Drifting as I am through my music collection at the moment, updating the CDs on my computer and revelling in re-filing the shelves, I'm looking at all the things that seem to be absent. I'm therefore baffled to discover we own Amy's first album "Frank" (a fine work anyway), but why this and not also the magnificent Back to Black?
A bit early yet I know, and there have been other things I've enjoyed this year on TV, but these are my personal awards for the year. And you'll spot No Downton Abbey. Sorry. Not my cuppa, as much as I love the frocks.
So back in January 2011 The Killing crept into our house and took our hearts. Sarah Lund for heroine of the year? Enjoying Forbrydelsen II but the roller-coaster of the first series swept us away.
Best Documentary
Educating Essex - Although this hit me during my erratic period of not blogging much, this was certainly documentary of the year without a doubt. Broke my heart every episode with its honesty and humanity (as I commented on FB). Best advert for comprehensive education ever.
Update: and an honourable mention for The Agony and the Ecstasy about the English National Ballet - beautiful and agonising in equal measure.
Best Fantasy Drama
The Fades - It almost felt too good to be true when it started. It was like it ticked EVERY possible box for Rullsenberg. Gothic horror? Check. Teen Drama? Check? Name-checks and hat-tips to fantasy, sci-fi, horror? Check, Check, Check. It could have been too formulaic for its own good, but instead it was charming and horrific in the best ways possible. A second series would be lovely - but this was too perfect to damage if it means a drop in quality.
Honourable mention for Being Humanseason 3, which intermittently presented us with the sort of gory glory it should have had all through the season.
Update: Best Conspiracy Drama The Shadow Line - although Hidden was very enjoyable, it was lightweight compared to the density of The Shadow Line. With wonderfully atmospheric music (courtesy of Emily Barker's "Pause"), sound and photography, along with some cracking performances - Eve Best, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Ecclestone, Stephen Rea, Lesley Sharp, Antony Sher, Rafe Spall and more - it proved a tense highlight of the television year.
Best ongoing series setting up for the future
Doctor Who - As you will know I applauded at the end of "The Wedding of River Song". After a season that included such pleasures as the super-creepy Silence, the magnificent Neil Gaiman's beautiful "The Doctor's Wife" (and its companion Confidential episode, a work of pure pleasure), the punch-the-air revelations of "A Good Man Goes to War", the madness of "Let's Kill Hitler" and all the heartache around Rory and Amy, well.... anyway, suffice to say I'm so excited by the prospect of the Xmas special it almost hurts.
Blimey it can get a bit out of date can't it? have been through and done some shifting of stuff into 'Resting Blogs' and deleting some old no-longer functional links.
Last year, Bellowhead lost out on having access to a big space at Derby and had to content themselves with the ridiculously small space of the Darwin Suite at Derby Assembly Rooms.
It was VERY full indeed.
This year, thankfully, they got the large Assembly Rooms space itself --- and it was STILL rammed to the rafters (plus full on the seated areas too).
Seeing Bellowhead is always a joyous event --- this is the fifth time I've seen them (Derby Folk Festival, Nottingham Trent University, Derby Darwin Suite, Summer Sundae 2011), and I've never finished their sets less than bouncy, deliriously happy, and utterly soaked to the skin in sweat. I usually have to 'wash' my hair in cold water to at least make it so it's only water running down my back and not icky perspiration.
But I don't care. Songs about death, sailors, fairs, unrequited love, whores, drink, and death (always death), with the finest tunes you could hope to hear to get your feet tapping (I'd need to have broken legs to want to see Bellowhead from a seated position - they are MADE to be bounced and danced to with high spirits).
They opened with a firm (old) favourite of Jordan - which had me singing along from the start - and ended with bouncing. It was as ever mucho fun.
