Post 479. CHANGED MY MIND.

PURPORTEDLY A WOMAN'S PREROGATIVE.

WHICH, SURELY, IS A SEXIST MAXIM.
So why am I publishing this short post before the month ends when I had intimated that Further Reflections was to be my last until July? Changed my mind. Noted that the cat Spike had commandeered my chair at the painting desk and became, like the lady (unknown to me) in the picture above, in something of a quandary. Move Spikey and clean off the white fur left in her wake? Or eschew sexist mores and change my mind? No choice really. No painting on the stocks. Contented cat keeping old man company. Simple solution: if you write, write!
TELEVISION.
We continue to watch it, if only from behind a book or newspaper. Some of it is still worthwhile. The second series of Before We  Die (Channel 4) is hugely watchable if you like Lesley Sharp  We do. Though in this drama her character, Hannah Laing, is probably the most bull at a gate mess-up of a detective ever written into any cop show anywhere. Two series will be enough.
Currently the battle of the champions is being played out on Countdown (also Channel 4). These are people who know words the dictionary barely knows and can match Rachel Riley at maths.

I wrote reports and worked with figures for years: these champions are way out of my league.
But it's all very minor when compared to happenings in the real world. Callous coastguards leave hundreds to drown. Innocent civilians lunching in a Ukrainian restaurant are murdered by Russian rockets. A French policeman shoots dead an unarmed boy, and an abortive mission is launched to attempt the rescue of a not-fit-for-purpose mini submarine which, it turns out, has imploded.
No wonder we seek shelter in harmless quiz shows.

And this is as close as I'll come to one of these.
Careful how you go. 

Post 478. FURTHER REFLECTIONS

WITH AN OLD CD.

TO END A POP MUSICAL MONTH
And what better than with The Hollies 20 Golden Greats: an EMI CD of 1978 which has arguably never been bettered. It was the original Hollies, with Allan Clarke as lead singer, and I like every number on it. When I kick the bucket, if my family want a song with which to see me off at the crematorium, I'd suggest I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top would be most appropriate: it perfectly sums up the feelings of an old man who, in 1962, had the good fortune to marry exactly the right girl. That self-indulgent disclosure apart, as pop songs go it's a helluva good one.
Well, the IOW festival came and went and so, this weekend (via the BBC for non ticket holders), did Glastonbury. We had 55,000 fans and Robbie Williams, Glastonbury probably had better than 210.000 fans and Elton John. We had Jarvis Cocker, Glastonbury had Yusuf/Cat Stevens. The majority of the music on offer, both here and at Glastonbury, was not to my taste. Unimportant.

Hundreds of thousands loved it and good luck to them, and to those who entertained them. I've only developed a preference for the classical genre as I've aged. Shan't grow out of it now. So to:

THE PROMS

FROM 14 JULY TO 9 SEPTEMBER.
No of course I won't be there. Have never lived near enough, and don't go far beyond our corner shop nowadays. Maureen has gone to the mainland to see her remaining sister today. Jac and Mike have taken her in the car. I like Marg, but doubt I shall ever venture across the Solent again. You have to recognise your limitations. That's by the by, The BBC Proms are back next month and, though sadly lacking most of my (Post 476) recommendations, are looking pretty good. I just hope they'll put young Benjamin Grosvenor on television, not banish him to bloody Radio 3: his droll lack of histrionics is totally British. His musicianship the nonstop honing of a natural gift. 
More about it all when it's underway. I hope it won't be too 'modern.'

If you're a Promenader, have a great time.

 

Post 477. THEY ARRIVED

 IN THEIR THOUSANDS.

FOR FESTIVAL TIME AGAIN.
It meant one way traffic for motorists on the Isle of Wight's busiest road (Ryde/Newport) from Thursday 15th June  until  the following Monday. A very long weekend. But a lot of people had a great time and why not? This year our grandson, Ellis Dayer, played bass guitar there. He and his fellow performers did their set in the Stage One marquee early on Saturday afternoon. Apparently all went well. We didn't see it. We have only ever seen the names shown on Sky Arts TV over the weekend. Don't like crowds, are picky with the music, and couldn't afford the tickets. 
For what it's worth, we liked Jarvis Cocker with Pulp on Friday night. Great festival opener. And Jarvis has been doing this stuff so long he can do it standing on a pair of giant speakers. We also liked, in no particular order, Mika, Anne-Marie, George Ezra, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Sam Ryder, Toyah, Niall Horan and, top of the bill, the indefatigable Robbie Williams. It was a good festival. 

