So what, and why, is music? Why is the organisation of meaningless noises into arbitrary mathematical sequences more than a glorified parlour game? Why is it something we pay attention to, take seriously, even dedicate our lives to? Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, but I’ve been to places where I’ve seen a … Read more
To sit quietly and take in the view was unusual for Alexander Seymionovitch. His tall French windows flung wide open were like an extension of his arms warmly embracing the air of a new world which at least to him seemed astonishingly peaceful. Even though his thoughts circled like a pack of Siberian wolves, he … Read more
Painters talk of the temperature of paint. It’s warm. It’s cold. There are colours that complement each other, others that do not. Colour is sensory. It is non-verbal and arguably pre-verbal, and gives us a framework for how to navigate and sublimate our visual surroundings. The grass is green, the ocean is blue, the sun is … Read more
My Approach to Literary Networking after Francois Villon Most days I’d rather be bundled into the courthouse between two hairy policemen, with a highly debatable anorak dragged over my face, and blamed for killing Kirov – the crowd lobbing big thick spits and battering the van as I’m carted off – or be stopped at … Read more
Welcome to the second Cassandra Voices podcast introduced and written by Nicola Bigatti, and produced by Massimiliano Galli. This podcast was recorded in the heart of Dublin 8 in what used to be the studios of the 2014 indipendent project Radio Liberties. https://soundcloud.com/cassandra-voices/italian-library-podcast-ii This podcast continues a journey through Italian ‘Library Music,’ a vast catalogue … Read more
Over the treetops, along the edge of the upper lake, a merlin hunts a starling. Isolated from its flock, that starling fights to avoid the clutches of a small falcon. Fallen memories of past murmurations dance on the surface for a moment and then perish in the peaceful water below: it looks inevitable and only … Read more
Une Charogne (1859) is among the most important poems of the 19th century, containing all of its author’s ground-breaking aesthetic. Our own aesthetically challenged century could learn a lot from it, in terms of the aesthetic of rupture, spleen and discord. It is Baudelaire’s response, in a sense, to the early Romantics, such as John … Read more
The Happy Song of Us Okay to buy your grandchild an ice-cream. Illegal for them to lick it. Fine to bake granny a gleaming fruit cake, as long as you only email her a high resolution photo of it. Okay to give your son or daughter a bright new football. Illegal for them to kick … Read more
Fisheye I, smudge in the eyescape of others, As my trowel lodges in mulch, Palm-sore, snuggle the quiet bulbs Into the trickling earth which inhumes us, While these, artfully coned, only swoon To consecrate a humble bloom. The sun paints everslant shadows all day In this great sphere of transition Centring nowhere, where I witness … Read more
I go by the name of John Moods. I would like to share with you a little journey through my current thoughts – a small piece of my ever-shifting consciousness. Through my life’s journey I have come to realise that the source of my anxiety always stems from not knowing something. What I am, who … Read more