It's Halloween, yet another one of those holidays that has never meant anything personally at all. Never has Halloween made any difference to my life, apart from occasional sightings of drunken students out and about in the distance. Growing up on the outskirts of a poor little village in South Wales, nothing ever happened at all. Much like Christmas, it's a gigantic personal nothing, but so many people seem to enjoy it! How cute!
It might be the dressing up. Is that what the kids like? Or is it the sugar poisoning? We may never know. Halloween is a comparatively new thing for the United Kingdom, and growing rapidly here as well as in Europe. Trick or treating is almost not an event in the country, but pops up in the more urban areas, and candy/pumpkin sales seem to grow every year.
Ah, Halloween, the strangest festival of the year, based in ancient pagan festivals or superstitions? What are the origins of this odd holiday? You can look up the current state of speculation on Wikipedia, but the influences and implications are so mixed at this point as to make a complete hodge podge. Christianity, ghosts and spirits, capitalistic exploitation, witchcraft and booze all ooze into one strange night.
Halloween, Halloween, what strange things have you seen?
It's nice to not have that copy editing project hanging around any more. It not only means other projects are good to go, but also that there is time to go on long bicycle trips to Loughor along the wonderful Wales Coastal Path. Relaxation at last. The golf course looked pretty awesome too, but that's for richer people. You never would have thought it was Halloween.
O.
Saturday, 31 October 2015
Thursday, 29 October 2015
Story: The Ninja of Health, V
( Part IV , VI )
Something was loose, and the two of them could feel it. It was intangible, but there, loose in the pattern of nature that they had inhabited for so long.
Around the former chapel that they called their home, the little world of Toddlingham continued on its merry little way, apparently untouched apart from the smouldering ruins of the allotments.
The two warriors of health sat in their circular places on the great patterned floor of the dinky little church, and centred themselves. Around them, the pattern shifted, swirls rotating, and spirals pushing out into new directions. The voids, spirals and intersections drifted slowly, changing the whole chaotic system, except for the singularities within which they laboured. Sweat was beading on the Woman's forehead, and the Man's fingers went white from effort as they bent their wills to merging with the world they lived in.
The concentration in the air waxed, and reached a new level as the Man and the Woman achieved their harmony with each other as well as the planet. The floor revolved about their places like two gears seeking a new match. Finally, the tension waned, and the two opened their eyes from their circular sanctuaries in the Floor of Spirals.
Between them, there was a third circle, where none had been before.
To be continued...
Something was loose, and the two of them could feel it. It was intangible, but there, loose in the pattern of nature that they had inhabited for so long.
Around the former chapel that they called their home, the little world of Toddlingham continued on its merry little way, apparently untouched apart from the smouldering ruins of the allotments.
The two warriors of health sat in their circular places on the great patterned floor of the dinky little church, and centred themselves. Around them, the pattern shifted, swirls rotating, and spirals pushing out into new directions. The voids, spirals and intersections drifted slowly, changing the whole chaotic system, except for the singularities within which they laboured. Sweat was beading on the Woman's forehead, and the Man's fingers went white from effort as they bent their wills to merging with the world they lived in.
The concentration in the air waxed, and reached a new level as the Man and the Woman achieved their harmony with each other as well as the planet. The floor revolved about their places like two gears seeking a new match. Finally, the tension waned, and the two opened their eyes from their circular sanctuaries in the Floor of Spirals.
Between them, there was a third circle, where none had been before.
To be continued...
Tuesday, 27 October 2015
The Melange of Miscellaneous Topics
I've been listening to a lot of the old Jack Benny radio show as I work through this copy editing project, and it's fascinating. It's worthy of its own post one day soon, for its sheer cleverness and originality, even back in that golden age of radio. Amazing. Even the sponsor messages are dealt with in a funny way, at least until tobacco took over paying for it all.
Oh, the copy editing goes on, and on, and on... It never ends! Actually, it may well end tomorrow, leading to the golden moment at the end when the invoice gets compiled from LaTeX, and gets sent off with its inevitable return as actual money. It is a mercenary process, after all, even if the process is extremely rewarding in the way it improves language ability. Writing is so much easier when you have spent days on end re-writing other people's work. It's the best creative work out you can conceive of, if the original text is difficult to work with.
Moving on, British Summer Time is over, finally, and real time is our friend once again. The time on the clock is now (roughly) in synch with where the sun is in the sky, and everything is just a bit easier. It may still be the wrong half of the year, with variant winter depression due to the shortening days, but at least the time is right, or as right as it can possibly be. We're actually about a minute off GMT here, which is already too much information to give away! Roughly, every four degrees of longitude is equal to a minutes difference from the Greenwich Meridian. That's your fact of the day, and one I'll use when explaining time to my students in the future.
