Seen, Heard, Read

Stay Close by Death Vessel (CD)
Amazing folk-rock songs with fanciful lyrics written and sung by a striking male tenor (Joel Thimbadeau) with help from his Philadelphia friends. www.deathvessel.com

Ivan's Childhood by Andrei Tarkovsky (DVD)
Tarkovsky's first film. Disturbing, touching, reverberating tale of a child soldier

The Quiet Child by Peter Hoeg (Novel)
Difficult tumbling tale by the Dutch master about gifted children with extra-sensory powers and the circus clown hired to track them down. A tough read, but worth it for sentences like this: "He lost consciousness again, slowly, like a young girl strolling downtown." And "A person must be careful when answering the telephone -- someday it could be one of the great clowns calling."

Ooga Booga by Frederic Seidel (Poetry)
One of the most amazing books of poetry I've read in the last few years, by a true virtuoso.

The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor (Stories)
Haunting stories with rich characters delicately described by the Irish master.

Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources by Claude Berri (DVD)
Tragic tale of fate, cruelty and love set in French Provence in the 1920s. The cinematography is lucid and riveting and the performances, especially by Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil, are supurb.

Burning Chrome by William Gibson (Stories)
I hate science fiction except for books by William Gibson, which I love for the imagery, style and visual descriptiveness. Since I've been doing a lot of database work, I especially liked reading "Johnny Mneumonic." Though his characters can be a bit stiff, there is a theatricality to his writing that is quite remarkable.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (DVD)
This documentary of Pete Seeger is absorbing and inspiring. Folk music as agent for social change and community -- what an idea!

Nature, Poems Old and New by May Swenson (Poetry)

Camoufleur

Walked in the swamp His cheek vermilion
A dazzling prince
Neck-band white Cape he trailed
Metallic mottled
Over rain-rotted leaves Wet mud reflected
Waded olive water
His opulent gear Pillars of the reeds
Parted the strawgold
Brilliance Made him disappear

Folk Songs by Trio Mediaeval (CD)
Traditional songs from Norway arranged for voices and percussion. Celestial.

Saint Morrissey (A Portrait of This Charming Man by An Alarming Fan) by Mark Simpson (non-fiction)
I found this one at the library sale shelf for $3 and it's somewhat entertaining. At times repetitive and irritating, this is not so much a biography of Morrissey as a psychoanalysis of his music, which, as the author notes at the start, pretty much speaks for itself. Nonetheless it's chock full of quirky details about the quirky pop star. Simpson even coins a neologism: "melanalgia" to describe Morrissey's trademark: melancholia mixed with nostalgia.