Margaret

Two weeks worth this time coz I was busy last Wednesday evening.

Books

Fiction: Finished "The Bonehunters" by Steven Erikson - there wasn't much left so not really anything more to say.

Started "Reaper's Gale" also by Steven Erikson - there's a feeling of several of the narrative threads pulling together in this one (can't be too many though, there are 3 more books), at least several of the more mundane (as opposed to godlike, but that's a spectrum not a binary in these books) protagonists are all in the same place with foreshadowing of convergence. No-one knows the full story of what's going on tho (nor does the reader).

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Making of the Middle Sea", Cyprian Broodbank - the second half or so of the 2nd Millennium BCE is a time of increasing contacts across the Mediterranean, and of the decline and/or collapse of palace centred polities in favour of trading networks, the Sea Peoples, the rise of the Phoenicians, Iberia is no longer as isolated and so on.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 5.6 of the History of India - Kashmir's attempt to conquer India & the whole world.

ep 110-121 of The History of China - we are well into the decline & fall of the Tang now, bandit rebellions all over the place, so-called Governor Generals who are more like autonomous warlords etc etc.

ep Eleanor 10-11 of The History of England Shedcasts - Eleanor and Henry II of England marry, and a look at how much power and influence she actually had during the early years of their marriage.

ep Marshal 4-5 of The History of England Shedcasts - William's father and his King Arthur obsession, then William's adolescence which started with his moving to Tancarville to live with a (distant) relative's household to learn the skills he'd need in later life.

ep 215 of The China History Podcast - second half of a biography of V. K. Wellington Koo who continues to be a big part of the Chinese diplomatic machinery throughout the middle of the 20th Century.

ep 5 (remastered) of The History of Egypt - he's redoing the early episodes gradually, so I listened to this when it got re-uploaded. Covers Sneferu & his three pyramids.

ep 106 of The History of Egypt - moving forward with the last years of Amenhotep III's reign, and looking at international diplomacy & marriage alliances in particular.

ep 121 of The History of English - looking at how English became the language of government in the years following the Black Death for the first time since the Norman Conquest.

bonus episode of The History of Byzantium - about Harald Hardrada who spend his early adulthood in exile and some of that time as a mercenary in Byzantium.

ep 184 of The History of Byzantium - moving the narrative forward in the 1040s where Zoe & her sister are still the routes to power although they seem to have no overt desire to rule themselves instead another new husband of Zoe's becomes the Emperor.

two bonus episodes of The History of England - one an interview with someone about Joseph Lancaster who was a great reformer of education during the 19th Century, and the other a guest episode about trade during the Tudor period (and pirates, like Drake).

Sunday podcast: Listened to an episode of In Our Time about Emmy Noether - the most famous mathematician I'd never heard of (I think). She worked during the first half of the 20th Century and was responsible for some of the bits of maths in Einstein's theory of General Relativity, her own interests were more in the field of pure mathematics than theoretical physics and her work there changed the way mathematicians think about things.

Listened to an episode of In Our Time about Owain Glyndwr who declared himself Prince of Wales and lead a revolt against Henry IV. Although ultimately unsuccessful he had some definite momentum going at first and it took a while for Henry to reassert English control over Wales.

Talks: "Ancient Egypt & Nubian Leather Technology", Lucy Skinner - EEG meeting talk this month, she told us about how leather is made and how Egyptian & Nubian leather is different to European leather, and what & how it was used. Along with some examples of items she's worked on, including some armour from Tutankhamun's tomb.

"Papyrus BM EA87512: Always Look on the Bright Side of Wife?" Koen Donker van Heel - this year's Glanville Lecture about a papyrus of accounts written in abnormal hieratic and what it tells us about the lives of more ordinary people in the 9th Century BCE. He was a very entertaining speaker.

Music: While running I listened to Everything But the Girl "Amplified Heart" (not many solo runs in the last two weeks). To drown out the TV sounds so I could write I listened to more Bill Laswell "Spiritual Beauty: Imaginal Orient" (passed me by a bit more than the other one, might've been my frame of mind at the time tho), and a whole bunch of compilations: a soundtrack to a film I've never seen "The End of Violence" (had a Bill Pullman track on it, quite enjoyed it), Now 31 CD2 (had a Billie Ray Martin track on it, this is around where I stopped buying Now albums and so it part sounds of nostalgia and part sounds of kids these days have no taste), two Imagined Village things (the EP and the first album, both for Billy Bragg songs, I love most of this project's stuff, folk but modern), "Swing Brother Swing" (has a Billy Eckstine Orchestra piece, I keep forgetting we have this compilation), "Come & Get It: The Best of Apple Records" (which has a Billy Elliot track on it, quite liked this CD).

