Well, how prescient is my cricketing post of a few weeks ago looking now, in the light of today's developments?
The England management will be sending for another batsman - I say it should be Mark Butcher, but I'd be very very surprised if it was. It'll probably be someone already in Australia with the Academy - my guess is it'll be Ed Joyce, but if it was up to me and it had to be someone from the Academy set-up (thus ruling Butch out) I'd pick Owais Shah.
England's alternative is to stick with what they've got, as it's highly unlikely the replacement will be taking the field at Brisbane (they're bound to bring someone in as backup though, even so). In fact Trescothick's departure solves a bit of a selection headache for Flintoff & Fletcher - i.e. which one of Cook, Bell and Collingwood to drop. For what it's worth I would have dropped Collingwood, but it's academic now. No doubt the medical team will be chanting mystical incantations over Michael Vaughan's knee as well....
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
hullo clouds, hullo sky, hullo pumpkins, hullo powdered root of asfodel
ouch!!!
I was just looking through my online photo gallery (link in previous post) and I spotted the set taken in Reading a couple of months ago. You'll notice it's titled "Operation Spanner"; this is because the purpose of the weekend was to engineer a surprise meeting between Anna and Hazel following Hazel's return from 8 months in Australia - i.e. the idea was Anna wouldn't know about it beforehand. Doug dubbed the whole elaborate (and, to my complete surprise, successful) subterfuge Operation Spanner - there's a rhyming thing going on there (Anna/Spanner - geddit?). I thought the phrase rang a bell at the time but forgot all about it, and it was only on seeing it again earlier today that I was reminded to go and look it up.
It turns out Operation Spanner is Manchester police's name for the 1987 operation involving a homosexual sado-masochism ring (if that's the word). Quite a cause celebre at the time as the court case had to address various complex issues about "consensual assault", i.e. is ABH ABH if the "victim" requests or consents to it? The thing all the tabloids picked up on, as I remember, was some video footage of a bloke having his genitalia nailed to a (presumably wooden) chair. The link here is to Wikipedia's page on the subject; there are further links at the bottom of that page, but I'm not going any further on my work laptop!
Whether Doug knew all this at the time I have no idea - what he and Anna get up to in private is their own business. I will be inspecting the kitchen chairs carefully next time I visit though....
It turns out Operation Spanner is Manchester police's name for the 1987 operation involving a homosexual sado-masochism ring (if that's the word). Quite a cause celebre at the time as the court case had to address various complex issues about "consensual assault", i.e. is ABH ABH if the "victim" requests or consents to it? The thing all the tabloids picked up on, as I remember, was some video footage of a bloke having his genitalia nailed to a (presumably wooden) chair. The link here is to Wikipedia's page on the subject; there are further links at the bottom of that page, but I'm not going any further on my work laptop!
Whether Doug knew all this at the time I have no idea - what he and Anna get up to in private is their own business. I will be inspecting the kitchen chairs carefully next time I visit though....
Monday, November 13, 2006
getting The Feeling
Having got back from Staffordshire via a somewhat circuitous train journey last night (depart Wolverhampton 17:25, wind around all over the place via Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Worcester, etc., arrive Bristol Temple Meads 20:50), I was looking forward to a nice leisurely evening on the sofa tonight with my feet up watching the television with maybe a pizza and a glass of wine.
Then I was reminded that I'd agreed to go to a gig down at the Carling Academy tonight - The Feeling, a band I'd only ever heard a couple of songs by, but my friends Robin, John, James and Hayley were going so it was an excuse for a couple of pints, at least. And in fact it was a bit of a revelation - the one song I'd heard (Sewn) had (good though it is) led me to expect something a bit medium-paced and downbeat, but actually it was, in the main, really good punchy "power pop", to coin a phrase you don't hear much any more. Which set me thinking of a couple of other examples of the genre:
- Jellyfish: it's astonishing to me how much The Feeling sound like Jellyfish. It's equally astounding to discover that Jellyfish's classic debut album Bellybutton was released as far back as 1990. I used to have it, but I've had a look round after getting in tonight and I don't seem to any more. I'll have to see if Amazon have it on offer.....apparently one of the reasons the band members got together was a shared enthusiasm for XTC, which brings me to:
- XTC: I used to have a copy of Oranges And Lemons, their late-80's psychedelic effort, and it was pretty good (you might remember "The Mayor Of Simpleton" being a minor hit), but it was all a bit winsome for me. The really good stuff was the early singles like Making Plans For Nigel, Sgt. Rock and Senses Working Overtime. I reckon a bit of a retrospective critical re-evaluation (and a nice newly packaged Best Of that I can buy) is long overdue.
Fascinating The Feeling fact: their bass player Richard Jones is married to Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Then I was reminded that I'd agreed to go to a gig down at the Carling Academy tonight - The Feeling, a band I'd only ever heard a couple of songs by, but my friends Robin, John, James and Hayley were going so it was an excuse for a couple of pints, at least. And in fact it was a bit of a revelation - the one song I'd heard (Sewn) had (good though it is) led me to expect something a bit medium-paced and downbeat, but actually it was, in the main, really good punchy "power pop", to coin a phrase you don't hear much any more. Which set me thinking of a couple of other examples of the genre:
- Jellyfish: it's astonishing to me how much The Feeling sound like Jellyfish. It's equally astounding to discover that Jellyfish's classic debut album Bellybutton was released as far back as 1990. I used to have it, but I've had a look round after getting in tonight and I don't seem to any more. I'll have to see if Amazon have it on offer.....apparently one of the reasons the band members got together was a shared enthusiasm for XTC, which brings me to:
- XTC: I used to have a copy of Oranges And Lemons, their late-80's psychedelic effort, and it was pretty good (you might remember "The Mayor Of Simpleton" being a minor hit), but it was all a bit winsome for me. The really good stuff was the early singles like Making Plans For Nigel, Sgt. Rock and Senses Working Overtime. I reckon a bit of a retrospective critical re-evaluation (and a nice newly packaged Best Of that I can buy) is long overdue.
