read another julian thompson that I will not name because I can't implicitly recommend it even with reservations & disclaimers. language & some of the ideas not what you would call redeemable for the youth of today, even large-minded, history-conscious youth. still, it had moments

I get a good warm glow from reading a deprecation of "sub-Ansteyan fantasies" by a cataloger who thinks it his business to mention them but not to define them. he was right in that.

I think I have been buying some extremely stupid books in my sleep this is an experience I wish everyone could have at least once in their lives. it teaches you things about yourself you could learn in no other way. or so I believe

oh my god do you want to see something awful I am always looking at sketchy therapeutic devices for the neck & spine, the faker & weirder the better. only rarely do I buy one; the effects are best felt by looking at them through a computer. it's a complex medical mechanism, you wouldn't understand

it’s goddamn 1981, why do I have to listen to this same old shit again, I am hardly even alive yet to speak of put away the machines & tell me more about rowan’s mean little clone psychopath sister, that’s what I came to this book for

boy, I hope nobody who's been happily letting c. doctorow put repulsive words & dingdong concepts into their mouths & brains for years now is going to get mad at him for loving repulsive computer programs! that is an activity & a judgment reserved for those of us with standards

ok I am trying to learn the g minor organ prelude on the fake piano & the very beginning before what I will call the "organ part" starts going tweedle tweedle tweedle forever is so beautiful, but it's so funny I can't handle this I am going to hurt myself. it's not too hard but I can't stop laughing

those silly spy books I read all of (not the le carres, the other ones) have a background bit that I think is confined to a novella or short story, where whatever secret service it is supposed to be uses its own stupidest & most alcoholic agent to entrap a reporter--

guess what! I was RIGHT (maybe. I follow herodotus in calling no book "good" until it is dead. or until I am. whichever comes first.) but I got a copy of JT's DISCONTINUED & the first couple dozen pages are not just good, they're delightful. but the title is nothing special so it isn't famous

if they do this with prometheus / lawrence of arabia I will move to boston to watch the greatest film on a loopfor two straight years while the crew snores in hypersleep, saying all the good lines right along with robot david fassbender. every time

no offense to the hardworking craftsmen of the world but I am not tempted even a little bit to buy my cat a $450 etsy hobbit hole that is, if we are being honest and truthful with ourselves, no more than a decorative wooden box with an entrance hole and a lid on it. but

all the names under which one can sell books are stupid or taken and most of them are both, with the exception of the ones that are just the bookseller's name, which is nice in theory but out of the question where I am concerned. anyway but there are two kinds of people in the world,

read The Grounding of Group Six, and a) can't put my finger on why it's such a good title but it is. none of julian thompson's other books had such very good titles. haven't read them but I am sure that is the reason none of them are as famous as his first

sorry anne you are Not invited I have always said that critical attempts to elevate anne bronte to the rank of equal or even superior to either of her sisters are at best a noble attempt to delude the critical self & at worst a base attempt to delude others. but I still think this is mean

there’s only one dramatic adaptation of wuthering heights that could ever be worth making. if it’s not based on the cover of the fratelli fabbri italian paperback edition, I don’t want to hear about it

I know how to fix the winter olympics long long ago I paid some small attention to figure skating but since I figured out I could go to gymnastics for raw power and to ballet for kitsch & 'artistry,' there has been no draw. now, this is an idea that came to me in a dream so maybe it isn't good

sometimes a surprise is nice but I more or less believe that the best way to punch a creep on video is to follow the traditional three-paragraph essay structure. you tell them what you're going to do, then you do it, then you tell them what you just did. that's why schoolkids are good at it

god I used to enjoy writing this kind of thing, didn't I there's no idiot like a happy idiot remember, nostalgia kills in large amounts

it's too cold to keep trying to play the piano & too aggravating for another le carre so I am reading barbara noble's the house opposite. it is infuriating could the smileys have permanently ruined my sympathies for wartime adulterers? they'll pay for this

did finish reading tailor sailor etcetera & I don't have anything in particular to say about it except I never stopped being exasperated, not for a single second

I always think I should record myself trying to play things because the angle will help me figure out what I am doing wrong with my hands & wrists. then I see what is wrong with my hands & want to die I am not dying though, whatever it looks like. it is just extremely cold in here

I used to read clickhole now & then but I never watched any of its video content when it was a going concern. probably figured it was just rehashing the written bits & no reason to watch anything whose joke was clear from the title. although who really remembers why they don't do anything. anyway,

I have got through to one and a half of the famous ones. was it worth it? come now. you know it wasn't. the spy who came in from the cold is a good book & benefits wonderfully from george smiley not being in it most of the time. if only he could not be in all of them

