Einstein

 Winamop has published my short story about Albert Einstein. This is the description on the website: 'Simon King writes about the daily lives of famous people from history. It's the year 1919 and we find Albert Einstein in the library with his assistant Walther Mayer.'

Part three from Fifteen Characters: Volume Two.

www.winamop.com/sk2400.htm

Schopenhauer

 Winamop has published my short story 'Schopenhauer,' which is about German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. This is the description on the website: 'Simon King. writes stories based on the lives of famous historical figures. This time he visits the life of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who appears to be slightly irascible.'

Part two from Fifteen Characters: Volume Two.

http://www.winamop.com/sk2300.htm

Ahoy Facebook #21

 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/20/martin-amis-dead-age-73-esophageal-cancer/?fbclid=IwAR2dYpRI-Wcbpj7E_bKky9hBN9KlyeScd9-NceMSItCubZzicC8giMN01y0

Oh!

New acquisitions. 

Two t-shirts: A t-shirt of The Fall and a t-shirt of Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band.

The Fall and Captain Beefheart are my two favourite rock groups, so I thought that I'd buy their t-shirts. The Fall-themed t-shirt has the album 'Perverted by Language' printed on it and the Beefheart one has the album 'Safe as Milk' printed on it. 👍

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65898867.amp?fbclid=IwAR1JMJfg4JQ3bh_P5C3_BCoulfQySYNXUtarBtqX8FtCi5hm8snQuEpXWfg

Oh!

New acquisitions. 1/2 🙂

Three books: Timaeus and Critias by Plato, The Symposium by Plato and Einstein: His Life and Universe.

Two CDs: Symphony No. 6: Pathetique and Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Piano Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms.

One record: High and Low Down by Lightnin'Slim.

I've read some Plato dialogues in the past, but I thought that I could do with reading more.

Einstein was an interesting figure because, unlike many other scientists, he was not collaborative. He would spend most of his time on his own thinking about the details about general relativity or whatever. I bought a biography so as to find out more about his colourful life.

I've looked into classical music a lot in the past. Tchaikovsky and Brahms are very big names... I've not really heard much of their music before, so I bought these CDs.

Lightnin' Slim was one of the performers of rhythm and blues back in the 50s. He's not as remembered as Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters, but he's just as good.

New acquisitions. 2/2 🙂

Seven DVDs: Brief Encounter by David Lean, Dr. Zhivago by David Lean, Wild Strawberries by Ingmar Bergman, Persona by Ingmar Bergman, Tales of the Four Seasons by Eric Rohmer, Hannah and her Sisters by Woody Allen and Fargo by Coen Brothers.

Fifteen Characters: Volume Two.

This is one of two books that I'm working on at the moment. The other one is a novel - the cover is not ready for that one yet...

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Adolf Hitler

Arthur Schopenhauer

Albert Einstein

Bela Bartok

Jean Sibelius

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Honore de Balzac

Blind Willie Johnson 

Phidias

Peter Cook

Arius

Klemens von Metternich

Gavrilo Princip

Ted Kaczynski

I do not condone genocide or terrorism.

New acquisitions. 1/2

Two books: The Art of Happiness by Epicurus and John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves.

Not many of Epicurus' writings survive, as many ancient libraries containing thousands of goodies were burned down. This book gathers what remains of his writings. Epicurus emphasised the pursuit of happiness, unlike the Stoics and Cynics who emphasised virtue and citizenship. In many ways, he was a prototypical liberal. Also, Karl Marx wrote his doctoral dissertation about him (because they were both materialists...)

'On Liberty' is one of my favourite books... It's a gripping read, possibly because he wrote it for a general audience, not academia... Mill was a fascinating thinker, so I thought that I should read this biography about him... Plus, there's a lot of 19th century history in this book, which is also good. 👍

New acquisitions. 2/2

Five CDs: Images/Nocturnes by Claude Debussy/Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal, Chamber Music by Maurice Ravel, Chamber Music by Iannis Xenakis/Arditti String Quartet/Claude Helffer, Spillane by John Zorn and Paris 1919 by John Cale.

