Bill Nevins

Mary Lou McDonald, A Republican Riddle is no hagiography, nor is it a glib hatchet-job, writes Bill Nevins.

China Mieville A Spectre Haunting

Bill Nevins reviews China Miéville’s very readable book, A Spectre Haunting, about the concept of alternative world-creation in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ Communist Manifesto.

Crash Course by H Bruce Franklin

Bill Nevins reviews Crash Course, H Bruce Franklin's memoir of lifelong anti-war resistance, which cuts through the fog of myth and propaganda to make sense of modern history.

William deBuys

Conservationist and author William (Bill) deBuys recently published The Trail to Kanjiroba, a memoir of two journeys through the mountainous Upper Dolpo region of Nepal. He discusses his work with Bill Nevins.

Dangerous Rhythms

Bill Nevins reviews TJ English’s enthralling new book, Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld, the story of how jazz and organised crime evolved side-by-side in the United States.

James McMurtry

Texan singer/songwriter/guitarist James McMurtry is a gentle guy, but when he aims to hit governmental or human failings and hypocrisy, he strikes hard, often with wit and sardonic humour, writes Bill Nevins.

Forest fire

Fires swept through large rural areas of New Mexico in April and May, destroying farms, ranches, homesteads and vast stretches of mountain forest, reports Bill Nevins.

Secularia
Eliza Gilkyson
Red House Records
2018

In these whirling times of burning forests, unspeakable human rights violations and stupid White House tweets, it can seem like our minds are being sucked down a numbing vortex, into a voracious black hole — “the centre cannot hold”. 

Could there be light at the end of these darkest of days?  Might we still feel joy and have hope, despite all pessimistic logic?

He fell in Afghanistan Sometime the day before The Major from the New Mexico National Guard couldn't find my house and it was a stormy night in Albuquerque So we talked by cell phone instead-- No dress uniforms at my door-- It was a clean three shots Straight through the heart He was dead before he hit the ground The Major was a father himself he said I could hear his kid behind the phone I could see my own son reaching up to his dad The Major called back later The government could fly me the Major said to the Dignified Transfer at Dover base I asked where that was
“Belief in Winter’s iron music turns the lands of home to Spring.” Kenneth Patchen, “Nocturne for the Heirs of Light” Even your blood seems cold slush so we come, bearing scientific warmth and clean blades Of faith and all such crude early things we moderns strive to sharpen, your mystic heart alone beats most desperate beneath our lazer aim: true tempered love at gunship point thrusts in you bleeding you clear in sha'Allah by dread hand of surgeon- drone, bootkick- blessing, your shabby portal opens upon us we ash-cross your brow:
Quique Cruz sums up the story of his long life journey towards the creation of an extraordinary work of art and human testimony called Archaeology of Memory: “The day after my nineteenth birthday, I was detained by Pinochet’s secret police and spent one month as a desaparecido in the Villa Grimaldi torture centre.
Push Comes to Shove
Music by John Hammond
Only Blues Music, 2007
12 tracks, $23.99