Wholly Disordered

Browsing Heaven

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:49:32 GMT

Spent half an hour in this bookshop, wanted to stay for hours with x_perdita. Quiet, well-lit, but also quirky, woodbeamed, with terracotta tiles on the floor and large, large sections devoted to my favourite genres, crime and children's fiction.

£20 bought me:

Grimble (and Grimble at Christmas) by Clement Freud; The Song of Pentecost by W J Corbett; The Guardians by John Christopher; All but a Few and A Harp of Fishbones by Joan Aiken; The Night of Wencelas by Lionel Davidson; The Worm of Death by Nicholas Blake; and Death is No Sportsman and An English Murder by Cyril Hare.

x_perdita was very taken with the sizeable collection of Three Investigator mysteries; I showed off by predicting that the particular edition of "Doctor Who and the Giant Robot" with just its spine showing outwards on the shelf would have a back cover illustration, "and it's not a very good one".

Seriously, this shop is the sort of place I used to travel to Charing Cross Road to seek out (and never really came close to finding).

The Adventure of the Frequent Envelopes

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:44:23 GMT

Two things which amused me today:

This week's News Quiz, especially Robin Ince and Steve Punt's (canonically accurate) riffs on the postal services today v. the postal services as seen in the Sherlock Holmes books. x_perdita enjoyed this too.

She hasn't seen this yet, a definitive summary of last night's Question Time.

Some random notes

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:02:59 GMT

*Nothing enhances the experience of watching "Strictly Come Dancing" as much as seeing it with someone who a) knows how hard the dances are b) the personalities of the professionals c) the back-stories. I now am quite looking forward to seeing some American Smooth next week.

And technically of course the show is a marvel, ; a live 90 minute plus broadcast hosted by a word-perfect octogenarian, with all the money the BBC throws at it up on screen for all to see.

*The most impressive taxi ride I have ever had : courtesy of Kevin, All District Radio Cars. Immaculate car, fascinating man -- two sons with college scholarships in the US, a parent governor of a local school, spending his 60s between the UK, Spain and Miami. And possessing a book collection of Chinese propaganda valued by John 'Pompey' Westwood, no less.

*Celtic cross-stitch pattern jewellery is very interesting to me at the moment, even more so next year.

*Occasionally I check spotify to see if they've added one my favourite songs from a lovely album -- "The Kid", performed by Lucy Kaplansky, Richard Shindell & Dar Williams, aka Cry Cry Cry. It's now there, and sounds as wonderful now as it did when I first heard it ten years ago.

EDITED TO ADD: Either spotify have the title of Cry Cry Cry's last album track wrong, or that song is even more enlightened than originally intended.

Recently Read

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:37:40 GMT

Thanks to some regular train journeys, I have now finished:

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey. One of my favourite movies is Young and Innocent; I had no idea how little of the original book made it onto the screen. So we get the brilliant, young, independent Chief Constable's daughter Erica Burgoyne; a man hunt across the Southern counties; and not much else from Tey's work. Which is just as well, perhaps, because although the anti-Semitism is sadly par for course for the period it's quite depressing to find the empathetic Inspector Grant musing on the American songwriter being 'typical of his tribe'.

Behemoth's fate

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:31:03 GMT

So, following the intervention of an ankle-breaking manager, my submission deadline was extended and the last piece to go went in on Monday. (SF, in which we wonder if Eoin Colfer will write something almost, but not quite entirely, unlike Douglas Adams.)

I've had to write the next 20 item piece longhand, which I'm gradually typing up for submission -- my pick of 2009, which stars Andrew Sachs, Robert Hardy, and John Arlott, among others.

Meanwhile... strange days indeed. Had a pretty much perfect Sunday with x_perdita, shopping in Asda and then cooking the roast (well, watching her do it, but I did make some very nice gravy and some stuffing with garlic butter.) She let me nap through "Strictly Come Dancing" and then we watched the first four episodes of Season One of The West Wing. If there's another TV series which reels off four episodes of such quality, with such an incredible cast, from the get-go then I'd like to watch it. With x_perdita. And I can't wait for the magnificent episodes to come, but as she reads this blog I'll stay schtum as to what they are and when they are. (Clue: at least one on the other side of the disk we've just been watching.)

