Christmas roundup

I was quite pleased to discover that most of the other blogs that I read didn’t post much over Christmas either. Here is a quick mention of some insignificant things:

Raising the Stones by Sherri Tepper: ****

The best of her books yet for me, and unlike The Gate To Women’s Country this one didn’t leave me wanting a bit more, but had a nice satisfying feeling of completeness.

Slippers: ***

I had slippers on my Christmas list, but nobody bought them for me. this is understandable since a) they are quite boring and b) I am an awkward shoe size. The pretty little slipper socks I was after from M&S had been discontinued so instead I bought some very cheap ones from a very cheap shop. Supposedly only a half size too big they turned out to be about three sizes too big, so I sewed up the back to make them fit and now I have cute slipper socks with a rudder on the back. They do sometimes fall off still, because the elastic that is supposed to make them cling to your feet is too lazy to get out of bed let alone stretch and contract. Still, the old ones were a bit tight in that regard and these ones are warmer. Is it a sign of encroaching middle age that I just spent half a blog post talking about slippers?

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: ***

I was disappointed by this film. Oh, it was good as a film in its own right but they messed with bits of the book that I really love, and in my opinion unnecessarily so. I got the impression that it just wasn’t lavished with as much care and attention as the LoTR got. And not surprisingly really – I guess for Peter Jackson it was a bit like being a painter asked to copy one of your original art works. Been done before, not so interesting, somebody else could have a go, no?

I liked the dwarves’ songs, and I didn’t mind the attempt to make it part of a larger story, the creeping in of the necromancer and the build-up to LoTR. I did mind the ridiculous bit with tree dominoes over a cliff (as if being up a tree that’s on fire with a load of wolves round the bottom wasn’t perilous enough), and I hated the change to the bit with the trolls. Dad has a theory about the reason for this, but although as a theory it holds weight, I don’t agree that it’s necessary – at least not for a sophisticated audience.

Eagle: ***

Finally caught up with the film version of Rosemary Sutcliffe‘s The Eagle of the Ninth. Not a bad attempt actually, but like most films of books the book was actually better and they would have needed more running time to do it justice. Also I remember Esca being a bit less ambiguous – though that could be just because I know the outcome.

Source Code: ****

A pretty enjoyable sci-fi film. A little intellect, a little action, not too long. Recommended.

Mumford and Sons at O2 London, 11th December: *****

Coming in at a surprising no. 1 in my gigs of the year list (not that I actually have such a list) are Mumford and Sons. Having seen some really great gigs this year I didn’t expect the Mumfords to top them, especially since they are not metal, but somehow they did.

Maybe it was their choice of Piff the Magic Dragon as one of the support acts, who is absolutely brilliant and also came on breathing fire during one of the songs (and got told off for being a show-off).

Maybe it was the way the sound filled the arena – the rich, dark, smooth, chocolatey sound that your ears kind of melt into. It wasn’t as loud as some but it was somehow more ‘there’. The fans were a tuneful lot and when everybody was singing along you could just hear the swell of voices underneath the band, lifting the music to another level and making it feel like being part of a ginormous choir. The “show” part was good with some pretty lights and a couple of big screens, but it was really all about the sound.

Maybe it was their humility – being obviously so amazed at playing to such a big crowd, yet totally pulling it off. We were introduced to both the horns and the string section, and it was quite fun to see everybody swap around instruments, including the singer drumming and the keyboard player doing some excellent air-guitar.

We got pretty much all of the songs from both albums, including a lovely a cappella piece done from the centre of the arena as part of the encore set.

Only one complaint have I – why not just finish on The Cave? It’s a great song and I thought it was going to be the one to go out on, but instead they brought back on the support act and played “A little help from my friends”. I’m not a fan of the Beatles particularly and I don’t think that’s one of their best songs anyway. Mumfords – I came to see you not the Beatles (and you won my heart).

Natural History Museum Lates: ****

A dinosaur in the natural history museum, NYC (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Late nights at the natural history museum are just great, and they do a good mulled wine and a great venison stew. There was also some live music, which was not great with the acoustics and certainly better from some areas in the hall than others. We went mostly for the Wildlife Photography exhibition, which we love and go to every year.