New acquisitions. 🙂

Six CDs: String Quartets Nos. 10, 11 and 12 by Dmitry Shostakovich/Eder Quartet, Symphony No. 4 by Dmitry Shostakovich/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Etudes: Books 1 and 2 by Gyorgy Ligeti/Idol Biret, Brown Rice by Don Cherry, Orient by Don Cherry and Live in Sevilla: 2000 by John Zorn/Masada.

New acquisitions. :)

Two books: Why I am a Liberal by William Beveridge and The Constitution of Liberty by Friederich Hayek.

William Beveridge published the ‘Beveridge Report’ in 1942, which sold thousands of copies. It was essential in helping to build the welfare state in the UK after WWII. He wanted the state to help address ‘want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.’ It formed the basis for the expansion of the welfare state and the creation of the national health service. 

Many people assumed that Beveridge was a socialist, but he identified as a liberal. John Maynard Keynes, a big influence on Labour’s policies on ‘demand management’ and ‘full employment,’ also identified as a liberal. In this book, Beveridge explains why he is a liberal. This is a rare book and I struggled to find a copy. I found a copy for £22. It is from 1945, the date in which it was published, and this copy was a library book.

Friedrich Hayek published ‘On the Road to Serfdom’ in 1944 and, like the Beveridge Report, also sold a lot of copies. Hayek was a strident critic of economic planning. He argued that central planners can never have allocate resources efficiently because they do not have knowledge of what consumers want or desire. The price system, which carries information throughout the economy, involves individuals freely making choices. Central planning involves a collective body imposing its values on society whilst the market is made up of individuals, with different values, making choices. Hayek argued that central planning is inefficient, but he also thought that it is also morally reprehensible because it undermines individual human dignity.

Anyway, this book, ‘The Constitution of Liberty,’ has a postscript called ‘Why I am not a Conservative.’ Many people assumed that Hayek was a conservative, but he identified as a liberal. He thought that conservativism encroached on innovation, progress and change. 

Anyway, I thought that it would be interesting to see two liberals give reasons as to why they are liberals. Beveridge is closer to the left of the spectrum (‘social liberalism’) and Hayek is on the right (‘classical liberalism’), but I am sure they agreed on many things.

New acquisitions. 🙂

Three postcards: A postcard of Fyodor Dostoevsky, a postcard of Franz Kafka and a postcard of William Faulkner.

I've bought some postcards of some of my favourite writers. I devoured their books when I was a teenager (best time to read them, really).

New acquisitions. 🙂

Six DVDs: Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau, Faust by F. W. Murnau, Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick, The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke and The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke.

A picture of my flat.

New acquisitions.

10 bricks

3 boards

I had a whole pile of unread books lying in the living room. A lot of of them were inaccessible because they were buried at the bottom. I thought that I could arrange them in a better way. I asked my dad if he had bricks and boards, so I've put them to good use. They look way better now.

Wittgenstein and Hitler

Part one from a forthcoming book called Fifteen Characters: Volume Two. 

The Realschule in Linz harboured some capable students, alongside some rather mediocre ones. Nonetheless, it was a place in which young adults hoped to advance their respective aspirations. Alas, when one is aged sixteen, seventeen or eighteen one might not harbour any aspirations at all but, nonetheless, these young adults were shunted to Realshule in Linz despite their adolescent apathy.

            The canteen had been completely deserted for everyone, expect for two students. Seven long tables occupied the entire room, with seven long chairs placed directly beneath them. The walls were drab and grey. All the other students had already eaten except for two.

Ludwig Witgenstein had rather timorously moved his tray to the corner of the room. He ate his beef, cabbages and other assorted vegetables. He had had better meals than this with his wealthy family. but he would have to make ado with what the Realshcule offered. Witgenstein had piercing eyes, a jutting jaw and a long nose. He devoured his meal, but he was interrupted by the presence of another student who had taken his seat directly in front of him.

