Little Elephant

Riding The Goddamn Elephant

A.S. Hamrah | Baffler | 9th March 2023

I admit to a weakness for A.S. Hamrah's film criticism much as I do for Jay Nordlinger's music criticism and Pete Wells's restaurant criticism. In each case the writing is distinctive, confident, and enjoyable in itself, whatever one's degree of enthusiasm for the underlying art. This overview of Oscar contenders reads more like a hit-list than a hit-parade, but Fire Of Love comes off well (4,400 words)

A Lot With A Little

Simon Sarris | Mostly Water | 10th March 2023

An appropriately brief note on the power of suggestion in poetry and photography. I knew of the haiku, which tends to dwell on nature and the seasons; but the senryu, which tends to dwell on human nature, was new to me. This one I relished: "the grumbler / finally stands up to leave / then grumbles for an hour". As for Fan Ho's photographs, reproduced here, they are black-and-white magic (680 words)