Watching

ep 3-6 of Icons - scientists, entertainers, activists & sports stars. The mini-bios continue to be interesting, and an interesting way to look at the 20th Century, you get to see a lot of different aspects of modern history. The vote bit is still somewhat of a gimmick.

ep 2 of 100 Days to Victory - the birth of modern warfare in the end of the First World War. Overall a bit of an odd skew to the series, you're rather given the impression there were no English or French soldiers on the battlefield anywhere in the last 100 days, and I'm sure there must've been ;)

ep 2 of Pubs, Ponds and Power - another village, this time Lavenham in Suffolk which is a well preserved medieval village that had been very prosperous when the wool & cloth trade was booming then less so after that (hence not replacing all their houses with newer ones over the centuries).

ep 1 & 2 of Nadiya's Asian Odyssey - a bit of a weird gimmick for this series basing it on what a DNA test showed about her ancestry, but it kinda worked even so. Thankfully the "science" aspect was kept to gimmick/framing device, and the actual shows focused on the cooking and travelogue stuff. She came across well, first programmes of hers we've watched.

ep 1 of Babies: Their Wonderful World - about early development of babies/toddlers, in this episode looking at things like how innate are personality traits and biases. But I think for my tastes too skewed towards an audience of people who have babies & are interested in what's happening inside their heads and not towards an audience of people who find human development interesting. Haven't quite decided if we're bothering with the rest.

ep 1 of Our Classical Century - Suzy Klein and Lenny Henry looking at British classical music during the early-ish 20th Century including composers like Holst, Vaughn Williams, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor & Gershwin. Slightly odd choice to show the episodes so far apart, this was aired in November and ep 2 has only just aired so we'll be catching up then waiting for the next one for a while.

Includes some spoilers for Doctor Who at the end...

Books

Fiction: Still reading "Memories of Ice" Steven Erikson - coming up towards the end of it now. If the relationships foregrounded in Deadhouse Gates were all travelling companions one might not've chosen (and betrayal) this book is all about mothers and children (and betrayal). With a strong helping of good intentions being the road to hell.

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Making of the Middle Sea", Cyprian Broodbank - moving on now to the period from 3500 BCE to 2200 BCE. Starting off with the developments in Egypt (which gets unified and runs through to the Old Kingdom in this time period) - even though it's outside the remit of the book he's covering Upper Egypt because it'll have that knock on effect on the Nile Delta & thus the Mediterranean cultures. One thing I'd not realised is that Egypt gets agriculture relatively late (compared to the Levant, for instance, which is only next door). He's stressing the nomadic pastoral origins of Egyptian culture, and how the increasing desertification of the Sahara was a driving force in their cultural development.

Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors: Act 4 Scenes 3-4, Act 5 Scene 1 - and we're done, the last scene there's finally both pairs of brothers on stage simultaneously so the whole thing unwinds to its conclusion. jesuswasbatman suggested it fails as a play to read because you need the actors' body language, and that's right I think ... but it's also still one of my least favourite types of comedy.

Much Ado About Nothing: Introductory Material - which (among much else) points out the innuendo in the title, where "nothing" is a euphemism for vagina (no thing, ie no penis).

Listening

Podcasts: ep 263 of The History of England - looking at Edward's plans for the succession now that he's fallen ill, and considering if he was firmly under Dudley's thumb or acting on his own thoughts.

ep Eleanor 1 of The History of England Shedcasts - he's starting up a series of mini-episodes serialising the biography of Eleanor of Acquitane, this one setting the scene a bit.

ep 52-59 of The History of China - which covered the rest of the 16 Kingdoms period, and is just starting on the Southern & Northern period where China is dominated by two large powers.

ep 176 of The History of Byzantium - an interview with the podcaster from The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcast about Byzantine philosophical thought in general and Michael Psellos in particular.

Sunday Podcast: an episode of In Our Time about Hope, or more descriptively about the philosophy of Hope. Which is more complicated than one might initially think. The programme started out from the Greek story of Pandora's box, where hope is left behind in the box after the evils are released - so is it a caged evil, an evil kept for mankind, a caged good, or a good kept for mankind? The Greeks were inclined towards it being an evil that Zeus intended kept for mankind to run afoul of. The Christians made it a virtue but then there's a tension between Hope & Faith because hoping for one's eternal salvation implies one doesn't have faith that it will happen. And Nietzsche thought it was a delusion that kept one alive (early Nietzsche thought that was a bad thing, later Nietzsche thought it might not be so bad after all).

Music: While running I listened to the "Greatest Mod Ever" compilation. In the evenings I listened to a couple of Beth Orton EPs plus the second disc of the "INCredible Sound of Jo Whiley" compilation (as there's a Beth Orton track on it).

Study Day: "Egypt's Shifting Capital" was the title of the Egypt Exploration Society's Study Day:

• "Predynastic 'Central Places': Naqada and Neken at the Dawn of the Egyptian State" Grazia A. Di Pietro - she's been re-examining data from previous excavations and has put together a timeline for how both sites were used over time.


• "Amarna (Akhetaten)" Barry Kemp - an update on what's going on with the Amarna excavations, he seems to've been focusing on road networks, and thinking about how the Egyptians conceived of the layout of the site (and the roads).


