
It would, I am afraid to say, probably feel like mine. I'm sure I dream, but I rarely remember my dreams, and those I do remember are almost always utterly prosaic.
One writer's observations ...
... on the HarperCollins story: HarperCollins to Authors: Sorry, no money... but we will publish your book.
"... I am skeptical of this model. But I'm not surprised that it is happening - it is another symptom of the huge shakeout in the arts and letters instigated largely by the online world. I will be interested in the results."
"... I am skeptical of this model. But I'm not surprised that it is happening - it is another symptom of the huge shakeout in the arts and letters instigated largely by the online world. I will be interested in the results."
Thursday, April 03, 2008
I just saw this ...
... and it's very good: Theater Views: Saluting Scofield.
Oh, how I wish I had seen Scofield in John Gabriel Borkman.
Oh, how I wish I had seen Scofield in John Gabriel Borkman.
Nige assaulted ...
... An Indignity in Holland Park.
This happened to me once walking along a street in center city (as we call it). The culprit was a pigeon.
This happened to me once walking along a street in center city (as we call it). The culprit was a pigeon.
In memoriam ...
... early this morning, while paging through the paper, I came upon this on the obituary page : William J. Lynch Sr. | English professor, 77.
Bill Lynch was another of my English professors at what was then St. Joseph's College (which was a small, old-fashioned Jesuit college, still governed by the ratio studiorum - hence four years of theology as well as two full years of scholastic philosophy. Throw in some Latin and Greek - as I did - and you could graduate with something resembling a traditional classical education).
Bill was a great teacher, whose view of literature exerted a lasting influence on me. That view was that literature isn't primarily about form or technique, but life. One reads fiction and poetry, one attends plays - Bill was big on theater - in order to learn how to observe life better in order to live it well. He taught the course in Chaucer and I can still remember him pointing out that we've all met the Wife of Bath - and so we have; in fact, I believe she was my grandmother. I also remember him once coming into the class he taught on the modern novel on the day a test was scheduled, and telling us the test would consist of only one question. He then proceded to read an extremely complex question about Joyce's Ulysses. The panic that ran through the class was palpable. But, no sooner had we grimly set about the hopeless task of writing an answer, Bill started laughing: "Do you guys really think I'd give you a test on St. Paddy's Day?" (Yes, in that antediluvian time, St. Joe's was not coeducational.)
The world is a lesser place for Bill's passing. I am grateful for the privilege of having known and been taught by him. As I have pointed out before, we are not educated by buildings, but by those very special human beings known as teachers.
Bill was a great teacher, whose view of literature exerted a lasting influence on me. That view was that literature isn't primarily about form or technique, but life. One reads fiction and poetry, one attends plays - Bill was big on theater - in order to learn how to observe life better in order to live it well. He taught the course in Chaucer and I can still remember him pointing out that we've all met the Wife of Bath - and so we have; in fact, I believe she was my grandmother. I also remember him once coming into the class he taught on the modern novel on the day a test was scheduled, and telling us the test would consist of only one question. He then proceded to read an extremely complex question about Joyce's Ulysses. The panic that ran through the class was palpable. But, no sooner had we grimly set about the hopeless task of writing an answer, Bill started laughing: "Do you guys really think I'd give you a test on St. Paddy's Day?" (Yes, in that antediluvian time, St. Joe's was not coeducational.)
The world is a lesser place for Bill's passing. I am grateful for the privilege of having known and been taught by him. As I have pointed out before, we are not educated by buildings, but by those very special human beings known as teachers.
Now I understand ...
... that Bryan's favorite, Jeffrey, actually does write like a lord: Dear Diary… (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
In tune ...
... `Vulgar and Tavern-Musick'
I, too, and a Browne fan, and find his reference here to "the first Composer" telling. I have often thought it better to think of God as a composer than as an engineer.
I, too, and a Browne fan, and find his reference here to "the first Composer" telling. I have often thought it better to think of God as a composer than as an engineer.
Come here, Minx ...
... Shopping in style.
The Italian Market, which is right down the street, remains pretty much unchanged.
The Italian Market, which is right down the street, remains pretty much unchanged.
How about it?
... Dinner with Socrates?
Would anyone else get a word in edgeways while a filthy old man drank, drivelled and chopped logic into his navel for hours?
Sounds like a bunch of hippies and their guru.
More here from Mary Beard: A piss-up with Socrates and Yes please, Socrates.
My own personal choice for a philosophical dinner date would be Hypatia.
