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December 2008

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  • 12.31.08
    2009 – Come on up… Uncategorized | (0)
    ... for the rising. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eNnB4dkVRJI&feature=related
  • 12.31.08
    Anthem Uncategorized | (0)
    The birds they sang at the break of day Start again I heard them say Don't dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be Ah, the wars they will be fought again The holy dove She will be caught again bought and sold and bought again the dove is never free We asked for signs the signs were sent the birth betrayed the marriage spent Yeah the widowhood of every government – signs for all to see I can't run no more with that lawless crowd while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud But they've summoned up ...
  • 12.30.08
    Narcotic Reaction Uncategorized | (2)
    Published in the Hot Press drugs issue back in February… The history of drugs in the arts can be read as the story of impressionable middle-class romantics’ fascination with the forbidden; the desire to slum it in the underworld, hoping some of that transgressive chic will rub off. Add a dash of homoerotic fixation on the criminal class bit o’ rough, and you get one of the most enduring fallacies of 20th century counterculture: the myth of narcotic use and abuse as a tattoo of outlaw cool. It’s an enduring illusion that originated with the Romantics and Decadents, persisted through the jazz ...
  • 12.30.08
    Ich, John Uncategorized | (0)
    http://www.suhrkamp.de/titel/titel.cfm?bestellnr=46109
  • 12.29.08
    2008: We throw the book at it. Uncategorized | (2)
    It was a year of acute absence rather than conspicuous presence. The suicide of David Foster Wallace in September created a void that seemed to suck all the good out of the book world. American letters lost one of its most gifted sons: a mercurial, protean prose stylist and inspired journalist, public speaker, philosopher and teacher. Literature seemed grimmer and more monochrome without him. There were few enough distinguished literary novels of the year. Breath by Tim Winton came closest, yet was criminally overlooked by a Man Booker jury that didn’t even deem it worthy of inclusion on the short ...
  • 12.28.08
    He was so much older then… Uncategorized | (0)
    …he’s younger than that now. Just finished a rather handsome graphic novel version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, adapted by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, illustrated by Kevin Cornell. David Fincher’s film, starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton, looks promising. Charlie Rose’s interview with Fincher and Pitt was broadcast on Christmas night: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9880 And here’s A.O. Scott’s review in the New York Times: http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/movies/25butt.html
  • 12.27.08
    Not to put too fine a point on it… Uncategorized | (0)
    “Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.” – Flannery O’Connor
  • 12.27.08
    How To Sing The Shit Out Of A Song Pt 3 Uncategorized | (0)
    Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs&feature=related
  • 12.26.08
    How To Sing The Shit Out Of A Song Pt 2 Uncategorized | (0)
    Antony Hegarty, If It Be Your Will. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1MDlMdu2gjw
  • 12.25.08
    How To Sing The Shit Out Of A Song Pt 1 Uncategorized | (0)
    Jacques Brel, In The Port Of Amsterdam. Happy Christmas all... http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZFr2Fh66zs&feature=related