2012 — 20 April: Friday
Much sunnier so far.1 But where's my cuppa, Mrs Landingham?
How can it be so long since the magnificent film Scorsese made ("The Last Waltz") of The Band? It's just been mentioned in the context of the death of drummer Levon Helm.
And does it get any more stupid than this, from the Bush state? Source and snippet:
Alice Lance tells me at the annual tractor pull: "The only conflict we have is when people move from metropolitan areas and have different value systems. I think some don't have a strong [religious] belief system, and they're more likely to go with science than faith."
Oh, those wicked metropolitan areas. A (Glen) Rose by any other name...
Nerd Tourism
I found this piece on 'El Reg' interesting. And while I agree (more or less) that "a few people who are extremely good at actually doing coding well" can be a Good Thing, I've also known 'ace' programmers who basically needed 'janitors' to trail around after them, sweeping up all the dropped bits. Not to mention the occasional dangerous idiots who came up with stuff even they couldn't maintain or debug after a month or so. (Link.)
The rain, and occasional hail, hasn't left much blossom on either my decorative Japanese cherry tree or the more edible pear tree. I also seem to have just had my water meter2 read. In the rain. And I forgot to note two arrivals in yesterday's post:
Unfortunately, I found the Greenslade has not aged at all well, but I'm happy to report that Keith Emerson's Moscow concert in 2008 is very fine indeed. And loud. Thanks to Mike for bringing it to my attention.
Resuming...
... after a lunch that was just slightly too late to stave off one of my multi-coloured zig-zag pattern visual displays, a few words of welcome exchanged with my new neighbour, and a few emails, I can turn the remnants of my attention to today's delivery from Mr "dodged the showers" Postie. Beginning with a pair of CDs by "Bat for Lashes" (with a freebie DVD documentary thrown in, and a few bonus tracks, too):
A while back, Bernard Rose made "ivans xtc" based (loosely) on Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich" but set in today's Hollywood (well, a mere 12 years ago now). He's followed that up with "The Kreutzer Sonata" (for which I found a trailer on last week's "Q"). We shall see...
And, with that, he vanished quietly in the direction of the Figg's free Friday afternoon tea and chat emporium!
Somewhat...
... later — it's now 22:55 — I await the arrival of the prodigal son in another hour or so. Where did I stash the fatted calf?