2008 — 10 June: Tuesday
It's just gone midnight, which means it's time for another picture of Christa. This is one from our delayed honeymoon down in Cornwall:
Christa on St Michael's Mount. September 1975
G'night. Showers have just been tentatively forecast. Excellent!
A new day, and a...
... new technical term. The German software house that acquired my favourite Xara folk are suggesting I should "rescue" my videotapes:1
Did you know that the magnetic layer on your videotapes is deteriorating, that playback quality suffers due to geomagnetism and moisture, and that "tape salad" ejected from VCRs are all frequent causes that can result in a total loss?
What is "tape salad"? I'm trying to remember the last time I played a videotape; must be at least two years ago. I still have an SVHS machine knocking around, but it's not plumbed into the current stack. Oh well. Time (09:36) for a spot of brekkie.
Fascinating piece here in Mother Jones about batteries, and the technology of electric cars. The first comment is, or looks like, a deliberate spoiler attempt. Read past it.
Well, mercy me. I've just discovered that William H. McNeill (author of the brilliant "Plagues and People") has indeed written more. Specifically, "Keeping together in time: dance and drill in human history" — now there's an eclectic mind at work! I got there from the New York Times review of the Oliver Sacks book "Musicophilia" which I was briefly pondering in the Bournemouth "Borders" yesterday. What a web, heh? The same review also looks at a book by Daniel J. Levitin:
The ability to sing and dance well, in particular, serves to attract mates, because it signals intelligence, agility, and emotional quality — though it may not always go with a propensity to long-term child-rearing commitment. Levitin conjectures that this is why male rock stars and their music are so erotically appealing, despite the poor prospects of such performers as dedicated husbands: they are tapping into the primordial power of sexual selection through musical display.
Souped-up Playstation?
I see the US military machine has a new toy from IBM. "Beep, beep!" But when I find supposedly funny rubbish like this, I realise why I gave up the Guardian — ironically, a relationship that had lasted as long as mine with Christa.
Souped-down Humax?
That damnable hdcp gets everywhere, doesn't it?
Noon news
How, exactly, does the guvmint intend to halve child poverty by the end of the decade? That would be a neat trick. As for us poor pensioners, well, what can I say? It's 17:01, and this poor pensioner has lunched on chicken, red cabbage and a tasty tomato covering, hung the washing up to dry (ahead of tomorrow's "patchy" rain), and recently returned from a not-unbearably pollen-filled tea and a cake at Hillier's with my main co-pilot, who was on a mission to shake down the new cupholder in his newly (engine management)-chipped little Smart. My turn next. Now what's out there on this great big wonderful web thing?
Moreover, even after the ravages brought by the waves of expanding agriculturalists beginning about 10,000 years ago, followed more recently by the great imperial conquests of the last 800 to 900 years, humans still speak about 7,000 distinct languages. You don't get that by hanging out with each other.
Late afternoon lift to the spirits... dept.
I'd resigned myself to another supply run if I wanted any fruit other than an over-soft banana on my brekkie cereal tomorrow morning. But I'd reckoned without the lingering effects of Christa's green thumb, hadn't I?
Pity about the pollen out there right now, though. I've also hacked back at the vine a little (I can kid myself that pliers are almost as good as secateurs, though I haven't given up looking for the latter) to discourage high-climbing ants from getting in through the upper kitchen window. They may yet all turn into mini-acrobats, I suppose. Then I guess they'd be welcome, though they won't find much to eat in my kitchen — actually, I suspect Christa's final attempts2 at sealing their entry tunnels around the appalling double-glazing (mis)-fitted by the incompetent "people" employed by a firm called "Anglian" actually did the trick for a few ant generations.3
And the washing is almost bone dry... Time (18:53) to think about some more food. To the accompaniment (while washing the strawberries) of Desmond Carrington playing a track by Al Stewart — another favourite musician of mine who was new to Christa back when we met. Good god! Thank you, Wikipedia, but I'd never realised young Mr Stewart was actually three months older than Christa! I particularly enjoyed playing her the track "Nostradamus" from his 1973 album, Past, Present, and Future. And now it's pretty blissful to hear him playing part of the suite "Things to come" from the 70-year-old film of that title... Life is different, but Life is still full of good things from time to time.
Alex Paterson (from The Orb) has just (21:35) said one of his favourite albums is "Apollo" (by Brian Eno) — source, of course, of one of the three tracks I chose for Christa's funeral service. He's a man of taste!
Crikey!
I've watched very little broadcast TV since Christa died. But I was delighted and fascinated by tonight's documentary on Annie Leibovitz, a photographer whose work I've admired and followed since buying a book on her and Mary Ellen Mark 30 years ago. I'm glad I channel hopped over from the wildlife in China stuff that was going out on the BBC's HD channel. Seen one giant panda, seen enough, frankly.