A PLACE FOR SIDEWAYS TRAINS OF THOUGHT
When I look at of the books in my library, the only thing I can remember in most cases is whether I have read them or not. Books in the second-largest category trigger one single anecdote or image and nothing else. One image which has been in my head for decades now comes from a book by Alberto... Continue Reading →
Whenever the stock markets slump, the news is always full of expressions like these ones I have collected: "Apple fails yet again, $123B vanishes." "Investors’ billions vanish as NSE returns worst performance in four years." "Bad Year for Japan Banks as $95 Billion of Value Vanishes." If money vanishes, then the opposite... Continue Reading →
My novel Vinylia, set in a not-too-distant future, is mostly about new breeds of humans, collectively known as Vinylics. The story starts when some genetic material is spilt on a vinyl record of Il Trovatore in a poultry laboratory and operatic chickens are accidentally produced. Further research leads to the development of a new variety of humans who... Continue Reading →
Giacomo Leopardi is generally described as the greatest Italian lyric poet but you don't really need to know anything about him to appreciate his poem L'Infinito. I see the title often translated as The Infinite, but I am not sure that means anything in English, so I am going to opt for Infinity. Here then... Continue Reading →
When I was in my twenties, I used to live in Bologna in a 6th floor flat together with 5 other people. The flat was on the outskirts of town and I remember you could see a football pitch, a roller hockey rink, the motorway, the railway and just beyond it the airport and all... Continue Reading →
The 14th of March, we are told, is π day because that the beginning of that amazing number in decimal notation is 3.14. I'm not sure how you celebrate π day. Dance round in circles? Go on and on (as many of us are wont to do) without ever repeating ourselves (not something I can... Continue Reading →
Recently, I came across an article published in 1945 in the New Yorker entitled “Return to Place Pigalle”, where Joseph Wechsberg, originally from Czechoslovakia, describes returning to Paris as a US soldier and meeting the musicians he used to play with there in the 1920’s. The musicians describe the experience of playing in Nazi-occupied Paris and leds to... Continue Reading →
“One commonly notices the unruly independence of this member, interjecting itself so inopportunely when we have no need for it and failing us so inopportunely when we most need it, and contending so imperiously for authority with our will, so haughtily and stubbornly rejecting our urgings, both... Continue Reading →
The clever people at Radiolab posted this video around New Year's Eve some time ago. I think it is worth watching again and again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0HfwkArpvU
Blue lemons, Prickly guitars, A cat in charge of all the icicles.