A Lark Ascending

Intriguing new murder mystery thingy. Nicola Walker is another one of those actors who will get me watching things I might not otherwise watch. Though her accent has mutated from Yorkshire to Lahn-dun.

Thank you. There are so many reliable and convenient ways of accessing music now. Very different to my early days when I had something like this: Records would skip, vinyl quality was variable (especially after the 1973 oil crisis). When I moved around as a student from uni to home at end of term I was never without one of these: Given that 'home' was an RAF base in Germany I developed long arms. I'd have killed in those days for the convenience and reliability that is standard now.

Thank you both for the kind wishes. I loved the job I did though I never felt it any more noble than anyone else's job. In my last ten years in particular I had some lovely Post-16 classes (16-18) where you really could engage with history in some depth. The warmth displayed when I left overwhelmed me. The frustrations were nearly all government inflicted - yes, I met many an annoying kid (sometimes whole classes of them) along the way but in the end you always knew there were reasons for their awkwardness (normally government inflicted!). Left at exactly the right time, still enjoying and competent but I could feel the mental arthritis setting in and didn't fancy having to make another set of exam changes (government inflicted!). All I'd say to anyone at work now is try to find some money at the end of the month to squirrel away as retiring at 60 is not going to be easy in the future. Some people need to go on (look at all those musicians in their 60s and 70s!) but for most you're going to want to scale down or stop. Make sure you can do it.

New series of Lewis. Like a well-worn, much loved pair of blood stained slippers. Like it even more now I know Whately is a folky (he's singer Martha Tilston's uncle and sings on her last record). Last episode of Doctor Foster. Explosive first half with Jones wonderful as the vengeful wife. But it didn't really know how to end..wilted a bit. The lad who played the son was excellent.

I think they call them 'bits' round here/ You have to be careful how you phrase your order. Seen from above, potash evaporation ponds create an eerie beauty in America's Utah desert. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/08/flying-photographer-captures-a-jewel-in-the-desert-potash An expedition into deepest Tibet in search of new ECM covers. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2015/oct/08/a-journey-to-the-jianggendiru-glacier-in-pictures

Reflection in the rain in Glasgow on 6 October, photographed by Alisdair Woodburn. A flock of birds fly past a warm, pink sunset Beautiful pink sunset over Garton on the Wolds, East Yorkshire http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34445038

What I find interesting about those lists is how most of the bands and musicians on these lists are still held in a degree of high regard and/or considered influential (with the exception of Genesis ). Now is this because Peel and producers were good at spotting music that would leave a legacy or is it because, more likely, the legacy is a product of being played on the show and the people writing about music today are doing so with a hindsight informed by their listening to Peel Yes, interesting question. Did Peel spot the talent that was there...or did he create the reverence for it? I think the latter happens a lot in music...a lot of fuss is made about X, Y or Z, a standard narrative emerges and then that is accepted and becomes the way the tale is told. One of the things the early part of book makes clear is just how keen Peel was on things that were often not very good (the performers he signed to his Dandelion label have left little trace). He almost seemed to take a cussed delight in talking up the virtues of people who everyone else could see nothing in. I don't think it was always because he could see the pearls between beneath the manure. There's a hilarious bit in the book about his championing of a hippy dippy band called Principal Edwards Magic Theatre. I seem to remember them as a £ Shop Incredible String Band (though there were no Pound Shops then).

The three when I was there were an electrical shop just up from the station which had the best choice; Woolworths which was actually good in those days; and what I recall as a musical instrument shop that also did LPs. Looks like this today: Though it might have changed to this since I was there last: Must have been a Tardis - I'm sure they had pianos in there!

Yes. And the idea that 'Prog' ruled and needed 'sweeping away' seems a bit odd when you look at the album charts of 1970-7: Top ten albums of the year in the UK: Punk exploded onto the scene towards the end of 1976 (I recall reading the rumours in the NME in the summer), totally transforming the purchasing choices of the British record buyer in 1977: Some would argue 'Ah, but punk was about singles... OK, let's give it time to settle in...top ten albums sold in 1981: Three of those can be seen to gave grown out of punk...but they are hardly the names a self-respecting hipster would want on their tee-shirt today! As ever with history, we select from the past the bits we want to tell the tale we want told. (underlined are the ones I bought around that time)

