2013 — 26 December: Thursday
I could be wrong here but I'd say when the Teutonic branch of Amazon emails me to say Alles muss raus they mean "Everything must go". This is in marked contrast to the uncommercial atmosphere I recall being such a delightful feature1 of Christa's once-remote village / city:
The cathedral directly across the square from my in-law's mansion — I married the factory-owner's daughter, recall — muddied the waters of the precise status of Meisenheim2 back in the mid-1970s.
Meanwhile, the blessed BBC...
... seems intent on mucking about with their radio iPlayer interface and thus making it needlessly awkward for me to confirm the name of the piece currently playing though I know perfectly well that, last time they played it, I promptly downloaded this album of it as an MP3:
Just you try remembering how to spell "Einojuhani Rautavaara" before breakfast!
Here's a lady (Shelley Segal)...
... I discovered back in March. She's just sent me a "Happy Holidays" greeting consisting of a link to a YouTube performance of her new album "Atheist". As I said at the time, she's a female Tim Minchin. Though less flamboyant. (Link.)
Do I really...
... want (or need) to see Ray Winstone in a new TV production of a childhood favourite? I was reminded of it...
... when hearing Sandi Toksvig yesterday describing her amazement at being expected to "study" Jane Eyre in American High School over a period of many weeks, word by word, aloud, rather than simply taking it home (exactly as I did with this Junior school set book) to read for pleasure in one evening before moving on to whatever the brain-dead curriculum committee had decided was the next book. I did not even begin to grasp what my classmates found so awful about the alien concept of reading for pleasure.
While it would be...
... grossly inaccurate to characterise me as an enthusiastic, let alone habitual, wielder of domestic cleaning technology, I do (sometimes, as the tide of entropy threatens to engulf me) pick up my most recent cute little sucker. After all, having bought a replacement battery for it I'd be daft not to. So I'm now in some danger of deserving an early 'lemonses'. Where's that kettle?
I indirectly picked up a new Thomas Beecham story yesterday after being informed (by an email from a resident of that fine city) that Beecham had once referred to Seattle as an "aesthetic dustbin". A momentary dalliance with Mrs Google brought me that story, and more. Source and snippet:
As the Post-Intelligencer noted, in reaction to the minute sound of a newspaper photographer's shutter clicking, mid-song:
Sir Thomas' celebrated baton cracked smartly against a music stand and deathless silence descended on orchestra and audience alike. Sir Thomas whirled toward the odious sound. His goatee quivered and his eyes flashed. 'You can go home, now!' he barked at the hapless photographer, 'you are an insult to the audience!' [Art] French sat stunned for an instant. 'You go home!' Sir Thomas barked again. Muttering 'I'm sorry,' French gathered his equipment and left that place fast. 'You ought to be sorry,' Sir Thomas shot after him. Then turning to the audience he made a courtly bow and said with wonderful restraint after the bad moment: 'With your kind permission, ladies and gentlemen, I will play this piece again.' The audience burst into applause.
It didn't entirely...
... surprise me3 when I powered BlackBeast and its various merry little friends back on that my Synology NAS had managed to come unglued from the network. I'd dislodged its power cable, after all, without noticing (of course). But, to give Win8.1 Pro its due all it took to rediscover the drives was the power switch and about 90 seconds of patience.
Somewhere in there was a bite of lunch, but the need for a cuppa is now almost irresistible.
The question...
... for this evening is, am I going to break my entirely arbitrary habit of avoiding broadcast TV to watch (or, at least, try) tonight's first part of "Death comes to Pemberley"? I didn't rate the PD James novel very highly. Perhaps I'll just let the Humax PVR catch it first. Last night, I watched enough of "Children of Men" (also based on a novel by PD James and filmed by the chap who went on to make "Gravity") to persuade me to upgrade my DVD of it to a Blu-ray. Meanwhile, the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts show is re-examining "Buffy the vampire slayer".
There's a group...
... called "Black Rebel Motorcycle Club" with a short track Done all wrong featured on the music for "Twilight: New Moon". Turns out they also have a track Feel it now featured (in the comic book episode) on the soundtrack to "Bones, Season #1". I was quite chuffed when I worked this out. Anyway, that MP3 album is now safely sitting on BlackBeast. It also has a grand version of that lovely Kate Bush track Running up that hill as performed by Placebo. Plus tracks from Sinead O'Connor and Sarah McLachlan. Amazing.