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!

Scargill chapel in autumn

Chapel
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Took this picture of the Scargill chapel through the greenery of the gardens by the Marsh Lounge.

Arbour

Arbour
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

in the Scargill walled garden, overgrown but wonderfully leafy

Mutterings 13 Sep

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

1. Omelette :: spanish
2. Classic :: Greek
3. Thrifty :: Piggy bank
4. Search :: high and low
5. Fan :: draught
6. Fussy :: pedantic
7. I am not :: at home
8. Indulge :: food
9. Poor :: deprived
10. Manicure :: scissors

Self showering cat

Around half a million have already seen this so I'm probably way behind you all. But just in case you haven't..this week's cat video
via B3TA

Youth Club reunion

We now have the beginnings (and maybe ends) of a programme for the St Michael's St. Andrew's, All Saints' youth club of the 60's/70's 80's reunion (must find a snappier title) on 17th (and possibly 18th) October 2009.

• 12am meet at St Michael's - bring your own lunch (hot drinks / juice provided)
• 3pm a walk (fairly gentle) probably in the Macclesfield Forest / Shutlingsloe area (beginning and ending at a pub)
• Evening meal at 7pm - probably at Sutton Hall (though they don't know it yet!)
• You are, of course, welcome to attend the 11:00 service in St Michael's on Sunday 18th - this will be communion, with the Rector (Graham Turner) preaching

All events optional! Firm bookings, particularly for the evening, welcomed!
Please note that the centre of Macclesfield is harder to park in than you may remember - particularly if you haven't visited for some time.

Patent trolls

If you've not already read Groklaw's account of Microsoft's incestuous relationship with patent troll's, you should. Selling patents to unscrupulous companies so that they can launch anti Linux patent law suits whilst keeping their hands ever so clean..

Never on a Tuesday

Just spotted this interesting bug reported from comp.risks where Openoffice.org application was unable to print files on Tuesdays(!) The application which recognises the file type was spotting the date in the PostScript file header and identifying it as the wrong file type. Go and read the link and see a hard to locate bug!
Full bug discussion is here.

Teaser Tuesday - 8 September

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!

'Do they miaow now?' I asked, meaning only to show a friendly interest. Sometimes, I admit, I'm quite pleased with myself for remembering the details of my humbler friends' lives. It's an empathetic gift that many politicians I'm sure would trade a limb for.

Typed, very carefully, from Lynne Truss's String and Air, her contribution to a book of short stories edited by Jeanette Winterson for Glyndebourne which take liberties with various opera plots (that one was The Turn of the Screw. The book is called Midsummer Nights - great fun if you enjoy both short stories and opera! I was very tempted to get a random quote from Colm Toíbín The Pearl Fishers but the Truss pipped it!

Ride of the Valkyries

Played by Artur Cimirro in a piano transcription for left hand alone!

Bet he can't pilot the helicopters too!
Hat tip to Rugby on rec.music.classical.recordings
(Later: I suppose he could steer a helicopter with the other hand and then play Stockhausen Helicopter violin part with his feet?)

From the coffee to the reason

Today's Doonesbury was, I thought, a classic. I nearly missed it as I don't often go to the website. Does any UK paper have the Sunday Doonesbury? The Independent on Sunday used to (I think) but I can't find it in the paper these days!

Mutterings - 6 September

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

1. Abusive :: relationship
2. Psychotic :: episode
3. Parents :: home
4. Yell :: -ow
5. Amulet :: Nesbit (children and?)
6. Sandstorm :: Dune
7. Amusement :: arcade
8. Imitation :: is the sincerest form of flattery (that's a lot of words!)
9. Baby :: Blue (blogger somewhere)
10. Rainbows :: Nations (Prides)

Cute overload!

A kitten inveigling her way into a household.
Via b3ta.

Dawn in the mountains

But the outlook doesn't look good.
I'm not sure if this isn't the Portsmouth Sinfonia it certainly has the performance hallmarks - I seem to remember a friend of a friend being asked to leave that orchestra because he was too good a player.
I miss the organ in the above clip though..

Youth Club reunion

Just to keep things going for 17th October I've sent an email to those for whom I have those details.
Here's the name list from the 1993 reunion. I've put a red dot next to those names for which Janet and I have no recent details (though we may still have an address from back then. Those highlighted in yellow I have emails for.

Click on the image to get a larger version. Additional names and contact details welcome - don't add them as comments to this posting - instead email them to me (use the address in the 'about me' for the weblog, or use the contact form.

Bach..Vivaldi

from Barcelona - on an accordion, via Ship of Fools

Silent witness

From Stan's Cafe and Greenbelt comes this moving piece:

Piles of rice of greatly varying sizes represented groups of people throughout the world, one grain for each person. The rice pile for refugees was almost exactly the same size as the pile for millionaires. Imagine if each millionaire funded one refugee (not much money per person). The biggest pile in the whole room was people living with HIV/Aids in sub-Saharan Africa.

Hat tip (and quote from ) Maggi Dawn
.. Of all the people in all the World..

Teaser Tuesday - 1 September

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!

"The fire will keep them some distance away. I think we're safe here on the shore. It will be more dangerous in the forest," said Brother Fernando.
Andie cut him off, "Yes, but we don't plan to go into the forest."

From Isabel Allende's Forest of the Pygmies bit Boy's Own'ish - I see it is classed on Amazon as 'Young Adult - but an exciting ride! And here's another fun quote:

Fighting bulls is easy. Serving Christ is a little more complex," Brother Fernando concluded.
"To judge by the demonstration you gave us, apparently good eyesight isn't a requirement for either."