• "The Memphis Survey After Thirty Years - Where Now?" David Jeffreys - I found this a little incoherent and struggled to follow the thread between the various sites he's excavated at Memphis over the last 30 years.


• "Ancient Egypt in Islamic Cairo" Doris Behrens-Abousif - how the ruins of Ancient Egyptian culture around them did & did not have an impact on architecture in Islamic Cairo. On the did side, building in stone was clearly the way to be remembered, on the did not side was any detail of decoration or architectural style (unlike the re-use of Greek & Roman columns in mosques which had a bit impact on later Islamic stone work).

Museums

I Am Ashurbanipal exhibition at the British Museum - looking at the life & times of Ashurbanipal, mostly his conquests (gleefully recorded in his palace wall reliefs in gruesome detail) and his library (preserved by fire at Nineveh and now (mostly?) in the British Museum). Very well done, I particularly liked the use of lighting to colourise some of the reliefs and to tell the story on one of the large battle scenes. I'm now wondering if entertainments at the palace would include storytellers who used the reliefs as visual aids.

I, Object exhibition at the British Museum - fun, but rather slight. I'm glad we didn't make a particular trip to see it but instead tacked it on to another visit, but I'm also glad we did make it in to see it.

Early Egyptian room at the British Museum - I had a couple of objects I particularly wanted to see, and I also like looking at the Predynastic stuff, so I hung out in here for a bit while J looked at coffins.

Watching

ep 3 of Dynasties - Lions this time. The overall theme really is "nature red in tooth & claw". No pussyfooting around with cute shots of fluffy animals here, instead a tale of life on the edge between survival and disaster.

ep 1 of the Mediterranean with Simon Reeve - new series where he travels round the Mediterranean coast, starting in Italy and Albania. His normal format is to show you something cool or beautiful or awe-inspiring then tell you how humanity is fucking it all up. This episode was mostly skipping straight to the "how we're fucking up" stage. For instance the bit of southern Italy that is pretty much not part of the state of Italy and the local mafia "governs" it as a separate fiefdom.

ep 2 of The Lakes with Paul Rose - Derwentwater this time, still mostly a piece of fluff.

Discovering ... Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue - I think this will be a series, but not shown all at once. First 3/4 of the programme was talking about the piece - putting it in context, talking about the structure etc and listening to bits in rehearsal. And the last part was a full performance of the piece so you could hear what you'd just learnt about. I rather liked it.

Egypt's Lost Princess - about the tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 2012, which didn't contain treasures like Tutankhamun's but did have all sorts of interesting things. It was originally the tomb of an 18th Dynasty princess and had been robbed and reused after that in the Third Intermediate Period. Voiceover man made me wince a bit at times, but it was a well done & interesting programme in general. (Tho as we'd heard Susanne Bickel talk at the EEG about the same tomb earlier this year there was nothing I didn't already know.)

ep 8 of Doctor Who - ( some spoilers )

Includes some spoilers for Doctor Who at the end...

Books

Fiction: Finished "The Gardens of the Moon", Steven Erikson - I think I said most of what I wanted to say last week, it sets the scene for the rest of the series, while still being a satisfying story in itself.

Started "Deadhouse Gates" also Steven Erikson - so far it's all travelling, generally a forced journey and each group with companions they might not've freely chosen. And perhaps "be careful what you wish for" as a theme too. I remember not being so fond of this one when I first read it, coz I wanted more of some of the other characters from the first book and at least one of the plot threads from this one is rather grim & dark ... but it's grown on me as a book.

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Making of the Middle Sea", Cyprian Broodbank - the current chapter looks at the period from 5500-3500 BCE, and his theme is how varied the cultures of the Mediterranean were during this time and the sense that it's merely historical accident that leads us to the world we know rather than inevitability.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors: Act 1 Scene 2, Act 2 Scenes 1-2 - a constant stream of comedy based on one man being mistaken for another, so far we've had one master beating both slaves in turn as he mistakes them for each other, and the other master's wife thinking this one is her husband. I'm not overly fond of this sort of comedy, and do rather feel that dear old mum or dear old dad should've told their respective children that they had been half of a set of twins before disaster struck ...

Listening

Podcasts:ep 261 of The History of England - Mary in fear for her liberty but not quite decisively fleeing England, which will have consequences for Dudley's future actions.

ep 174 & a bonus episode of The History of Byzantium - continuing his 1025 CE round up of the state of the empire with a look at the economy.

ep HoS 29 of The History of England Shedcasts - a look at the Wolf of Badenoch and what his "career" as a rapacious lord tells us about the political society of Scotland at the time (c.14th Century CE).

ep 101b of The History of Egypt - mostly an interview with Campbell Price, about statues of nobles set up in temples, and in particular the statues of Amenhotep son of Hapu.

ep 32-40 of The History of China - out of the Han, who descend into bickering factions behind increasingly powerless emperors, and into the Three Kingdoms period (which is exactly what it sounds like, a divided China).

