Pulp BeowulfA link from C. Dale Young sent me to this article which is rather unflattering about a scheme to promote poetry in Seattle. What got me going, though, was this, from someone defending the scheme in the comments:
On comprehending poetry: you say “Poetry, by its very definition, is a difficult thing to write and to comprehend.” Certainly read more.. Ageispolis
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‘The Wooden Village’ by Peter PišťanekOr as the cover has it: The Wooden Village (Rivers of Babylon 2). That’s because it’s the sequel to Rivers of Babylon, which I read recently, and book two of a trilogy.
Rivers of Babylon, you may remember, follows a character called Rácz as he fights his way up from stoking the boilers of a big hotel in read more.. Links
Antonio Cassano, the rebel genius who wants to live fast and die fat - Times Online
“I spent the first 17 years of my life dirt-poor,” said Cassano, who was raised by a single mother in one of the most crime-ridden neighbourhoods in Italy and said he is certain that had it not been for football, read more.. ‘How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone’ by Saša StanišićHow the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone by Saša Stanišić is my book from Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Read The World challenge. I actually had a different writer in mind — Ivo Andrić, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961 — but when I saw this in the bookshop I switched. Mainly because most of read more.. Links
The lost art of ‘Beachobatics’ - The Sydney Morning Herald
A great slideshow of beach gymnastics photos from 1930s Sydney. Via Metafilter.
(del.icio.us tags: Sydney Australia gymnastics beach photos 1930s )
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‘Byzantium 330-1453’ at the Royal AcademyThe latest blockbuster exhibition at the RA is Byzantium 330-1453. It’s a big show, but then it does survey a millennium’s worth of art from a big empire.
It’s odd; I think most people who have even a general interest in history and culture have some knowledge, however sketchy or inaccurate, of classical Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, and read more.. Links
BibliOdyssey: Roots and Trunks
C17th cross-sections of plants
(del.icio.us tags: C17th plants microscopy )
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The ternness of terns
The girthiest tree at Kew?
The ancient sweet chestnuts of Greenwich Park
Africa Reading Challenge: finished!It just occurred to me that I’ve now read six books from or about Africa since I learnt about the Africa Reading Challenge. Links to the reviews:
An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
Told by Starlight in Chad by Joseph Brahim Seid
Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma
The Wah-Wah Diaries by Richard E. read more.. Links
Johann Hari: Charles as President? Not in my name - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent
'If his advocates didn't keep praising him as "a public intellectual" I wouldn't be rude enough to point it out, but Charles Windsor is a strikingly stupid man. Every time he has been put into a competitive situation where he read more.. ‘An African in Greenland’ by Tété-Michel KpomassieAn African in Greenland is an autobiographical book; as a teenager in Togo, Tété-Michel Kpomassie read a book about Greenland and decided to go there. It took him eight years, working a variety of jobs, to make his way up through West Africa and Europe before eventually arranging a trip to Greenland, where he stayed for about two read more.. Links
Magnum Blog / Surfing the archive: Competition Entries - the photo blog of Magnum Photos
Entries for a competition where people had to pick photos from the Magnum archives and pair them with a famous painting. One or two rather obvious choices but some very good ones too.
(del.icio.us tags: photography paintings )
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Wildlife Photographer of read more.. Charlie boy apparently wants to destroy the monarchyThe Times hints at the gory details:
The Prince of Wales, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Friday, has told confidants he would like his role to “evolve” so that his knowledge and experience are not wasted once he inherits the crown, Jonathan Dimbleby, his friend and biographer, reveals today.
Translation: he wants to have his cake read more.. Self-evidentI always thought the US Declaration of Independence had a lovely bit of intellectual sleight of hand. It’s phrased almost as an exercise in logical deduction (various bits bolded for emphasis):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are read more.. Kissing’s never out of fashion when the bloom is on the gorseSurprise sighting of the day in the local park: mistletoe. I mean it’s not that surprising — mistletoe is a native British plant and quite common in some parts of the country — but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it growing in London.
I’d like to think that the seeds were spread there by a mistle thrush which read more.. Links
Image:Giovanni Francesco Caroto 001.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
One of the Renaissance portraits currently at the National Gallery: Caroto’s portrait of a child holding a self-portrait.
