Short Poems
Amongst the sprawling fragments of prose and poetry which make up William Carlos Williams’ Spring and All (1923) lies the following: so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens Everything about the presentation of these lines is u
12/10/17: The ISIS Presents Live Wire
★ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ ⋆★ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ ⋆★ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ ⋆ WE’RE BACK ! Thursday 1st week we’re kicking off with Live Wire. Get yourselves down to Cellar (God bless its sweaty soul) to bust a groove with freaks and funk lovers alike. Our compadres over at […]
Restless Modernity: How sleeplessness reflects the peculiarities of contemporary life
“We live as we dream — alone…”—Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Attempting to characterise any period of history by one quality or sensation is, at best, a good way to cause an argument: at worst, a lazy oversimplification. Is the zeitgeist of a given era something that is generated
A Voice in the Storm
I’m on the black list over there, all of my books are banned… But I must always be faithful to the truth and to myself, no matter where I am. Stranded thousands of miles away from her family, her friends and her countrymen, the Syrian poet Maram al-Masri draws her strength from an unwavering
Gay men don’t get to be angry
In a gorgeous essay for Lenny released in June 2016, actress and comedian Casey Wilson quoted something her father used to say after one of his outbursts of rage. “Men have anger.” So do women, Wilson explains. And so do gay men, I’d add. This year, I had a rough summer, and read Wilson
On this day: The Joshua Tree
It’s a puzzle, liking U2. They make it so easy, and yet they make it so hard. From their post-punk 80’s through their post-modern 90’s to their post-post-modern 00’s and beyond, they’ve bombarded an impressionable world with suitably impressionistic music, music whose core concern often se
A Story of Spaces: the mind, the page, and the natural world
David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II has recently fallen prey to an attack by Martin Hughes-Games in the Guardian for presenting a view of the natural world that is too polished: too “luxurious” and too “escapist.” Despite Attenborough’s closing plea for us to “do everything within o
Strangers in a Room: An Interview With Mazdak Sanii
Mazdak Sanii is the COO of Boiler Room, the largest underground broadcasting platform in the world. Besides overseeing the day-to-day running of the company, Mazdak is in charge of cultivating one of the most exciting brands in the music industry. Wearily, he answers the phone. The last time we were
Faire Battre le coeur de la France: Benoit Hamon’s bid for French Presidency
I was told to open my bag, then my coat. All the volunteers were wearing thick coats, and were all very young or very old. The Japy location for Benoit Hamon’s political meet could welcome about 2,500 people. When I got there, at seven thirty, it was about half-capacity. On the first of Decemb