TO THE LIGHTHOUSE...

(The rather lovely Patrick Wolf, photographer currently unknown. But regardless, I'm very fond of this shot.)

MUSIC
Extraneous personal stuff: I'm off to Cornwall for a few days in a few days, which means A) no pithy little pop culture nuggets for you, and B) Patrick Wolf's gorgeous second album Wind In The Wires for me. For the uninitiated: it's a record all about Cornwall, and I'm excited at the prospect of listening to it whilst zooming through the landscape it so beautifully sets to music. Here's the title track...


After stalking The Pains of Being Pure At Heart's Kip Berman on last.fm (findable here, if you're interested) and listening to his favourite tracks, I hit upon this absolute gem. Words just cannot convey how unbelievably cool this track is. There's just no other way of putting it. I give you Polaroid/Roman/Photo, by 'French synthwave[rs]' Ruth...


Also, and sadly not available on youtube, personal fanboy favourites Parenthetical Girls are set to release Part II of their Privilege 12" set soon. Part II is entitled The Past, Imperfect, and you can listen to the track Young Throats at this website heyar. (The frankly awful blather is simply not my responsibility; I link for the musc, and if that 'site poisons your mind I shan't be held accountable.)

Also, whilst I remember, and of course assuming you're interested, my last.fm can be found here.

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BOOKS

Latest reading has been, newspapers and assorted articles aside, Wilde's The Critic As Artist. As far as I can tell, it's the fullest statement of his aestheticism, and crucially also a scintillating, wonderful read. It's in dialogue form, and often seems simply to be a vehicle for his infamous epigrammatic wit. I would talk on, but I don't want to spoil just how good it is for you. Well worth taking a day or two to digest and enjoy.

An online version is available here, but as ever I fear the printed word reads best when printed- your kindle/ipad/e-reader be damned. As a corollary: that version is 'unable to reproduce' the occasional bouts of Greek Oscar indulged in, so you will actually miss a fair bit of the dialogue's meaning. Yet another reason to get yourself to the bookshop.

Reading whilst I am away shall be: Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, a book of Plath's poems, a book of essays on the philosophy of law, and nothing else. For now, goodbye.

"Let us go... and look at the roses. Come! I am tired of thought."