Would anyone else get a word in edgeways while a filthy old man drank, drivelled and chopped logic into his navel for hours?
Sounds like a bunch of hippies and their guru.
More here from Mary Beard: A piss-up with Socrates and Yes please, Socrates.
My own personal choice for a philosophical dinner date would be Hypatia.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
High praise ...
... The witness of evil. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Pérez-Reverte's book was, if memory serves, one of the last reviewed under my tenure as Inquirer book editor. My reviewer liked it a lot as well.
Pérez-Reverte's book was, if memory serves, one of the last reviewed under my tenure as Inquirer book editor. My reviewer liked it a lot as well.
This may be good news ...
... actually: Science news in the United States. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Given how wretched the coverage that you do see is, we're probably better off having them largely ignore science.
Watch five hours of US cable news, and on average you will see around 35 minutes on election campaigns, another 36 minutes on US foreign policy, and 26 minutes on crime — but only about one minute on science and technology, slightly more on the environment, and only a little over 3 minutes on medicine and health care.
Given how wretched the coverage that you do see is, we're probably better off having them largely ignore science.
A poet's poet ...
... Eric Ormsby on Walter de la Mare: The kingdom of Never-to-be. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, I know which one I'd pick ...
... Impac shortlist boasts global scope. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
My choice? Yasmina's Khadra's The Attack.
My choice? Yasmina's Khadra's The Attack.
Freelancer woes ...
... Writing and Taxes par-tay.
Many years ago, a good chunk of my own income came from freelancing. I do not look back upon those days with great fondness. But what I learned then served me well when I was in a position to hire freelancers. I understood their position far better than I would have otherwise.
Many years ago, a good chunk of my own income came from freelancing. I do not look back upon those days with great fondness. But what I learned then served me well when I was in a position to hire freelancers. I understood their position far better than I would have otherwise.
Growing old ...
... can have its advantages: Nassim Nicholas Taleb at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.
“Elephants are smart. They keep old elephants around because they remember rare events. So we too should keep the old around.”
(Hat tip, Dave Lull, who notes that "sometimes I think I remember events
so rare that they might be a figment of my imagination." I'm with you, Dave.)
“Elephants are smart. They keep old elephants around because they remember rare events. So we too should keep the old around.”
(Hat tip, Dave Lull, who notes that "sometimes I think I remember events
so rare that they might be a figment of my imagination." I'm with you, Dave.)
And the winner is ...
... British Magazine Names Weirdest Book Title Of 2007. (Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
Highly recommended ...
... I read this a while back and found it genuinely haunting - even now, just looking at that picture, I remember the feel I had upon reading it: Snowstorm.
Classical education ...
... Roman Remains. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Has political life really changed very much since Shakespeare’s day, at least as portrayed in Coriolanus? If anything, it seems to have regressed towards it, having perhaps (but only perhaps) have moved away from it for an interlude of a century or two.
Evidence of decline ...
... won't find anything like this on TV these days - even in Canada, I suspect. Otherwise, yes: Evidence of the Cultural Superiority of Canadian Broadcasting, and, Arguably, of Canada Itself.
We're late with this ...
... but not terribly: NaPoWriMo '08 began yesterday.
Here are a couple of early entries: And Thus It Begins . . . . and Worth Several NaPo Looks.
Here are a couple of early entries: And Thus It Begins . . . . and Worth Several NaPo Looks.
An excellent post ...
... The Blogger Humbled.
I know exactly what Bryan means, and it is precisely this that newspapers and the people who run them do not understand.
The comments on this blog are, on average, better written, funnier and often better informed than anything in any newspaper or magazine. And, perhaps because the commenters are a self-selected bunch, they also seem to know me better than I thought I could be known by mere readers ...
I know exactly what Bryan means, and it is precisely this that newspapers and the people who run them do not understand.
I continue to be amazed ...
... by how much Nige and I think alike: Short Books.
A great many books are longer than they need be. Everything is improved if whatever can be left out is. John O'Hara, who wrote excellent short stories, but was perhaps at his very best writing novellas - a terribly neglected and under-rated form. O'Hara's "Imagine Kissing Pete" in Sermons and Soda-Water may well be his masterpiece. His novels, on the other hand, are bloated and graceless.
As for what I like to call laundry-ticket biographies (they include every scrap of information the biographer has been able to dig up, including the subject's laundry tickets), they tend to be catalogs of research rather than true biographies. To be a work of art, a biography must be a selection of the most significant details of a life arranged into a harmonious whole. What we want are not chronicles of a life, but a portrait from life. To create such requires an exercise of judgment and a willingness to take risks.
