In Bruges

To the Silk screen in Macclesfield for the first film we've managed to see this season - Martin McDonagh's In Bruges a dark violent film in which the characters swear a lot - but it certainly had its comedic moments. The blog is here and Ralph Fiennes also has some nice shots.
Did I enjoy it - yes in spite of the violence it was well paced and some of those lines..

Vista Service Pack 2

The 'delights' of...

On Monday some server somewhere decided that I should be upgraded on my work laptop to Vista Service Pack 2. I installed it went through the reboot it requested and everything seemed ok, I then went back to using my Linux (Ubuntu) installation until the afternoon of the next day when I needed to do some work on Vista.
I was out of luck - I got a dialog suggesting this was the first time I'd logged in. Few of the options in the 'Start' menu worked, couldn't get to the control panel, it claimed I needed to reboot to reenable UAC (which I had never disabled). I rebooted and still the strange setup continued. I had another go today when I thought about rolling back to before the upgrade - but as you see from the screenshot the system is uncertain as to whether I have a C drive(!) and how many of them there are - I do (just one) and neither of them appear to have a saved state. I was working from home, so I decided I needed another pair of eyes and headed into the office whereupon all the problems went away! Googled a lot and it looks as if there's some sort of issue with SP2 and removable hardware - at home I don't connect a keyboard or an external monitor. I tried rebooting without these didn't see the problem and decided that it must have sorted itself out.
Unfortunately at home this evening the problem is back. I'll post here when I find the solution - at the moment all I can guess is some problem with roving profiles one of which is extremely broken but why it thinks I've roving I don't know.

.. and some Mompou

Larrocha playing Mompou's Cançons i Dansas: no. 2, Lento. (There's some good Stephen Hough performances of the same composer from here)

Teaser Tuesday - 29 Sept

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Johannes came, shook them all by the hand, and went into the room where Maja-Lisa lay. He took one look at her and said, "So you're on your way now, are you?"

From Marianne Fredriksson's Hanna's daughters - this month's Book group book. Probably not a 'man's book' and I've been warned that it plods - we shall see!

Alicia de Larrocha

Alicia de Larrocha, who died on Friday, giving an incandescent performance of de Falla. I remember seeing her live 20 years ago at the Aldeburgh festival performing Mompou - a little more understated than this! The Guardian Obituary is here

She recorded the major works of both composers, including Iberia and the Suite Española by Albéniz, and Goyescas by Granados, several times. The playing is above all controlled, formal (checking the opposite tendency in both composers' styles, grounded as they were in folk music and improvisation), yet it is also warm, with a radiant, jewel-like tone quality. It avoids overstatement and impulsiveness and is in immaculate taste.

As many have said, she owned this part of the repertory!

Mutterings - 27 Sept

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. What pleases you? :: my lord?
2. Whatever :: next
3. Chime :: wind
4. Pleading :: special
5. Simulate :: simula (a computer language)
6. Flashing :: lights
7. Directional :: indicators
8. Pink :: elephant
9. Access :: code
10. Ugly :: mug

Teaser Tuesday - 22 Sept

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

'Who lives there?' I asked Sangye.
One nun.' He screwed up his face and grinned. 'But now not a nun because she make a baby.'
'Who was the father?'
'One monk.'

From Bruce Chatwin's (yes Chatwin for a second week!) 'What am I doing here'. A sort of combined anthology of travel stories, ancedotes and biographies.

Scargill forward planning

My intentions of twittering during Sunday's meeting were frustrated by being unable to see the wireless network and the Vodafone signal not being strong enough in that part of the building. As the Scargill movement doesn't yet have a report on the day let me put here some of the points from that meeting. These are, I hope, fairly literal transcriptions of various slides that were shown, any undue erroneous emphasis is, of course, entirely my fault!
First there's a list of the priorities and aspirations in the coming reassessment of the site:

• an improved reception
• better integration with the landscape
• making car parking, less central to the site
• more provision for camping (could hardly be less!)
  
• better dining facilities - where meetings happen
• DDA access - disabled access to all parts of the building
• more and better indoor gathering points
• improved IT especially to support teaching
• flexible training spaces
• improved bed accommodation
• the integration of community and their needs with that improved accommod - the community being closer to the guest areas (but still providing privacy).

