Life is all about finesse. Risotto Recipes and Dirty Man Lyrics are on my mind. My Saturday night fever at Pelican River with the stunning view of the city was filled with dancing to the most amazing voices on earth. There are not many star chefs spread across the culinary universe who can match S skills. Not content with the bussiest week at work S slaved all arvo with unshakeable self-confidence to make the table look creatively crowded. It wasn't the place setting, which was a model of simplicity: a glass or two, polished to a shine, a knife and a fork each. And it certainly wasn't the table itself, which was a snowfield of china, custom-made candles. It was the memories of all the other truly great meals I have eaten, clamouring around it, as if trying to get a look. It was the memory of my mum who once cooked funghi porcini mushrooms. Like a moth to the flame, I'm forever circling back to New Zealand blancs, lured by their beauty in spite of the obvious hazards. It's all too easy to get burned by drinking five bottles in one night ... but I keep trying. Ach, I don't just listen to crackly old soul music like Nick Cave Are You The One That I've Been Waiting For? you know. Sometimes I listen to crackly NEW soul music too of Joss Stone variety ...
A fresh performance of a 'classic' is only like a new edition of an established masterpiece of literature. And the literary critics do not have to review new editions at any length; they merely publish a paragraph drawing attention to the blue buckram, the gilt-edges, and the bold lettering. They are not expected to sit up late on a chilly night writing a column about nothing new at all. It is a pleasant task sometimes to do this writing about nothing new; it is a challenge to ingenuity, a sort of Chardin problem of setting whites in the foreground against whites in a background that is not far back enough; but the task and the pleasure need not be carried too far—certainly not beyond the extent of a column, with the midnight hour at hand, and the temperature falling, and a distance to cover before the weary scribe gets to his pillow, resigned to the thought that whatever he has written will not be read, ever again, after twelve o'clock the next day, but will go down slowly and unobserved into the general dust.
-Neville Cardus, review of a concert by Sir Thomas Beecham and the Hallé Orchestra (Manchester Guardian, Oct. 20, 1938, courtesy of Richard Zuelch)
Jozef Imrich is no stranger to multiple points of view on book marketing. Two zillion books a year are published, of which top one hundred are given the Big Rush, and all the rest tend to drown without a trace ... In these crazy times, we have to keep our eyes on the things that matter most: the shelf life of our books ... Is Anyone Buzzing Your Book? Get people buzzing, take the BUZZ YOUR BOOK marketing class with international bestseller M.J. Rose. The course is like Prozac for authors… Language of bohemian buzz ups: A whiter shade of grey
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Come Early Morning: How to survive the end of an affair
Your relationship died for a reason, and that should be celebrated, not mourned. But it makes no attempt to gloss over the pain of such splits: Break-ups hurt like a mother------, But they are not the end of the world. The pain is temporary, and if handled properly, they can even be life-changing.
The book's cold-river approach struck more than a nerve among discontented women everywhere. We're two people who have both experienced truly self-esteem-crushing, spirit-breaking, gut-wrenchingly painful break-ups. 'Are you sure you want to make this call, sir?' And I had a moment. No, I don't want to make this call. I've made this call before. This call never works out. The last shreds of my dignity still intact. The next day, he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and began to turn his life around. That relationship changed my entire life," he says. "On the heels of it, I got sober, I made some career choices, I stopped borrowing money. I became a different person.
• Laughing it off: Break-ups hurt like a mother------ The last shreds of my dignity still intact [Free Jozef Imrich! He's been dumped by stoned suburban housewife ;-) Saving Bob Marley from his fans ; Russia: Olga Gurova is helping to fill the information gap on underwear that developed during the cold war. Soviet underwear was not about sex, it was about sport Red stars and bras ; Amerika: Some Christian ministries attempt to spread the word of God on street corners. JC's Girls Girls Girls prefers strip clubs Jesus Loves Strippers ]
• · Verkhoyansk is the iciest city on the globe. It's now trying to use the frigid record to attract tourists. The Cold War at the Arctic Circle ; East to West Migration: Russian Migrants in Western Europe
• · · Influence for fashion has long been sought from the most remote corners of the world. But where might this process be leading us in the era of globalization? A Global Sense of Fashion ; Your taste in music can reveal a lot about you, giving accurate clues to your personality. What's Your Soundtrack? ; And what you don't know about Facebook: It may be more sinister than you think Facebook for Big Brother
• · · · With tougher times ahead, critics are wondering how much of that success is down to the new rules and how much to benign global conditions. The return of macroeconomics ; A n article on the secrets behind the Index of Forbidden Books It was the most ambitious censorship drive the world has ever known
• · · · · In modern academe, leaders face spotlight. There is little forgiveness; School of Hard Knocks Summers Postmortem, Beyond Cambridge ; We didn't think we were hiring Dag Hammarskjold ; What Larry Summers's resignation means for Harvard and the university system. The End of Summers
• · · · · · Eternity is a long time to go without sex Forget the virgins: Is there sex in heaven? ; Moments Of Clarity