Happy 30th, Tetris
Illustrations by Sergey Yuhimov for a Russian edition of “Lord of the Rings”
Henry Hillinick – Matte for “Forbidden Planet” (1955)
When it came to such a pitch as this, she was not able to refrain from a start, or a heavy sigh, or even from walking about the room for a few seconds; and the only source whence any thing like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and leave her less to regret when it were gone.
Jane Austen, Emma (a magnificent sentence)
Birger Sandzen – In The Nevada Desert (1917)
Gustave Moreau – Hercules and the Hydra (1876)
El Ten Eleven – “Living On Credit Blues”
Every Direction Is North
The song’s structure is simple, and the notes and chords are nothing out of the ordinary, but the basic theme is so triumphant and fun-sounding that it’s hard not to listen to again and again. (bandcamp)
Almost everything that men have said best has been said in Greek. There are, I know, other languages, but they are petrified, or have yet to be born.
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian
Frederick Barnard – Bill Sikes (Oliver Twist)
A man who had been in motion since eight o’clock in the morning, and might now have been still — who had been long talking, and might have been silent — who had been in more than one crowd, and might have been alone! Such a man to quit the tranquility and independence of his own fireside, and on the evening of a cold sleety April day rush out again into the world!
Jane Austen, Emma
Kepler – “Elemental: Blood or Water”
Missionless Days
This slow-build masterstroke has been in regular rotation on my playlist for 12 years now, but I still manage to feel it’s a song for “special occasions,” not to be spoiled by repeated listening. Not that Kepler needed to prove they could do loud, but coming at the end of this incredibly restrained album, this song feels thunderous.
Andy Warhol’s 1985 “Amiga Experiments,” discovered this year
Original poster for Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” by Boris Bilinsky (more)
Manual – “Midnight Is Where The Day Begins”
Ascend
Confluence was an airy ambient album, very like Stars of the Lid in its ethereal swells. Ascend sounds like it’s sampling Confluence, but for a very different purpose (there are beats, for one thing). Its gentle glitches and washes of filtered instruments remind me of label mate Styrofoam, but it exudes the calmness and confidence of the band’s simpler, softer, and surprisingly, later albums. (insound)
Nailed to the beloved body like a slave to a cross, I have learned some secrets of life which are now dimmed in my memory by the operation of that same law which ordains that the convalescent, once cured, ceases to understand the mysterious truths laid bare by illness, and that the prisoner, set free, forgets his torture, or the conqueror, his triumph passed, forgets his glory.
Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian
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)