2011 — 4 September: Sunday
Grey1 as I sup my initial delicious cuppa and listen to Nitin Sawhney chatting with Jo Good on BBC 6Music. I haven't heard of most of the musicians they've been discussing, and don't analyse the stuff to the extent they do — much as the supposed eggheads do on BBC Radio 3, actually — but it's still geekily interesting all the same. Articulate, well-informed, professionals are generally worth eavesdropping on whatever their field.
On with the show. It's 09:31 and seems rather quiet out there in the real world.
I'm very glad...
... not to be a Catholic. Just think how riddled with guilt and shame I'd be!
Unlike that fine institution itself, which prefers (as ever) to blame its victims and sweep matters under as many dusty carpets (no matter how threadbare) that it can lay its hands on. Not the only things official Catholic hands have been laid on, of course, by all accounts. Allegedly. :-)
I was right!
Back in March 2007, on the day I bought Scott Winant's engaging little film 'Til there was you in HMV I predicted it would play havoc with my DVD title collating sequence. I've finished entering my video titles into the online DVD Profiler list available here, and (until I went in and changed the 'sort title' field) guess what had indeed percolated right to the top of the heap?
The "score" so far is 3,432 titles, but there is as yet no trace of any of these...
... in the half a million or so titles internationally "known" to the system. I shall therefore have to enter their data myself.
Stretching my legs...
... after a morning and part of an afternoon at one PC or another, I note that it's stopped raining, there's a few bits of blue sky between the clouds, and I could use another cuppa. It's 15:02. [Pause] After a spot of tidying up, and the discovery of one further title (not including those out on loan with my son — I think I know what they all are) I'm left to ponder the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything, as revealed by this somewhat simple genre analysis of my little video library:
"What's it all about, Alfie?" That singleton classified as "Sports" puzzles me. I wonder if the film Wimbledon got mis-tagged? Or perhaps Aaron Sorkin's excellent TV predecessor to the "West Wing", namely "Sports Night"? It's what happens when you ride on the back, as it were, of lots of data entry by other people. As for the nominal cost of my collection... well, I'm immediately reminded of the wonderful opening line of Simon Garfield's book ("The Error World") about that subset of stamp collectors who are only interested in stamps that are flawed in some way. Aren't we all?
But when did it become 18:17? I'm hungry again.
Closer inspection...
... doesn't really shed any light. Of what use, for example, is the genre "Television"?
Oh well. There's a walk tentatively arranged for tomorrow, dodging the showers. A lunch on Wednesday. And some supplies shopping near the top of the prioritised queue of chores. Now (22:22) back to my film, with my little glass of grapefruit juice. Is this the life? :-)