Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Imbibling Bibliophile #99


  
Vertical by Rex Pickett
Buckwild Stainless-Aged Farmhouse Ale, Oxbow Brewing Co.
On the turntable:  Doobie Brothers:  Stampede 

Saturday, February 22, 2020

(untitled)



Forgotten warriors,
Failed to heed eternal lessons
Etched in stone.


On the turntable:  Cocteau Twins, "Four Calendar Cafe"

Thursday, February 20, 2020

The Wistful Bibliophilic Imbiber



Back in university, I quickly grew to love the works of Hemingway, for the clarity of his style, and the no nonsense nature of his derring-do.

But now rereading them 30 years later, especially his later novels, I like the nostalgic voice of middle-age, reflecting back with fresh perspective on those realized dreams of youth. 

Particularly with ‘A Movable Feast,’ reading it at 20 got me dreaming of the potentialities of a life in Paris, on being a young man there. But reading it again at 50, I dreamt of what I did instead.


On the turntable:  Lee Ritenour & Larry Carleton, "Larry & Lee"

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Sunday Papers: Don DeLillo


"To be a tourist is to escape accountability. Errors and failings don’t cling to you the way they do back home. You’re able to drift across continents and languages, suspending the operation of sound thought. Tourism is the march of stupidity. You’re expected to be stupid. The entire mechanism of the host country is geared to travelers acting stupidly. You walk around dazed, squinting into fold-out maps. You don’t know how to talk to people, how to get anywhere, what the money means, what time it is, what to eat or how to eat it. Being stupid is the pattern, the level and the norm. You can exist on this level for weeks and months without reprimand or dire consequence. Together with thousands, you are granted immunities and broad freedoms. You are an army of fools, wearing bright polyesters, riding camels, taking pictures of each other, haggard, dysenteric, thirsty. There is nothing to think about but the next shapeless event."   -- The Names


On the turntable: The Flying Burrito Brothers, "The Flying Burrito Brothers"

Friday, February 07, 2020

Imbibling Bibliophile #98



Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Red Rooster Tropic Ale, Palau Brewing Company
On the turntable:  Grateful Dead,  "Postcards of the Hanging" 
 

Sunday, February 02, 2020

Sunday Papers: Craig Mod


"Attention is a muscle. It must be exercised."

On the turntable: The Cure, "Three Imaginary Boys"

Saturday, February 01, 2020

The Bad, the Good, and the Bubbly



The final installment of the Deep Kyoto streets series...

http://www.deepkyoto.com/three-arcades-the-bad-the-good-and-the-bubbly/?fbclid=IwAR0UWQarOQNuYzHrJVoojz2OnApO0DdRMav1d03Bbi0bHrp3N94ZlfUsD-s


On the turntable:  Black Lips, "Let it Bloom"
On the nighttable:  "Singapore Noir" (Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, ed.)