Eh?

From today's Guardian Radio 3 listing:
2.00pm British Symphony Series

• Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra


• Strauss: Duett-concertino


• Dallapiccola: Frammenti sinfonici (Marsia)


• Martinu: Symphony No 4

not a lot of British symphonies there I thought - and illustrated by a picture of Bartók (hardly a Brit!) who only wrote one early atypical tone poem/symphony Kossuth. When you see a full entry for the afternoon the Vaughan Williams Symphony No 6 is missing (as well as Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw) - I might catch the whole thing on 'listen again' one afternoon this week..

Must be getting tired!

Can't find a picture on the Sun's web site for today's front page (must be a first time this phrase has appeared on this blog!) - but the front page headline was Harry Army Hero gets MRSA - I spent some time trying to work out who Mrs A was, what the scandal was likely to be and why the Sun was indulging in such circumlocution.

Eh Luiiiiigiiiii!

Today's Steve Bell If on the hairpieced one and Porca Italia.
(sorry that's stereotyping)
This blog is currently getting around a hit a day for this search string, though I expect this to soon fall off!

mr l'ordinateur

I'm sure this must somehow be IT related

Nicely labelled 'Pop Kitch'
Hat tip to eine kleine nicht musik

Rome album

cypresses
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

To make things easier for folk from the Rome trip wanting to see my pictures, they're now all accessible from one page rather than messing around with several blog entries! This picture of a Palatine is currently adorning my work desktop!

Listen carefully

follwing a mention on rmcr I've found this

don't watch the dogs (well you can!) listen to the soundtrack. I must be too young to have heard of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards - Florence Foster Jenkins yes - but not these two, there is though a subtle difference, you have to be pretty good to play like this deliberately! I'm on the trail of their 'I love Paris'...

Seen this morning

On the way to

(outside Christ Church) and on the way home

from church. I love the contrast between the extreme rundownness of the long closed pub and the still intact but battered oval pseudo pre-Raphaelite decoration.

Open wide

see more crazy cat pics
(Immediately after posting this I had to rescue my electric toothbrush head after someone else had mistakenly used it!)

Lavatory love story

Lovely - the punch line is in Russian - but I think its meaning is obvious.
Hattip to Vrovkin's blog - no I don't speak Russian!

Bring on the woad

According to the wikipedia article on the England First Party (a spinoff of the BNP)

Public displays by religions not of European origin would be banned, and the number of non-Christian places of worship would be significantly reduced in order to protect English culture

I can't find this statement on their website but looking at the revision history it looks as if that party has a lot to do with the Wikipedia article. It has a fairly unpleasant set of policies - I do like the way the manifesto moves straight from executing politicians they don't like, to pensioners bus passes - but I do wonder whether they realise where Christianity originated?
How many religions are there of European origin?
I won't link to their web site, you'll just have to find it yourself.

ex-SPCK may damage your computer!

Thanks to Neil for this, hacked or just broken?

Today's Sylvia

Is here. Yes that'll do nicely.
And then there's today's xkcd...

I hope there's some real evidence

From today's Guardian

Three British Muslims took part in a "hostile" reconnaissance mission of potential targets in London with two men who went on to bomb the city's transport system on July 7, a court was told yesterday. The trip, in December 2004, was "part of a sinister plot to cause explosions", according to the prosecution. It was an "essential preparatory step ... to bring death and destruction to the heart of the United Kingdom".
During the mission - seven months before the bombs that killed 52 people - the men visited a number of locations, including the London Eye, the Natural History Museum and the London Aquarium.

Neil Flewitt, QC, told a jury at Kingston crown court in south-west London that it was not his case that the defendants were directly involved in the London bombings...

It is the prosecution case that the defendants associated with and shared the beliefs of the London bombers and so were willing to assist them in one particular and important aspect of their preparation for the London bombings."

So if I have a relation who has been found guilty of downloading and sharing indecent images of children and I am found to have used a computer in his presence, I can be up in court with assisting his schemes by assisting in showing him how to use the mouse?! I just hope there's some real significant evidence to come in this case!

