December 23, 2010 – 1:11 pm
I saw this scene on my way back from yoga. Hallelujah! Someone’s walking tall to the Christmas ball. Here’s a year-end poem just because: . Waking up in
a submarine Waking up in a submarine, . . . curtains of liquid glass . . . I am the foetus dreaming in the library, roseate from [...]
December 23, 2010 – 10:34 am
Looking is tiring, isn’t it — I just want to shut the door and my eyes, and lie back into a soft, deep couch. What did you see this year? Without notes I wouldn’t recall past back last week. Here are my personal highlights for the year gone by: + + + Winter’s Bone For [...]
By W H Chong
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Posted in art, books, movies
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Tagged Alice Neel, Animal Kingdom, Christmas, David Malouf, Doanld Friend, James Ensor, Mad Men, Modern Family, Philip Guston, Robin Boyd, T.J. Clark, The Thick of It, Toy Story 3, Winter's Bone
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December 22, 2010 – 7:54 am
If I had fiction fatigue this year, (see book mulchings) I also suffered from melody fatigue. My favourite new CDs featured kinds of rap; there was also a bunch of old stuff which is definitionally classic. And there’s all the other sonic offerings too, given away free, made by people who love to do it. [...]
By W H Chong
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Posted in music
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Tagged Alan Saunders, Bach cello suites, Beethoven, Chris Cunningham, Eric Whitacre, Fresh Air, Gil Scott-Heron, Gloriana, Harriet Gilbert, Indicast Show, James Murphy, Laurie Anderson, LCD Soundsystem, Mitsuko Uchida, Philosopher's Zone, Terry Gross, World Book Club
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December 21, 2010 – 10:26 am
For a book designer, walking (or surfing) into a bookstore can be overwhelming — an effect not so much Stendhal syndrome as, say, a couture seamstress walking into a department store. This year I’ve struggled with fiction fatigue and a shattered concentration (Nicholas Carr blames the net). Reading happened in a strange zone — firewalled [...]
By W H Chong
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Posted in books
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Tagged Alasdair Gray, Cavafy, Christmas, Claire Roberts, David Shields, iPad, Kay Ryan, NOMA, Patti Smith, Rene Redzepi, Roberto Bolano, Walter M Miller Jr, William Gibson
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December 16, 2010 – 10:48 am
Rushing towards Christmas like a snowflake down a mile-high vacuum . . . no, how about, rushing towards Christmas like, ninety miles an hour down a dead end street, as Dylan phrased it. So many items, so little time. Have you shopped? I have a list, at least. Another list: outstanding Mulcher posts before the [...]
December 14, 2010 – 11:57 am
Thwack — the Mulcher has been ticked off by the feminist blog The Dawn Chorus. (Hello, Dawns.) The trouble magnet is once again J. Assange, this time prompted by the rape allegations against him. Ms. 45 wonders that “Crikey wonder[s] why they don’t have female readers.” The ubiquitous Mel Campbell is “pretty disappointed” I should [...]
December 14, 2010 – 9:53 am
They’re here . . . or at least this lone traveller. Constant Gardener was out checking the artichoke and came across this creature: The langosta de tierra, as the Spanish call them (lobster of the land) has something of the crustacean’s plate armour carapace. Unnerved by even one of these marauders, I’m relieved that the [...]
December 10, 2010 – 9:33 am
“I can use Visa and Mastercard to pay for porn and support anti-abortion fanatics, Prop 8 homophobic bigots, and the Ku Klux Klan. But I can’t use them or PayPal to support Wikileaks…” – Jeff Jarvis, academic, media guru and überblogger. That remark here. His column Wikileaks: Power shifts from secrecy to transparency, here. + [...]
December 9, 2010 – 3:51 pm
The story so far: It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from undercover, have won a victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star… Ah sorry, no, that’s the inappropriate prologue from Star Wars. The story [...]
December 9, 2010 – 11:40 am
The headline is from the Guardian‘s editorial, “WikiLeaks: The man who kicked the hornet’s nest.” Somewhere in Paris, Lisbeth Salander is hacking away, one Spartacus among many in the WikiLeaks movement.
