Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

Books

Fiction: Still reading "Rainbow Six", Tom Clancy. I do now know why I thought this was the one with the Ebola sub-plot ... it has one too. Haven't really got caught up in the story for this one, it feels like a TV series where there's a series arc but each episode is also kinda independent.

Non-fiction: Still reading "1177BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed", Eric H. Cline. Now into Chapter 5. Chapter 4 was more substantial in feel to the previous chapters, which was welcome. It was a survey of the various city destructions that occur at probably the right time round the Eastern Mediterranean; and a critical look at the various theories. The picture it built up is "It was the Sea Peoples what did it" had become a curiosity stopper and when you began to look at the actual evidence there's little if any that's clear cut.

Hidden Meanings: 7.42.4-7.59.3 - there are a lot of ways of conveying a desire for the blessing of longevity in Chinese art.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 92 plus a mini-episode of History of Egypt podcast - I'm now up to date, and he's got as far as Amenhotop III, where I imagine we'll be for the next while.

ep 93-98 of Renaissance English History - some episodes on the English relationship with the Ottoman Empire, and a whole collection of supplementary episodes with bios of notable women from the period. Up to date with this, too.

ep 187-188 of China History Podcast - currently he's in the midst of a 9 part series giving an overview of the history of Chinese philosophy.

Sunday podcast: ep 5 & 6 of Living with the Gods - one a look at religious interactions with nature, pointing out the difference between our culture's roots in a religion where people are explicitly given dominion over the Earth and some other culture's more collaborative narratives. The other episode a look at religion and death, and how in many cases the dead are still a part of society in a way that's alien to us.

Music: While running I listened to Everything But the Girl "Home Movies", "Walking Wounded", "Amplified Heart" and Texas "White on Blonde". Not as much running this week as snow stopped play.

Watching

ep 8 of The Vietnam War - including war crimes being covered up and brushed under the carpet, and the shootings of student demonstrators & random bystanders by US police.

ep 3 of Art, Power & Passion - the 20th Century monarchs & their influence on the Royal Collection, also the great fire in Windsor Castle, and the making of the collection (and palaces) into tourist attractions, initially to raise cash for the rebuild. I liked this series, a different sort of look at history.

ep 1 of Civilisations - the Beeb's new flagship history of art/culture series. We could've watched it all on iplayer immediately but we prefer to spread a series out anyway so we're sticking to one a week as they're aired. This one was Simon Schama looking at a broad sweep of art across ancient cultures taking us from the lion man (of course) through to Minoans, Mayans and so on, framed both as "art is what humans do" and that art is cultural memory.

Magical Mystery Tour Revisited - an Arena documentary from a few years ago about the making of the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour. Interesting programme, but I do think I saw sufficient of the film itself in the clips shown to not bother seeing it if opportunity every presents itself.

Charles I's Treasures Reunited - a rather shallow tie-in for the current Royal Academy exhibition, which brings back together a lot of Charles I's art collection (which was sold after his execution).

ep 1 of From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature - Helen Czerski telling us about temperature and the history of our understanding of it. This one was about cold, and the liquid/solid transition.

ep 1 of A House in Time - David Olusoga looking at the history of the inhabitants of a house in Liverpool, this episode covered just the first decade or so of the house's existence from 1840ish to 1850ish (the people's stories covered a longer period). Really interesting.