Targeted spam

Following last week's trip to Rome, I received a spam yesterday with the subject

Have you been to Rome?

to an email that isn't immediately associated with this weblog - has the spammers subject line random generator come up with this by coincidence? I wasn't responsible to booking the flight but the airport transfer firm looks like a possible culprit? - (later) looks as if I was wrong though - two other messages with this same subject line sent to totally different email addresses - coincidence then!
Then after this announcement

The Federal Communications Commission is set to announce the launch of a national alert system, using text messaging and other mobile technologies to tell Americans when to panic.

I've already received a spam - at my gmail address purporting to be one of these alerts

Male bishop

appointment [of Stockport] has been announced - I think he looks interesting! He's Robert Atwell, vicar of St Mary’s in Primrose Hill, North London. From Stocks to Primroses! (Name and link to the website added 11th Apr)

Women bishops

I seemed to have been away for some of this, but for our Welsh readers:

now that God has willed that the Bible should be in French, women will take over the office of bishops, and bishops the office of women. Women will preach the gospel, while bishops will gossip with young girls

Etienne Le Court (1532!) quoted in McGrath's Christianity's Dangerous Idea
Though I'd like to know more of the background to that quote..

The problem of being away for 1st April

Is that you miss posts like this in context. Nicholas and Carla the Opera..

St Theresa

St Theresa
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

And here's the scupture those men in the theatre box were ogling. A wonderful piece but probably not carrying the meaning intended - well I'm sure someone must have intended a spiritual content!

and Day 3

The Album is here - I used to know how to put a JAlbum into a preexisting location but at the moment I've forgotten. This day was the cat sanctuary, Campo di Fiori, Piazza Navona, lunch and back to the hotel via a second trip to Santa Maria della Vittoria - where's the faculty application :-). Looks as if the EXIF data on all the pictures is one day out...for 1st April read 2nd April etc!

The Tiber

The Tiber
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Flowing peacefully in the Spring sunshine on Thursday. 40 years ago yesterday was the anniversary of Martin Luther King's murder. I remember reading with horror of that event and the unrest that followed whilst on an exchange trip in France - near Compiegne -I don't think the Raoul's had a television - all I can remember is the French press coverage of the riots and then returning to their house in a Latin quarter that was soon to have its own erruption. On my return to the UK, I was struck by other - English this time - newspapers which covered the sacking of Enoch Powell for an inflammatory speech where he quoted Virgil seeing the Tiber foaming with much blood. That was 20th April - that must have been a long school Easter holiday! - I don't think you can separate those two events - which is rightly why his speech attracted the condemnation it did.

Day 2 of Rome

Album is here -including a morning around churches and mosaics, afternoon in the Forum and Palatine and an evening meal at the Antica Taverna - we had a second trip there for lunch next day - I needed to try the cheese antipasto!

Self-promotion

My caption seems to be mentioned in the latest Church Times caption competition - but maybe being mentioned is easy?
Oh, and I see I've now managed more blog entries so far this year than in the whole of 2005 - when I had considerably more time on my hands!

An initial album

For the first day the - almost complete pictures are on my webserver here - looks as if the relative links to the full photos need fixing (they're one level higher than the generated html claims) will get it done tomorrow! (now fixed)

View from the room

View in the early morning of the orange tree.
I had no part in the booking of the hotel for the week - and it was only after walking around on the first evening I decided that it must have been the same hotel the Hotel Piedmonte that I also stayed in on my last trip to Rome in June 1989 in a week when happened, and the death of this man, not to mention this disaster - I did wonder if there was going to be anything left on my return to the UK. I was there (in 1989) to present a paper at the European Simulation Multiconference. This time it was uninterrupted tourism! The restaurant I used a lot the last time was still there - just down the street, I Leoni d'Abruzzo, though rebranded and slightly upmarket - I recommend their vegetable antipasto!

campo di fiori

campo di fiori
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

View of the morning market - yesterday!
Unfortunately I missed out on the consumption of artichokes...

wwjd?

What would Jesus drive? - obviously from this interesting crib scene - a Ferarri.
the second picture is a nighttime view of the scene - with flashing lights - shudder.
If you need a guide to show it you - I'm open to offers (nice restaurant nearby!)

Church as Theatre

I was grandstanding with these dirty old men (sorry that's illustrious benefactors) twice this week, you'll just have to google or wait for the full album to appear to find out what they are ogling! But I'm back from Rome!!

