Jan. 29, 2016
For Ingrid’s birthday, we went to see The Nutcracker performed by the Moscow City Ballet at The King’s Theatre in Southsea. The original conversation went something along the lines of “Matt, please come and see some ballet with me on my birthday! It might not be your thing but I’d love someone to come and see it with me”. As I’ve always loved a bit of Tchaikovsky, I said yes.
Dec. 31, 2015
Given that I gave up on writing album digests for a bit this year, I thought I would at least do a proper top ten list of my favourite albums. There are quite a few albums that I did not have room for and I might try to revisit those later. In the mean time, let’s crack on. (To save time, I have in some instances pasted my original review from the appropriate album digest.
Tags: Album Digest, Music, Blur, Harry Gregson-Williams, Sleater-Kinney, Chvrches, Battles, Susanne Sundfør, New Order, Joanna Newsom, Holly Herndon, Grimes, Fifteen
Dec. 17, 2015
I am writing a long post that I will either publish as one long post (about five or six thousand words) or as about seven smaller ones each closer to the average post length of about eight hundred words. I have to get it out-of-the-way soon as my mind needs to focus on my health economics essay. It is hard to write short posts to a timetable, let alone churn out long posts on a regular basis.
Nov. 26, 2015
Last week Underworld reissued their excellent second album “Second Toughest In The Infants” in various formats including a four disc super deluxe edition. I wrote about this album in my understated classics series and I want to share some thoughts on the reissue. I love this album so I was excited to hear the remaster and the additional material. I can’t comment on the physical version of the release as I can’t afford it at the moment.
Tags: Underworld, Music, Fifteen, Electronic
Nov. 20, 2015
As much as I wanted it to, Satin Island by Tom McCarthy did not win the Booker Prize. Having read it all I realise it was a long shot. However it is an interesting book that deserved consideration, even if it does have some flaws. Normally I promise that there will be no spoilers. Not this time. There are some spoilers here. Because it took me so long to work out what I thought Satin Island was actually about, I want to use this post to explore those ideas.
Tags: Books, Booker Prize, Tom McCarthy, Novel, Fifteen
Oct. 31, 2015
As it is Halloween, I’m writing about a spooky understated classic. Liars’ second album “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” is a concept album about witches. It was the first of their albums that I owned having heard their name mentioned among those in the New York Post-punk revival scene at the start of the 00s. I imagine that to most ears a first listen to “They Were Wrong, So We Drowned” sounds dreadful.
Tags: Understated Classics, Liars, Music, Fifteen
Oct. 18, 2015
In my review of the book I mentioned that a film adaptation of The Martian was on the way. I’m not sure why but it got released earlier than any of the dates that I’d seen and so on Saturday I found myself watching The Martian on the big screen. Could the film version deliver the same level of entertainment as the novel? Could Mark Watney (Matt Damon) get off Mars alive?
Tags: Films, Science Fiction, Andy Weir, Fifteen
Oct. 12, 2015
“Satin Island” is my pick for the Man Booker prize, announced tomorrow. I’ve not managed to read all of it yet. Also, I’ve only glanced at the others on the shortlist. My prediction record on selecting the winner of the Booker from the shortlist is pretty good, though all I’m ever doing is guess the outcome of a 1 in 6 chance, like the roll of a die. Often it’s a book that I really hope will win rather than one I know will (except “Wolf Hall” and its sequel).
Tags: Books, Booker Prize, Tom McCarthy, Novel, Fifteen
Sep. 29, 2015
Time and Time Again is a ridiculously stupid novel by Ben Elton. A shadowy sect (established by Isaac Newton no less!) recruits a soldier to go back in time and prevent Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo in August 1914. I wonder if it all goes to plan and everyone lives happily ever after with no weird timey-wimey after-effects? Needless to say this novel makes me wish that time travel were a real thing so that I could travel back in time and slap myself in the face while in the queue to buy this tripe.
Sep. 14, 2015
La Paz to Potosi We left La Paz, this time ascending the rim of steep hills around the city in a slightly less clunky “Death Bus”. Perhaps it was because we were travelling uphill or because it was daylight, but it didn’t seem so bad. We set off to Potosi through strange towns with weird monuments (see the pictures) and Oruro where great festivals happen around Ash Wednesday each year that are famous throughout the continent.
Tags: South America, Bolivia, Photos, Fifteen, Fourteen
Sep. 2, 2015
Y-12 is the United States’ most secure weapons-grade Uranium storage facility. It is known as the “Fort Knox of Uranium”. In 2012 it was infiltrated by three elderly peace protesters, sparking a major scandal about the safety of US nuclear sites. “Gods of Metal” by Eric Schlosser tells the story of that break-in alongside a history of both the anti-nuclear movement (in particular the Plowshares movement) and nuclear security in the United States.
Tags: Books, Eric Schlosser, Non Fiction, Fifteen
Sep. 1, 2015
It’s difficult to write honestly about your feelings. It’s difficult to write about your feelings consistently, for a living on a regular basis. It’s difficult to write about your feelings when the world constantly intrudes with inanity, insanity and hatred. It’s difficult to write under those conditions without seeming frayed, without coming loose at the edges. “Get To Heaven”, the third album by Everything Everything, was forged under these stresses and pressures.
Tags: Album Digest, August, Everything Everything, Fifteen, Music