Aquarians and Alice's Birthday Treat

Happy Birthday to all you Aquarians out there! Alice had her birthday recently - though she forbids me to tell you her exact age. Old enough for her bus pass is detail enough.

Aquarius is a sign which indicates humanitarian ideals, eccentricity, and interests in anything out-of-the usual. Despite depicting the water carrier, it's an air sign, which means matters of the mind come easily. It's ruled by the planet Uranus, which is all about sudden change, electricity, communications, and thus computers and all that sort of stuff. So it does fit her, I have to admit.

She insists a proper horoscope isn't just about the Sun, but all the other planets as well, and if you want to know more, or are a sceptic like she was initially, go to www.astro.com, read the articles and put in your details. To buy astrological items in the UK, try the Astrology Shop. It's a great place to visit, too, if you're in London. Alice says anything by Liz Greene will be illuminating.

I'm afraid I don't know when I was born, as it were, so we can't look at my chart. Sigh. But I like to imagine I'm a Cancerian, warm and caring, with a secret hint of passion - something in Scorpio perhaps. Wish on...

Our Arthropodologist friend, who you will have encountered here before, took us out for Alice's Birthday Treat. We went first to see the film Flight. (More on that and other movies in our next blog.) I love the excuse of the cinema to be naughty and consume lots of unhealthy sweets, don't you?

Of course one pretends to regret  - later on.

Afterwards we ate a grand selection of lovely tapas in La Tasca, one of Alice's favourite eating places. This dessert was some delicious ice-cream with an amazing rich sherry to pour over it, called Pedro Ximénez Triana. There's a history to the name: go check out the link. My oh my, it was gorgeous. My what? I ask. [Oh, never mind!] The waitress brought these birthday candles with it, stuck into marshmallows. What a nice surprise.

Alice made a wish as she blew them out, but she didn't let on what it was about ...

Medicine, Metaphor, Music and Memories

Deary me, you may have noticed that we haven't been posting anything here for quite a while. It's because poor Alice has been what you might call under the weather. Another of those ridiculous human figures of speech. It makes me imagine a horizontal weather forecaster for the M.B.C. (Monkey Blogging Corporation). But the weather's always "over" us, isn't it?   After some online research, we discovered that this saying may be referring to the "weather bow" on a sailing ship, which was the windward side at the sharp end and recieved the worst of the storms. Another, related suggestion is that if sailors or passengers were suffering from sea-sickness due to rough weather, they might well retire below decks, where they would not be so violently tossed about. 

So it's really a kind of metaphor. 

Anyway, Alice has been somewhat unwell for the last couple of weeks, with a coldy-coughy thingy. A bug. A virus. Whatever. Which left her feeling particularly feeble. I did my best to be on hand with vitamins, pills, potions, tinctures and tissues - as well as that good old standby: hot lemon, honey and spirits. It does cheer you up, even if it doesn't work any miracles of recovery.

I should point out that this picture wasn't actually taken during Alice's bout of sickness - she wasn't up to that much effort. But now she's feeling better enough to get back to our blog, she insisted on a photo shoot to create this image. It's purely "representative" - a kind of lie.

My goodness, I'm glad I'm not a real professional model. It was pretty tiring having to hold my pose and my expression of cheery solicitude, while she shunted the props about and kept flashing with her camera until she was satisfied.

Music 1: Runrig

We never got round to telling you how, before Christmas, we went to see a concert by the popular Scottish group Runrig, one of Alice's all time favourites. Loads of tracks on her iPod.

She's always going on about how she and some pals (with 50,000 more) got high, indulged in the munchies, and saw them do an open air gig on the shores of Loch Lomond. See this video for live footage. They had a wonderful time. It was in 1991, her much younger days. 

 

This time it was a more conventional concert venue, but the audience were just as enthusiastic, standing in the isles, clapping to the beat and joining in when invited to sing. A bit like this other video from Stuttgart. 

 

The supporting group, The Chaplins (after Charlie, not parsons) were great, too. "With their 1920’s dress sense and quirky, alternative bluegrass sound, The Chaplins are a unique addition to the music world." Look out for them...

 

Music 2: The Messiah

Peformance of The Messiah in Crystal Palace, 1857. See Wikipedia.