Isn't the winter great for sleeping? Isn't it awesome? Even a demented and deranged paranoid such as this author gets to relax and not feel stressed. It's wonderful.
Now, back to 'Groucho Marx, Master Detective', which is proving very diverting. After that, 'Bank Shot' and then the general pile of books in progress. Oh, it's great to have books!
Well, it's a strange ending to a blog, but it will do.
O.
Oh, the copy editing goes on, and on, and on... It never ends! Actually, it may well end tomorrow, leading to the golden moment at the end when the invoice gets compiled from LaTeX, and gets sent off with its inevitable return as actual money. It is a mercenary process, after all, even if the process is extremely rewarding in the way it improves language ability. Writing is so much easier when you have spent days on end re-writing other people's work. It's the best creative work out you can conceive of, if the original text is difficult to work with.
Moving on, British Summer Time is over, finally, and real time is our friend once again. The time on the clock is now (roughly) in synch with where the sun is in the sky, and everything is just a bit easier. It may still be the wrong half of the year, with variant winter depression due to the shortening days, but at least the time is right, or as right as it can possibly be. We're actually about a minute off GMT here, which is already too much information to give away! Roughly, every four degrees of longitude is equal to a minutes difference from the Greenwich Meridian. That's your fact of the day, and one I'll use when explaining time to my students in the future.
Isn't the winter great for sleeping? Isn't it awesome? Even a demented and deranged paranoid such as this author gets to relax and not feel stressed. It's wonderful.
Now, back to 'Groucho Marx, Master Detective', which is proving very diverting. After that, 'Bank Shot' and then the general pile of books in progress. Oh, it's great to have books!
Well, it's a strange ending to a blog, but it will do.
O.
Sunday, 25 October 2015
Film: 'Bell, Book And Candle' (1958)
Fascinating, and utterly beautiful. What a fascinating time it is when you discover a movie that is utterly different to everything else you've seen. That is what happened with 'Bell, Book and Candle' (BBAC). Maybe it was the off-kilter combination of Kim Novak and James Stewart, or the deeply dippy performances of Elsa Lanchester and Jack Lemmon. Maybe it was the utterly beautiful cinematography or the score? Or the creepiness? Was it the creepiness? It can be a very creepy movie, especially at the beginning, but it is tied into the evolution of Novak's character, who literally becomes more human through the machinations of the plot. The whole movie literally defrosts as she does.
Oh, okay, a few words on the plot. Let's be conventional. Yawn. Adapted from the play of the same name, BBAC is about a bored witch called Gillian, who runs a small African art gallery, and lives below James Stewart's publisher Shep (yes, it never stops being strange hearing someone be called 'Shep'), who in turn lives below Gillian's daffy auntie Matilda (Lanchester). Desperate to meet someone interesting, and finding out that Shep's fiancée was one of her old antagonists at college, Gillian bewitches Shep and from there the story unfolds.
It could have just been a regular romantic comedy, but there's something indefinable here. Perhaps it's just the good fortune of having Jack Lemmon and James Stewart in the same film, in one of the great casting lucky dips. Yes, it was before Lemmon made it big with 'Some Like It Hot', but he obviously already had star power. Maybe it's Ernie Kovacs, weaving his ridiculous charm around a supporting role as an expert in the arcane arts, or the director Richard Quine. His work on 'How To Murder Your Wife' was extraordinarily pretty too, and I'm not someone who's normally blown away by visuals.
It's not entirely clear to me how the original theatrical play would have looked. There were a significant number of locations in the film, after all, but perhaps I'm being too literally minded. It wouldn't be that difficult, and magic has been a staple of the theatre for a long time. It wouldn't be sets that were the problems, but the cat! And the parrot! Oh, yes, there's a cat. You have been warned. In any case, enough about the play. If I ever get to see it, I'll explain the differences. In detail. You may need a thermos.
BBAC is roundly declared to be James Stewart's last romantic lead role, ending the grand run that encompassed 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington', 'Rear Window', 'The Philadelphia Story' and many others. His is a fascinating presence in the film, where his main purpose is to be (presumably) magically bamboozled, but still maintain his incredible credibility. Of course, he manages that by sheer virtue of being James Stewart, who also starred with Novak in 'Vertigo' in that same year. His following film was 'Anatomy of a Murder', which together form an impressive hat trick. A ludicrous hat trick.