Fascinating The Feeling fact: their bass player Richard Jones is married to Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
what I did at the weekend #2
Watch some rugby matches. Couldn't see all of them as there were some scheduling clashes, and it would have been anti-social to park myself in front of the television for the entire afternoon and evening, but....
Wales 38 Pacific Islands 20
This is the one I managed to see all of - a Welsh XV showing 14 changes from the previous week's starting line-up, but they looked pretty sharp. The final score flatters the Pacific Islands team as Wales took their foot off the gas a bit in the second half; it was 31-5 at half-time by which time the match was over as a contest. Gareth Jenkins will have a bit of a selection headache now, especially in the key decision-making areas at outside-half and inside centre, as there are at least four players (Stephen Jones, Ceri Sweeney, James Hook and Gavin Henson) competing for two spots. There was some talk of playing Henson at full-back, a position he'd probably be quite well-suited to (robust defence, massive kicking boot), but that would mean moving or dropping Kevin Morgan who's done nothing wrong defensively and injects some serious pace in attack. Tricky....
Ireland 32 South Africa 15
Ireland looked pretty sharp, too. I was a bit surprised they won so easily (as with the Wales game, there was a late score which put a more flattering gloss on the scoreline) as the Springboks turned over the All Blacks not so long ago (at the tail end of the Tri-Nations, I think). They've got their decision-making axis all sorted out with O'Gara, D'Arcy and O'Driscoll, and they've got some quick wingers. Strength in depth might be an issue, though - what happens if O'Driscoll gets injured?
England 18 Argentina 25
Oh dear oh dear. As a Welsh supporter you can't help but have a little bit of a chuckle to yourself over this one. It was always going to be a bit of a potential banana-skin as the Argentinians are a pretty good side these days. They've sorted out their historical problem of having a massively formidable pack but no-one who can do anything with the ball once it's been won; players like Pichot and Contepomi (ex-Bristol boys both) know exactly what they're doing.
Even so I would have expected England to win, but it looks like they don't really know what they're trying to do at the moment. There seems to be a desire to play open expansive rugby, but I don't think they've got the backs to do it; either that or they're not picking them. Anthony Allen looks to have a bit of a brain, but he's had a difficult first two games. Otherwise there's a lot of big lumbering oafs like Tindall, Cohen and Noon but not a lot of creativity. Maybe England should go back to what they do best, i.e. grinding everyone else into the dirt up front and kicking sackfuls of penalties. Trouble is Hodgson seems to have a serious case of big-match nerves, so they can't even rely on the penalties at the moment. Ah, schadenfreude.
Scotland 48 Romania 6
Comfortable enough by the sound of it - Romania aren't the team they were back in the 1980's when they were pretty formidable. Doug knows more about this than I do, and I didn't see it anyway, so if you want in-depth analysis try this.
New Zealand 47 France 3
I didn't see this one either, but given that France were meant to be the main rivals to the All Blacks for world #1 team and 2007 World Cup favourites status this is pretty terrifying. Suddenly England's problems last Sunday don't look so bad! Everyone else will just have to hope they're peaking between World Cups like they have done for every one since 1987. Don't count on it though.
Wales 38 Pacific Islands 20
This is the one I managed to see all of - a Welsh XV showing 14 changes from the previous week's starting line-up, but they looked pretty sharp. The final score flatters the Pacific Islands team as Wales took their foot off the gas a bit in the second half; it was 31-5 at half-time by which time the match was over as a contest. Gareth Jenkins will have a bit of a selection headache now, especially in the key decision-making areas at outside-half and inside centre, as there are at least four players (Stephen Jones, Ceri Sweeney, James Hook and Gavin Henson) competing for two spots. There was some talk of playing Henson at full-back, a position he'd probably be quite well-suited to (robust defence, massive kicking boot), but that would mean moving or dropping Kevin Morgan who's done nothing wrong defensively and injects some serious pace in attack. Tricky....
Ireland 32 South Africa 15
Ireland looked pretty sharp, too. I was a bit surprised they won so easily (as with the Wales game, there was a late score which put a more flattering gloss on the scoreline) as the Springboks turned over the All Blacks not so long ago (at the tail end of the Tri-Nations, I think). They've got their decision-making axis all sorted out with O'Gara, D'Arcy and O'Driscoll, and they've got some quick wingers. Strength in depth might be an issue, though - what happens if O'Driscoll gets injured?
England 18 Argentina 25
Oh dear oh dear. As a Welsh supporter you can't help but have a little bit of a chuckle to yourself over this one. It was always going to be a bit of a potential banana-skin as the Argentinians are a pretty good side these days. They've sorted out their historical problem of having a massively formidable pack but no-one who can do anything with the ball once it's been won; players like Pichot and Contepomi (ex-Bristol boys both) know exactly what they're doing.
Even so I would have expected England to win, but it looks like they don't really know what they're trying to do at the moment. There seems to be a desire to play open expansive rugby, but I don't think they've got the backs to do it; either that or they're not picking them. Anthony Allen looks to have a bit of a brain, but he's had a difficult first two games. Otherwise there's a lot of big lumbering oafs like Tindall, Cohen and Noon but not a lot of creativity. Maybe England should go back to what they do best, i.e. grinding everyone else into the dirt up front and kicking sackfuls of penalties. Trouble is Hodgson seems to have a serious case of big-match nerves, so they can't even rely on the penalties at the moment. Ah, schadenfreude.
Scotland 48 Romania 6
Comfortable enough by the sound of it - Romania aren't the team they were back in the 1980's when they were pretty formidable. Doug knows more about this than I do, and I didn't see it anyway, so if you want in-depth analysis try this.