He looked up. This student had black eyes, short black hair and an arrogant countenance. He stirred his beef with his fork. ‘Are you a Jew?’ he asked.

Wittgenstein was taken aback by this question. Yes, had endured anti-semitic taunting multiple times in the past, but it was nonetheless annoying to be reminded of it once more. ‘Yes…’ he replied, as he looked at the table, nervously gripping his fork and knife.

‘And you are wealthy?’

‘Yes…’ he cautiously replied. His father owned a monopoly on Austrian steel. They owned thirteen mansions in Vienna alone.

‘Why do the other boys make fun of you?’

‘Because…’ Wittgenstein prevaricated. ‘Because I have been put forward a year… Because I am very clever… I am interested in philosophy, music, history, politics… Because I am not like them… Also, because….’

‘Because you are Jewish?’ asked the young Hitler.

‘Yes… But that is neither here nor there… That is just one aspect of what who I am… I am interested in ideas and art… Look, I am reading this book right now… I hope to write something like this one day…’

Wittgenstein took the book out of his bag. It was a copy of The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer. ‘I have read it multiple times and I have annotated it endlessly… I am fascinated by his arguments… How reality is appearance… How the world is made up of irrational energy… How art is a temporary release from this world… How painting is a representation of reality as appearance… How the ascetic rejects the suffering of the world by taking control of his own volition.’ Wittgenstein started stammering and shaking as he said this.

‘Are you getting nervous?’ Hitler asked.

‘Yes,’ Wittgenstein as he put down his fork and knife and continued to shake.

‘Well, are you keen on philosophy?’ Hitler asked.

‘Yes,’ Wittgenstein replied, as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

‘Are you keen on music?’ Hitler asked.

‘Yes…’

‘Well, I like Wagner… Perhaps we could go together to see a performance of Tristan and Isolde.’

‘Yes, that would be good,’ Wittgenstein said. ‘Are you a year below me?’

‘No, you are wrong… We are both the same age… You have been put forward a year whilst I have been held back a year… We are the same age.’

Wittgenstein continued to feel nervous and shook. ‘Oh…’ he mumbled.

‘Yes, I like Wagner,’ Hitler continued. ‘I like art because I think that it is an assertion of the national German spirit…’

‘The German spirit?’ Wittgenstein asked.

‘Oh yes… I cannot stand the Habsburg monarchy… It is a degenerate, debased, crumbling institution… I would rather that it all came crumbling down… So as to assert a common Germanic spirit.’ As he said this, his eyes lit up and his arms waved around.

‘Well… The Habsurg empire has been in decline for a long time, but… will it rise up again?’ Wittgenstein tentatively said.

‘No… But I do not care… It will burn to the ground for all I care… I want Germany to expand… to… to assert itself… Bismarck did not go far enough. The whole of the Haburg empire should have been swallowed up a united Germany,’ Hitler asserted.

‘That is a naïve view… The Habsurg monarchy had been more powerful than Prussia for a long time,’ Wittgenstein said.

‘I do not care… I have developed my views… of… of German nationalism… I have read Fichte… Anyway, politics is tangential… I want to be a painter…’ Hitler asserted, banging the table with his fists.

‘Are you good?’ Wittgenstein shyly asked.

‘You bet, but my father does not think so… That is why he sent me to this academy… He wants me to be a bureaucrat, but I want to be a great artist… My father died recently… My grades have deteriorated… But I do not care… I will be a great artist.’ He said, looking directly at Wittgenstein.  

‘So you have been held back a year?’ Wittgenstein asked.

‘Yes, I failed my maths exam multiple times… Otherwise, we would be in the same year,’ Hitler asserted.

