Catching-Up with Quinn #4
Read Quinn���s post here.
Listen to our first podcast in a series we call The Laboratory.
Reading
The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden
About three years ago, I decided to read the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. I finished them and read the Pirkei Avot, Sefer Yetzirah and the official Apocrypha. I suppose this book represents the ���unofficial��� Apocrypha. After this I���ll read the Gnostic Gospels. Then the Koran and then major Hindu and Buddhist texts. Just getting started, so I don���t have much to say about it.
Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Three: Moore/Bissette/Totleben
Moore���s run on Swamp Thing is highly-celebrated and rightly so. Book Three introduces John Constantine of Hellblazer fame. A great sci-fi/horror comic with Moore���s bits of occult mysticism.
Finn: Jon Clinch
This is a book about Pap Finn, Huckleberry���s dad. It���s a great idea, but I am bogging down about 80 pages in. I���m reading this with a book club. I���ll be interested to see what they think. I like the prose style, very descriptive and poetic. It echoes but doesn���t ape Twain.
Collected Poems: Theodore Roethke
What I���ve enjoyed about this collection is getting to read the range of Roethke���s work. I���ve read the anthologized poems for years, but I was unaware of his poems that operate like surrealistic folklore. I was also talking to a friend of mine about how brilliantly Roethke writes of the textures and smells of soil.
Watching
The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011)
An intriguing history of world cinema in 15 episodes.
Louie: Season Four
Is it the addition of Steven Wright that���s made this season so great? I���ve liked the show since the beginning, but the writing and acting on season four made some of the best episodic TV I���ve seen in a while.
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Montgomery Clift plays a young guy who starts working for a rich uncle hoping some of that fulfilled ���American Dream��� will rub off on him. He gets caught in a love triangle with Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor and the movie takes a surprisingly dark turn. This is one of several ���50s films that I���ve seen recently that has made me want to research this era of film.
I made a lazy Sunday of new episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen on Netflix.
Listening
Several times I���ve written about a lack of time to listen to music. Lately, with lots of housework, grading, and child-watching time, I���ve been exhausted and have had some listening time.
Alvin Lucier: I am sitting in a room
I���ve been obsessed with this piece for a few weeks. It���s simple and amazing, but not for everyone. Click this link for the description and here for a recording.
Alvin Curran
Curran���s music moves from found sounds to something like Aphex Twin���s ambient works to Philip Glass to Naked City. I���ve particularly liked some of the piano pieces including For Cornelius and the Inner Cities series.
Gary Lucas: Cinefantastique
Great film music performed by a great guitarist. Lucas is known for his work with Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley. I love his take on the Psycho theme.
Writing
Grading is in the front seat currently. I���m processing and dabbling with my piece(s) for the next Laboratory episode. I���ve got a variety of wordage to do for the next three or four collaborations I���m doing with Derek Ballard. They are all in various states of completion. In the first Laboratory episode I give more detail about some of it.