At work my own communication lines with the ankle-impaired boss (shades of POTUS in the Pilot) are mainly through a mobile line so faint that he might as well be on Mars rather than just eight miles down the road.

EDITED TO ADD: Good Lord, those episodes of The West Wing we watched first aired in the U.S. ten years ago this month.

A nice way to finish the evening

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:05:57 GMT

...a phone call from x_perdita, plans for tomorrow, and finding that the soundtrack for (500) Days of Summer is now on Spotify.

EDITED TO ADD... The beauty of this sort of soundtrack + spotify is hearing what else the artists' have done. I particularly love the country/jazz/swing of Meaghan Smith's The Cricket Quartet, something I'd never have come across other wise.

Mini-Behemoth & Behemoth 4

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:35:33 GMT

The October Editorial:

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Spoken Word Sales… at Christmas. Which are...

We're simply the best / Using Acrylics / Why Spoken Word? / What's in the Box? / Double or Quits / Did you find what you wanted? / The safe bets / The Eighth Habit : Using this resource.

Crime done - Stieg Larrson, Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch in Kowloon... and IKEA), Margery Allingham, Ruth Rendell (the unabridged edition is less than 50p more than the abridged), Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, Paul Temple and Albert Campion.

Next SF, and a top 20 of 2009.

Songs for Swingin' Two Year Olds

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:40:42 GMT

Spent Sunday afternoon with my brother's family. He plays a mean guitar (his pride and joy is a fridge sized new amp) and at the end of the visit he played some current hits for the kids to dance to.

The Ting Tings "That's Not My Name"

(They call me 'girl'
They call me 'Stacey'
They call me 'her'
They call me 'Jane'
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name)

etc, which they bopped around vigorously to. Next, the song the Kings of Leon meant to record about underwear. Yes, that's right, "Your socks are on fire".

Bethemoths part 2 and 3

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:22:05 GMT

...of 5 is done, covering David Attenborough, Justin Lee Collins, Neil Oliver, Andrew Marr and John O'Farrell. Which would be a pretty good dinner party line up.

Just A Minute, Tickling the English, On the Margin, Mitchell & Webb and the Now Show.

"Subjects for the panellists to talk about without hesitation, deviation or repetition in 2009 included loyalty cards, my expenses, my carbon footprint, five things to do with a potato, and twittering." I've sat in meetings like that.

Notes from a wonderful evening

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:13:24 GMT

She's never seen the The West Wing.

I've never jived. Two things that we have to sort out.

I want to show her Emsworth, where I grew up, but haven't been back to since I was nine.

Baking cakes for The Kinks. The Roy Harper connection (and I knew who Roy Harper is...)

Team x_perdita who were there for her during really tough times; S R and G. Can't wait to meet R & G, and to tease S about teasing x_perdita at work...

'Aeroplanes' in the village school playground.

Ringing Mum up!

"I've never met a man who planned so far ahead like that".

A mini-bottle of champagne which I've kept in my fridge for four years since the Spoken Word Awards.

"The opening line of "I Capture the Castle" is my favourite, but I love the last line too. Here, take a look."

And another thing..

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:28:42 GMT

I've been thinking about when the anniversary of us should be. 16th January 2008 was when we first met (yes, I went through the old rotas and looked it up.) But I think the date has to be the Wednesday in the garden, and at the cinema; 09/09/09.

Hooked on a feeling

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:41:59 GMT

So, as I was saying, I'm very inclined to share how well things are going with me/us.

The reactions continue to bowl us over. Colleagues who know x_perdita from her rescue mission 18 months ago are especially pleased. "You're such lovely people," Naomi said, which made my morning. x_perdita could hear how thrilled Naomi was for us both when she rang and Naomi picked up the phone. Apparently my manager's girlfriend did a happy dance when she found out.

