A cracking weekend including listening to cellos

Radio 3 had a great lunchtime concert on Saturday which we listened to travelling to Stratford

Alisa Weilerstein - cello

Golijov: Omaramor
J.S. Bach: Suite No. 1 BWV1007
Kodaly: Cello Sonata Op. 8

Just brilliant and certainly worth catching if you can.

Farewells: World of Music (World Service) and Radio 7 (soon to be BBC4 Extra)

World of Music on the World Service

I have quite often caught at least pat of the World Service's programme 'World of Music', a show that over the years has been hosted by Mark Coles (currently) and - of course - the late Charlie Gillett.

Sadly, in these cut-cut-cut days, the World Service is ditching much of its arts programming, and 'World of Music' is one of the casualties. Nice work BBC: a great memorial to the work of Gillett et al (sic).

The last show will be next week (March 26 2011).

The World Service cuts have been among some of the most problematic made around the BBC: language services disappearing, availability on services other than the internet cut, and general diminishment of the provision. *sigh*

Radio 7 - to be 'rebranded' Radio 4 Extra

Trying to close 6Music didn't work. They even had to give up on getting rid of the Asian Network, both relatively cheap stations to run. Now, Radio 7 is about to be imminently rebranded as Radio 4 Extra. Urgh - that even SOUNDS ugly.

Radio 7 was station that had turned into the last home of children's broadcasting on radio, and which gave audiences the chance to hear programmes from the past - sometimes the distant past, another age of radio entirely - including the excellent 7th Dimension strand of regular sci-fi and fantasy broadcasting. Doctor Who found a home here, in all sorts of forms.

So why the expensive rebranding? It seems to be a way of cutting off the last opportunity for audiences to hear radio broadcasts from before the last year or so, and in this age of the web, do we really need a DIGITAL station to add more Archers stuff to the ether?

I hope that, despite the way things look at present, the new schedule for Radio 4 Extra will retain at least some of the best qualities of Radio 7.

It seems unlikely though.

The radio 4 / 6Music intrusion

I was listening to the Radio 4 7pm news last night on our DAB radio, and when The Undertones 'Wednesday Week' intruded, I felt pretty sure this was a 6Music song. Sure enough, a quick flick to 6Music revealed Marc Riley was indeed playing that song.

But I had assummed the intrusion was a digital radio only thing: seems I was wrong.

Radio 4 listeners on all platforms, FM included, got a blast of 6Music instead of the end of the 7pm news, and - OH MY GOD, the end of civilisation as we know it!!! - the beloved Archers.

Gulp.

Guerilla tactics?

A cock-up? There have been a few of late....

Oh well, more on the Radio 4/6Music cross-over controversy at the Guardian.

Saturday watching

Saturday evening presented tough choices for me.

We'd been painting most of the day (nice company from David Tennant and Catherine Tate on the radio) and tea was getting delayed. (Home made fish-pie: very nice)

So would I go with heartbreak (Primeval) or desert-pleasure (Doctor Who) as priority?

Well, thanks to the delay in me preparing tea and a very early start for Primeval, I went for the following compromise:

• watch the start of Primeval from 6.15pm
• go and eat tea
• grab an extra few minutes of Primeval from 6.35-6.45pm
• delay what I know will be the inevitable tears by watching Doctor Who for the full hour
• find Primeval not yet on 'Catch Up TV' (grumble)
• watch Robin Hood
• watch Doctor Who Confidential
• watch Primeval on Catch-Up (thank you Virgin)
• after some extra tv and wine have meltdown over decorating (and probably over my psychologically shite week at work and the impact of Primeval)

Poor Neil: he was so lovely to me all Saturday and I did have a very indulgent day of loveliness. But it had all come at the end of a very long week at work (four days can be long when you know you're in the doghouse) and my emotions are frankly all over the place.

I feel a bit better now.

Cyrano on Radio 3

On our way back rom friends on Sunday (a jazz day with mates - what a great way to spend time with people, especially when you can eat so much) we caught Cyrano de Bergerac on Radio 3.

If you get chance to catch this over the next few days on "Listen Again" then I urge you to do so: Branagh makes a wonderful Cyrano. I cried at the end.

Thanks to builders I am JUST listening to Chain Reaction...

Bliss... David Tennant on Chain Reaction. Hee.

Tamagotchi Heaven.

TV as an excursion (away from the stage)

"When I was wee I watched telly - Doctor Who"

The 'utterly normalness' of Doctor Who fans

The delight in doing Blackpool

Hats as a gender disguise in Shakespeare

Richard Schiff and George Lucas

Exploding sweets

Fantasy vs reality: believing in space vs astrology

Interactive news programmes and astrology - into Room 101

Reading reviews - "theatre taught me not to do this"

Being in 'The Bill': "I'm a killer"

The Doctor as quirky

Making the decision to take up the role of the Doctor: "I didn't want to be the guy who turned it down"

Adored into dotage

The first line of the obituary



All very enjoyable.

And - as progress - we now have some concrete put in. The kitchen floor is leveled and concreted - as has been the pantry (to resolve the damp problem - hopefully). What next? Doors and the ceiling.

Things I have done and not done

Well, the obvious one is the serious amount of NOT BLOGGING (for which I have already made my apologies).

Still, on a more optimistic note, I have...

