Start the week #95
Book reviews, music, persiflage
Greetings!
Sorry this is a day late. Here’s a photo of my assistant:
But enough of this persiflage: on with the newsletter!
Terry
The book pile
This is just a very quick heads-up. I’m just about to send off four reviews to Teach Secondary magazine. I will post the reviews here once they’ve been published there (that’s the deal), but here are one-liners to whet your appetite.
A Town Without Time: Gay Talese’s New York
Talese is a master of close observation. This is a great collection that includes his seminal Frank Sinatra Has A Cold, plus many others I hadn’t heard of. Essential reading for any writer, and people who love reading creative nonfiction.
Pen Names
You probably have no idea what lies behind the adoption of some pen names! This delightful and dip-intoable book will tell you everything you need to know — and probably more than you need to!
Adaptable
This is about how people have developed different aspects of their biology/physiology in response to local conditions in their part of the world. It is the first book about biology that I’ve really understood.
The Library of Ancient Wisdom
It was burnt to the ground, but miraculously the fire itself ensured that at least some of the knowledge accrued was not only not lost, but actually preserved. I haven’t finished reading it yet, but it’s a fascinating story so far.
Books pending
I have a few other books waiting to be properly reviewed, which I anticipate will be soon. They are:
The Penguin Book of Bengali Short Stories
This is a huge collection. The stories are all different and, what I really like, quite different from English and American ones. They really provide a short glimpse into a culture of which I am almost completely ignorant.
The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories
The PR person at Penguin kindly drew my attention to the introduction, which explains why the editor compiled and organised the stories in the way she did. Fascinating and interesting, but the stand-out aspect of this collection for me is the way it has been organised into categories, a brave choice I think:
Couples
Men behaving badly
Women behaving badly
Misfits
Soldiers
Surrealists
Survivors
I want to read the stories in the Survivors section, but I am waiting for when I feel robust enough. At least one of the authors spent time in a concentration camp and one, like Primo Levi, committed suicide after the war.
Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home
Over in education technology land, almost 25 years ago Marc Prensky coined the term “digital native” to refer to those people who have been brought up in an era of computing and related technology, and so feel completely at ease with it. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not the case that youngsters are always experts in that area, but as Marc remarked to me a few years ago, it’s just a metaphor. The reason I’m mentioning it here is that Listen In makes a point I had never considered before: the people who were born and brought up in the era when radio first became widely available could be regarded as “radio natives”. It must have been quite something to be able to listen to news and entertainment in the comfort of your own home for the first time. I’m very much looking forward to reading this.
The Many Lives of Anne Frank
Biography is not a genre I tend to pay much attention to, but I’ve been invited to review this and I have to say it sounds fascinating – especially as, like many others I suspect, I didn’t think there was much more to say. From the blurb: “Comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit, this book chronicles and interprets Anne’s life as a Jew in Amsterdam during World War II while also telling the story of the diary—its multiple drafts, its discovery, its reception, and its message for today’s world.”
Sax chronicles
I’ve been pretty tired recently because of a series of infections. Consequently, practising has been a bit sporadic. I’m getting back on track now, but it’s a bit hit and miss. For example, in the most recent sax lesson, we were each asked to improvise in A minor. I was doing that at home a few months ago, and was determined at that time to not start on A, because that’s a bit obvious. I did some good stuff at that point. So what did I do in the lesson? Started on A, because I find that as soon as the spotlight is on me my mind goes blank.
It’s strange that this should happen though. When I was really into playing blues harmonica I was very happy to perform in front of hundreds of people, or take a solo when there were just a few of us, even when spontaneous, ie unrehearsed. I didn’t think twice about it, so I’m not sure what’s going on with me now as far as the sax is concerned.
If I had to rate my performance last Saturday, I think I would say “competent”. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty unfortunate indictment. Imagine if you were in one of my creative writing classes and submitted a piece of work, and my assessment was “competent”. You would probably never show up again, and quite frankly I wouldn’t blame you.
Yesterday I tried practising at home, and it was complete rubbish. My instrument started off being too sharp, so I adjusted it, and then it became too flat. Then I just couldn’t seem to play in tune to a backing track – it was a bit “off”. In the end I gave up, but tackled it again this morning. Looking at the situation with fresh eyes, I realised I’d been playing A minor against a backing track of C minor. Once I’d transposed the backing track to A minor, it all went reasonably well (at first!).
In literature, there’s a prize called The Bad Sex in Fiction Awards, given to authors who write sex scenes in an excruciatingly awful way. I wonder if in the music world we ought to have the Bad Sax Awards. I think I’d be in with a good chance at the moment!
Still, as I say to my students, I won’t accept negative ad hominem comments, and that includes your own comments about yourself.
