Eagles of Death Metal
So, so good! I love “I want you so hard”! And the film clip! Jack Black and Dave Grohl and Josh Holmes! (or whatever). Such a GREAT clip. Very Ocean’s 11 – speakers so big they blow women’s clothes off…. So good!
Labyrinth
Not the movie – big fan though I am – but the book, by Kate Mosse. Another Grail story… this one a time-slip idea, with Alice the amateur archaeologist in 2006 and Alais, possibly a Cathar or at least a sympathiser in 13th century France. Overall, I think it was a good book. Not a reat one; just good, quite enjoyable, moderately engrossing. There were a few bits I found clunky – some of the dialogue, and some of the descriptions, particularly of Alice (I really don’t care that she’s tanned and wearing cut offs, sorry), but mostly the story goes along at a reasonable pace. I think that writing two different narratives is quite a skill, and Mosse generally manages it, although in a few bits I think she left a character too early or too late. But, I think I would recommend it to people who aren’t totally over the whole Grail thing – this one doesn’t make a huge thing of the Grail itself, which I think is an advantage.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
We’re watching this tonight, because it is rainy outside and there is nothing good on the teev.
However – one of the baddies is David Tenant! Dr Who!! So terrible.
And my goodness, didn’t all the actors grow up.
And th idea that pegasuses only drink simgle malt whiskey… love it.
Melvyn Bragge
I’ve been listening to a lot of BBC Radio’s “In our time” today. It’s good, but Bragge really is quite arrogant and butts in a lot; I guess he needs to do this to some extent, to keep the speakers in order because it’s radio, but still – he wants to be an expert on everything and keep on proving himself to be the best. Boring.
A Death
The giant black and white angel has died today. Very sad, but not unexpected. He’s been fading for a long time now. I wonder how the white angel will go now.
Alastair Reynolds!!!
I’ve just found out that there are two new Reynolds coming out!! No idea when, but who cares – just knowing is enough to keep me on edge. Yay! One’s a novel, the other is a collection of sort stories – which, thanks to the wonderful Kate, I am now totally fine with.
Definitely something to be looking forward to.
Just call me Kit
Yes, last night we went for a ride, to and from Lygon St (so it was a night ride… Knight Rider… Kit… very sad I know). It was a lot more fun and less scary than I had worried – we’ve both got lights, after all, and it was actually warmer riding home at 10pm than it was riding there at 6pm.
The reason we did this was to attend a public lecture, on “Physics, TIme and Archaeology.” It was really interesting – with the amusing bonus that the physics dude and the archaeology dude are brothers, both working at MU. How cool. Anyway, the physics dude had a Geiger tube, so he was demonstrating how you can tell the rate of decay of unstable elements, and he also demonstrated thermoluminescence, using an old TV tube. He talked about how physics can help archaeologists by dating things, basically.
The archaeology guy – well, he wasn’t quite as good. For a start, he didn’t seem accustomed to using a microphone, because he was way too loud. I’m also not really sure what his brief was, because what he gave was an overview of the history of archaeology and attempts at dating (not mentioning Schliemann, interestingly). It didn’t really have relation to physics, as far as I could see, although I think a large proportion of the audience was physics types so maybe it was new and interesting to them.
It was fun, overall, and I’m glad we went.
Rage – for the last time
Yes, watching the last edition of Rage Top 50… until, I guess, the JTV people want a holiday.
Anyway: I cannot BELIEVE that there is a song called “Promiscuous” out! Singing about “promiscuous girl, promiscuous boy” – as if that’s something that they should be proud of! I don’t consider myself a prude (some might disagree), and I guess I would be considered conservative because I’m a Christian, but I fail to understand how anyone can think that being considered promiscuous could be a good thing. Surely no one wants to take seriously someone who is willing to sleep with anybody? I guess it’s good for others who just want random sex with no attachments, but I dont believe that he majority of people really do think like that – and even if lots do in their teens and twenties, later in life it’s definitely something that will fail to satisfy, if it ever did.
Argh.
The Vandals
Vandal, or wandali, originally means Wanderers… makes a lot of sense. I might have to go and find out more about these Eastern barbarians who moved west.
Terry Jones’ Barbarians #2
He just said ‘inevitable’! Ooh-er, tut tut, not meant to say that sort of thing in history….
I do like seeing the landscape of the place in question, in the doco: I think it’s one of the few reasons why docos can be better than books.
Randomly Yours, Alex 