A Lark Ascending

I suspect those who have grown up listening to the music from the 90s and later can hear distinctiveness. I know some of the 30 somethings I used to work with pined for Brit-pop. And isn't Rap (sorry...don't know the right genre names there) a distinctive music from what preceded it. Having said that, my ears don't pick up on anything; more recent rock pop that I've enjoyed tends to relate to music of the 60s/70s. But that says more about me than the music. Corny but fun. I now realise what Channel 5 is for. Episodes 1 to 4. Read some unenthusiastic reviews of this but I've enjoyed it so far (leaving aside the improbabilities that run through all previous 5 series as well).

Just El Shosto off the latter. One of my favourites by him....in fact a favourite concerto, full stop. If the cadenza doesn't make the hairs on the back of your neck jump to attention you'd be advised to check your pulse. Love the way he quotes 'Windmills of Your Mind' there too.

Indeed...good shot. A woman walks by the United States Marine Corps Monument in Washington DC Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Media http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2016/jan/23/east-coast-snow-storm-new-york-washington-philadelphia-in-pictures East Anglia, England: A German U-boat – lost for more than 100 years – that has been found on the seabed off the East Anglia coast Photograph: Fugro/Scottish Power Renewables/PA http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/jan/21/photo-highlights-of-the-day-a-faslane-fire-drill-a-hungry-stingray Cumbria, UK: Snow on Black Fell at sunset Photograph: Ashley Cooper/Barcroft Media http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/jan/22/photo-highlights-of-the-day-frosts-and-fires

Exceptionally mild. Hope everyone on the east coast of the States is coping. Looks hellish.

More South American 'classical' music, here from the 18th/early 19thC. Sacred stuff with with a light, sunny quality (not unlike some of Mozart or Haydn's church music). None of the folky element you get on the Raquel Andueza record. Hyperion seem to mining this area of music though this is the first of those records I've heard.

Yes, I realise he's a touchy person to refer to. I'll try and steer clear of mentioning him.

I'm jealous!

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm actually waiting for the release next month of a 2CD overview of Sondheim (suspect it's actually a reissue) so I can get a broad feel for his music. Then I'll try some of the other shows on DVD (if I can hire them). I once stayed in a house overnight in Norwich which had been left by a family who'd gone to New Zealand some years before. It was like a time capsule - looked like nothing had been altered since 1975. It had the feel of those dowdy retrospective views of the 70s. But the main reason was that everything had become worn, colours had faded etc. Cliches stick fast. The Sixties were swinging (for most of us they weren't); the Seventies were a dull fashion disaster (although the story has been revised slightly in the last fortnight...we now know Bowie provided the one point of light). In fact for most people (in Britain) there was little different between both decades (as you've said before, much of the Sixties actually happened in the Seventies). In the interpretation favoured by the entertainment industry it was all about protest and Vietnam and three day weeks and unstable governments. For most people it was about getting on with your life and taking advantage of the new technology on offer and, above all, the riches that flowered from the creation of the Welfare State. We currently live in a country that is just as restless; but most people's everyday lives are about getting on with things. Unless you are at the sharp end of terrorist attacks or children in the military posted abroad or on the direct receiving end of the austerity cuts, all of that is largely a backdrop to your life. I wonder how they'll portray now in 30 years. I imagine the major political events will take centre stage.

Frozen lighthouses on Lake Michigan Other images here: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2016/jan/22/lake-michigan-frozen-lighthouses-in-pictures#img-3

Interesting documentary, reminding us how the standard rock narrative completely misrepresents what most people were actually listening to in the 60s/70s. Left me with no desire whatsoever to explore Kaempfert, Conniff, Last or Clayderman. But there's a place for Jimmy Webb, The Fifth Dimension, The Carpenters, Herb Albert etc in my world (not that I'd have admitted that at the time). I imagine the standard reaction to this was 'Not as good as Alec Guinness' but I've never seen the latter's versions so really enjoyed this. Two things struck me outside the storyline: 1. Interesting to compare with 'Bridge of Spies' where you have a clear 'good guy' righting wrongs on behalf of the true heart of America; in the Le Carre you're in a world of complete moral neutrality. 2. Why do they always make the 70s look so dowdy? Yes, there was political and economic unrest and uncertainty. But at the time Britain actually looked rather shiny with all this exciting new technology coming in (fridge freezers, calculators, hi-fi etc, not to mention the moon missions). It's as if film makers create the appearance of 70s from what they've seen in a junk shop or the remains or a house that has been left unaltered for 45 years. The 60s are generally portrayed very differently.

