knowles.1
Travels in Hyperreality
The Vietnamese have a wicked sense of humor. But before I get to that, you have to see some images of Da Lat's Crazy House: We actually...
The University of Life
An occasional blog to encourage those who are considering retirement that the water is fine, and to reassure those who have already retired that it was worth it. To begin, start by clicking the book on the right.
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knowles.1
- Mar 12
- 6 min
Russian Trash
Vietnam gets 84% of its arms imports from Russia. To avoid sanctions, Gazprom and Rosneft have been ramping up energy production in...
116 views8 comments
knowles.1
- Feb 25
- 6 min
Saigon Is For The Swift
They come out at dusk every evening - hundreds of swifts flying in the reddening sky. At least I think they're swifts - someone in the...
208 views1 comment
knowles.1
- Feb 5
- 9 min
New Year's Letter
In 1940, W. H. Auden wrote a "New Year Letter" that toasts the end of "a scrambling decade," which cannot guess "in what direction lies /...
134 views
knowles.1
- Dec 1, 2021
- 4 min
Top Ten Treehouse Books 2021
Last year I was so horrified by the New York Times Christmas Book List that I offered an alternative list, which became my most-read blog...
294 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Oct 22, 2021
- 8 min
The Trumpiness of Lake George
Seaside towns are the same the world over. Bumper cars, arcade games, neon lights, waves lapping against the shore. I love them. ...
233 views1 comment
knowles.1
- Sep 10, 2021
- 5 min
Piano Camp
Piano Camp started inauspiciously this year. Alexa (a real three-year-old, not a pretend person) fell against a foosball machine and had...
140 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Jun 18, 2021
- 4 min
Paris-Moscow
"All life is figure and ground." "But a wandering to find home." This immortal exchange takes place in Beckett's Murphy, where it neatly...
71 views0 comments
knowles.1
- May 5, 2021
- 3 min
Debussy
The Preludes of Claude Debussy (1910) have always been just out of my reach. Exquisite recordings by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli don't...
78 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Mar 21, 2021
- 4 min
Call My Agent
Some of you know that for the past six months I've been writing a spy novel. I'm happy to say that it's now finished, and has been sent...
115 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Feb 23, 2021
- 7 min
Memorial
This is a long introduction to an original piece of music. To skip to the music, go to the end of the blog post. My love affair with...
140 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Feb 1, 2021
- 5 min
School without Tears
The book starts with a simple dedication: For the Pickley Wizards: Deborah, Rebecca, Jose, Sebbie, Catherine, Nicky, Isobel, Graham,...
93 views1 comment
knowles.1
- Jan 6, 2021
- 5 min
His Last Wail
"Precious, precious, precious!" Gollum cried. "My Precious! O my Precious!" And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat...
137 views1 comment
knowles.1
- Dec 1, 2020
- 7 min
Top Ten Treehouse Books
Someone sent me the New York Times list of the top 100 books of 2020 and I thought I was being punked. I'd never heard of any of them,...
310 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Nov 6, 2020
- 4 min
America's Guy Fawkes
"Remember, remember, the fifth of November / "Gunpowder, treason, and plot." Growing up in a small village outside of Oxford, the...
243 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Sep 23, 2020
- 26 min
The Ruth Stone
It was the evening of Friday September 18. Jen and I had found perhaps the best glaze for lamb chops of all time: bourbon, brown...
421 views3 comments
knowles.1
- Sep 1, 2020
- 10 min
Starry Night
At the end of Ulysses, Stephen and Bloom go outside to take a leak. This is the moment in "Ithaca" of homecoming, when the personal,...
68 views1 comment
knowles.1
- Jul 31, 2020
- 6 min
The Sex Issue
It's about time, some of you must be saying. When is he going to admit that playing music is the only satisfactory substitute for sex? ...
167 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Jun 30, 2020
- 7 min
The Queen Stage
I've had occasion to compare Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier to the Tour de France before. Some stages of the Tour are so difficult that...
88 views0 comments
knowles.1
- Jun 1, 2020
- 9 min
Goldengrove
It's June, and the A-flat/G# Sequence in Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Klavier is up. I'm recording four pieces each month - last month...
82 views0 comments