The joy of compilation (plus some other stuff)
It's been a long time between updates again. There's a lot of news, but I guess I'll try to cover just the salient points.
Term is progressing as per usual, with plenty of socialising and even a smattering of work once in a while. I've seen several productions at the student theatre (the ADC), including the musical 'Hair' and 'Confusions' by Alan Ayckbourn. I am also auditioning this weekend for shows next term. I've played in another football match for the college 3rd team, in which we were soundly beaten by a team superior in both fitness and finesse. Catz IVth pool team (not actually the fourth best team in college) have gained their first victory of the season, as well as suffering a painful 7-2 defeat early today. Yesterday a close friend turned 23, joining me in being labelled officially old, and everyone celebrated her birthday by ceilidh dancing the night away in aid of Children in Need. Tonight I went off to see a friend in the medic's panto, a show jam-packed with scatological humour and puns involving obscure medical conditions.
I think that brings me pretty much up to date. Close enough, anyway. With the business completed, I can relax back into my neutral position of 'random rambling'. On that note, I saw 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' for the first time on Thursday night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Many of the Cambridge colleges have their own film societies, and while they mostly show recent blockbusters such as 'Revenge of the Sith' or 'Sin City', careful scouring of the schedules sometimes affords a rare opportunity to see classics on the (reasonably) big screen. After the fearfully dated humour of Holly Golightly's upstairs neighbour (I suspect it was 'ironic', but just made me cringe), I was thoroughly charmed by the film in general, and the leading lady in particular. I find it impossible to imagine anyone watching 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and not leaving completely in love with Audrey Hepburn. Beautiful and charmingly eccentric. Also 78 and somewhat deceased.
Talking of beautiful and charmingly eccentric leading ladies, I watched 'Garden State' again the other day and was reminded how awesome the soundtrack is. I read on IMDB that Zach Braff won a Grammy for best compilation soundtrack, an honour thoroughly deserved. I'd never heard most of the artists before, so have found a whole new world of music. Frou Frou, Zero 7, The Shins. Great stuff, and now played incessantly on my swanky new MP3 player phone. (My friends will laugh at the mention of my phone, as apparently I talk about it rather a lot. But come on! It's an AWESOME bit of technology, and I can nearly always be found plugged into it.)
Anyway, I've probably strayed too far into rambling country, and will endeavour to battle back to clearer ground in time for the next exciting instalment from the floating face.
A Large Family Party
The last couple of posts have failed to catch me up with the present, and I know from my abortive childhood attempts and diary keeping that this is a fatal situation. Struggling along trying to write in detail about everything and never catching up to the present is a recipe for disaster, so I'll use this post to sort things out. Oh, and I'm still planning to write about the 'Me and My Girl' performance week. One of these fine days...
Since Thursday the 19th was the subject of my last post, Friday the 20th is where I shall begin. The afternoon saw yet another rendevous with the cast of 'Me and My Girl'. It's always the way after a show; you spend so much time together during rehearsal and performance, and then suddenly it's over and everyone's busy catching up with work, or rehearsing hard for their next show. The odd reunion for coffee is the standard way to stay in touch. Since it was such a wonderful afternoon, we then went and sat by the river for a while. Watching people punting on the river is an endless source of amusement, and after a while you can be sure to see someone unceremoniously fall in. (Two on this occasion.) Follow the sidebar link to my photoblog for an illustrative picture. (One of these days I'll redesign my blog so I can post decent sized photos to it.)
In the evening I was at the ADC Theatre again doing 'front of house' for the musical 'My Fair Lady'. I had quite a few friends in the cast, and there were more M&MGers along that night too. I really enjoyed the show, and it made me regret that I wasn't a part of it. (Long time readers may remember my dilemma when offered a part, and as it turned out lots of people did both shows. Still, it would have meant even less time to work, so I probably made the correct decision.) Then I was doing front of house at the ADC again on Sunday evening, for a touring show called 'Jackson's Way'. It was the Perrier Award winner from last years Edinburgh festival, which promised much, and I wasn't at all disappointed. Definitely one of the funniest things I've seen in ages. Chris John Jackson is a spoof 'Life Coach', and builds his presentation around his 'flash of inspiration'. Paraphrased - 'While there is a small number 'pointful actions', there is an infinity of 'pointless actions', ready to be harnessed'. May not sound funny, but it was if you were there...
