You Might Like … to Cast a Glance at Grimes, Gorey, Games, Ghosts, a Google Guru, and More

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

grimesmusic.com – Grimes – Claire Boucher – Have a listen to (and look at) Canada’s latest music star, who goes by the enigmatic name, Grimes. As the Guardian says of her: “By sounding a little like everything you’ve ever heard, the whole sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard.”

Boston Review – Poetry Changed the World – Elaine Scarry – From new songs to old ones. Medieval poetry helped give rise to universities, courts of law, and Parliament, says the author in this somewhat academic piece. The intelligent comments are an interesting read, too.

The New York Review of Books – A Treasure Trove of Edward Gorey – Eve Bowen – Then, to lighten things up, on to an artist whose work gave rise not to Parliaments but simply to delight, the deeply strange Edward Gorey. The article is seeded with links to good videos, but my favorite item is the affecting illustration of the “Inquisitive Lizard.”

increpare games – Clicktagon – Stephen Lavelle – A simple online game of whack the octogon — simple at first. Once you’ve mastered this, you’ll find dozens of other online (and downloadable) games here, made all the more puzzling by the absence of instructions.

johntedesco.net – How to solve impossible problems: Daniel Russell’s awesome Google search techniques – John Tedesco – Then a puzzle of a different kind – finding the phone number of the office from where a city building was photographed. Even a Google guru might find one or two useful tips here.

Mail Online – Skipper claims to have finally found proof that Loch Ness Monster exists – Matt Blake – Speaking of finding, Captain George Edwards is certain he’s found Nessie, and he’s got the snaps to prove it. Judge for yourself: a large sturgeon, big log, or the veritable Scottish beast?

The New Yorker – Audio Slide Show: Peter Schjeldahl on “Ghosts in the Machine” – Peter Schjeldahl – From monsters in the lake to a cabinet of curiosities. Art critic Schjeldahl talks you through the Wunderkammer.

BBC News – Pussy Riot’s cathedral performance – Pussy Riot – A brief glimpse (17 seconds) of the oddness of this group’s performing in a gilded ornate setting. See what the trial in Russia was all about. (You can refresh your understanding of the situation with this piece from the Toronto Star.)

Language Log – More unquotations from the New Yorker – Mark Liberman – Speaking of trials, what may interest you here, in addition to the main thrust of the article on fixing up quotations of course, is the information about a defamation lawsuit against scholar-author Jared Diamond.

The Chronicle of Higher Education – Spelling Random Lexical Flotsam – Geoffrey Pullam – So you could — or couldn’t — spell succedaneum, pococurante, appoggiatura . . . et al. ejusdem generis. So what? So nothing, says this linguist. Spelling bees are a silly waste of time.