mad musings of me

Announcing my whereabouts

Often I go to things, concerts and the like, and I return to the blogosphere and discover that someone on my blogroll has been there as well, or someone leaves a comment.

I wonder, because I freely publish pictures of myself on t'internet whether people see me and say 'oh it's that woman who blogs' but feel shy of saying hello because I write like I'm a stroppy bitch well, it can feel funny approaching someone you don't really know.

And occasionally people have approached me and it's a funny situation because it's different from a random conversation with a random stranger, because maybe I know something about them and they know something about me, and I'm conscious that people can sometimes find me, how shall I put it, over-confident, but that's only a bluff for being shy, then I'm conscious of not being over-confident but I go all shy anyway, and I say I need to go to the loo, which isn't really a lie, and then I worry that maybe they think I'm rude. Which perhaps I am but only because I'm shy and conscious of being overconfident because I'm shy.

But I never mind someone approaching me and saying "I know you off the internet" and introducing themselves, in fact I can safely say it's really nice when that happens. And I can almost always be found in the place where smoking is allowed.

But is it wise to announce my whereabouts in advance? I mean, okay, it could mean some weirdo could approach me but a weirdo could approach me anyway without preplanning or without even knowing about the blog, so what's the harm in saying where I'll be before I'll be there?

Goa photos

Under Developed: Goa Archives

I have finally finished editing my photos from Goa. Not the most exciting photos from not the most exciting holiday. Oh well, you live and learn.

Weather permitting, we are planning a G&J; big adventure this weekend in our travels round SE England. Time to get this photoblog back on the road.

Hello Google

Just for a laugh, I thought I would post a photo of the biggest cock I have ever seen.

MAssive cock

Shame I didn't get a better photo

Three Superstars in Berlin

According to this article Variety, German TV company Unitel will be filming the "Three Superstars in Berlin" (Domingo, Netrebko and Villazón) concert. I wonder whether it will be televised or whether fans will have to wait for the DVD (may I pre-order now).

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Light

Okay, a pretty stupid title for a post but I couldn't resist after the previous post those reading by categories please look suitably confused...!

But there were pleasant signs of the imminent arrival of Spring and the evenings becoming lighter as I went out to this concert. Just before the conductor came on the platform the curtains opened in the hall to let the light stream in through stained-glass windows. There is little pleasanter than spending a spring's evening in a sunlight filled concert hall. A chilled glass of white would top it off nicely, but alas, no.

The title of the concert was City of London Sinfonia and Opera Holland Park present Anne-Sophie Duprels singing Strauss's Four Last Songs, timed no doubt to coincide with the opening of public booking for Opera Holland Park's season.

The programme was discussed elsewhere on the internet and I swiftly concluded that I barely knew any of the items on the programme. Such is life, I thought.

Britten: Soirees Musicales
Puccini: Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut
Catalani: Ebben, ne andro lontano from La Wally
Giordano: Intermezzo from Fedora
Tchaikovsky: Overture-fantasy Romeo and Juliet
Weber: Overture Der Freischutz
Strauss: Four Last Songs

(conductor: Peter Robinson)

The concert opened and I remembered I had heard Britten's Soiree's Musicals less than four months ago in the same venue. Except that this evening we only got three of the movements. I considered that a shame because the concert wasn't overlong so we could have had a bit more. And I have to say that it was played better in December than it was this evening. In my humble opinion. But, at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, every time I hear Britten I like him more and more.

I certainly know the intermezzo from Manon Lescaut and I have every intention of booking to see Manon Lescaut this coming summer. It's a bit neglected as far as Puccini goes (but I could recommend a couple of splendid DVDs...!). I love it, I love the music and I find the story absorbing.

Of course I know the aria from La Wally. I was wondering whether the actual opera is ever actually performed. A search on Operabase yielded three performances around the new year in Dusseldorf, but I suspect they are rare. This aria is in the portfolio of every soprano worth her salt, and Anne-Sophie Duprels sung it delightfully.

I then realised that I also know the intermezzo from Fedora, and, especially the quoting of that wonderful tenor aria, Amor ti vieta. I think I will also book to see Fedora at OHP.

