0°Recent Blog Posts - Behind the Hedge
On Larry Niven’s “Flash Crowd” and the internet mob.
I like to reread the science fiction I first read when I was a teenager. I find interesting the perspective a life lived in history gives to the artifacts of youth. Recently I reread Larry Niven’s collection of short stories The Flight of the Horse and was particularly struck by “Fl...
Published at Behind the Hedge
I like to reread the science fiction I first read when I was a teenager. I find interesting the perspective a life lived in history gives to the artifacts of youth. Recently I reread Larry Niven’s collection of short stories The Flight of the Horse and was particularly struck by “Fl...
Published at Behind the Hedge
“The Two Gentlemen of Verona”: wherein the Freewill Players demonstrate how to “tweak” a problematic Shakespearean play.
No spoilers here. Like the texts of a number of Shakespeare’s plays (The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello), The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a little uncomfortable for audiences today. How can one respond to a happy ending that sees the victim of attempted rape reconciled...
Published at Behind the Hedge
No spoilers here. Like the texts of a number of Shakespeare’s plays (The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello), The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a little uncomfortable for audiences today. How can one respond to a happy ending that sees the victim of attempted rape reconciled...
Published at Behind the Hedge
De gustibus . . .
I sat in my “office” this afternoon. A couple strolled by with their young child on their way to the public pool down the avenue in the woods. Several hours later they strolled back, wet towels on shoulders, dripping hair plastered to foreheads, smiles on faces, strung out along the s...
Published at Behind the Hedge
I sat in my “office” this afternoon. A couple strolled by with their young child on their way to the public pool down the avenue in the woods. Several hours later they strolled back, wet towels on shoulders, dripping hair plastered to foreheads, smiles on faces, strung out along the s...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Thoughts on “A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes” by Madhur Anand
I’ve been meaning for a few years now to write down some thoughts on Madhur Anand’s 2015 collection of lyric poems A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes. Since I was a child reading Sagan and Shklovskii’s Intelligent Life in the Universe and therein discovering the poetry of ...
Published at Behind the Hedge
I’ve been meaning for a few years now to write down some thoughts on Madhur Anand’s 2015 collection of lyric poems A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes. Since I was a child reading Sagan and Shklovskii’s Intelligent Life in the Universe and therein discovering the poetry of ...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Thoughts on Burns Night: Haggis, Scotch, and Authenticity
The cottage leaves the palace far behind – “Cotter’s Saturday Night”, l. 168 Every January 25th unknown numbers of people around the world, for largely unknown reasons, gather to celebrate something called “Burns Night”. Usually these celebrations involve the drinking of Scotch whisk...
Published at Behind the Hedge
The cottage leaves the palace far behind – “Cotter’s Saturday Night”, l. 168 Every January 25th unknown numbers of people around the world, for largely unknown reasons, gather to celebrate something called “Burns Night”. Usually these celebrations involve the drinking of Scotch whisk...
Published at Behind the Hedge
A Brief Response to the Oxfordian (Conspiracy) Theory of Shakespearean Authorship
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Published at Behind the Hedge
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Published at Behind the Hedge
Witches. In a Church. On a Winter Evening.
Wyrd oft nereð unfaégne eorl þonne his ellen déah. — Beowulf There’s something magical about walking through an Edmonton winter evening snowfall to live theatre. Strathcona theatre-goers are blessed to have available to them the walking part. But all […]
Published at Behind the Hedge
Wyrd oft nereð unfaégne eorl þonne his ellen déah. — Beowulf There’s something magical about walking through an Edmonton winter evening snowfall to live theatre. Strathcona theatre-goers are blessed to have available to them the walking part. But all […]
Published at Behind the Hedge
Thoughts Arising from an Endnote in Hofstadter’s Translation of Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”
I love the writings of Douglas Hofstadter. For many, many years I’ve been inspired, influenced, and provoked to unexpectedly deep thought by those writings. On many subjects, not least translation and mourning, I feel his words are essential reading. After seeing Catalyst Theatre‘s presenta...
