album review: niagara and the hitmen – st. valentine’s day massacre

Up now over at RHUM.

Currently reading: Cat’s Cradle

Just finished it actually. A dark, interesting little book. I liked it more than Slaughterhouse Five.

I am curious about Vonnegut’s view of religion having read it – some quick research (and much of his novels) suggests he was an…

flat(iron)

Any serious travel is looking like it’s some time away at the moment – I’m thinking of New York (and looking through old photos) and wishing I was over…

new smashing pumpkins

Fair to say I’m not hating it so far… 43 more free tracks to come, allegedly.

melbourne

Studying in Melbourne this week.

exposure to absurdity may improve the mind

I found this article interesting – new research suggests that exposure to the absurd or irrational may provoke higher levels of thinking – for example, pattern recognition – in humans.  The theory appears to be that when confronted…

yellow

Near Kapunda, South Australia.

currently reading: the slap

Along with the wonderful V, I am reading The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas.  So far, I am hard pressed to think of a novel I have enjoyed less.

The novel apparently examines “identities and personal…

currently reading: V

I am thoroughly enjoying V by Thomas Pynchon so far.

The novel is roughly divided between the listless drifting of post WWII New York City, the byzantine European intrigues of pre-WWI Florence and…

botanic gardens

album review – ramblin’ jack elliott – a stranger here

I’ve just posted a short review of A Stranger Here by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott over at Rhum: link.

crappy taxidermy

This site is just… wow.  Like a clown dying, both creepy and hilarious.

(thanks to Erin)

currently reading: on the road

Shamefully, I have never read this before.

Needless to say, it’s a fascinating insight into a strange American era.  The book is filled with tension between the sudden possibilities of life in the postwar United States – the trajectory hinted…

Arizona/Nevada Border

We were stuck in traffic going through the Hoover Dam for nearly two hours – the Nevada police were operating some sort of mysterious checkpoint on the way into the state which slowed traffic to…

currently reading: the road

I have never read any Cormac McCarthy before.  This is grim, raw, intermittently violent, and relentlessly dark.  The style, which grated slightly at first due to its wilful simplicity (no ‘distracting’ punctuation and the like and very Hemingwayish) has…