Oh, it rained: but only a light shower. Glastonbury's next. There it'll probably pee down. Ah well.

ADDITIONALLY ON SUNDAY

IT WAS FATHER'S DAY.

Or, as my wonderfully cynical (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) daughter, Jac, put it: 'Contrived American nonsense day.' Son Neil bought two cards, the first congratulating me on passing my driving test: 'They didn't have any bloody father's day cards so this was the closest I could find. It's the bloody thought that counts!!' The second was a father's day card picked up from the display alongside the till in the shop where he had just bought the first one.'They'd been there over a month: I had talked to the lady behind the counter about them weeks ago , but you know my memory...' (ditto apple and tree quote). No wonder I love the pair of them.
Driving test? Yeah.  I passed it in 1957.
THAT'LL DO FOR NOW

BACK, ALL BEING WELL, QUITE SOON.

Post 476. SO I RELAXED

WITH TV AGAIN: .

WE WATCHED.
Poker Face (Sky Max): saw the entire ten part series in a weekend. Yes, it was a beguiling attraction. Created by Rian Johnson, the series stars Natasha Lyonne (above) as Charlie Cale, a good hearted young woman who has a unique 'gift:' she knows unerringly when somebody is lying. To add to her problems, she is a gifted detective who is not attached to the police, the FBI, the CIA, or any other of the multiple law enforcement establishments in America. And, in that vast country, have you any idea how many liars will also be murderers? Or how many criminals with an amateur detective /human lie detector allergy are likely to send a hit man after you?
I believe a second series has been commissioned. Great. This one was perfectly cast. Loved it..
We were not particularly bothered which Manchester football team won the FA Cup. Turned out to be City who beat United by two goals to one. We entirely missed the Epsom Derby. Had not allowed for an early start. Didn't matter to us. You will know who won if it mattered to you.
Now it will be nothing but tennis and cricket, Thanks be to Sir Henry Wood for the BBC Proms.
So to the pipe dream. (Not for you if you don't like classical music.)
MY PROMS SEASON.

NOBODY COULD BOOK (LET ALONE AFFORD) IT.

Not in the same season they couldn't. For a start I'd invite Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and hope they would perform both Beethoven's 7th Symphony and Mozart's Divertimento in D Major K136.Perhaps they could even tackle Siblius's Finlandia (as a middle finger salute to the Kremlin). I would have orchestral sessions featuring at least two of the gifted Jarvi family of orchestra conductors (with intermission chats about their Estonian roots), and another with the talented Kanneh-Masons. The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields would perform Bruch's Violin Concerto, with Tomo Keller as soloist. There would be sessions of popular opera which would include Jonas Kaufmann and Kristine Opolais singing O soave fanciulla: the sessions would reach their conclusion with Bryn Terfel, and whomsoever he chose to accompany him, performing The Pearl Fishers duet. That would keep my Mo happy.
There would also be an abundance of piano concerti. Tchaikovsky One, Brahms Two, Rachmaninoff Three, and Beethoven Four would be featured. Litolff, too. I would invite any one of the following: Benjamin Grosvenor, Peter Donohoe, Stephen Hough, Lang Lang, Jan Lisiecki or Yuja Wang to demonstrate their grand piano skills again. I would invite Alexander Malofeev, too.
All interviews would be managed by Katie Derham.
Of course nobody could book, let alone afford, this whole shebang in the same season.

But you can dream, can't you?
AND SOMETIMES I DO WONDER...
What keeps my bedroom radio tuned to Classic FM?
At its best it is cheerfully presented and accepts modernity only through John Barry and John Williams. At its worst it is a melee of advertisements, one-movement-from-three in whatever classical composition, and messages from posh people walking their dogs in the Cotswolds.
I might go back to BBC Radio 4. 

Hope you, like us, are enjoying a spell of  sunshine.

Cheers.