I am just so chilled at the moment... and yet feel as if I'm experiencing everything with greater clarity. Especially music; pop songs, love songs, just resonate much more deeply now. "That's about us" I think. The lyrics of Wings 'Every night', or Don Williams singing 'Til the Rivers all Run Dry'. Spotify means that we can make compilations for each other. And we do!

Because we can't be together all the time phone calls and texts are very important to us. And getting together -- as we'll be doing tomorrow -- makes me feel as if Christmas is coming, Christmas as I loved it when I was a child.

And I can't say "I love you" to her enough.

Behemoth part 1

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:49:38 GMT

I've been commissioned to deliver various pieces of work for next week, the most challenging of which is 'The Behemoth' -- a preview of 25 - 30 new audio releases due out between October and December. To discipline myself to get down to it, I'll be posting the work as I complete it. Comments welcome if anyone wants to say anything!

Introduction

For this round-up I’ve divided the key new titles up into five mega-genres, namely : Fiction, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Crime & Thrillers, Comedy, and Biography/Non-Fiction.

There are some, quite frankly, wonderfully promising audiobooks out for Christmas. The blockbusting authors - Patricia Cornwell, Ruth Rendell, Bernard Cornwell and John Grisham – are all represented; there’s also the first official continuation of the audio legend that is The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; and, beyond the obvious, I’ve put in a couple of more ‘niche’ titles (an audiobook on golf, for instance) that would make ideal gift suggestions for desperate shoppers. Our voyage of discovery begins in the 10th Century…

THE BURNING LAND
£14.98
The fifth in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories sequence, following the fortunes of Uhtred, an unwilling warrior serving King Alfred. This entry in the series find Alfred’s powers waning, and the Danish invaders sensing a chance of a victory against Alfred’s untested son. Bloody mayhem ensues… obviously will appeal to Cornwell’s legion of followers, and any other devotee of martial historical fiction as exemplified by Simon Scarrow and Conn Iggulden. Best of all this release, is, I believe, the first complete unabridged recording of a Bernard Cornwell novel available on the high street rather than in the library – 10 discs in one of HarperCollins stylish plastic boxes. At the time of writing the reader was TBC,. But I’d wager a burnt oatcake and a flagon of mead that it will be read by Jamie Glover (he’s read all the others.)

LUSTRUM
£16.63

Robert Harris continues to park his legionary cohorts on Steven Saylor’s lawn with the second book of his putative trilogy following the life and times of the Roman politician and orator Cicero. If it’s anything like the first one, IMPERIUM, this will be a thumping good read, teasing out the parallels between the classical world and modern current affairs. The reader, Oliver Ford Davies, will be seen on TV at Christmas as Polonius in the David Tennant “Hamlet”.

FORD COUNTY
£16.63
This is a pleasant surprise in the schedule; a brand new John Grisham book, his second of the year, and his first ever short story collection. Here are tales of Death Row, divorce lawyers, litigation, love, and strip bars, all set in the same Mississippi locale as John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill. Sales should be in line with those of The Associate, in other words, very good indeed.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
£16.99

Cormac McCarthy’s prize-winning modern-day Western comes to audio, the third of his novels to be released by Naxos this year after The Road and Blood Meridian. Cannily timed to pick up on publicity surrounding the release of the film of The Road, this is gripping, suspense-filled, haunting listening, with one of the most relentless and memorable villains in modern fiction. An ideal ‘up-scale’ Christmas gift.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
£9.99

There are a veritable stockingful of recordings of this title available on CD, but one of the best-selling versions (Penguin’s unabridged reading by Geoffrey Palmer) is now out of print. Into the breach we have the award-winning audio performer Martin Jarvis, whose Scrooge will surely be something to cherish. (Jim Carrey’s take on the story will be in cinemas in December.) This is perfectly priced and should stand out from the other classics in its CSA Word ‘cigarette packet’ style packaging.