The mystery of Kim Novak grows. Between this and 'Kiss Me, Stupid', it's entirely unclear just what her mysterious power is, but it works. Is she a great actress? I have no idea. She does an amazing job here, just as he did in 'Kiss Me, Stupid'. Very curious. That intangible but unmistakeable distance has to be as much her work as Quine's. She's the one that gets that tune trapped in our heads, after all. For a long time, I didn't realise that her character was intended to be that way, that it wasn't just a weird performance. Maybe that's why it's confusing?
Oh, enough of this rambling. 'Bell, Book and Candle' is a film well worth seeing, and one that has jumped to the top of my 'eventual buy' list. Now, back to 'Groucho Marx, Master Detective' and birthday present wrapping. Where is that staple gun, and the scaled replica of Mozart? I wish they'd hat the twelve foot Beethoven.
O.
Oh, okay, a few words on the plot. Let's be conventional. Yawn. Adapted from the play of the same name, BBAC is about a bored witch called Gillian, who runs a small African art gallery, and lives below James Stewart's publisher Shep (yes, it never stops being strange hearing someone be called 'Shep'), who in turn lives below Gillian's daffy auntie Matilda (Lanchester). Desperate to meet someone interesting, and finding out that Shep's fiancée was one of her old antagonists at college, Gillian bewitches Shep and from there the story unfolds.
It could have just been a regular romantic comedy, but there's something indefinable here. Perhaps it's just the good fortune of having Jack Lemmon and James Stewart in the same film, in one of the great casting lucky dips. Yes, it was before Lemmon made it big with 'Some Like It Hot', but he obviously already had star power. Maybe it's Ernie Kovacs, weaving his ridiculous charm around a supporting role as an expert in the arcane arts, or the director Richard Quine. His work on 'How To Murder Your Wife' was extraordinarily pretty too, and I'm not someone who's normally blown away by visuals.
It's not entirely clear to me how the original theatrical play would have looked. There were a significant number of locations in the film, after all, but perhaps I'm being too literally minded. It wouldn't be that difficult, and magic has been a staple of the theatre for a long time. It wouldn't be sets that were the problems, but the cat! And the parrot! Oh, yes, there's a cat. You have been warned. In any case, enough about the play. If I ever get to see it, I'll explain the differences. In detail. You may need a thermos.
BBAC is roundly declared to be James Stewart's last romantic lead role, ending the grand run that encompassed 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington', 'Rear Window', 'The Philadelphia Story' and many others. His is a fascinating presence in the film, where his main purpose is to be (presumably) magically bamboozled, but still maintain his incredible credibility. Of course, he manages that by sheer virtue of being James Stewart, who also starred with Novak in 'Vertigo' in that same year. His following film was 'Anatomy of a Murder', which together form an impressive hat trick. A ludicrous hat trick.
The mystery of Kim Novak grows. Between this and 'Kiss Me, Stupid', it's entirely unclear just what her mysterious power is, but it works. Is she a great actress? I have no idea. She does an amazing job here, just as he did in 'Kiss Me, Stupid'. Very curious. That intangible but unmistakeable distance has to be as much her work as Quine's. She's the one that gets that tune trapped in our heads, after all. For a long time, I didn't realise that her character was intended to be that way, that it wasn't just a weird performance. Maybe that's why it's confusing?
Oh, enough of this rambling. 'Bell, Book and Candle' is a film well worth seeing, and one that has jumped to the top of my 'eventual buy' list. Now, back to 'Groucho Marx, Master Detective' and birthday present wrapping. Where is that staple gun, and the scaled replica of Mozart? I wish they'd hat the twelve foot Beethoven.
O.
Saturday, 24 October 2015
'The Play Is The Thing' or 'Goodbye, Daylight Saving Time!'
It's nice to go to the theatre, a fascinating experience on almost every occasion. Tonight it will be 'The 39 Steps' at the Lyric Theatre in Carmarthen, presumably the same version I saw in Aberystwyth many moons ago. When did a 'moon' stop being a common measurement of time? We should bring it back. 'The 39 Steps' is one of the most adapted novels in history, and one of the most frequently 'loosely' adapted. It's just a wonderful and malleable adventure story, which I'll get around to describing when next I read it. The most famous version is probably the Hitchcock film with Donat and Carroll, followed distantly by any of the others that you would care to name. I'll write about tonight's production tomorrow, if it's noteworthy.
