Tulsa Drone – “Risk Guitar”
Songs From A Mean Season
On their follow-up to the eerie No Wake, Tulsa Drone have greatly reinforced their sound, producing a heavier post-rock feel akin to This Will Destroy You or Saxon Shore, though it rolls more than it grows. There are also vocals, a mixed bag but not problematic. The hammered dulcimer is ever-present, but is no longer the lead instrument — a loss, if you ask me, since that truly set apart the sound, though the richer tone does have its merits. (insound)
The Luminaries (Eleanor Catton, 2013)
Upon its release, The Luminaries was the subject of praise so effusive and hyperbolic that I wondered at first whether it would be the kind of book so impenetrable, conceptual, or self-serious that only a critic could recommend it. That is not, thankfully, the case, but I think that in their rush to congratulate an incredibly talented young author on a serious literary accomplishment, these critics decided to kindly play down the book’s weaknesses while expanding upon its (considerable) strengths. Ultimately the contrivance that lends the book such grandeur causes the narrative to implode – but it sure looks good doing it.
Traditional honey-hunting by Gurung tribesman in Nepal (photo: Andrew Newey)
Johannes Janson – A Formal Garden (1766)
Vocabulary: Hadrian’s Hoard Edition
mandrel: the bar or cylinder on which a spinning tool or workpiece (e.g. a millstone) is mounted
gabion: wicker baskets or steel drums filled with rocks and used in fortification or construction
palingenesis: rebirth or baptism; in biology, embryonic forms revisiting evolutionary history
maquis: a scrubby Mediterranean plant; also, a French resistance group in World War II
ergastulum: a subterranean prison or dungeon in which dangerous slaves were kept
fytte: archaic spelling of fit, in this case meaning a section of a poem or ballad
prorogue: to defer or postpone, especially in legislative bodies
encaustic: art formed or fixed by a burning or heating process
swivet: a state of nervous excitement, confusion, or anxiety
haruspex: one who divines the future by observing entrails
brontoscopy: divination through the sound of thunder
febrifuge: a drug or drink for reducing fever
dubitation: archaic term for doubt
ferine: alternative spelling of feral
kyst: a chest or container
Opening shot of “Zatoichi’s Flashing Sword” (1964)