THE AUBREY - MATURIN CHRONICLES vol 4

£19.99

Read magnificently by Robert Hardy

This magnificent audiobook series continues. This latest three volume collection begins with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin on The Far Side of the World, chasing down enemy American ships in the Pacific; Aubrey is imprisoned, quite topically, for fraudulent share-dealing, in The Reverse of the Medal; and becomes a privateer for hire in The Letter of Marque.

Taking this blog into new, uncharted territory

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:37:36 GMT

Can't sleep (again), just as I couldn't one week ago. For similar reasons, no red wine involved at all though. (And it was really a flimsy excuse seven days ago, wasn't it...)

Had a simply fantastic, blissed out day today. Nothing phased me, not even a crisis phone call at 8.10 a.m. which led to the week's rota being rewritten in less than ten minutes, and led to me working an extra hour so someone (i.e. me) could lock up.

Told everybody at work about x_perdita; thrilled at how thrilled they were when they found out. "I *thoroughly* approve" was my favourite comment.

Had fun via various social media tonight hinting at changed status. Then the phone call. Then a gap which I just could not bear! All of ten minutes, but goodness me, how I felt those minutes.

For the first time since... 2004? When I applied for my first promotion? I am absolutely, rock-solid certain what I want to do tomorrow, next week, next year.

So that's that; I just want share it all at the moment.

Top of His Game

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:47:59 GMT

In other news... thank the stars that Simon Mayo is staying on Five Live in some capacity. Wittertainment had to continue, of course. (I loved Mark Kermode's video blog entry announcing the reprieve). (Hello, Jason Isaacs! Hello, Fairport Convention!)

His interviews this week - over just the last two days - have been object lessons in engaging, sympathetic, intelligent questioning. Whether it's been talking to Brooke Kinsella about her late brother Ben, probing Michael Palin about the roads not taken, or finding out about Iain Banks' performance in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (and then getting Iain Banks to compare Transition to Turn Left!) -- all have sounded effortless.

(I particularly enjoyed hearing listeners text in their slight encounters with Michael Palin, commenting on his nice-ness; Iain Banks' enthusiasm for being in the presence of the former; and the star of Home Time taken aback with how appreciative the critics were of her show. I'd swear I could hear her blushing.)

I've now got into the habit of listening to the full show on the i-player whilst cooking my tea; I will admit to moving the slider along to skip over the ghastly new arrangement of the Five Live sig tune, however.

Going from B to A then back again

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:44:52 GMT

Wednesday was spent with the wise and wonderful x_perdita, visiting her shop which is, frankly, something to aspire to; well-stocked, immaculately presented, to the standard which I know takes a lot of effort and organisation to achieve. After the tour I asked x_perdita when I could start, having had the induction.

We both enjoyed

(500) Days of Summer

, an indie-flavoured romantic comedy with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (equally fab ten years ago in

10 Things I Hate About You

) and Zooey Deschanel (in the sort of role which she can hit out of the park.) The movie has the best on-the-streets musical interlude that I've seen since

Enchanted

.

Then back for some very drinkable Spanish red wine from M&S, and lots of conversation. Very relaxing, which is the whole point of being on holiday; x_perdita is terrific company.

Books and movies

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:07:51 GMT

Spent Tuesday at the Reading Vue, a multiplex in need of some care and attention; a broken escalator, signs warning of the air con being out of order, that sort of thing. Caught up with

The Hurt Locker

(intense, but a film of two halves; there's an attempt at some sort of plot about halfway through which doesn't pay off ~ better I think to have stuck to the quasi-documentary style all the way through.)

District 9

is tremendous gory fun; if you only see one socially aware shanty-town set SF thriller this year (or this decade) then this is the one. Plot holes in it that you could send a mothership through (e.g. the oppressed aliens happen to have super-powerful bio-weapons which they never use? Why?).

