Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Bostonians - film

Not enough depth - too simple - pretty pictures though, and good parts from Vanessa Redgrave as Olive Chancellor and Jessica Tandy as Miss Birdseye.  Christopher Reeve was not the most convincing.

May add more later.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Arm of Coincidence - by Bill James


I read this book because I met the author on one of my Northamptonshire walks.  I’m amazed at how ready people are to share their knowledge and achievements with strangers.  The main character clearly owes at least something to the author, who has worked in agriculture, and created some splendid metal sculptures in Southwick.
This is Henrietta (Moraes), muse and lover of Lucian Freud, and model for Francis Bacon.

 Two sculptures representing the development of agriculture.

Bill James told me he regrets having had the book published by what he later found to be a vanity publisher, and I think that with a little tighter editing in places, this could have found a niche.  I found it online, secondhand.

The tale takes place in Halston, an imaginary village near Southwick, and part of its charm for me was in following the main character along some of the paths in the area, recognizing landmarks and routes.  Other villages are named, and accurately placed and described.

Our hero, Jim Evans, is perhaps a bit too clever to be true.  Adept at photography, operating farm machinery, and driving HGVs, he is also a motorcycle stunt rider and a musician, with very liberal ideas about sex, and he soon makes himself indispensable to almost everyone in the village.
No story is complete without a good villain, and a love story, and as the title tells us, a few good coincidences.
I could have done without some of the technical details about farm machinery and tractors, but no doubt these would appeal to an enthusiast. 

Learning by heart

Well, I think I've got the Kipling one, and almost got the Frost On a Snowy Evening as well.  Internet intermittence issues have advantages.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Binging on poems

Those half-learned lines, the ones you nearly remember.

At the moment I've got four - Kipling's The Way through the Woods, Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and The Road not taken, and not quite on the same theme, but somehow close de la Mare's The Listeners

Now I'm going to learn the first one by heart. I hope.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Benjamin Grosvenor - piano recital

I don't claim to be knowledgeable about music, or piano in particular, but Benjamin Grosvenor can play and then some.

Two more films

Indecent Proposal - began well, but the character of the man who buys the young woman for a night came across as simply manipulative and not very nuanced - a superficial charmer, but cold. And the ending didn't convince.

When Harry met Sally - very funny in parts, and within the limitations of a rom-com, entertaining and almost endearing.