‘Fancy that…’

‘Listen, Ludwig,’ Hitler continued. ‘You are a clever chap, you are Jewish, you come from an exceedingly talented background… Yet…’ Hitler said, raising his arms and looking directly at him.

‘Yet?’ Wittgenstein replied, nervously darting his eyes around the room.

‘You will come to see Wagner with me on Saturday…’ Hitler said.

‘Well…’ Wittgenstein once more prevaricated. ‘Well… I have to study formal logic that day… I am working with my tutor… I also want to brush up on calculus… And finish reading Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason…’

‘Well, sod off then you filthy Jew,’ Hilter exclaimed, as he took his food tray with him.

Wittgenstein finished his meat off. His empty plate stood in front of him. The large canteen was also completely empty. He sat alone for a further five minutes, ruminating on the strange exchange which just occurred. He took his empty food tray and left the canteen.

Ahoy Facebook #20

 

New acquisitions. 👍

Five CDs: Organ Works by J. S. Bach, Madrigaux by Carlo Gesualdo/Les Arts Florissants, Live at the Witch Trials by The Fall, Dragnet by The Fall and Sequenzas I-XIV.

One record: Telemusik and Mixtur by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

One book: Napoleon by Alan Forrest.

One DVD: Being There by Hal Ashby.

I ordered a disc by Renaissance composer Claudio Monteverdi, but they delivered a disc of organ music by Bach instead. I'll keep this and order the Monteverdi disc some other time.

I bought a disc by Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo. He was innovative and way ahead of his time. I do enjoy his music, even though he was a sadist who murdered his wife and child.

I bought a series of discs by Luciano Berio. These are all pieces for solo instruments and he wrote them over a period of 34 years.

I bought a record by Stockhausen. I can't claim to fully understand his pieces, but some of his screechy and weird pieces do excite me from time to time.

I bought the first two discs that The Fall made in the late 70s.

I am interested in European history, but it's still too fucking hazy. I'm prioritising history books next year, so I bought this book about Napoleon.

This film is brilliant, Peter Sellers' swan song. It is about a simpleminded gardener who is hailed as an insightful political philosopher.

New acquisitions. 🙂

Six CDs: Madrigals: Book Six by Claudio Monteverdi/Delititiae Musical/Marco Longhini, The Absolutely Essential 3 CD Collection by Chet Baker, Cerebral Caustic by The Fall, The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall by The Fall, II by Led Zeppelin and In Rock by Deep Purple.

New acquisitions.

Three mugs: A J. S. Bach-themed mug, a Frank Zappa-themed mug and a Miles Davis-themed mug.

I had a dream the other night in which I owned a J. S. Bach-themed mug. Unlike other dreams I've had, this dream could come true.

So, I searched for mugs with Bach designs and I liked this one the most. It has one of his most iconic pictures with him holding a cup of coffee. The other side has one of his notated scores.

So I thought that I could do with mugs with other of my favourite musicians. The Frank Zappa one has the album 'Roxy and Elsewhere' printed on and the Miles Davis one has a 'Bitches Brew' design on it.

🇦🇷♥️🏆

ARGENTINA!!! 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷♥️♥️♥️

New acquisition.

A bust of Socrates.

I asked if I could get this for Christmas and, lo and behold, I did. He looks really cool next to my busts of Bach and Beethoven.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2022/5993530

These are all the books that I read last year. I read some good books. 👍

New acquisitions.

Two posters: A poster of Jorge Luis Borges and a poster of Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger.

A postcard: A Robert Crumb-themed postcard.

I bought a poster of Jorge Luis Borges, which has his famous quote 'I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.' I placed on the door that leads to the living room. I also bought a poster of 'A Matter of Life and Death,' which is one of my favourite films ever. I placed it on the door that leads to my bedroom.

I also bought a postcard of a Robert Crumb cartoon. It depicts a man shaking nervously, with the caption 'People make me nervous!' I can certainly relate to it.

