“Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons” by George Pendle – recent review of a ten-year old book, and damn was Jack Parsons a strange bird! Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist by day and magician by night, Parsons “treated magic and rocketry as different sides of the same coin” – rather the same way the Renaissance natural philosophers saw no difference between science and magic. Putting on my to-read list.
In difficult times, many readers turn to historical fiction – a psychologist suggests “exploration of the sights, sounds, and events of past eras… help[s] us to imagine how to negotiate the strains of current real-life situations.” Includes reviews of some of her favorites (full disclosure: I’ve not read any of them).
John Dee: Scholar, Courtier, Magician [Video] – if you missed it on my Twitter or Facebook last week, this half hour sneak preview/interview with the curator is well worth seeing. Not only was Dee’s handwriting beautiful but he was a fair artist – check out his doodles.
XETB Plays the Music of John Dee – or music inspired by him, at any rate. Unavailable in my country due to licensing restrictions – can anyone get at it? What do you think?
A Little Bird Told Me: Aleister Crowley and Genesis P-Orridge in Occult Art Show – as ever, you can’t throw the word “occult” around without crashing into Crowley, but he’s not the dominant artist in the show. Some of the usual magic circles and talismans plus other esoteric symbolism.
Researchers confirm site of Salem witch hangings – discovered using witness accounts and modern aerial mapping, the site now overlooks a Walgreens, of all things.
Re: Historical fiction — I haven’t read any of the four either (though I’m familiar with Isabel Allende’s name). But this isn’t surprising given that three of the four are set in the 20th century. I’m not ready to consider that “core historical fiction” territory yet.
I can kind of get that. The 1940s are still within living memory (barely, but even so) and therefore doesn’t feel like the “deep past” to me. Strangely, much as I’m fascinated by that time period I feel little urge to read fiction set there – possibly an oversight on my part (or just having too many things on the To Read pile).
The Midwife of Venice looks interesting though…
Listening to the XETB/John Dee right now via this link: https://www.mixcloud.com/phillegard/xenis-emputae-travelling-band-plays-the-music-of-john-dee/ … I like it. 🙂 So far sort of a cross between Loreena McKennitt instrumentals, early Tangerine Dream, and A.R. Rahman orchestral soundtracks.
Some part of me suspected atmospheric instrumentals!
D’you have a Bandcamp account? There’s a Xenis Emputae Travelling Band page in there (https://xetb.bandcamp.com/) featuring albums by (I presume) individual members of the group that have some of the same feel as the Dee music … will at least give you an idea of the sound (hopefully you’re allowed to listen to those)
Just dug deeper into the Bandcamp page … several albums by the group as well (now busily wishlisting ’em to listen to further and, perchance, to purchase … thanks for sharing their existence!) 🙂