What always charms me about them is that they are such a great collective - yes, Jon Boden is a fine charismatic front-man, in turns manic, beguiling, faux-bashful and intense - but everyone gets their moments in the limelight throughout the show. It's hard to resist the bouncing dancing of the brass section (Andy Mellon on trumpet is usually one of the first to command more clapping and bouncing from the audience) and the pose-striking humour of the strings section (led by the ever laconic Paul Sartin), let alone the jumping-from-the-speakers mandolin player Benji Kirkpatrick and the steady preparedness of percussionist Peter Flood to break his ad hoc percussive accoutrements. and we should not forget Boden's partner in folk - Jon Spiers - who came on before the gig to check his pedals etc dressed in a workman's coat and wearing the most ludicrous fake beard ever ---- given he'd gone for a great Movember moustache anyway, I'm not sure what the disguise was for, but he plays accordions like a demon. (And a special mention for saxophonist Brendan Kelly who not only manages the excess of playing two instruments simultaneously, but also risked his life in Derby by declaring his home town as Nottingham. Dangerous!)
Consequently, they are a folk band, but this is as far as you can get from anything staid and boring (if that's what you mistakenly believe Folk to be). They certainly have a sense of fun like no other band you can imagine - witness their Bus Song a Day to accompany their tour, which saw them become superheroes for the visit to Derby.
In fact you can get a good idea of their approach from their YouTube channel - thisisbellowhead.
But there is something special about seeing them live, and the audience interaction/engagement with their music: this is captured quite well in this video of one of their recent gigs doing an established favourite 'London Town' (with its crowd-yelling chorus - with simple hand dance movements - of "up to the rigs, down to the jigs, up to the rigs of London Town')
And for sense of their climatic excitement, this video (complete with joyous shrieks from the audience) sums up the exultant pleasure of a Bellowhead gig.
I recommend them to anyone who gets chance to see them, and if you cannot, then at least get hold of one of their live DVDs and/or watch them live on YouTube. It's an uplifting experience you should enjoy.
Additional Note A little mention for Ahab who provide a very pleasant Americana-style support to Bellowhead. Good harmonies, some fine guitar-playing and great engagement with an audience - despite such a significant majority not being there to see them. Being support is never easy, but Ahab did a fine job of the task, winning new appreciators of their style.
I frequently forget (temporarily, sometimes permanently) my passwords for online accounts. Hey: there are a lot to recall.
Hence there is also a rullsenberg account on LibraryThing from when I couldn't recall my darn password.
Anyway: lately I have been trying to make RullsenbergLisa's LibraryThing more representative of the Rullsenberg and Roberts household of books. (See sidebar). It's proving both complex and addictive. I keep realising how many I STILL have to add, what absolute gems we own, and getting increasingly frustrated at Neil's more laid-back approach to book storage ("it's in my room somewhere").
Me: I try to keep all books of the same sort together. Fiction along with plays, scripts, and Shakespeare-related stuff (the programmes etc are on another shelf as we have too many to accommodate). Audiobooks on CD. Poetry. Biographies. America-related (mostly history and politics). Art history has several locations - feminist and women's art history; art catalogues; architecture... Doctor Who stuff. Buffy stuff (mostly). Music stuff. Books about books and writing. Literary criticism and history. Essays. Books about auto/biographies. Religion. Graphic novels. Film and TV related. Gender and sexuality. Books about or related to Surrealism and Peggy Guggenheim.
The production used the now common Peter Brook's technique of 'doubling' characters between the scenes in Athens and the fairy world. Theseus becomes Oberon; Hippolyta becomes Titania; Philostrate becomes Puck (aka Robin Goodfellow).
The last - indeed only stage version - that Neil and I had seen of Dream was way back in 1992 when we saw The Pocket Dream: a prodution by The Comedy Store players (led by Sandi Toksvig, Michael McShane, Meil Mularkey et al). It was a fine and hilarious production putting play within play within play and marvellously sending up overly serious actor groups.
This more than lived up to the recommendations I had heard.
What was especially interesting to note was how well several key players from Marat/Sade performed:
Amanda Wilkin (Kokol in M/S) was a brilliant understudy for Lucy Briggs-Own as Helena, and although LB-O has garnered some storming reviews I really feel that Wilkin adeptly filled in and was deservedly well-applauded by both audience and cast.
Imogen Doel (Charlotte Corday in M/S) made for a truly terrifying fairy - she and Maya Barcot had to make up for lost fairies with the promotion of Wilkin to the role of Helena, but it was scarcely noticeable. The hissing malevolence of Doel's fairy incarnation made the fairy world a much less comforting place than some productions make it. She was excellent.
