Tribute Acts Each witch hunt is a tribute act to the last. There is always a committee of three. The gravity in the room is such they struggle to manoeuvre the enormity of their serious faces in the door. Except in the TV version, there is hardly ever a microphone. Though they will usually give … Read more
By the time I got to Lenny’s place he was pacing up and down out front; his unusually frantic movement a poor advertisement for the stuff he was peddling; the stuff I was there to collect. He had his navy blue Boy Scout shorts on with a sleeveless t-shirt that allowed tanned biceps to stick … Read more
11 Jumpers Caterina Schembri When the film is over, with the lights still off and the low buzz of people leaving the room, I like to stay in my seat while the credits roll. There is a special kind of magic hidden in the image of thousands of scrolling names, like a vibrant tapestry carefully … Read more
The First Obscenity Before we turned our eyes from nudity, Or banished certain words, death was the first Obscenity—the one from which the rest, In time, would find their way. The first To make a joke of life. The first To show us what may come of children’s games: A skull left caked in mud, … Read more
Around the beginning of the second century AD, the Greek writer Plutarch unknowingly created the spark for a flame of artistic inspiration which, not unlike the notion of the ancient Olympic torch, has transcended millennia until today. He might, perhaps, have nourished the expectation that his work’s renown would outlive him, but he could not … Read more
The Joke after Walter Benjamin A barrel of industrial waste poured into a suit donated by a casino owner who knows people with a tangerine tea towel tossed strategically on top because it was the only available metaphor for hair was running for re-election as CEO of South Canadia against an old coat with holes … Read more
Britain has produced its fair share of major public intellectual figures. Having surveyed the legacies of George Orwell, Christopher Hitchens, the Irish-born Edmund Burke and contemporary leading lights John Gray and Jonathan Sumption, I now turn my attention to the great radical historian E. P. Thompson. Intellectuals often stand apart from a mainstream radical tradition. … Read more
Spolia Opima Models, slender and famished as cheetahs, Shed their imperial haute couture— Already in sweatpants, they hail their cabs Behind the Grand Palais before Applause dies down inside around The vacant runway. Afternoon sunlight’s Lambent overhead on friezes of Lutetian Limestone. Violinists grimace at their scores— Haydn, Hollywood, the B’s and Broadway hits, Rehearsal … Read more
Last week Andrea Reynell met renowned Irish man-of-letters Ronan Sheehan in his Dublin home. They discussed his abiding passion for Latin poetry, the challenges and opportunities for young writers and what has inspired him to assemble a volume of translations of Cuban poetry from a range of Irish writers. I was welcomed into a cosy … Read more
I am a visual artist and improvising musician. I trained as a painter, but also worked with various media including sound, installation/performance, sculpture, print and photography during my studies. My visual work since leaving college in 1987 has largely centred around photomontage, and in recent years has moved into painting and drawing (still using photography … Read more