Adjust text size:
You Spoke from Midnight
From whiskey river: Moonrise And who has seen the moon, who has not seen Her rise from out the chamber of the deep, Flushed and grand and naked, as from the chamber Of finished bridegroom, seen her rise and throw Confession of delight upon the wave, Littering the waves with her own superscription Of bliss, [...]
When Media Collide (to Quite Amusing Effect)
(With apologies to site visitors who might be unfamiliar with one or the other work…) [via the reliable, insanely good taste of literary agent Janet Reid]
Behind the Scrim of the World
[See the note at the end of this post for info about the above song.] From whiskey river: Falling Long before daybreak none of the birds yet awake rain comes down with the sound of a huge wind rushing through the valley trees it comes down around us all at the same time and beyond [...]
Book Review: Spook, by Mary Roach
I’ve just posted my latest review for The Book Book; it covers non-fiction author Mary Roach’s Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. This was Roach’s second book. The first, Stiff, was about what happens to the human body after death. You can see that she’s attracted to odd, even icky topics; and you may guess from [...]
Using a Kindle: Some First Impressions
[This is one of what will no doubt become a series on my experiences in using a Kindle 2. It's not a drum I want to beat often -- don't want it to become one of those "I have X but you don't, haha!" gloatfests. But it might be useful for people on the fence [...]
Paying Attention to the Silence
This Paying Attention to… series on writing fiction concentrates, for the most part, on what to do when writing. More exactly, it covers things I need to remind myself to pay attention to — particularly as I’ve been working on Seems to Fit. In this post, I want to look at what to when not [...]
The Breathing of Summer Mountains, the Hissing of Summer Lawns
From whiskey river: It was almost dark on an early summer eve, and the forest was never more enchanting than now, at dusk. At dusk the mountain begins to withdraw its force back into itself and become quiescent. If you too can become quiescent, so still that you can’t think of your name, you can [...]
What’s in a Song: Simple Gifts (2)
[Above: portion of letter from Aaron Copland to Harold Spivacke, Chief of the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Original in the Library of Congress's Aaron Copland Collection.] [Below, click Play button to begin Appalachian Spring, the seventh section. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left -- a row of little vertical [...]
I’ll Take a Used Copy, Please
[Partial amazon.com screen capture, July 9, 2010] Funny thing is, for some books — not all of them “great” ones, either — I might actually hesitate before deciding to go the cheap route, even with a price spread as broad as this. (I’m talking about you, you thick-page, large-format “children’s” book on natural history whose [...]
Best Not to Wait
[Image above, "Don't Wait for Tomorrow" (original oil on board, 92cm x 122cm), by Nadeem Chughtai] From whiskey river: I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just [...]
