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Category Archives: Reading

Now reading: Raymond Chandler

21 Thursday Apr 2016

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PG Wodehouse, Raymond Chandler

 

At the back of my mind I thought I’d read some of Raymond Chandler’s novels when I was much younger. A flurry of reading recommendations on Twitter made me think again, and it turned out…I hadn’t. (I suspect it was probably Truman Capote that I’d actually read).

So now I’m on my fourth Philip Marlowe novel since the start of April (in chronological order, of course), and am enjoying them immensely – all the description and sentence construction, and even the convoluted and implausible plotting. I think I should probably have a break after The Lady In The Lake to give myself some chance of differentiating the individual stories in my head in future and – intrigued by the idea raised in the Backlisted podcast embedded above (well worth a listen) that Chandler may have had the same English teacher at Dulwich College as PG Wodehouse – I may revisit some Wodehouse (who I definitely have read in the past). But where to start?

Recommendations for revisiting PG Wodehouse would be warmly welcomed in the comments below…Then I guess I should check whether I really have read any Truman Capote.

Reading: Vanished City, by Tom Bolton

28 Tuesday Apr 2015

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tom bolton, vanished city, vanished london

 This is a great book about areas of London that have more or less disappeared from modern usage: Cripplegate, Ratcliffe, Agar Town, and so on. The writing is pitched just right: it rattles along, informs, amuses, and at the same time implies interesting parallels with modern London, while avoiding tenuous psychogeography. Recommended.

March Antidotes

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Neil Clasper in Antidotes, Music, Photography, Reading

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Fuji X-E1, Fuji X100T, photography

End-of-winter distractions…

A new camera
Looking back through my photos from the last 2 or 3 years recently.  I was struck by two things: a complete lack of consistency in style as I tried out iPhone apps and b&w conversion techniques, and that the images from my Fuji X-E1 stood out as being far superior to any others I’ve taken in recent years. The problem with the X-E1 is that it’s a bit too big to put in a coat pocket (particularly with the 35mm f1.4 on – the best of the two lenses I have), and the auto-focus is a bit too slow to catch my daughter in action – plus, of course, the iPhone is just too convenient (though it makes decent images in the right conditions). So I bought a Fuji X100T and, so far, I’m very pleased: the images have that Fuji X series feel, I like the 23mm lens, and it’s more pocketable than the X-E1. It’s prompted a splurge of photo-making, mostly Down By The River, and made me think more about the consistency of my black and white processing. Now I just need to remember to put it in my coat pocket, and resist the convenience of the iPhone.

One thing I’ve noticed over the last couple of years is that the better the cameras get, the less I need – or feel inclined – to make significant adjustments to the files during post-processing; I’m no longer using film simulations, and the sliders don’t move so far from the middle. Maybe I should write something about how I do it sometime; at the very least it might help me remember in the future.

Music and books, etc
– Surface Tension continues to draw me in and reveal new sounds and textures.
– The Handsome Family at St Giles’ Church were amusing, dark and good company.
– I’ve loved Magnus Mills’ work since The Restraint Of Beasts, and I enjoyed A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In very much, even if I wouldn’t (quite) put it in a Magnus Mill Top 3.

 

Reading: Bleak House

23 Wednesday Jul 2014

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20140723-155431-57271510.jpg

Prompted by Andy Miller’s The Year of Reading Dangerously, I’ve just finished Dickens’ Bleak House. I’d had a nagging voice in my head for a while, pointing out that I wasn’t really reading books any more – just Twitter, Facebook, email, RSS feed on constant rotation – and those I had read hadn’t been great: too many unsatisfactory musicians’ memoirs and self-deprecating travelogues by men warily approaching their middle age. Like Miller, I have a self-perception of being someone who reads books – as a child I read constantly – but a combination of work, commuting, family, commuting, playing the guitar, family, work – and all those digital distractions – meant it had been a while since I’d read a proper book. A while possibly measured in years (though, unlike Miller, I hadn’t – thank Christ – sunk as low as doing Sudoku).

