Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

[mousetrappling]

Books

Fiction: Still reading "Executive Orders", Tom Clancy. The fantasy of "what we really need in the White House is someone outside the system who'll put things right" is rather less appealing now when we can see what that sort of thinking leads to ... this is also feeling very padded with political posturing I disagree with.

Non-fiction: Still reading "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat", Samin Nosrat, but haven't had a chance to read any since I last wrote.

Hidden Meanings: 5.25-6.14 - after wishes that one gain a high official job come wishes for wealth (generally gained via your government salary).

Listening

Podcasts: ep 3.K-4.4 of History of India - after several episodes looking at various aspects of the Gupta world (including what medicine was like) he's returned to the narrative to see what happened post-Guptas.

Sunday podcast: This week we listened to an episode of In Our Time about cephalopods. I hadn't realised they all had such short life spans (some of the large species might live a few years, the rest have lifespans better measured in months).

Music: While running I listened to Elton John's greatest hits, and 3 & a bit discs of "100 Hits Rock" (there are 5 discs in total) ... I also drowned out bits of the film (Bladerunner 2049) that J was watching with Belly's "Seal My Fate" singles (no criticism of the film, I just can't write while there's another verbal stream that I can hear).

Talks

"Saite Tombs at Saqqara" Ramadan Hussein - February's EEG meeting, he's excavating at Saqqara both re-examining stuff that's already known and finding new things. Over-ran by an hour as he had so many interesting things to tell us about.

Watching

ep 4 of The Vietnam War - more of the horrors of the war, plus the high command's obsession with body count (and lying about it).

ep 2 of Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise - still pretty, still full of woo but perhaps less woo than the first episode.

ep 3 of Big Cats - the theme for this one was obvious: how the big cats are being studied and the people that're doing the work. A good series, if you like watching footage of awesome cats being awesome (and who doesn't?).

ep 2 of Monty Don's Paradise Gardens - he wrapped up the series by visiting Turkey and India before returning to the UK. I think the UK segment was the weakest, but perhaps if you were a Gardeners' World watcher it'd be the best bit?

Lucy Worsley: Elizabeth I's Battle for God's Music - about choral evensong and how the music was shaped by the back & forth of the Reformation in England.

ep 1 of Nigel Slater's Middle East - aka Nigel Slater enthuses about cooking in Lebanon? Some nice looking food, some interesting bits of culture, all glowing commentary.

Cuba with Simon Reeve - programme from 2012 (as part of the This World series) when Cuba had only recently relaxed some of its stance towards capitalism and was (is?) now permitting citizens to set up businesses like restaurants or plumbing supply shops.

Comments

[magid]

Based on your description, I requested _Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat_ from the library.

Oh, and I read a great book about cephalopods late last year, _The Soul of an Octopus_.

[mousetrappling]

Hope you enjoy it :)

Thanks for the rec, I shall add it to my books-to-read list!