At the other end of the musical spectrum, in the New Year, Alice and a friend took me to hear Handel's Messiah. This was quite some event. Because it's so long, the interval is extended and the audience is invited to take a "picnic". We had some clementines, nuts, crisps, chunks of cheese and a Fudge bar. Very nice. But we saw some folk sitting in the august red-carpeted corridor, going the whole hog with fitted hampers, plates, glasses, and even champagne! Whole hog truely seems an appropriate metaphor here, I think.

Alice is telling me off for putting the picnic first: but it's what stood out for little me. And then everyone standing up for the Hallelujah Chorus - but not to join in and wave their arms about as we did for Runrig. Apparently it's an old tradition, going back to the London premiere in 1743, when King George II stood up, so everyone else had to. Why he did, or if he did, or was even there at all, is shrouded in mystery, however. But it's certainly the most rousing [hee, hee!] section of the whole thing. You can hear it online in many versions, but try the King's College one and be patient about the ad that comes first.

Alice says it's a wonderful composition, and one of her favoutie classical works. She had deep philosophical musings (as you may have realised she is prone to) during this performance: the words are all Biblical, and she's an atheist. The cynical part of her was thinking what a ridiculous fairy story it all is: Adam, Eve, Satan, the Apple, Sin, Hell, Vicarious Atonement, Redemption and Life Everlasting with God and the angels in Heaven. Just an invention by people who don't want to accept the finality of death. And the more mystical side thought how the music is so uplifting, and the story so beautifully seductive. She's recently read Nothing to be Frightened of by Julian Barnes, which starts with this striking sentence: "I don't believe in God, but I miss him." 

That's a sentiment with which Alice heartily concurs. She's relieved that atheism is more acceptable nowadays than it was when she became one as a teenager. It's almost fashionable, in fact. While rejecting the traditional tenets of Christianity, it can nevertheless include a sense of awe at the glories of the universe and a belief in the Oneness of it all. As the gorgeous Brian Cox points out in his new TV series, The Wonders of Life. Science made exciting without any dumbing-down!

Religion? Me? I just get on with life as it comes - and goes. But I like visiting cathedrals and gush along with Alice over the amazing images in The Fountain by Aronofsky. She has no trouble enjoying the arts inspired by religion. We're looking forward to Terrence Malick's new film, To the Wonder, as we loved his fantastical scenes in The Tree of Life. We promise a whole post soon on the many great movies already out in 2013.

Music 3: Bunkhouse Boys

You may remember Alice was hoping to get her father's recording digitised. Well, she has at last. It's a long story I won't go into, but you can listen and see three photos on YouTube, where a close friend has posted the video for us.

Don't forget to click on the images to see them larger. The biggest ones (which are only in some posts) display even better if you right click and open them in a new tab.

The Alice and Monkey Awards 

Everyone's got BAFTA, Golden Globes, Oscar and Kermode nominations in the air right now. As you know, we're pretty keen on movies here, be they Arthouse unusuals, foreign language, blockbusters in English, or just the straight well-made and interesting. Alice went through her diary and counted up she'd seen 52 films (at least) during the year. Most of which were at concession price afternoon showings, or her budget would never have stretched that far. But now and again we did do the full Multiplex experience, over-priced sweeties and all.

Internet Movie Database

We've mentioned some in passing already, but thought you might like to have our Best of 2012 list. They're in more or less chronological order, as we found it almost impossible to choose a really outstanding "has to be the top" one. We're keeping comments to a minimum - yes, honest.

You can look any of these up for yourself on either IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. Some will also have websites all of their own. For forthcoming films, you can try Film3sixty. We like to watch the BBC's Film 2013, STV's Moviejuice and The Review Show on BBC2 as well.

 

* Martha Marcy May Marlene

Creepy, compelling, and rather puzzling film about a Mansonesque cult, with Rising Star Elizabeth Olsen. 

* A Dangerous Method 

Cronenberg's intelligent drama about Freud, Jung and the early feminist analyst, Sabina Spielrein.

* Into the Abyss

Herzog's inspired documentary about inmates of Death Row, and State sanctioned killing.

* Once Upon A Time in Anatolia

Amazing night-time cinematography and interesting characters in this mysteious Turkish offering.

 * Even the Rain

Powerful film-within-a-film set in Bolivia, with real political parallels. Both worthy and enjoyable.
 