The Tchaikovsky had barely begun when I realised that, of course, I am tremendously familiar with it. God, how much I like Tchaikovsky. I presume this was stuck in as a sort of taster for Queen of Spades which I will probably book at OHP in the summer. A wonderful piece of music wonderfully orchestrated that just puts a great big smile on my face. Up until then I had been rather unsure of the orchestra but something happened in this piece, my highlight of the evening On all the occasions I have been to Cadogan Hall I have been sat downstairs; this evening I was in the balcony and I just revelled in a glorious acoustic as the sound of the orchestra swelled around me. Worth the price of the ticket in itself.

After the interval was the overture to Der Freischutz. I enjoyed that, too. I thought 'it's a bit wannabe Wagner', then checking my programme, I realised that Weber predated Wagner. I don't know a great deal of Weber - this opera is sitting in my pile of DVDs 'to be played'. But one of my favourite 'unknown' pieces of music is his Konzertstück for piano and orchestra.

The concert ended with Strauss's four Last Songs, which are beautiful. And they were performed fine. I have a lovely CD at home with Lucia Popp singing them, and, inevitably, one always compares the live performance with the CD. And I prefer the CD. I felt that in this performance the singer's voice was very much part of the orchestra, which was interesting, but I prefer to have the voice over the orchestra. And whilst Anne Duprels has a pleasant voice, with no obvious flaws, it never quite the spot with me.

Overall, I would put this down as a nice and pleasant evening rather than one that necessarily roused my passions. And I do so like Cadogan Hall as a venue. It takes a bit of time to exit, although because the balconies were far from full, it was not a problem. But most importantly, the acoustics are good, and the hall is comfortable. For lovers of legroom, there is loads in the balcony. And it's really easy to escape to the outside world.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Oh, the Eighties!

OMD.

Or as they were very early on OMITD. Very popular they were in the Eighties. And I am very much a product of the Eighties. Everyone seemed to like OMD, but I do not recall anyone having teenage crushes on OMD. I don't remember any letters to Smash Hits or Just Seventeen from people angsting in their tormented teenaged bedrooms over OMD.

But I think most of us liked OMD.

I bought quite a few of their singles. In fact I would say of all the singles I own, Joan of Arc has the most satisfying cover. Not necessarily the most exciting, but it has a sleek beauty about it.

In the early, 1990s when Smash hits was de rigeur reading among many of my twenty-something colleagues (not least myself) we were somehow horrified and disappointed that they were back in the charts and back in Smash Hits. It didn't seem right, it was as if they had somehow lost their integrity. They were never a plastic manufactured band, they were artists.

It turns out they are due to tour with Joy Division. Ooh, guess the average age of the audience. 41, I reckon. And now, I don't see it as a loss of integrity or anything such. I would imagine it would be a good night out, some good tunes. I hope some youngsters do go, learn why old folks like me have such indifference to modern commercialised pop. No dates yet.

  Every song on the album is good, but if the truth be told, the highlight of the album comes in a sequence of four tracks: Enola Gay, Souvenir, Joan of Arc and Maid Orleans. As for the rest, they would probably induce a smile of nostalgia if heard on the radio or a compilation album, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Of these Joan of Arc is the only one for consideration in my Top 100 pop sings of all time. It reached number five in the autumn of 1981. 1981 is undisoutedly the best year for pop music, and the autumn was extraordinary.

I have this album on vinyl (which I have recorded onto cassette) but even at Ł3.33 - probably less than half of what I paid for the original vinyl) I am not over-tempted to take this into my digital collection.

Applause for Rolando

Someone's helpfully posted a clip of Rolando Villazon on Saturday night at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Well, mainly of applause, a few seconds of No Puede Ser, then the clip ends. Oh well :-(

Shame he had to cancel tonight's performance in Eugene Onegin at Covent Garden (see, I get my spies texting me from the Amphitheatre bar and the Stage Door).

Note to self: My camera also shoots poor quality video.

Criminal Injustice

A hit-and-run driver has been jailed for 18 months over the death of student Abigail Craen.

