My dreams always seem to dance on the edge of fancy, correct-not-correct versions of non-dream life. There are things that happened in my dreams that I count as happening in my life, aspects of my life that have distinctly dream-like qualities.
One strong dream-memory I have is of taking a sea cruise, falling off one side of the ship, swimming through the wake to find the other side firmly concreted to the land. One dream-like episode of my life involved a French-speaking barmaid called Juliette, the old, old 12-Bar Club, and a club night set up by Martin Dowsing named No Wankers Allowed[1].
One of my recent dreams involved arguing over the use of 'form' in poetry with a Doctor of Law. This is something that happens in my day-to-day life though the denunciation of my dream struck me as noteworthy: "One could argue that 'form' is the technique that allows the writer freedom to express rather than stiffening it. This is the same for 'conventions' for using oils and watercolours in painting, marquetry, joinery, so on. Without 'form' there is no shape."
I can't be sure of this, dreams are not the most reliable sources, though I think the 'form' we so hotly debated was referring to the different styles of poem one can deploy. Poetry crops up regularly at the moment, for projects and just because I want to write more.
And yet in the last few weeks my ideas have been pushed aside through work and personal life, not finding a thread to follow or rejecting the ones that sprang up[2]. One day soon a floodgate will explode.
Ambergris will flood. Jeff VanderMeer has hinted at such. I am making good progress through the City Of Saints And Madmen[3], and with it the slow realisation that VanderMeer might just be one of my favourite writers.
I am not one to review a book by spending three quarters of the words revealing the plot and one quarter being my thoughts. I don't want to reveal the plot and it's myriad of devices, what is the point in me telling you 'X told V that Y was the murderer when Z was manipulating everyone.' There's no joy sharing that.
So we're left with my thoughts and recollections, opinions and memories. Like with his Southern Reach trilogy of books, City Of Saints And Madmen gives me a sense of a fictional world complete where one might visit and touch it. This is not to say VanderMeer's writing is detailed, more to acknowledge that his writing is incomplete like real life. You and I, dear reader, have no way of knowing our world in the same way fictional worlds are presented in a novel.
This is how I find myself in Ambergris, and part of why I am enjoying the book so much. I know that Jeff VanderMeer has hoodwinked me into thinking this way, but then this is his work, his world he is letting us visit.
What a visit to Ambergris it is. There is a sense of profound beauty and savagery permeating through each paragraph. The city lures you in with civilised criminality and naked prophets, where love and romance are undone by staying out too late on the night of the Festival of the Freshwater Squid.
Reviewers tend to score, percentages to help entice readers and sales. I throw caution to the wind, give City Of Saints And Madmen a read, you will thank me later.
Notes and references
1 - Martin is quite a talented musician and writer, and I urge you as a fan[1.1] to check him out.
1.1 - I played bass guitar in his band for about a year, a period of my life that brought some of my most surreal episodes.
2 - Stupid, crappy, nonsensical, subpar stuff I don't want to read so therefore no one should read.
3 - At the time of writing I am about ten pages into The Transformation Of Martin Lake.
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Plotting failure
You and your smuggler friend are in an illegal gambling den. You think it's risky betting money that isn't technically yours, but the smuggler, well, he's confident, he's always confident. You're being chased by the gangsters who run the den, shooting at you and the smuggler.
You and your smuggler friend are in an illegal gambling den. You think it's risky betting money that isn't technically yours, but the smuggler, well, he's confident, he's always confident. Maybe over confident, and he skips a trick by one of the other players. The people running the den don't like tricks, and falsely accuse the smuggler. You and the smuggler need to make a quick exit. Next you're being chased by the gangsters who run the den, shooting at you and the smuggler.
Which one scans? The first paragraph or the second, difficult, I know. So difficult.
Last week I read two comic books, Star Wars #16 and Guardians of the Galaxy #5, both of which, to me, missed a trick. Slight skips in plots can throw me, to the point where sometimes I can't finish a film, book or comic book. I find myself with so many questions.
To clarify, I know that some text need skips. Authors will withhold information to develop a plot, and nonlinear narration can be fantastic (and closer to memory recollection).
