Tag: Reading

  • Roughly 1000 words about Power Electronics and Fernanda Melchor

    Let’s talk about Power Electronics. It’s a genre of music largely credited to the band “Whitehouse” (which is really more or less just one person, but for the record, I am a fan of those sorts of shenanigans). Whitehouse’s output basically consists of high pitched synth noises, very loud kick drum noises, and shouting. On…

  • The Death of ‘Sironia, Texas’ and notes about this year’s reading.

    So, “Sironia, Texas” didn’t happen. I got through 100 pages or so, and it wasn’t all that good. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, at least from a blogging perspective. We could deconstruct the text, see what’s working, what isn’t, and why; analyzing what’s bad can sometimes illuminate what’s good. But “Sironia, Texas” also indulges…

  • “Pick up and Strum”/Three Short Reviews/What I am Reading

    I often have ideas while walking the dog in the morning, and by the time I get home, shower (because New Orleans in the summertime is like living on the surface of a very moist sun), eat breakfast, and then settle in for work, they’re gone. I like turning them over in my head while…

  • Just Over 500 Words About Dying

    Cormac McCarthy died today. He was old, and I can’t imagine it came as a surprise, except in the way death always is. At some point, all of us are going to end our time here, and if we’re lucky, we will be old when we do it. Coincidentally, I had read the first 15…

  • Dog is Life/”Hell Hound”/”Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance/More on Authenticity

    I I got a dog a few months ago, and she’s taken a bit of my focus and attention. She’s also brought with her a bit more of a regular structure to things. Dogs are strange, in that they are creatures of routine, but also creatures who very much seem to live in the moment.…

  • Authenticity/”Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”/Other ephemera

    I- Moaning, the ukulele, and podcasts The reason I haven’t written anything in a moment is because, well, I haven’t been inspired to. It’s a kind of failure: if you’re writing, you should write.  I play the ukulele, an instrument that gets a lot of crap for no particularly good reason. I’m an intermediate player,…

  • Firing the Engines.

    Ok, so, it’s been a minute. There are a few reasons for this: 1) I got a dog. She has taken up a fair bit of my time– walkies and training and just generally vibing are things that the dog life has given me. I read, and started work on an entry on “Hell Hound”…

  • “Between Two Fires”/What I am Reading/What I have Finished

    Regular readers of this blog will know of my fondness for the band Cannibal Corpse. And, to be honest, one of the things I like about them is a consistent product. When you buy the new Cannibal Corpse record, you’re going to hear Cannibal Corpse songs. The newer albums will have better production, and they…

  • We Return to the Wretched Sea, at Last (“Moby Dick”)

    Last time we visited the Wretched Sea, I went on a lengthy side-notion about the idea of Moby Dick as a kind of drone-art novel. I then put the book down and didn’t pick it up for several months: a trip to Thailand, Mardi Gras, and other things interfered, and so when I resumed, it…

  • Mardi Gras/ What I am Reading

    Mardi Gras puts to waste a lot of plans. The annual celebration starts in January, and just kind of… goes on until Fat Tuesday. During this time, I’m busy drinking and parading and dressing like Elvis, for reasons not particularly relevant to this blog. However, it also means I am *not* doing what this blog…