* Shadow Dancer 
Young Irish woman caught between MI5 and the IRA. Tense, well acted, with a great plot-twist!
* Beasts of the Southern Wild
Brilliant! Starring youngest ever Oscar contender, Quvenzhané Wallis. See our post here.
* Skyfall
A great block-buster which deserves more award nominations than it's got. See the same post.
* The Hunt
Superbly chilling Danish film: Mads Mikkelsen is terrific as a teacher wrongly accused of child abuse.
* Argo
Our favourite block-buster of 2012. Funny, very exciting, and beautifully shot. See this post for our views.
* The Hobbit
We both loved it. The dwarves had astonishing beards (right click the image for greater detail) and Gollum was true to his LOTR form.

AND we can't leave this out, though maybe it's a kind of cheating, but we did see it last year.

* Lawrence of Arabia - 2012 restoration
David Lean's masterpiece has been painstakingly restored for the fiftieth anniversary of its original release. Utterly breath-taking: Peter O'Toole's piercing blue eyes, Omar Sharif, the camels, the music, and the most compelling character of all - the desert. We scarcely dare to mention the light it throws on the betrayal of the Arabs ...

This photo goes with the famous line:  
The trick ... is not minding that it hurts. Quoted by David in Pometheus.

But that's for another discussion, after we've watched the DVD and the extras on Alice's sons's BueRay. Beware of spoilers (or boldly go for them!) on Den Of Geek! Yes, that second exclamation mark is part of the site's name. Alice is always most particular about punctuation.

Twelfth Day, More Masters, and Music

Right click on me for full glory

Well, we've had the twelve nights of Christmas, and now it's the twelfth day, so we really should take down our decorations and cards - it's supposed to be bad luck if you don't. Not that I'm superstitious! But I rather like the little angels, and we've got three different ones. Let's keep them up on the mantlepiece.

Alice has finally got the hang of downloading Kermode and Mayo's film review "podcasts" (what a profoundly silly name that is!) from their Radio 5 website, to our iTunes, then "synching" her iPod, which she links to the sound system, so we can listen to it either in the sitting room or the kitchen while we work away. That was some clever wiring she did when she was still young and carefree, and used to have parties...

It would be much easier just to listen to the radio on Friday afternoon, but then she's either at an oldies' cheap matinee showing at our favourite Arthouse cinema, or reading a Shakespeare play with her U3A cronies. Now she's sniffing at me. Sorry, I shouldn't have said "oldies", I mean "Senior Citizens" of course.

The Holly Man, one of characters from a Mummers' play, carrying a wassail bowl. (Original photo by Dean Ayres)

Today is traditionally the day the Three Kings arrived to see the baby Jesus. It is variously celebrated, often going back to more heathen traditions, with maybe wassailling and mumming, or even cooking a special fruit cake. There's lots of wassail songs, and recipes to try out online. Just Google away for more.

Where were we, before all this Seasonal stuff took over? Ah yes...

Meetings with Masters 2: The Master (the film) 

If you scroll down to the end of 20th December 2012 (or leap to it here) you'll see that we met with Yoda, the Jedi Master, to start off this Masters theme, before Alice was struck down with a bug, then overtaken by The Festive Season and all that entails. Sounds a bit like road traffic accident? She says it felt like it.

So now: the film! Well, despite the mixed reviews, we thought it might be worth a go. Philip Seymour Hoffman isn't exactly your typical heart-throb star, but as "The Master" of The Cause cult, he was as brilliant as he always is. He plays a dubiously sincere charismatic leader. Who they all tell us is not meant to be L Ron Hubbard, since the film is not really about Scientology. Which is a weird religion-cum-therapy, having both ardent adherents and fierce detractors. (You can read even more details at Ex Scientologist or Bare Faced Messiah.)
 
But Joaquin Phoenix was pretty awful, in my opinion. He spent almost the whole time with his fists on his hips, thumbs back, so he looked like a kid's impression of a squawking chicken. Alice says that may unfortunately be true, but nevertheless he did do a good job of playing a very tortured individual, who temporarily falls under the spell of a Master, yet never quite manages to become the ideal disciple. See this enthusiastic review by the Guardian.

Alice thought it was psychologically both enthralling and horrifying to see the sort of mind games inflicted on the followers. I'm not that much into psycho-babble myself. However, if you want an excellent movie about a cult, then we'd both go for Martha Marcy May Marlene any time.