But the 'accidental' skip, a missing page, for example, causes problems. Why does the plot skip, is there something else missing? Is it worth trying to make the logical leap needed to bridge the gap?
You and your smuggler friend are in an illegal gambling den. You think it's risky betting money that isn't technically yours, but the smuggler, well, he's confident, he's always confident. Maybe over confident, and he skips a trick by one of the other players. The people running the den don't like tricks, and falsely accuse the smuggler. You and the smuggler need to make a quick exit. Next you're being chased by the gangsters who run the den, shooting at you and the smuggler.
Which one scans? The first paragraph or the second, difficult, I know. So difficult.
Last week I read two comic books, Star Wars #16 and Guardians of the Galaxy #5, both of which, to me, missed a trick. Slight skips in plots can throw me, to the point where sometimes I can't finish a film, book or comic book. I find myself with so many questions.
To clarify, I know that some text need skips. Authors will withhold information to develop a plot, and nonlinear narration can be fantastic (and closer to memory recollection).
But the 'accidental' skip, a missing page, for example, causes problems. Why does the plot skip, is there something else missing? Is it worth trying to make the logical leap needed to bridge the gap?
Monday, 22 February 2016
Running and kitchens
Very soon the kitchen at home will be torn out like Snowden's guts[1]. Layers stripped back like a glass onion[2], tiles smashed, work tops toppled, cupboards cuckolded from the walls. Nothing will remain.
This will be a bookmark for the kitchen.
As a book collector I collect bookmarks too. My most recent find comes from a paint sample called Melancholy Monkey, it reminds me of the Chinese novel[3]. Before that I gained a bookmark from an online store (from someone else's purchase), and before that, a personal favourite, a Lindi Ortega ticket from the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds.
Every one and every thing collects bookmarks; time caught and stamped, a staging post marking an event, a line, progress through a book, an achievement against a goal.
The upheaval of the kitchen preparations has thrown up so many bookmarks at a time when I've been thinking about putting down new markers in my professional and personal life[4].
Not all markers will stick, though they might led on to better, other things. Life manages to through up many such events, a chance reference to a late friend leading on to a life-changing decision[5], a question in a failed interview prompting thoughts about motivation.
Motivation and motivating can seem like an embarrassment, or worse, a grubby activity that we are told to engage with but don't really think works. Why should it, we don't need motivating, we tell ourselves, we already know what we need.
And we're right, we already know. With the revelation of the murderer at the start of a novel, that secret knowledge is not kept from us. Except motivation doesn't always work like that. Sure, you've got the knowledge, dear detective reader, but not the experience.
Experience counts. It allows growth and development, and gives us knowledge that we can share. When I started thinking about bookmarks and motivation there was one activity that sprang to mind, running (or jogging, if you feel there's a difference). I have a lot of experience running, seven years of moving feet in time to the beat of my body.
Seven years of frustrations, pains and joys. Eighty four months of lows, sprains and leg actions. There are aspects of running that I share with every runner, there are aspects which are mine alone. Anecdotally from friends who run, between us we agreed it took about four weeks for running to switch from being an activity we did to an activity we enjoyed. We all bookmarked the feeling of managing our first long run (even when it is not a third of our current long runs), injury frustrations, and coping mechanisms.
I think I could motivate anyone to run. There's four approaches to taking up running, and one of them will work with you.
First up, you're already interested. You have thought about running, and this is the final push you need. What you need now is a decent pair of running shoes to start off with, which don't need to be expensive, and a somewhere to go. When I started running I did four hundred metre laps of a local park, which allowed me to easily calculate distances. Around that park I got up to three kilometres before getting out into the open road.
Second up, you're not sure. You've heard friends talk about how much they like running but you've also heard about their injuries. That is understandable, you don't want to do something to keep fit and do your knee in. The thing is, whatever you consider doing to keep fit, there always will be a possibility of injury. Be careful, don't over do it, listen to your body and keep a balance. My first injury bookmark was difficult (left ankle, three months off running), I lost concentration when crossing a road and tripped. Lesson learnt, watch where you put your feet, James.
Third, you don't want to look silly running and know that everyone will be watching you. This is most probably based on your experiences at school during physical education. By running now you feel like you will be inviting all those children from your memory, plus everyone you see in the street, to judge you. You feel like you won't be able to do it right, because you feel running can only be right or wrong.