• been to Oxford for the day and visited the WONDERFUL Pieminister stall in the covered market. Hot pie - I had wild mushrooms and asparagus - layered on mash potato, with minted mushy peas on top and with a red wine 'groovy'. We also had a book splurge. So shoot us.
  
  And I bought the David Tennant calendar for the year. Hey, a girl needs treats.



• read lots and lots of books - two Jasper Fforde books, two Lawrence Blocks, "A Metropolitan Murder" and The Dante Club. All frothy and quick reads.
  
  A longer read was Martin Millar's latest "Lonely Werewolf Girl": I cannot recommend it highly enough. Totally good fun. A transvestite wolf. Addiction to laudenum. Violence. Thwarted love. Teenage angst. Pop, punk and rock music. A Fire Queen who has flaming fits about clothes and worrying that the other elements will mock her wearing out of date clothes. It's very funny and very exciting. A very fine read.



• been listening to music - we've moved the stereo into the front room and have now properly set it up there. This is encouraging us to listen to more radio and music sat on the sofa and reading (hence the books). This has included such delights as a CD of Lee Hyla featuring bird-song. Oddest experience though was listening to Bob Dylan's Radio Theme Hour Xmas special. Figgy Pudding recipes anyone?!



• saw "It's a Wonderful Life" at a small cinema and everyone spontaneously cheered and clapped at the end. Sniff.



• watched some TV - you know what, against the run of opinion, we LIKED the Extras Christmas Special (particularly the cross-show joke with George Michael going off to record Catherine Tate's special)



• watched Doctor Who: this comes into a separate category of delight. They chucked a film budget at "Voyage of the Damned" and there was a lot to like about it. Plenty of death and destruction. Some very comical Bruckheimer moments. The Timelord speech (I have no shame in delighting how it made me punch the air). Earthonomics. Sinister angels (though could have done without them lifting Saviour Doctor... sheesh, would RTD PLEASE get over the God-Complex he has allocated to the new series Doctor). Brilliant gold gleaming dazzling stuff.
  
  Mind, it WAS a bit of a sugar/carb-rush Who: thoroughly enjoyable at the time but fading a little too fast for my real pleasure. Still, the Who dominance was entrenched in the house when Cloud alerted me to them re-screening "The Runaway Bride". (You can tell I wasn't fully with it since I had TOTALLY missed seeing that in the schedules). I think I enjoyed TRB even more this time around. And I'm sorry, whether you're a Rose-fan or not, you have to admit that Tennant nails the choke of "Her name was Rose" with such finesse. With Cloud's passion for red-heads and a fancy for Tate, I suspect that S4 will still get some excitement in this house.

Things I have not done:

• been online to do much more than read emails or to clear out bloglines - and even that was irregularly. So most of my promised posts have not (yet? ever?) emerged: I still owe a year-long music round up and a review of "A Hawk and A Hacksaw" to Music is Our Hot Hot Sex, as well as a summary of the London trip with pictures and much more besides. This past term has been too busy, too tiring, too... ah, stuff it. I apologised already.



• been able to fully catch up with forums, LJ and fan-fiction. Similar to above, but with the result that I now feel totally out of touch with what is going on and have resigned myself to always being very behind with long-running narratives. SOME people have seriously active fiction bunnies in their heads!
  
  I'm still apologising aren't I...?



• been able to keep up with commenting and cheering fellow bloggers. Heck, Behind The Sofa is closing to revamp! Medium Rob is considering abandoning/scaling back the blog! What is the world coming to?! Is it my fault??? [NB I'm not THAT egotistical that I think it's down to me, but i can't help but feel I haven't been there for everyone as much as I would have liked to be...Yes, I spotted it: I haven't stopped apologising...]



• made CDs for a very long while. Meh. I did try over Xmas and I realised that a chief problem is less that the CDs won't load up or be created and more that the playing facility on the computer is basically FUBAR. Still, it isn't perfect and made CDs are still playing a bit cranky on other players. Meh.
  
  And then my printer bosted and now won't print. I can't even make my fancy-Dan covers for the damn things anymore! GRRRR!



• re-synced my iPod since I first loaded it up.... oh, did I not say? Neilie Cloud bought me an iPod ... it is making me VERY happy.

So, despite all my gloom and apologies, even my "things I have not done" has been able to end on a happy note.

Happy New Year peeps. I'll try to do better.

Pogues 'censored'??!!

Huh?

I run to the BBC News site for a quick gander at the world at large (its a rare treat these days to lift my head from the files and paperwork around me, let alone review what is happening outside the university).

This nonsense is what I find: "Radio 1 censors Pogues' Fairytale"

BBC Radio 1 has banned the word "faggot" from the Pogues' 1987 Christmas hit Fairytale of New York to avoid offence.

...
The BBC said: "We are playing an edited version because some members of the audience might find it offensive."

...
Another line, where MacGowan calls MacColl "an old slut on junk", has also been edited.

...
But the ban does not apply across the BBC. Radio 2 said it would be playing the full version of the track.

And again, I say: "huh?!"

UPDATED: Although the original story was updated at 15:50, according to a news item on PM, the BBC changed their minds (see the climbdown at 18:00). Maybe someone reminded them that they DO employ Chris Moyles... [as Stu rightly pointed out].

Cross posts: Public Service Music Radio in the UK

Over at Music is Our Hot, Hot Sex you can now read all three of my posts on the public service music radio in the UK.

Radio 1
Radio 2
Radio 3

Enjoy!