A New Introduction

I am treating myself to a fresh start. The rather disparate and infrequent series of entries I’ve put up here since 2013 have been hidden away and I’m relaunching the site with renewed focus and commitment. Indeed, I’m so confident and fired up at the moment that I’ve shaped out three separate but related blogging projects: one for the stories of Henry James, one for the songs of John Darnielle and this one for everything else: books, films and music mainly, I imagine, though food, golf and gardening may feature too. As I am no doubt talking mostly to (and for) myself here, I give myself permission to write about whatever takes my fancy.  

Like everyone, I only have so much time and attention to give. And yet, like everyone, I have wasted so much of both these valuable commodities over the years. More and more, I am determined to part with them purposefully, spending them only on the things that matter to me most: my family and friends, of course, my work as a teacher, but also my cultural choices, the things I chose to read, watch, listen to and take part in. This, it seems to me, is the sanest way to proceed: to lean into my tastes and preferences while limiting the time I give to things that don’t really mean much to me; to celebrate what it is I like about the things I like most; to gather my thoughts about them and find a way of putting those thoughts into words. This blog, then, is an exercise in self-discipline and self-discovery: if I can work out what exactly it is I am responding to in, say, a Buster Keaton film or a Mountain Goats song, I will know and understand myself that much better. And any writing I manage to finish and put out into the world shores up my spirits.

As I write this in the summer of 2021, with a few weeks’ holiday left to me before the new school year gets going, my choice of driving music is often either The Fall or LCD Soundsystem and when I’m not playing clumsy golf I’m hungrily re-reading Don DeLillo. No doubt these choices will be reflected in what follows here. Let's see.