A nice surprise and a nasty shock
Speaking of creative writing classes, the other day I was looking for the link to the Creative Writing With Constraints course I have coming up. As there are hundreds of courses on offer I tend to search for my name because it’s quicker than searching on the course title. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I’m down to teach a course in January called The 60 Minute Writer. Surprised and shocked because when I taught it earlier this year I was told it was just a cover for one term. It turns out that the usual tutor has opted out, so they gave it to me – but forgot to let me know! I’m delighted of course. I will be creating a course that will not be the same as the last one, because some people do the same course more than once.
Before I knew I would be teaching that, I applied to teach two other courses on creative writing, one of which runs in the same term. If I am successful, I think I am going to have my work cut out for me!
Mind you, I may just respond to each item of work submitted with this photo:
It’s very satisfying, though, especially when students successfully pitch publications.
In case you’re thinking about taking one of my courses, here are some comments from students about a recent course:
The course was excellent. Terry created a safe space for us to share our writing. I felt he managed to pack a lot in such a short course and I have learnt a lot from it. I wish the course was longer and I would love to have continued studying with Terry. I hope he will be back on schedule soon!The quality of Terry's teaching, resources, feedback and suggested reading exceeded my already high expectations for the course. I thoroughly enjoyed every session, was grateful for the encouragement to work on my writing between sessions, and was delighted and impressed to have received constructive and helpful feedback on every piece I submitted.Supportive and encouraging. Terry held a safe space making it easy to share creative writing. I appreciated his feedback.Such wonderful dedication and personal attentionHere’s the link to my next course again: Creative Writing Using Constraints.
Inside Freedman Towers
I was disposing of the Sunday newspaper’s supplements into the recycle bin.
Me: Oh my God! Oh no!
Elaine: What’s happened?? What’s wrong?? 😱
Me: I was about to throw out this magazine before I realised I hadn’t seen this article: How to have a beach-ready body.
Elaine: 🙄
I went for an eye test yesterday. The optician said there was hardly any change from 18 months ago, which was good news.
I was teaching a class of Year 9 pupils (14 year-olds) once, and had this exchange with them:
Me: I went for an eye test yesterday.
Students: Oh yes?
Me: Yes, it was really embarassing.
Students: Why?
Me: Well, she obviously fancied me.
Students: How do you know?
Me: Because she kept looking into my eyes.
Students: That’s what opticians are supposed to do!!!
Me: No, this was above and beyond. She even used some sort of telescope thing to have a closer look.
Students: 🙄
Follows
Recently I’ve had a deluge of new followers. It is my custom to always follow back. However, after following back several people I noticed that many of them didn’t have a proper profile, so I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re spam bots. Has anyone else experienced this?
Puzzle solution
Last time |I asked you to solve this cryptic crossword clue:
Concise crossword usually reasonably tractable at first (4)
The answer is CURT. Here’s how it works. Like all cryptic crossword clues it has two parts: the definition, which is the word or phrase that constitutes the answer, and the indication, which tells you how to solve it. In this case:
Definition: Concise. That is, we’re looking for a word that means concise.
Indication: Crossword usually reasonably tractable at first. The phrase “at first” tells you to use the first letters of the words “crossword usually reasonably tractable”, which gives you CURT. (I know that doesn’t quite mean the same as “concise”, but don’t shoot the messenger, ok?)
Other indications for this kind of clue are “primarily” and “heads” — as in They Adorn Many Scotsmen’s heads — which gives you TAMS, a type of hat worn by Scotsmen. Clever, eh?
Articles you may have missed
Symposium: a collection of writing on the theme of sport – including my own contribution
Beyond Bloomsbury This newsletter by
is one of my favourites: art, biography and other writing, and always intriguing.Next week I will be writing to
in response to her letter to me. Do read it, and her other writing. Her newsletter is another one of my favourites:I am still in catch-up mode as far as Substack newsletters are concerned, hence this rather brief list for now.
Videos
The driving test
Top UK TV adverts
Some of these are quite funny. They were made before advertisers assumed that the average IQ of the average viewer was not much higher than the tv set they were watching.
Interview with comedian Les Dawson
I love his quip about the orchestra!
Well, that’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed it, and please be sure to tell all your friends and non-friends about Eclecticism!
What about a bad sax record to play during bad sex? I think it would sell.
Wow, what a great start to the week, Terry!
Sorry to hear about the bad sax you've been having. Tis a blip. Relax and breathe and parp that horn! Loved your painting of sax in action.
And WHAAAAAAAAAT????? Not only have I discovered that I had solved your crossword clue correctly, but I have also found out that I can 60-minute write with you again in January!!!!! Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!! Really looking forward to this next opportunity - thank you so much for the heads-up!