Good Morning

Fake News!

Borrowed from my bro!

From Late Junction

I was listening to a BBC Sounds podcast the other day. It was a show called Late Junction on Radio 3 which I use to listen to but for some reason fell off my radar.

Anyway, I am back listening again. Here are some of the highlights.

Jenny Hval - High Alice

Throbbing Gristle - Hot On The Heels Of Love

Ut - Mosquito Botticelli

Tony Conrad - Four Violins (excerpt)

Enjoy

More Late Junction

Another selection from Radio 3

Plaid - Housework

Captain Beefheart - Old Folks Boogie

Hermeto Pascoal - Quadrilha na Roça

Jon Hassell - Manga Scene

Mica Levi - Honguitos

Bobby Krlic - Gassed

Enjoy

Book 16 - Philip Pullman "The Subtle Knife"

Philip Pullman "The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials)" (Scholastic)






I am hooked - this is the first time I read a series of books based on a common theme except for the Smiley books of John Le Carre's spy novels.


Here we catch up with Lyra, who was left at the end of Northern Lights crossing the bridge through the aurora into a different world. Her purpose was to follow after her father, Lord Asriel, and to find out more about Dust which seemed to be the cause of such evil research in her own world. She crosses into a world called Cittagazze, a ghastly place occupied by spectres who feed on the souls of adults. Gangs of spectre-orphans roam the deserted streets. I'm not quite sure how Lyra would have continued her search for the truth about Dust if she had not met Will.

Will comes from our world. He is about the same age as Lyra and has lost his father too. Will's father was an explorer and disappeared when Will was a baby. He had been searching in the arctic for a portal to another world when he was lost. But it seems that not only Will is interested in finding his father. Grim men come searching Will's house. They are searching for papers which relate to the explorer's work, but in attempting to escape from them Will accidentally kills one of the men. Undercover of darkness Will gets away and, right there on the Oxford ring-road, discovers a portal through to Cittagazze. Here he thinks he has found the perfect place to hide, but actually his troubles are only just beginning.

The two children try to follow their own paths, but Lyra's alethiometer insists that she should bend all her purpose towards helping Will to find his father. Are the purposes of the two children, from two different worlds, linked somehow?

Meanwhile, where is Lord Asriel and what is he doing? We know where Mrs Coulter is and what she is doing. But who are the goodies and who are the baddies in this extraordinary story? If Mrs Coulter represents the power of the church, does that mean Lord Asriel is on the side of evil or the side of science? Well, I am sure he is on the side of science. Is he really gathering his armies to do battle against God himself? Are God and the church on the same side?

This is an absorbing, breathtaking book, absolutely crammed with ideas. There are so many things to think about, you couldn't fail to have your attention grabbed by something.


However, I do have a caveat or two in that I have two gripes with this book. One is the loss of wonder and magic that Pullman created in the first. I kind of expected it - it's difficult to re-create something like that without sounding forced - but there was more than enough intrigue to keep that from distracting me too badly.
I was disappointed to see Lyra disappear into the background behind Will, becoming nothing more than a tag-along. I was under the impression that the story was mostly about her, but the focus seemed to shift over to Will. We see bits and pieces of the old Lyra, but her role in The Subtle Knife seems to be nothing beyond reading the alethiometer and chasing after Will. I missed her drive and passion.

Though these books were marketed as young adult literature, they are much, much deeper than most YA stories. Young adults can read them as a straightforward adventure, but I think they are really adult books with child characters.


Other than that, it was a fun read and kept me riveted and anxious for the next book.

Well You Northerners Did Vote For Him

Just Wondering

Apart from listening to my new music finds and reading, I have also sorted out some paperwork, some work-related, and printed some stuff from online curios. So, I got to wonder -


Do you own a paper cutter?

Do you own a hole punch?

Do you own a paper shredder?

Good Night