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Cover of Chronicles, Volume 1 Contrary to implications from the title, and also to the customary method of presenting biography, Bob Dylan’s book Chronicles: Volume 1 is not a traditional “Born on a mountaintop in …” chronologically-told tale. We learn bits of the back story throughout the book, enough to be satisfied that Dylan, famous for . . . → Read More: Chronicles: Volume 1 — Bob Dylan As of July 25, 2011, I have migrated over 130 articles from my Neologistics blog, where since August 2005 I have posted many unsorted articles, including items unrelated to editing, writing, or literature. The articles copied from the old site have all been labeled with the category LEGACY. It has been a longstanding shortcoming of Google’s otherwise . . . → Read More: About Legacy Posts  Comments are closed  Arts, Baseball, Editing, Film, Humor, Language, Legacy, Literature, Music, Opinions, Quotes and Quips, Re: Views, Running, Sports, Squibblings, Stories, Technology, Thoughts, Usage, Writing Image by Getty Images via @daylife Recently I read a news story that referred to Osama Bin Laden as the “former leader of al-Qaeda”. Former? Ha! Perhaps so in the same way that Hitler is a former Nazi, or Ted Bundy a former serial murderer, if we may refer to them at all in the present . . . → Read More: A Former al-Qaeda Leader? Cover of Washington: A Life Cover of A. Lincoln: A Biography Most reading for the purpose of taking in information is remedial — don’tcha think? After all, if you already know a subject, why read about it again? By the time a man gets to be my age, the scope of his sense of cultural literacy should . . . → Read More: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln: Remedial Reading Cover via Amazon Cover via Amazon In January 2011 I read Life by Keith Richards. In April I followed that with Eric Clapton’s earlier book: Clapton: The Autobiography. It was inevitable that readers who read both will see comparisons between these two icons of rock and roll. I doubt I’m the first to do so. I’ve never . . . → Read More: Keith Richards and Eric Clapton Autobiographies Comments are closed Arts, Music, Re: Views  CharlieWatts, Eric Clapton, KeithRichards, Mick Jagger, Rolling Stone On Saturday night we had the pleasure of attending a concert by the Fry Street String Quartet at the Southern Theater in downtown Columbus, which we had not yet visited in our three-plus years of living in Ohio. The Southern Theater, built originally in 1896, has a distinguished history of presenting theater productions featuring world-renowned performers. After . . . → Read More: Fry Street Quartet, Southern Theater Cover of Right Ho, Jeeves Among P.G. Wodehouse’s most popular novels is the 1934 work Right Ho, Jeeves!, featuring recurring luminaries, the young English gentleman Bertie Wooster and his ingenious and far-cleverer-than-his-boss valet Reginald Jeeves (whose first name is not given in this novel). One measure of this book’s popularity may be seen from the page of . . . → Read More: Right Ho, Jeeves! Comments are closed Arts, Language, Literature, Re: Views Bertie Wooster, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Jeeves, p g wodehouse, Right Ho Jeeves Cover of Paris / London: Testament Music reviews are typically descriptive, but because words never adequately describe music, I rarely review music recordings. Nonetheless, for Keith Jarrett’s 2008 album Paris / London: Testament I’ve made this exception. But first some background … People who know me are aware that I have long regarded Keith Jarrett to be my . . . → Read More: Keith Jarrett — Paris / London: Testament At any given time I have between one and seven books in my Recent Reading stack marked as current. These are books that I really am reading at present. At this writing there are six on the stack: Washington: A Life (Ron Chernow) The Associated Press Stylebook Comments are closed Language, Legacy, Opinions, Re: Views, Thoughts, Writing AP Stylebook, Elements of Typographic Style, John Grisham, Keith Richards, Ken Burns, Robert Bringhurst, Ron Chernow Cover via Amazon As a sometime composer and writer, I have always been fascinated by listening to creative people of all types discuss their work, especially how they go about doing it. Therefore, when I recently bumped up against the title The Creative Habit, a 2001 book by master choreographer Twyla Tharp, . . . → Read More: The Creative Habit — Twyla Tharp Comments are closed