Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Illuminations

I took along a nice little cache of CDs to KL on our recent visit intending to luxuriate in sweet sounds. Sadly, this was not to be. The main stereo system suddenly decided not to play CDs and I had no back-up. So I was reduced to groovy listening in the car only. Fortunately I now know how to play my iPod stuff through the car's system so was able to appreciate just how good Bill Frisell's Disframer is as driving music in addition to simply being great music.

Also it was my good fortune to have plenty to read including the December 21 holiday issue of The New York Review of Books, which was something of a bumper issue. I'm still only halfway through it, but the quotient of deeply rewarding articles is already extremely high. My two favourites so far were a fascinating article on Goethe, the one obviously great classic writer whom I seem to know next to nothing about, and a very moving piece by Pakhaj Mishra concerning the plight of the Dalit caste in India. Both articles illuminated some dark places.

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