Gould the Hipster – Early Recordings and Composition

The one thing you'll find in any reading about Glenn Gould is that he "burst onto the scene" in 1955 with his first recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. He did, however, compose, perform and record music prior to then. He was actually fairly well known (at least in Canada) prior to the first Bach recording. … Continue reading Gould the Hipster – Early Recordings and Composition →

The Glenn Gould Project

Quick - who's your favorite introverted left-handed Canadian genius? (Other than Nates of course...) I've been looking for a successor to the Dostoevsky reading project for some time, but I think I've finally admitted to myself, there just won't be a replacement. It's so sui-generis and so enormous that I just won't find anything that … Continue reading The Glenn Gould Project →

Nate Silver and Burritos

I know I'm late to the party on this one but - http://burritobracket.blogspot.com/ I was glad to see that he basically got it right - El Taco Veloz, Picante, de Pasada and La Pasadita are the four best places to get a burrito that I've been. That's even counting places in California, which are supposedly, … Continue reading Nate Silver and Burritos →

Django Unchained is Better than Lincoln

A. O. Scott reports in his review yesterday that when he emerged from the theater with his daughter, she asserted that Tarantino’s latest was better than Lincoln. I can imagine one’s teenager daughter asserting such a thing just to rankle her stuffy old film-critic dad, but – I mean to assert (and prove) her proposition … Continue reading Django Unchained is Better than Lincoln →

Lincoln is Not That Good

Before I get to proving that, let me head off a few arguments which will probably be offered in Lincoln’s favor, these being the usual inane claims made by an embarrassingly large chunk of the movie criticism world (and the idiot who is usually walking out of the theater right behind you). I don’t mean … Continue reading Lincoln is Not That Good →

The Original Original Position?

Check out this passage from William Godwin's Political Justice, from 1793: The two great questions upon which the theory of government depends are: Upon what foundation can political authority with the greatest propriety rest? and, What are the considerations which bind us to political obedience? Having entered at length into the first of these questions, … Continue reading The Original Original Position? →

The Face that Launched 1186 Ships

Nates is wrong when he says The Iliad Book 2's Catalog of Ships is not interesting. To wit - below is a chart, of each place name, who the leader(s) are, and how many ships each of them have brought to the shores of Troy. Harper's Index - Book 2 of The Iliad. Total Number of … Continue reading The Face that Launched 1186 Ships →

Remainder

The premise behind this book is one you might think you’ve encountered before: its main character (who narrates in the first person, and I think remains unnamed otherwise) begins by explaining that he’s recently been struck on the head in an industrial accident of some sort, and it’s caused him some memory loss. I think … Continue reading Remainder →

C – by Tom McCarthy

The steward leaves. As he passes the kitchen door on his way back to the stairs a Sudanese cook comes out and tips scraps from a bucket over the Borromeo’s stern. The steward pauses and watches the scraps bobbing in the churned-up water for a while. The moon’s gone: only the ship’s electric glow illuminates … Continue reading C – by Tom McCarthy →

Don DeLillo’s _The Names_

For a long time I stayed away from the acropolis. So opens an early-ish DeLillo novel, The Names. I have read many other books by Don DeLillo – probably at least 10. This is the first book that, at least as far as I can remember, I thought about the opening line the whole time. … Continue reading Don DeLillo’s _The Names_ →