Oct 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
At The Traquair Arms, Innerleithen
Today I had what I consider to be pretty much the perfect Sunday lunchtime and afternoon.
After toying with several ideas about destinations, Kirstin and I went down to one of our occasional spots for eating out – the Traquair Arms Hotel in Innerleithen. It is a pleasant drive down – down to Peebles then along the Tweed Valley – and only takes thirty to forty minutes from our house. The weather was fine today as well, an autumnal sunny but chilly day in which the light handsomely picked out the reddening and browning leaves.
I am something of a creature of habit in that I almost always have venison in one form or another when I am there. Today was no exception – lunch was roast haunch of venison washed down with a local real ale (Stuart Ale brewed at Traquair House which is, as any fule no, the oldest inhabited house in Scotland). All of this occurred in front of the log fire which you can see in the photo above.
I indulged in Sticky Toffee Pudding for afters (Kirstin had the same as me save that she had warm chocolate Brownies for pudding and no alcohol to accompany) and, as you might imagine, was fairly drowsy when we were driving back up to Edinburgh. Consequently I took the opportunity to have a well earned snooze on the couch when we got home, waking up just in time to see Jenson Button clinch the Formula 1 drivers’ championship.
Excellent
Oct 17, 2009 | Music
I’ve just enjoyed the three final episodes of Neverwhere and found them to be very satisfying. Interestingly I thought that the ending was a bit of a precursor to the way that, several years later, Life on Mars was resolved, although when I come to think of it it is not such an unusual way to finish.
I’m really pleased that it didn’t turn out to be dreadful as fondly remembered programmes often do on rewatching. In fact, if anything, it was better than I remembered it to be. It is not without it’s problems but then it was a relatively low budget BBC TV show from the eighties. It is a cliché, I know, but the quality of the imagination carries it through any budgetary longueurs (and the duff “beast” at the end).
There is some fine acting in it too – I’ve already mentioned Hywell Bennett but there are good turns by Tamsin Greig and Clive Russell and the leads -Laura Fraser and Gary Bakewell- are fine throughout. Peter Capaldi steals the show as the Angel Islington whenever he is on screen.
I remember when it was first on being vaguely amused at the literalness of some of the characters and the interpretation of the name of the stations on the London Underground into characters. Looked at now it doesn’t seem so ridiculous and looks more like an imaginative elaboration on a whimsical conceit – and life without whimsy is nothing more than plain old dull existing I find.
A couple of posts ago I extolled the virtues of Tangerine Dream’s Zeit. As a response to that a friend in Dundee let me hear Edgar Froese’s “Epsilon in Malaysian Pale” which he released between the Tangerine Dream releases of Phaedra and Rubicon. Brian said that he thinks it to be “the greatest mellotron album ever made”. That title is usually accorded to King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King” but he has a point. It presages somewhat where Tangerine Dream went with Rubicon – a musique concrete/mellotron drenched intro giving way to a sequencer driven improvisation which kicks off about 5 minutes into track 2 (or side 2 as I fondly and fogeyishly pefer to call it). Much as I like Rubicon, though, I think Epsilon in Malaysian Pale is better insofar as it is both more musical and closer to the experimental.
The verson I am listening to is the 1975 original and not the remixed version which is currently available on cd.
Oct 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
Back in 1996 I remember watching a BBC programme called Neverwhere, co-created by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry and set in London both overground and underground. At the time I remember enjoying it but being a little disappointed nonetheless.
Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar
Later I read Neil Gaiman’s novel which was a developed version of the TV story and enjoyed it a lot, although not as much as some of his other novels. Nevertheless I was intrigued to get hold of a copy of the TV series to see how it fared on a second viewing. I was dissapointed to find that it had not been released on DVD and that old VHS copies were hard to come by.
I missed the news that it had been released on DVD and was browsing Amazon the other night when I spotted not only that the DVD was out but that it was on sale for £3.
I’ve just watched the first couple of episodes and it is great. It is dark, intriguing, with a story that whips along and – something I had forgotten – has music by Brian Eno. I had also forgotten the wonderful performances of the menacing Mr Croup and Mr Valdemar, Hywel Bennett as Mr Croup being particularly creepy.
On an entirely separate note, Kirstin and I went to se Up! at the cinema on Thursday night. If you haven’t yet seen it, you should. It is excellent.
Oct 14, 2009 | Music
I’ve liked the music of Tangerine Dream since I first heard Phaedra at John Hardy’s house in East Kilbride in the early seventies and for all of that time I’ve referenced Phaedra as my favourite of their albums, followed by Rubicon. Today I listened again to Zeit (released in 1972) for the first time in ages and was stunned.
This is not dance music or really what has come to be known as ambient music: it is not bouncy, bouncy electronic pop and isn’t driven by sequencers as their later music became. This is the slow accumulation of sounds, tones and textures which give you the opportunity for taking your mind for a walk down pathways which are dark and mysterious – and occasionally very beautiful. But you have to give it the time and respect to let it work its magic. And sometimes that magic can be genuinely disturbing (particularly “Origin of Supernatural Probabilities”, the organic density of which left me exhilarated but slightly nauseous).
Amazon reviews of the album have referenced early Pink Floyd but, as with the introduction to the later Rubicon Part 1, my first thought was that this music is reminiscent of the great Delia Derbyshire, especially of her Blue Veils and Golden Sand and the soundscapes which she created for the Inventions for Radio in 1964. This connects Zeit to the musique concrete movement, albeit by extension and notwithstanding that this music is synthesised rather than being manipulated natural sound. Tangerine Dream moved away from that in later years but Zeit (and Phaedra) are playing in genuinely inventive territory and were the richer for it.
Make no mistake, it is not an easy listen, but I may just have to review my thoughts as to my favourite Tangerine Dream album.
Oct 13, 2009 | Pressure!
I went to the doctor’s today to find out how my dance with hypertension is progressing. After 28 days of (minimum dosage) medication, my BP has reduced from 190/120 to 170/104. This is progress -I think that it moves me from severe to moderate hypertension- but there is still a way to go. In addition to my 5mg of Amlodipine I will now also take 2.5mg of Lisinopril (the lowest possible dose) and this ought to have the effect of taking me down towards a normal BP range.
The doctor had asked me about upping the dosage of the Amlodipine but I wasn’t keen on that since the bare minimum dosage had triggered some mild side effects – nothing serious but enough to know that they were there. Whatever happens with the Amlodipine, I suspect that, barring adverse reactions, the Lisinopril will be with me indefinitely.
Happily, combining the class names of the two drugs gives me a fantastic name for a rock’n’roll band for middle aged groovers – Ace Inhibitor and the Calcium Antagonists! Hey Joe, where’re ya goin’ with that BP monitor in your hand?
The consequence of this is that, for the moment, I’m still advised not to sustain exercise beyond a heart rate of around 120bpm. In practice this means a fast walk on a treadmill (rather than jogging round the streets which tends to push the rate up) or alternatively cycling. I think it will be another month or so until I can pick up running again -I certainly hope no more- so I supect a December/January of painful legs when I get back to it. A cycle may well be appearing in the next month or so if I can pull together some spare cash.
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