Meetings with Masters 3: a little history

It was almost the Solstice, and guess where I was?

 

The next photo gives it away.

OK, that's right - it's an original wind-up gramophone with horn! It belongs (now) to our Harvieston friend, who got it from eBay. 
 


This is more of a side view, so you can see the needle arm.

What a beautiful object...

It's a windup! Well, it was, actually, as he said it needs a bit of repair.

More of that later.
Do you see the HMV logo on the side?

That's His Master's Voice!

Which takes us to the little bit of history.
If Alice can cut down on her endless surfing, that is.
And why Surfing? I thought you did that on the sea, not the web, or even the "cloud".

Right click for more readable size

Trust her! She's just Googled that, and came up with this answer from Yahoo! Answers:

Imagine surfers on a beach: When they catch a good wave (site) they ride it as far as they can, until, one they reach the shore, (get bored) or two they wipe out (can't find anything). Then they go back out into the water (web), catch another wave (site) and do the same thing, over and over, that's surfing the ocean (net).

The cartoon, by the way, is by ShoeboxBlog. And, yes, I had to laugh, even though it isn't altogether part of this tale, but a typical Alice digression. What, me! Digress? Never...

Now, can we get back to the main story, please?

HMV

His Master's Voice was one of the best known companies involved in the production of records and the means by which to play them, and their logo is still famous. The dog was a real one called Nipper, and his owner, Francis James Barraud was a painter. The Nipper painting to logo story is quite a saga.


Nipper was re-created for Christmas 2012, to put a zing into HMV's seasonal advertising. They added a new character - an animated Gramophone, somwhat reminiscent of Wall-E, methinks. (That was a super film!) The set of brief videos are at Nipper & Gramophone’s Christmas Tales (also on YouTube). Great fun!

But did you know that before we had Sound Systems, Hi-Fi and turntables, there were a host of other attempts at recording sound for playback? And objects called Phonoautograph, Phonograph, Graphophone, and Victrola, were manufactured.  See here.


How about our friend's antique gramophone?

Well, it didn't actually work as such, but he has also aquired one of those "Turn-your-old-78s-&-LPs-into-CDs" machines.

So Alice brought along a precious family heirloom. It certainly played all right, and you should have watched the delight spreading over her face.

You see, it's a private recording, made in 1948, by her father's Skiffle band, The Bunkhouse Boys.

But when we had a go at  converting it, Alice mucked about with the controls, as she didn't want to use up a whole blank CD on just a few minutes of track. So it didn't work at all, and then it was time to trundle down the Harvieston drive for the bus back to town.

But we'll have another go soon.

That's Alice's Dad in the check shirt on the left of this photo, with the washboard. He was very keen on playing music, usually the drums. He had a huge collection of Jazz records, too, and taught Alice to appreciate the Blues. But that's another story. And in case you're wondering, she's no idea who the little boy was.

It's 2013!

Up here in Scotland pe (Oops...)   Stop! It's not "up here". I didn't dictate that! It's up north, if it's "up" at all... Try again, Alice. Do moderate your intake of alcohol, despite the seductive advertising, and concentrate.

Here in Scotland people keep wishing their friends and family (and sometimes strangers too) "Happy New Year" for weeks, depending on whether they've seen them since Hogmanay. A lovely tradition, in the true spirit of Auld Lang Syne. Sing along with Dougie MacLean, if you want, on this video with the words. And if you need a translation, here's the same version, but with the English.

Seasonal Feasting and Celebrations
We had our festive meal on Christmas Eve, so the next day could be all nibbling and minimal effort. It was delicious! Politically correct chicken breasts (organic and free-range) stuffed with herbs, a slice of orange, and a slice of onion; all wrapped in a rasher of streaky bacon. One for straight away, and one for the day itself...

[Note - "politically correct" above is strictly speaking gramatically incorrect. Alice] If you say so. Just get on!

There were delectable M&S pork, cranberry and clementine stuffing balls (also wrapped in bacon); roasted potatoes, parsnip, carrot and beetroot; and freshly cooked brocoli, sprouts and peas, with slices of baby leek. It was all topped off with home-made mushroom and onion gravy, plus eco-friendly Banrock Station Shiraz Mataro to drink. Bliss.

You can tell we're real foodies. Alice is a good cook, too. She's blushing. Just keep typing, dear.

