Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

[mousetrappling]

Books

Fiction: Still reading "The Bear & The Dragon", Tom Clancy. I can see why I stopped buying these after this one... the whole plot is revolving around barbaric Chinese people being barbaric, which gets tedious fast. I do kinda want to see how it resolves tho, so I'll keep on till I'm done (I'm well over halfway now).

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East", Robert Fisk - moving on to setting the scene for the situation in Iraq (and yet another precedent the US ignored later on - the British c.1920 had exactly the same sorts of problems as the US/UK c.2004, sometimes in exactly the same places).

Hidden Meanings: 10-10.16.1 - this last chapter is about motifs auspicious for particular festivals or occasions.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 1.2-1.3 of The History of England - so far up to the end of the 7th Century CE, which is a particularly fragmented period of English history, the big Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are really just coalescing during this period. Also the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity (mostly).

Sunday Podcast: ep 11 & 12 of Living With the Gods - looking at sacred buildings, and the "house of god" concept through time, and at gifts to the gods.

Music: While running I listened to Porcupine Tree "Lightbulb Sun"; Marillion "Script for a Jester's Tear", "Fugazi", "Misplaced Childhood" and "Clutching at Straws"; Queen "Greatest Hits I".

Watching

ep 5 of Civilisations - Simon Schama talking about the Renaissance in both the West and the Islamic East, and how the two great flowerings of art were in conversation & competition with each other.

ep 4 of Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher - the rest of the timeline, Egypt under foreign rulers yet still Egypt till the Romans came along. I do think it's a flawed series, but also quite well filmed & fun to watch.

The Funeral Murders - for our depressing TV slot we watched a recent documentary about murders that took place at two Irish (Republican) funerals in 1988, with interviews with people who were there or involved in some fashion (like some of the police). It was quite clear that the people interviewed on both/all sides have neither forgiven nor forgotten, it's just the violence has stopped because of the Good Friday Agreement.

ep 3 & 4 of A House Through Time - continuing to trace the inhabitants of this Liverpudlian house through the 20th Century to the present day. A surprisingly good series - gave a real feel for a slice of life through the last couple of hundred years.

ep 1 of Treasures of Ancient Egypt - Alastair Sooke looking at the art of Ancient Egypt from an art historian/critic perspective, this episode covering prehistoric through to the Old Kingdom. Another series we've watched before but decided to watch the repeats of.

ep 1 of Britain's Greatest Cathedrals with Tony Robinson - this episode was about York Cathedral. Felt a bit like it's been written by the tourist board of York, but some interesting bits of history there.