 

James – this is for you:

 

Doomed romance

Verse 1

It happened one night at the museum,

I didn’t expect to find love.

I saw you

Across a crowded room,

I was hit with a bolt from above.

verse 2

Your retrousse nose was my undoing,

My heart was yours for the capture.

You were the most

Delightful host,

My beautiful, velociraptor.

Chorus 1

We hid from stegosaurus,

and tyrannosaurus rex.

Or do you think they saw us

In the garden having break-

fast? It’s hard to be your baby

when your friends are such a bore,

’cause I’m a vegetarian

and they’re all carnivores.

verse 3

Our first date was dancing and dinner,

Your appetite was rapacious

But on the floor

You were a dinosaur,

My era’s 80s, and yours is cretaceous.

chorus 2

You don’t speak to diplodocus

Or triceratops

And I think we need to focus

’cause this relationship’s a flop.

I can’t be your baby

whilst you’ve got teeth and claws,

‘Cause I’m a tasty morsel

And you’re a predator.

 

(James was disappointed that none of the songs were about dinosaurs.)

 

Door update

For those of you eagerly waiting an update on the new door, you will be pleased to know that two days later there is already a small team of men doing some maintenance to it.

Doors: part II

Yet again I have been too busy doing fun things to write about those fun things. The irony of this is not lost on me – a rethink of this blog may be needed. So there may or may not be posts on the Meantime Brewery, The Book of Dave, and The Master coming up.

New Door: *

In the meantime I instead am going to talk about doors again. You may remember that I mentioned before how I am not very good with doors. So imagine my feelings upon coming into work this morning to discover a new security door. I say door – it’s really a bit more like a decontamination chamber, or perhaps a person sized version of one of those pneumatic tube delivery mechanisms. A cylindrical upright coffin, having room only for one person, with a sliding door either side. You swipe your card and the first door opens. Step in, it closes behind you, then the next door opens and you walk through. Presumably this is managed using a weight sensor to know when to close the first door and open the second.

Pneumatic tube technology, or “how I now get into my office every day” (Photo credit: askpang)

Fortunately for anyone who may suffer from claustrophobia (I do not), the doors are at least transparent. I assume that this helps. However, they’re a lot more flush to the sides than the old revolving version of this door. They feel, well, kind of air-tight. Let’s hope it’s more reliable and has a much lower ‘getting stuck’ rate or I think there’ll be trouble.

Weekend activities

Skyfall: *****

We had booked tickets to see this in the BFI IMAX, and this was the earliest date we could do, so a little behind most of our friends but it was definitely worth the wait. Of course the big screen helped – the shots of the Shanghai skyline were particularly stunning. But I have to say, even the title sequence was great and they definitely made more of Adele’s theme tune – which I’d been kind of indifferent to previously.

I can’t say too much without giving away the plot but in general it had all the stunts and sequences you want from Bond, a few not-so-cheesy one-liners, evil villains, damsels in distress, pretty cars etc etc. But combine this with the darker hard-hitting style we saw in Casino Royale and you’ll get the gist. Oh, and plenty of shirt-off action from Mr Craig if you like that sort of thing.

The one thing I wasn’t too keen on was the new Q. For me Ben Wishaw played him too close to Richard Ayoade‘s character from The IT Crowd. Q is light relief yes but he shouldn’t be directly comical.

The Gate To Women’s Country (Sheri S. Tepper): ****

My second Sheri Tepper book, I enjoyed this much more than the previous one – slightly against my better judgement I think. The book is set in a post-nuclear world where women do the work and make the rules and the men live separately and are responsible solely for defence of the towns. Maybe it’s just because the last thing I read was The Dispossessed and this was very intellectual and worthy so I felt a bit guilty in indulging in a sci-fi style chick lit. Although of course it’s much better written than that.