New acquisitions. 🙂

Six books: Cognitive Neuroscience: A Very Short Introduction by Richard Passingham, Is God Happy?: Selected Essays by Lesek Kolakowski, Essays by Michel de Montaigne, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke, Two Treatises of Government/A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke and Reveries of the Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

I had zero interest in science until quite recently. Thing is, if you had told me about a lot of this stuff as a teenager or in my early 20s I would have been blown away by it. The interesting thing about a lot of science isn't that it is true (or as close to the truth as we can get), it is how counterintuitive a lot of it is. This book is all about how the brain works.

Kolakowski seems like a really interesting thinker. He was an academic in communist Poland and he had been an orthodox Marxist, but he was eventually exiled due to writing stuff that was critical of Marxism/communism. Soviet communism is something that I have developed a visceral, almost irrational hatred for. His 'magnum opus' was 'Main Currents of Marxism' where he argues that Leninist and Stalinist versions of communism are not distortions of Marxism, they are one of many possible interpretations. That book is really long and would take a couple of months to read, so I thought that I'd tackle this more slender collection of essays.

I wrote an essay about some of Montaigne's essays for my undergrad degree. I remember quite enjoying them, so I thought that I could do with reading them again at some point.

Back in the 18th century, there were a lot of discussions as to whether knowledge was acquired or innately or through experience. The former camp were called 'rationalists' whilst the latter camp were called 'empiricists.' Locke makes the case for empiricism in this book where he argues that the mind is 'tabula rasa' that absorbs experience. We still have discussions about this sort of stuff today and we are still not 100% clear about it.

The 17th century was notorious for religious conflict, namely 'the thirty years' war' between Protestants and Catholics, which left a large death toll and ravaged the economies of Europe. At the end of the century, John Locke wrote this book in which he argued for tolerance of different religious beliefs. These ideas were radical at the time and influenced English law after the 'Glorious Revolution.'

Rosseau, alongside David Hume, was one of philosophy's loners and a hermit. (Even though he came up with all that guff about 'the general will.') In this book, he writes about going for walks on his own.

New acquisitions.

Six records: Stairway to the Stars by Paul Fenoulhet, Rhapsody in Rhythm by Ray Starita and his Ambassadors band, Edith Piaf by Edith Piaf, The Incomparably Big Band Sound of Tommy Dorsey, Gregorian Chant by The Choir of the Carmelite Priory London and Introducing Christopher Parkening - Segovia Transcriptions of Bach and Spanish/Latin American Guitar Music.

New acquisitions. 🙂

Six books: The Dreyfus Affair: The Story of the Most Infamous Miscarriage in French History by Piers Paul Read, History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Ronald H. Bainton, Charles Darwin: The Power of Place by Janet Browne and The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas by Isaiah Berlin.

I bought a book about the Dreyfus affair, who was accused of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment, but this was a ruse, as they resented him for being Jewish. This was a notorious anti-Semitic case right at the start of the 20th century and it prefigured some nasty developments later on.

Thucydides had been ostracised from Athens for making criticisms of the certain public figures, namely for spending a lot of public money on major buildings. Whilst he was exiled, a war raged for ten years between Athens and Sparta. He observed this from afar and wrote this book, 'History of the Peloponnesian War.' We still read it thousands of years later and it is the most detailed account we have of the war.

This is another classic history book about antiquity and it was written in 1788. It is over a thousand pages and the print is really small! Of course, it chronicles the decline and fall of the Roman empire...

Martin Luther revolutionised the world, as he brought about the Protestant reformation... I bought a book to learn more about him.

Charles Darwin was another figure who revolutionised the world, with his theory of natural selection and evolution. This is volume two of a biography and covers the period when 'On the Origin of 

Species' was published and Darwin was thrust into the spotlight.

Issiah Berlin was a liberal philosopher whose worldview seemed to be absolutely correct and similar to my own. This is a history of ideas and he writes about fascism, Romanticism, nationalism, the Enligthenment, utopianism and other topics.

