I have spent the greater part of my life reading, and re-reading, the works of William Gibson. From the beginning I have loved his experience of the now and how he shows it to us, often dressed in the clothes of the near future, in a style that is more Jazz than any sort of...
Soundtrack: “Miserlou”, William Joseph & Caroline Campbell (feat Tina Guo)
A classic, arranged for a midnight run through the twisty streets of Nice evading a small gang of Brise de Mer thugs. William Joseph titles this version as “Miserlou”, so who am I to question the spelling. Tina Guo has never phoned in a performance in her life, and she certainly isn’t starting to now....
Dispatch 002
Another one. Well, that’s a bit of a surprise already. Hope you have been doing well over the intervening couple days. The last week has given a whole new meeting to the concept of ‘unseasonably warm’ here at the Bungalow in Saint Petersburg. One hopes that this will just be some practical joke of the...
Dispatch 001
D.001 | 6 May Dear — I hope you have been v. well. Seems like a long time since we have chatted, but I am hoping to change that a bit with this project. This is the first of what I intend to be a series of dispatches from the field, reports from me to...
Soundtrack: “Bachelor #1”, by The Tikiyaki Orchestra
There’s a strong case to be made for The Tikiyaki Orchestra being the best band of its type working today. It’s true that there aren’t that many bands of this type working today, but that’s because almost no one else could pull it off. These guys have the musical chops, the style, and the love of the...
Artist Snapshot: Robert McGinnis
The art of Robert McGinnis will be familiar to many, if for no other reason than his prolific movie poster work, some of which became cultural icons in their own right (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, almost all the early James Bond films). He captured the action and exotic tone of mid-century adventure perhaps better than anyone...
Soundtrack: “Tahitian Skies”, by Caro Emerald
Caro Emerald produced some snazzy, sultry tunes during their 15 year run between 2007 and 2022. Many of their songs felt like they were from the soundtrack of a film that you really wanted to see, or a film that you wanted to be in. Alas, now that the project has broken up (front woman Caroline van...
The Span of the ‘Mid Century’
Since so many of the side projects that I am likely to touch on here relate in some way to what is often referred to as the “Mid Century” (20th century, just in case), I thought I should put a couple of bookends on the shelf to help define the time period in question, at...
Playful Knavery
Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many posts of a more personal and (believe it or not) more frivolous nature, exploring quite a few different interests. These may be posted under the category of Playful Knavery, mainly because I happened to say those two words together one day and I liked the way...
Chilly Swim II
There is something of a tradition in The Corsairs of jumping into the coldest water you can find. Near the WATCH (west central Florida), the coldest water we are generally able to find is in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of January or in early February. This year we had a beautiful day...