I'd been invited to a friends house for dinner, which I couldn't attend due to the show, but popped up afterwards for a quick drink. Ah, those fateful words. Needless to say it was past 3 am by the time I weaved back into college. It was well worth the effort of climbing the only hill in Cambridge though, as I got to have a long anticipated political argument with a friend of mine. I get on well with him, and he's a decent guy, which makes it all the more inexplicable that he's a Conservative party supporter. An ardent Thatcherite with a social conscience? I had to find out more. Needless to say I didn't manage to convert him, nor him me, but I enjoy arguments for their own sake. They inevitably leave both parties even more entrenched in their own views, but it does at least force you to clarify the reasons for your beliefs.
Monday evening was when I moved back to St Albans, laden down at the last minute with an additional ten books from Catz library. Indicative of my general work ethic, I am great at getting text books but struggle with the whole 'opening and reading' thing. Since I've been home, I have made lots of plans for working, and feel ready to launch into it any week now. Other than this serious apathy, the only major event in the last week was a big family party on the Saturday.
It was my dad's side of the family, who we see rarely compared to my mum's side. It's a shame, since we always get on very well when we do make the effort. The excuse for the party was somewhat confused, since one reason cited was my aunt's 60th birthday, but this actually isn't until November. She lives in the US though, and since she was over in England it seemed as good a time as any to celebrate the occasion. Other possibilities were the immediate proximity of my uncle's 65th birthday, or perhaps that my cousin turns 30 in the summer, and my brother is 18 at the end of April, not to mention that another of my cousins is due to turn 40. Basically, there was a party, and regardless of the reason it was great to see so many family members that I hadn't for ages.
It was organised by my cousin Joanna, and held at her place in Oxford. Bizarrely for an atheistic student, she lives in a catholic convent, but things are not as austere as one might imagine. There are only three nuns to almost 50 students, and I assume revenue from the accommodation provides them an income. Attempted conversion of their tenants is no doubt a consideration, but not in a scary or imposing way. I'm sure my cousin will stand up admirably to the onslaught anyway.
No doubt everyone has been through similar parties, when all these people you don't recognise seem to be related to you in the most obscure ways. Conversations revolve around clarifying that your grandmother's second cousin's nephew-in-law was their first cousin's uncle's neighbour's baby-sitter. Or something like that. Older family members will delight in pointing out how much you look like your brother, and will recount loudly how they watched you running naked round their garden hurdling flowerbeds when you were 'knee high to a grasshopper'. Merely walking across the crowded room requires great trepidation, and swift evasive action to avoid the crazy aunts, skillfully diverting them towards your unsuspecting siblings.
Actually that better describes parties on my mother's side, and I enjoy them anyway, despite the inanity of the inevitable small talk. At the party on Saturday I spent some time mingling, but eventually the cousins gravitated together, forming a generational ghetto in the garden. The cousins range from 18 to 40-something and are scattered country wide, both contributing to our infrequent contact. Whenever we do meet we all say how we must see each other again soon, and this time was no different. We're great talkers, but less than efficient doers.
It's actually not very long till I go back to Cambridge, at the very latest on the 16th of April and it might be a few days earlier. Between now and then I've got a lot to achieve, and as ever I plan to start bright and early tomorrow. The biggest obstacle is the current state of my notes from this year; I have three large piles of paper in no semblance of order whatsoever. The task of taming these into something useful for revision purposes will not be easy, but is an unfortunately necessary evil. I've been finding plenty of distractions to avoid starting, which reminds me that I was going to recommend the book I just finished reading. 'Pompei', by Robert Harris, is set mostly in the days just before the town's destruction and contains fantastic description of the erupting Vesuvius. It's a highly intelligent thriller, which I was entirely unable to put down. Well worth a look, as are 'Fatherland', 'Enigma' and 'Archangel', his other novels.
I think this mammoth post brings things up to date, and I must head to bed. Tomorrow will be a day filled with dynamism. It will.
PS Running the Blogger spell-check on this post, I was prompted to replace mum's with mom's. Yuck.
Hearty recommendations…
Well, again it's been a whole week between posts. Back in the early days of this blog I used to post practically every day, but perhaps I'm now leaning more toward quality than quantity? You look unconvinced.
In today's post, I bring you three hearty recommendations. The first is for a book I have just finished reading, called 'How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World', by Francis Wheen. If you, like me, are occasionally whipped into a fury by the apparent lack of reason in the world, you'll find Wheen articulates your frustrations beautifully. It's one of those rare books that if everyone read, the world would be a better place. (If anyone wants to borrow my copy, feel free. Well, anyone this side of the Atlantic.)
Secondly is a great blog I've been following. 'Kong is King' is a video diary on the set of the new King Kong movie. I religiously watched all the extras on the 'Lord of the Rings' DVDs, and watching footage from the set of King Kong is like seeing a load of old friends again. 'Weta Digital' and 'Weta Workshop' are again doing all the special effects and miniatures, and much of Peter Jackson's crew remains the same. (In addition, I know someone who graduated last year and is now working for Weta in New Zealand, so I keep wondering if he'll crop up at some point.) Andy Serkis is even doing the motion capture for Kong! It's very interesting, watching the production of a film before you see the real thing, and has certainly built my anticipation.