The one thing that annoyed me about this book (well there had to be something) was that the synopsis on the back was really misleading. Not in a “mustn’t give away the twist” way, but in a factually incorrect way and this meant that the thing you were anticipating the book being about wasn’t what it was about, to the point where I was about three-quarters of the way through the book before I realised it wasn’t going to happen.

Despite all that I was pleased with myself for working out where it was all going at the end, there was a good mix of sci-fi technical stuff and character development, and I liked the interspersion of the Iphigenia play. Actually I’m slightly disappointed that this was only a one-off and not a series. I would have liked to see where Sheri could take it next.

Pumpkin Lasagne: ***

I had had success previously with Nigella’s goats cheese and pumpkin lasagne, but having substituted butternut squash fir pumpkin. Being shortly after Halloween there were actually pumpkins in the shops this weekend and I managed to make it with the intended squash. It was still pretty good but I think it is actually better with butternut squash. I found the pumpkins a bit watery although I was using a proclaimed “culinary” variety.

I also learnt that the recipe feeds about 100 and I don’t have a dish big enough it put it in. Cue cheese and tomato sauces all over the kitchen. I can’t remember what happened last time – I think I may have made less of it.

Toffee Apple Crumble: ****

Never one to bake one thing at a time, I also attempted Gary Rhodes‘s Toffee Apple crumble. Basically it’s apple crumble with pieces of fudge in. The crumble wasn’t as brown as I’d have liked, probably because I used Trex instead of butter to make it dairy free. Also we didn’t have any hazelnuts and I do like a bit of crunch in the crumble. But the fudge making toffee is brilliant, and the little bit of last year’s (don’t worry, soaked in plenty of cheap brandy so it was fine) left over mincemeat I put in was delicious as well. Actually I think that might have been better than the toffee but don’t tell Gary!

Shinedown at Cardiff Union

Exit Ten and Redlight King: ***

I checked out the support on Spotify and was pleasantly surprised to discover I liked them both, so we duly turned up only ten minutes after the doors opened in order to catch them. Sadly, by the time we’d left our coats in the cloakroom Exit Ten had only half a song left. Is this usual? I guess it shows how much attention I usually pay to the support.

We did see all of Redlight King’s set though, and it had some good catchy tunes in there. Plus one that went a bit reggae and was still good. So I’ll be investigating them a bit more when I have some time.

Shinedown: *****

As my brother has already posted on Facebook, Shinedown have to be one of the politest bands in Rock. Having seen them at the Download Festival I already knew this, but nonetheless it was still refreshing to be greeted as “ladies and gentlemen”, and to be asked to turn around and say hello to one another  – before ironically they launched into ‘Enemies’ and turned the whole crowd into a giant mosh pit.

In a game of Fortunately/Unfortunately, it was at that point (I think about the second song in) that it became clear the guy standing in front of me needed a stronger deodorant. On the other hand, we lost the incredibly drunk girl who had already managed to throw half her cider over me and was hanging on to Jack’s belt loop in order to stand up. He had apparently politely removed her hands once already.

Other fans aside, it was nice to get to see the band in a smaller venue, and it worked really well for Brent Smith’s style of chatting to the crowd. When he admitted he had forgotten to check the set list and the next song was something he wasn’t expecting  – “I’ve got nothing” – I think we all felt an emotional connection.

They played all my favourites, a couple of older ones I didn’t know, a new one or two, and a good mix of the heavier songs (Devour, Enemies) with the slightly lighter/anthemic ones (Second Chance, Unity). Not to mention the wonderful “Bully”, which is a great example in song of what the band are all about, combining energy, heavy guitars, and a “let’s all look out for each other” attitude. There wasn’t a single song where I thought “yeah, I could take or leave this one”.

It ended all too quickly, but I left feeling good about life, the world, and rock & roll.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin: *****

I have loved Ursula Le Guin‘s Earthsea series since I was a child, so I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to read any of her adult books. You can certainly tell the difference. All the same story telling skills are there, but on top is a much more complicated world view, more greys, more alien characters, and lots of comment on society. It’s a pretty intellectual book.