Arts, Legacy, Music, Re: Views The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, Twyla Tharp Placeholder for a review soon . . . → Read More: Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition Image via Wikipedia I’ve just finished reading a new book (2010) by David Lipsky, the title of this post. It’s about a five-day road trip author David Foster Wallace took in 1995 at the behest of Wallace’s publisher Little, Brown to promote his then new novel Infinite Jest, with Lipsky in tow, on assignment from Rolling Stone . . . → Read More: Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself Comments are closed Arts, Language, Literature, Re: Views, Squibblings, Thoughts David Lipsky, davidfosterwallace, infinitejest, Publishing, Writing Never read it. . . . → Read More: Moby Dick Comments are closed Literature, Quotes and Quips, Re: Views, Squibblings, Thoughts Literature, Moby-Dick Image via Wikipedia In answer to some people who stodgily protested certain Americanisms that had crept into the writing of Jefferson’s founding requirements regarding the University of Virginia, he defended himself by asserting that as new discoveries are made, new words must be invented to name them. Continuing along that line, he said: And give the word neologism . . . → Read More: Jefferson the Neologist Comments are closed Language, Quotes and Quips, Re: Views, Squibblings, Thoughts, Usage Neologism, Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia Cover via Amazon We were present at the Columbus Museum of Art on October 7, 2010, for the members only opening of the exhibit “The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis.” If you are unfamiliar with the world of comic book and cartoon art, you may not know who Robert Crumb is, known professionally as . . . → Read More: The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis — Columbus Museum of Art Image via Wikipedia Image via Wikipedia Have you ever noticed how some older people like to tell you their age? It seems I’ve reached that point in life where I’m anxious to tell people my age, sometimes looking for excuses to do so. It’s a pretty sorry state to be in — . . . → Read More: Can You Guess How Oold I Am? Cover via Amazon Last night we saw the recently restored version of Franz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece silent film Metropolis, the progenitor of almost every later science fiction action film. The venue was one of my favorite places in Columbus, the Wexner Center for the Arts on The Ohio State University campus, in the theater that holds . . . → Read More: Metropolis — 2010 Restoration Last night we watched Julie & Julia. Yes, we’re behind everyone else. All the movies we watch are borrowed from the library, so we have to wait until they are available. We haven’t rented a movie in nearly three years. The last time it was from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. . . . → Read More: Julie & Julia Comments are closed Arts, Film, Legacy, Re: Views Julia Child, Julie & Julia, Julie Powell, Meryl Streep Image via Wikipedia Last night we watched the movie Bright Star, about the (short) life of John Keats — or at least about the last part of it. It’s a good movie. The dialog is captivating, particularly the snippy repartee between Keats’s romantic interest Fanny Brawne and his friend Charles Brown. Fanny and . . . → Read More: Bright Star Last week I stumbled across a newly published book displayed on a book stand next to a terminal in the Bexley library: Why Boys Fail, by education reporter Richard Whitmire. Intrigued, I snatched it up and read it in two days. The book’s main thesis is: The world is becoming more verbal. That’s a direct . . . → Read More: Why Boys Fail — Richard Whitmire Cover of Crown of Horns (Bone, Vol. 9) Cover of Crown of Horns (Bone, Vol. 9) Exactly one year ago today Suzy and I attended the world premiere of a documentary about comic book artist Jeff Smith, who is from Columbus area, and a graduate of The Ohio Statue University. Smith is famous in . . . → Read More: Bone — Jeff Smith Comments are closed Arts, Language, Legacy, Re: Views, Writing Bone, Columbus Metropolitan Library, JeffSmith, Out from Boneville Cover of House This morning I finished reading House, by literary non-fiction author Tracy Kidder, still most famous for his Pulitzer Prize winning book “The Soul of a New Machine,” written a couple of years before “House”. The book was published in 1985. I bought it around the time it was on the