http://zuihitsu.org/etc trivia since two thousand two Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:03:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en With the new academic year about to crash, this seems more than usually relevant. For some reason my most vivid memories concern examinations. Big amphitheater in Goldwin Smith. Exam from 8am to 10:30. About 150 students-- unwashed, unshaven young males ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/nabokov-on-examinations/ I am not here concerned to enquire under what circumstances some of us might with advantage take a lesson from the cow. I have really no doubt that such exist. G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica: With the Preface to the Second Edition and Other Papers, Thomas Baldwin (Ed), Cambridge University Press, ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/quote-of-the-day-15/ In The Rest is Noise, Ross mentions (p. 182) the following "placard-like notice" appearing in the preface to the Ragtime movement of Paul Hindemith's Suite ‘1922’: Mode d’emploi – Direction for Use!! Pay no attention to what you have learned in your piano lessons. Do not consider for long whether ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/piano/ There are many useless ways to idle away time on the internet. And then there is this. http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/something-to-fax/ Roberto Bolaño would have had a lot of fun with this-- Scott Alan Carson, "The Stature and Body Mass of Mexicans in the Nineteenth-Century United States", in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 39, No. 2, Autumn 2008, pp. 211-232. Abstract Data taken from nineteenth-century American prison records reveal that the statures of Mexicans ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/mexicans-lost-in-mexico/ Over at Three Percent, Chad has been pushing Paul Verhaeghen for some time now. I had initially been very excited about reading Omega Minor, which sounded like a Pynchon-esque historical caterwaul, not least because Verhaeghen is by day a professor of psychology working on cognitive aging. In what ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/the-etc-awards-i/ Almost exactly a year ago, I noted the release of Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines. Now, in a stroke of genius, NYRB Classics is broadcasting the entire book through Twitter. (Insert commentary on the ever-shifting world of media here). http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/feneon-again/ I am currently reading Alex Ross's excellent history of twentieth century classical music, The Rest is Noise. In Chapter 5, "Apparition from the Woods: The Loneliness of Jean Sibelius" (an edited version of which is available online), Ross describes Sibelius's descent into alcoholism by referring to a painting: A ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/kajustaflan/ In the latest issue of the British Academy Review, there is an excerpt from Robin Dunbar's 2007 Joint British Academy/British Psychological Society Lecture, appearing under the title "Why Humans aren't just Great Apes" [PDF]. The article begins with Dunbar recapitulating his famous argument for his eponymous number, complete with the ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/the-evolutionary-psychology-of-writing/ (By Erik Satie, via UbuWeb) An artist must regulate his life. Here is a time-table of my daily acts. I rise at 7.18; am inspired from 10.23 to 11.47. I lunch at 12.11 and leave the table at 12.14. A healthy ride on horse-back round my domain follows from 1.19 pm to ... http://zuihitsu.org/etc/archives/2008/08/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-musician/