Trakl

I'm currently reading Margitt Lehbert's translation of Georg Trakl's poems and thought I'd leave this verse here

Amid red leaves hung with guitars
Streams the young girls' yellow hair
By the fence where sunflowers tower.
Through clouds a golden cart moves on.

Wonderful, though the imagery becomes a little more down to earth in the following verses!

I must be getting old

Because I've no idea what this caption is on about. Love the photo though.

What do you mean? Of course I've heard HHGTTG

Nicholas tell us..

..all musicians are jealous (with apologies to Tom Lehrer). See Overgrown Path's post on his (Sarkozy's) second and third wives musical connections. Doesn't look as if his first wife had musical connections - my last-exit player offered me a Carla Bruni track when I was at work this week - I was listening to Jacques Brel related tracks.

On its way...

- hat tip to Peter Ould..

The false God of certainty

We all have a hunger for certitude, and the problem is that the Gospel is not about certitude, it’s about fidelity. So what we all want to do if we can is immediately transpose fidelity into certitude, because fidelity is a relational category and certitude is flat, mechanical category. So we have to acknowledge our thirst for certitude and then recognize that if you had all the certitudes in the world it would not make the quality of your life any better because what we must have is fidelity.

- Walter Bruggemann - go and read the rest at Prodigal Kiwi

Giordano Bruno ignores

Roman market
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

I like this picture of Giordano Bruno studiously ignoring the market that's appeared behind his glowering statue

graphic bells and whistles

On my work laptop I've been playing with compiz for enhanced graphic experiences -

- note the glxgears running inside the cube for a fun addition!
though I like to have 4x4 workspaces for putting the running applications and I find that sometimes on changing a workspace I end up with no panel, no menu - so I assume compiz has crashed - can't replicate it easily but I think the secret in avoiding crashes is to move the apps to the workspace rather than going directly to the workspace and opening the app there.
Then I've found that the screen is getting garbled

- the above is screen shot of a web page in firefox - a bit of googling suggests this is related to using multiple monitors - yes I like 16 workspaces and 2 monitors! - I didn't see this before the end of last week when I installed some extra software including some fonts... so for the moment it's back to the more boring but reliable fluxbox!
At work I run fluxbox with an instance of X on each monitor - haven't worked out how to do that with gnome/compiz yet - gives a nice segregation of applications!

Croatian accordions

As spotted on Late Junction

though the track on the radio was a little more restful than this - Motion Trio's cd is accessible from asphalt tango

Give me back my bugs!

I'm reminded by this story about microsoft access files being repackaged as virus attack vectors, of an incident that happened to me a few years ago-
I was working on a software application which saved files with an .adp suffix - something that is also used for Access project files. We were using outlook for email and I had a folder on the server with all the bug reports in - usually with example attachment files (obviously as our adp files).
One day, new version of Outlook tightened up security and - surprise - I wasn't able to download any of the files because the post upgrade outlook considered them risky!
Fortunately I was able to access the exchange server using a web interface and download the files (so much for security) but there were riskier ways of getting back access(!)
Be careful where you place your bug reports!

Scary

I can't remember how I came across Hello Kitty Hell but this entry is distinctly scary

The thought of having some 'Hello Kitty' in your computer without realising it...

For all cats watching

Yumm, squirrel! - thanks to Dave Walker - how did I miss this posting?!

Brain hurts..

No doubt the Easter holiday is scrambling some of this, but at the moment I'm confused as to how an 8 day away delivery can be a 3-4 day service and why the economy takes even longer than the free one.

looking at the logs

On consulting the referral logs for this blog, I see that someone got here through this search, they must have been sadly disappointed - I see I'm the number five hit for that search. Fortunately if you remove the 'Pier' from that first word this site is nowhere near the top

Halt, who goes there? - Baaaaaaa!

Following those two posts, this would be a good point to mention the last Silk screen showing of the season was last week. This film - The Dish - tells the story of the Parkes radio telescope's role in the Apollo moon landings - wonderfully funny!
Oh, and at the AGM - after the film - it was nice to see that Io non ho paura I recommended was the no 2 most highly rated film of the season.

