This will hurt me...

Even dead trees carry life. The Hastings Caves State Reserve, Southern Tasmania. April 2012. Three quite different books finished this week, an eclectic mix very much more accident than design on my behalf. The first is the latest from one of my favourite contemporary writers, This Is Life by Dan Rhodes. A complicated and convoluted novel that interweaves the story of a young art student, a (seemingly) abandoned baby, a women so beautiful that all of her ex-boyfriends (and their mothers) tend to kill themselves or stalk her, the upstanding proprietor of Paris’ last genuine cinéma érotique (who has a particular fondness for sophisticated ‘girl-on-girl’ films and a lesbian daughter), a pair of Japanese tourists and their hapless translator, the world’s most acerbic art critic and perhaps the novel's finest creation, the mysterious performance artist Le Machine whose global smash-hit production Life has returned to his home town of Paris. Rhodes's novels have always ten...

Henry checks out the moss. Hastings Caves State Reserve. The Huon Valley. April 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

It's raining again. Princes Street, Sandy Bay. October 2011. Yes, we know that that Internet is a wonderful place filled with all the rich and varied treasures that the world holds (as well a videos of fellows and horses in uncomfortable poses). The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last few week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning ... The ever-reliable Ben Goldacre explains why so much of what is reported in the mainstream media on "science" is rubbish ... A website full of pictures of women looking dissatisfied in bed ... A listening party from NPR with three members of Wilco to discuss their (magnificent) new album... A fantastic article on my favourite vegetable from the Smithsonian magazine, How the Potato Changed the World ... Four charts that explain what Wall Street protesters are angry about ... A great interview from The Guardian with Jarvis Cocker about the state of music today. I agree with his comment,...

HA! Hastings Caves State Reserve. The Huon Valley. June 2011. Sunday ALREADY? Bloomin flip, someone has shortened the weekends again... A top five. Oh dear. Today I offer my Top Five Political Philosophers That I Can't Help Drawing Upon In My Everyday Business And Confusing People Because Their Relevance (Although Pertinent) Is Not Always Clear To Those Unfamiliar With Their Work ! Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels : at least people have heard of them, although that often does not help. While I am not a Marxist, their critique of the nature of things (especially work) is often both a succour and a curse. J.S. Mill : usual in a fight, a little bit of Mill goes a long long way... Michel Foucault : everything you wanted to know about power, Michel is your man. G.W.F. Hegel : the granddaddy of many, he can be the hardest to explain to the neutral audience. Thomas Hobbes : life in a state of nature. Enough said.

Trees. The Hastings Caves State Reserve. The Huon Valley. June 2011. I feel a little cruel to this week’s first book, Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck. Eking out snippets and snatches of reading at a time does not really do justice to a novel that seeks to engage with the epic trajectory of Germany’s troubling twentieth-century The central ‘character’ of this novel is actually a place. A majestic house and its grounds by a lake in Brandenburg (once upon a time best buddy of Prussia, and then for a spell part of the German Democratic Republic) is witness to a succession of occupants that displace each other through the political turmoil of the twentieth century. Like Erpenbeck’s other work, nothing is ever straightforward. The story does not progress through momentous occasions, and there are no grand scenes that progress the action. Indeed, we experience change only in shades, shadows or echoes. As such, it is probably not the best book to be reading in scraps of time. I think that it wo...

Life goes on. Tahune AirWalk. September 2010. Sunday Top Five! An interesting one today that I've extrapolated upon: My Top Five Tracks By Aussie Rock Legends Cold Chisel ! First, some context... I’ll admit that for a very long time Cold Chisel have existed on the periphery of my consciousness. Being from Burnie, Tasmania, you can’t help but recognise all the hits. Undeniably, I’d always quietly liked the tracks, but found the boozing image and yob fan base a little alienating. Thus, I kept my distance and stuck to more exotic (if you can call Gram Parsons and the whole West Coast Country Rock experience ‘exotic’) sounds. Thus, my real discovery of the Chisel is something of a surprise. Originating in Adelaide, Australia, they one of the most acclaimed Australian rock bands of all time, with a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s and huge domestic sales, although for some reason they never could crack that overseas market in the way that contemporaries like Midnight Oil or...