So, it’s the last day of vacation, and I just got back from a gorgeous hike in the Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming. For some reason, as I unwind, it just felt right to list my favorite albums of all time. Here’s hoping you enjoy. . .

1. Anathema, Weather Systems
2. Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
3. Big Big Train, English Electric
4. Big Big Train, Grimspound
5. Big Big Train, The Underfall Yard
6. Catherine Wheel, Adam and Eve
7. Chicago Transit Authority
8. Chris Squire, Fish Out of Water
9. Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas
10. Cosmograf, Capacitor
11. Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Changes
12. Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Out
13. Flower Kings, Flower Power
14. Flower Kings, Space Revolver
15. Flower Kings, Stardust We Are
16. Genesis, A Trick of the Tail
17. Genesis, Foxtrot
18. Genesis, Selling England by the Pound
19. Glass Hammer, Chronometree
20. Glass Hammer, Valkyrie
21. IZZ, Crush of Night
22. Jethro Tull, Benefit
23. Jethro Tull, Thick as a Brick
24. Kansas, Leftoverature
25. Kansas, Point of No Return
26. Kate Bush, Aerial
27. Kate Bush, Hounds of Love
28. Kevin McCormick, Squall
29. Kevin McCormick, With the Coming of Evening
30. Led Zeppelin I
31. Led Zeppelin II
32. Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy
33. Marillion, FEAR
34. Marillion, Marbles
35. Marillion, Afraid of Sunlight
36. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
37. Moody Blues, Days of Future Passed
38. My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
39. NAO, Fog Electric
40. Neal Morse Band, The Grand Experiment
41. Neal Morse, Testimony
42. New Order, Low Life
43. Newspaperflyhunting, Iceberg Soul
44. Nosound, Lightdark
45. Peter Gabriel, Security
46. Peter Gabriel, So
47. Pink Floyd, Animals
48. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
49. Pink Floyd, Meddle
50. Porcupine Tree, Fear of a Blank Planet
51. Porcupine Tree, Sky Moves Sideways
52. Pure Reason Revolution, The Dark Third
53. Riverside, Out of Myself
54. Riverside, Second Life Syndrome
55. Riverside, Wasteland
56. Rush, 2112
57. Rush, Clockwork Angels
58. Rush, Grace Under Pressure
59. Rush, Moving Pictures
60. Rush, Signals
61. Rush, Snakes and Arrows
62. Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends
63. Simon and Garfunkel, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme
64. Simple Minds, New Gold Dream
65. Simple Minds, Sister Feelings Call/Sons and Fascination
66. Simple Minds, Sparkle in the Rain
67. Spock’s Beard, Snow
68. Spock’s Beard, V
69. Steven Wilson, Grace from Drowning
70. Steven Wilson, Hand.Cannot.Erase.
71. Steven Wilson, Insurgentes
72. Talk Talk, Laughing Stock
73. Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden
74. Talk Talk, Colour of Spring
75. Tears for Fears, Elemental
76. Tears for Fears, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending
77. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair
78. Tears for Fears, The Hurting
79. The Connells, Boylan Heights
80. The Cure, Disintegration
81. The Cure, Pornography
82. The Doors, The Doors
83. The Sundays, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
84. The Tangent, Le Sacre du Travail 
85. The Tangent, The Music That Died Alone
86. Thomas Dolby, Golden Age of Wireless
87. Thomas Dolby, The Flat Earth
88. Traffic, John Barleycorn Must Die
89. Transatlantic, SMPTe
90. Transatlantic, The Absolute Universe
91. U2, The Joshua Tree
92. U2, Unforgettable Fire
93. U2, War
94. Ultravox, Lament
95. Ultravox, Rage in Eden
96. Van Morrison, Astral Weeks
97. World Party, Goodbye Jumbo
98. XTC, Black Sea
99. XTC, Skylarking
100. Yes, 90125
101. Yes, Close to the Edge
102. Yes, Drama
103. Yes, Fragile

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

The full speech (courtesy of Teaching American History . Org):