Albert Jay Nock wrote an excellent essay about this, called "The Purpose of Biography," in which he deplores the "notion that knowing something about a subject, or even knowing a great deal about him, is the same thing, or just as good, as knowing the subject himself..." It isn't.
More people to need to read Plutarch.
As for what I like to call laundry-ticket biographies (they include every scrap of information the biographer has been able to dig up, including the subject's laundry tickets), they tend to be catalogs of research rather than true biographies. To be a work of art, a biography must be a selection of the most significant details of a life arranged into a harmonious whole. What we want are not chronicles of a life, but a portrait from life. To create such requires an exercise of judgment and a willingness to take risks.
Albert Jay Nock wrote an excellent essay about this, called "The Purpose of Biography," in which he deplores the "notion that knowing something about a subject, or even knowing a great deal about him, is the same thing, or just as good, as knowing the subject himself..." It isn't.
More people to need to read Plutarch.
Maybe it's time ...
... to Free the Piano Player.
To listen to recordings made by pianists born in the 19th century is to be struck by their extreme individuality, bordering at times on outright eccentricity. It is a powerful musical flavor—one that some present-day listeners, perhaps not surprisingly, find overpowering.
To listen to recordings made by pianists born in the 19th century is to be struck by their extreme individuality, bordering at times on outright eccentricity. It is a powerful musical flavor—one that some present-day listeners, perhaps not surprisingly, find overpowering.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Today's must read ...
... at least for me: Meaning and Abstraction.
So much of what Art says in this is right that it's hard to know where to begin. As he suggests, insofar as Eliot may be said to be a modernist, it is by virtue of "The Waste Land." And he is also correct that the Eliot of the Quartets had abandoned modernism. I re-read the Quartets regularly and always get something new out of them. Conrad Aiken, of course, is one of my favorite poets and, as Art says, unjustly neglected. Consider "Winter For A Moment Takes The Mind." And yes, "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" was an episode of Night Gallery - narrated by Orson Welles, in fact. I would love to see it again. Anyone one know how to get a copy?
One final note about Eliot the man. Like many a shy person, he was given to adopting personae, but they were not necessarily accurate reflections of the man, rather disguises merely. This is a guy who placed firecrackers under the seats of the Faber & Faber board of directors when they were having a meeting one Fourth of July, who corresponded with Groucho Marx and when they met wanted only to talk about the Marx brothers, not poetry. Had he lived to receive the Tony for Cats he would have been delighted beyond measure.
One final note about Eliot the man. Like many a shy person, he was given to adopting personae, but they were not necessarily accurate reflections of the man, rather disguises merely. This is a guy who placed firecrackers under the seats of the Faber & Faber board of directors when they were having a meeting one Fourth of July, who corresponded with Groucho Marx and when they met wanted only to talk about the Marx brothers, not poetry. Had he lived to receive the Tony for Cats he would have been delighted beyond measure.
Good news ...
... regarding the Role of blogs in communicating scientific knowledge. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
All right, kids ...
... back to the drawing board: School’s plagiarism code plagiarized. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)
Bryan will love this ...
... he just has to think it's about cricket: The Regionalist: Play Ball! (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Doctor's visit ...
... not many M.D.'s make them anymore, but The Original Computer Doctor does. That's why I haven't done much blogging today. Seth Brown of the OCD came over and added memory to the desktop I'm working on, added a wifi component to my cable connection (I hope I have that right - I'm no techie), and helped me configure my new laptop. Thanks to wifi connection my Kindle is up and running perfectly.
So I moving nicely into the next phase of my retirement. My gift to myself was to upgrade my computer capacity. Next we look into podcasting.
For now, though, I have to do a number of other things - I have another review due this week - so blogging will remain light until later.
So I moving nicely into the next phase of my retirement. My gift to myself was to upgrade my computer capacity. Next we look into podcasting.
For now, though, I have to do a number of other things - I have another review due this week - so blogging will remain light until later.
Researching the unknown ...
... and how we relate to it: Decision Research Laboratory. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Thank God ...
... Debbie doesn't read my blog: Blog in Boring Crisis.
A psychiatrist once told me that the phrase "it is boring" is incorrect and should be phrased "I am bored."
A psychiatrist once told me that the phrase "it is boring" is incorrect and should be phrased "I am bored."
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