Caught up with the proof I've been saving for the holiday, Michael Connelly's

9 Dragons

. Just a tremendous, exciting read, with Harry Bosch cast adrift in Kowloon searching for his kidnapped daughter, out of his depth and making bad judgement calls. The best in this series I think for at least three or four years.

Finished reading Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko novel

Wolves Eat Dogs

, which has been on my to-read pile for three years; the background setting (Chernobyl) is drawn so vividly that the foreground detective story gets a bit lost. The writing and characterisation is superb though -- here's a taste:

"The samogon had its effect; Eva looked more dangerous, Vanko more dignified, Roman's ears went red and Maria glistened. There was a solemn dipping of food while Roman poured another round. Arkady found the pickles crisp and sour, with perhaps a hint of strontium."

En vacances

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:44:40 GMT

Just to wrap up Saturday to say how much I enjoyed the Masterspy, a series I remember watching on Sunday afternoons probably because I liked the animated credits, the sense of a story behind the quizzes, and the suave assurance of William Franklyn. (Chance in a Million I would happily pay money to own, and would love to see a 'Comedy Connections' style programme on it.)

The edition of Out of Town gave me a chance to identify items that were in my wardrobe nearly 30 years ago, as modelled by contemporary Hampshire children.

Finally, words really fail to adequately describe "The Losers", except perhaps to quote Mrs Alan Coren:

"When I was writing my piece last night, my wife Anne came and looked over my shoulder as I typed away, and she suddenly said, halfway through reading it: 'When you are 60 years old, are you still going to be writing little pieces about men called Norman Foskett?', and my blood ran cold."

(5) Days of summer (hols)

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:19:50 GMT

Can't sleep because a)I have to get up promptly tomorrow to visit my parents and b) I had quite a bit of red wine earlier this evening. So time to blog about the time spent so far en vacances.

parrot_knight has already covered in detail our annual trip to Stourbridge to catch up on classic recovered TV episodes, so consider these as supplemental viewing notes.

The Dixon of Dock Green episode could well be the only time that the phrases "Transcendental Meditation" and "Zoroastrianism" have been uttered by a plod in a prime-time Saturday night BBC-1 cop drama. The accompanying booklet from Kaleidoscope claims that BBC Light Entertainment was making this, rather than the BBC Drama Dept; certainly the signature tune arrangement was exactly what one might expect to hear being played on Parkinson to cue up an interview with Jack Warner, and the acting from the guest cast would not have been out of place in an episode of Porridge.

Next up was the Galton and Simpson 30 minute bedroom farce, "The Suit", which was well-written, elegantly structured, beautifully acted by all concerned and viable if not for a modern remake then perhaps a performance on stage. Or perhaps a radio version, although that would have to omit some terrific (and silent) sight gags.

Peter Terson was a fascinating interview subject, prone to the well-timed dramatic pause as he contemplated his craft. One wonders if the impetus to interview him came from the frankly astonishing colour publicity photos that are all that survive of "The Ballad of the Artificial Mash", and the hope that he might have some vivid memories of working alongside Alfred Lynch, Stanley Holloway and the Paper Dolls. Alas, more often than not his reaction was "They put that one on the telly?"

...which was my reaction to the last reel of "Man of Destiny", a 'prestige' ITV Shavian production which has dated especially badly. Too static, barely adapted in any meaningful way from the original, other than to cast the bald-pated George Coulouris as Giuseppe, "a swarthy, vivacious, shrewdly cheerful, black-curled, bullet headed, grinning little man of 40."

We also had a tantalising glimpse of ITN's 1966 Election coverage, with Alastair Burnet introducing a star line-up of reporters in the field (or in Mike Nicholson's case, perched well away from the action up in the balcony of Cheltenham Town Hall.)

To be continued...

Critical Space

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:04:47 GMT

Summer is over, and I've now blitzed my way through all-but-one of Greg Rucka's seven Atticus Kodiak novels. How a New York bodyguard ends up in Georgia (the European, not the American version) ten years later has made for compelling reading. The last time I read a crime/thriller sequence with such alacrity was Dennis Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro books about eight years ago.

