In the blessed absence of Twitter…
Love hearing from you Keith… I think your writing was so inspiring and really touched me!! Thank you for sharing it with me, because it makes me want to always work hard to be as creatively “true” as possible.
2013
11th May: Fabulous to see Knightmare back on our screens for its first sequential run in over six years. The commemorative posts Knightmare and 25th Anniversary have been temporarily promoted to feature articles.
24th April: An unexpected but welcome pilgrimage to The Andrew Marvell Centre in Hull will add to an already congested mess of a summer. In other news, I’m fully drafted and now onto the editing stage. 
6th March: Proud and humbled to feature in the latest issue of the Andrew Marvell Society Newsletter. There can be few greater honours for those of my imaginarium. And it’s this little site which made it possible.
27th February: Four weeks: lecturing, presenting, submitting a script, and teaching again for the International Office. Two publications for the summer, and 80,000 words reached. Let nobody accuse me of lacking effort.
31st January: First undergraduate lecture today, on ‘Literature and the English Civil War’. Appropriately dated, and great turnout! May yet amend and add the script. Plenty more punishment first, though.
9th January: UK viewers can catch my dear friend, Anjna, giving Michael Portillo a tour of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust on Great British Train Journeys (available until Jan 24th).
2012
19th December: It’s been manic. Plenty of good stuff going on; just too little mental gumption to appreciate it fully. To stick to the most recent & relevant, though: a first ever collaboration could be on the cards next year.
30th September: University registration expires today. Nothing’s ever comfortable…
13th September: I’d like my little site to be more visual. Any suggestions / theme recommendations would be very welcome.
12th September: The good news has just come through from this conference in the summer. Plenty to do, then!
7th September: The 25th anniversary of Knightmare. A surprisingly big deal for me.
30th August: With apologies: it’s been a while! Much annihilating into green thoughts over the summer.
4th July: Conference over, but some great opportunities have arisen. Review to follow. In other news, Sovereign Lights finally has its accompanying video [bottom].
20th June: Today, ahead of Fairfax 400, I presented material (including this on Upon Appleton House) for possibly the last time to my peers. They showed me what I’ll be missing.
17th May: I was referred to today – albeit in a complimentary way – as a ‘solution’. Being completely in tune with this myself, the existential crisis is surely complete.
22nd April: WordPress’ recent reductive changes have made reading and writing so much more difficult. What to do now?
1st April: This surfaces again. The biggest April Fool is he who believes that folk have run out of ways to let him down.
14th March: I’m working on possibly the ugliest and hardest thing I’ve ever written. It galls me to look at it every day. But I’ll not give up.
29th February: The first (and maybe the last) Leap day this precious space will see. Four years ago, I was in Switzerland; teaching on Marvell; living the dream, or an illusion of one…
27th February: It’s great to reach 10,000 hits. (The 5-figure deed goes to Mr. Grant O’Sullivan). I hope time spent here feels like time well spent. x
16th February: Not a clever thing to say, I regret: I’ve got lots to write, but feel unworthy of the subjects. Everything else is winning just now.
30th January: Anniversary of Charles I’s execution (1649), and a reminder that ‘the same arts that did gain / A power must it maintain’.
18th January: “The barbèd censurers begin to look / Like the grim Consistory on thy book; / And on each line cast a reforming eye, / Severer than the young Presbytery.” Marvell disliked rag press, but he was no lover of censorship. I’m displaying the ribbon on that basis.
16th January: A proposal to speak on Marvell and Fairfax has been accepted for the Fairfax 400 Conference here in the summer, and hopefully there will be a version for the SPELL Postgraduate Forum in February (has it really been 13 months?)
9th January: The epilogue for 2011, Shadow Seasons, is now live. It cannot match Skimming Stones, but it is not meant to. Rarely can two years be the same.
2011
25th December: A very merry Christmas to the wonderful visitors of this little corner of the cyberglobe.
19th December: Considering an epilogue for 2011. This year is a story I don’t know quite how to tell.
6th December: After spending eight years at five universities with two degrees, the first graduation ceremony I’ve been to is my sister’s. Well done missy.
4th December: Life is fragile. I remember you as sweet, just lost. Most of the time, that’s all I can hope others see in me. Sleep well. x
30th November: Damaged goods don’t often mend themselves. They need a little help from the right hands. Otherwise they’ll sit on the shelf, wondering where to hide their heartbreak.
