'Instead of a Foreword

During the terrible years of Yezhovshchina [the purges]
I spent seventeen months in the prison queues in
Leningrad. One day someone recognized me. Then a
woman with lips blue with cold who was standing behind
me, and of course had never heard of my name, came
out of the numbness which affected us all and
whispered in my ear--(we all spoke in whispers there):
"Can you describe this?"
   I said, "I can!"
   Then something resembling a smile
slipped over what had once been her face.'
--Anna Akhmatova (tr. Richard McKane)

Koko the sign-talking gorilla has a website. I think the children's
book about her & her pet kitten, Koko's Kitten, is a beautiful
& profound meditation on what it means to be...human.

"Olduvai Theory" states that the lifespan of industrial
civilization will be something like a hundred years: 1930-
2030. It's an argument that ignores politics entirely, &
simply looks at world energy production figures. Provocative,
even if you think you know better.

Listening to Bjork: Homogenic.

I love those minor urban myths of rock, like the one about
Klaatu really being the Beatles incognito.

A collection of Jabberwocky translations into various languages.

Still looking for Sabalon Glitz. Korla
Pandit, however, i found a record by before i read about him in
Incredibly Strange Music; i am glad to say, he lived long
enough to enjoy his revival. Tomita is one of my special synth heroes:
i think his version of Mussorgsky is better than the original.
And then there's Magma--which is kind of like art rock meets artificial
languages.