Thirdly is a quick little thing, but I found it very interesting. The Real Underground shows the differences between the original 1930 map and the 2004 version, and will also morph between them and an actual scale version. You can even toggle a street map on and off. It's fascinating to see how much the tube map has distorted your mental picture of central London. Well, I thought it was anyway...
There's only a few days left of term now, and I'll probably be heading back to St Albans in around a weeks time. I have two supervisions over the next week, on Wednesday and Thursday, but the stressful work of this term is now over. I met a coursework deadline last Wednesday, and though the work wasn't very good, at least I did it. Actually, that reminds me; I have the viva for that project on Tuesday, and considering how rubbish the project was, that might not be very much fun.
I also had to give a presentation on Friday, which was mildly humiliating. My project is entitled 'Noise and Deterministic Skeleton in Population Dynamics'. Sounds fun, no? It's actually reasonably interesting, but my knowledge is pretty severely limited thus far. The presentation therefore outlined my plan for all the work I'm going to do over the Easter vacation, rather than recounting any actual achievement. Things were made worse by the fact that since I am the only 3rd year Physicist doing a project with the Plant Sciences department, I had to do my presentation in a group of 4th years reporting on their six month computer simulation projects. Their presentations were vastly better than mine...
I'm finishing this post at almost 3am because I've spent the last two hours trying to sort out my computer. I've developed a very high tolerance for crashes, since my computer has long had that tendency, but lately things have been getting ridiculous. I think I'll have to just reinstall Windows, but not until tomorrow...
Seasonal salutations…
Just realised that I never wished my beloved readership a Merry Christmas, so this is a quick post from my phone. The irritation of typing on a phone keypad, even one with predictive text, is such that my message of Yuletide joy will be brief. But it's the thought that counts.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
And that is pretty much all you're gonna get. My shopping trip was entirely successful, and I returned with gifts ranging from Nelson Mandela's autobiography to a CD of Handel arias. I felt terribly intellectual buying them, the only problem being they weren't for me. Still, opportunity for such high quality posing was not to be missed, especially when I could look windswept and interesting in my artfully arranged scarf.
I'm now at my Grandparent's house in Yorkshire, and there is consequently no internet access to be had. (Because it's my grandparents house, not because Yorkshire is so backward.) This means I will be unable to respond to the countless comments bestowing seasonal joy on me and my kin. I will still receive them by email, though. Hint, hint...
P.S. Did you appreciate the alliteration in the title, Dan? Cooked that baby up specially for you.
His Dark Materials…
When I orignally made this site over last summer, I had a plan to add a blog devoted to books, music, films, plays etc that I wanted to either praise or slate. That hasn't yet materialised, but I was reading an article that made me think of one set of books I really had to mention. The trilogy in question is 'His Dark Materials' by Philip Pullman, and is comprised of 'Northern Lights', 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass'. I can't overstate quite how amazing these books are, and how important it is that you read them.
I'm loath to start throwing terms like 'favourite' around, since to try and compile even a top ten of my favourite books would be impossible, but this trilogy would have to up near the top. Pullman combines fantastic story telling with wonderful escapism, rich characterization with deep metaphysical and philosphical meaning. I don't know whether they were originally written for children, but they can be read and enjoyed by anyone. I'm not going to wax lyrical any further, as praise of these books has been done to death by many a more persuasive writer than myself, but back to that article I was reading...
I don't by a newspaper regularly at uni, mainly because it seems like too much effort to go to the newsagents every day, but I do read 'The Guardian' online. It's a high quality left-leaning paper, and I've been reading it since I was young as it's also the paper my parents get. Habit is a powerful thing, but I've read other papers on occasion and always come back to The Guardian. It had an article today by Philip Pullman himself, discussing stage adaptations of novels, and particularly the National Theatre production of 'His Dark Materials'. The article caught my eye as I've recently booked to see the two part production early next year, on the 24th of January and the 24th of February. I believe the first run of these two shows sold out entirely, and the next promises to do the same which is why we booked so early.
I'm rambling somewhat, but my main reason for pointing the article out is that it contains an excellent discussion of what makes the theatre so special. I'm looking forward to seeing the two shows next year with almost fevered anticipation. The books were quite astoundingly good, and if you haven't already, I urge you to go and read them now. Even if you consider yourself someone who 'doesn't like fantasy novels', you should give these a try. Quick, before the movie comes out and ruins it for you...