Brownstudy's Blog

Temptatious articles to read

This is why the potential is always there for me to get nothing done. Here are some of the top links that caught my eye from today’s Arts & Letters Daily and Marginal Revolution sites. I could have spent a happy hour reading all of them, but I decided to confine them to my Readability queue instead. I may actually get around to reading these items in the next few months. We’ll see if they’re as interesting to me then as they are today.

Literary self-publishing. An indie band that releases its own CD or album gets street cred. Not so for those who publish outside the mainstream press.
New books on fairy tales. What makes these archetypes so durable? Why do books on a theme come in threes?
“The fantastic pervades the world’s literatures of every time and place; our much vaunted realism is the sport, the mutant.” Gore Vidal often derided the grey American naturalistic prose style of the ’50s (his early novels were written in that style).
Simon Schama on the writers who inspired him.
Gladwell on Jerry Sandusky and how child molesters get away with it.

Sad necessities and the comfort zone

For many years, I’ve taken shameful (or shameless) advantage of Top Shelf’s annual $3 web sale of comics and graphic novels from their catalog. Not everything is $3, of course — but a large number of selected items from their catalog are remarkably discounted, with some inventory they’ve never been able to shift cut down to $1.

I scanned the list yesterday and started filling out my mental list of stuff I wanted: Eddie Campbell’s omnibus volume of the Alec stories and a Jeffrey Brown collection, and a few others.

But I caught myself. I didn’t feel that little thrizzle I used to feel when anticipating the comics I wanted to buy. Sad to say, I felt a little hollow in there. I also felt a little sad knowing I didn’t really need any of them. Continue reading “Sad necessities and the comfort zone”

Map of Rain Hitting Water by Mara Gibson

Treat your ears right. Listen to this hypnotic piece from composer Mara Gibson.

Mara Gibson: Map of Rain Hitting Water

In the late ’90s, I decided I wanted to take piano lessons. By chance, a flyer at the Regulator Bookshop let me know about Mara Gibson, a Duke PhD student in composing, who taught piano on the side. I worked with her, I think, for about 2 years before she left Durham to finish her PhD. Continue reading “Mara Gibson: Map of Rain Hitting Water”

[O Fortune, changing and unstable, your tribunal and judges are also unstable.
You prepare huge gifts for him who you would tickle with favors as he arrives at the top of your wheel.
But your gifts are unsure, and finally everything is reversed:
you raise up a poor man from his filth and the insufferable bullshitter then becomes a consul.]”

(via Chamber Music Today: medieval)

Source: chambermusictoday.blogspot.com

Progress Report: Content and Themes

Without the topic of school to provide a throughline or readymade theme for the blog – which was the reason for its birth, after all – the content of my posts has scattered itself across self-help, tech, and cultural themes, though there has been silliness too. Mustn’t forget silliness. Continue reading “Progress Report: Content and Themes”

Progress Report: Routines

I started out writing my blog posts every morning for about 15-30 minutes, but now I may write throughout the day or write three on a Sunday night or tinker with a post or posts throughout the week. Continue reading “Progress Report: Routines”