New acquisitions. 👍

Two posters: A print of The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David and The Academy by Raphael.

I saw some empty spaces on my walls, so I thought that I could cover them with posters. They are both really iconic paintings. The one by Raphael has most of the most famous Greek philosophers, with Plato and Aristotle in the middle. The one by David (which is a larger print) depicts Socrates when they seized him and gave him hemlock.

New acquisition. 🙂

One book: La historia oculta de la década socialists by Ascanio Cavalla and Rocío Montes. 

I am currently in Chile, so I thought that I'd buy something related to Chile. This book is all about the centre-left governments during the noughties. Two 'socialist' presidents were in power for the first time since Allende (or 'social democratic'... I dunno, these are really hazy terms which are really difficult to define). They were part of the 'Concertación,' a coalition of centre/centre-left parties which were in power for twenty years after the fall of Pinochet. They were really successful in reducing poverty.

New acquisitions. 1/2

Two figurines: A figurine of Condorito and a figurine of Pablo Neruda.

Two CDs: 1959-1969 by Victor Jara and Grandes Exitos by Violeta Parra.

Three books: Conversación en la catedral by Mario Vargas Llosa, Escape a los Andes: la historia Mauricio Hochschild, "El Schindler de Bolivia" and Páginas colonials by Rafael Gumucio.

I bought a figurine of a classic Chilean cartoon character called Condorito. I also bought a figurine of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

I bought two CDs of anthologies by Chilean folk singers Victor Jara and Violeta Parra.

I bought this classic novel by brilliant Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa and it is meant to be his best book.

I received this book as a gift from my uncle. It is about 'the Bolivian Schindler.' It is about a Bolivian Jew who took in Jewish refugees who fled the Holocaust and settled in South America.

Gumucio is a contrarian writer/journalist from Chile. In this book, he travels around several places in Europe and writes about them.

New acquisitions 2/2.

Six CDs: Absolutely Free by Frank Zappa, Overnite Sensation by Frank Zappa, Bongo Fury by Frank Zappa, Zappa in New York, Studio Tan and Sleep Dirt by Frank Zappa.

New acquisitions. 🙂

Six CDs: Round about Midnight by Miles Davis, Ascenseur pour l'echafaud by Miles Davis, A Tribute to Jack Johnson by Miles Davis, Big Fun by Miles Davis, Get up with It by Miles Davis and Pangaea by Miles Davis.

New acquisitions. 👍

Two records: Poetic Champions Compose by Van Morrison and Joe's Garage: Act 1 by Frank Zappa.

Van Morrison is a brilliant songwriter/singer and this album has some great songs. This is probably one of my least favourite Zappa albums (Zappa fans love it, but the smutty songs meander too much and test my patience), but it was for sale only for £5, so I thought that I'd buy it.

New acquisitions. 🙂

Six CDs: Petrouchka and Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky/Pierre Boulez/New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Eight Lines and City Life by Steve Reich/Ensemble Modern, Different Trains and Electric Counterpoint by Steve Reich/Kronos Quartet/Pat Metheny, Four Classic Albums by Charles Mingus, The Doors by The Doors and Paranoid by Black Sabbath.

Collected Essays: Volume Two

Ahoy Facebook #19

 

New acquisitions. 

Six CDs: The Real Louis Armstrong, Four Classic Albums by Gerry Mulligan, The Real Bob Dylan by Bob Dylan, Four Classic Albums by Dizzy Gillespie, The Harry Partch Collection: Volume One by Harry Partch and Songs for Drella by Lou Reed and John Cale.

New acquisitions. 

Three records: Money Jungle by Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/Max Roach, Miles Smiles by Miles Davis and Tago Mago by Can.

One book: Liberalism and its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama.

The first record features three of the greatest jazz players playing together.

I don't think I remember hearing this record by Miles Davis before, so I thought that I'd buy it.