For Barfield, Steiner became—and remained for the rest of his long life—“the master of those who know.” Following the work of the German Romantics—especially that of Goethe—Steiner had identified the true German spirit. Not the nihilistic spirit of Nietzsche or the totalitarian spirit of the National Socialists (the “septic disease of Europe,” Barfield noted), but rather a humane spirit that gave to the German people a dramatic and assured purpose within existence itself. Through its efforts, it came to provide a sort of “spiritual voluptuousness” that the English missed. To defeat the Nazis, Barfield wrote in 1944, the English must not only regain such a spirit, but they must pursue it throughout the post-war period of reconstruction. “I firmly believe that the question whether our own Commonwealth is to stand for something more in the history of human consciousness or is to become a hollow political shell and go the way of Nineveh and Tyre, will depend largely on the candour with which the spirit of this Island learns to open its arms to that spirit and its gifts,” Barfield warned.

What then, one must naturally ask, went wrong with English Romanticism?
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/05/barfield-romantic-logos-bradley-birzer.html

July 30th, 2021 sees the release of ‘Common Ground’, the self-produced new album from Big Big Train on their own label, English Electric Recordings. The new album, recorded during the worldwide pandemic, sees the band continue their tradition of dramatic narratives but also tackles issues much closer to home, such as the Covid lockdowns, the separation of loved ones, the passage of time, deaths of people close to the band and the hope that springs from a new love.

Watch the new video for the title track, created by Christian Rios, here:

“This is unashamedly a love song. It is about finding things that we share and have in common with other people. When my partner and I first came together as a couple, we lived not far from Avebury in Wiltshire, a very Big Big Train kind of place. The chalk hills and standing stones were part of the imagery of our ‘Folklore’ album, and once again I was writing what was literally happening in the location in which we found ourselves. I remember seeing my white chalk dust footprints upon the black of the car mats after we’d been walking around Avebury.  I’m pleased that we both get to have this time with each other and ‘Common Ground’ is about finding out the things that we have in common with each other and deciding what we want to do in life together.” – David Longdon
— Read on mailchi.mp/dc6b181db799/big-big-train-announce-new-album-and-single-common-ground

When Winston Elliott and I first started talking about what a proper online conservative journal might look like, way back in the spring and summer of 2010, we decided on a few things. Most importantly, we wanted real diversity of opinion, not the parroting of some ideological drudgeries. As such, we wanted all schools of non-ideological thought to be able to express their views, but we were most taken with the more traditionalist forms of conservatism—especially as represented by Irving Babbitt, Paul Elmer More, T.S. Eliot, Willa Cather, Russell Kirk, and Robert Nisbet. We also desired for there to be real conversation, and, thus, we hoped for longish, thoughtful essays. As The Imaginative Conservative developed, the idea of an imaginative conservatism became, appropriately enough, a school of questions—all of them difficult to answer with any quick summation or hasty thinking. In an attempt, however, to provide something of a catechetical summa, here are the ten most important questions that linger to varying degrees behind every essay published over the last eleven years.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/05/ten-imaginative-conservative-questions-bradley-birzer.html

“A book is a word spoken into creation. Its message goes out into the world. It cannot be taken back,” Michael O’Brien warned as well as assured in his magisterial novel, Sophia House. Just as each word is a reflection of The Word (Logos), so each book is a reflection of The Book. While Christians have come to have a sort of monopoly on The Word and its greatest meaning and exemplar, others—such as the Stoics—embraced the Logos as well. And, while Christians have also come to have a sort of monopoly on The Book, others—such as the Stoics—embraced a variety of works. Here are ten books written by non-Stoics that greatly influenced Stoicism.

