Answers on a postcard as to what it is, most people can't see it...

It's a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door, and if you don't keep your feet on the road you might just be swept away

I write this as I watch opening scenes of what is certainly a modern classic, the Lord of the Rings (the fellowship of the ring), and I am slightly embarrassed to say that, as when I first watched it, it still gives me butterflies. It will forever be ridiculed by some as cheesy fantasy but this does not do justice to the mastery of the books and sheer imagination of Tolkien in creating the world of middle earth. It will equally always be unfairly compared to the less interesting and less well produced money-spinning machine that is the Harry Potter franchise and in such, probably lose petty Facebook polls signed by thousands of misguided small children.

I have been meaning to return to the series for some time to watch the full extended works from start to finish having every now and then caught bits of films on tv. So to it I shall give it my full attention and for once keep things brief.



PS Eid mubarak to all for whom such things mean something.

A quiet place to go to write... nothing.

I find myself trying to end a run of radio silence, not that I'm using the medium of radio here, but with nothing in fact to say. I have been to quite a few events and celebrated notable milestones of age (the horrible age of 21) since I last posted yet none of these have stimulated anything other than happiness which, given its lack of debate, is itself not that interesting. Personal events, some of which I have no recollection of, probably don't translate too well to discourse.

This further leaves me trouble in so far as aside from those events I have done nothing productive with my time. I tried to start getting into a regular regime of cycling but screwed my knee. My Aunt has a new puppy which was quite fun, but then when left to play with it the bugger went nuts and tried to relieve me of the service of some of my toes, which was at best unfortunate, at worst quite painful. Still, the thing was bloody cute, even if it decided I wasn't fun to play with after a few hours because I didn't once give him a treat. No, my inactivity and lack of any direction seems to have lapsed into some form of creative drought. I can sense my soul draining away, bit by bit turning into a less interesting person, every day more suited to some form of banal office work. This depresses me. when I start to take pride in writing cryptic comments on Facebook because it is simply uninteresting to actually say what I mean, I know it has become a desperate case.

This led me to ponder the question, that if having nothing to do and being able to relax more or less to my hearts content seems to drain me of having anything interesting to say, why is a general perception of many that authors require such conditions to write their spiel. I fully accept that some impressive people have such a wonderful imagination in writing books and that such conditions lend themselves to being able to lose yourself in your own fictional world for the duration of said, but for others they write about things taking inspiration from real life events, the things that happen to them every day (often with the result, at least in my opinion, in an equally uninteresting result) to the point at which to remove oneself from the regular environment would be to remove the source of such inspiration and thus reduce the quality of the writing.

Here the travel writer seems to have it down to a tee, yes it is impractical to write everything as it happens, but taking notes and then writing up later in the day for example, a technique reported by leading lights of such trades as Paul Theroux (Great Railway Bazaar, Ghost Train To The Eastern Star, etc) seems an ideal way to go about it. And in my own inimitable way, as I realise at this juncture I am traditionally supposed to draw to a conclusion yet really have none, I shall just finish with the enlightening, if decidedly obvious revelation: boredom is really fucking shit.


PS I feel it of worth to note for the few that might appreciate a thing, watching the Comedy Prom night on BBC 2 today, Tim Minchin hosting opened sat in the audience, behind him sat a young man in a Willow t shirt, something which, along with the rest of the show rather amused me. Repin' York 2k11 4eva

Simon Bolivar

I am currently enjoying the delights of Gustav Dudamel conducting the Simon Bolivar symphony orchestra (as supposed to the youth orchestra it used to be before they all got old). They are playing Mahler's Second Symphony, The Resurrection, I am not overly familiar but I am enjoying it none the less, personally I am not finding it heavy going as some might report Mahler to be.

Now I know many for whom this is not really an enjoyable evening, some even who when suggested to them it was a travesty they had not even listed it as an option for the evening viewing (admittedly not in all seriousness, given other options were Watchmen, Goldeneye and Con Air) it was immediately ruled out as "I'm not a cultural person." Now this truly saddens me, that you can rule out something as uninteresting purely because you view it to be boring through some predisposition to some childish perception of such things I find truly repuslive. Ok, fine, classical music may not be to everyones taste, that to me is perfectly understandable. I myself like some pieces and dislike others, as with all things we have favourites, this is fair enough. But this callous, dismissive attitude really got to me, to use a phrase from a friend and fellow blogger, it boils my piss (apologies for any that didn't get the in-joke).

I shall stop complaining now. The last performance by this group at the BBC Proms was in 2007, where they were cited as one of the highlights of the season and the nights performance subsequently as arguably one of the greatest proms performances of all time. Having also seen it on television, I could only but imagine the atmosphere and sheer spine-tingling joy felt but the largely unsuspecting audience that night. Then, they performed the likes of Arturo Marquez's Danzon No. 2, now one of my favourite and most easily listened to pieces of classical music having heard it performed live courtesy of the University of York Concert Orchestra as part of their spring performance a while ago. I fully recommend all watch the youtube video, regardless of musical preference as it is a truly wonderful spectacle. And with that I shall leave you to return to what is, yet again a formidable offering from Dudamel et al, albeit it this time a fully expected brilliant performance, and with it possibly stop annoying my mum with clicking of my phone keyboard...

I did another