Rokia Traore does Gershwin

I first saw this video of Rokia Traore performing a while ago courtesy of TED and was drawn in by the combination of instrument and vocals in a way that only rarely happens with me. A friend, mentioning that I'd recently mentioned her, pointed me to NPR's Song of the Day for January 27th, 2009. Something of a wow factor here, shooting off in a surprising but stunning direction.

(cautionary note: once you start on TED, it's pretty difficult to stop)

In conversation with the American Dream.

There's a sense of satisfaction in discovering a book that you feel is good enough to recommend to good friends. Somehow though, there is more pleasure in being on the receiving end of a good suggestion from a good friend. This was the case recently spending some time in the company of Joseph O'Neill's writing and his first novel Netherland. Just reading it would have been enough, but since plenty of others seemed to enjoy this, there was plenty with which to follow-up once the covers of the book had been closed. Normal searches in the normal places bring up interviews with the author, which in turn shed light on some interesting detail about the book and the author. Among these, discovering that it had been seven years in the writing made me want to go back and read it a bit more slowly; it seems rather insulting to that effort to have read it in just two sittings.

Although a bit late in coming to it, among my regular listening subscriptions I found a look at the book in Slate magazine's Audio Book Club. I enjoy this show's format, with three people in informal discussion. I know that somewhere in there will be comments that fit with mine and others that won't; either way it forces me to consider my own thoughts and opinions. With the book drawing comment that it was "in conversation with" Gatsby--from its author and others--I'd decided to go back and re-read the high school standard. Happy, then, to find that the good people at Slate had had exactly the same idea and had that up for discussion as well short while after.

Darwin

With 2009 being the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th of the publication of Origin of the Species, there are bound to be events all over the web. I proffer as good a start as any is to spend a bit of time with Melvin Bragg. The In Our Time programme has put together a series as part of the larger project between the BBC and the Open University (in itself a world to get lost in--a mature online learning resource).

Alan Johnston

It is a shame that the BBC doesn't give us a complete audio archive of its flagship From Our Own Correspondent programme, it being the essential listening that it is.

Presented by Alan Johnston, the 3rd of January edition included dispatches from Hugh Sykes on corruption and fear in Afghanistan; Paul Martin in Gaza meeting men from Hamas; Sue Lloyd Roberts on how oil brought greed to Nigeria; Emilio San Pedro on being a Cuban exile on the US mainland; and Nick Rankin in remote Britain. All this in under half an hour.

Alan Johnston presents the World Service broadcast version of this programme, with the domestic UK Radio 4 one being fronted by Kate Adie (why the difference?). I recently saw him interviewing Ingrid Betancourt on tv (seems the BBC have left this for us to revisit) and found it quite affecting. His own personal reflections on this interview from an earlier FOOC were equally so, if not more.

Talking to the Professionals

Tales of professional poker (and if anyone can do it), a kind of basketball and crafts (of the handy kind).

Much of my listening is done on the run. That is, literally, while running. One of the challenges of this approach, is to do a good job of keeping mental notes of things I need to look up when I get back home. Today though was easy. An episode of This American Life called "Meet the Pros" had me with just one note: Look up Luis Da Silva. Still sweaty, appropriately so I suppose, I went straight for the computer. Despite being undeniably impressive, I'm not sure if it quite lives up to the hype journalist Joel Lovell gave it. Maybe it's just the wrong kind of ball for me?

Two Short Stories

I listened to both of these stories at some point last year, but had a feeling that I hadn't concentrated on them as much as I might. E L Doctorow read the O'Hara story and Mary Gaitskill the Nabokov. The first came back to me as I listened, but Symbols required a third listening to feel what gave it resonance.

New Yorker Fiction - John O'Hara's Graven Image and Nabokov's Symbols and Signs