New Zealand 47 France 3
I didn't see this one either, but given that France were meant to be the main rivals to the All Blacks for world #1 team and 2007 World Cup favourites status this is pretty terrifying. Suddenly England's problems last Sunday don't look so bad! Everyone else will just have to hope they're peaking between World Cups like they have done for every one since 1987. Don't count on it though.
what I did at the weekend #1
Go up to Staffordshire to meet Hazel's parents. Well, just the one, actually, as her mum was away in London for the weekend (not specifically avoiding me, or so I was led to believe). Saw a few of the local sights as well, including:
- Penkridge. The nearest town. Officially it is a town, but it's quite small and village-y. Lots of pubs though. There is, apparently, a theory that Penkridge was once (if only briefly) the capital of England! All sounds a little bit dubious to me, but if it pulls the tourists in....
- Newcastle-under-Lyme. A small area round the town centre, anyway, as we only went there to go to the cinema. We saw The Prestige, which I thought was pretty good. Directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed Memento and Insomnia among others, and pulls a few of the same stylistic tricks (fractured timelines, last-minute twists) as Memento in particular. Of course as this is a film about magic and illusion there's a sophisticated meta-textual point being made with the film's structure, no doubt. The ending is a little bit cheaty, really, but not enough to spoil things.
- Cannock Chase. We went for a shortish walk here on Sunday morning, and very nice it is too. Fascinating Cannock Chase fact: it's the smallest Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB, if you will) in mainland Britain, at about 26 square miles. There is also a herd (or whatever the appropriate collective noun is) of about 800 wild fallow deer, but we didn't see any. I took some pictures which I'll post a link to once I've sorted them out.
- Shugborough Hall. We were going to call in at a Food & Craft Fair that was being held in the grounds, and I was all geared up to part with some hard-earned cash to buy a jar of organic pickled onions or some badger pate or something like that, but they wanted £4.50 just to let us through the door! We made our excuses and wandered round the free bits of the house instead. It's not the principle of the thing, it really is the money. Fascinating Shugborough Hall fact - the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal runs through (or near) the grounds, and the lord of the manor at the time the canal was built wanted it landscaped to look like a lake and not some common old canal. So the canal builders built a big bulge in the canal known as Tixall Wide (or Tixall Broad on some maps)...
...here's a picture.
- Penkridge. The nearest town. Officially it is a town, but it's quite small and village-y. Lots of pubs though. There is, apparently, a theory that Penkridge was once (if only briefly) the capital of England! All sounds a little bit dubious to me, but if it pulls the tourists in....
- Newcastle-under-Lyme. A small area round the town centre, anyway, as we only went there to go to the cinema. We saw The Prestige, which I thought was pretty good. Directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed Memento and Insomnia among others, and pulls a few of the same stylistic tricks (fractured timelines, last-minute twists) as Memento in particular. Of course as this is a film about magic and illusion there's a sophisticated meta-textual point being made with the film's structure, no doubt. The ending is a little bit cheaty, really, but not enough to spoil things.
- Cannock Chase. We went for a shortish walk here on Sunday morning, and very nice it is too. Fascinating Cannock Chase fact: it's the smallest Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB, if you will) in mainland Britain, at about 26 square miles. There is also a herd (or whatever the appropriate collective noun is) of about 800 wild fallow deer, but we didn't see any. I took some pictures which I'll post a link to once I've sorted them out.
- Shugborough Hall. We were going to call in at a Food & Craft Fair that was being held in the grounds, and I was all geared up to part with some hard-earned cash to buy a jar of organic pickled onions or some badger pate or something like that, but they wanted £4.50 just to let us through the door! We made our excuses and wandered round the free bits of the house instead. It's not the principle of the thing, it really is the money. Fascinating Shugborough Hall fact - the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal runs through (or near) the grounds, and the lord of the manor at the time the canal was built wanted it landscaped to look like a lake and not some common old canal. So the canal builders built a big bulge in the canal known as Tixall Wide (or Tixall Broad on some maps)...
...here's a picture.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
stuff!
I recently decided (with 3 other fools) to go to Dartmoor in January. Not only to go to Dartmoor, in fact, but to traverse the entire length of Dartmoor in a north-south direction. Which in practical terms means getting a train to Exeter and a bus from Exeter to Okehampton, walking due south-ish across Dartmoor finishing up in Ivybridge, and then getting a train from Ivybridge to Exeter and then home. We reckon we can do it in three days or so over a weekend, i.e. arrive in Okehampton midday-ish on Friday, camp in various inhospitable places Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and make it to Ivybridge midday-ish on Monday.
In preparation for this I've been doing some shopping. I though it might be amusing to share what I've bought over the last few days:
a small 20oz (just under 600g) hatchet for chopping up firewood, beheading fish, maiming sheep, general hand-to-hand combat, etc.
a pair of binoculars for ornithological and stalking purposes
a hip flask for storage of life-giving fluids - haven't decided what yet, probably either port or sloe gin, if my new home-made batch is ready by then
That lot was bought in actual physical shops. I also placed an internet order today with the good people at Warehouse Direct, comprising the following:
In preparation for this I've been doing some shopping. I though it might be amusing to share what I've bought over the last few days:
a small 20oz (just under 600g) hatchet for chopping up firewood, beheading fish, maiming sheep, general hand-to-hand combat, etc.
a pair of binoculars for ornithological and stalking purposes
a hip flask for storage of life-giving fluids - haven't decided what yet, probably either port or sloe gin, if my new home-made batch is ready by then
That lot was bought in actual physical shops. I also placed an internet order today with the good people at Warehouse Direct, comprising the following:
a small locking pocket knife, ideal for gutting fish, torturing sheep, hand-to-hand combat, etc.
- 5 bungee cords of assorted lengths
- 8 mini-karabiners for attaching stuff to my rucksack
- an 8-metre coil of polypropylene rope in an attractive shade of blue
- a small-ish tarpaulin
Monday, November 06, 2006
ponder this, if you will
Never criticise a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticise him, you'll be a mile away. And you'll have his shoes.
albums of the day
...washing up day again, so I had the boom-box on. Two contrasting ones for you today:
American Beauty by The Grateful Dead.
I've got a copy of Live/Dead, the legendary live album from 1969 which documents their famously psychedelic free-form concerts. I can't honestly say I listen to it very often, though.