(del.icio.us tags: Renaissance drawings portraits )
The Art of Onfim: Medieval Novgorod Through the Eyes of a Child | MetaFilter
‘Amazing collection of sketches and doodles, drawn on birch bark, created by a child in read more.. Links
Wine and Water
‘As I wait, a young gentleman receives his book from Special Collections. It comes in a little packet, and when he pulls it out, I can see that it is smaller than his thumbnail. The look on his face, somewhere between surprise and annoyance, is priceless. He tries, momentarily, to read it, but read more.. Renaissance Faces at the National GalleryRenaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian is an exhibition that does exactly what the title the suggests: it’s a selection of portraits by van Eyck, Titian, Raphael, Holbein, Botticelli, Dürer, Cranach and their contemporaries. Room after room of rather solemn looking people — no smiling for portraits back then — wearing their most expensive-looking velvets read more.. Links
BibliOdyssey: Exotic Moths
Old moth illustrations.
(del.icio.us tags: moths C19th )
Peregrine Falcon Acting Pretty Cocky Since Being Taken Off Endangered Species List | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source
"There was a time when many of us feared we would never see this majestic creature again, when we did everything in our power to ensure that this read more.. Links
7.11.38 « THE ORWELL DIARIES
‘In an old stone tank near the house found the decayed head of what may be a dog but I think is a jackal. There are said to be some in this country. In either case a very complete skull, so have put it up on a stick for the insects read more.. Lawks-a-mercyI really am going to stop posting about the US elections soon, but this was kind of priceless:
The best bit is Bill O’Reilly trying to stick up for her.
[later edit]
And while I’m posting YouTube videos, here’s a bit of The Day Today that seems curiously relevant:
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In which my irritation boileth over
Zombie Reagan speaks
You read more.. California says yes to Prop 8…I was sad to see that Prop 8 (the Californian ballot measure to rewrite the state constitution to ban gay marriage) was passed on Tuesday. I know it’s a big state and more diverse than its liberal image suggests, but you still kind of feel that if California isn’t ready to support gay marriage, it’ll be read more.. Cheap political point-scoringI suppose its hardly a surprise, but still… this bit of David Cameron at PMQs had me harumphing. To quote the BBC:
Gordon Brown and David Cameron have clashed in the Commons over the reasons for Barack Obama’s US election victory. The Conservative leader said the change offered by Mr Obama contrasted with Labour’s offer of “more read more.. Links
Teenager changes name to Captain Fantastic - Telegraph
via Coudal: 'A teenager has changed his name to Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined'. But he is from Glastonbury, which might explain it.
(del.icio.us tags: names Somerset )
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‘The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years’ by Chingiz AitmatovThis novel tells the story of Yedigei, a worker at a remote railway junction in the middle of the Kazakh steppes. There’s a refrain which is repeated at intervals throughout the book:
Trains in these parts went from East to West, and from West to East . . .
On either side of the railway lines lay read more.. A European ObamaThere’s an Associated Press article you can read all over the web including, for example, MSNBC, titled Europe has a long wait for its own Obama. I’m not going to comment generally on ‘Europe’, or even in detail on the UK, except to say that the most obvious difference is the relative recentness of large-scale non-white read more.. Flemish paintings at the Queen’s GalleryI went yesterday to see Bruegel to Rubens — Masters of Flemish Painting at the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. I wasn’t really sure what to expect; you have to love Bruegel, but I’ve always found Rubens easier to admire than to enjoy.
It turned out to be just the one Bruegel on show, with seven or read more.. Links
YouTube - weewoo the talking starling
more talking starling.
(del.icio.us tags: starling video )
YouTube - François Macré - Thriller (reprise a’cappella 64 pistes)
cool video via Metafilter. ‘Here is a remake of the “Thriller” song that I’ve entirely recorded with my own voice, using 64 A’cappella tracks. There is therefore no instrument, synthetizer, beatbox, or even to sampler, read more.. Links
BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | E-mail error ends up on road sign
A funny thing happens in Wales.
(del.icio.us tags: signs Wales language )
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Araf
My only comment on the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand fiascoNext time there’s a media shitstorm which forces the BBC into having a panicky purge of staff, can they please find a reason to retire John Humphrys? Pretty please?
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