Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: “No Ideas but in Crowds”

I never know when modernity starts: 1492? 1637? 1789? This article says it is with Baudelaire, and we are quoting from it. Consider Flaubert’s smooth and instantaneous leap from “moral history” into “feelings.” This elision offers an unintended but eloquent verdict on what is great and strange about Baudelaire’s poetry: its unmatched capacity to transmute … More Reading for Pleasure Wednesday: “No Ideas but in Crowds”

Puerta de Acalá

I am flying today from Amsterdam to Madrid, where I have not been in thirty years. Longer ago than that, I studied at the Liceo Serrano. It was on Serrano then but has now changed as an institution and moved out of town. I lived on a street whose name was changed after Franco died. … More Puerta de Acalá

Clément Janequin

I dedicate this May Day to the workers of course, to Janequin, to Flora, and to children. It is the weekend, and I am singing that our camping trip is tomorrow. I am  so excited, I can hardly wait! Axé.

Regin Dahl

Regin Dahl died in Copenhagen on this day in 2007. His life marked several. Tín er degningur handan líkdampsins flókar. Dit er morgengryet hinsides ligdunstens tåger. Yours is the daybreak beyond the corpse-reek’s mists. His father is on a stamp and I would be curious to know more about this man than is known. When … More Regin Dahl

William Butler Yeats

I am slow, so I am late to St. Patrick’s Day. Consider this, on Leonardo da Vinci and slowness. Faster than me and sometimes premature, the Emeritus Professor sent me the poem that follows after one of my exams, I do not remember now whether it was the M.A. or the Ph.D. Only now has … More William Butler Yeats