American Beauty, on the other hand, sounds like a band sobering up, kicking back, putting their feet up on the porch with the acoustic guitars and knocking out some tunes while the sun goes down. Apparently they got Crosby, Stills and Nash in to coach them with the vocal harmonies - well, they're a bit more ragged than CSN, but in a good way, particularly on Box Of Rain, Candyman, Ripple and Attics Of My Life. And it is the law for any article about The Grateful Dead in general and American Beauty in particular to quote the closing song Truckin' at the end: what a long, strange trip it's been.
Lullabies To Paralyze by Queens Of The Stone Age.
There's lots of loud guitar music around, but lately it all seems a bit tortured and serious. It's all Kurt Cobain's fault, really. Not that I have anything against Kurt Cobain, far from it, but it's become the done thing to be the troubled soul staring at your feet while bashing out tunes about how the world doesn't understand you, etc. etc. Well, Queens Of The Stone Age don't do that sort of stuff. Other bands try to seduce you by giving you an insight into their tortured soul and inviting you into their black-wallpapered room to listen to their poetry - well, QOTSA try to seduce you by feeding you tequila and inviting you back to their room to play strip poker.
Musically it's all over the place - from the trademark pummelling rhythm driving Medication, the almost poppy middle section of In My Head, Little Sister and I Never Came, to the seriously heavy bits - Someone's In The Wolf and the truly monstrous see-sawing riff of The Blood Is Love - I defy any air-guitar enthusiast not to go mildly berserk over this one. Like any QOTSA album it's a bit patchy, but take the best bits of this and its predecessors Songs For The Deaf and Rated R and condense them into a single album and you'd have something pretty special.
American Beauty by The Grateful Dead.I've got a copy of Live/Dead, the legendary live album from 1969 which documents their famously psychedelic free-form concerts. I can't honestly say I listen to it very often, though.
American Beauty, on the other hand, sounds like a band sobering up, kicking back, putting their feet up on the porch with the acoustic guitars and knocking out some tunes while the sun goes down. Apparently they got Crosby, Stills and Nash in to coach them with the vocal harmonies - well, they're a bit more ragged than CSN, but in a good way, particularly on Box Of Rain, Candyman, Ripple and Attics Of My Life. And it is the law for any article about The Grateful Dead in general and American Beauty in particular to quote the closing song Truckin' at the end: what a long, strange trip it's been.
Lullabies To Paralyze by Queens Of The Stone Age.There's lots of loud guitar music around, but lately it all seems a bit tortured and serious. It's all Kurt Cobain's fault, really. Not that I have anything against Kurt Cobain, far from it, but it's become the done thing to be the troubled soul staring at your feet while bashing out tunes about how the world doesn't understand you, etc. etc. Well, Queens Of The Stone Age don't do that sort of stuff. Other bands try to seduce you by giving you an insight into their tortured soul and inviting you into their black-wallpapered room to listen to their poetry - well, QOTSA try to seduce you by feeding you tequila and inviting you back to their room to play strip poker.
Musically it's all over the place - from the trademark pummelling rhythm driving Medication, the almost poppy middle section of In My Head, Little Sister and I Never Came, to the seriously heavy bits - Someone's In The Wolf and the truly monstrous see-sawing riff of The Blood Is Love - I defy any air-guitar enthusiast not to go mildly berserk over this one. Like any QOTSA album it's a bit patchy, but take the best bits of this and its predecessors Songs For The Deaf and Rated R and condense them into a single album and you'd have something pretty special.
the last book I read
Excession by Iain M. Banks.I read quite a number of Iain Banks' books a while ago (just quickly, for those not in the know, the "straight" novels are written as Iain Banks, while he acquires the "M" for the science fiction ones) and thought they ranged from the brilliant (The Wasp Factory) to the pretty good (Whit, Complicity) to the pretty underwhelming (Canal Dreams, The Business). It was only a couple of years ago I got round to reading Consider Phlebas, the first of his SF novels, and I thought it was terrific. I still think, having read three others, that it's the best one he's written. The two which follow it, The Player Of Games and Use Of Weapons, are much less rollicking adventure stories and much more psychological, character-driven books, not that there's anything wrong with that. Excession, on the other hand, is a funny sort of novel, slightly uncategorisable really. Not a huge amount actually happens, and a lot of it is transcripts of electronic communication between the AI "Minds" controlling a number of continent-sized spaceships. Given that, it's amazing that it rattles along as entertainingly as it does, especially as the central plot device is one that's been heavily used in any number of other sci-fi contexts from Star Trek onwards, namely: unimaginably advanced intelligence makes tentative contact with "us", takes a bit of a sniff around, casually brushes aside various attempts at contact and/or attack, decides that "we" are as yet too primitive and savage to be integrated into their world, and then buggers off again. Er, that's it. The "twist" here, such as it is, is that the "us" in this case is the Culture, a civilisation equally unimaginably advanced compared to our own.
Nowt wrong with it, though, though I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to the Culture series (Consider Phlebas or The Player Of Games would be the best place to start). And any author who introduces a healthy dose of sex and humour into science fiction (a pretty unbearably po-faced genre a lot of the time) deserves a big thumbs-up....
the fog!
It's been very foggy here today - at times my view of the exciting goings on at the M4/M5 interchange has been obscured. There was a theory going round the office that this was just residual bonfire/firework/sparkler smoke from the weekend, but this seems somewhat implausible to me. Especially as it cleared in the middle of the day and then came back later. I can't see what it's doing now as it's dark, but I'm pretty sure it's still there. Almost a bit like the spooky fog in the film The Fog, only with (hopefully) fewer worm-ridden, leprous, hook-handed glowing-eyed undead pirates lurking about in it.
I was having an argument earlier about the film because a colleague of mine insisted it starred Jamie Lee Curtis, and I insisted it didn't. Turns out we were sort of both right as the main character (the radio DJ) is played by Adrienne Barbeau, but Jamie Lee Curtis is in it as well (though I can't remember who she played. I should imagine there was some serious in-peril screaming to be done, though). We then went on to have a scurrilous conversation relating to various entirely unfounded internet rumours regarding Jamie Lee Curtis which is probably best not related here. Especially as the subject is already covered here.