Sunday podcast: ep 2 of I, Object - looking at satire, both modern western things like Spitting Image, and also from other cultures & times.

Music: While running I listened to both the Travelling Wilburys albums, and also The Ting Tings album.

Talk: "Papyrology and the EES: Riches from Rubbish Tips" Margaret Mountford - given at the EEG November meeting. A mix of the history of the EES and some examples of texts from the Oxyrhynchus Papyrii (discovered by an EES funded expedition) showing the variety of sorts of things that were found. Also a practical demonstration of the difficulties of piecing together fragments of discarded papyrus.

Watching

ep 2 of Origins of Us - looking at how our gut & our food preferences have shaped our evolution. Definitely remembered some of these one from a previous watch through, in particular the demonstration of the effect cooking has on how long it takes to get calories out of food.

Simon Schama's Rough Crossings - a documentary about a piece of history I'd never heard of before: the settlement in Sierra Leone of some ex-slave Africans who fought on the side of the British against the Americans in their War of Independence. Mostly, sadly, the story of their betrayal time after time by the British who promised them independence & freedom and failed to keep their word.

Indie & Beyond with Shaun Ryder & Alan McGee - part of a set of programmes again trawling through the BBC's archives of music footage, this time the format is two people from the subculture in question picking music and talking about it. Some good tunes. Funniest bit was Shaun Ryder watching the Happy Mondays playing Kinky Afro on Top of the Pops (one of Alan McGee's picks) with a dumbfounded expression all the while muttering "I don't remember playing this on Top of the Pops".

ep 1 & 2 of A Dangerous Dynasty: House of Assad - the story of the current Syrian president, focusing on trying to unpack how he went from an unassuming eye-doctor in West London, to a dictator responsible for the deaths of thousands of his own people.

ep 5 of Doctor Who - ( some spoilers )

Includes some spoilers for Doctor Who at the end...

Books

Fiction: Still reading "The Gardens of the Moon", Steven Erikson - despite being about 3/4 of the way through this book it's still the preamble for the series as a whole, it's satisfying as a story in itself but with the benefit of hindsight you can see how he's introducing a lot of stuff that's going to be more important later.

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Making of the Middle Sea", Cyprian Broodbank - just read the chapter looking at how modern humans spread round the Mediterranean at the end of the last Ice Age and am now in the chapter about how the warming climate & the development of farming increase the human populations and change their lifestyle. Two things I was surprised by were the late development of seafaring in the Mediterranean (no signs of it till 10s of thousands of years after we know other humans were colonising Australia) and also how gradual the development of farming was.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Measure for Measure: Act 5 Scene 1 - the Duke takes great delight in making everybody think that Claudio is dead, Isabella deflowered & Angelo will get away with his behaviour but then reveals the truth to end the play. Whilst casually punishing the foolish fop who'd insulted him whilst he was disguised.

Comedy of Errors: Introductory material - mostly talking about the play/trope on which this is based.

Listening

Podcasts:ep 101 of The History of Egypt - starting up the narrative again with a discussion of Amenhotep son of Hapu.

bonus ep of The History of Byzantium - looking at the question of how the people on the ground would've thought about the changes of empire ruling them.

ep 4.K of The History of India - another supplementary episode looking at the art & architecture of a historical site relevant to the period the narrative has got to.

ep Sea 4 of The History of England Shedcasts - pirates (mostly from Devon and Cornwall).

ep 208 of The China History Podcast - starting a series of podcasts looking at Jewish Refugees in China from the 18th Century onwards.

ep 11-17 of The History of China - moved on to the Eastern Zhou period, including a couple of episodes on Confucius and on Sun Tzu.

Sunday podcast: an episode of In Our Time about the historical plays of Shakespeare "Is Shakespeare History? The Romans" which was a companion episode to the last one (both special episodes to celebrate 20 years of In Our Time). This one considered how historical Shakespeare was (and was aiming to be) with his Roman plays.

Music: While running I listened to some of U2 "U22" which is a live album from 2012. And to drown out a film J was watching I listened to the rest of "The Very Best of Jazz Funk CD1" (it has a Benny Golson track on it), "Swing Brother Swing" (two Benny Goodman Orchestra tracks) and started "Greatest Mod Ever CD3" (which has two Benny Spellman tracks on).

Live Music: we went to see U2 play at the O2 in London - this is the tour for the album "Experience" and is effectively the second half of their autobiography (the first half being the "Innocence" album & tour three years ago). I really enjoyed it, they're great live.

Study Day: "Amenhotep III & His Funerary Temple: A 'House for Millions of Years'" - Petrie Museum Friends study day, concentrating on Hourig Sourouzian's excavation at the site of Amenhotep III's funerary temple (best known for the Colossi of Memnon, which were once thought to be all that was left). 5 talks during the day:

• "Amenhotep III: Reign of the Sun King and His Building Programme through Egypt and Nubia" Anna Garnett - gave us the context for the funerary temple both in terms of Amenhotep III's position in history and the other things he built.