Bought the book the other day. Very nice...one that I'm rationing myself with as I could tear through it in a couple of days. The author has a nice wry way in dealing with Peel and the shows. He obviously loves the man but gently takes the Michael out of his sillier moments and contradictions...and in the earlier shows there's lots of silliness. He mentions in the introduction a dedicated Peel Wiki site. Not easy to navigate but when you work it out it's extraordinary. A bunch of enthusiasts have tried to reconstruct the schedules of Peel's programmes over the years. It's dominated by post 1975 but some of the earlier playlists are there (lots of gaps). I distinctly remember listening to this one during my A Level exam period: The show that launched the Branson empire! Amon Duul II and Boys of the Lough on the same show!!!! And here's the one where I first heard Genesis: Spooky reading these over 40 years on.

Waterstones to stop selling Kindle as book sales surge

I use the iPod for the same. You can set up 'smart playlists' that play what you order it to randomly; and programme it to not repeat anything for a time period you select (1 year works for me). Amazing how you rediscover things that way. A song ten tracks into an LP that you don't notice so much suddenly appears out of context and you think 'Why had I not noticed that before?' The good thing about exploring a new genre (like classical in your case) now is that you can try before you buy instantly via a streaming site. Back in the olden days you invested what little money you had in your weekly LP - taking chances which didn't work out could quite spoil your week! On the other hand, you didn't half listen to that one LP. That's why we took the trouble to check out LPs in listening booths ( I have fond memories of Dobell's and their antique record decks ). Back in those days we had fewer LPs but played them to death whereas now we have so much music that we don't know what to play next. Very true. I think listening booths were on their way out by the time I became obsessed in 1970. There were three places to buy records in Newquay when I started out (where could you buy CDs in Newquay now?) but I don't recall listening booths. I vaguely recall them in some of the department stores in Swindon when I moved there in '72. The ones I distinctly recall were in the first Virgin record shop in Notting Hill Gate...distinctly recall trying out 'Liege and Lief' there in the summer of that year and buying it.

Thanks. Aw, which net, BBC? Then I could have seen it myself. I still hope to catch it some time. The book is lovely too, but I want to listen to the music, so I need to watch the film itself. I'm a fan of Susanne Jones too, btw. That Doctor series I have heard of but not seen yet. Think it was BBC4. Thanks. I only have 3 BBC channels. Pity - BBC4 is the one where you get all the music, history and painting programmes. And continental detective stories!

Very interesting article about the threats and opportunities from streaming specific to the classical music industry (though the discussion could apply right across the non-mainstream): Making waves: classical music and the rise of streaming Had to smile at this: I definitely need professional help!

Found this difficult to read - even when I had to read it at university. Didn't have that problem with Jane Eyre BTW. I like the cover illustration on that Penguin edition - something French from a British collection - Corot? Barbizon school? I read it as 'light relief' in my last year at uni as finals were approaching (unbelievable as that may seem it was light relief compared with memorising the key points of Civil War era political pamphlets!). Utterly haunted by it at the time. I'd read virtually no pre-20th C novels since school up to that point. I was so taken by it that it started me on Austin, the other Brontes, Elliot, Hardy etc over the next couple of years. Must re-read it.

Yorkshire, UK - Mike the horse captured on an autumn morning by a local amateur photographer http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2015/oct/05/photo-highlights-of-the-day#img-4 This pumpkin field in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire was photographed by John Earnshaw on 30 September. Enjoying a bird's eye view - Paul Haxby took this photo while paramotoring in the Peak District on 2 October. Pretty sunflowers fill a field in the Cotswolds on 3 October. Photo by Pete Llewellyn. Fog blankets these fields in Buxton, Derbyshire on 1 October. Photo by Terry Baker. A beautiful misty scene taken in Leeds, West Yorkshire on 2 October by Michiko Smith. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34445038