16th November: The existential crisis at Leicester is over: new profile page.
21st October: Exciting news. The proposed volume of proceedings from the 2010 Republic to Restoration conference in Hull (addressed in fading hope here) has finally been given the go-ahead. I’ll detail more in a forthcoming post.
17th October: Now a Leicester resident in my own merry apartment. The intensity is inspiring, and will/must lead to more from life rather than less.
14th October: An extremely busy time, leaving me little time to stop and think. In the meantime, an edited version of the East Midlands Colloquium has been published in the Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies.
2nd October: Nature hates emptiness, and I think it has me in its sights. Still, let’s hope it lands me safely in Geneva this week.
27th September: Apologies for the slow pace here in recent weeks. A few projects have consumed a lot of my time. Also, I’m not sure how personal I (and others) would have this blog become. Like tough meat, sometimes you just try and swallow first.
19th September: Projects, research, shows, finances, houses… Too much for one meagre brain. I’ve given the bio page a refresh. It’s taken a while to appreciate what ‘content’ entails. With the audio-visual accompaniments, I hope that visiting here can be a rich experience.
9th September: [Re: 19/08] Changes ahead. I’m relocating soon (or already there). All’s different. Several new posts are started but not completed. A case of writing affected by the surroundings. Meanwhile, I’m presenting in Geneva next month.
23rd August: Ticking time-bombs. There’s a new link at the bottom of Media Revolutions to a great blog entry on Facebook and Social Awkwardness (which I don’t want to pingback twice!) Also some maintainance to be done. As ever, thanks for stopping by.
19th August: Three weeks up North, and it feels like home again. 25,000 word chapter completed, and potential changes afoot. I’m waiting, and perhaps hoping, for the right reasons to move on.
5th August: Tweeted by iMistresses – whatever next? Contemplating an abstract for the Marvell’s Society’s next gathering, as part of the prestigious South-Central Renaissance Conference in New Orleans. My current work fits two of the four sought topics, so it seems perfect. To succeed would be terrifying; to fail would be the end of this road…
2nd August: Back on ‘The Poetry Show’, Radio Santa Cruz, in the most exposed session yet. This time a 1-to-1 ‘Desert Island Discs’ style session with Gwynne. No Marvell in this one, surprisingly, but a slight heart-stopping moment following our instalment. Post now live.
30th July: A happy wedding day to dear SC. As the one let-down of the party, I can only say that I’m glad to have kept my curses away from your special day. Forever and always, my brother. X
21st July: I now spend my days at Leicester working to cover the rising cost of tickets! Covering a trip to Switzerland will take a little longer (a fleeting visit in October to present work-in-progress at the Genevan Doctoral Seminar).
13th July: I went to see Cosi last night, featuring a fabulous performance by Knightmare’s Edmund Dehn. A play about mental illness, infidelity, and enclosure; I couldn’t help thinking someone had taken a screenprint of my head. A review is now live [24/07].
8th July: I understand now why I have stuttered so much over the final segment of this monumental penultimate chapter on ‘Marvell and Private Lives’, and I think I have cracked the synthesis required to see it through. It will be a test of how far I’ve come.
25th June: After a week of regroup, and with the second year thesis meeting passed, it’s back to the mindscape. I’m gathering together the playlist for a music post to go live today.
20th June: I’m trying to write, but for a dull sadness that lets me think of little other than itself…
4th June: I’m keeping a low web-presence this week. One of my sisters has been seriously ill, and I have been glad to invest time away from my own head. Wishing everyone well.
29th May: I was asked in Birmingham yesterday if I was interested in auditioning for Big Brother. I wonder if “ab-solutely not” was convincing enough. Interesting, though. A PhD student of privacy might just be the only oddball type they haven’t had on before.
22nd May: I might make pingbacks manual. I like linking posts together but would prefer if genuine comments were more clearly visible.
15th May: There’s plenty of ideas circulating at the moment. I just hope to get them written out before they expire, as most useful thoughts tend to do.
12th May: Off to Birmingham at 5am today for the Vitae training day after the application post was accepted. Great day altogether.
30th April: The show I presented for Radio Santa Cruz aired on Easter Sunday. The show link is here, and the full story here.
27th April: This space is all I’ve got. That’s quite fitting, and somewhat sad. But it’s something.