• "Beyond Memnon: Milestones to a Dramatic History of a Site" Hourig Sourouzian - the site of the funerary temple through history including its destruction by an earthquake in Merenptah's reign, the Colossi of Memnon as a tourist attraction in antiquity, and an overview of her own excavation.


• "Rebuilding the King: The Revival of Scatter Statues" Hourig Sourouzian - a reprise of the second part of her preceding talk, but in the form of a TV documentary (made by the team but not, I think, picked up by any channel). A good counterpoint to the more academic talks before it.


• "Interconnected Cultural and Floodplain Lanscapes of the Holocene Nile Valley at Ancient Thebes" Willem Toonen - looking at what the geography of the site was through history, using evidence from soil cores. Once the temple would've stood on a hill next to a branch of the Nile, quite a different setting to the more flat modern landscape.


• "The Colossi of Memnon & Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project: Archaeology & Challenges of Conservation" Hourig Sourouzian - more detail on Sourouzian's own excavations.

Watching

ep 3 of Can You Feel It: How Dance Music Conquered the World - about the cult of superstar DJs, an eyerolling end to an eyerolling series. Once again traced the history of the phenomenon and described in approving tones how the scene had sold out and become all about the money instead of the music. I normally like the BBC's music programmes, but this series felt like the accurate subtitle was "Everything That's Wrong with the Music Business".

ep 1 of Magic Numbers: Hannah Fry's Mysterious World of Maths - start of a series about maths and the history of maths, thinking about whether maths is discovered (and inherent to the universe) or invented by us (so all in our heads and thus possible to do differently). Rather good, not sure we agreed with all of it but we also kept pausing it to talk about it.

The Pharaoh in the Suburb - documentary about the recent discovery of the torso & head of a colossal statue in Cairo, dating to the reign of Psamtik I. Tried a bit too hard to sell it as a game changer in Egyptological studies, but did provide a nice overview of the founding of the 26th Dynasty by Psamtik who pushed out both the Assyrians and the Nubians to do so.

ep 3 of Doctor Who - ( some spoilers )

Books

Fiction: Still reading "The Remorseful Day", Colin Dexter - the odd thing about this being the only Morse book I've ever read is that it's culmination of a long term relationship between many of the characters so I can tell that various things have more weight than it seems but I don't have the background to tell what that weight is.

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East", Robert Fisk - still in the aftermath of 9/11, but looking now at the sleight of hand that gets us from punishing the perpetrators to invading Iraq.

Abandoned "The Artist's Way", Julia Cameron after a little more skimming. Not. For. Me., and perhaps actual bobbins, tho I do like the Morning Pages concept.

Started "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" Stephen R. Covey - another book I've seen references to over & over, so when I spotted it on the shelf in the library I figured I may as well read it. Not read much, but so far less woo but perhaps all just common sense.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor Act 3 Scenes 1-2 - really not keeping the narrative thread in my head for this play, too much reading the footnotes.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 93-100c (Q&A) of The History of Egypt - up to date with this now, he managed to time the episodes just right to have a description of Amenhotep III's sed festival be his 100th episode.

ep 197-203 of The China History Podcast - mostly a 6 part series covering China-Vietnam relations over the millennia, so a sort of potted history of Vietnam but lightly skipping over stuff that wasn't related to their relationship with China.

Sunday Podcast: an episode of In Our Time about the Almoravid Empire, these were the North African tribes who came together under the banner of a more pure form of (Sunni) Islam and conquered what is now Morocco and also Spain in the 11th-12th Century CE. Another example of how inviting the "barbarian" mercenaries in to protect you (as the successors to the Umayyad Caliphate did) is an unwise thing to do.

Music: While running I listened to Bon Jovi "Cross Road" and Tracy Chapman "Tracy Chapman"

Talk: "Flies, Lions and Oyster Shells: Military Awards or Tea for Two" Taneash Sidpura - golden flies & lions and (real) oyster shells have been assumed to be Ancient Egyptian military awards, but Sidpura told us that when he actually researched who these objects are buried with and what textual references there are to them it became clear that they aren't. Instead they are examples of precious things that were given as gifts by Pharaoh and it's that it was the fact they were such a gift that makes them important to the recipient rather than the form indicating a particular virtue of the recipient.

Watching

Egypt Unwrapped: The Pyramid Code - purporting to "explain" the pyramids, but was really mostly a bit of a look at the history of pyramid building in the Old Kingdom. Skipped straight over the Middle Kingdom to talk about the Valley of the Kings as the successor to the 5th Dynasty pyramids. Not as good as other Egypt Unwrapped shows.