Links on Jodrell

These two may be of interest

• Schrödinger’s Pig


• and Alan Garner's involvement in the current campaign, I thought he lived closer to the Edge but apparently not

Jodrell Bank

You may have seen the recent news that e-MERLIN funding for Jodrell back likely to be withdrawn with the following possible consequences:

- Astronomers would be unable to exploit an £8M upgrade (due to be completed in 2009) which will make e-MERLIN the world’s most powerful array of radio telescopes.
- The UK will lose its major observational capability in radio astronomy, a subject which UK astronomers pioneered more than 50 years ago and in which we still play a leading role.
- The UK will no longer participate in European and global networks of large radio telescopes.
- The UK will risk losing its world-leading role in this area of science and innovation.
- At least six radio telescopes will be closed down (the Mark II at Jodrell Bank and the telescopes at Pickmere, Darnhall, Knockin, Defford and Cambridge).
- Since e-MERLIN is the main activity at Jodrell Bank Observatory, it would place a serious question mark over the sustainability of the observatory as a site for active scientific observations.

I won't mention the live heritage nature of that site..If you wish to register your objection to this proposal this might well be a good place to visit!
I find it hard to believe that the government would allow this to happen in view of the iconic nature of the site but the proposal and intention appears to be there!

Old Maids cycling to church

(™ John Major) Are rather transformed in Andrew Rilstone's take on Sharia. Well worth a read!

Ink blots

Wonderful Rorschach 'test' at today's Astronomy picture

Dissolution

'Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant' by Poulenc
beautifully performed by Kristina - I recommend her other two YouTube videos too.
I was actually looking for a video of Poulenc's Derniere Poème - still looking!

Riding the slide

via www.manicalarga.net

Sorry

but not very

Berlusconi

Oh, good grief

Perla Pavoncello, 24, asked the media mogul how she was supposed to start a family or get a mortgage without a job, only to be told: 'You should look to marry a millionaire, like my son, or someone who doesn't have such problems.' He then added: 'With that smile of yours, you could even get away with it.'
Opposition politicians slammed Berlusconi as Italy's answer to Marie Antoinette and forms quickly appeared on the internet to fill in and send off to Berlusconi's eldest son asking for his hand in marriage. Piersilvio Berlusconi, 38, declined to say if he was open to offers.

I'm still looking for one of those forms...ah try here - acquired via this blog - a postcard from your honeymoon would be appreciated!
Berlustconi doesn't seem to get enough google hits at present.
This is a better link - I didn't think English that weird was possible but I see it's a machine translation.

A night with the magician

To the RNCM last night to see a Ravel double bill:

L'heure Espagnole and L'enfant et les sortileges. I'd not really appreciated L'heure Espagnole before, maybe you need to see it - apart from its overtones of Brian Rix (somewhat to my surprise he's still going and is Baron of Hornsea - which has a pottery whose dishes we've been dining off for the last 25+ years). The continual presence of the clocks was caught to perfection in the RNCM performance. L'enfant et les sortileges is wonderful - various movies for example here on You Tube - childhood though the eyes of a master. Two more performances - hurry! - we bought the last 3 seats last night so spent the evening scattered over the theatre.

Can one know the length of a dream?

I've seen it before but I was still enthralled, the teapot and cup got a lot of the applause (apart of course from the boy) but I was very taken by fire's performance

The Olympics

Spot on from Mad Priest:

When they decided to give the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing, they were fully aware that China was second only to the United States in their abuse of human rights, and they were fully aware that Tibet was an illegally occupied nation state that was being systematically denuded of its culture and native population. Yet they still did it and now the free nations of the world are, once again, faced with the decision as to whether to boycott the games or not.

Britannia Music

I used to be a regular customer (and an appreciative customer) of Britannia Music until it folded last year - yesterday I received a letter from a credit agency (intrum justitia) claiming I owed them (as administrators) some unpaid money (> £30) supplying an 0870 number as a contact! Sifting though my orders I find the exact amount ordered (and paid for) back from March 2007. A web search appears to give lots of other folk with similar letters - the letter was quite threatening - if you receive one, do check that it is not for an amount that you have paid!
Either Britannia music's credit systems were in a mess when they folded, or the credit agency has a similar problem, or someone is seeing how much they can recoup by threats.
Fortunately I have the emails from Britannia recording my payment!
Later - as this posting is fairly high up the google hit list for likely search terms or other letter receivers, let me also recommend this thread and this phone number 0151 4732626 quoted in the thread, as an alternative to the 0870 rip-off number.