Aaaaaanyway - it turns out Adrienne Barbeau was married to John Carpenter at the time the movie was made, though I'm not suggesting for a moment that this means the casting process was anything less than rigorous. She also appeared in the wonderfully titled Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death in 1989, so I'm guessing maybe her subsequent career didn't pan out quite as she would have hoped.
I was having an argument earlier about the film because a colleague of mine insisted it starred Jamie Lee Curtis, and I insisted it didn't. Turns out we were sort of both right as the main character (the radio DJ) is played by Adrienne Barbeau, but Jamie Lee Curtis is in it as well (though I can't remember who she played. I should imagine there was some serious in-peril screaming to be done, though). We then went on to have a scurrilous conversation relating to various entirely unfounded internet rumours regarding Jamie Lee Curtis which is probably best not related here. Especially as the subject is already covered here.
Aaaaaanyway - it turns out Adrienne Barbeau was married to John Carpenter at the time the movie was made, though I'm not suggesting for a moment that this means the casting process was anything less than rigorous. She also appeared in the wonderfully titled Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death in 1989, so I'm guessing maybe her subsequent career didn't pan out quite as she would have hoped.
Friday, November 03, 2006
the lovely Hazel
Before I go to bed - a few new photos up on the photo gallery.
A few taken at a night out at Colley's Supper Rooms in Bristol. Nice restaurant; unusual in that it does two set "sittings" a night, so everyone ends up eating at the same time. The food is a little bit on the heavy school-dinners-y side, though, nice though it is, so it does weigh a bit heavy, particularly the next morning. The port we drank after dinner didn't help, either.
A few taken when my new girlfriend Hazel came to visit for the weekend a couple of weeks ago. It is the law in these circumstances that the first tourist-y thing you have to do is the Clifton Suspension Bridge, so we did. Then we went to the Giant's Cave, and thereafter some pubs.
A small selection of the ridiculous number we took at Hazel's friends Maria & Nadeem's wedding last weekend. Very nice venue - St. Audrie's Park in West Quantoxhead up between Bridgwater and Watchet. Tell them I sent you.
A few taken at a night out at Colley's Supper Rooms in Bristol. Nice restaurant; unusual in that it does two set "sittings" a night, so everyone ends up eating at the same time. The food is a little bit on the heavy school-dinners-y side, though, nice though it is, so it does weigh a bit heavy, particularly the next morning. The port we drank after dinner didn't help, either.
A few taken when my new girlfriend Hazel came to visit for the weekend a couple of weeks ago. It is the law in these circumstances that the first tourist-y thing you have to do is the Clifton Suspension Bridge, so we did. Then we went to the Giant's Cave, and thereafter some pubs.
A small selection of the ridiculous number we took at Hazel's friends Maria & Nadeem's wedding last weekend. Very nice venue - St. Audrie's Park in West Quantoxhead up between Bridgwater and Watchet. Tell them I sent you.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
the age of unreason
Firstly, a big shout to big up my good friend Doug's blog - if you want the lowdown on badgers and thoughts on various other random matters (including, in the latest post, being sexually assaulted by your own newsagent - the mind boggles) then give it a go.
We were having a full and frank exchange of views the other night about evolution and Darwinism in general and Richard Dawkins in particular (see Doug's post on the subject here). Doug and I agree on a wide variety of topics, but I can't overstate how much we disagree on this one.
Let's tackle the business about the "theory" of evolution first. Scientists, contrary to what some people would have you think, are inherently cautious people. Unless they can actually prove something by observing it happening they're unwilling to trumpet it as a "fact". Now, evolution, by its very nature, is unobservable unless you've got a time-lapse camera that works over 50 million years or so. That would be great - hey, that monkey just turned into a bloke in a suit! - but sadly life isn't like that.
Science is about observing, with no preconceptions, the world around you and the things in it and trying to come up with an explanation that best fits the observed facts. Other "theories" which can't be conclusively proved, in that we don't have video footage of them actually happening, include gravity, relativity, the dinosaurs, etc. The point is the word "theory" has an entirely different meaning within the scientific community than it does outside, and indiscriminate use of it in the context of evolution spreads the illusion that there is some disagreement within the scientific community about it, when in fact there is none. Science graduates having essentially sterile semantic arguments about what "theory" and "fact" mean provide a chink in the armour which the creationists and the intelligent design-ists (not to suggest for a moment that these two groups are not exactly the same people espousing exactly the same views) will be more than happy to try and drive a crowbar into. This is how the absurd and poisonous "teach the controversy" argument came about. Creationism and "intelligent design" do have a place in schools, and it is in Religious Education lessons, along with the exploits of Ganesh the elephant god and any other legends regarding the world being sneezed out by a goat. They have no place in science lessons, and it does a great disservice both to the science pioneers who fought and died for the cause of reason and rationality and to the children in the education system to suggest otherwise. I don't have any children, but if I did, and I discovered that they were spending time in their science lessons being told that maybe fossils were planted by God to test the strength of our faith, I'd be sorely tempted to firebomb the school.
I wonder if we've become too complacent about the acceptance of science, rationality, etc. in the world. It seems to me, and this may just be paranoia, that we've reached the end of a long upward slope of progress through Euclid, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein etc. etc. to the sunlit uplands of reason and enlightenment that we currently occupy, but I think we underestimate how fragile this is. In particular, there seems to be a retreat from rationality going on at the moment. Look at astrology, homeopathy, all various other forms of "alternative" medicine, crystals, mysticism etc. It's almost as if we've become too timid, or too infected with a kind of lily-livered intellectual relativism, to dismiss this stuff as the specious pseudoscientific (at best) nonsense it undoubtedly is. If Copernicus had said "well, I think the world goes around the sun, but I understand that conflicts with your religious views, and the last thing I want to do is cause offence - so I'll be off home now", he wouldn't have got very far. Science and the pursuit of knowledge is a harsh and unforgiving business, and a lot of people fall by the wayside, and no doubt they're none too happy about it. Well, tough. That's the price you pay for being wrong.