Arsher Ali (Marat in M/S) was for me a joy: he's clearly a talent to continue to watch and was a delightful Puck/Philostrate. The balance of Puck to the other characters can sometimes be a problem in certain Dream productions; whilst Ali didn't steal the show he did (quite rightly) have a great charisma, all gangly limbs and wry smile. This was especially well done as Philostrate near the end when (in 'best man' guise) his rapport with the audience provided a chuckleworthy "we'll crack on then" as we tried hard not to totally lose the plot. Puck's outfit was awesome as well - flailing ties of colour over his gold long coat. A delicious pleasure.
But there were other highlights as well: Pippa Nixon and Jo Stone-Fewings made for a wonderful Theseus and Hippolyta / Oberon and Titania. Scarcely has the Queen of the Amazons seemed so clearly disgruntled at being 'forced' into marriage with the conqueror Theseus; yet their transformation into a loving couple, through their dream alter-egos as Oberon and Titania, is a joy to watch. The scene where the King and Queen of fairyland 'undress'/'redress' each other to into the soon to be new Queen and King of Athens is sensuous and moving. Beautifully lit as well (as is the whole production).
Though everyone played a key role in this wonderful version, I would also want to note Matti Houghton, last seen by us in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, who made for a furiously spiky 'little' Hermia. Mark Wootton (Bottom) - though his comedy on screen really hasn't been to my liking - was ideally cast here and brought a note of genuine slapstick to the proceedings that was truly funny. I actually found Bottom's transformation at the hands of Puck rather disturbing, but he was hilarious. Indeed, all the 'players' were excellent and I loved the lion's footstep sound-effects.
Overall, pure joy and pleasure. I only wish I could see it again - and that I had not missed the previous night's play.
Aside Helen Lisette missed out on seeing Arsher Ali as Puck/Robin Goodfellow (and his other guise of Philostrate), and instead saw Lanre Malaolu whom Neil and I last saw in Marat/Sade playing the exceptionally onanistic Duperret. (Indeed, we struggled to imagine him as Puck, but HLW assured us he was very good indeed).
I let the actors down; I let myself down; I let you down.
I booked to see Written on the Heart, David Edgar's play about the writing of the King James Bible, back in January 2011 when I did my mammoth booking fest for the year. So I have been looking forward to this production for quite some time.
What was not to like? It's about one of the most important English language books ever, about the nature and construction of faith; and - though this was only revealed long after booking - would feature one of our really great stage actors, ideally suited to such roles, Oliver Ford Davies.
So I was more than a little disappointed when with about a minute to go before curtain up I had to acknowledge 'I don't feel well'.
I gamely struggled on but as I got hotter and hotter I felt less and less able to cope.
Twenty minutes in (max) I had to admit defeat, and ran from my seat past Neil and four others (I was awkwardly located on the far side of the theatre at the end of an inner row). I just made it out before...
I really was not well. If I overheat, this does not help. It took the best part of about 30-45 minutes to stop shaking let alone all the rest (it was touch and go about the RSC staff calling an ambulance for me).
Thanks to the front-of-house staff's care and attention I managed to recuperate and at the interval (of course the first 'half' was an hour and 20 mins long) Neil and I were reunited and we made a decision that I really needed to head back to the hotel.
What Neil saw he said was very good; and certainly I enjoyed reading the play script purchased from the shop earlier that evening. Luckily, I get a second chance at this come January when Helen Lisette and I go to Stratford for our now semi-established January break. Let's hope I am better then.
This fast-talking new translation of Brecht's satire is certainly worth seeing, though whether you will keep pace with the dialogue is more debatable (The Observer review intimates this concern).
Last night was preview night in Nottingham (it is on until 12 November here) and the theatre was pretty full (albeit lots and lots of teenagers). Actually, it was a very attentive audience as far as I could tell, and the cast got a very rapturous reception at the end (deservedly so). Ian Bartholomew as Arturo Ui is especially fine.