Live theatre for the first time in many a year (apart from school productions). 'Henry V' at the RSC in Stratford. Wonderful evening. Not a play I know (apart from lots of famous bits quoted all over the place) but I found it stirring and very, very funny. Just like the last time I want to the RSC (about 20 years ago!) I sat there puzzling out where I'd seen various faces before. Oliver Ford Davies as the Chorus who has a film/TV CV as long as your arm and I recall seeing on TV regularly even though few of the films listed on Wiki are ones I'd consciously watched. Similarly Alex Hassell who played Henry. Like most things I go to the audience were mainly my own age and above; but this time with substantial groups of school students. A lovely few moments in the last scenes where Henry is wooing the French princess and the girls could not contain their 'aaahs' at the soppy bits; the actors reacted wonderfully to the interjections. Much smaller theatre than I expected - despite having an inexpensive seat I was right up close. Will go again next year to see Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, a play I studied for A Level 40+ years ago. It's only 2 CDs away in the car and Stratford on a Monday is dead, parking cheap (£4 for 11 hours!)! Coming to a cinema near you on Oct 21st, which happens to be the 500th anniversary of Agincourt (give or take a few misreadings of the calendar). Worth going to see if you are a cinema goer. I must keep my eye on these broadcasts. Never really noticed them before but even the cinema in Worksop shows them and Worksop does not do 'culture'!

RIP. That autobio is a great read:

I use the iPod for the same. You can set up 'smart playlists' that play what you order it to randomly; and programme it to not repeat anything for a time period you select (1 year works for me). Amazing how you rediscover things that way. A song ten tracks into an LP that you don't notice so much suddenly appears out of context and you think 'Why had I not noticed that before?' The good thing about exploring a new genre (like classical in your case) now is that you can try before you buy instantly via a streaming site. Back in the olden days you invested what little money you had in your weekly LP - taking chances which didn't work out could quite spoil your week! On the other hand, you didn't half listen to that one LP.

Not sure how you feel about downloads but you might want to check some of the classical labels that claim to offer high definition downloads, some of which are supposed to to be superior to CD. Gimell, a label that specialises in Early/Renaissance vocal music, offers them in 6 different alternatives other than MP3. Have a look here: http://www.gimell.com/recording-Allegri-Miserere-Palestrina-Missa-Papae-Marcelli.aspx They also do 4 physical formats other than CD - DVD-Video in the NTSC format; DVD-Video in the PAL format; Pure Audio Blu Ray; Super Audio Compact Disc; and Vinyl though the catalogue is extremely limited there. Many of the classical labels are well ahead of the game in new formats. I recall an item on the BBC Radio 3 CD Review programme a year or so back where the presenters were getting terribly excited by some of these formats for their surround-sound capabilities. Gives me VHS/Betamax nightmares! You've probably seen a number of new download companies popping up recently aggressively promoting themselves as high definition purveyors (playing an "MP3 is dead" line). For example, Classics Online that I've used happily for some years, has recently reinvented itself as Classics Online HD_LL. There seem to be a glut of these starting up at present - can't imagine many surviving. And in the end whoever survives will probably be absorbed by Amazon! Have a look at the online physical shops too. Presto alows you to search on formats: SACDs; DVDs; Blu-rays; Presto CDs; Studio quality downloads http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/ MDT and Europadisc are reliable too. I've used all three for DVD Opera purchases. You probably know all of this but just in case...

Missed this completely. Have the first series on my Lovefilm backburner. Enjoying series 2 much more than 1. Loved the Helsinki episode.

How we used to live. Elland, a mill town in Yorkshire. I doubt if you could do this any more? How could you hold your iPhone? A street corner in the Black Country, West Midlands, January 1961. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/oct/03/hull-international-photography-festival-in-pictures

The party is at the senior citizens social club in Macclesfield, I assume?

Ah! So, that's what it is! That Oppo looks impressive. Yes, wires and cabling have always been a mystery to me (even without worrying about getting the best quality). Finally worked out why I couldn't get the Naim connected to the CD-recorder. I was trying to connect the Naim analogue input to the CD-R input. Duh! Strangely there is no analogue output on the Naim. Got round it for the record player by connecting the phono amp directly to the CD-recorder and bingo, I can make CD-rs of LPs again. A bit fiddly but something I only do every now and then. Needless to say I did have the phono leads back to front (50/50 chance). You'd have thought they'd have marked them. Still puzzled by the digital connectors on the back of the Naim - they don't match anything on the CD-recorder (which is admittedly 15+ or so years old) or my small TV (which is only a about 3). Just connect the the TV via a normal audio jack which does me. Kid in a sweetshop...know what you mean. It's a joy listening to well loved recordings and thinking 'Well, I've never heard that before!'

Spoke too soon...gone all slate with proper British weather heading in from the Atlantic.