We were having a full and frank exchange of views the other night about evolution and Darwinism in general and Richard Dawkins in particular (see Doug's post on the subject here). Doug and I agree on a wide variety of topics, but I can't overstate how much we disagree on this one.
Let's tackle the business about the "theory" of evolution first. Scientists, contrary to what some people would have you think, are inherently cautious people. Unless they can actually prove something by observing it happening they're unwilling to trumpet it as a "fact". Now, evolution, by its very nature, is unobservable unless you've got a time-lapse camera that works over 50 million years or so. That would be great - hey, that monkey just turned into a bloke in a suit! - but sadly life isn't like that.
Science is about observing, with no preconceptions, the world around you and the things in it and trying to come up with an explanation that best fits the observed facts. Other "theories" which can't be conclusively proved, in that we don't have video footage of them actually happening, include gravity, relativity, the dinosaurs, etc. The point is the word "theory" has an entirely different meaning within the scientific community than it does outside, and indiscriminate use of it in the context of evolution spreads the illusion that there is some disagreement within the scientific community about it, when in fact there is none. Science graduates having essentially sterile semantic arguments about what "theory" and "fact" mean provide a chink in the armour which the creationists and the intelligent design-ists (not to suggest for a moment that these two groups are not exactly the same people espousing exactly the same views) will be more than happy to try and drive a crowbar into. This is how the absurd and poisonous "teach the controversy" argument came about. Creationism and "intelligent design" do have a place in schools, and it is in Religious Education lessons, along with the exploits of Ganesh the elephant god and any other legends regarding the world being sneezed out by a goat. They have no place in science lessons, and it does a great disservice both to the science pioneers who fought and died for the cause of reason and rationality and to the children in the education system to suggest otherwise. I don't have any children, but if I did, and I discovered that they were spending time in their science lessons being told that maybe fossils were planted by God to test the strength of our faith, I'd be sorely tempted to firebomb the school.
I wonder if we've become too complacent about the acceptance of science, rationality, etc. in the world. It seems to me, and this may just be paranoia, that we've reached the end of a long upward slope of progress through Euclid, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein etc. etc. to the sunlit uplands of reason and enlightenment that we currently occupy, but I think we underestimate how fragile this is. In particular, there seems to be a retreat from rationality going on at the moment. Look at astrology, homeopathy, all various other forms of "alternative" medicine, crystals, mysticism etc. It's almost as if we've become too timid, or too infected with a kind of lily-livered intellectual relativism, to dismiss this stuff as the specious pseudoscientific (at best) nonsense it undoubtedly is. If Copernicus had said "well, I think the world goes around the sun, but I understand that conflicts with your religious views, and the last thing I want to do is cause offence - so I'll be off home now", he wouldn't have got very far. Science and the pursuit of knowledge is a harsh and unforgiving business, and a lot of people fall by the wayside, and no doubt they're none too happy about it. Well, tough. That's the price you pay for being wrong.
nutters!
Couple of comedy links for you.
Firstly, this: Art Garfunkel of Simon & Garfunkel fame is a bright bloke (he has a degree in Art History and a Master's in Mathematics) and reads a lot of books. He also has a webpage which lists every book he's read since 1968. Genius! And, apparently, he never dives into a Dick Francis or a Dan Brown or a Terry Pratchett, just for a laugh. No, it's wall to wall Foucault and Heidegger. Must be a laugh a minute down the pub. He also writes slightly ropey poetry. Pretentious? Lui?
Secondly, this is absolute comedy gold. The utter genius of it all reveals itself to you slowly - I don't want to spoil it for you, but your thought process will probably go something like this:
Firstly, this: Art Garfunkel of Simon & Garfunkel fame is a bright bloke (he has a degree in Art History and a Master's in Mathematics) and reads a lot of books. He also has a webpage which lists every book he's read since 1968. Genius! And, apparently, he never dives into a Dick Francis or a Dan Brown or a Terry Pratchett, just for a laugh. No, it's wall to wall Foucault and Heidegger. Must be a laugh a minute down the pub. He also writes slightly ropey poetry. Pretentious? Lui?
Secondly, this is absolute comedy gold. The utter genius of it all reveals itself to you slowly - I don't want to spoil it for you, but your thought process will probably go something like this:
- Ah, it's a golf club site
- No, hang on, it's a site protesting about a golf club
- Hey, there's some good stuff on here - pedestrians out walking their dogs being attacked by golfers, etc.
- Hang on, every time an entry in the list starts out saying "an innocent walker" it turns out to be this Dr. Mowforth bloke
- Hang on, this Dr. Mowforth bloke is the guy who runs the website!
- Christ, this guy is barking mad!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
album of the day
Back, way, way back when I was a student, I shared a hall of residence corridor with (among others) my friend Dave who I ended up sharing a flat with several years later. Slightly confusing to share a flat with someone of the same name, though people usually got round that by calling him Big Dave (as he's taller than me) or, following certain further revelations about his private life, Big Gay Dave.
Anyway, we spent a lot of time during this particular academic year sitting around in Dave's room drinking tea, playing cribbage, and listening to one of his smallish collection of CDs. The one that got the most airplay was If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues. A great album, but if you hear it every day for 9 months, you can subsequently go a long long time before you feel the need to hear it again. In fact it
wasn't until I was in the Virgin Megastore in central Bristol a couple of days ago and saw that they were flogging The Very Best Of The Pogues for £3.99 that I had an urge to hear some of these tunes again.
And, funnily enough, great though this compilation is, my main criticism is that it doesn't have enough songs from IISFFGWG, as I like to call it. Even-handedness is all very well, but the compilers have bent over backwards to be even-handed to, in particular, the slightly ropey (in comparison) later albums Peace And Love and Hell's Ditch at the expense of some essential songs like Bottle Of Smoke, Turkish Song Of The Damned, Thousands Are Sailing and The Broad Majestic Shannon. Great stuff for all that, though.
