Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

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Books

Fiction: Finished "Starpilot's Grave", Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald, and started "By Honor Betray'd", also Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald - still enjoying these, I shall have to get myself the missing one before I get to that point in the series.

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Mind in the Cave", David Lewis-Williams - the most recent chapter is arguing that the first 2D art is not a representation of reality but a making permanent of a shamanistic vision (which would've looked like a 2D projection on a wall). And it's only later that it turns into something that people who aren't shamans/haven't experienced that altered state of consciousness can do.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor Act 4 Scenes 5-6 & Act 5 Scene 1 - gathering pace towards the climax of the play. Still not quite sure why he's got the B plot of who marries Anne Page in there.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 10-17 of The History of England Shedcasts - up to Kenneth MacAlpin (mid-9th Century) in the History of Scotland thread & some biographies of Tudor court figures in the more general one.

Sunday Podcast: an episode of In Our Time about The Emancipation of Serfs, that point in the mid-19th Century when Russia finally freed the bulk of the population from being owned by the nobility, only due to the assassination of the more progressive Tsar who started the process managed to do it in such a half-arsed fashion that they sowed the seeds of the Communist Revolution.

Music: While running I listened to Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms", Rage Against the Machine "Rage Against the Machine" and The Rolling Stones "Forty Licks", the last of which reminded me that despite liking the occasional Rolling Stones song forty in a row gets a bit samey. I also listened to more Benjamin Britten (on BBC Music CDs Vol. 12 No. 4 (which was Christmas music-ish) and Vol. 8 No. 10 (The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra was the Britten piece)). And The Imagined Village "The Imagined Village" for the Benjamin Zephaniah track, and part of "The Best ... Album in the World ... Ever Vol 5 CD1" for a track by Bennet (iirc) which I haven't got to yet. That compilation album series never fails to amuse me, Vol 5 of the best ever, goodness!

Watching

ep 6 of Hairy Bikers' Mediterranean Adventure - finished off the series with Spain. Rather enjoyed this series, I'll look out for more of their other ones to record.

ep 6 of Andrew Marr's History of the World - revolutions galore, and the resultant eating of their children. (American & French, mostly)

ep 5 of Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema - Horror, which I found difficult to watch because it didn't seem to matter that the clips were divorced of their wider context they still creeped me out. A good series overall, despite not watching many films (I prefer narrative fiction in book form) it was about the sort of thing I'm interested in - how they're put together, what makes them work, how the the medium is used to enhance the story.

Revolution: New Art for a New World - an hour & a half programme about the rise of abstract art in early post-revolution Russia & how it was linked to the politics of the revolution (before it was all swept away and persecuted by Stalin & his preference for Soviet Realism). Some of it needed to Get In The Sea (Malevich's Black Square, for instance) but an interesting programme.

ep 1 of Ancient Invisible Cities - Michael Scott (without his more charismatic sidekick this time) does the exploring & laser-scanning thing on 3 ancient cities, this episode was Cairo. More ancient Egypt than I'd expected, and it included going inside the Step Pyramid which was neat coz that's not open to the public.

Wonder of the Moon - somewhat superficial programme about the moon & things like how the phases work, how lunar & solar eclipses work, what supermoons are. Some weird choices (like the mountain biker going up a hill to see a supermoon) but also some neat visuals & graphics.