Daylight Savings Time ends here in Britain, and indeed in the whole EU, tonight. Yes, the season of false time is ended and real time is upon us once again, and I get to reiterate my abortive rant on the horrors of foisting such a bodge on the public. Oh, so many people get depressed, internally confused, and lost that it surely can't be worth it. Can it? Couldn't people affected just shift their own working hours if they wanted to? In any case, it will be nice to not be running a dual clock in my mind for the next few months, and it will relieve the seasonal blues to a great extent.
Yes, seasonal depression is a real thing. Trust me on this.
What would it be like to be part of a theatrical production? I've often considered it, and then realised that a lack of personal tact is probably not the best thing to throw into a high pressure mixture... In any case, I don't have enough hats to be an amateur actor. I'm reasonably sure that you have to have lots of hats, to serve as character motivation. Isn't that right? Don't you at least need a safari hat and a policeman's helmet?
O.
Daylight Savings Time ends here in Britain, and indeed in the whole EU, tonight. Yes, the season of false time is ended and real time is upon us once again, and I get to reiterate my abortive rant on the horrors of foisting such a bodge on the public. Oh, so many people get depressed, internally confused, and lost that it surely can't be worth it. Can it? Couldn't people affected just shift their own working hours if they wanted to? In any case, it will be nice to not be running a dual clock in my mind for the next few months, and it will relieve the seasonal blues to a great extent.
Yes, seasonal depression is a real thing. Trust me on this.
What would it be like to be part of a theatrical production? I've often considered it, and then realised that a lack of personal tact is probably not the best thing to throw into a high pressure mixture... In any case, I don't have enough hats to be an amateur actor. I'm reasonably sure that you have to have lots of hats, to serve as character motivation. Isn't that right? Don't you at least need a safari hat and a policeman's helmet?
O.
Thursday, 22 October 2015
Television: 'The Muppet Show' (1976-1981)
It's impossible to do justice to do 'The Muppet Show' in a few short minutes, so why even try? It's an utterly unique television series, pioneering in its methods, and so broad in its appeal that literally anyone that didn't hate felt could watch it.
Starting in 1976, 'The Muppet Show' ran for five seasons of perfectly planned anarchy starring Jim Henson's most Muppety creations. That 'planned anarchy' was coupled with ludicrously good natured humour and the best characterization that you could expect for some frogs, bears, dogs, whatevers, and assorted pigs.
One fascinating aspect of the series is its intense Britishness, and now it became a massive crossover hit in North America. Filmed in London after being rejected by the American networks, it became a massive cult and popular phenomenon. Massive! Everyone knows who Kermit is, and Fozzie, Gonzo and the rest. It even led to two movies produced during the show's run, and some others too, long after. Interestingly, viewers on either side of the Atlantic did see different versions of the episodes, as there was usually a slot that was filled with a specialist bit for each audience. I've never heard of that happening anywhere else.
'The Muppet Show' attracted guest stars of massive stature after the first season or two, when people really understood what was going on. Even in the early days, the talent was impressive and tied deeply into the show's vaudevillian roots, as any show about a theatrical variety show should be. 'The Muppet Show' was almost certainly the last successful variety series to air, and a wonderful one at that.
In this era when actors and singers seem so unnaturally stuffy, which is probably a side effect of being under constant media surveillance, it's incredibly refreshing to see the guest stars goof around so happily, even under the publicity constraints of the bigger movie stars. Who wouldn't have a good time on the same bill as Fozzie Bear, after all? Who?
Yes, 'The Muppet Show' was and is wonderful, and utterly unprecedented. They've tried to recapture the magic of it and the first two movies many times, and never quite gotten there. There was something about those writers, the winning combination of Jim Henson, Frank Oz and the other puppeteers, and that wonderful back catalogue of awesome songs that transcended its time. It even transcends this time, if you break out the DVDs of the first three years. From the very first episode, in whatever order you watch the shows, it sings and jokes on a wonderfully different level.
Is that enough enthusing? Do you want to know what my favourite bit of the episodes I've seen is? I've said it before, but once again, it's Gonzo blindfoldedly wrestling a perfectly normal half brick and losing. Oh, Gonzo, you made it special.
O.
Starting in 1976, 'The Muppet Show' ran for five seasons of perfectly planned anarchy starring Jim Henson's most Muppety creations. That 'planned anarchy' was coupled with ludicrously good natured humour and the best characterization that you could expect for some frogs, bears, dogs, whatevers, and assorted pigs.