Egypt Unwrapped: Secrets of the Sphinx - also a bit disappointing for an Egypt Unwrapped episode. A look at the competing theories for when the Sphinx was built & for whom, but it lack coherency (and had ludicrous computer reconstructions) and even pulled my least favourite trick where before the ad something is one person's theory and when we come back after the ad break it's accepted amongst "all Egyptolgists" (and no, really, I don't think everyone does believe the Sphinx was built in the Second Dynasty).

ep 2 of Hairy Bikers' Mediterranean Adventure - this one was about Sardinia, and despite a lot of the food being not quite to our tastes (the dishes with too many eyes & legs were out yucked by the Sardinian style black pudding) it seemed like a good place to have a holiday sometime.

ep 1 of Burma with Simon Reeve - on one of his round the world following an arbitrary line series he snuck into Burma/Myanmar when it was still under an autocratic regime, now it's a democracy he could go in openly. Still depressing tho, this episode spent a lot of time focusing on the appalling treatment of the Rohingya which the government is at best doing nothing about.

ep 2 of Big Cats About the House - the jaguar cub is growing up, and although not quite past the health scare of episode 1 she's doing a lot better.

Books

Fiction: Finished "2010: Odyssey Two", Arthur C. Clarke - enjoyed this, not sure I remembered very much of the story at all, not even a sense of familiarity so I can't've read it often as a child. I should track down the next two in the library and read them - pretty sure I've read 2061 but not 3001.

Read "Childhood's End", Arthur C. Clarke - one of my favourite books as a child, and although I wouldn't say that any more I'm still fond of it. I do now think he shouldn't've written an extra chapter 1 for the new edition in the 90s which punts the setting out into the 21st Century without also editing the rest to stop it being a very 1950s society that the plot happens in.

Read "The Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night", Arthur C. Clarke - two stories which aren't connected except thematically. Lone young man with a thirst for knowledge pushes against the decaying grandeur of his world to find truth or bring change. Something about Against the Fall of Night really struck me this time, I found it very evocative & it conjured up a mood of nostalgia and of people who were aware they were living after the best days had been & gone. (I'm also pretty sure I've read "The City and the Stars", which is a re-write of it, but I don't seem to own it)

Read "Expedition to Earth", Arthur C. Clarke - a collection of short stories, some of which worked for me & some didn't. Covered quite a lot of genres/common tropes whilst all still being SFF - like a war story told by a retired soldier (but the action set on Phobos), like a version of The Cold Equations, another was explorers/surveyors visiting a new planet & meeting the inhabitants who are revealed to be our distant ancestors. And an earlier version of 2001 ("The Sentinel").

Read "Islands in the Sky", Arthur C. Clarke - boys own adventure story IN SPAAAAACE! Contains mild peril. It's definitely a kids book, I think I used to find it rather fun when I was closer to the protagonist's age but now it's just a bit childish.

So I read almost all of the above whilst feeling miserable with a stomach bug on Monday, that's why the sudden surge of books. Obviously this is a tiny part of Clarke's oeuvre and it seems to skew towards the early but I'd forgotten how different in mood Clarke's fiction feels to Asimov's or Heinlein's (to take those he's often on a pedestal with). He's definitely a Brit born at the end of World War One - a theme running through much of what I just read was of life after the Empire has gone, after the Golden Age is over. But other things reminded me of Heinlein in particular - like in passing world building details of polyamorous relationships and fixed-term marriages. Though in Heinlein such things are fetishised but Clarke seems to just drop them in in passing to illustrate how this isn't our society.

Started "Coma", Robin Cook - continuing reading the fiction on our shelves, I'm just a little way in to this book and despite assuming I had, I'm pretty sure I've never read it before. J bought it and I must've just got used to seeing it on the shelf. Medical thriller, made into a film I believe, set in the "present day" of 1976.

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East", Robert Fisk - read quite a bit of this on my travels during the last couple of weeks. He's up to the aftermath of the first Gulf War & the uprising (encouraged by the West) which failed to overthrow Saddam and was then betrayed by the West.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 116-122 of The History of England - just covered the Peasant's Revolt of 1381, and the brutal aftermath, and now starting on Wycliffe. Continues to be both interesting & entertaining.

Sunday Podcast: ep 21-22 of Living with the Gods - one looking at how having many gods shapes one's society & authority structures, and the next looking at how having one god does.

Music: While running I listened to Imagined Village "Imagined Village".

BSS Study Day: "Tombs and Temples of el Kab: Current Fieldwork & Research" - 4 talks by different people:

"The Major Decorated Tombs: introduction and review", Vivian Davies - overview of all the decorated tombs in el Kab, who they were for & what they tell us about the history & society of the time.

"The Tombs and Temples: recovering history from visitors’ graffiti", Luigi Prada - the best talk of the day, a fascinating look at the Ancient Egyptian graffiti on the tombs & temples at el Kab and what it told us about the people who made it.

"Monuments from the Tomb of Ahmose-Pennekhbet and the Ramesside Shrines: a project of reconstruction", Susanne Woodhouse - a discussion of the bits of stone monument in one of the tombs & where on the site they'd originally been. Followed up with a joint talk from her & Prada about a new decorated tomb that's recently been discovered there.