It is not quite as well done as the version of The Caucasian Chalk Circle which toured to Nottingham in 2009. And inevitably the analogies between cauliflower sellers in the USA and the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany are as subtle as a brick through a window. Nevertheless, I'd still recommend audiences to see this production of Arturo Ui in the UK asap: it remains a powerful work, funny and terrifying all at once.
We had a fab day out yesterday: we got the bus to Nottingham and then (making a detour via Page 45 --- more Buffy comics! a new volume of The Unwritten!) headed to the train station where I picked up the latest Doctor Who Magazine with its extensive tribute to the glorious and much missed Lis Sladen.
We get the train to Matlock, though we're getting off a little earlier at the lovely village of Cromford. It is a glorious bright and sunny autumn day. Perfect for a day out.
The train starts at Nottingham and stops at:
Beeston
Attenborough
Long Eaton
Derby
Duffield (or 'Duffield International' as the guard as we travelled out called it)
Belper (or 'The People's Democratic Republic of Belper' as the guard coming home called it)
Ambergate
Whatstandwell (surely a contender for the award of best name for a village EVER)
Cromford
Just to prove I'm not making Whatstandwell up as a place-name, here is the railway sign from the station.
The next two stops are Matlock Bath and Matlock - deep in the Derbyshire Dales. Another visit perhaps...
We stop at Cromford and exit at the newly refurbished station.
We walk down into the village and firstly head to Arkwright's Mill. The Arkwright family are central not only to Cromford but also to the wider history of the Industrial Revolution. The Arkwright Society is doing great work in putting the site and its buildings to good use, and they have a long-term strategic plan to maintain, develop and improve the site so that future visitors can see this important location in the history of industrialisation.
At Arkwright's Mill, we enjoy visiting a number of excellent craft shops, especially Arum Lillie. Really beautiful print designs, textiles, and pewterwear, amongst other goodies. We'll be visiting them again!
But the main reason we were heading to Cromford was for...
Crikey, this is a brilliant rabbit-warren of a bookshop. And even better it has its own hide-away cafe with the most incredible food served. We had a couple of ploughman's lunches - Neil had Stilton cheese (a MASSIVE honk!) and I had mushroom pate (four very good-sized portions of the delicious stuff). It's vegetarian/organic and proper lovely.
The store (according to its website and reported in the Guardian's recent listing of Scarthin as one of the top UK independent booksellers) holds approximately 5000+ antiquarian texts, 50,000+ second-hand works (many piled high against the walls and stairwells I can report!) and 40,000+ NEW books. It is a trove of non-specialist gems, but I'd particularly recommend their children's book room which is delightful.
Inevitably, we came home laden with new goodies and we're already making headway through these. We eat books for breakfast! For knowledge! For pleasure and for all the other human emotions that books can stir and communicate to us.
We can't help it. We just love books.
And here are the two of us - me all wrapped up (in the scarf/shawl I knitted last year, and Neil in a t-shirt he got from San Francisco which we thought apt for book-shopping.
Belatedly completed I know - but Blogger kept eating the post (or Firefox turned my text into Alien Form Shakespeare).
Anyway I was glad to find that SOMEONE liked the end of Doctor Who season 6 / Fnarg plus 1 / season 32 (Thanks On The Box). And even MediumRob was fine with it having been intermittently disappointed by the 2011 two half series.
And guess what? I liked it too.
In fact - as I noted everywhere - I applauded at the end. It just felt spontaneously right to do.
Some of the things I liked
The eyepatches explanation. Made perfect sense suddenly. Why didn't I get that earlier?
Madame Kovarian getting a good dose of Amy Pond: proving that River is very much her mother's daughter.
Rory 'dying' for Amy - and her return to save him. Just lovely.
The 'wedding' and the name of the Doctor. Oh playful Mr Moffat.
The phone call to rally the troops - the reveal that the call the Doctor makes is a too-late invitation to the Brig for a final adventure hit me in the throat and had me reeling. A lovely and perfect farewell to a much-loved character and actor.
The final line - such an obvious 'ultimate question' and yet so satisfying!
Things I was less keen on
Two seasons: 6 or 7 episodes scarcely ever feels enough. 13 sometimes felt like a short-change: this split just feels limited.
