Crooked Timber

Crooked Timber is a widely read left-of-centre political blog run by a group of (mostly) academics from and working in several different nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia and Singapore. The name alludes to a quotation of Immanuel Kant:

History

Crooked Timber was founded in July 2003 as a merger of several individual blogs, including Junius and Gallowglass, along with some new contributors. Additional members were added over subsequent months until the group reached an agreed optimum of 15 members.

Crooked Timber ranked in Technorati's Top 100 blogs between 2003 and 2005 and is still widely linked to in the academic blogosphere. On March 9, 2008, it was listed as number 33 in The Guardian's list of the world's 50 most important blogs. On April 15, 2011, an article on academic blogs in The New York Times listed Crooked Timber as one of seven influential examples of the type, describing it as having "built a reputation as an intellectual global powerhouse".

Crooked Timber (album)

Crooked Timber, is the tenth full-length album by the band Therapy?, and the first to be released on Demolition Records. It was released on 23 March 2009. The album was recorded from July to August 2008 at Blast Studios, Newcastle, with additional recording at The Beauchamp Building, London from August to September 2008. Produced by Andy Gill, the album features a bias towards rhythm rather than melody.

According to Andy Cairns; “I guess we’re always challenging just what makes us Therapy?. After so many years, if we were formulaic about it, we’d have gotten bored with the band long ago. The album was written together as a band, and each track has its own concept and inspirations. They took a while to write and we’ve taken our time to write them.”

“From the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” – Immanuel Kant (18th-century German philosopher)

Andy explains: “The recording is about celebrating people’s quirks, the things which make us unique. These days everyone tries to fit in, instead of just being themselves. The songs examine what it means to be human - To realise that we are the only living things on the planet aware of our own deaths."