Love, Poetry and Revolution - Wednesday 22nd February 2023

Broken night's sleep and woke up with a headache. I think there are several big things on my mind.

I started the day with a round of exercise, before knuckling down to work.

First thing, E was both very gurgle-y and hot, so we kept an eye on her in the day. It was nothing too alarming, but she does like to keep me on alert! 

As yesterday, I walked at lunchtime, this time for over 20 minutes, mainly because I won't get a second chance owing to this evening's 'UFA 2023'.

Although E has remained hot and red-cheeked throughout the day, she seems to be stable, so the alert level remains high but there are no clear signs of deterioration.

Work's now over and I need to get organised for 'Ulysses For All' at six. 

Tonight's session on 'Proteus' is over. Two hours flew by, despite some very heavy discussions on Aristotle and Joyce. 'Proteus' is one of the most difficult chapters and is often the point at which readers who don't finish the book give up. (Enrico Torrinoni had a great idea that he uses with his students - start with episode 4, 'Calypso', since it is the 'second beginning' of the novel.)  Fran O'Rourke, who is both a professor of Philosophy and also an expert on Joyce and Philosophy (he has two PhDs, which seems a tad greedy), gave a talk on the way Joyce made use of Aristotle's ideas which helped to open the chapter up further. 

One of the course members raised an interesting question about why Joyce wrote this chapter as he did, asking 'why did he make it so difficult to understand?' I am pondering that question and an answer is formulating in my mind. It will be in the form of a mini-essay, when it emerges. Foolishly, I plan to share that with the group. Might even write some of it here. (Why oh why do I have to work? To pay the bills you bloody idiot! Oh, to be an Idler, fully)

Son #1 put the dinner on (later than planned) and we had a deep chat in the kitchen about some serious matters.  Over dinner we watched the first episode of 'North Sea Connection', which was very good.

More chat with son #1 then a long chat with Q, before I got ready for bed and sleep. ('Of all the bars in the world, you had to pick this one')

Jenny Hval / 'High Alice' / 'The Practice Of Love'



[[]]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

New Song

Image
I have a confused relationship with the music of Warpaint.  Art its best their music has an unfocused quality with a submerged bass sound, heavily rhythmic married to unusual vocal harmonies. I love this dreamlike style, but it's one which, for me at least, they haven't quite managed to fully realise on album. I was originally drawn to them by the song 'Undertow' from their debut album 'The Fool' which encapsulates that underplayed woozy style. The follow-up album simply titled 'Warpaint' further emphasised that dream-like quality to their writing and playing. In spite of this the second album didn't quite deliver what it promised for me, though I do find the superimposed images of the cover especially good :-) 'Warpaint' also resulted in the release of a video coupling two of its tracks, namely 'Disco//Very' and 'Keep It Healthy', which includes some rather hypnotic dancing by Jenny Lee Lindberg!
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Tuesday 8th June 2021

Image
Back to work and the first day of a course spread over the next six weeks. Other than that, the same old same old. At some point in the day I published my review of 'The Alchemist' on my good reads page, further stoking the fires of controversy. Apart from the training course I also attended an hour long session titled 'The Art of Being Brilliant', the first in a series of talks about making the most of yourself / your life.  The speaker was Jonathan Peach who had some very interesting and enjoyable things to say, though most notably for me right now and as he pointed out, you do need to be starting from a good state of mental health.  It was thought-provoking and fun, but I think I need to get the Talking Therapies stuff under way / over, before I can really take advantage of it. During the evening I got a message from a friend I've not spoken to for a few months.  Last time I heard from her she was in the Maldives with her new  fiancé. She is planning a visit over
Read more

World Shut Your Mouth

Image
A lot of people seem to go to gigs to hear the headline act, but nothing more (not to mention those who don't seem to go to hear the music at all?)  I'm  always keen to hear the support, especially if I've never heard of them as you never know what you'll find. And so I found myself at the front of the stage in SUB89 waiting for Tom Hickox to take to the stage. Never heard of him or heard anything by him, so looking forward to hear what he does. As the hour of 8pm arrived, he took to the stage and seated himself behind a large electric piano, joined by Sam Grimley on various guitars. From his opening number, I was struck by his voice - he really has presence on stage. For the first song or two I just thought, 'yeah, he sounds OK, but...', and wasn't really drawn in. A couple of songs had great stories behind them, and his spoken intros to 'The Lisbon Maru' and 'The Dubbing Artist' were intriguing.  The song that really land
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Saturday 25th February 2023

Image
The plan for today is to head to Liverpool, but my day began at around 4 am when son #2 came into my room to use the ensuite, before leaving for the airport at around 4:30.  I'd asked him to say goodbye before her left and then I tried to return to sleep, not very successfully. I'm off to the shops now to pick up some bread for son #1 and some lunch for my journey north. Home now to get the packing done with the goal of setting off around lunchtime.  There is no point in me getting there before 3 as it's an open day at the university which means the place will be swamped with potential students and their families, and, more to the point, their cars and thus difficulty finding somewhere to park. I have arrived in Liverpool and found a parking spot close by. Q's home and popped out to help me move the kitchen sink and library in. We had a relaxing afternoon, talking and watching some TV, and before long it was time for dinner, a delicious orzo-based dish made by her daugh
Read more

Tales From The Crypt - Thursday 3rd March 2022

Image
Up with the larks for the cleaner and early arrival of the (substitute) carer. Went for a walk to clear the cobwebs away (seemed to manage to walk through several) and chat en-route. Work dominates the day... ...until the evening and the return of the Idler drinks after a skipped week. Tonight's guest is zoologist Lucy Cooke, talking about her new book 'Bitch', which is about how the dominant evolutionary theory of sexual selection ignored the evidence that showed that females rather than males dominate the selection process.  An enlightening conversation covering bonobos, barnacles, and much more, smattered with a range of genitalia and f*cking (the word, as opposed to the act, just to be clear).   The post-chat, chat was also excellent and resulted in me meeting someone who E and I worked with back in North Acton some 30+ years ago.  He is still in IT (there is no escape!), is a huge music fan and thanked me for introducing him to Sonic Youth all those years ago. Still sp
Read more