This is an album by a German  prog rock group from the 1970s. This album gets very weird and very wild, which is a pleasure for me as I love weird music.

After the collapse of communism, Francis Fukuyama pronounced 'the end of history.' He didn't claim that there would be no more historical events, he claimed that liberal democracy had won the battle of ideas. He published this book this year and he comments on recent events. Authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe are actively hostile to liberal democracy and there is also Brexit, Trump, Venezuela, etc. He also writes about identity politics, which he considers illiberal.

New acquisition.

One record: The Grand Wazoo by Frank Zappa.

I've been wanting to own this for a while... I was looking for it online and couldn't really find it... It's probably my favourite Zappa album, I just love the melodies, arrangements and solos on this... I found it at a record shop in Chesterfield, so I just had to buy it... 

New acquisitions.

Four books: Maus by Art Spiegelman, Palestine by Joe Sacco, The Fixer: A Story from Sarajevo and My Troubles with Women.

These are all comic books. I think that it's a great medium, I first got into reading by looking at comics as a kid (superheroes, Asterix, various Chilean comics).

Maus is about Spiegelman's parents, who were both prisoners in the concentration camps. He draws the Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.

Joe Sacco went to Palestine and Bosnia during the 90s... He made comics out of these experiences.

Robert Crumb is not at all political, he draws about his own personal experiences. This one chronicles his experiences with women. His panels are very detail and cross-hatched.

New acquisitions.

One coaster: A Frank Zappa-themed coaster.

One book: The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: Collection One by Gilbert Shelton.

I needed a drink coaster, so I thought I'd buy a Frank Zappa-themed one... This one has the album cover 'Weasels Ripped my Flesh,' which is one of his greatest and strangest album covers.

This is a collection of comics from the hippie era... It was part of the 'underground comics' movement. They're funny and subversive. 

New acquisitions. 
Five books: Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach by John Eliot Gardiner, The Music and Life of Beethoven by Lewis Lockwood, John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain 1937-1946 by Robert Skidelsky, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock and Havel: A Life by Michael Zantovsky.

I bought a lot of biographies.

The first two look at Bach and Beethoven, both their lives and music.

Skidelsky wrote a three volume biography of Keynes. This last volume covers the period when his ideas were becoming influential.

This biography looks at Hitler and Stalin. It is a chronological biography of both men, even though they never met.

This is a biography of Havel, a playwright and dissident in the Soviet Union. He became president of Checkoslovakia and later the Czech Republic following the rise of democracy.

New acquisitions. 

Two books: Metternich: The First European by Desmond Steward and Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through: The Surprising Story of Britain's Economy from Boom to Bust and Back Again by Duncan Weldon.

I bought a book a book about Metternich. He was chancellor of the Austro-Hungarian empire between 1814 and 1848. He signed a lot of treaties and ensured that there wasn't a major continental war in Europe.

This is an economic history of the UK  over the last 200 years.

New acquisitions. 

Six CDs: Shiftwork by The Fall, Extricate by The Fall, Tilt by Scott Walker, Celestial by Isis, Four Classic Albums by Thelonious Monk and Winter Fragments by Tristan Murail.

The copies of my latest book have arrived! 

 New acquisition: A John Stuart Mill t-shirt.

I went out the other night and saw a grand total of THREE people wearing Che Guevara t-shirts.

Why would one wear a Che Guevara t-shirt? To stand out from the crowd? To signal how rebellious you are?

But why would one wear a Che Guevara t-shirt in this case? He was a rabid communist who supported Maoist China. He wanted to nuke the USA.

Anyway, small quotes aren’t always a good indicator of someone’s thought. Even though Che Guevara was not a systematic theorist or thinker, it is still reductive to pull out random quotes. Still, they do give us some inkling into his thought. These are some of Che Guevara’s pronouncements:

‘In the future individualism ought to be the efficient utilization of the whole individual for the absolute benefit of a collectivity.’