In case you've not seen this

Postman Pat does rural evangelism.
Via Elizaphanian

Thought for the weekend

Our essential orientation to life is a consequence of the stories that form us. A genuine story will not leave us alone. It insists, sometimes in the most impolite terms, on changing us

Daniel Taylor The Healing Power of Stories quoted in Ann Morisy's Journeying Out. No doubt it will find its way into the talk on Sunday morning for Palm Sunday - last time I preached on Palm Sunday was 2003 - when there was some chance of optimism about the future of Iraq - how things have changed. Also thinking about personas and anonymity for Sunday..

Another Simon's cat

Hat tip to Lindsay

Oh go on!

Sometimes some schmaltz is nice

I'd lose the female string band though! The other YouTube copy looks too much like a shampoo advert losing the darker words - though the final transition is nice!

Spamming google

Whilst searching for words to Hallyday's Un jour viendra, googles summary gave -

We couldn't find any jobs for un jour viendra.... Please check the keyword terms you entered.

Courtesy of a myspace site...I won't supply a link!

Free phone

Don't think I've mentioned that David Shenton's cartoons are on the web and I loved today's

Get one's tribute in early

It brings a warm glow:

The mad privatiser who held a quasi-religious belief that the market was the ideal mechanism for social organisation, who thought naked personal ambition was fine, who crushed the unions, who knew how to appeal to our basest desires, who turned us into a nation of selfish toads.

from Michele Hanson in today's Guardian.
Curiously I read this (for, I think, the first time) last night:

This woman is headstrong,obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated

Cleaning up the Bishop (and his mitre)

12-26-2007_061.JPG
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Uploaded this a few months back and am gradually getting around to cleaning some of the noise and dirt off that slide scan. The latest version is here - I hope that's an improvement though the top left is still rather bitty.
For those expecting an ecclesiastical post - the mountain just to the right of the centre is the Bishop and the one in the centre is the Mitre (Mt Collon is to the left - photo taken in 1971 on a walking holiday)

We went!

Bit of a busy week - hence the slowdown of blogging - on Monday I went with BATS (the church book group) to MADS (I see a javascript banner is that a firefox isn't the browser I'm expecting artifice..?)the local amateur dramatic society - to see Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular a rather black comedy but an interesting study of 1970's kitchens. I thought the ending was weak but the getting there was enjoyable. Inevitably some of the acting was better than others but the cast carried it well.
Wednesday night was Io non ho paura at the Silk Screen - I was one of(?) the recommenders of this film - so in spite of having a meeting afterwards I thought I'd better turn up. I saw this back in 2004 at the cornerhouse (www.iononhopaura.it appears to have gone now)-
seeing it again, I though some bits were slow but once it got to the combine harvesters and the rush to the climax I was absorbed and moved. Half the fun earlier was waiting to see the audience jump when the kidnapee first appears...
Then Thursday night was 'Waiting for Godot' at the Library Theatre in Manchester
. Definitely played for laughs even at the most desperate moments. At the start of Act 2 one of the audience just in front of us, stifled a sneeze and David Fielder's Vladimir, milked the moment. I'd never seen the play before - though I had acted a bit of it as an Easter Saturday epilogue back in 1982. I'd urge you to see it but I think tonight is the last night! - nothing happens, waiting for night to fall. The play's text is available here. Also I remember the spontaneous applause at the end of Lucky's monologue and Pozzo's repulsive Churchill. An interesting counterpoint after seeing 'Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead' in the same theatre last year.

Stepping back a bit

03032008
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

On the way down to the station and getting a bit brighter. I thought it was quiet so that I'd get a picture of the whole hill with noone visible but someone just rounded the corner as the picture was being taken!

Honor Moore

Anglican future has some sensible words on the Paul Moore story.

