Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

[mousetrappling]

Books

Fiction: Finally finished "Without Remorse", Tom Clancy ... "our hero" does indeed get saved by the love of a good woman, and is let off legal consequences for the string of murders because he's useful to the CIA (and as a quid pro quo he assassinates a traitor for them). What a ... delightful ... message. Now reading "Debt of Honour", also by Tom Clancy. This one is back to the "modern day" of the 90s, and there's a war with Japan brewing now that the USSR has gone pop.

Non-fiction: still reading Gerald Harriss's "Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461" - now reading about England's relationships with her (non-France) neighbours during this period. The section that references Scotland was actually more concerned with the border region - Scotland itself became more unified as a result of English aggression (unlike either Ireland or Wales) and so was too strong for the English to colonise. The lords on the English side of the border had their own fair share of bitter feuds, however, and it's the way these become entangled with royal & court politics (particularly during the time of Henry VI) that helps make the Wars of the Roses into as big a mess as they were.

Maps: 1962-1991 CE. Not just the Cold War and its end as the USSR falls apart, but also the end of significant European colonial holdings. Only one map left now! Moving on to a book about symbolism in Chinese art once I'm finished with the maps.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 84b-87 plus a bonus ep of the History of Egypt, which I'm now up to date with. These covered the accession of Tutmosis IV and the beginning of his reign, plus a review of the new Assassin's Creed game which is set in Ptolemaic Egypt (and they've done a good job of make it look & feel Egyptian as best as we know).

ep 1.0-1.4 of History of India - starting to listen to a new podcast, this one will cover the history of India from c.600 BCE mostly through the lens of looking at the history of Pataliputra (a city on the Ganges that is significant at many points). Only a few episodes in, but so far so good - the podcaster has an entertaining style with a mix of storytelling and discussion of what the solid facts are.

Sunday podcast: IOT episode about The Picts - the term "Pict" starts out as a vaguely derogatory term for non-Romanised Britons but gradually comes to mean a specific kingdom(s) in the north & east of Scotland which lasts from the late Roman period through to when the Vikings come & invade. There's recently been a lot of new archaeological work which is showing that the Picts were a much richer & more interesting culture than the 19th Century historians thought.

Music: while running I listened to "Brothers in Arms", Dire Straits; "Appetite for Destruction", Guns'n'Roses; "Cross Road", Bon Jovi; "Alas I Cannot Swim", Laura Marling; and "Hands", Little Boots.

Watching

ep 7 of Eight Days that Made Rome - the opening of the Colosseum by the second Emperor of the Flavian dynasty. Which gave Hughes a chance to talk about the Roman love of bloodsports.

ep 7 of Blue Planet II - this was the final episode of the series and was about the people who're working to save the oceans & the ocean flora & fauna from the effects of pollution & climate change. A good end to the series, but it made for depressing viewing.

ep 2 of Digging for Britain (Series 6) - this one covered "The East" and included some incredibly well preserved remains from early London, as well as other things included a couple of underwater excavations.

ep 3 of Army: Behind the New Frontlines - the series finished up with a look at the work the army is doing as a part of the UN humanitarian mission in South Sudan. As I think I said when I talked about the last episode - this series is an incredibly well done piece of pro-army propaganda.

ep 3 of Nile Rodgers: How to Make it in the Music Industry - wrapping up Nile's career with his more recent collaborations and exploring how sampling/digital manipulation of music changes how songs are written. I enjoyed this series, particularly interesting how much of the soundtrack of the last 40-odd years has actually been written by Nile Rodgers. There's a lot of instantly recognisable hits that I had no idea had anything to do with him.

ep 4 of Rick Stein's Road to Mexico - still making us hungry. I've asked for the companion cookery book for Xmas :)