What else is on my mind?
Between hatching the bigger works (books), I have been a regular blogger and reviewer over the years. My topics can be reasonably eclectic, but books (other people’s books I’ve read and liked) and music feature prominently.
A selection of blogs from over the years follows.
In time, all else allowing, I propose to publish a collection of these smaller works – working title Out of My Head (maybe…). And watch for the occasional blog popping up online from me, or in my regular newsletter to those readers who like what I write.
The latest musing…
My Musings
Crisis? What Crisis…China Crisis!
Concerts that take my fancy are few and far between at the moment. One I booked earlier this year, couldn't find anyone wanted to go with, and had largely forgotten in [...]
Getting back
Just saw my first live concert in a long while – cheers COVID. It was filmed 53 years ago. Yeah, you picked it – The Beatles rooftop concert from the Let [...]
Hitting the spot
Spotify. What’s that about? I know what it does, but working the word-association cogs I still can’t make the connection. But to the beast itself. What a fascinating presence in our [...]
Internal comms – common fails and possible fixes
COVID-19’s impact on the workplace has been vividly depicted on our news channels for many months. It’s been an ongoing narrative of disruption, threatening mental wellbeing and personal and business prosperity, [...]
Mixed Allsorts
Grinding out some exercise on the exercycle and listening to a playlist on Spotify – a go-to set of live songs I like - got me thinking about live music in [...]
Fairytale family feel the effects
The tentacles of COVID-19 have moved quickly to get a grasp on the world and slow a lot of everyday life to a halt. One boarding house that has felt the [...]
Pentatonix Review 15 February 2020
Pentatonix are a five-person acapella singing group out of the US, who earned global fame as winners of the NBC Sing-off acapella TV comp in the States. But if you’re reading [...]
Our National Holidays 1st XI – player reviews
Twenty Nineteen was a mixed year for New Zealand’s National Holiday team - and thus far 2020 has seen a similar display of form, the COVID-19 distractions notwithstanding. They all fronted [...]
Behind The Song (2015)
Music is one of life’s pure treasures – but the lyrics that accompany the sound of instruments deserve attention too. My take on the subject. You’ll have seen from the previous [...]
Familiar Fellas (2018)
What sort of (fiction) writing do you come back to year after year, knowing you won’t be disappointed? Here’s my list. This is a love story of sorts. If you’ve followed [...]
Something Utterly Else – David Byrne in Concert (2018)
I’ve reviewed a fair few concerts and CDs over the years, but this was one of the standout gigs – game-changing. It’s been a few weeks since I saw David Byrne [...]
Magpie The Writer (2014)
How do you write, creatively? Big question with zillions of words written on the subject. This was a short impressionistic urging on the subject from 2014. Whatever it is, it must [...]
Character Building (2015)
Review of The Road to Character by David Brooks (Random House 2015). What’s your CV/Resume say about you? And what will people say about you at your funeral? Those two questions (and the [...]
Beyond Global Warming (2015)
Review of Deep Future by Curt Stager (St. Martin’s Press, 2011) subtitled The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth One of my favourite Charlie Brown lines is when Linus says “Life [...]
The Forgotten War
Review of Testimony by Scott Turow (Grand Central Publishing, 2017) and They Would Never Hurt a Fly by Slavenka Drakulic (Penguin, 2004). I mentioned Scott Turow in the last blog and I wanted [...]
Dreamtime (2014)
Review of The Mind at Night by Andrea Rock (Basic Books/Perseus - 2004) What the heck is a dream? Over the years I’ve tried to make sense of the dream world, simply [...]
Whirlwind Moments in History (2018)
Review of This is an Uprising by Paul Engler (Nation Books 2016) subtitled How nonviolent revolt is shaping the 21st century) One of the problems with observing global change from New Zealand is [...]