A Lark Ascending

I know what you mean.

You get some sense of his influence by the way this announcement (an hour ago) has thrown the BBC Radio 4 Today programme into chaos. Not a programme that has music to the fore but his death is being announced every five minutes - and other interviewees are being quizzed on him. I too didn't follow him - in fact in the Ziggy days he was everything I didn't like about music...all the dressing up and showing off (how it appeared to me at the time). But his music was always there and I have come to enjoy it more in recent years. Clearly one of the huge influences on popular music and beyond. Oh, and 'Space Oddity' was a huge song on the radio in the months that I first started to listen actively to music in 1969. Caught the spirit of the time to perfection. RIP

Worth watching if only for the dreadful weather (assuming you mean the police series set in, well, Shetland). Third series starts here this Friday. I only caught up with it on rented DVD but really liked it. Didn't get a lot of attention here; but must have got enough to get commissioned for a third series.

Not being able to sleep is dreadful. I've never experienced it for long - the worst thing for me was lying a-bed too long in the morning during holidays, something I got on top of 20 years ago. Even though I don't do the early starts (5.45) I did when at work I won't stay in bed longer than 8.00. I do sometimes wake at about 3 and then take an hour or more to get back. But that's infrequent. Working late and then trying to sleep used to cause me to not get to sleep easily. I learnt to have an hour or two gap between the two. I went on to decaffinated coffee about a year back and have recently given up alcohol for other reasons (cutting back on sugar intake). So hopefully insomnia won't rear its head often. My dad suffered from it badly, mixed in with worries about his combat experience in Malaya in the late '40s which came back to haunt him. I feel for anyone suffering from insomnia - wide awake but too tired to do anything useful. Can't even listen to music when it happens to me...it feels like the aural equivalent of eating stale bread.

Striking picture! Rather more prosaic, the north-east of Yorkshire in January: English culture. Stocked up on my crabbing supplies.

Still bloody wet. This was York on Friday (8/1/16), two weeks after the worst of the flooding: The last one is entitled "Northern Powerhouse" Most of the city was back in business; but the area around Clifford's Tower where these were taken showed the effects - a line of small shops and cafes with floors up. skips filled with junk and men in high-vis jackets and hard hats (no, not caring Dave and George posturing!) everywhere.

Terrific! Tried to read this 10+ years ago but it lost me. But this time I was gripped. A pretty despairing tale about the thin veneer of civilisation and what happens when the chaos breaks through (amongst other themes...I like his idea about how we always get the past wrong and always tell it quite differently to how others choose to tell it). Quite a dense and challenging book. He can get very detailed (I think I could make a glove now if someone handed me the kid-skin!). He is also constantly interrupting the narrative by cut-backs to different points in the past which can leave you frustrated when you're waiting for a major confrontation to unfold; but that's exactly how our brains work, the effect I assume he was aiming at. I want to read a couple of other authors first but have 'The Plot Against America' lined up - another counter-factual history.

Good idea.

Did you watch it? I saw it advertised and meant to set the recorder but forget. I'll have to see if it's on one of the replayers.

Marvellous 2 nights in a wind and rainswept Scarborough (just like I remember Newquay in my youth - 3/4s of the shops/cafes/arcades closed...don't think I've been to a seaside town in January since 1977). Great acapella folk songs from the recently revived Devil''s Interval (Jim Causley, Emily Portman, Lauren McCormick); Mawkin as good as ever if overloud and oddly balanced; Norma, Eliza and Martin plus band in fine form on a mix of trad and more 40s/50s style music Norma remembers from her youth. Great to see her looking really well after some poor health in recent years. Day 2 started with various surviving Watersons plus Devil's Interval doing unaccompanied Wassail songs for half an hour...all favourites from their many albums. The high point of the weekend. Marry Waterson had added two musicians to the duo I saw a couple of months back. A bit under-rehearsed - confusion over the next song, instruments not working etc but still great to hear those songs again. What worked wonderfully was having the two guitars weaving round one another. Extra guitarist was Neill MacColl, son of Ewan and Peggy Seeger and half brother of Kirsty; excellent player. Eddie Reader and Boo Hewardine headlined - not my cup of Early Grey. I like Readers' voice and accent but she will insist on ending phrases with that X-Factor cod- gospel over-emoting. Plain songs, dull chord sequences (maybe that was a result of the contrast with the oddball choices in Marry Waterson's songs). But you could tell she was used to working with large mainstream audiences...very confident. Not my preference but she went down extremely well with the audience so it's all my loss.

Arne Dahl second series Was initially a bit unsure about this series - seemed a bit like a group of superheroes with special (investigative) powers. But it grew on me. Went out in the UK last October/November but I've eeked them out and finished last night. Not as all-involving as The Killing or The Bridge but very good TV nonetheless. My Swedish is no better, however.

Parks and recreation: America from the air - in pictures Venice Beach fishing pier, Los Angeles Washington Square Park, New York http://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2016/jan/07/parks-recreation-america-from-the-air-in-pictures

That's the one. Tense year, 1983. Abel Archer, the Korean Airliner shot down, cruise missiles in Europe and a very old bunch running Russia. And yet a year later everything started to change. Can't remember if it was '83 or '84 when that film 'Threads' went out on TV about Sheffield in a nuclear attack. Gave me nightmares. I saw it again about 15 years ago and it looked much more like a 70s Dr. Who episode.

Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues Nice little 3 part series about naughty 17th/18thC boys (and a few gals). Willis is best known as a naval historian - his book on the 'The Fighting Temeraire' is a fantastic read. He turned up at the Sidmouth Folk Festival last year playing a coup[le of songs with Martha Tilston and Jim Causley and they both appear here illustrating the broadside ballads that helped turn the real life villains into myths. All the usual dressing up and jumping around in front of the camera in locations around the world. Must be hugely expensive to make programmes like this. Wonder how they recoup their costs.

It's weekly here so part 2 won't be around until Sunday. I'll probably stick with it because I'm interested in this period of history. But I'm not expecting much.

A couple of 'pleasant entertainment but not exactly classics': Deutschland 83 Enjoyed the first episode but just found the ease with which they got the hero into the top general's office and then the lax security as they go to lunch a bit unconvincing. War and Peace (new BBC production in the Sunday night frilly costume slot) I read this on trains whilst going for job interviews in 1977 and it left a powerful impression. Good to be reminded of the story. But, as many reviews have pointed out, it's more than a bit Downton Abbey. Trying to do it in 6 episodes was never going to produce a TV classic. My abiding memory of the book was Tolstoy's brilliant evocation of the utter confusion of battle and the way that those in command were constantly lost in the fog of war. The first battle scene certainly didn't convey that - just a frightened rooky getting out by the skin of his teeth (a pretty standard scene in war films).

I always like to listen to that on a cold, frosty morning in winter. Unfortunately we've yet to have one this winter.

Very sad. One of my favourite pianists. R.I.P.

I read that many years ago but can't remember much about it. I remember being especially taken with 'Black Dogs' - there was something about the underlying theme that really haunted me...can't for the life of me remember what it was! I get really confused distinguishing between McEwan, Faulks, Banks and Boyd in my memory. I've enjoyed a fair few books by all of them but if you were to give me a title I'd struggle to get the right author. Confessions of an absent minded man!

I'm going to start that tonight. Apparently it's about Operation Abel Archer, something I knew nothing about until I stumbled on it while teaching the Cold War. Major misinterpretation of a military exercise that had both sides in the Cold War on the highest alert...and we were totally unaware. Wish I'd asked by father about it - he was in the military in Germany at the time and might have known something. You might be thinking of: Tony Palmer's film - it's a film about his wider life. The new BBC programme is specifically about the Leningrad Symphony and the siege of Leningrad. ********************** Watched the first of the new 'Endeavour' series last night (Morse prequel). As usual, convoluted and very nostalgic but a nice couple of hours.

I didn't get any music - people learnt long ago to let me buy that by myself! - but I did get an exercise bike. As someone who has never played sport or exercised beyond walking I needed something I could use routinely without having to go on display. So what I've got is a rather interesting new way of listening to music. I pick a 30 minute sequence off the iPod and off I go. Not Rap, Techno or Eye of the Tiger (and I don't own a sweat band like Mark Knopfler) but everything from Beethoven (watch the scherzos) to Irish folk (watch the jigs and reels) so far. Early days but I've managed 7 miles a day consistently so far - much more enjoyable than I'd imagined. Hopefully keep me alive longer so I can get through all those records on my shelves another time.

Last night finished: Good lord, she's had some tough times, from major health issues to abusive relationships. You don't have to be remotely interested in punk (which she refers to throughout as 'punk') to be absorbed by this book. I enjoyed it most as the tale of a woman from a difficult background trying to make it in the creative world. Her formal education was patchy yet she come across as having enormous curiosity - she makes her way through a world of more privileged and self-confident people with a mixture of insecurity and bloodymindedness, taking her own path. All the reviews talk of her brutal honesty and that is there in almost every chapter - you need a strong stomach for parts of it. She doesn't shy away from embarrassing things - supporting Sid Viscous's denials after he's accused of throwing a glass only to be told a year later that he did; unwittingly insulting Don Cherry on a tour bus. Most people would hide those moments away. Very impressive.

Leningrad and the Orchestra That Defied Adolf Hitler (BBC2) The story of Shostakovich's Seventh has been told many times in recent year in books and radio broadcasts. This 90 minute programme told you nothing new. But it's well worth watching for the film images and, above all, the testimony of a number of survivors who attended the first Leningrad performance. Incredibly moving as they recollect the horrors of the siege and the impact of hearing music in a situation where staying alive was the priority. Two presenters wandering around in places, Amanda Vickery and Tom Service, neither TV naturals. The section where Service listened to a rather over-the-top singer, clearly very self-conscious about being filmed and then turned to the camera to make a pertinent point during an instrumental section, was particularly naff. Voice overs, voice overs BBC please; celebrity (or otherwise) presenters are a distraction. The most compelling parts were easily when the witnesses were allowed to talk into the camera with no flipping over to the interviewer.

Really enjoyed this adventure yarn based around Melville's interviewing of an old whale captain prior to writing 'Moby Dick'. One of the reviews I read grumbled about the quality of the special effects but can't say they bothered me. Some of the shots were clearly Turner inspired. Might now take another crack at Moby Dick....not to mention get out all those records of sea shanties and whaling songs! First time also I've invoked my senior citizen status for a cheaper ticket. The £2 saved almost paid for the car park.

I have that on the shelf to read (I cannot enter a book shop without buying something even if I know I'm not going to read it for a while! And when there's a 3 for 2 deal, well...they see me coming.). The Brodie series is excellent - definitely different from the standard detective sequences. Nice music references too - Brodie is a country/Americana fan. The BBC programmes based around the series was good too, though they did mess around with the books, taking bits from one and slotting them in another. Don't know that one. Checking on Amazon it looks like something I might enjoy. Thanks.