Mutterings - 29th April

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

1. Background :: Music
2. Performance :: Art
3. Husband :: Preserve
4. Scaffolding :: Contractor
5. Third :: Man
6. Stirring :: Soup
7. Slogan :: Shout
8. Odor :: Eater
9. Accent :: Foreign
10. Suspicion :: Paranoia

Evening light on the Liffey

Evening light on the Liffey, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Last weekend we spent in Dublin - the first visit over there for us. Two days were spent seeing the sights of Dublin fairly gently. Then on Sunday after a trip round the National Gallery we had a drive down towards Wicklow seeing the coast and the hills.
We ate twice (so the re-experience was welcome) at one of Wallace's Italian winebars close to the Liffey (the Taverna)and one evening at 101 Talbot - which had a good mix of meat and veggie on the menu. More pictures from the trip on flickr!

Mutterings - 15th April

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

1. Message :: Bottle
2. Underground :: Magazine
3. Hurting :: Working
4. Glasses :: Passes
5. Wholesome :: Food
6. Garden :: Plants
7. Plants :: Feet
8. Windows :: Light
9. Beard :: Fur
10. Encryption :: Pass Phrase

Teaser Tuesday - 10 April

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!

She scanned the note that came with it. Rainer wondered, following on from their meeting at the Residency, whether Nerys might be free to visit him at home for a drink?

Following on from last week, another teaser from Rosie Thomas' The Kashmir Shawl - you'll just have to guess what 'it' is!

Mutterings - 8th April

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

1. Justice :: Court
2. Catching :: Flies
3. Date :: Easter
4. Horoscope :: Bewlidering (this is a quote from Britten's PeterGrimes)
5. Jerry :: Can! (definitely British news here)
6. 21 :: Party
7. Paper :: Scissors
8. Holistic :: Therapy
9. Ghostly :: Shape
10. Movie :: Old

VAT and Listed buildings

The recent budget is proposing to remove the zero rating of VAT on alterations to listed buildings, this is going to cost some churches a lot of money, Wakefield cathedral is having to stump up another £200000 before their current work can proceed - enter the youtube above and Pamela Greener, the wife of the dean with a song - I posted this on facebook but if you don't know me there - here it is! For UK voters, there's a petition on the govenment website!
I kept expecting a hard-hatted chorus to enter from behind the singer....

Teaser Tuesday - 3rd April

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 tantrum abruptly faded as curiosity took over. As soon as she had the little girl's full attention Mair drew a breath, gathered herself up and executed a standing back-flip.

Our latest book group (BATS) book Rosie Thomas' The Kashmir Shawl - a tale of travel and family history. Here's a review and here's the author writing about a visit to the pashmina workshops in Kashmir.

Mutterings - 1st April

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

1. Whispering :: Bob Harris
2. Braided :: Hair
3. Ruin :: Castle (and une ruine coquille vide (Eluard))
4. Parasite :: Tick
5. Mineral :: Water
6. Engines :: Fearsome (no I see that should be Feersum - Iain Banks)
7. Buddy :: Support
8. Tic :: Twitch
9. Small :: Empty
10. Tackled :: Rugby

Teaser Tuesday - 27th March

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!

Yet infants hear tonal music almost from the moment of birth, and so have been conditioned to accept it as "natural". Moreover visual arts research demonstrates that children prefer representational images to abstract ones.

From The Bedside Guardian 2011 - an anthology of writing from the Guardian over the year - this is Alex Ross on modern classical music. And on that theme, here's an article also from the Guardian from last weekend on children and 'difficult' music.

Politics and the Family - ii

Last week I saw Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico (My Brother is an Only Child) at Macc College, like the week before's film a study of the effect of politics on childhood - though in this case the children are rather older though the period is identical (the early 1970's) but in this case the background is Italy where things became a lot more unpleasant. In this case most of the political pressure comes from outside the family but the fraternal struggle is involving.

