More Wired Sounds

I am still waiting for three albums to come via Amazon - having already received the excellent Hubris album by Oren Ambarchi.

All these were reviewed and raved about in Wire -

 


Sketch Show - Wilson

Sketch Show - Wonderful To Me

Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - We Be All Africans

Enjoy.

Well it is Lunch Club Day

Another fine dry sunny day.Yet most of that time has been just reading or listening to the radio. Still, i have managed to finish off a few books.

Last night i finished Season 6 of House MD,a series that surprisingly has me hooked and that in the final episode of this series Cuddy admitting that she loves Gregory House. Now i will have to watch season season seven. I also watched a few episodes of Angel from season two.

If it was not for the fact that my brother and his wife coming over to Kent i could have been in Brighton doing a footfall count near the old Hanningtons department store. One of my research companies offers three focal points within the city with a couple of shifts at each. Each shift was £55 , and doing two of them at one of these locations (8 am- 2 pm and 2 pm - 8 pm) would have earned me £119! Oh well ,c;est la vie! Family comes first. Anyway i am looking forward to this evening.

Phil will be picking me up at 5,30 pm and then we shall head over to Faversham to meet the guys and at the Sun Inn and then dinner at ASK Italian.

Photos tomorrow.

Book 62 - Stephen Kelman "Pigeon English"

Stephen Kelman "Pigeon English" (Bloomsbury)





Pigeon English is the story of 11 year old Harrison Opoku, a recent immigrant from Ghana. He, his mother and older sister have recently moved to a flat in a rough part of London, while his father, grandmother and little sister are still in Ghana hoping to move soon, too. When an older boy is stabbed to death, Harri's and a friend decide to do their own version of the TV show CSI and find the killer.

The novel is told (mostly) from Harri's point of view. It is here that I can see why the book has been compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Through Harri's narration, we end up understanding more than he does about what it going on around him. I think this works in places, and in others have a harder time believing he'd be that naïve, even at his age. His enthusiasm and energy come through, as do his sometimes conflicting desires to be safe/fit in vs to be good/truer to himself. Without his father in the home, Harri feels it is his role to protect, to be the man of the family. Yet at 11 years old and in a tough neighborhood where gangs are a part of everyday life, this is not easy. Not to mention, he's just a kid - he wants to use reward money if they solve the crime to buy a Playstation, he likes to run, he's discovering girls...

There are also interludes narrated by a pigeon that watches over Harri. It took some time for these to work for me, but I slowly came around to the metaphor and the role in the story.

This is a good first novel, yes, with its flaws and not a particularly surprising ending, but a voice and story that kept me interested throughout.

Book 63 - Humphrey Carpenter "The Envy Of The World"

Humphrey Carpenter "The Envy Of The World : Fifty Years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3" (Phoenix)




This is a fascinating account of one of Auntie Beeb's renowned radio stations,and is a subject which the biographer knew intimately, and the book reflects his knowledge and his passion.

Most people,i hope and assume, have heard of the international reputation that the BBC had during World War II for news, but not many remember the extraordinarily high standards it maintained where the arts, education and entertainment were concerned. The third programme was at the forefront of this revolution, at a time when it was recognised that the high arts had an important role in defining cultural identity and that society had a responsibility to promulgate an understanding and appreciation of high culture.

The Third Programme eventually became Radio 3 in 1967 when the BBC launched its pop music station Radio One.


"On my first night in the Third Programme, I had to leave a full minute of silence between one programme and the next. The idea was to discourage people from casual listening. They were expected to look at their Radio Times, choose what they want, listen to it, and then go away and do all the other interesting things that their lives were full of". Cormack Rigby.

"He who prides himself on giving what he thinks the public wants is often creating a fictitious demand for low standards which he will then satisfy". Lord Reith.

"It was the combination of public service motive, sense of moral obligation, assured finance and the brute force of monopoly which enabled the BBC to make of broadcasting what no other country in the world has made of it". Lord Reith.


This book is full of stories and personalities about artists of intense integrity and creativity, a conviction in the value of high culture and the educability of the masses. There is also a book by John Drummond i want to find that details his time on BBC Radio 3 and the struggles he had to introduce modern avant garde classical music to the station. Meanwhile, for radio fans, i highly recommend this book.

Favourite Paintings -Turner

Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth.



Artist J. M. W. Turner
Year 1842
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 91 cm × 122 cm (36 in × 48 in)
Location Tate, London, Great Britain

Though panned by many contemporary critics, critic John Ruskin commented in 1843 that it was "one of the very grandest statements of sea-motion, mist and light, that has ever been put on canvas".

The Lunch Club Faversham

What a great evening we had.We had a beer at the sun Inn before going down to ASK.We arrived at the restaurant at just after 7 pm. Ordered olives to start with before the main meal, I had the POLLO MILANESE which is described as

"Breaded butterfly chicken breast, seasoned and roasted in this Milan-inspired dish. Served with roasted new potatoes or chips, broccoli, and a creamy mushroom sauce on the side."

Followed by the CHOCOLATE ETNA described as
"Hot toffee sauce is poured over the dark chocolate cup at your table, revealing a hidden scoop of vanilla gelato on top of a heavenly hot chocolate fondant"

We had two bottles of wine ,filter coffee,followed by a couple of double Jack Daniels on ice.

Great food,great company and a great evening.


( Pics here )

I have more pics for tomorrow.