… and the Tree of Nothing
I’m terribly busy at the moment, and I won’t be around very much over the next three weeks. I’m off down to Cork for a few days (my sister is getting married) and then I’m heading over to Serbia for a couple of weeks.
Anyways, while I’ll try to pop in here now and then and post something during my travels, they’ll most likely be flying visits. Links to interesting stuff, or the inevitable embedded YouTube vid.
Of which this is one. It’s a YouTube vid of a stand-up comedy clip. Makes a change from a music video, I suppose.
By and large very few stand-up comedians interest me. For me, Bill Hicks set the bar so high that most stand-up just sounds hollow and lifeless now. There are exceptions of course, and of those, Stewart Lee is probably the finest. He treads that line between social commentary and funny weirdness that’s so very hard to sustain. And it’s to his great credit that he manages it.
This is a clip from the first episode of his most recent TV show (Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle) wherein he expresses his position on the Harry Potter books. The final line, and the way it’s delivered, made me laugh out loud.
Enjoy your travels. Just finished Stewart Lee’s book – recommended.
August 25th, 2010 | 5:44am
by john b
Lee is probably my fave at the moment too. I missed one or two of these when they were broadcast and hadn’t seen this clip before. I laughed out load to.
Have you seen/heard any of Robert Newman’s more recent stuff? Bits I’ve seen seem good.
August 25th, 2010 | 7:54pm
by RA
Off-topic, can I recommend a brand new blog to you? Azimuth incorporating this week’s finds.
John Baez who runs it is an eminent mathematician and theoretical physicist, and it used to be the entirely hardcore but excellent “this week’s find in mathematical physics”, which perhaps you would not have enjoyed. But he’s recently made a major change of direction, and will talk about matters relating to the environment and the future of humanity. He’s a very engaging and thoughtful writer whatever the topic – definitely one to watch.
August 27th, 2010 | 9:06am
by Larry
I’ve read all the Harry Potter books. I thought they were great! I’m 31. I’ve never read anything by William Blake.
I still love Stewart Lee though.
August 29th, 2010 | 10:42pm
by punkscience
I’ve not read any of the Harry Potter books. I saw half of the first film and switched it off (for me, it was simply tedious). I know plenty of people who have read the Potter books and — like yourself — they insist they’re great. Personally though, they just don’t appeal. They are the kind of books I’d have lapped up in my early teens, perhaps, but just have no interest in anymore.
That’s not a subtle put-down, it’s just where I’m at. From what I’ve been told, they sound a lot like a slightly dumbed-down Earthsea Trilogy (which I loved, but again, only as a young teen).
In this, though, I’d suggest you’re missing out. Blake’s work is fantastical as any modern “fantasy” novel, but is built on a bedrock of piercing insight, deep wisdom and eternal truth. It’s a magnificent cathedral, an ancient stone circle on a misty moor and a windswept clifftop all at once.
On that, at least, we are in complete agreement.
August 29th, 2010 | 11:05pm
by Jim Bliss
The complete works of the Romantic poet and visionary William Blake, though – that’s hardcore. (You could read a Harry Potter or two just to come down from one of the Poetic Books.)
September 7th, 2010 | 3:53pm
by Phil
Prophetic Books dammit!
September 8th, 2010 | 6:39pm
by Phil
Speaking of Blake… I’ve always felt one of the greatest advertisements for the internet (especially when one becomes disillusioned by the oceans of dross that appear to overwhelm it at times) is the excellent William Blake Archive.
September 8th, 2010 | 8:02pm
by Jim Bliss