shelves in . . . → Read More: House — Tracy Kidder Cover via Amazon Albert Einstein is such an iconic personage that Time magazine named him Person of the Century in 2000. Despite this, few people can explain what it was this singularly independent, rumpled man did to earn the world’s approbation. Countless biographies have been written about Albert Einstein. From among them I chose to read . . . → Read More: Subtle Is the Lord — A Reflection Image via Wikipedia One day in 1972, while browsing in a book store in Manhattan, I stumbled across a 246-page, cartoon filled self-help pocket book with the eyebrow-raising title How to Develop Your Thinking Ability—A guide to sound decisions by Kenneth S. Keyes, Jr., which I purchased on impulse for a whopping $2.45. Given . . . → Read More: Self Improvement Image via Wikipedia Some diet plans, notably Weighwatchers, depend on logging everything that is eaten, playing on the theory that if you have to log it, you may eat less. One reason some people fail miserably in all attempts to control weight is because they become obsessed with food, and in the process . . . → Read More: Failed Diets Cover of Barbra Streisand When Suzy and I have told people we went to hear Barbra Streisand in concert Thursday night (November 16th) the almost universal reaction has been a discreet, “Well, Barbra Streisand is not my cup of tea, but I’m glad you had fun.” Internally their reaction is roughly the same . . . → Read More: Streisand Does Phoenix Image via Wikipedia Saturday night we attended a Ballet Arizona performance that was billed as part of a George Balanchine festival. While the music, the dancing, and the choreography were all exquisite, the experience was not without eyebrow-raising issues. We bought tickets six months ago, when I learned that the program would be . . . → Read More: Balanchine Festival, Ballet Arizona Comments are closed Arts, Legacy, Music, Re: Views, Stories Ballet Arizona, George Balanchine, Igor Stravinsky Image via Wikipedia Last night was the first time in 62 years of musical life that I ever attended a live production of a Wagner opera. At that rate I’ll be 124 before I see my next one. I can wait. The event du jour was The Flying Dutchman, one of Wagner’s earliest works. The . . . → Read More: Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman — Arizona Opera Cover of Georg Friedrich Händel On January 30th Suzy and I attended the Arizona Opera Company’s performance of Semele by Handel. Some musicologists classify it as a “secular oratorio” rather than an opera, but all presentations of it I’ve found listed by Google have been completely staged — by opera companies — so it . . . → Read More: Handel’s Semele — Arizona Opera Company Image via Wikipedia Friday night Suzy and I attended an all contemporary chamber music concert. (Contemporary if you count Ysaÿe.) It’s been a long time since I did that. The venue was a huge space in downtown Phoenix called The Ice House, which is exactly what it was built to be in 1910. . . . → Read More: Downtown Chamber Players Concert Review Image via Wikipedia Some time ago I learned that Billy Joel has been busy composing “classical music.” What this term means to composers of popular music is generally something quite different from what it means to modern, mainstream, “serious” composers. To most pop composers it means putting on a suit and a . . . → Read More: Where’s the Beef? Comments are closed Arts, Legacy, Music, Re: Views Billy Joel, Frank Zappa, Paul McCartney, Randy Newman Image via Wikipedia There was a high school physics teacher who subscribed to a mail list I once belonged to. Everyone disliked him because he was an idiot and most of what he said was both ignorant and offensive. He was nearly illiterate — a scary fact given that he was a teacher of . . . → Read More: English As a Second Language for Native-Borns Last year I read an article that began: The double Olympic champion didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after spotting Emma Fitch’s mis-spelt work of art [a tatoo] during a walkabout in Kent. I’ve seen tatoos justified as “art” before. ART?? Puhleeeze! Perhaps persons moved to become collectors of such AHHHRRRT ought to . . . → Read More: Tatoos As Art? Image via Wikipedia Some people have things to say and some people have to say things. |
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Copyright © 2012 Lynn David Newton - All Rights Reserved |
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