He sped off after crashing into her on a pedestrian crossing and propelling her 30 metres along the road.

Accidents happen.

This was not an accident.

He behaved in a way that a reasonable person would reasonably assume might cause injury or death. I'm not suggesting that he intended to kill anybody. But as a direct result of his actions, someone is dead. He jumped a red light at speed; in addition he was driving without insurance (which isn't dangerous in itself but can indicate a calllous disregard).

If he had been involved in a provoked fight outside a pub and had killed his combatant, he would have been prosecuted for manslaughter. He would have had to serve a number of years, not just a few months. If he had been in possession of drugs, or selling them to consenting adults, he would have been sent down for years and years.

But somehow, because his wilful actions involved a motor vehicle, he just has to spend another four months in prison. I do not think that is just.

Fish revisited

About eighteen months ago I reported on Tesco's capricious misuse of the word "Vegetarian".

Today, that entry has been linked from a forum which is discussing the same issue

A poster there writes about the moronic and dishonest response she got from Tesco, who said

I do apologise that you where shocked to find fish in a vegetarian product and I apologise for the upset caused.

There is a vegetarian called a Pesco-vegetarians which means they eat fish, dairy and eggs..."Therefore, as the content of fish is suitable for some forms of vegetarianism, for example Pesco Vegetarianism, Semi-Vegetarianism and Macrobiotic Vegetarianism, we will continue to show our Vegetarian symbol on products which contain fish, so long as there are no animal by-products."

Based on this I would warn you to exercise extreme caution in regard to anything that the lying bunch of tosspots at Tesco say regarding what is in their food.

I need a drink...!

The rolling acres at Gert Cottage

Attitude problem

BBC NEWS | England | Kent | Three more hosepipe bans come in

This probably makes me morally wrong. You can tell me "if everyone else took your attitude..."

You can point out that we all have a responsibility towards society. Every little counts.

But while car washes and golf courses continue to use water, probbaly more in a day than I use for the entire year in my garden, well, shrug. It's not clear what the position is on swimming pools.

I mean we do have a water butt, and we've been using it to water the garden since we got back from holiday...not the past few days because it's actually been raining. But last summer, for example, we did get the hosepipe out on a couple of dozen occasions. And this year will be no different.

Update: Hosepipe ban criticised by union

Just 7% of rainfall in the South East was used by the public according to the GMB, and reservoirs were sold off and filled in for residential developments but new ones had not been built.

Meanwhile, firms had failed to repair Britain's creaking water system while paying out dividends to shareholders and in some areas more than a quarter of the water supply leaked out each day.

The Horticultural Trades Association said the hosepipe ban "doesn't even work as it currently stands." It said the rules were confused and gardeners need clarification.

With water wastage running at 793 million gallons every day, water company measures to reduce this leakage would be far more effective in tackling the shortage.

Not only that, but the hosepipe ban doesn't even work as it currently stands. For example you can use a hosepipe to fill your swimming pool, but not to keep alive plants which benefit the environment.

"People growing vegetables on a council allotment can irrigate them with a hose but gardeners growing vegetables in the back garden are prohibited.

Pressies and prizes

I've just been tidying up the internet a bit.

Currently, this blog contains 3495 entires (I'm not sure if that includes the unpublished ones) and 9100 comments.

Still a way to go to 10,000 comments, but when I reach that number I shall sound the trumpet and award small prizes: for the most prolific commenter in the life of this blog; for the most prolific of the next 900 comments; and for comment number 10,000

I think this is known as whoring

Not a welcome headline

Ruud intervention revives race for the title

I rather wish the news people would shut up about it. I don't want to read headlines like that or hear news stories that it's game on. I don't want to know about 1996 or 2003, Newcastle and Arsenal.

A girl can dream. A girl does dream. But I had hoped it would be a secret, that nobody would notice. And now, with Easter late and the Premiership far from settled mathematically, the dreams can form, even though the girl knows that in 7 May if not before she will be crying into her flat champagne.

