Reading, Watching, Listening

Reading:

Two charity shop finds have entertained me this week. The first was my lover’s lover by Maggie O’Farrell.  We did The Vanishing Act of Esmee Lennox at the book group and enjoyed it so was happy to pick up another of hers. I actually loved the premise of this story – a woman seeing the ghost of her lover’s former lover all over the place. It was a book about emotions and jealousy and insecurity and half-truths with some exceptional writing.  The one thing that spoiled it for me was the ending so am reluctant to recommend it. No, that’s not fair – the rest of it is really good so go for it if you can bear a poor ending. Just make up your own like I did.

The second book was The Miracles of Santo Fico by D L Smith. This is a book about love and miracles and forgiveness set in a forgotten village in Tuscany.  Father Elio is having a spiritual crisis and Leo orchestrates a miracle to set things right. There is humour and a light touch to what would be great holiday reading.

Watching:

This week I have watched the first series of Black Books, the comedy series with Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig co-written with Graham Linehan (Father Ted). I had forgotten quite how funny this is so there has been much clutching of stitches. (And it was only £9.88 for the boxed set of 3 series so not to be missed.)

My sister loaned me a boxed set of The Lakes which was a series on BBC1 in the late 90s by Jimmy McGovern. I couldn’t understand why I had never even heard of this until I remembered that I didn’t watch TV from 1996-2000 which were my University years. Us oldies needed to study, study, study into the wee small hours. The series was set in the Lake District so beautiful views and back-drops but was very dark.  Murder, mayhem, sex and more sex, rape – it was all there by the bucketload. Good though.

Son #1 persuaded me to get The World’s Fastest Indian and we watched that one night. It stars Anthony Hopkins as a New Zealander (bad accent Anthony) who wants to enter the world speed record on a motorcycle – the Indian of the title. This is such a feel-good movie and really heartwarming. (Film group will see it soon!)

Also have watched the 1st series of Life on Mars which also passed me by. I was more than a little disappointed to find that I now have to watch the second series to find out if he gets back or not.  However, it was mildly amusing and passed an hour or so.

Listening:

Oh such joy since I discovered Spotify.  I’m sure it was one of the young people in the SEC who mentioned it in a blog or on Facebook and I’m so glad they did. Now I get to listen to all my favourite music on my computer without changing cds etc.  Found lots of my old vinyl on it which is probably unplayable now, having moved house a dozen times and they are still living in the garage. The ads are short and fairly unobtrusive too so bearable. Download it now! You won’t regret it.

And who have I been listening to?  Well since you ask… Bach, Dr Hook, Nick Drake, Faure, Barbra Streisand and Craig Armstrong.

 

Amazon Wish List

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Footering around with Amazon today and wondering if this works.

Books and Music

A few books I’ve been reading lately, and also some new music to ponder…

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.  Now I wouldn’t have picked this book myself but as it was forced upon me by a friend and told it was really good and I would love it… well what can you do?  Actually it was quite a good read with a few empowering women bits.  And if you are into knitting it will make you smile here and there.

A Darker Doman by Val McDermid.  This was my first Val McDermid and I don’t really know why she isn’t more widely publicised.  I thought this was just as good as Rankine. Might it be a woman thing? Anyway this story linked up the disappearance of the daughter and grandson of the richest man in Scotland 25 years ago with the Miner’s Strike of 1984. I loved it.

Family Ties by Malcolm Goldsmith.  As Malcolm is known to many of us as priest, campaigner of the spirituality of dementia, prayer and Myers Briggs, and facilitator of our mid-ministry course, then it was a delight to discover that he had written his first work of fiction. This is about relationships and family tensions and I loved it. (Bits of church in there too.)

The Great Lover by Jill Dawson. Just finished this one and still not sure. It tells the story of Rupert Brooke, poet and captor of hearts of men and women alike. It sort of lost momentum for me as it went on but an interesting insight into a complex man.  Quite a bit of sex too. (Not that that’s a bad thing!)

And what have I been listening to?

Well, thanks to Maggi Dawn I have found 2 cds which can be used as reflective mood music on those occasions when you want a group to settle down.

The first one I got was Craig Armstrong Piano Works. There are some beautiful and haunting pieces on this. Lots of ‘I know that tune’ moments too.  I’ll be buying more from this guy.

The second was Mnemosyne by Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble. If you like the sound of a sax and medieval chamber music intertwined then this is for you. Little flock, you shall hear more of this I promise. It is just glorious.

Finally, I’ve been listening (and boogying on down) to Fischy Music’s Down to Earth.  Readers may remember that Fischy Music came and played for us at the end of Junior Church term. We had a great time learning to sign the new songs and having a laugh too. J has requested that we have them on Sundays too so I’ve been revisiting them to see which to have first.

Funeral music

Forget hymns like “Abide With Me”, “Amazing Grace” and “Jerusalem” the next time you attend a funeral, because you’re more likely to hear Monty Python’s “Always Look On The Bright Side of Life” or the theme song from the Benny Hill television show.

