Glump the Clumsy bought a new i not my Phone. Glump soon clumsily glumped it by putting in the wrong password — or was it passcode or both — so many times that he was locked out of his phone. How can my own phone lock me out wondered Glump. It didn’t seem reasonable but… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: A Fable for Our Times
By Brian Arsenault Haruki Murakami has been criticized in his home Japan for being too western a writer. And I suppose some western readers find him too Japanese in his syntax and sensibilities. Readers of a certain age, though, at least will remember the principle of universality. Faulkner’s rural south could speak to a yankee… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: “Men Without Women”
By Brian Arsenault Just past twilight. First dark. The fire pit burning well but modestly. Saying something of little consequence to Kath when her eyes go beyond me and wonder comes into them. I turn in my chair and am startled to see two foxes bounding toward us. For an instance I feel I must… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: Kitsune Weddings and Magic on the Lawn.
By Brian Arsenault Islands seem to float above the water in the North Atlantic in Winter. I learned that from a fourth generation islander. I’d seen it myself but didn’t want to mention it for fear of being accused of submitting to the new New England marijuana laws. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: Floating Islands and Spaghetti Eating Ravens
By Brian Arsenault I heard Tony Bennett when I went through the little shopping square today. I always feel a little sad when I hear Tony because I dread the day when I wake up and the bobble head brunette on the news says he’s dead. But of course that’s all sentimental nonsense because Tony… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: The Gratification of Alienation
By Brian Arsenault There is a picture I can’t find online any more. There are so many. Those wretched Syrians fleeing the hell that was their country. Huddled masses on undersized boats, tempest tossed, frequently capsizing. More drowned children. This one particular picture: a father seen from the back embracing his two children.… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes on: The Wretched Refuse
By Brian Arsenault So Lemmy’s dead at 70 and Motorhead is no more. Not really. Can’t be. The band’s drummer confirmed today that Metalhead won’t continue. Not without him. Not really my favorite music, but what a figurehead Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmaster was for heavy metal. Singing into that mic raised above his head. Just… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: The Death of Lemmy
By Brian Arsenault So we were getting ready to leave what used to be our summer “camp” on the island but is becoming home for more and more of the year. And the last two things I did was to set mousetraps and fill the bird feeders. Which directly posed the question why do we… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On : “Of Mice and Birds”
By Brian Arsenault Ken Bruen’s newest installment in the Jack Taylor series, Green Hell, arrived in that neat little Amazon box a couple days ago and I’m about halfway through it. I could have finished it by now because his writing enters the eyes and brain as easily as breath enters the lungs. But… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: Ken Bruen’s “Green Hell ” and Erik Larson’s “Dead Wake” (The Sinking of the Lusitania)
By Brian Arsenault Hey Brent, You asked me to tell you more about the class I’m taking on Franz Kafka’s The Castle. I’ll start with Ed. who’s teaching, or rather leading, the class. I’ve taken literature courses with Ed before: Kerouac’s The Road, Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio so I knew the course would be worth… Read More Books: Brian Arsenault Takes on Kafka’s “The Castle” and Writes To Son Brent About It
The International Review of Music 