January 2005 Playlist   

Brand-new (more or less) releases, by not-so brand-new people. Nick Cave produces his best collection in years, The Cure make a fresh start, and Radiohead continue to impress with two strong new albums. A hopeful collection to start the new year – even though all these artists are usually taken to be gloomy.

November 2004 Playlist   

A new section in the fall of 2004. The playlist describes what’s been on the stereo this past month, and tells you why you should love these records, too. Usually they’ll be CDs, so you can rush out and buy them yourself.

An endless blue circle. In it a star.   

Yugoslavia has come to be associated with a particular kind of barbarism; but there was a time – not so very long ago – when it was associated with a particular kind of dream. Milos Crnjanski, in his novel Migrations, demonstrates how this is a dream we all share.

Dealing with the backlog,
and other worthy goals   

This essay grew from an an attempt I made to clear some space in one of the two metal baskets on my desk – the geological basket, where reading accumulates. It was an attempt to deal with a private backlog, which ended up revealing a worthy goal for everyone.

Learning from the Greeks   

Classical Greece continues to act as an emotional ancestor of our political system in the West. These two standard overviews of classical Greek culture still have much to say to us, and offer useful and stimulating interpretations of their subject.

News Sources   

Background information on what I read every week. There are far too many possible sources of news in the world today. This essay lists a few that I believe to be reliable and which I can recommend to other readers.

Borges and History   

History wants to be true about history; fiction wants to be true about humanity – imagining the inner life of people in the world. Four different perspectives on the old, big questions.

Date posted: 2005-01-22