Chelsea are not going to implode. They have stumbled, maybe they will do so again. In my memory no team has ever become champions without a hiccup or two. Penultimate match of the season, Chelsea v Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. Potentially a six-pointer. If the matter is not decided by then, one can be sure that Chelsea will win all six points and will somehow engineer that they get an additional point, too.

But there is a little part of me - okay, a big part of me - that hopes that this disaster of a season when so many doubts have been cast over the ability of individuals, the capability of the team and the judgement of the manager, that almost by stealth we will emerge with a Domestic Double of trophies. But I have supported United for far too long now and know that rampant momentum is usually followed by prat falls.

You've had your chips

I don't know why I bother.

In a pub last night, we ordered a snack to eat. I ordered a five bean chilli. Or rather, Jimmy ordered it on my behalf. He was offered a choice of chips or rice, and thinking on his feet he chose chips. He got a burger, which, of course comes with chips.

Waiting for the food, I went to get the sauces. There was no vinegar in the baskets, so I went to the bar and said "You've run out of vinegar."

"Yeah," said the manager. "We ran out. We'll get more in tomorrow."

Surprised, I exclaimed "What - you're serving chips without having any vinegar?"

And the manager sneered at me and super-sarcastically said "Yeah, we ran out. It happens."

Now, if you were running a pub that serves meals*, most of which are served with chips, and especially on a Friday, and you ran out of vinegar, would you:

a) put a sign up saying 'No vinegar';
b) Mention to customers ordering chips that there's no vinegar;
c) nip round to the shop two minutes walk away and buy a bottle of Sarsons;
d) sneer at your customer who expects to be able to put vinegar on her chips?

Answers on a postcard to the Manager, Wetherspoons, Crum and Septic, Streatham Hill SW2

So they got rid of one misogynist manager with a power complex to replace her with someone for whom Customer Service is a foreign language. Where do they get these muppets from?

* well, they masquerade as meals, anyway, but we'll gloss over that

Cheops and Sphinx

Sometimes when I haven't a great deal to say I post a favourite photo from the archives of Under Developed

The Pyramid at Cheops and the Sphinx

At the time I thought it was a great photo. I still like it, but I see too much graininess now. A better camera with a better lens is what I needed!

Baritone stalking TV alert

You may recall that six weeks ago SOSSLED went baritone stalking. In the intervening period, our barihunks have moved onto pastures new and SOSSLED have also moved on, as we do.

However, we can visit this splendid production of my most favourite opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, tomorrow afternoon on the TV. BBC2, 1615 - 1930.

Anna Russell

  Not an album to play over-and again, and not really one to put onto mp3-player, but nevertheless a bloody good record. There is humour throughout but the absolutely classic track is Ring Of The Nibelungs.

Ring Of The Nibelungs? you ask. Hasn't someone else done this already?

Funny you should say this. Wagner. Wagner's version takes 14 CDs and requires an orchestra of over a hundred, and cast of dozens, but Anna does it in 21 minutes and 40 seconds, just her and a piano. I'm not making this up, you know. Those who know the Ring enjoy it because it's absolutely spot on. And funny.

But it's also extraordinarily informative. If you don't really know the Ring, or kind of know it, but get confused, this is an easy twenty minutes crammer. Reportedly, it's used on university courses as introduction to the Ring.

On Easter Monday Radio 3 is broadcasting an entire Ring Cycle (Barenboim from Bayreuth in 1993) but for me, I shall be able to issue the immortal words "Next is Götterdämmerung!". Later in the Spring BBCTV is broadcasting the entire Ring but both they and the Royal Opera House are keeping very quiet about it on their websites. I would suggest that you play Anna Russell's Ring of the Nibelungs as preparation...!

Forty approaches

As I occasionally remind my readers I am intended on blogging all my record collection before I reach that illusive 40.

It's been on hiatus. Partly because I lost a couple of draft posts when I lost my old ocmputer.

Partly because in getting an mp3 player I have been doing some weird things with my CD collection, including completely changing the storage system, which has somehow made the selection of discs somewhat harder. (Don't ask why...).

And Bach. I've had real problems trying to blog Bach. Bach is unbloggable. I wil try again in 2008. In th emeantime I shall move on swiftly and hope you haven't noticed the absence of Bach...!

