The Keanu Reeves movie, The 47 Ronin, opened this week to pretty mediocre business but it reminded me of this little blog post from 3 years ago about a visit I took to Japan. On arriving in Tokyo the first thing I did was get up early and take a trip out to the tombs of the 47 Ronin. I became aware of the Ronin initially through the Borges story "The Uncivil Teacher of Etiquette, Kotsuke no Suke," and then through the ukiyo-e, a remarkable series of woodblock prints on the subject of the Ronin. The shrine to the 47 Ronin is a surprisingly...
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Tuesday, 24 December 2013
Sunday, 22 December 2013
I'll probably do a separate list for crime fiction, but in the meantime here are my favourite books of 2013, not all of which were actually published in 2013. If there's a theme here I think it might be walking or possibly the literary ascent of the extended Morrissey clan...1. Autobiography - Morrissey. The Moz gets his revenge on anyone who's ever crossed him in this poisonously brilliant billet mal.2. Red or Dead - David Peace. One of England's...
Thursday, 19 December 2013
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probably helped that I was wearingmy lucky Dr Who t shirtI took part in the ABC Radio National end of the year quiz here in Melbourne this morning. There were four of us there representing four of the arts: cinema, performing arts, visual arts and books. I, of course, was waving the flag for books. It was a fun quiz being broadcast across all of Australia and although my knowledge of Australian culture isn't perhaps up to the standard of the other...
Tuesday, 17 December 2013
What is George McFly Day? Well if you're a follower of this blog you'll already know and if you don't know it's that bit at the end of Back To The Future where's George's box of books arrives from his publisher and the family gathers around and George achieves a sort of redemption and a fulfillment of his childhood dreams of becoming a writer....We got a George McFly day in the McKinty household today as my box of books arrived from my publisher,...
Saturday, 14 December 2013
My review of Patrick Leigh Fermor's The Broken Road from yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age....In 1933 Patrick Leigh Fermor was 18 years old and washed up: he'd been expelled from school, couldn't get into university and had no idea what to do with his life. So, inspired by the likes of Peter Fleming, Robert Byron, and Alexander Kinglake, Fermor decided to walk from London to Constantinople with the vague idea of making a book out...
Thursday, 12 December 2013
...the real Supremes, the big diva is the 2nd from the left in the front row...In my last post I talked a little about being a maths teacher. When I used to teach mathematics I always tried to incorporate some context into the subject, explaining what the stuff we were learning could actually be used for, where it came from and what problems it solved in the society where it was invented. (I stole this idea from Carl Sagan's Cosmos where in one memorable...
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