Peter King Quartet at Sheffield Jazz Peter King: saxophone; Tom Cawley: piano; Jeremy Brown: bass; Stephen Keogh: drums Great start to the Spring season in Sheffield. Peter King might not quite have the power he once did (unsurprisingly at 75) but he's as fluid as ever. Nice mix of standards and tunes by Coltrane, Shorter (a marvellous 'Footprints') and Elvin Jones. A particularly lovely ballad feature on 'I Can't Get Started' where you heard King's love of Charlie Parker; and a mainly solo 'Lush Life' with the band just joining in on the final bars. Excellent support from the piano/bass/drums. Just disappointed he didn't do his opera.

NMC seem to be taking maestro idolatry to extremes on this one. It's Hugh Wood (Atherton's driving the bus).

Ironic/sarcastic? Moi?

Please feel free to delete this thread if it is felt to be too contentious for the board. I thought the story was interesting. But maybe not that interesting.

I don't recognise that at all.

I'm sure there's more to this story than immediately meets the eye but I found it interesting: Story

My first Schnittke record bought back in the late 80s. Made absolutely no sense then and I didn't follow it up. 25 years and a lot of music later I really enjoyed it. The Andueza is going to sound wonderful in the summer (sounds pretty wonderful in the damp, drizzly British winter).

I read a smattering of those writers but from a different perspective - a course on late-19th to 1960s American history. I had a couple of essays to write on the emergence of American cultural identity (The Transcendentalists, I vaguely recall). I remember especially enjoying Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court', a much darker tale than the Danny Kaye/Bing Crosby film I half-remembered. I've read a couple of Henry James novels but found them hard going. I did like 'The Turn of the Screw'...read that twice...but was helped there by a 60s/70s film version (THe Innocents) and later getting to know the Britten opera.

Don’t read classic books because you think you should: do it for fun! A new poll shows Britons are weighed down with regret over novels they haven’t found ‘time and patience’ for. Why do we shame ourselves over entertainment? http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/jan/21/dont-read-classic-books-because-you-should-war-peace-fun Not that good an article but I love the idea behind it (and not just with regard to lit-er-a-tuh. The stranglehold elite ideas of 'culture' continue to have over those of us with a middle or more class education is more than a little remarkable). I too have a copy of Ulysses that I never got more than 50 pages through. On the other hand I'm currently having a second crack at Moby Dick - not an easy read with all those diversions and biblical references but am enjoying it. Can't manage more than two or three chapters at a time so it'll take a couple more months (about 200 pages through at present). I imagine Moby Dick is something of a white whale for many a reader with those elite cultural prejudices. [Hard to believe 7% of Brits have read Moby Dick...I somehow doubt the 1 664 people used in the survey were a proper socio-economic reflection of Britain] This is excellent - a military history of the 1775-1783 war. I only have the vaguest knowledge of this conflict - lots of names like Benedict Arnold, Trenton, Saratoga that I know without having any context for (for some reason I know exactly what Yorktown was all about!). Just the right balance between narrative and analysis. I've just got to the American victories at Trenton and Princeton. Funny how you can warm to one book and be cold to another. I tried to read Rory Muir's first volume on Wellington last year and had to give up; just found something in the writing style utterly unengaging. Yet this one completely grabs me. Both clearly excellent historians who have carried out the spadework. For some reason with Muir I had this vision of a dreary academic don. With Ferling I get this sense of someone really excited by his subject.

I suspect it was sidelined in the UK to the Drama channel because of its unflattering portrayal of St. Winston. I liked the way he looked like Dave-boy. I'm intrigued by which corporation made it. One of the heroes of the film was Rupert Murdoch's father!

RVW was obsessed with The Pilgrim's Progress in the 1940s - the music he wrote turned up in various pieces (including what to me was his finest piece, the 5th Symphony) culminating in a full blown opera. This records his arrangement of the music for a BBC radio series of the book. Short instrumental pieces with, in this recording, a couple of lines of dialogue to establish context. Hard to take Sir John Gielgud's narration seriously....I'm constantly reminded of his Spitting Image 'Larry, darling!' puppet. For RVW completists only.

It is.

Yes, I read that book. Fascinating if you know the area. My Chemistry teacher was involved in the late 60s folk club just outside Newquay. I suspect Donovan arrived a bit later - interesting to hear Jones chatting about how informal it was in 1959, then a flood of followers in 1960. The funniest bit was Jones being out-Kerouaced by the 'square' Alan Whicker. At the Normafest event earlier this month Norma Waterson mentioned how she was in Padstow in the mid/late 60s and a resident had a similar reaction to Newquay council, complaining about Cyril Tawdry and them there hippies.