This is a filler entry. Move swiftly on, please

Linking

I stumbled on Martern Faller Aparten - A Soprano on her Ass by accident and then I couldn't stop reading. In one of her posts she describes herself as 'leftest of lefties', she has kick-ass attitude and she finds some mean links.

The two best I found were The Bush family's kitchen nightmares and the sadly discontinued Iinappropriately Dressed, which reminds me a little of Annie's London Underground Fashion Victims, nicely compiled on Flickr.

I so wish for the courage or chutzpah to take such photos but my main camera is far too conspicuous and I'm not sure my phone would produce useable pictures, especially out of daylight. And I wonder whether it's ethical or sensible to take photos of people at one's workplace

Annie does not like fishnet tights. On someone's blog a week or two ago (was it you? Remind me!) I read that 80s-style patterned tights are back in fashion and they expressed dismay at that.

This puts me in a dilemma. I don't do fashion, not really. Okay I happen to like swishy bootleg or flared trousers, but largely because they suit me. I don't actually wear skirts and dresses very often, until it gets hot and then it's bare-legs. And many of my skirts and dresses are long, often ankle-length*.

That aside, in the Eighties, I lurved patterned tights, fishnet or not. Well, stockings really, I hate tights, stockings much better. And I keep seeing women in their Twenties wearing patterned tights, often quasi-fishnet. I like them, I'm tempted, but in my way-past Twenties stage of life would they make me look a complete numpty?

* obviously, they're not designed that way, but when you're 5'2" that's where they end up

Music Meme

Picked up from the internet!

The instructions were to put my music player on "shuffle" , ask the question and then push "play" to see what comes up.

1. How does the world see you?

Salut! Demeure chaste et pure (from Gounod's Faust)

2. Will I have a happy life?

Single Girl: Lush

3. What do my friends really think of me?

Mein lieber Hippolyte (from Struass's Rosenkavalier)

Hippolyte was queen of the Amazons, a tribe of women warriors

4. Do people secretly lust after me?

Angel - Adam Ant

5. How can I make myself happy?

Bella figlia dell'amore (from Verdi's Rigoletto)

Well, I wouldn't over-analyse the libretto, but listening to music as superbly beautiful as this will at least lift the spirits, if not guarantee everlasting happiness.

6. What should I do with my life?

Some Might Say - Oasis

7. Will I ever have children?

Somedays I See the Point - Billy Bragg

It's not a helpful answer to this question, but a fabulous anthem for life:

Never saw a meaningful tv advert, I don’t think shopping is a metaphor for life
Don’t waste my time at the gym in the morning, try to keep trim by living my life

Every day and in every way Billy speaks to me.

8. What is some good advice for me?

Wild is the Wind - David Bowie

You touch me, I hear the sound of mandolins
You kiss me
With your kiss my life begins
You're spring to me, all things to me
Don't you know, you're life itself!

9. How will I be remembered?

High and Dry - Radiohead

Never high, rarely dry...

10. What is my signature dancing song?

Voulez Vous - Abba

11. What do I think my current theme song is?

The Housatonic at Stockbridge - Charles Ives

12. What does everyone else think my current theme song is?

North Sea Bubble - Billy Bragg

13. What song will play at my funeral?

O Come Everyone That Thirsteth - from Mendelssohn's Elijah

14. What type of women / men do you like?

Pursue thy Conquest (from Purcell's Dido & Aeneas

15. What is my day going to be like?

Art Thou Troubled? (from Handel's Rodelinda)

Art thou troubled? Music will calm thee
Art thou weary? Rest shall be thine
Music, source of all gladness heals thy sadness at her shrine.
Music, music ever divine.
Music, music calleth with voice divine.

When the welcome spring is smiling,
all the earth with flow'rs beguiling after winter's dreary reign,
sweetest music doth attend her,
heavenly harmonies doth lend her,
chanting praises in her train.

Fabulous

I don't tag people and when I'm tagged I have a mental block, but the challenge is yours, should you wish to take it!

* I currently have about half of my collection on Zerlina