One fascinating aspect of the series is its intense Britishness, and now it became a massive crossover hit in North America. Filmed in London after being rejected by the American networks, it became a massive cult and popular phenomenon. Massive! Everyone knows who Kermit is, and Fozzie, Gonzo and the rest. It even led to two movies produced during the show's run, and some others too, long after. Interestingly, viewers on either side of the Atlantic did see different versions of the episodes, as there was usually a slot that was filled with a specialist bit for each audience. I've never heard of that happening anywhere else.
'The Muppet Show' attracted guest stars of massive stature after the first season or two, when people really understood what was going on. Even in the early days, the talent was impressive and tied deeply into the show's vaudevillian roots, as any show about a theatrical variety show should be. 'The Muppet Show' was almost certainly the last successful variety series to air, and a wonderful one at that.
In this era when actors and singers seem so unnaturally stuffy, which is probably a side effect of being under constant media surveillance, it's incredibly refreshing to see the guest stars goof around so happily, even under the publicity constraints of the bigger movie stars. Who wouldn't have a good time on the same bill as Fozzie Bear, after all? Who?
Yes, 'The Muppet Show' was and is wonderful, and utterly unprecedented. They've tried to recapture the magic of it and the first two movies many times, and never quite gotten there. There was something about those writers, the winning combination of Jim Henson, Frank Oz and the other puppeteers, and that wonderful back catalogue of awesome songs that transcended its time. It even transcends this time, if you break out the DVDs of the first three years. From the very first episode, in whatever order you watch the shows, it sings and jokes on a wonderfully different level.
Is that enough enthusing? Do you want to know what my favourite bit of the episodes I've seen is? I've said it before, but once again, it's Gonzo blindfoldedly wrestling a perfectly normal half brick and losing. Oh, Gonzo, you made it special.
O.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Yes, Computer, This Is How You Walk Over A Waterfall
The calculations failed again, and it seems as if no good will ever come of these researches. There's something so utterly heartbreaking about spending so much time on things which never seem to work. It will work eventually, though, somehow and someway. Hopefully it won't take as long as the thesis work that lasted five years!
Numerics, numerics, numerics. In applied mathematics, you more often than not end up with systems of equations that you can't solve yourself, so you have to ask a computer to do the next best thing and solve it numerically. In other words, you give it a best guess, and it improves the guess for you in the form of a patchwork of numbers that fits the problem. It's not particularly elegant, but it gets the job done, if you can choose the right way to explain it to the computer. It's also very frustrating when it doesn't work...
The problem with computational mathematics is that it's so easy to get wrapped up in trying to fix the problem by experimentation with little bits of code instead of going back to the source and reading about how other people have done the same problem. Not everyone can be an instinctive numerical expert, so you learn from people who are. There's something going on with this problem, and it's difficult to quantify... Life would be much easier if it only involved watching excellent television series and enjoying wonderful books. How to determine the difficulty in an unstable numerical scheme? How?
Progress happens, but incrementally. Research progresses just a little at a time, and when successful changes just a handful of ideas at the very most. Oh, it's going to need a lot more reading, balanced against the time spent on this endless proofreading project!
Side notes: Watched 'The River Wild', and still don't understand all the fuss about Meryl Streep. Helen Hunt could act her into the ground without even trying. Strange days. It's almost a good movie, though. Almost.
O.
Numerics, numerics, numerics. In applied mathematics, you more often than not end up with systems of equations that you can't solve yourself, so you have to ask a computer to do the next best thing and solve it numerically. In other words, you give it a best guess, and it improves the guess for you in the form of a patchwork of numbers that fits the problem. It's not particularly elegant, but it gets the job done, if you can choose the right way to explain it to the computer. It's also very frustrating when it doesn't work...
The problem with computational mathematics is that it's so easy to get wrapped up in trying to fix the problem by experimentation with little bits of code instead of going back to the source and reading about how other people have done the same problem. Not everyone can be an instinctive numerical expert, so you learn from people who are. There's something going on with this problem, and it's difficult to quantify... Life would be much easier if it only involved watching excellent television series and enjoying wonderful books. How to determine the difficulty in an unstable numerical scheme? How?
Progress happens, but incrementally. Research progresses just a little at a time, and when successful changes just a handful of ideas at the very most. Oh, it's going to need a lot more reading, balanced against the time spent on this endless proofreading project!
Side notes: Watched 'The River Wild', and still don't understand all the fuss about Meryl Streep. Helen Hunt could act her into the ground without even trying. Strange days. It's almost a good movie, though. Almost.
O.
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