Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

[mousetrappling]

Books

Fiction: Still reading "The Bear & The Dragon", also Tom Clancy. The difference in the way Clancy talks about the Russians (honourable (ex-)enemy) and the Chinese (barbarians) is striking... Also notable for it's irony is the juxtaposition of complaining about lack of adherence to judicial process in China with complaining about those pettifogging restrictions imposed by due process in the US ...

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East", Robert Fisk - whilst I was aware in general terms that the US embassy in Iran had been besieged in 1979, I had not previously known that the Iranians had captured some shredded documents and painstakingly pieced them back together as part of this.

Hidden Meanings: 8.29.3-9.12.7 - more motifs for peace, and the next chapter was motifs for having one's wishes granted. In the benign sense of good things happening to one, not in the sense of "be careful what you wish for".

Listening

Podcasts: ep 163-165 of History of Byzantium - I'm up to date with this now. He's still in the end of century overview episodes wrapping up the 10th Century CE (ish), and has toured the rest of Europe from a Byzantium point of view.

ep 1-1.2 of The History of England - this is my next podcast to listen to the entire back catalogue of, he started with the fall of the Roman Empire tho moved briskly on to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons (which is where I'm up to with it). So far so good.

Sunday Podcast: ep 9 & 10 of Living with the Gods, looking at prayer as something that is both individual & part of the communal experience of worship. Also communal singing as part of worship, and the wearing of distinctive dress to worship (including one's "Sunday best" as part of that concept).

Music: While running I listened to Elton John "The Very Best of Elton John", Prince "The Hits/B-sides" (all 3 discs), Scissor Sisters "Ta Dah", Porcupine Tree "Stupid Dream".

Live Music: Steven Wilson at the Royal Albert Hall - good gig, tho our seats weren't that good so the sound wasn't great and nor was the view (too far away, too much of an angle). I'm somewhat over the RAH as a venue anyway.

Museums

Science Museum - we wandered through the Mathematics Gallery & the Information Age Gallery. Always a bit disconcerting to see things one has owned oneself as part of a museum exhibition ...

Watching

ep 4 of Civilisations - Mary Beard talking about religion and art, the tensions between the two as well as the use of art in religion.

ep 3 of Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher - the New Kingdom, tho really focusing on the late 18th Dynasty.

ep 3 of From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature - hot things. And how learning how to use and understand heat has shaped not just modern civilisation but pretty much all of human history. A good series.

ep 1 of King Tut's Treasure Secrets - a look at what's being learnt from Tutankhamun's tomb goods now that they're being re-examined as part of moving them to the new museum in Giza. The narration was overly keen on "proving" things again, and it didn't quite manage to convince me that the evidence as presented lead to the conclusions as presented. Still an interesting programme tho. When I set it to record I was offered a series link, but there's as yet no sign of other episodes.

Egypt Unwrapped: Secrets of the Valley of the Kings - pretty sure we've seen this before, slightly dated overview of what we know about the Valley of the Kings. Rather breathlessly over-excited narration, but if you ignored most of that then it was quite a good programme.