Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Author rejects prize from 'anti-migrant' newspaper: "Not since 1972 when John Berger gave half his winnings from the Booker to the Black Panthers, and rubbished book prizes as glorified horse races, has literary London witnessed such a dramatic demonstration of writerly conscience."

Moon Lore

where's my jetpack??

excellent Riefenstahl takedown, from 1981 Sight & Sound (pdf)

happy birthday Bjork

and Hawk!

The Full Moon Atlas

The Steely Dan Dictionary

Candy Apple Pee: Mis-Heard Beach Boys Lyrics

City Lights: Vancouver's Neon Heritage

belated birthday greetings to William Cowper :

from "The Winter Morning Walk"

"The cattle mourn in corners where the fence
Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep
In unrecumbent sadness. There they wait
Their wonted fodder; not like hung'ring man,
Fretful if unsupply'd; but silent, meek,
And patient of the slow-pac'd swain's delay.
He from the stack carves out th' accustom'd load,
Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft,
His broad keen knife into the solid mass:
Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands,
With such undeviating and even force
He severs it away: no needless care,
Lest storms should overset the leaning pile
Deciduous, or its own unbalanc'd weight."

the sevenups when's this coming out on dvd??

Conrad Black's retinue of insiders, cronies, and clunkers: "Given this cast of characters, it should come as no surprise that over the years the stock of Hollinger International has failed to keep pace with the broad market indexes and many of its peer media companies. After all, putting a bunch of right-wingers with occasionally dubious foreign policy credentials in the position of directing a profit-making business seems almost as illogical as putting a bunch of right-wingers with occasionally dubious business credentials in charge of foreign policy"

Lichen Portrait Gallery

Shadwell vs. Dryden

Happy Birthday Billy Strayhorn!

Lush Life

I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come-what-may places
Where one relaxes
on the axis
of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life
From jazz and cocktails

The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
With distingue traces
That used to be there
You could see where they'd been washed away
By too many through the day
Twelve o'clock tales

Then you came along with your siren song
To tempt me to madness
I thought for awhile that your poignant smile
Was tinged with the sadness
Of a great love for me
Ah yes, I was wrong
Again, I was wrong

Life is lonely again
And only last year
Everything seemed so sure
Now life is awful again
A trough full of hearts could only be a bore

A week in Paris could ease the bite of it
All I care is to smile in spite of it

I'll forget you, I will
While yet you are still
Burning inside my brain
Romance is mush
Stifling those who strive
So I'll live a lush life in some small dive
And there I'll be, while I rot with the rest
Of those whose lives are lonely too

The Onion | I Have To Admit: I Love The Nuts: "I'm not a strong-willed squirrel. If you take a can of nuts and dump them in your backyard, you'd better believe I'm gonna eat those nuts. I won't be polite about it, either. I won't share them with the chipmunks or the birds. No, I will behave like a fool to secure those nuts. I'll shove as many nuts in my mouth as I can fit, and chew as fast as possible to make room for more nuts. If I have some leftover nuts, I'll bury them for later. And let me tell you: If I can't find my nuts, there's going to be some frantic chirping and running around, believe me. I don't care if passersby stop, point, and laugh at my actions. They can call me me all sorts of nut-loving names. I won't stop until I find those nuts."

Top Justice Aide Approved Sending Suspect to Syria : "Imad Moustafa, the charge d'affaires at the Syrian Embassy in Washington, has denied Arar was tortured. But he said Syria had no reason to imprison Arar. He said U.S. intelligence officials told their Syrian counterparts that Arar was an al Qaeda member. Syria agreed to take him as a favor and to win goodwill of the United States, he said. "

Silliman's Blog looks at a new book on Gertrude Stein

Spinoza and neuroscience

"My view is that the substance of feelings, the heart of feelings, is really a perception of what has changed in our organism, in our bodies during an emotion. Emotions are unlearned responses to certain classes of stimuli. We are equipped to have emotions, thanks to evolution. When we emote we alter the state of the organism in a rather profound manner - the internal milieu, the viscera, the musculature - and we behave in a particular way. The collection of these changes is the emotion, a rather public affair which helps us deal with a threat (think of fear) or with an opportunity (eat or drink or mate). Feelings are the perception of these changes together with the perception of the object or situation that gave rise to the emotion in the first place. In essence, this is James's idea, although Spinoza envisioned something similar. James was attacked for this proposal."