The Wii Generation

.. for today's pun

Bollington Chamber Music

Off to Bollington to see the Elias String Quartet in a concert of Haydn, Bartok and Mendelssohn.
Started with the Haydn Emperor - showed wonderful sense of ensemble and the the Bartok 4(the principal draw as far as I was concerned) wonderfully carried off. String quartets have a reputation of being very abstract and cerebral but the feeling I took away - from all the works was the physicality of the medium. The Bartok 4 is now 100 years old - this year - and is still a challenge! I felt the difficulty of the pizzicato movement - with bows, you - as a player - get a physical clue as to when the other players are about to hit their strings, with pizzicato it is far harder, and the wonderful rumpus of the last movement - you could almost see the Hungarian village band! (then there was the achingly beautifully played solos in the central movement). I've only heard one Bartok Quartet live before - the 6th played by an amateur(!) ensemble at Cambridge.
The Mendelssohn they've recorded. I felt the first two movements rather dull but enjoyed the last two with a fugal subject dropping from the sky. With the last movement I felt the Violin Concerto was hovering there in the wings.
The bar at the Bollington Arts centre has a price list for wines - one column for 'house wines' the other is labelled 'posher wines'!
We went to a Chamber Concert many years ago in Bollington (the Sorrel Quartet I think) I hope it won't be as long before we go again!

Read the source!

On this page - a really secure password - see the fun on this at The Daily WTF's So You hacked our site

A Feb 29th Bug?

The Cartoon Blog is currently giving me the following mouseover!

That makes it 1970 which sounds really suspicious!

Music Biography as Gossip column

My current reading on the train on the way to work contains the following footnotes:

• Hon Alice Katherine Sibell Grosvenor, youngest daughter of 2nd Baron Ebury, m. Ivor Guest, 1st Viscount Wimbourne. She was William's constant companion in the last years of her life (p 4)
  
• Wife of Sir Kenneth Clark, director of the National Gallery, later Lord Clark (p 32)
  
• Daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Reading, nee Lady Joan Rufus Isaacs (p 34)
• Wife of the 2nd Baron Aberconway, nee Christabel Mary Melville Macnaghton (p 34)
• Viscount Moore, subsequently (1557) 11th Earl of Drogheda (p 35)
• 5th Baronet (1892-1969), eldest son of Sir George Sewell (1860-1943), and brother of Sacheverall, later 6th Baronet, and of Edith (p 46)
• 14th Baron Berners (1883-1950) (p 50)
• See Andrew Motion, The Lamberts (1986) (p 51 - some mistake surely?)
• Born 1901, daughter of Prince Alexander of Erbach-Schoenberg and his wife nee Princess Elizabeth of Waldeck and Pyrmount. Through her mother, Imma was a first cousin of HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, and of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (p 73)
• Lady Cunard, widow of Sir Bache Cunard, 3rd Baronet, and herself a noted society hostess (p 79)
• Nee the Hon. Margaret Campbell Geddes (p 112)
• Later Mrs Sweeny, and subsequently the third wife of the 11th Duke of Argyll (p 128)
  
• 2nd Viscount Maugham, nephew of Somerset Maugham, and himself a successful author (p 152)
• Marina (Mimosa) Parodi Delfino, youngest daughter of Senator Leopoldo Parodi Delfino, a leading Italian industrialist. She first married Francisco (Baby) Pignatari, Brazilian magnate and international playboy, and secondly Prince Fernando del Drago (p 165 - phew eventually get to the title)
• A daughter of King Edward VIII's mistress, the Hon. Mrs George Keppel, and first wife of the Hon. Roland Cubitt, later 3rd Baron Ashcombe (p 178)
• Lord Peyton of Yeovil, created Baron in 1983 (life peer); MP, Yeovil, 1951-83; POW Germany 1940-5 (p 185)
• 3rd Viscount, born 1906 (p 196)
• Lord Hunt of Fawley, created Baron in 1973 (life peer), CBE 1970, MA, DM, Oxon, FRCP, FRCS, FRCGP, President, Royal College of Gen. Practitioners 1967-70, Hon Fellow Green College Oxford, since 1980 (p 210)
• Lord Goodman of the City of Westminster, created Baron in 1965 (life peer), CH 1972, MA, LLM (p 212)
• Wife of Sir Eric Penn, Comptroller, Lord Chamberlain's Office, nee Prudence Stewart-Wilson (p 230 - apparently no title but the job description does contain the word 'Lord')

That's all the footnotes - none missing! I think the subject of the biography and probably the author are obvious but will blog a little more when I've completed the last few pages.
I attempted this book around 10 years and was ready to fling it at the wall after around 50 pages - this time, now that the bedside pile has got down to it, I've persisted!

Culinary delights

from the Far East - link sent by a kind contributor to uk.r.c - you may not want to follow this link before breakfast!

As any fule kno

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

Thanks to pseudopiskie giving me the change to brag.

