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There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to; and that is, every now and then to be completely idle,—to do nothing at all.
Sydney Smith, Lectures on Moral Philosophy

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Literature, Like Wood From Cold River, is Immortal
Cut from logs that sank maybe two centuries ago as they were being floated to frontier settlements, the wood -- rot-free because there's almost no oxygen in the cold waters where it was preserved -- has a richness and density rare in younger timber.
What of the last or late period of life, the decay of the body, the onset of ill health (which, in a younger person, brings on the possibility of an untimely end)? These issues, which interest me for obvious personal reasons, have led me to look at the way in which the work of some artists acquires a new idiom towards the end of their lives - what I've come to think of as a late style.
• The Luthier's Secret: Cold Water & Vibrational Energy [It Takes A Village of Vrbov To Cross The Cold (War) River ... But I'll Will Not Dob Vrbov In, I promise ; The Deadline Poet Gets Political (And Popular) ]
• · 'Operation Homecoming: Writing In A Time Of War [Art exists in a context inevitably conditioned by politics, and politics and the values behind it express themselves in art. There is an obvious linkage between mass commercial art and politics, quite apart from individual actors and directors and pop musicians espousing a political view. Popular art makes money by reflecting what its producers think people want: But given the leftward tilt of Hollywood and our coastal cultural elites, the right has reason to complain that commercial television, films and music often advance a left-leaning political agenda ]
• · · Cold River Will Make You A More Dangerous Person: There are dangers. But there are riches. And we can find them, if only we disperse the pious fog that is gathering around book culture. At their best, books are invitations to fight, not calls to prayer [Keeping Track Of Books (Readers Too?)
• · · · Why Do We Read? I suspect reading Cold River is a form of structured escape and voyeurism- like a dream, but under better control: Without books, history is silent, literature is dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill
[We don't need no thought control]
• · · · · Cold Celluloideyes: We love to videotape and film things because we get the impression that film is forever
• · · · · · People are prepared to believe the worst of the Politics - even in the 21st Century AD A political song is one that if you played it to Mark Latham, Tony Abbot or Donald Rumsfeld, they would give up their career and enter a monastery