Published at Behind the Hedge
I love the writings of Douglas Hofstadter. For many, many years I’ve been inspired, influenced, and provoked to unexpectedly deep thought by those writings. On many subjects, not least translation and mourning, I feel his words are essential reading. After seeing Catalyst Theatre‘s presenta...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Of Anglo-Saxon Drink and Old-Style Philology
Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery . . . — Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach, ll. 15-18 Part One On the Taste and Strength of Anglo-Saxon Drink: A formal effort Much ink has been spilled on the Old English […]
Published at Behind the Hedge
Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery . . . — Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach, ll. 15-18 Part One On the Taste and Strength of Anglo-Saxon Drink: A formal effort Much ink has been spilled on the Old English […]
Published at Behind the Hedge
Edmonton is Sacrificing Accessibility and Inclusion . . . For What?
On September 26, 2018 the City of Edmonton will be hosting yet another “Engagement Session” about “Neighbourhood Renewal” in Strathcona, where I live. With the ongoing construction of the 83 Avenue Bike Lane, my little bit of the neighbourhood has had an advanced taste of...
Published at Behind the Hedge
On September 26, 2018 the City of Edmonton will be hosting yet another “Engagement Session” about “Neighbourhood Renewal” in Strathcona, where I live. With the ongoing construction of the 83 Avenue Bike Lane, my little bit of the neighbourhood has had an advanced taste of...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Guenevere: A Tragedy
A long time ago, before Netflix or Google, almost before the Internet, when I was a young man, and people read books and used typewriters, I set myself an exercise. I was on the cusp between university and the real world, steeped in Classical and Medieval Literature, wanting to write something th...
Published at Behind the Hedge
A long time ago, before Netflix or Google, almost before the Internet, when I was a young man, and people read books and used typewriters, I set myself an exercise. I was on the cusp between university and the real world, steeped in Classical and Medieval Literature, wanting to write something th...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Idle Musings on Sir Richard Francis Burton and the Arab Slave Trade
Here again the Demon of Slavery will reign over a solitude of his own creation. Can it be, that, by some inexplicable law, where Nature has done her best for the happiness of mankind, man, doomed to misery, must work out his own unhappiness? The Lake Regions of Central Africa, Volume I, p. 85. I...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Here again the Demon of Slavery will reign over a solitude of his own creation. Can it be, that, by some inexplicable law, where Nature has done her best for the happiness of mankind, man, doomed to misery, must work out his own unhappiness? The Lake Regions of Central Africa, Volume I, p. 85. I...
Published at Behind the Hedge
“I am just of middle station”: Tolkien’s “Kullervo”, Kirby’s “Kalevala”, and Editorial Responsibility
. . . no one can really write or make anything purely privately. — J. R. R. Tolkien, in a letter to W. H. Auden, June 7th, 1955 Last night I stayed up late to finish reading Verlyn Flieger’s edition of some of J. R. R. Tolkien’s youthful undergraduate jottings published under th...
Published at Behind the Hedge
. . . no one can really write or make anything purely privately. — J. R. R. Tolkien, in a letter to W. H. Auden, June 7th, 1955 Last night I stayed up late to finish reading Verlyn Flieger’s edition of some of J. R. R. Tolkien’s youthful undergraduate jottings published under th...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Impressions of a Public Engagement
That was interesting. Sort of. This evening I walked across the Mill Creek Bridge to Edmonton’s French Quarter for a “Public Engagement” about the proposed Centre Line LRT. There were a whole lot of display cards on easels and personable young people with name takes and post it ...
Published at Behind the Hedge
That was interesting. Sort of. This evening I walked across the Mill Creek Bridge to Edmonton’s French Quarter for a “Public Engagement” about the proposed Centre Line LRT. There were a whole lot of display cards on easels and personable young people with name takes and post it ...
Published at Behind the Hedge
An open letter to (some) advocates for those with intellectual disabilities
Dear intellectual disability inclusion advocates who are anti-“segregation” & want full integration, always, everywhere: Would you never let the intellectually disabled gather with peers? Must they always be integrated into the larger society? As physical challenges often accompan...
Published at Behind the Hedge
Dear intellectual disability inclusion advocates who are anti-“segregation” & want full integration, always, everywhere: Would you never let the intellectually disabled gather with peers? Must they always be integrated into the larger society? As physical challenges often accompan...
Published at Behind the Hedge
