Author Archives: Houyhnhnm

Aussie Pink Floyd

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

What’s going on when I’m playing music I’ve known all my life – playing it either in my head or in iTunes? It’s something quite different from when I’m listening to something new; it’s a kind of comfort, a predictable … Continue reading →

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Consciousness: A performance lecture by Marcus du Sautoy, featuring music by James Holden

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

Barbican Hall. Two halves. Probably meant to be Left and Right: the first was an illustrated lecture on where brain science is today; the second a longish performance of some world-music-type music, designed to see if this could alter our … Continue reading →

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“On the Saltmarsh” by Ruth Valentine

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

[Poetry Café, 25th January] Paul and I stumbled into the Poetry Café and caught the second half of Ruth Valentine’s reading from On The Saltmarsh, bumping into Paul’s sister-in-law as we did so. The main reason I guess for hearing … Continue reading →

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“McCool” by Aidan Andrew Dun

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

With Aidan’s poetry I’m always amazed at what I was trying to get at when writing about Unholyland but didn’t nail. Trying again now, after reading Aidan’s two Middle-Eastern verse epics in the wrong order. What it is is a … Continue reading →

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Google (verb)

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

February 2013: a student in Year 9 suggesting to a friend to “Google the word in the dictionary” – “Google” meaning nothing more than “look up”, even in a – shock horror – book.

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Lincoln

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

Absorbing and exciting, and dominated as everyone has been saying by an unreal performance by Daniel Day Lewis – even less real after I saw the actual actor getting an award. And the voice is at least as important as … Continue reading →

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Oedipus at Colonus (King’s College production and subsequent rereading)

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

After seeing King’s College do this in Greek last week I thought I’d read this, for the first time in 30 years. Quite different from what I’d remembered, and from what I’d told the kids on the train, and, strangely, … Continue reading →

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“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes & “The Reader” by Bernard Schlink

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

Strange how things fit together by chance. I read these two back to back with no thought of connections. Both are short novels, novellas, intellectually “about” “history”, and written by male narrators each looking back over a relationship with a … Continue reading →

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“Minotaur” by Harrison Birtwhistle

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

Managed to see this revival – £13 ticket up high on the side – but enjoyed it much more than the first time: I was spellbound more or less from start to finish, by both the music and the spectacle … Continue reading →

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“Unholyland” by Aidan Andrew Dun

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Houyhnhnm

Another step on Aidan Andrew Dun’s journey towards the poetic recognition he so deserves, and perhaps a major milestone: he now has his name and words fixed in stone at King’s Cross, and has attracted, for the cover of this … Continue reading →

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