Pick up your copy of Joy Division: Closer at WHSmith today
BANKSY Banksy’s website offers show-reels of his most significant works (arranged as Drawings, Indoor and Outdoor – as many of his best works are, famously, graffiti) and a manifesto, a story about a wrongfully imprisoned man who was released thanks to a graffiti campaign. As so often, a sense of humour runs throughout it all: strangely, he has classified his video news clips as PG or U. He’ll always be playing with the rules. www.banksy.co.uk
MUSIC SCORES This site makes sheet music available to its members. You can download scores onto your computer (for £15 a year, you get unlimited downloads) or buy them, in print, on the website’s store. Audio previews are available at the click of a button; even the delicate issue of difficulty is addressed, with pieces graded to help you on your way. All kinds of instruments, ensembles and combinations are catered for, with about 100 composers featured (mostly classical, a few contemporary). There’s also a Discussion Board; on one strand, you can post your own compositions. www.music-scores.com
BOOKS, INQ Books, Inq is a blog by Frank Wilson, the book-review editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Billed as a “behind-the-scenes look at a book-review editor’s world”, it is, thankfully, a bit more exciting than that. Wilson uses his page to flag up pieces that have interested him: from other blogs, from the Wall Street Journal, even from the Daily Mail. It’s a logical extension of his day job: all those ideas that generally have to be sieved away are kept here for healthily opinionated discussion. Pretty much what a blog should be. booksinq.blogspot.com
STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY The SEP began in September 1995: originally intended as an online dictionary of philosophy, it is now “a unique digital library concept: a scholarly, dynamic reference work”. In other words, it is both comprehensive and constantly updated, providing academic papers on the philosophical gamut: a projected table of contents offers everything from Abélard, of Héloïse fame, to zombies. A work in progress, but already hugely impressive. plato.stanford.edu
THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS Another serious, accessible blog. Its name comes from a short story by Borges, a group of academics using it as a cue to ponder the philosophical questions in life online – or, as they put it, “any academic field that cares about who we are, what we do, and how we fit into the world around us”. Don’t be fooled: this is true philosophy, engaging with topics on an unashamedly academic level. gfp.typepad.com/the_garden_of_ forking_pat
ARTNET This site not only tells you about artists, galleries and auctions, but has sections for a price database and market trends. Here, for a subscription fee, you can track the value of some 4,300 artists, helping you to invest wisely. So, if you have a spare Lucian Freud at home, you can discover the painter’s sale worth in recent years and get an estimate for your own piece. Big bucks aside, Artnet is still a formidable product, with its own online magazine and an invaluable Gallery Network featuring 25,000 artists from 250 cities worldwide. www.artnet.com
SUFFOLK CHURCHES This results from the passion of one man, Simon Knott, who set out to photograph and write about every Anglican and Catholic church in Suffolk. He did, with some conviction. The result is a comprehensive website, astonishing in its attention to detail. Each church (587 to date) has been photographed and summa-rised, with entries updated. Knott says that this is not a religious website; but it is certainly an act of worship. www.suffolkchurches.co.uk
THE LITERARY SALOON Another books blog, affiliated to the Complete Review website, this distinguishes itself by its global remit, the usual New York-London axis supplemented by mentions of the literary scene in India, France, China, Germany ... There’s a little political edge, too, as the Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o passes comment on his country’s troubles. www.complete-review.com/saloon/index.htm
ARKIVMUSIC ArkivMusic has a simple goal: to help you find the classical-music recordings you want. It prides itself on the efficiency of its search methods: thanks to the “drill-down” approach, you need never type in your searched item; instead, you find it by “drilling” through the content. For instance, choose Glenn Gould as a performer, then pick JS Bach out of the composers Gould has tackled, then decide between editions of his take on The Well-Tempered Klavier. Obvious, but helpful. There are also areas for finding out-of-print music. www.arkivmusic.com/classical/main.jsp
READY STEADY BOOK Despite the unforgivable Ainsley Harriott reference, Ready Steady Book takes its subject seriously, but it knows how to enjoy itself, too – at the time of going to press, the standout piece featured in the blog is Top Ten Drunk American Writers (Hemingway comes second to Bukowski). As well as the blog, it offers articles, interviews, reviews and a project to produce minisites about key writers, with Beckett the first to benefit. There’s also a section called – brace yourselves – “Serendipoetry”, to acquaint readers with the odd poetic gem. www.readysteadybook.com
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