"Elkab in Oxford", Liam McNamara - many of the archaeologists who did the work at el Kab from the late 19th Century onwards have been associated with Oxford and this was a look at what there is in the various archives & museums to do with this.

Talk: "The Tomb of Tatia at Saqqara", Vincent Oeters - the excavation of a small, relatively recently discovered tomb at Saqqara dating to the 19th Dynasty. This is what Oeters did his Master's thesis on, and he'd done things like figured out a plausible genealogy for the tomb owner (and subsequently revised it when they found something new).

Museum

A brief look in the Bolton Museum & Aquarium which is being refurbished - so the aquarium is (I believe) properly open but the Egyptian stuff is shut. The aquarium was fun, if a little odd to find in the basement of the library. The temporary display while the rest was shut was heavy on the stuffed birds and the gosh-wow child oriented labelling. We'll have to go back some time when the new Egyptian galleries are open.

Had an afternoon in the recently refurbished Egyptian galleries at the World Museum, Liverpool. Rather well done, I thought, with a lot of interesting stuff - worth the visit.

Watching

ep 5 of Secret Agent Selection: WW2 - finishing up the series/training scheme with a mock operation. I'd been dubious going in as it looked like it might be all a bit too reality TV, but it was really good.

Jeff Beck: Still on the Run - biopic of the most famous man I didn't know about. Well, I exaggerate for effect, I did know Jeff Beck was a famous guitarist but he also turned out to've been involved in more music that I knew than I realised and to be a pretty interesting chap. Did feel a bit like a programme the Beeb is banking for when he pops his clogs tho - it's the obituary/retrospective done with his input.

ep 1 & 2 of Pompeii's Final Hours: New Evidence - Channel 5 documentary with Bettany Hughes, Raksha Dave and John Sergeant. The last of whom could've been completely dropped from the programmes & nothing pretty much would've changed about the information presented - he's there as the "pretty face" or "glamorous assistant" whilst the other two do the serious history/archaeology. I've been sniping back at the TV a bit during this but actually it's pretty well done - a straightforward run through of how we think events progressed from T-2days through to the eruption, and a look at new archaeology on the site & scanning of the casts etc.

ep 1 of Africa's Greatest Civilisations - presented by Henry Louis Gates Jr, first of a 6 part series about African history running from the origins of humanity onwards. Felt a bit like he was over-egging the pudding at times, but some of that is that in this ep I'm hearing stuff I already know about only with the opposite biases to "normal".

Books

Fiction: Still reading "The Bear & The Dragon", Tom Clancy. Into the endgame - war this time so the people dying are soldiers rather than civilians (it's curiously not actually full of people dying, a very birdseye view of the war).

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East", Robert Fisk - more about the early days of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. Which was rather brutally unpleasant.

Hidden Meanings: 10.17-end - finished this book now. It got rather monotonous feeling towards the end, I'd seen a lot of the motifs discussed earlier in the book. Better as a reference than to read, I think.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: General Introduction - my next bits book. After a bit of thought I decided that I would read the introductory material, so currently working through the general introduction with some bits of background about both Shakespeare and the theatre so far.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 1.8-14 of The History of England - covering things like Alfred's reign, and the unification of England under his successors, and up to Aethelred the Unready and about to have it all go wrong for England.

Sunday Podcast: ep 13 & 14 of Living with the Gods - the concepts sacrifice and pilgrimage across different religions/cultures.

Music: While running I listened to Queen "Greatest Hits II", Pulp "Different Class" and The Stone Roses "The Stone Roses"

Talk: "New Research in the King's Valley: Amenhotep III Family Tombs in the Valley of the Kings" Susanne Bickel - she & her team have been re-excavating previously excavated tombs to see what more we can discover now archaeology is about more than treasure hunting. Two most exciting discoveries were a new tomb (KV64 with a 22nd Dynasty Chantress of Amun buried on top of an original 18th Dynasty burial (of which little survives)) and the destroyed remains of several burials within KV40. The latter tomb had fragments of 83 people, plus 120 large pots some of which were labelled with names of Amenhotep III's family members (i.e. several King's Daughters).

Watching

ep 6 of Civilisations - David Olusoga talking about art coming out of first contact between different cultures.

ep 2 & 3 of Treasures of Ancient Egypt - finishing up the series, these cover from the Middle Kingdom through to Cleopatra's time. We do like this series, it's nice to see the Egyptian art discussed as art rather than as clues to history for a change.

ep 2 of Britain's Greatest Cathedrals with Tony Robinson - Canterbury this time. So the history included Thomas Becket, of course, and Henry VIII and the break with Rome. I visited Canterbury several times when I lived nearby for a year, but I don't think I ever went in the Cathedral.

ep 1 of Kim Philby: His Most Intimate Betrayal - a look at Philby's career as a spy. The presenter's main thesis is that we tend to portray Philby as a gentleman spy (who just happened to be working for the other side) whereas the truth is that he was far more cold-blooded & sociopathic than that implies. Not sure I buy the thesis, but then I didn't know enough about Philby in advance to have a caricature of him in my head.

