Category: reading

2025-w08 bits

23 February 2025 / / 0 Comments

I found this interview by Nick Hornby with Bruce Springsteen from 2005 to be a delight (and Bruce being interested in Four Tet then shows that he’s got a good feed of ideas inbound). https://open.substack.com/pub/nickhornby/p/a-2005-interview-with-bruce-springsteen

A relative is dealing with a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, so coming across this article – including the interaction of the nervous system and cancer presence/metastasis – and potential treatments was intriguing. https://www.dkfz.de/en/news/press-releases/detail/bauchspeicheldruesenkrebs-nerven-blockade-als-moegliche-neue-behandlungsstrategie

We have a birdfeeder in our yard which we (and the cats) have been enjoying since 2020 or so. But should we keep it up? This implies we’re OK to (depending on state guidance). https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/avian-influenza-outbreak-should-you-take-down-your-bird-feeders/

Wide ranging thoughts from Ian Leslie here, who I’m trying to figure out. But of one note to me is his contention that despite the wild perception and involvement with untoward schemes, in-country maybe Millei’s efforts are working? https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/why-are-some-of-our-most-successful

Klass on Doge and the subtleties of preparedness and how quickly it can be missed. https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/doge-and-the-coming-tsunami

Notes for us all in a bit of sanity retention. Pairs well with my reading this week of Kyle Chayka’s Filterworld. https://open.substack.com/pub/embedded/p/twitter-facebook-detox

On the composition of the Brutalist soundtrack, which really did reward the theatre presentation: https://youtu.be/_9xC6n-gyQI

Leonard Cohen artifacts – mostly outside of our price range, but…. https://bid.juliensauctions.com/auctions/catalog/id/593

Bloomsday

16 June 2023 / / 0 Comments

John Naughton, in his Memex blog has a nice celebration of Bloomsday post. Within he includes a lovely section of a talk given by Sally Rooney who then goes on to quote Anne Enright

Apart from everything that you could possibly imagine, nothing much happens in Ulysses.

Very true. It reminded me of a couple moments in the seminar on Ulysses I took from Robert D Newman (then TAMU professor, now President and Director of the National Humanities Center – how our lives and ambitions and dreams lead us).

The first was when he summarized the book (himself or in quote). “It’s just about a single day. Not much happens on that day, and everything happens on that day.”

The second, and this was during a crest of the textual analysis waves, where the Gabler edition had recently been published, was when he came into class a minute or so late and said somewhat breathlessly “I’m sorry I’m late, I was on the phone with John Kidd, who was counting commas.”

It’s never too soon to pick up Ulysses. It is about a single day. It is about everything. It’s reputation for depth is earned and shouldn’t be a deterrent. Let the language and tale sweep you through the day, and let the references flutter past like the leaves on the sidewalk you’re walking along. You can rake them up later.

Must View History

2 June 2012 / / 0 Comments

Earlier this week I came across Calumet 412, a photoblog of Chicago history.

And I must say, if history, Chicago, photos, or curiosity are things anywhere in your interest list, it is an immediate subscribe entity. The range of years runs from the founding of this fair city through to the middle of the past century, and delightfully it isn’t just the big things, but the small things that make a city as well.

Click now: http://calumet412.tumblr.com/.

Palpitations

7 January 2012 / / 0 Comments

Mike alerts in passing that the long awaited first volume in the Pogo reprints series is finally available. My old pulp copies are all sitting on shelves, too delicate for reading. Destroyed, in no small part, by my youthful joy at their stories and ideas.

Now to see if our local vendor has it in stock, vs the discounted local-destroying behemoth from the West..