So I read Under Milk Wood (it seemed a bit ridiculous to be more familiar with the – brilliant – dub version than the original text, and I kept seeing it referenced all over the place). That didn’t take long (though I feel it’d be worth reading it again soon); next I got stuck into Bleak House. A slow slog at first, and then – gradually – a feeling I’d not had for a while: looking forward to getting on the train to work to have a chance to do some reading; then a feeling of giddiness as I could see the end approaching, wanting to know what happens and how does it end? When I finished it last night I felt a great sense of satisfaction (maybe – ahem – even smugness) at having achieved something: now I’m the sort of person who reads Dickens, and maybe relief that my brain’s not actually too Twitter-addled to read a long, wordy book. More importantly I want to read some more Dickens, and soon. I feel more invigorated by the whole experience than in many ways I feel I ought to – after all, I’ve always known that reading was A Very Good Thing. I just got out of the habit for a while. Here’s to more reading.

 

Friday finds

22 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by Neil Clasper in Film, Music, Reading

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Byker, Office Naps, Shard, Waterloo

Worth a read/watch/listen:

  1. Terminus (above) – a gorgeous ‘fly on the wall’ (BAFTA-nominated) documentary about Waterloo station, from 1962. Very nicely cut, and full of examples of how much London life has changed all set in an environment that’s still familiar to any London commuter. Some very good examples of what full employment muct have looked like, too….
  2. Some thoughts on the Shard’s projected lifespan, and South London’s notable – or otherwise – architecture.
  3. Lovely sounds on Office Naps – an intriguing site, new to me (found on Twitter and instantly forgot who tweeted it, sadly)
  4. Another week, another thoughtful post from Municipal Dream, this time on the Byker Estate (extra marks for the use of some of Sirkka-Liisa Kontinnen’s excellent photography from the area).

Friday lunchtime reading

15 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by Neil Clasper in Photography, Reading

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Limehouse Town Hall, netiquette, Reading, thames in sepia

And a photo from (more or less) 4 years ago today.
Thames, looking east from Greenwich Peninsula
A brief, ill-advised 2009 flirtation with sepia. I’m not sure I’d plonk the horizon bang on the half way line any more, either, but it has a certain dramatic quality.

Some things I thought worth reading this week:

  • A nice, detailed review of the Tate Britain’s new landscape show
  • Two related posts on ‘netiquettte’ (grim word), and the idiocy of deciding that a deluge of communication justifies a fundamental change in how we talk to one and other: Oliver Burkeman, Ian Leslie
  • A look at the history and uses of Limehouse Town Hall at the excellent Municipal Dreams: “not the most imposing building but impressive nonetheless; playing no decisive part in history but a witness to local dramas speaking of striking political and social change; and – through many vicissitudes – a part of its community for one hundred and thirty years and for some years to come”.

Friday lunchtime reading recommendations

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by Neil Clasper in Photography, Reading

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And an archive photo from (almost) 3 years ago today:
Olympic Stadium from Shooters Hill, London, originally uploaded by neilclasper.

Some things worth reading that I found this week:

  1. Mapping the Blitz, over the Isle of Dogs.
  2. The music of Ed Harcourt has largely passed me by, but his words on Sparklehorse’s Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot echoed my own thoughts hard, in the week that marked 3 years since Mark Linkous took his own life. Much missed.
  3. Will Self on UKIP, and the history of Britain’s Far Right.

Image

Friday lunchtime reading

01 Friday Mar 2013

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Gentrification, public schoolboy indie, typography

And a photo from 5 years ago today.
New York oyster bar andtaxi
An image that that feels like it’s from a lifetime ago; when it seemed that work trips to New York might turn out to be a regular occurrence, and the pound was strong enough to buy new lenses cheaply while I was over there.

Some things I enjoyed reading this week:

  1. Lovely typography on Spitalfields Life
  2. A subtle point on the public school takeover of pop music
  3. A thoughtful post on the dubious gentrification of Elephant & Castle (and beyond)

And (probably) the best thing I heard this week:

Posted by Neil Clasper | Filed under Reading

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Friday lunchtime reading

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by Neil Clasper in London, Reading

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Byker, Charlton, child poverty, Liisa-Sirkka Konttinen, quantum cloud, Recommended reading, Time Out, Woolwich common

And a photo from (almost) a year ago today:

Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud, at North Greenwich

Antony Gormley’s Quantum Cloud, at North Greenwich

  • A great post on the history of Time Out’s logo, and a just-departed London landmark.
  • The charms of Woolwich Common.
  • (Depressing) ward-by-ward analysis of child poverty levels across Greenwich and Lewisham.
  • New York Times’ feature on Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s photos of Byker in black & white, and in colour.

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