Good to see that sexism and gender-bias in the publishing industry are alive and well. Consider the evidence. First came the slightly odd but charming DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS, which reminded me of an old book that I adored when I was young called, if memory serves, “The Big Weekend Book”, which was a thick, dusty hardback with a mottled …
Distractions and Prevarications, Part 3
Patatas a lo Pobre Poor Man’s Potatoes We quickly worked out that the real reason these are called “Poor Man’s Potatoes” is because only a poor man – specifically, a man without a job – would have the time to make them very often. But they are absolutely worth the effort. This recipe is from the utterly wonderful Moro Cookbook. …
Kind of Blue at 50
After talking about Christian McBride’s Kind of Brown a little while ago (which, by the way, was just as good as I thought it would be), I came across this on You Tube recently. The footage of So What on this film was recorded for TV (“The Sound of Miles Davis”) about 4 weeks after Kind of Blue itself was recorded. …
Distractions and Prevarications, Part 2
Ah, the joys of LEGO Star Wars. The painful stats: Number of pieces: 1,328 (approx.) Number of hours wasted in construction: about 7 Number of hours wasted in rebuilding after it fell apart: 2 Number of hours spent explaining that although, yes, OK, this is a toy, it’s not really designed to be played with: 612 Number of 8-year-old tantrums: …
Technology is a Wonderful Thing, Part 2
People occasionally roll their eyes when they learn that I get up every day at five o’clock to write, but it’s really very easy. All you need is a good coffee machine, like this one: I love my coffee machine. It is a truly wonderful thing. It’s made by Nespresso. I am sure that without it (and its predecessors) I …
Lobster Pad Thai (a second helping)
[Apologies for rehashing an old post, but this was such a popular one when I first stuck it up last October that it seemed worth doing again. It drew more readers to the old blog than any other post – to the point where if you googled “lobster pad thai”, it was the first thing that popped up. And it’s …
Where do Good Ideas for Books Come From?
The short answer to this question is: buggered if I know, but I’d like to suggest a few things that might help unearth a nugget or two. Open your eyes and your ears. Expose yourself to as much stuff as possible. Whether it’s reading magazines, or novels, or listening to podcasts, or eavesdropping other people’s conversations on the way to …
Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye
Unabashedly wonderful stuff. I’ve posted this on FB before, but I love it so much, it’s worth a revisit. Enjoy.
Last minute tweaks
Final, tiny polish before submission tomorrow: exorcising last remaining anglicisms. I found one “pavement” and seven “autumns”. Damn. Thank God for search and replace. Scratching my head trying to think of other tell-tale signs…
Technology is a Wonderful Thing
No, really. I was listening to my new favorite podcast, the Checkout, a jazz show from WBGO in New Jersey, and they had an interview with Spike Wilner, who is manager of Small’s Jazz Club in Greenwich Village (as well as being a great pianist – check out this.) I’ve been itching to go to Small’s for the longest time …