Speaking of The Broad Majestic Shannon reminds me of a great website which is an archive of misheard song lyrics. The one in this song is in the line towards the end of the song which goes:
Where we once watched the rowboats landing
By the broad majestic Shannon
The way Shane MacGowan sings it the word "rowboats" sounds like "robots", which puts a whole different slightly threatening science fiction alien invasion of earth slant on the whole thing. In his defence he was probably drunk at the time.
Anyway, we spent a lot of time during this particular academic year sitting around in Dave's room drinking tea, playing cribbage, and listening to one of his smallish collection of CDs. The one that got the most airplay was If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues. A great album, but if you hear it every day for 9 months, you can subsequently go a long long time before you feel the need to hear it again. In fact it
wasn't until I was in the Virgin Megastore in central Bristol a couple of days ago and saw that they were flogging The Very Best Of The Pogues for £3.99 that I had an urge to hear some of these tunes again.And, funnily enough, great though this compilation is, my main criticism is that it doesn't have enough songs from IISFFGWG, as I like to call it. Even-handedness is all very well, but the compilers have bent over backwards to be even-handed to, in particular, the slightly ropey (in comparison) later albums Peace And Love and Hell's Ditch at the expense of some essential songs like Bottle Of Smoke, Turkish Song Of The Damned, Thousands Are Sailing and The Broad Majestic Shannon. Great stuff for all that, though.
Speaking of The Broad Majestic Shannon reminds me of a great website which is an archive of misheard song lyrics. The one in this song is in the line towards the end of the song which goes:
Where we once watched the rowboats landing
By the broad majestic Shannon
The way Shane MacGowan sings it the word "rowboats" sounds like "robots", which puts a whole different slightly threatening science fiction alien invasion of earth slant on the whole thing. In his defence he was probably drunk at the time.
the last book I read
A Natural Curiosity by Margaret Drabble.I read The Radiant Way (to which this is a sort of sequel) a couple of years ago and I remember thinking: this is all beautifully written, but what's it actually about? Funny, then, or perhaps not, that I ended up thinking exactly the same thing about this one. It's wonderfully observed, has lots of sharply perceptive things to say about the way modern lives & society operate, but still.....and it's not like I demand explosions, cars chasing motorcycles off cliffs, people having sex with goats that are on fire, etc. etc., although these are obviously not bad things, necessarily......and it's not about a lack of excitement or interest, because I was kept interested throughout, it's more that I was unclear as to the purpose of the narrative. And it's not that narrative has to have a purpose, necessarily, beyond entertaining the reader......maybe I was just led to expect something life-changing by the author's formidable reputation. So maybe my slight feeling of underwhelm-ment is down to my own unreasonable preconceptions. Yes, so it's all my fault, as usual. Typical.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
f*ckity f*ck
Four Weddings And A Funeral was on Channel 4 tonight. I watched the last hour or so, much against my better judgment - well, nothing better was on, and I had a bottle of Hardy's Cabernet Merlot on the go, so I couldn't be bothered to leave the sofa.
Much against my better judgment, you say? Surely this is a charming romantic comedy? Incapable of causing offence in anyone, let alone massive teeth-gnashing bilious loathing? Well.....just a couple of things:
1) Hugh Grant. And, in general, the portrayal of the British male as some stuttering, foppish, emotionally constipated, sexually repressed buffoon. Obviously this is made for the American market, but even so: his best mate is the seventh richest man in Britain! And all the weddings are in country mansions! And the climactic one appears to be in Westminster Abbey or something...arguably this is to do with the English male, which gets me out on a technicality, but even so....
2) Far more importantly, what man in his right mind would choose Andie MacDowell (pleasant enough in an inoffensive corn-fed mid-Western American sort of way) over Kristin Scott Thomas - one of the sexiest women in the world? An idiot, that's who. Funnily enough the only other decent film I can remember Andie MacDowell having a starring role in was sex, lies and videotape, where, by a strange coincidence, she was equally overshadowed by a co-star of almost overwhelming sexiness; Laura San Giacomo (who played her sister) in this case. Whatever happened to her, I wonder?
Much against my better judgment, you say? Surely this is a charming romantic comedy? Incapable of causing offence in anyone, let alone massive teeth-gnashing bilious loathing? Well.....just a couple of things:
1) Hugh Grant. And, in general, the portrayal of the British male as some stuttering, foppish, emotionally constipated, sexually repressed buffoon. Obviously this is made for the American market, but even so: his best mate is the seventh richest man in Britain! And all the weddings are in country mansions! And the climactic one appears to be in Westminster Abbey or something...arguably this is to do with the English male, which gets me out on a technicality, but even so....
2) Far more importantly, what man in his right mind would choose Andie MacDowell (pleasant enough in an inoffensive corn-fed mid-Western American sort of way) over Kristin Scott Thomas - one of the sexiest women in the world? An idiot, that's who. Funnily enough the only other decent film I can remember Andie MacDowell having a starring role in was sex, lies and videotape, where, by a strange coincidence, she was equally overshadowed by a co-star of almost overwhelming sexiness; Laura San Giacomo (who played her sister) in this case. Whatever happened to her, I wonder?
let's rock!
Albums I listened to today: managed three of these by virtue of a) not doing any washing up for quite some time, so there was a lot and b) skipping a few tracks.
Meddle by Pink Floyd: arguably, the first "proper" post-Syd Barrett Floyd album. Having said that it's a two-song album, really. Tracks 2 through 5 are pretty forgettable, so the ones you really want are: One Of These Days - terrific galloping space-rock driven by Roger Waters' exchoplexed (presumably, unless his fingers were a positive blur throughout) bassline and strangely reminiscent of the old Doctor Who theme; and Echoes - you really need to have taken a shedload of drugs to fully appreciate this, but even legally this is tremendous stuff, from the strange sonar-style "ping"-ing at the start (a piano through a Leslie speaker, I think), through the rumbly funky bit in the middle, and the bizarre whale-song squeaky noises that follow it. We had a bit of a competition when I was at university (Bristol, 1988-1992, as it happens) for really long songs and this one (23:01) trumped the competition for a while. Then my mate Dave produced a copy of Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans. A double LP with four songs on it - damn you! You win this round.....