No Mark Sheppard! oh sadness! (I nearly typed that as Badger: highlighting my love of Serenity/Firefly) For some reason I was really looking expecting another appearance from Canton Delaware Everett III...
I'm still not sure I quite get why Madame Kovarian worked with The Silence (or what they achieved/didn't achieve)
Teselecta ex machina - really should have seen that coming (as lovely as it was to see inside and watch the Stetson wave)
Still: It was just such a blast - and whilst lacking the glorious 'how-could-we-have-doubted?' oomph of The Big Bang/The Pandorica Opens, it was nevertheless a darn fine finale. I think part of the reason why it lacked that previous punch is tied to my floored reaction to the episode 'The God Complex' a couple of weeks earlier.
I'd got to the end of that episode - Amy and Rory's departure after an emotionally wrecking farewell to the innocent faith of Amelia Pond - and promptly felt like my stomach had been pulled out. I'd known that my friend would be watching it after first broadcast and worried frantically how she's take it. Once she watched it she immediately ended up texting me and we exchanged messages about how in bits we both were. The departure was both perfectly handled - companion departures don't NEED to be the crux of every finale - and utterly heart-breaking in its casualness, its ordinariness of them needing to go - of the Doctor needing them to go. He (had to) destroy that innocent faith - all too misplaced - of young Amelia Pond, and after that he couldn't keep the couple with him.
Which made the scene in the garden at chez Pond/Williams all the more lovely as mum and dad got some good news from their daughter to unravel the wibbly-wobbly-ness of Rover's timeline and relationship to the Doctor.
And I also loved the Confidential episode - full-length of course - with its timeline of River beautifully edited to make it clear to those who hadn't kept up.
What next?
Moffat - get a handle on show-running. RTD had many faults but keeping all the balls of other people's writing for the series in check was a strong point. The inconsistencies of tone and portrayals between writers are just a bit too glaring sometimes. Whip them troops into line. And whilst I appreciate you getting the show into the autumn period, I'm not best keen on the 6-7 episodes a season set-up. But I'm being greedy I know...
Smith - if you haven't already, get your exit strategy planned. I love your portrayal of the Doctor dearly: far more than my Tennant-love thought possible (but which I hoped would be won over by my inner-geekness and long-term love for Doctor Who the series). Nevertheless, there's an anniversary coming up and you need to know how to get out of being sucked into 'what comes next'. Doctor Who will be forever - in some form, some way - but it needs regeneration. In the meantime, keep giving this show the energy it deserves. You've made the part your own and it is a brilliant and dazzling thing to behold. Keep making it yours.
After Scotland were sadly knocked out early, England shamed everyone with numpty behaviour (wouldn't wanna be Tindall going home to see the in-laws right now), and Wales were harshly beaten by France (by heck, Sarkozy must have been thinking 'I've better things to do than globe-trot to watch odd-shaped balls being chucked about: I've a European economy to save!'), one could have been forgiven for thinking there was nothing to remain excited about in the Rugby World Cup.
If you have seen the cover of this book you will probably have been tempted to pick it up.
If not: what the hell is wrong with you?
Anyway: we picked up Ransom Rigg's debut novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in San Francisco and I have to say I've been itching to read it since then. Today I finally settled down to it and devoured the whole thing in the afternoon. I'm almost certainly going to read it again as there is much to be gained from a re-read (I kept skipping back to re-read sections even as I read it - not because I was confused but because I loved the way that things had been conveyed - the choice of phrasing, the imagery created...)
Amongst its many pleasures are those granted by the inclusion of several photographs to 'illustrate' the narrative. They are wonderful finds and add an extra whoosh of disconcerted meaning to the tale and its characters. To say I was left wanting more, MUCH more, would be an understatement.
I don't want to say too much about the plot - there's a grandson and a grandfather and some very peculiar children and beyond that would spoil the thrill of its development. However, what I can say is that it is resolutely and almost certainly NOT the sort of story you think it is going to be and it subtly shifts gears on several occasions, making you think 'how did I not see that?'
It is magical, mysterious, heartening, thrilling and adventurous. I'd recommend it to young adults, but with its use of history I'd also anticipate some (much) older readers to fall for its many charms.