A survey of 30,000 funerals conducted last year found that hymns were now the most popular requests at only 35% of services. “My Way” by Frank Sinatra was the most popular, followed by “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler and “Time To Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

“You Raise Me Up” by Westlife and “Angels” by Robbie Williams made the top 10, while X Factor winner Alexandra Burke’s “Hallelujah” was at number 26 only months after topping the Christmas chart.

Lorinda Sheasby, of Co-operative Funeralcare, said the findings indicated that tastes are changing, with television programs and chart hits influencing people’s choices.

“Today’s tear-jerking chart topper is extremely unlikely to be tomorrow’s funeral classic but it’s quite possible it will figure highly in the months or even years to come.”

On the downside, priests reject one in 10 requests, including those for AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” and “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen. Even further on the downside is that some requests are for theme songs from soap operas.

People must be awfully dull round here because I hardly ever get asked for anything like the above. My biggest problem just now is that Dad is requesting Courage Brother, Do Not Stumble. Quite. Have you ever heard it?

The Priests

Surely I can’t be the only one who, when they see an advert for the new CD by The Priests, thinks of Father Ted?

Singalong a Missa Simplex

I went to choir practice last night. Not to sing per se, but to lurk and learn the new mass setting which will be given an airing on our Patronal Festival this Friday. The Bishop is coming and we want to be at our best.

I liked it. It is in the back of our hymn book (Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New) – No 957 Missa Simplex by Malcolm Archer. If I managed it then everyone else should too. But you know what it’s like with something new…

Something else I noticed… one of my fave hymns is In our Day of Thanksgiving which we used to sing at St Michael and All Saints to the tune St Catherine’s Court. But all the newer hymn books have it to the tune Was Lebet which is easier but not so nice, imho. What do you sing it to?

Music at St Mark’s

Just back from a great afternoon of  music at St Mark’s. Our own Bridget, husband Lawrence, friend Wendy Weatherby and others entertained us for hours with music to singalong to or tap our feet. The worrying thing is that I knew far too many of the old songs. Does that mean I am actually old or just appreciate old music?

Took me back to my dad playing Stardust and The Old Music Master by Hoagy Carmichael on the piano for me when I was little. And now my boys like some of my music too and not just hiphop and whatever else is prevalent these days. It’s good to be broadminded in music.

It’s good to be broadminded full stop.

Set the Mood

What am I listening to today? Well, thank you for asking. I started off with mellow classical to try and calm me down. There is nothing quite like Farewell to Stromness for soothing my troubled spirits. (The linked version is guitars and not piano, but you get the drift.) But I am afraid it was going to take more than that when I am suffering from pre-Holy week nerves and stress.

So I decided to go for my new album Set the Mood by David Jordan. (He’s the one who sings Sun Goes Down.) Funky is good for lifting the spirits. Try him out. I like it. He’s a wee bit of Prince and a wee bit of Terence Trent Darby and a big bit of himself, I dare say.

Round 1 : Organ vs Heating

We had the organ tuners round yesterday. They had asked for the church to be heated to its normal Sunday morning temperature. I suspected this was more for their benefit than for the organ’s and who can blame them? Four hours in a freezing church must do nothing for your tuning abilities.

It was my day off but I had popped in with some more goodies for the Advent Fayre tomorrow (today now, if you want to come). I stopped for a chat to see how it was all going and was met with a tale of woes. In the past our poor old organ has suffered greatly from water coming in from a leaky roof. But no more, since the roof was repaired last year. Now the problem is the heat! They said they had never known such a warm church. Haven’t I been saying that all along?

People come to St Mark’s and take off all their clothes immediately. Well not all, but you know what I mean. Then I have to put on two layers of polyester and heavy brocade and proceed to bloom/perspire/sweat at a great rate, losing about a stone at each service. Well not quite, but you know what I mean.

The result of this toastiness is that the leathers have cracked, the wood has split and all in all it has done a lot of damage to the organ. It is going to cost mega-bucks to fix. Like enough money to save Darfur from starvation, or the equivalent. We don’t have that much money and if we did, would we want to spend it on the organ? Oh what a dilemma.

In the short term they are doing what they can but have suggested the heating is turned down to a reasonable level and install a humidifier within the organ. This also costs mega-bucks but not as many as would feed a small starving nation.

So what do we do? My heart knows how important music is to our liturgy. My head knows that this a lot of money to spend on a musical instrument when people are starving. Help!

Temptations and The Four Tops

Bit of a sore throat this morning after singing my wee heart out last night with Son #1 at the Temptations and Four Tops concert. Son #2 had bought the tickets – he learned his love of Motown from his old mum – but as he is still down-under he couldn’t go. I did try to sell his tickets, honest.  So we went instead and Son #1 was a tad reluctant, having lots of studying to do and being far too cool to enjoy some very old boy bands.

Well, apart from the woman on Prozac, he was first on his feet to boogie on down. What a night! It was just wonderful. Everyone was up dancing, artificial hips, knees and all. I haven’t had so much exercise in a long time. Just great.