Maybe three weeks ago, I was in Spain for the weekend, visiting my aunt in Girona (after promising so to do for the last nine years). The visit itself was lovely; it was rainy and cool, to be sure, but rainy and cool in Spain is immeasurably preferable to rainy and cool in Scotland, especially when the latter is packed with tourists. I read several ( Read more... )

Seems I haven't posted in a month. Sorry. I've been busy writing - and unwriting - a book. Suffice to say there's been no news worth knowing. But, as it is the first, the monthly list: ( Gosh, I've not been to the cinema in over two months )

( April lists: )

Let's be honest: the particulars of my research are not of, shall we say, universal interest. And so if I tell you that there's a new book that's redefining the field, you're probably not going to go out and spend $40/£24 on it. But hey, just in case, Ian Duncan's Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh is absolutely fascinating - not ( Read more... )

The children next to my office are having a yardsale, a few old toys and videos, and as much as I try to look serious and disinterested, they grab my sleeve and pull me over ( Read more... )

Too tired and incoherent for a post with content, so just the usual list from the past month ( this time featuring books of which you've heard )

The roadside markings have dissolved, through frost, into little more than yellow aggregate, sharp against the cobblestones. Snow falls in half-hearted flurries, sprinklings of sea-salt. Two old women, walking seven legs' of dogs, pause to light their cigarettes ( Read more... )

Since I continually bang on about my failings, some kind words from a peer review. As seems to perenially be the case these days, of three reviewers, one loved my work, one was ambivalent and one strongly disliked it, leading, of course, to a rejection. But from the positive ( Read more... )

(Part 1 and Part 2Stale and gaunt, he falls back against the barstool, telling us about his band, his films, and how the Polish bouncers never let him into clubs anymore. Simplicity, he says, the yin and yang: you can argue but never over-complicate. As he’s removed from the bar, he turns to me. I thought you were one of those. And he kisses my ( Read more... )

Acoustic
From Hank To Hendrix
Ambulance Blues
Sad Movies
A Man Needs A Maid
Try
Harvest
After The Gold Rush
Mellow My Mind
Love Art Blues
Don't Let It Bring You Down
Heart Of Gold
Old Man

Electric
Mr. Soul ( Read more... )