15th April: Fabulously busy week. Santa Cruz show #4 was recorded on Wednesday, which was afforded a generous segment on Marvell (post now live). Today saw the first East Midlands Early Modern Colloquium for 3 years (post now live), an excellent and stimulating day. We want to bring it to Leicester next year, and I hope to be in a position to help. Time to make some decisions.
12th April: The second instalment made by the Leicester group for The Poetry Show in California was broadcast on Sunday. I’m not in this particular show, but it’s a great listen. The show link is here, and the story here.
11th April: Update imminent. It’s a difficult subject to present in an accessible way [CF: 30th March], so I can only hope that it will be worthwhile reading. “Life is a Jigsaw”.
30th March: Typically, the rare occasion when I turn to LiveJournal for an old reference, it is beset with technical problems. I clearly chose the best portal in which to invest.
29th March: Today, the blog celebrates a small milestone by becoming WritingPrivacy.com. Please keep the comments coming. I love this space being coloured with the hue of much finer minds than my own.
28th March: The first programme for Radio Santa Cruz featuring the Leicester crowd has now aired. The post is now live!
21st March: 1,000 hits for the year came on the March equinox, which felt quite augural. Continued thanks for your visits and support.
19th March: Attended the biannual British Milton Seminar at Birmingham Central Library, fulfilling a promise made at Hull last year. Inspiring group! (Post now live)
17th March: It was fabulous leading the poetry recording today. It’s exemplary of how much I enjoy the crowd at Leicester.
10th March: What have I learnt this week? If history repeats itself, it does not for me. Elsewhere, this place needs some maintainance. Apologise for broken links in older entries. Job for the weekend.
8th March: Happy second birthday to this little portal, which smashed its previous daily hit record. Thanks, as ever, for following.
2nd March: Attending a ‘Teaching Civil War Writings’ day in York tomorrow. The start time has been altered twice this week, and the location on the schedule is wrongly listed as London(!) (Post now live)
1st March: Adjusted the Charlie Brooker 2010 Screenwipe link to YouTube after the iPlayer directory expired.
24th February: The first two shows for the Radio Santa Cruz ‘Poetry Show’ have now been recorded [CF: 11th Jan]. Looked at Philip Larkin and Sophie Hannah today. Not sure of the broadcasting possibilities yet, but am keeping an open ear.
20th February: Leading a class on Shakespeare for the International Office tomorrow – my first university teaching for over two years. Nervous, and excited. (Post now live).
7th February: Attended Leicester’s Early Modern Seminar today: Elizabeth Scott-Baumann on Katherine Philips, Abraham Cowley and Andrew Marvell. Wow.
6th February: Leicester’s new English site has gone live. I’m yet again missed off the PhD students list, but am pictured, most ironically, on the ‘Why a PhD?‘ page.
24th January: Attended a lecture by Nigel Smith on Marvell’s Sense of Humour at the Andrew Marvell Centre in Hull today. Worthy of a future post! [Now online]
14th January: The new Facebook profile is cruel on ‘homepages’. If you enjoy reading, please do bookmark or subscribe.
11th January: I may be involved in a radio show on poetry to be broadcast in California. We’ll see!
2010
31st December: The post ‘Keeping Ahead of the Game‘ now links to the article I supplied for everywoman, which is now live. [Direct link].
28th December: For a dose of fun, I recorded a solo-version of the latest Sing Back Knightmare track. I might try it again with better recording gear. [Direct Link]
27th December: I wrote ‘Public Hypocrites‘ on a hunch about definitions. The OED suggests, however, that I may have barbed this too far (not the only thing this week either). ‘Turncoat’ suits better.
25th December: Merry Christmas, from this solitary author. Many thanks for your visits and continued support.
09th December: Coincidently, spam has been useful! The dead video links in ‘Knightmare‘ have now been restored.
26th November: Alphaville need all the help possible. Please support a worthy album (a steal at its download price) by voting ‘YES’ to support airplay on German radio.
17th October: In preparation for new work, I have revisited and edited ‘Knightmare‘. Once in the mood, so followed ‘Body Schema‘, ‘The Stigma of Print‘, and others.
Keith is the new Melvin Bragg I think. I’m going to send a copy to the BBC as a demo tape on his behalf!
“Head Honcho & Vox Populi”, Dr. Gwynne Harris
