Category: Uncategorized
David Bromwich essay in the LRB on free speech
There’s a fascinating and – to use an overused phrase – thought-provoking piece in the LRB by David Bromwich about free speech. The early sections deal with the Rushdie affair…
Via YouTube, here is a video of Neil Postman on the surrender of culture to technology from 1997
Yes, I can appreciate the irony of sharing this YouTube video on WordPress.
Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death 31 years on
I read quite a lot of Neil Postman about a decade ago. Always a readable and provocative voice, I must admit I take him rather less seriously since reading more…
The Importance of Dead Wood
“Dead wood” – a phrase that has entered common discourse to signify something that needs to be cleared away to enable growth and development. Whereas in reality deadwood is a…
Fred Neil. The Dolphins, and the dolphins
Lately I’ve been listening to a good bit of Fred Neil. Neil gave Bob Dylan his first gig (he managed the daytime schedule at the folk club Cafe Wha?) and…
Crow Songs: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Lou Reed, Rossini
Blogging about rain songs, I was faced with an embarrassment of riches, and left out many worthy numbers. For no particular reason except I like them, I decided to blog this…
Bird feeding notes, end of August
In recent weeks bird activity around feeders has definitively picked up. Like the return to school, this is a harbinger of autumn and behind that, winter. Certainly feeding birds in a deliberate,…
Séamus Sweeney 