The shadow of Mussolini still had a powerful effect on Italy as the brothers go their separate ways. A very moving film but earthed in what felt to be real family situations

Politics and the Family - i

Earlier this month we saw the last film of Silkscreen's season - Blame it on Fidel, here's the trailer:

A tale of children growing up in a left-wing activist household in 1970's France. It probably helps to be to some extent left-winged and have a sense of humour, otherwise it becomes a joyless exposé of the trauma that the children suffered. Here's the Guardian review - I loved the way the children felt their way into relationship with a variety of child-minders by the sharing of creation myths. We bought the copy of the dvd at the end of the Silkscreen evening so a re-watch is lined up!

Mutterings - 25th March

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

1. Flake :: Cadbury's (and a slow recline into a bath!)
2. Like :: Comment (facebook!)
3. Rash :: Itch
4. Humor :: Joke
5. Splash :: Soda syphon
6. Blind :: Venetian
7. Noisy :: Enthousiasm
8. Ornate :: Roccoco
9. Rain :: in Spain
10. Intensify :: Forceful

Mutterings - 18th March

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

1. Quit :: Leave
2. Solace :: Comfort
3. Suggest :: Clue
4. Meteor :: Fireball
5. Zombies :: Terror
6. Birds :: Chorus
7. Canceled :: Abandoned
8. Compatible :: Connector
9. Alarmed :: Worried
10. Word game :: Conundrum

Teaser Tuesday - 13th March

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!

Annie took my hand - her hands are always dark and warm - and as she moved there was a smell about her that was hot and a little frightening. We went down Wharf Road and across to the park and I was scared stiff and thought about the park keeper and the Town Council and God.

Another teaser from our book group book for the month - Tove Jansson's The Winter Book an appealing mix of the tender and quirky - as you might guess from her other (more famous) writings - the Moonmin books.

Mutterings - 11th March

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

1. Exist :: Be
2. Breakfast :: Continental
3. Corporation :: Large
4. Signs :: Wonders
5. Thinking :: Connections
6. Income :: Security
7. Style :: Life
8. Job :: Retire
9. Marriage :: Celebrate
10. Supplement :: Vitamin

From the Space Station

This appears to be going the rounds - taken from the International Space Station of the earth at night - but in case you've not seen it. I recommend watching it in full screen!

Teaser Tuesday - 6th March

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!

There were double doors with coiled iron springs at the top, which the caretaker had put there because women always forgot to shut the doors after them. I heard the springs contract and they sang softly to themselves as they squeezed me and the stone together between the doors and I put my legs together and took tight hold of the stone and tried to roll it but the space got narrower and narrower and I knew that the caretaker's hand was sliding up the bannisters all the time.

A spooky moment from Tove Jansson's The Winter Book - our BATS (book group) book of the month - I chose it - and one story in (it's a book of short stories) I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it! Tove Jansson wrote the Moonmin books which I still remember from childhood!

Mutterings - 4th March

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

1. Knees :: Ankles
2. Law :: Rule of..
3. Goodbye :: Farewell
4. Regrets :: Looking back
5. Dedicated :: follower of fashion
6. Sushi :: Restaurant
7. Australia :: Day
8. Renovation :: Cleaning
9. Honk :: Horn
10. Beg :: Request

Teaser Tuesday - 28 Feb

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!

Comfortably seated in deep armchairs, they made war almost as tourists, while we, on foot all the time, had wandered for thousands of kilometres over the roads of the north and east.
Among the Germans in Paris a no less relaxed atmosphere prevailed.

Another teaser fromn Michael Burleigh's The Third Reich - A New History - starting with a comment from a Languedoc peasant on the German war machine.

Mutterings - 26th Feb

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

1. Unsolicited :: mail
2. House :: White
3. 24 hours :: cover
4. Permission :: chmod (a unix command for modifying file permissions)
5. Inbox :: EMail
6. Presidential :: Status
7. Rising :: Sun
8. Hold :: House
9. Hourglass :: Timer
10. More :: Less