I like it when it gets so cold I have to turn on the oven to give the regular heating a break (I never forget to turn it off so you mustn't worry, I promise not to explode) because it makes me feel like laura in The Long Winter bring me a manual crank pencil sharpener & a handful of wheat berries

in a manner of speaking I am doing a "dry january" except instead of drink it is book-dealing I abstain from & instead of for a month it is for months & months, who can even say how many, not me, not yet. but I haven't been able to rid myself of the creeping acquisitive urge

in the golden days of my youth, ralph fiennes was handsome as an angel, the idol of his time. as miss malin remembers prince ernest theodore of anhalt, so did I remember him I thought he would never disgrace me more than when he aged, balded, & voldemorted. ah well the worst has happened, I thought

read the bus thread & got a little disgruntled for usual reasons (something fairly interesting happened in the dc area & I missed it) but the brief video of the driver was so interesting bc by the time I got to it I had a very firm mental picture of what this guy's demeanor must have been like--

remember when henri iv popped in on his mistress uninvited so her lover had to hide under the bed, & "taking up a small loaf, [the king] split it open, and, sticking a whole partridge into it, threw it under the bed" because “'Madame,'” replied the merry monarch, 'everybody must live'"

do you suppose it was the same Word in both cases (I think it's Fuck. but you never can tell for sure)

sara gran's latest newsletter was written expressly to drip a thin stream of ice water right into the uppermost atrium of my secret heart. as it circulates I begin to die of the cold many of you boycott substack for right & proper reasons. but look up hers if you want to make just one exception

told my beautiful cat (gently) that she couldn't burrow into the couch cushions & live inside the computer forever and do you know what she said, she looks me right in the eyes, can you believe this, she says "I learned it from watching you" makes you think pretty disrespectful though

what should I watch if I want to feel just Awful barton fink & a few of the others I have seen before of course. but what if I want to feel awful in a new way maybe instead of watching any of them I could browse through the criterion catalogue for an hour & add another 50 titles to the list

tried to watch a hobbit for the first time in ages and the older I get the less able I am to bear how they treat that poor cave troll. they got him in hobbles or manacles or whatever it is, do you think he wants to be here?? frodo you asshole you can tell his head hurts

when your mother has returned to an old Enthusiasm & it interests you no more than it did the last two times

all I care about in life now is bringing the good news to you of this same one incredible italian opera costumer & his work on another vivaldi opera all these are from the same other opera. I repeat, from the same opera. just the first half I got to go to sleep but I will have wonderful dreams

if classical ballet would get rid of pointe shoes & go back to dancing in these kicky little boots I would make so many fewer mean remarks about it. this promise comes from the most sincere regions of my being

I don't have a funny joke title for dune 3 but since people are talking about it I want to take the opportunity to lobby one last time for the use of lee hazlewood's "sand" during the opening titles. and during the closing credits. and whenever they're looking at sand

earlier today I was thinking I ought to read orlando furioso because I will never understand any of the goings-on in baroque opera if I don't. not a one although I sort of thought I did look into it once, long ago & besides, I get plenty of enjoyment out of baroque opera without understanding much

this is everything an opera should be in visual terms three weirdos in teal satin stacking books on a beautiful lady's head to crush the warbling out of her. but will she stop singing? she will never 19th century stopped doing this which is why opera eventually went to hell

she is trying to freak me out & it's working

yeah that’ll do it

I did it I invented a new cocktail two parts bourbon one part apricot liqueur touch of lemon twist of orange which came untwisted but if you point that out I will say it's part of the effect

also I thought I had it in me to make beeves wellington this year but I am starting to consider the possibility that I Don't

watching metropolitan is a totally different & much sadder experience when you see it just months after accidentally getting audrey's haircut it's all right for her, she's a child of wealth with a long face

I got me an off-brand massage gun for to celebrate the birth of our lord & saviour (for my agonies) I can't speak about its form or function with any degree of descriptive detail or I will sound like a pervert. the manufacturer certainly did

it's here it's here it's here it's HERE the book of books never have I referred to any other book so often & so faithfully with such respect & given it such credit for influencing my life without remembering more than half a sentence of it from reading my mother's copy sixty million yrs ago

happy winter solstice theodora wants to tip over the roses “can I do it now,“ she says, “the sun’s not watching” no, theodora, he isn’t. but I am wait till midnight, as is proper

so proud to see my daughter following in my footsteps & sniffing thoughtfully at all my perfume samples I would have thought the sensitive smelling apparatus common to her kind would keep her far from the migraine factory, but she's into it. just like me

the tobacco lobby only lost the public relations battle because they were too cowardly to make the ghost argument I don’t smoke myself but I find it very compelling on the one hand it hastens your death but on the other hand you want to leave your leisure options open in the afterworld

watching plisetskaya's anna karenina & while it is boring on occasion & the music isn't much good, it is much better done, as a filmed ballet, than the only other ballets on film I know well (the two great nutcrackers) & it really works with the fundamental ugliness of the art form (ballet not film)