We'd almost finished, and Carols from Kings was on TV. My favourite is It came upon a midnight clear. I think the bit about "man at war with man" is most relevant today. We all want Peace, don't we?

Later we had coffee with a cherry liqueur chocolate each. Aaaah!

On Boxing Day we visited a good friend, drank a refreshing cup of tea, and ate an awful lot of honey roasted cashews. This is what she had on her windowsill.

What a pretty candle-powered mobile! Butterflies can be Christmassy too, as they glitter and turn...

Traditionally, one is supposed give a box of money or food to the poor after Christmas. Hence "boxing" day. Did you know that?

We went visiting again just before New Year.
To the grand-children's house, to exchange Granny's presents. Sorry, Alice's presents.

She got given a DVD of that wonderful film, Dreamchild, about the real Alice. Set in her old age, it looks back to when she first knew Dodgson, and weaves in scenes from the books, using some of the  great Jim Henson puppets.

For more see a trailer at Amazon.com (as an alternative image) plus a learned article in this pdf.

Her son certainly knows her well! She was very pleased indeed. We'll have to watch it soon. And the children enjoyed their colouring books, too.

I really liked the view from under here - though not the falling pine needles... But what a wonderful tree it was!

[Click on the photos, or better still open in a new tab, to see them full size.]

We travelled back on the last day of the year for a quiet Hogmanay at home: a candle of my own, a wee dram, and the fireworks on TV.

We could hear the real ones even from inside. Hmmm, are fireworks on TV not really "real"? Red King again, isn't it?

Best of all, you can cosy up by the fire with your nibbles. Happy New Year! 

And try this version of Auld Lang Syne.

P.S. Confession

Here's the original image from which the first one here was created. Right click and open in a new window or tab to see it just as big. Alice did a nifty job with that one, didn't she?

Oh dear, she's blushing again. But we all need appreciation - if only from a little monkey like me.

Greetings, meetings and music

As you can see, I'm getting ready for the Festive Season. It's great, isn't it, that lots of different religions have festivities at this time? Solstice, turning of the year, end of fasting, return of the light, etc. There's more in January, too.

Alice gave me my very own tree to decorate, but I'm not sure about where to put that lovely bauble... Forgive me for reminding you, but you can click on any photo to see them all a larger size, or open individually in a new tab for glorious full size.

We've posted these greetings now, but you'll see we haven't quite finished the topics below. Come back later, please. Meanwhile, enjoy some festive goodies, like mulled wine; cherry liqueur chocs (Alice's favourites); ham and eggs; haggis, neaps and tatties; or whatever tickles your fancy.  [ Tickles? There you go again - humans!]

Meetings with Masters 1: Yoda

Yoda, of course, is a Master of The Force, who taught many warriors in his 900 years of life. I was privileged to meet with this avatar of him. (And no, I don't mean as in the film Avatar!) I especially liked the way he says, Judge me by my size do you? Size matters not. Gave me a whole new outlook. He was about to go and live with an enthusiastic little boy (Toby, to you) but paid us a visit first, and gave me some training.

It's really tiring keeping the Force going for long enough to make one's light-sabre stay bright. Yoda did give me constant encouragement. Do, or do not, he said. There is no try. But I'm afraid I'll never make it to full Jedi Knight standard, however hard I practise. Sigh.

Well, as Tyrion says, My brother has his sword, and I have my mind. And a mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. That's why I read so much. No wonder he's our favourite character in Game of Thrones. Peter Dinklage is a terrifically good actor - and so sexy too. OK, OK, digression over.

So, I must get Alice to let us watch those Star Wars DVDs again. I mean the ones called Episode IV, V and VI. We purists aren't into the "subsequent prequels" I, II and III. Get your head round that illogicality, if you can! Oooh, that opening "crawl". Love it.

Did you know there's actually a Jedi religion? People even enter it on census forms. They say it's just as much a faith as Scientology. Which leads us to -

Meetings with Masters 2: The Master (the film)

Oh dear! I'm afraid Alice seems to be coming down with a nasty cough and cold (we do hope it isn't the ghastly 'flue, since she had her jag in good time this year) and doesn't really feel up to completing this entry on Meeting with Masters and Music. If only I could type it myself... It's all here in my head!

So please excuse us for now, and look again after Christmas.

Enjoy yourselves if you can - whatever you end up doing.