The main character Shevek is an alien Physicist, his physics being a mixture of classic physics and philosophy. I loved her description of how he found beauty and truth in a book of logarithmic tables. It made me think about my Godson and his love for numbers, and how different people find joy in different things and it’s that variety and difference which is so wonderful.

I also particularly liked her description of what he thought about cocktail parties. There were a lot of people smiling and talking, but none of them talking about anything that was actually interesting. I have felt that way about a party once or twice in my time too.

Shevek comes from an anarchist world where there is no government, which Le Guin sets up us a Utopia, but we discover that like any political and social construct it is only as successful as the people who try to live by it. So the book is about Utopia and Dystopia and how one can bleed into another. About government and anarchy, and society, and freedom and rights and responsibilities.

Because he comes from a world where nobody owns anything, Shevek describes himself as coming “with empty hands”. It made me think about how as Christians we believe that everything we have is not ours but was given to us by God for stewardship and ultimately belongs to him, and how when we come to God we come with empty hands because we have nothing to give that doesn’t always belong to him. But for Shevek this is the only way to be, and having nothing – possessing nothing gives him freedom to do what he is called to do (in this case physics).

It is also interesting how he doesn’t feel that his work is complete until it’s been given away. So much so that he travels to an alien world to share it when his own people don’t want it. There is something in that which I’m beginning to understand as I get into song writing again. The creation of the perfect song is nothing if it isn’t sung. It has to be given away to be what it was intended to be. I suspect a lot of creative processes are like this.

So, a book that’s enjoyable to read and leaves you thinking. Top marks.

The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills: ****

This book is a tad on the trashy side – by which I mean it takes about 2 hours to read the whole thing, there are no long words or difficult concepts, and the plot is fairly simple. But, it’s got wizards, madmen, royalty, enchanted creatures, a working class hero, gods, and dragons. So everything a girl could want in a book really!

By far the most intriguing thing about this book is the author’s use of the phrase “arse over tea kettle”. I find this both endearing and fascinating. What makes the word arse ok to use if the word tit isn’t? And what other words can we replace arse with to really take this to another level? Perhaps toaster over tea-kettle? Spatula over tea-kettle? Whisk over tea-kettle? I digress…

This is not to put the book itself down. It’s a really fun read when you don’t want something too challenging, the hero is likeable, the world he lives in is well drawn, and the scrapes he gets into aren’t so farcical you end up shouting at the book. I will be seeking out the others in the series.

Muse at the O2: ****

Last time I saw Muse was out in a desert in Dubai. This was also the first time I’d ever heard them, and I was won over pretty much straight away. So I was pretty sure that the band would put on a good show – it was just a matter of how. I’ve seen people fill the arena in different ways. Metallica did it in the round with lots of fire and coffins, Bon Jovi did it with moving screens that turned into part of the set, Pearl Jam did it with a deep echoing sound that came out of the dark, Aerosmith did it with presence.

Muse did it mostly with lasers. Really impressive lasers. And a moving pyramid of screens that enclosed them completely so that they literally disappeared from sight before the encore, rather than the usual walk off stage. It’s also always enjoyable to see a grand piano sink into the depths of the stage.

My favourite Muse song is Supermassive Black Hole, and they played this quite early on. All the classics were there: Stockholm Syndrome, Starlight, Uprising, Hysteria, Undisclosed Desires etc. These were mixed in with songs from 2nd Law, which personally I think is a good album but not their best. The songs stood up to being played live and the big operatic sound that the band have works well for filling larger spaces.

Also, and the importance of which is not to be underestimated, they came on exactly when expected at 8:45, played a good length of set, and were finished just after 10:30. Meaning we could all get home to bed and without worrying about missing the last tube. Ok, so maybe I’m getting old but I appreciate the courtesy and being able to enjoy a gig without it wiping out the whole of the next day. And did I mention I can still hear?

Muse: you rock.

Also, I have been playing spot the influences on the new album. This is what i have come up with so far:

• Supremacy: James Bond theme
• Panic Station: Thriller
• Explorers: Queen

But what was the one they played last night that sounded like Dr Who?