Ouch!

video of a wind turbine having problems - via Bifurcated rivets

Watch the ad

at words in sand

Cheese carving

From the Guardian - obviously it's a Valentines linked article but this page has been sitting for some time as a tab in my firefox and I've not seen it linked elsewhere...

How big?!

I use mailfilter to remove unwanted email from my POP servers so that I don't have to download the really spammy stuff, just now I was looking for recent large files and I spotted this

-rw-r--r-- 1 robert robert 110036290 Feb 23 14:16 /home/robert/logs/.mailfilter.log

100 meg!? I periodically compress and rename the old one - this log file was only started in January this year. I've hastily moved this one out of the way!

The temptation to nick!

Go and read Maggie Dawn on tomorrow's readings

Where do we worship God? What's our theology of place - do we need sacred spaces or not? The answer Jesus gives seems to be both yes and no. And the life that Jesus describes, the life that is fully human, is described in metaphors of spirit and water and food.

I'm speaking about that reading too - I think that's where I'll be focussing.

Teh Samrtn womun iz liek "OMG I iz a Samrtn and u iz a Jew and u sez u wants mah bukkit? lol." (teh Jews and teh Samrtns iz not frenz no moar, remmiber?.)

Have I really not seen this site before?

SQL on rails

Brilliant, via The Gay Bar

The Spanish Labyrinth

Spent a pleasant evening yesterday at the SilkScreen watching The Spanish Prisoner, I suppose it would now be titled the Nigerian spam, wonderful with wheels within wheels. Our side of the cinema were most amused but whether that was relief at not being in the hero's shoes, I'm not sure! Recommended!

View from the front door

.. taken a few minutes ago - those are new lights on the local multi-storey car-park which has now been closed for around 2 hours. Carefully moulded shields so that the light doesn't pollute upwards - but it shines down on us. We'll be lucky to see the moon let alone the eclipse tomorrow!

Memory jogging sought

Back in the 70's I spent a weekend with my aunt and uncle in New Yatt near Oxford and took these two photos - now scanned


I now can't remember the locations. If anyone can jog my memory that would be much appreciated!
As I have at least one Oxford clergy occasional reader the second one should be simple!

Like watching a train crash

Sorry! - but not very!

Over the fields

Across the fields

passing a goat, to Church this morning

the vicar of this parish 'crossed the Tiber' and announced his resignation at the end of December finishing two weeks ago, so this morning the rural dean (Paul Welch) was there to support and calm things - whilst competing with a starling that got in and headed up to the ceiling. It was interesting to see a church at the start of this journey - a rather more unsettled start than ours - where we're now coming up for a year long vacancy.

Sunrise on the M42 to twilight on the Sussex downs

Sunrise warwick services
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Saturday was another journey down to Sussex - nothing like driving down a quiet motorway with a glorious sunrise vista whilst listening to the dawn section of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe on the cd player!
Unfortunately by the time I got to the services (the above photo is at Warwick) the photogenic bit of sunrise had almost gone - need passenger to take the photos!

In the evening another trip to the Squire and Horse at Bury near Pulboroough (third dining out occasion of the week!). The venison is recommended! - the sweets were rather on the over sweet side next time I shall have to have a starter instead!

Eating out

Doing well this week - apart from a meal before the film on Monday at the Cornerhouse we went yesterday to La Viña - the Alderley Edge branch. Very reasonable, much enjoyed and recommended! Unfortunately not in walking distance so I had to drive afterwards..

Can we have another phone poll?

Apparently, last week, the newspapers were ringing around general synod members trying to find ones who wanted Rowan to resign - they managed to find two (and I guess they'd both come to this view long before last week's events)[1]. On Wednesday the Bishop of Carlisle said some 'interesting' things at a meeting to launch a book that mixes the mildly sane with the absolutely barking. I'm sure the telephone pollsters could find more than 2 people calling for this bishops removal!
I have a book somewhere by Chris Sugden (one of the authors of this collection) written back in the early 1980's when he may have been a little more balanced - I'm currently trying to find it - any suggestions as to what I should do with it? - I'm so against book burning.
[1] and more on the BBC's undistinguished role in those events detailed is here

street furniture

street furniture
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Another shot on the way to work

Looking level eyed..

