June 2023
-
All intellectuals take the strengths of their societies for granted, or do not even notice them: problems, by contrast, loom large in their imagination–that is why intellectuals are often destructive forces. –Anthony Daniels, in The New Criterion An advantage–though that's perhaps not the right word–of having a melancholy and pessimistic cast of mind is that one…
-
Adele's Fungal Infection Has People Talking About Jock Itch Which people, we wonder? What percentage of the population were aware of this significant news? Of those, what percentage are talking about it? Never mind, I don't really want to know. And FYI I saw the headline on the Brave browser's news feed, which gathers stories…
-
Dead Can Dance is a two-person group comprised of Lisa Gerrard (of the amazing voice) and Brendan Perry. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Gerrard's solo album The Mirror Pool led me to this one. Or, I should say, back to it, because although I have it I had not listened to it…
-
Some years back there was, in the comments here, an exchange about the tendency of political and other opinions to harden in older people. If I remember correctly, one person suggested that this was essentially a sort of ossification, with certain opinions becoming so much a mental habit as to become an unchangeable part of…
-
If you weren't there, it may be difficult for you to grasp the effect that "The Girl From Ipanema" had on a young man of the mid-'60s. You needed only her voice to convince you that she was the girl from Ipanema, and to strike in you the deep chord of longing which the song describes…
-
Listening to Mary Fahl made me think of this artist, another of those who helped make the name of the 4AD label revered for many years. Lisa Gerrard was one half of the duo Dead Can Dance who released a number of albums on that label in the '80s and into the mid-'90s. I'm familiar…
Light On Dark Water 