January 2012
99 posts
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“This is the worst travesty of Bach’s keyboard music I’ve ever...”
– Customer Reviews: Bach: A Strange Beauty.
These amazon reviews are reminiscent of the average post on Talk Classical or Musoc.
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“Yes, of course you need to make changes when you adapt an immense book into...”
– Peter Hitchens, again.
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December 2011
116 posts
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“Funny, isn’t it, that British premiers always come back from EU summits boasting...”
– Victory? Not while we’re in the clutches of Angela’s giant vampire squid.
I found Peter Hitchens’s blog via a couple of web references. Peter is the brother of recently deceased Christopher Hitchens. But while Christopher was a man of the left who was pro-Iraq war, Peter is a man...
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“Pour Guido Mantega, le ministre brésilien des finances, ces mesures sont...”
– Le protectionnisme gagne toute l’Amérique du Sud.
Yes, you should always protect the poor people in your country from the scourge of cheap foreign goods that might make their lives a little better. And, of course, none of this protectionism is aimed at enriching the well-connected...
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“If you can’t figure out why you’d pay 100-plus percent of a bank’s value for 27...”
– Repo Men - Kevin D. Williamson via Dan Mitchell.
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“Scholl’s singing here takes on a radiant placidity, an admixture of...”
– Bach cantatas, Andreas Scholl.
A reasonable review of Baroque music from the Mission St. Crier! What wonders the season brings.
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“Now I know today, what I did would have the approximate romance of a Twitter...”
– P. J. O’Rourke, discussing travel and his latest book.
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Popular posts of 2011
According to Google Analytics, the most popular post of 2011 across my three blogs was my 2009 post on preparing presentations. The one that opens with
Most presentations are terrible, and that’s a choice made by the presenter.
(Well, since almost every post I write about presentations here or on the essay blog links back to that one, that’s not very surprising.)
The 2011 essay...
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“These are merely a few examples of the style of Mr. Saintsbury, a writer who...”
– Oscar Wilde reviewing the book George Borrow by George Sainstbury; reprinted in a collection of Oscar Wilde reviews.
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Asterix no densetsu →
Asterix drawn Manga style (and to be read right to left, Japanese style). In French, of course.
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PRESENTATIONISM: AVOID IT!
Background: Kara Swisher of AllThingsD made a presentation at a TEDx event; while praising her content, Les Posen remarked on her delivery; Ms. Swisher told him to go pound sand; Les blogged a thorough critique.
I agree with Les that it would be nice if people making presentations put some work into presentation design, rehearsal, and delivery. That said, I think Les suffers from a mild case of...
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“Sporty went from easily spending $500 a month on dinners alone to having someone...”
– MATCH.COM GOLD DIGGER.
Well, she didn’t force anyone to do anything, right? As I have written before, if a chump wants to spend money on a date that’s his problem. I have a “first date is a non-technical day hike” rule which has served me well.
$500 a month on dinners in...
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“First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out...”
– Seth Godin on why he has disabled comments on his blog.
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“I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true...”
– A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell.
Yes, that Orwell. Posthumously (twice) via Christopher Hitchens in Slate. Hitchens adds his observations, incisive as usual:
Finally, a decent cylindrical mug will preserve the needful heat and flavor for longer than will a shallow and wide-mouthed—how often...
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“These days, higher education is a dynamic and increasingly digital environment —...”
– 11 Tech Factors That Changed Education in 2011
It’s an interesting collection of technologies that may help educate students, but I think I’ll keep my focus on the students rather than the technologies.
Don’t get me wrong, all else equal I want the best technologies possible; but...
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“While he did not hesitate to produce grandiose trivia in the comforting...”
– Iain Pears’s fictional art history lecturer Jonathan Argyll mulling over his reasons for avoiding a conference, on page 25 of the mystery novel The Immaculate Deception, which I decided to re-read this evening, in lieu of watching TV. (I read it when it came out, but I can’t remember the...
“Step 1: Pick FIVE things you need to do today, and write them down.
Step 2: Do...”
– Productivity: Get Some! – Part I - Tony Gentilcore
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“The message to children in the audience seems to be “Achievement is irrelevant...”
– Phil Greenspun realizes how the world now works as he reviews the movie Hugo.
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THINK GLOBALLY, ACT STRATEGICALLY
George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, his chronicle of the Spanish Civil War, is under copyright in the US, which means that Project Gutenberg doesn’t have it. Now, I could go on to one of the many file sharing sites that I’m told exist (I never visit them, of course ☺) and find a pirated copy.
But the world is a global place, with different rules and regulations. Which means...
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