-
Meta
Editorial Staff
Denise Dutton
Cat Eldridge
Jennifer Stevenson
Robert Tilendis
Gary WhitehouseSearch
-
Recent Posts
- What’s New for the 22nd of December: A Solstice Story, Crow Girls, Scrooge, Marley, Elizabeth I, Revels and more festive holiday reading; The Lion in Winter on stage and screen; Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span, Christine Lavin, swinging jazz and more holiday sounds
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Fireplaces
- What’s New for the 8th of December: Elizabeth Bear fiction; some holiday related offerings including new music from The Unthanks, Americana tinged jazz, Polar Express, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Eggnog
- What’s New for the 24th of November: Norwegian winter holiday music, archival jazz, new roots music from around Europe, and more; books and what not about things fictional & medæival
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Pudding
- What’s New for the 10th of November: a grab bag of books from our favorite authors; Richard Thompson and Stephane Grappelli on film; music from all over; and comfort food
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Brandy (A Letter to Tessa)
- What’s New for the 27th of October: The Byrds Live, Trader Joe’s Organic Hot Cocoa Mix, Some Excellent Music Reviews, Folkmanis Puppets of an Autumnal Nature, The Mouse Guard begins…
- A Kinrowan Estate story: All The World’s A Stage
- What’s New for the 13th of October: Elizabeth Bear tends a pot of turkey stock, Groot and Rocket Raccoon, A Video and Fiction set in India, Tasty music reviews, and music from Irish trad band Clannad
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Autumn is Here (A Letter to Anna)
- What’s New for the 29th of September: Louisiana’s Lost Bayou Ramblers, live music by Kathryn Tickell, Ottawa based urban fantasies by Charles de Lint, Norwegian saxophonist Karl Seglem, Gus on the Estate Kitchen garden and other Autumnal matters
- What’s New for the 15th of September: Autumn on the Estate is here
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Pudding Contest
- What’s New for the 1st of September: A grab bag of books, music, and film that touch on the theme of work
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Ghostly Librarian
- What’s New for the 18th of August:
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Breakfast, Korean Style
- What’s New for the 4th of August: A raft of Cuban music reviews; Trader Joe’s chocolate peanut butter cookies; Looking at J.R.R. Tolkien; And a Cuban band documentary
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Kedgeree
- What’s New for July 21st: All music — books on The Pogues, Sandy Denny, Lowell George, Zappa, and more; Cajun mardi gras on film; and Cajun, zydeco, and klemer related music
- A Kinrowan Estate Stoty: A Guest Lecturer
- What’s New for the 7th of July: A Passel of Roger Zelazny Reviews, A Write-up of an Irish Pub, Two Pieces of Live Music by Rosanne Cash, Where Irish Coffee Originated, Irish (and a Little Welsh) Music of a Modern Sort
- A Travels Abroad story: Truly Shitty Celtic Metal
- What’s New for the 23rd of June: A special edition for the Solstice, Wales in literature and music, and yes, in film.
- A Kinrowan Story: The Oak King
- What’s New for the 9th of June: Some beach reads — dark fantasy, superhero romance, comic fantasy and teen aliens; Finnish fiddles, Swedish-American jazz, and an Earl Scruggs tribute, and a grab bag of archival music; glam rock on film; an Alan Moore tribute
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Chasing Fireflies
- What’s New for the 26th of May: Taza Chocolate, June Tabor live (twice), music books, remembering a beloved Irish singer, a beloved Canadian singer, and more
-
Start your VIP journey at JokaRoom VIP today! Enjoy top games & jackpots in Australia's premier online casino.
Tag Archives: biography
Giorgia Grilli’s Myth, Symbol and Meaning in Mary Poppins: the Governess as Provacteur; and Valerie Lawson’s Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
Faced with two books on a similar theme, where one is a critical analysis and the other a biography, I am generally inclined to the critical analysis. As an academic historian, I regard biography with a certain amount of suspicion. … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged biography, fantasy, literary criticism, literary fiction
Comments Off on Giorgia Grilli’s Myth, Symbol and Meaning in Mary Poppins: the Governess as Provacteur; and Valerie Lawson’s Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
Jack Vance’s This Is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is I)
Jack Vance has been one of the most continuously productive and popular and arguably one of the most influential writers of science-fiction. He’s also a mystery writer of note. (His is a name that I see popping up again and … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged autobiography, biography, non-fiction
Comments Off on Jack Vance’s This Is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is I)
Luis Ortiz’ Emshwiller: Infinity x Two — The Art and Life of Ed and Carol Emshwiller
“I like the idea of going through different careers. It’s like being reborn a number of times.” That is probably the best summation of Ed Emshwiller’s life, from the horse’s mouth. Known to science-fiction fans of the 1950s, ’60s and … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged biography, illustration, nonfiction, science fiction
Comments Off on Luis Ortiz’ Emshwiller: Infinity x Two — The Art and Life of Ed and Carol Emshwiller
Colin McPhee’s A House in Bali
Colin McPhee, a Canadian-American composer who had much more influence on American music than the body of his music might indicate (see Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds by Carol J. Oja), left behind two books that were as influential, … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged autobiography, biography, music
Comments Off on Colin McPhee’s A House in Bali
Carol J. Oja’s Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds
The music of the East, particularly the gamelan of Indonesia, and even more particularly that of Bali, has a longer history of interaction with the music of the West than many might imagine. Claude Debussy first encountered the gamelan in … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged American music, biography, music, world music
Comments Off on Carol J. Oja’s Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds
Jean-Marie Déguignet’s Memoirs of a Breton Peasant [ed. Bernez Rouz; English trans. Linda Asher]
It is not often that one gets to read the memoirs of a peasant, because it’s not often that a peasant writes a memoir. This particular peasant was Breton, which is, for those fascinated by a part of the world … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged autobiography, biography, history
Comments Off on Jean-Marie Déguignet’s Memoirs of a Breton Peasant [ed. Bernez Rouz; English trans. Linda Asher]
Joseph Bristow, ed.: Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture: The Making of a Legend
From the vantage of a century later, it’s hard for us to understand the last years of Oscar Wilde’s life and those immediately after his death. His disgrace after his conviction for committing acts of “gross indecency” with another man … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged biography, critical studies
Comments Off on Joseph Bristow, ed.: Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture: The Making of a Legend
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey
I’ve been reading Joseph Campbell’s books for decades, beginning with the massive, four volume The Masks of God in the late 1960s or 1970s. (I’m not sure what it says about me that I would jump right into a 2,000 … Continue reading
Arnold Steinhardt’s Violin Dreams
I run across a fair number of musical biographies, autobiographies, reminiscences, and the like, all the way from Berlioz as seen by his contemporaries to Ned Rorem’s somewhat scandalous diaries. The common thread, of course, is that they are about … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged biography, classical music, music
Comments Off on Arnold Steinhardt’s Violin Dreams
Michael Rose: Berlioz Remembered; Hector Berlioz (trans.and ed. by Alastair Bruce): The Musical Madhouse (Les Grotesques de la musique)
If the Paris of the 19th century was considered the cultural capital of the world, it was with good reason: of the major artistic and intellectual figures of the age, those who did not live there made a point of … Continue reading