Blessed are the Russians, for they know what they write. A long over-due re-reading. Also on the list: The sacred & the profane is a book by Romania’s foremost export and intellectual capital earner. Mircea Eliade’s little book is a suitable appetizer to his Myth of the Eternal Return.

A mix of Americana funk, twisted pop, guitars, wit and spunk packed in a 90s sound served in the 80s. Who the hell are The Young Fresh Fellows?

Also, the least known of Teenage Fanclub’s releases, “Bandwagonesque” finds the band amid swirling guitars and floating voices. Halfway decent.

Released in 1997, “Time out of mind” has quickly attained the status of a Bob Dylan classic.

One of the negative phenomena associated with “globalization” is “World Music”, so-called. If there is one redeeming aspect of this lamentable and destructive process, however, it is the epiphany that Tinariwen brings.

Favourite cities and why

Berlin: on Giesebrechtstraße, just off Kurfürstendamm. The cafe, newsagent’s, pub and cinema. Bookshop (note: singular) and restaurants. All lovely. I recently discovered that the this little street had quite a historical significance. The Nazi Party’s whorehouse was located 2 doors away from where I lived.

London: Truth be told, I’ve never actually lived in London for a meaningfully long duration, but there is a certain warmth in its blanket of anonymity.

Oxford: off Iffley Fields. Hailstorms in late April, endlessly re-cycled bicycles, truth seekers galore.

Moscow: along Ulitsa Gubkina. Vodka, ice and snow, crime, corruption, love. Hundreds of men go missing during the winter, only to be uncovered by the snow’s thawing in the Spring, dead where they fell, lulled and warmed with drink.

Royal Leamington Spa: inside the pub. I jest: Leamington is and can only ever be considered a mere town. Physically flat and linear, socially segregated, culturally vacuous, uniformly green. Christ.

Sentosa: I will soon be able to experience what it means to live on an island off an island. Singapore is hardly a city worth its name, but perhaps Sentosa can redeem its sibling. Splendid.

I hope New York will shoot to the top of this list.

Some all-time favourite mod-cons:

Melatonin

Valet Parking

Flossing and baking soda toothpaste

Brushing my teeth in the shower

crispy Bacon

The “snooze” button on the alarm

Tangerine Altoids

Bare upper arms and shoulders

Straight lines - I realise this isn’t exactly a modern phenomenon but nonetheless, who can object to the gracefulness of two points enjoined in an eternal nexus of static yet serene rapture.

Some oft-listened to vinyl and discs:

… in completely random order, of course.

Led Zeppelin, “Physical Graffiti” (it was this or “Houses of the Holy”)

Big Star, “3rd/Sister Lovers” and “Radio City”

Jeff Buckley, “Grace”

Miles Davis, “Sketches of Spain” and “Miles Ahead” (a controversial choice)

Barbirolli’s take on Mahler’s 5th (uplifting)

Mahler’s 2nd (pardon me, but I prefer Solti’s)

Paul Westerberg, “Stereo” / “Mono”

Better second time around - covers vs. originals:

1. “Severed Lips”, originally written and performed by Dinosaur Jr., wonderfully covered by the Blake Babies.

2. “Bye-bye Pride”, originally written and covered by The Go-Betweens, and improved on by del Amitri.

3. “I shall be released”, written and performed by Bob Dylan, outclassed by Jeff Buckley, and incidentally by the Box Tops, too.

4. “Another Girl, Another planet”, originally written by Peter Perrett and performed by The Only Ones. Completely re-claimed by The Replacements.

5. The Mats vs The Crash Test Dummies over “Androgynous”. Tie.

6. Two Marvin Gaye tunes hi-jacked: “I heard it through the Grapevine” - The CCR version is superb! “Let’s get it on”, done with a lot of fun by Jack Black.

movies:

Let’s start with a definition. Movies are, always and everywhere, each representations of “a voyage of self-discovery”. Films, by contrast, are better viewed as works of art, having disposed the imperative to cultivate.

1. Se7en

2. Vanilla Sky.

3. 12 Monkeys

4. Memento

All the above play with and disrupt conventional narratives to create a new mode of presentation.

5. Good Will Hunting - read the script.

6. The Breakfast Club / St. Elmo’s Fire

A selection of favourite films:

Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001). Its not often that a director dabbles in theological motifs, but that is precisely what Spielberg does with this unconventional trilogy. The undertaking? To ruminate on the meaning of the individual, particular and Universal.

Most of Oliver Stone’s work

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s The Double Life of Veronique and Trois Couleurs trilogy.

Quentin Tarantino: just because he’s our contemporary (and happens to be quite good) is no reason to dislike him or his works.

Uncategorised items:

While subsuming the particular under its appropriate category can be a futile task, one is sufficiently “inspired” by High Fidelity - the movie of the book of the life? The male psyche revealed - to attempt a list. Worst thing is, guys like lists. Bruce recently saw the movie - and he said that the Rob character reminded him of me! Damm!

Things that make me relatively happy:

1. The company of friends, past and living.
2. A day tarrying with the negative and my muse to find me.
3. Awake at dawn with the sweetest of nothing in the air & her beside me.
4. A life with cigarettes; a day without. After close to eighteen years living with this damm craving, one is rather uncomfortable with the unbearable geekiness of being a non-smoker.
5. Matutinal reading on an autumnal day in Meyerinckplatz