'The desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals serves no purpose if one works alone.'

'The guerrilla fighter, who is general of himself, need not die in every battle. He is ready to give his life, but the positive quality of this guerrilla warfare is precisely that each one of the guerrilla fighters is ready to die, not to defend an ideal, but rather to convert it into reality.'

'Terrorism should be considered a valuable tactic when it is used to put to death some noted leader of the oppressing forces well known for his cruelty, his efficiency in repression, or other quality that makes his elimination useful.'

'The fault of many of our artists and intellectuals lies in their original sin: they are not true revolutionaries. We can try to graft the elm tree so that it will bear pears, but at the same time we must plant pear trees. New generations will come that will be free of original sin.'

Now, let’s consider some quotes from John Stuart Mill. It IS definitely reductive to provide bite-sized quotes from Mill, as he WAS a systematic thinker and theorist. Anyway, here we go. All of these quotes come from his splendid book ‘On Liberty’ (chapters two and three):

‘The opinion which it is attempted to suppress by authority may possibly be true. Those who desire to suppress it, of course deny its truth; but they are not infallible. They have no authority to decide the question for all mankind, and exclude every other person from the means of judging. To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure that it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility. Its condemnation may be allowed to rest on this common argument, not the worse for being common.’

‘Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.’

‘In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.’

‘Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters: and his circumstances or his character may be uncustomary. Thirdly, though the customs be both good as customs, and suitable to him, yet to conform to custom, merely as custom, does not educate or develop in him any of the qualities which are the distinctive endowment of a human being. The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in making a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice. He gains no practice either in discerning or in desiring what is best. The mental and moral, like the muscular powers, are improved only by being used. The faculties are called into no exercise by doing a thing merely because others do it, no more than by believing a thing only because others believe it.’

‘Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.’

Ok, so if you want to signal how you are such an edgy non-conformist, would you rather wear a Che Guevara t-shirt or a John Stuart Mill t-shirt? The one who wants you to be a cog in this dreary miserable collective or the one wants you to grow and develop? The one who wants you to die for the communist ideal or the one who wants you to distrust dogma, distrust customs and use your critical faculties? I am not buying – and wearing – a John Stuart Mill t-shirt to signal that I am an edgy-nonconformist, I am buying and wearing a John Stuart Mill t-shirt to counter all those people who wear Che Guevara t-shirts.

New acquisitions.

Ten CDs: 1927-1933: The Early Years by Blind Willie McTell, Runnin' Wild by Sidney Bechet, 1939-1951 by Benny Goodman, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus by Charles Mingus, Kinks by The Kinks, Apostrophe by Frank Zappa, Orchestral Favourites by Frank Zappa, Greatest Hits by Queen, Greatist Hits by Smashing Pumpkins and Rain Dogs by Tom Waits.

I earn a pittance, prices are soaring and my rent is high, so I probably shouldn't be splashing money on discs, but... hey ho. (Even if they're second-hand... And on offer.) 

I went to a talk with Melvyn Bragg this evening. I've never read any of his books (thus far), but I've really enjoyed his broadcasts on The South Bank Show and In Our Time for a very long time.

I really enjoyed the conversation, which is all about his memoir. He said that he has had health problems recently and that this would be his last book. It's all about his childhood and adolescence in Cumbria in the late 40s up to the late 50s. He came from a 'working class,' background, he always loved reading and later read history at Oxford. He also had a mental breakdown in his teenage years and talked about his love for the countryside.

I've met two writers before (Paul Auster and Iain Sinclair) who I found to be a bit cold and aloof, but Bragg was very warm. The first thing he asked was 'Do you write?' and I told him that I did. I told him that I had suggestions for programs on In Our Time and that they should really do one on Bach. He said that there are many topics that they haven't covered, that Bach surprisingly was one of them and that he' d try to remember that. He then said 'Good luck with the writing.' Well, coming from Melvyn Bragg that means a lot.