Just back from a trip to see the film of Bauby's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly almost unbearable at times this film is well worth seeing - I've read the book (in French) but the impact of actually feeling oneself locked into the plot (and your seat) will not be forgotten.
The English version of the movie site is here - I get dreadful distortion on the trailer on that site- I assume it isn't deliberate. The Guardian review but an interview with Claude Mendibil is here

News from the Team

The Times appear to have visited the Team Parish

Andrew Brownell

(I gather from googling that this may result in World of Warcraft hits...) Last night to the Macclesfield Music Society recital by Andrew Brownell

He played an initial interesting sequence of night themed pieces

• Schumann "Des Abends" from Fantasiestucke, Op. 12
  
• Chopin Nocturne in E flat, Op. 55 No. 2
  
• Debussy "La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune" from Preludes Book 2
  
• Hindemith Nachtstuck from Suite "1922"
  
• Britten Notturno
  

I did enjoy these - rapt quietness - he said he'd built the sequences as a means of programming the Britten - though I thought the central 3 items were the best.
We then continued in the open air with the Beethoven Sonata in D Op. 28 (Pastoral) lovely even playing for one of the not so dramatic sonatas. In the second half we had the Schumann Three Romances, Op. 28 which I wasn't familiar with and then the Chopin 3rd Sonata which I've loved ever since I first heard it back in the 60's the wonderful passagework we already heard in the Beethoven came to an exciting climax with the final movement.
Well worth hearing him...

Classic!

[on the sharia law hoo-hah]

Daily Mail readers would probably be in favour[of public beheadings], as long as it wasn't the Muslims doing the chopping

from Paul Wright

Speaking of loonies

Here's another accordion
(via Bifurcated rivets)

BBC1 news taken over by loonies

At least that's impression after two days of coverage of Rowan Williams on Sharia law. For some sanity try Bishop Alan who writes:

At the time of Roman Catholic emancipation back in 1829 we experienced big social hysteria about how people who theoretically owe allegiance to other systems of law could be completely part of English society.

or this comment off Dave Walker's cartoon blog

Rowan Williams, being a very intelligent man, knows that sharia law is far more complex than this. The vast bulk of Islamic laws that are invoked within Muslim communities (yes, present tense because it is a current reality here in Britain), concern family relationships (divorce and separation), and inheritance matters. The trouble is, the media and our beloved political establishment are either not intelligent enough to know this or, and God forbid this be the case, prefer to play to the simplistic public perception (sharia = stonings etc) for short term electoral expediency.

and as for the comments at the Times, they seem less intelligent than the yokels when deciding to send a torch party up to castle Dracula.
And as for the BBC's assertion that General Synod is the chief body of the Anglican communion - I'll try not to mention it (oops!)

Ash Wednesday - iii

And following up from the last post - hat-tipping to Peter Ould - go and see this cartoon at ASBO-Jesus

Ash Wednesday - ii

Hypocrites! things seem to be moving rapidly towards the demise of SPCK, closing of bookshops, sackings by email, once great shops seem to have been maliciously destroyed. See Dave Walker's cartoon church blog for the painful details. Fume!
In other news in the lesser black comedy we went to see Kieslowski's White last night - I have it on DVD but it repaid the watching on the big screen at the Silk Screen - good crowds for Ash Wednesday and the night of an England match, then on to a service and the imposition of ashes...

Ash Wednesday - i

in the desert with Terragen

Shrove Tuesday

Whilst working spent the afternoon listening to the Charles Ives symphonies which seemed to be an appropriately unbuttoned way of celebrating the day. Home for pancakes :-) I've been looking for a moment to link here - a rather different meal - the Leonardo Last Supper in incredible detail!

Eight to go!

Well maybe it's not as substantial a move as the Guardian would have you believe but it is still a pretty brave change for James Jones to admit. The next Wycliffe council might be interesting...

Spanish with a kick

Hat tip to Lindsay

Coming soon...!

this is the cinema trailer, no doubt recorded clandestinely! And rather patchy in quality - the recording that is, hard to tell about the content Hat tip to Room 515

Skiing on the BBC

Looks like a white-out - or the almost complete absence of racing coverage which now appears to be the norm.

Accordions du ciel

(well actually it is the Trondheim Akkordion Ensemble) Polka'in though the Widor toccata..

hat tip to Chris