Monthly Archives: April 2011
Musical Improvisation and the Brain
This 2-hour presentation discusses brain activity as a musician is improvising. I thought it was well worth the time watching it. Panellists and participating musicians include Pat Metheny. [via Scientific American] d
PJ Harvey and Pinter
Over at The Guardian, PJ Harvey talks about her work and her influences, including this snippet: Such as? She indicates a volume of Harold Pinter’s poetry that she has brought with her. “Pinter leaves me speechless. Just unbelievable. A poem … Continue reading
Filed under Literature, Music
Newspaper album.
Pictures of the Newspaper Album edition of The King of Limbs have surfaced. [via Pitchfork] d
A new book about Beckett.
Stephen John Dilks has published a new book about the life of Beckett, Samuel Beckett in the Literary Marketplace. Apparently, it caused a bit of a stir initially and Dilks is hoping to win over some Beckett supporters. More over … Continue reading
Filed under Literature
tUnE-yArDs InTeRvIeW.
Pitchfork interviews Merill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs fame. It’s just going to be this interesting battle in my life; not only am I performing, but I’m performing songs about self-loathing in front of people, or about sex, or about violence. These … Continue reading
Christopher Hitchens on Philip Larkin.
There’s a great article by Christopher Hitchens on Philip Larkin over at the Atlantic. This is the world of wretched, tasteless food and watery drinks, dreary and crowded lodgings, outrageous plumbing, surly cynicism, long queues, shocking hygiene, and dismal, rain-lashed … Continue reading
Filed under Literature
On translated books.
Scott Esposito discusses reviewing translated books. A final word on how you write about a translation in a review: I know as well as anyone that review space is often limited, and you can hardly do justice to that 500-page … Continue reading
Filed under Literature
Rojak: Omnibus
Rojak is a (typically) weekly collection of assorted links as well as a bulletin summarising the week on this blog. Yes, I know, I’m supposed to do this every week, but we had something of a big feature last weekend, … Continue reading
Filed under Rojak
Omnivore: Double Album
Omnivore is a brief (and usually) weekly report on some of the things that I’ve been enjoying during the week. For this special fortnight edition… I’ve been listening to early Sonic Youth, some Bob Dylan, a couple of albums by … Continue reading
Filed under Omnivore
Q&A with Werner Herzog.
TIME, 2009. And I said, very simply, Yes, because I would be a man without dreams, and I do not want to live without dreams. [via YouTube] d
Filed under Film + Television