Audioslave by Audioslave: I was never much of a fan of rage Against The Machine, but I was a big fan of Soundgarden. However the ratio was 3:1 in RATM's favour here, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is pretty good. Standout tracks (I think): Show Me How To Live, What You Are, I Am The Highway. If there's a complaint (and there always is) it's that it's a bit one-dimensional, rumbling metal riffs, shouting, etc. - in comparison to Soundgarden in particular. There are reasons for this, and here they are: Tom Morello is a far less imaginative guitarist than Kim Thayil, and Chris Cornell's orthodox metallic tendencies were always made more interesting by Ben Shepherd's interventions: listen to the strange rattly Middle Eastern sound of Head Down from Superunknown, for instance, or Dusty and Switch Opens from Down On The Upside. Despite the slightly enervating hammering oppressiveness over 14 tracks (65 minutes) it's great if you're in the mood.
Superunknown by Soundgarden: speak of the devil. Just by way of a contrast with the Audioslave album, this runs the gamut from creaky sludgy grunge-rock (Fell On Black Days, Mailman, 4th Of July) to almost catchy stuff like My Wave, Black Hole Sun and Spoonman. And, also, if you listen to Superunknown and (in particular) The Day I Tried To Live you'll hear that Chris Cornell does the best rock screaming since the days of Robert Plant and Ian Gillan. One of the great rock albums (despite having one of the worst album covers) of the 1990's; everyone should own it. What the hell is a "gamut", anyway?
Meddle by Pink Floyd: arguably, the first "proper" post-Syd Barrett Floyd album. Having said that it's a two-song album, really. Tracks 2 through 5 are pretty forgettable, so the ones you really want are: One Of These Days - terrific galloping space-rock driven by Roger Waters' exchoplexed (presumably, unless his fingers were a positive blur throughout) bassline and strangely reminiscent of the old Doctor Who theme; and Echoes - you really need to have taken a shedload of drugs to fully appreciate this, but even legally this is tremendous stuff, from the strange sonar-style "ping"-ing at the start (a piano through a Leslie speaker, I think), through the rumbly funky bit in the middle, and the bizarre whale-song squeaky noises that follow it. We had a bit of a competition when I was at university (Bristol, 1988-1992, as it happens) for really long songs and this one (23:01) trumped the competition for a while. Then my mate Dave produced a copy of Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans. A double LP with four songs on it - damn you! You win this round.....
Audioslave by Audioslave: I was never much of a fan of rage Against The Machine, but I was a big fan of Soundgarden. However the ratio was 3:1 in RATM's favour here, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is pretty good. Standout tracks (I think): Show Me How To Live, What You Are, I Am The Highway. If there's a complaint (and there always is) it's that it's a bit one-dimensional, rumbling metal riffs, shouting, etc. - in comparison to Soundgarden in particular. There are reasons for this, and here they are: Tom Morello is a far less imaginative guitarist than Kim Thayil, and Chris Cornell's orthodox metallic tendencies were always made more interesting by Ben Shepherd's interventions: listen to the strange rattly Middle Eastern sound of Head Down from Superunknown, for instance, or Dusty and Switch Opens from Down On The Upside. Despite the slightly enervating hammering oppressiveness over 14 tracks (65 minutes) it's great if you're in the mood.
Superunknown by Soundgarden: speak of the devil. Just by way of a contrast with the Audioslave album, this runs the gamut from creaky sludgy grunge-rock (Fell On Black Days, Mailman, 4th Of July) to almost catchy stuff like My Wave, Black Hole Sun and Spoonman. And, also, if you listen to Superunknown and (in particular) The Day I Tried To Live you'll hear that Chris Cornell does the best rock screaming since the days of Robert Plant and Ian Gillan. One of the great rock albums (despite having one of the worst album covers) of the 1990's; everyone should own it. What the hell is a "gamut", anyway?
Monday, October 02, 2006
what I did at the weekend
1. Climb Plynlimon. Pictures available here. This is supposedly, by some estimations at least, the highest mountain in Mid-Wales (2467 feet or 752 metres, metric fans). What I suppose this means is: if you draw a line of latitude just north of Waun Fach in the Black Mountains and another just south of Cadaer Idris, and shade in the area in between, you end up with a decent-sized area which you could, at a push, call "Mid-Wales". It is also, supposedly, one of the wettest places in Wales. Strangely enough then, when we were there, it chucked it down almost constantly. For those tempted to go and emulate us, you need to know this: it's a big, pathless, treeless, featureless boggy lump of a place which is more difficult to get up than its height might suggest, mainly because there's a lot of slogging through tussocky bog on the way up. And it'll be raining.
2. Make some sloe gin. There are some blackthorn trees round the back of my parents' house which were groaning under the weight of sloes, so we went out while I was up there and picked a load. When I say "a load" I mean the best part of 10 pounds in about an hour. Turned out to be more than I could actually use, but - hey - they were free. I liberated some damsons out of the freezer as well, just for experimental purposes. I decided to document the process - you can see the results here. It's worth pointing out that the dumping a load of fruit, sugar and gin in a big jar bit of the process (i.e. today's bit) is the easy bit - the complex bit comes in about four months when I have to decant, filter, bottle etc. the results of the process. Tell you what - we'll worry about that bit later.
2. Make some sloe gin. There are some blackthorn trees round the back of my parents' house which were groaning under the weight of sloes, so we went out while I was up there and picked a load. When I say "a load" I mean the best part of 10 pounds in about an hour. Turned out to be more than I could actually use, but - hey - they were free. I liberated some damsons out of the freezer as well, just for experimental purposes. I decided to document the process - you can see the results here. It's worth pointing out that the dumping a load of fruit, sugar and gin in a big jar bit of the process (i.e. today's bit) is the easy bit - the complex bit comes in about four months when I have to decant, filter, bottle etc. the results of the process. Tell you what - we'll worry about that bit later.
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