It seems fitting, after Michael Brown, and Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray, and with the Baltimore Uprising in full swing, to post this. I love this album, I think it’s one of the best ever made, and it opens with a quote you’ll hear if you play the song, a quote from Malcolm X, which, sadly, becomes more and more relevant: … you’re living at … Continue reading Mos Def, aka Yasiin Bey — Supermagic ::
In the northern foothills of the Alborz mountains, bordering the Caspian Sea, a small village community once existed. It thrived temporarily on the artificial water systems provided to it by a government that lasted not all that long, water pumped from the great dams that watered Tehran on the southern slopes of the mountains, water that ceased to be pumped when certain people ceased to … Continue reading One hundred words on a village community’s relationship with water ::
This review is part of the No Man’s Land Reading Project, an attempt to right a gendered imbalance in my reading and a general imbalance in the availability of reviews (by men, especially) of works by female authors. The first thing I said when I finished Karen Joy Fowler’s immensely popular, critically acclaimed, Man Booker Prize shortlisted seventh novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, … Continue reading Book Review — We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013) by Karen Joy Fowler
A few months ago I read an article by a female author who described the experience of signing her books for men who, as she signed, told her the book was for their mother, sister, girlfriend, wife, daughter, niece, and so on. They did also say they’d enjoyed the reading she’d given beforehand, but the fact that none of them was (admitting to) buying her … Continue reading The No Man’s Land Reading Project
I talked to the surgeon for a little while longer and said good-bye. We were leaving in the afternoon for Lake Josephus, located at the edge of the Idaho Wilderness, and he was leaving for America, often only a place in the mind. Continue reading Richard Brautigan (1935-1984), on America ::
This scanned, uploaded zine would not have existed without Safdar Ahmed, an inspiring, emotive man who ran a workshop at the 2014 National Young Writers’ Festival in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. I made it in the second hour of the two-hour session using this technique, which Safdar taught us, and its unselfconsciousness (a quality my writing usually lacks) owes a lot to his stories of the Refugee … Continue reading My weird fish (aka my first ever zine) ::
Like most fanatics, he didn’t enjoy religion, he suffered from it. Continue reading Spike Milligan (1918-2002), on a characteristic of religious fanaticism ::
I remember I preferred the soldier to the philosopher at the time; a preference which life has only confirmed. One was a man, and the other was either more—or less. Continue reading Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), on the soldier and the philosopher ::
… that moment of evening when the light and the darkness are so evenly balanced that the constraint of day and the suspense of night neutralise each other, leaving absolute mental liberty. It is then that the plight of being alive becomes attenuated to its least possible dimensions. Continue reading Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), on life’s least possible dimensions ::
[The following is a short story I wrote for the National Portrait Gallery’s The Big Chill: Fireside Tales short story and poetry competition. The prompt was the photo below, which was taken in Sydney by Dr Julian Smith some time in the 1940s. Nothing is known about the subject, so entrants were asked to use her as their inspiration.] Her father’s arm is around her … Continue reading Winter time ::
In May this year my parents went to Japan for three weeks. It’s the first time they’ve been overseas in almost twelve years, and the longest time they’ve been overseas without my brother and I since 1985. When they came back they borrowed my laptop to show my aunts their travel photos. When they returned the laptop the photos were still on it. I looked through, and noticed myself smiling … Continue reading My dad smiling ::
Every sound in this song is ideal. The final minute alone is invaluable. And whoever made this video decided a fitting image to accompany this music would be a man crawling around in a field cramming mushrooms into his mouth and then blissing out really, really hard. Found money. Continue reading Oneohtrix Point Never — Chrome Country ::
There’s something to be said for doing one thing right. Continue reading Lionel Ferbos (b. 1911), on his Life as a Trumpeter ::
A cover of the Allen Toussaint original, to which I was introduced by the inestimably valuable and brilliant HBO show Treme. Give this song two or three goes at the plate for it to catch up with you. Continue reading Lee Dorsey — Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On) ::