At the beginning of Stoic philosophy stands the first great work of philosophy itself, Heraclitus’ Fragments. In them, Heraclitus recognized and embraced (or perhaps even truly created) the notion of the Logos, the thing common to all. “For this reason it is necessary to follow what is common,” he lamented. “But although the logos is common, most people live as if they had their own private understanding.” Further, he continued, “Those who speak with understanding must rely firmly on what is common to all as a city must rely on law, and much more firmly. For all human laws are nourished by one law, the divine law; for it has as much power as it wishes and is sufficient for all and is still left over.” These ideas form the basis of Stoicism.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/05/10-ancient-books-influenced-stoicism-bradley-birzer.html

I’m thrilled to have my article, “The Dark Virtues of Robert E. Howard,” in the latest issue of MODERN AGE (Spring 2021). A huge thanks to Daniel McCarthy for inviting me to write this, and to Anthony Sacramone for editing it so perfectly. It’s a really excellent issue, despite my contribution!

If you’re interested, here are the sources I used (plus a few excellent articles by John J. Miller):

“Mother, Son to Be Buried.” Abilene (TX) Morning Reporter News, June 14 1936, 7.

“Death Ends Young Texas Writer’s Vigil,” Brownsville (TX) Herald, June 11, 1936, 8.

Busiek, Kurt. Conan the Barbarian. New York: Marvel, 2020.

Cassell, Dewey. “Conan the Syndicated Barbarian.” Backissue 121, no. 1 (September 2020): 40-46.

de Camp, Catherine Crook, and L. Sprague de Camp. Science Fiction Handbook, Revised. Philadelphia, PA: Owlswick, 1975.

de Camp, Catherine Crook, L. Sprague de Camp, and Jane Whittington Griffin. Dark Valley Destiny: The Life of Robert E. Howard, the Creator of Conan. New York: Bluejay Books, 1983.

Derie, Bobby. “Fragments from the Lost Letters of H.P. Lovecraft to Robert E. Howard.” Lovecraft Annual  (2016): 199-204.

Dowd, Christopher. “The Irish-American Identities of Robert E. Howard and Conan the Barbarian.” New Hibernia Review 20, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 15-34.

Ellis, Novalyne Price. Day of the Stranger: Further Memories of Robert E. Howard. Edited by Rusty Burke. West Warick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1989.

———. One Who Walked Alone, Robert E. Howard: The Final Years. Hampton Falls, NH: Donald M. Grant, 1996.

Finn, Mark. Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard. Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2013.

Gruber, Frank. The Pulp Jungle. Los Angeles, CA: Sherbourne Press, 1967.

Howard, Robert E. The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. New York: Ballentine, 2008.

———. Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian. Corvalis, OR: Pulp-Lit Productions, 2017.

Howard, Robert E., and H.P. Lovecraft. A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, 1930-1932. Edited by S.T. Joshi, David E. Schultz and Rusty Burke. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2017.

———. A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, 1933-1936. Edited by S.T. Joshi, David E. Schultz and Rusty Burke. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2017.

Joshi, S.T. Sixty Years of Arkham House. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1999.

King, Stephen. Danse Macabre. New York: Gallery Books, 2010.

Lord, Glenn. The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard. West Kingston, RI: Donald M. Grant, 1976.

Lovecraft, H.P. “Robert Ervin Howard: A Memoriam.” In Skull-Face and Others, edited by August Derleth, xiii-xvi. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1946. Reprint, Jersey, ENG: Neville Spearman, 1974.

———. “Letters to Farnsworth Wright.” Lovecraft Annual, no. 8 (2014): 5-59.

Lovecraft, H.P., and August Derleth. Essential Solitude: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth: 1932-1937. Edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2013.

———. Essential Solitude: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth: 1926-1931. Edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2013.

Lovecraft, H.P. and Divers Hands. Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1990.

Moskowitz, Sam. Seekers of Tomorrow: Masters of Modern Science Fiction. New York: Ballantine, 1967.

Price, E. Hoffman. “A Memory of R.E. Howard.” In Skull-Face and Others, edited by August Derleth, xvii-xxvi. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1946. Reprint, Jersey, ENG: Neville Spearman, 1974.

Thompson, Steven. “Conan Goes to Adventure Town.” Backissue 121, no. 1 (September 2020): 3-14.

Vick, Todd B. Renegades and Rogues: The Life and Legacy of Robert E. Howard. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2021.