Quite a list! And here were some keywords

• managing woodland
• demolition of community accom.! car parks can then be put in that area
• new building around pent and pent-ex
• walled garden greenhouse, work on existing bedrooms
• pasture zones
• chapel retaining other sympathetic uses
• merge of spartan and comfy spaces
• .. and outside spaces for spirituality

ok those were probably ideas! These are keywords

• timeless
• comtemporary
• of its place
• comfortable
• practical
• flexible
• simple
• uplifting

I think an encouraging and exciting day was had (and we won't mention the Spirit in the guise of bats circling over the meeting in the Chapel!)
Opportunities!

Mutterings - 20 Sept

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Disconnect :: Only (cf connect!)
2. Contribute :: usefully
3. Dismay :: shock
4. Constant :: craving (kd lang..)
5. Nails :: finger
6. Vibrate :: -or
7. Therapy :: shock
8. Stupid :: the age of (on at Cinemac this week!)
9. Poo :: Bat (you should have been there last week!)
10. Commune :: Paris (or -ity)

A door in pent

A door in pent
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

I'm hoping to twitter from the meeting at Scargill tomorrow - assuming I get a good enough phone signal - here then it will be back to the day job!
If you don't have a service prepared for Speak as a pirate day and don't mind using it tomorrow, here's a sample Eucharist.

bat man suceeds!

long eared bats - ii
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

We've had a licenced bat man staying at Scargill over the last few evenings - he thinks there are around 200 of the creatures on site and this evening (at around 4pm) he spotted these three sleeping on a beam next to Pent, so I went down with him and snapped this of these long eared bats

Scargill update

We've spent the last week care-taking at Scargill mainly keeping a presence for insurance purposes, but also forming a small community for worship and work (oh yes, and trips to the local pubs!). There's a meeting this Sunday for a progress update - that link has an outline programme, though as it says, notification of an intention to attend would be appreciated

Deportations

Is this the normal rate of deportations, or have the Home Office got end of year quotas to fill? In the past 2 days I've heard of 3 cases (independently) of persons about to face forcible deportation this week:

• Elizabeth Kiwunga Rushamba from Uganda who was raped and tortured by her government's officials because of her husband's political views.(deportation potentially tonight)
• Hamid Mohammed a Christian convert and his family from Islam who face grave danger from their families on their return. They were in Oldham - I hope their MP is active in this campaign - though as it is Phil Woolas (see the Ugandan link) I doubt it. Hamid's supporters have a meeting with William Hague tomorrow.
• Then there's Hussein Muradi from Afghanistan - another apostate from Islam, this time to humanism and again facing a cat and mouse game from the authorities.

The shape of things to come?

Stanbrook Abbey near Wass was talked about here this week. Looks (and sounded) a very interesting development.

A loo with a view

DSCF7833
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

The ex-public toilets in Kettlewell are up for auction. Might make an interesting estate agents brochure? There are newer facilities next to the car park!

Horrific anti-gay violence

(not that there's much violence which isn't horrific!).
We don't normally get the Observer but this weekend, being away, we did I was glad (if that's the right word), appalled is probably a more fitting word to read this article on the systematic murder of gays in Iraq. If you don't think that anti-gay sentiment in religion is a problem, read this and see where it takes you.

The killings are brutal, with victims ritually tortured. Azhar al-Saeed's son was one. "He didn't follow what Islamic doctrine tells but he was a good son," she said. "Three days after his kidnapping, I found a note on my door with blood spread over it and a message saying it was my son's purified blood and telling me where to find his body."

Dies Irae

As seen in the Observer

The city elders of Milan wanted Mike Bongiorno interred alongside one of Italy's greatest writers, Alessandro Manzoni.... Only perhaps in Berlusconi's Videocracy could a state funeral be accorded to a TV quizmaster.

Manzoni is the writer whose death inspired Verdi's Requiem, one guesses that Bongiorno's death will be a little less culturally elevated.
Only in Berlusconi's Italy (one hopes).

Teaser Tuesday - 15 Sept

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Or the soft-voiced creature, Parisian without a doubt, with golden hair and a melting mouth? He saw her first among the morning crowd at the Source de Célestins, moving along the white trellis in a dress of white lace and a hat composed of layers of stiffened chiffon. She had been delicious and would soon be plump. No. Not her.

Slightly more than 2 sentences from Bruce Chatwin's wonderful romp through the psychology of collectors, of porcelain, Utz(fixed author's name - I must have cats on the brain!)

So we see!

see more Fail Blog

Mother and kitten

Mother and kitten
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Cats sleeping close to the Scargill car park in the early morning. The mother didn't notice me but the kitten was more alert and hid!