Greg Rucka tries to do something different with each book, and by book five (Critical Space) takes his protagonist, and the reader, way out of their comfort zone. (This book re-boots the series into a slightly different genre). He turns a minor character trait in book one, Keeper, into a key to the lead's behaviour in book four, Shooting at Midnight.

There are the occasional plotholes (Kodiak isn't told in one book that the witness he's protecting has a severe medical condition) and to my mind he gets better at delivering a satisfying wrapping up/finale. Overall though the ride there more than makes up for this; and the wry, first-person narrative is always a joy to read.

The books never really took off in the UK, and one American entry is bizarrely out of print. I will probably get, in hardback, the latest (and rumoured last) in the series, The Walking Dead, having been tantalised by its first six chapters online.

Swipe to win

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:12:35 GMT

There's really just the one Firefox add-on available at the moment that works with spotify -- a simple right-click/search function. Which is all I need, really.

The Stuff of Nightmares - non spoilery review

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 06:29:52 GMT

Some initial thoughts...

Although the setting is 'present day' (because of Richard Franklin's age), I found myself envisaging the whole tale happening in the English countryside of the mid 70s. Paul Magrs' narrative has very few, if any, references to anything that is around in 2009 which wouldn't have been around in 1976. The Doctor describes UNIT investigating some mysterious deaths, and the UNIT he talks about (to this listener) is the semi-professional understaffed outfit of the 70s, not the hard-edged, high tech multinational force we last saw in Planet of the Dead.

It's a self-contained story, but key issues are unresolved at the end and you will want to hear 'what happens next'.

The tone of it is (naturally) Paul Magrs, so its playful, well-structured, with an eye (or ear) for the absurd (such as the name of one of Noggins' guards). Imagine a story in a Fourth Doctor annual written to the standards of Panini's Doctor Who Storybooks. Or Tom Baker telling ghost stories as seen on the Key to Time DVDs.

There's a definite Conan Doyle/Holmes & Watson influence at work; the Fourth Doctor has retreated to a cottage in Sussex (The Lion's Foot); and at one point keeps a night vigil in the cellar (The Red Headed League). The 'threat' and the character names reminded me, and I'm not quite sure why, of Roald Dahl.

I'm not an expert but it seems to me that, for this recording, Richard Franklin and Tom Baker may not have been in the studio at the same time. They never talk over each other, politely waitiing for the other to finish before picking up the next thread of the tale. In contrast, the scenes with Susan Jameson and Richard Franklin, and Daniel Hill and Tom Baker, don't have this 'after you' feel to them.

Did that detract from my enjoyment of the disc? Not at all. (And I could be completely wrong anyway.)

All About Me

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:27:18 GMT

Had to write a mini-autobiography for work today.

"In a previous career or two has been a bingo caller, sold hot dogs to Nigel Benn and Jim Carver off the Bill, and shown Paul Daniels to his seat. Has written prize winning content for the intranet since Summer 2003. Aspires to have the calm, lucid voice of Anton Lesser, the caustic wit of Humphrey Lyttleton, the bonhomie of Brian Johnston and the deity-like authority of Martin Jarvis."

The Stuff of Nightmares

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:27:16 GMT

..out in September, and will feature a 'cottage under siege'. Crossing my fingers for a perigosto stick to pop up at some point in the proceedings.

Edited to add: Clip online here. Ah.

Between RTD and Tom Baker...

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:52:03 GMT

Goodness me, I'm on the letters page of Doctor Who Magazine this month, singing the praises of the comic strip and speculating on future narrative developments. (It was a drive-by comment on the DWM facebook page originally.)

I have a lot of time for the strip, perhaps because I was a reader from Issue One of Doctor Who Weekly and enjoyed a string of terrific serials at an impressionable age. And the back-up strips too!

If my first comic had been an episode of Invaders from Gantac, I expect I would feel less invested.