Island at the BBC - one of the BBC's trawl through their archives of live music performances to fit a theme, in this case bands signed to Island. Piece of fluff, of course, but fun to watch and the theme meant it was quite varied. It's an older one of the set - it was made in 2009, which I only know because I was surprised it didn't mention Amy Winehouse's early death in the notes on her but it turns out to've been made 2 years before she died.

Here Comes the Summer: The Undertones Story - the BBC seem to be showing quite a few programmes about Ireland/Northern Ireland and the Troubles at the moment. This is one of them, as the Undertones came from Derry. It was an odd programme - I kinda think of the Undertones as a one hit wonder but it turns out that their biggest hit wasn't the only song I know (Teenage Kicks). The programme however was positioning them as the Best. Band. Ever! in terms that might've felt a bit overblown about, say, The Beatles let along the Undertones.

ep 1 of Britain's Most Historic Towns - Alice Roberts' new series, this episode was about Chester as the town where the Roman heritage is most clearly visible.

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.

Books

Fiction: Finished "The Cardinal of the Kremlin", Tom Clancy. Well, he managed to make up for the lack of sexism (due to few female characters) by introducing a lesbian character who allowed him to demonstrate his homophobia as well ;) The thing about these is that I still enjoy the plot but find the characters & info-dumps are grating somewhat. Started "Clear & Present Danger", Tom Clancy. Quite enjoying the foreshadowing of doom so far, particularly as I can't remember how or how badly it all goes pear-shaped for the mission.

Non-fiction: still reading Gerald Harriss's "Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461" - still reading the chapter on domestic politics 1369-1413. The first couple of years of Richard II's sole rule (starting when he was 17) quickly result in suspicion & paranoia building up and poisoning relations between the king & the nobility. Richard's keenness to assert his regality doesn't help, nor does the fact that he's rewarding & patronising younger non-great magnates.

Maps: 1783-1861 CE - European dominance & empire building, but also the rise of the USA. And also collapse for Spain. The rise of Nationalism as an ideology which fuels/is fuelled by the republican revolt in France and a series of other less successful uprisings across the continent. And of course the Industrial Revolution.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 68-78 of Renaissance English History podcast. As well as the regular joint episodes with Tudor Times about their person of the month she spent a while looking at the relations between the Tudors and France.

Sunday podcast: ep 17 & 18 of Our Man in the Middle East - a look at Iran over the last couple of decades, and then the Arab Spring with particular focus on Egypt. And on how the hope quickly soured and they are now under an even more repressive military regime than they were under Mubarak.

Music: while running I've finished off listening to the 100 Hits Rock compilation and also listened to a bit of the Travelling Wilburies.

Talk

"Delta Myths & Legends" Penny Wilson - an overview of what's known about the religious culture of the Egyptian Delta from predynastic times onwards & how it differs from the Nile Valley culture. Interestingly full of the ways there's not as much as known for sure as you'd think given how long Ancient Egypt has been being studied.

Watching

ep 2 of Utopia: In Search of the Dream - real world attempts to establish utopias. Most of which have failed, but he did find one long running hippy-ish commune (based initially on Skinner's Walden Two novel, but didn't keep all of that specific ethos for long). It wouldn't be utopia for me, and seemed to rely on the fact that turnover of population was possible, but nonetheless 50-ish years of a very different sort of society based on sharing everything.

ep 2 of The Legacy of Lawrence Arabia - the aftermath of the First World War & Lawrence's rather desperate attempts to get the promises he'd made to the Arabs kept in any form at all. Stewart made it clear that he believes this betrayal and refusal to let the Arabs form their own nation (rather than be divided between France & Britain) is the root cause of the modern situation in the Middle East.

ep 2 of Eight Days that Made Rome - Spartacus & his slave revolt. Having listened to an IOT on the subject at some point in the last couple of years I was more aware of the simplifications than I might've been. In particular the elision of earlier slave revolts.

eps 1 & 2 of Blue Planet II - the new David Attenborough series, ocean life. So far I've particularly liked seeing the creatures of the deep ocean as they're fascinatingly different.

ep 1 of Nile Rodgers: How to Make it in the Music Business - this'll be a three part (auto-)biography of Nile Rodgers, so this ep was mostly about his childhood & the 70s success of his band Chic. It feels weirdly like the sort of programme that's aired shortly after someone dies, only he's still alive & part of the programme.

ep 1 of Elizabeth I's Secret Agents - starting with the way that Cecil brought down Mary Queen of Scots, with a well organised sting. A bit wince-inducing as it rattled on about "first spy network" and other bits of hyperbole that were clearly bobbins. But still, we enjoyed it enough that we'll keep watching.