This is something I felt for many years, it was difficult to see through it. To begin with, I knew I had to do something to keep fit, and running was the best activity for me at the time. Then, as I started running more regularly my thoughts switched from worrying about what others saw to how I was actually doing. Ultimately, and this goes for all runners, don't think about anyone else, you are the runner, you are doing something for yourself, not that person on the street or that guy in the car[6]. At the end of the run, be it one mile, five kilometres or a half marathon, you will be doing it for you. Well done when you do it.
Fourth. Well, let's face it, you're not convinced. In fact, you know there's nothing in running you would enjoy and you don't have the time. You're right, so right, about that. More than the anything else I've written here this I am sure of. Don't believe me? You remember that four weeks thing, here's your means of testing it. Run three times a week for five weeks then stop, completely stop.
At the end of this one of us will be right.
Notes and references
1 - No reference for this one, kind of a massive spoiler for one of my favourite books.
2 - The Beatles, White Album, 1967.
3 - Nope, it's a mystery, make your own journey to the west.
4 - Planetine.
5 - Another late friend, another bookmark found. I started listening to the Delgados again, the tunes shaped by the craftsmanship of the band and what I would highlight in conversations with the departed. That song, "they all say the planets don't exist," why, that's clearly a full hour's worth of drinking beer and talking in there, me thinks.
6 - During a recent run I was shouted at by two men in a Peugot car. It was heading through Headingley on my first 10km in months, and they were stuck in traffic. While it's not great being shouted, and I try to be aware of what's happening around me, I usually find myself wondering why they'd do it. I mean, stuck in traffic?
This will be a bookmark for the kitchen.
As a book collector I collect bookmarks too. My most recent find comes from a paint sample called Melancholy Monkey, it reminds me of the Chinese novel[3]. Before that I gained a bookmark from an online store (from someone else's purchase), and before that, a personal favourite, a Lindi Ortega ticket from the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds.
Every one and every thing collects bookmarks; time caught and stamped, a staging post marking an event, a line, progress through a book, an achievement against a goal.
The upheaval of the kitchen preparations has thrown up so many bookmarks at a time when I've been thinking about putting down new markers in my professional and personal life[4].
Not all markers will stick, though they might led on to better, other things. Life manages to through up many such events, a chance reference to a late friend leading on to a life-changing decision[5], a question in a failed interview prompting thoughts about motivation.
Motivation and motivating can seem like an embarrassment, or worse, a grubby activity that we are told to engage with but don't really think works. Why should it, we don't need motivating, we tell ourselves, we already know what we need.
And we're right, we already know. With the revelation of the murderer at the start of a novel, that secret knowledge is not kept from us. Except motivation doesn't always work like that. Sure, you've got the knowledge, dear detective reader, but not the experience.
Experience counts. It allows growth and development, and gives us knowledge that we can share. When I started thinking about bookmarks and motivation there was one activity that sprang to mind, running (or jogging, if you feel there's a difference). I have a lot of experience running, seven years of moving feet in time to the beat of my body.
Seven years of frustrations, pains and joys. Eighty four months of lows, sprains and leg actions. There are aspects of running that I share with every runner, there are aspects which are mine alone. Anecdotally from friends who run, between us we agreed it took about four weeks for running to switch from being an activity we did to an activity we enjoyed. We all bookmarked the feeling of managing our first long run (even when it is not a third of our current long runs), injury frustrations, and coping mechanisms.
I think I could motivate anyone to run. There's four approaches to taking up running, and one of them will work with you.
First up, you're already interested. You have thought about running, and this is the final push you need. What you need now is a decent pair of running shoes to start off with, which don't need to be expensive, and a somewhere to go. When I started running I did four hundred metre laps of a local park, which allowed me to easily calculate distances. Around that park I got up to three kilometres before getting out into the open road.
Second up, you're not sure. You've heard friends talk about how much they like running but you've also heard about their injuries. That is understandable, you don't want to do something to keep fit and do your knee in. The thing is, whatever you consider doing to keep fit, there always will be a possibility of injury. Be careful, don't over do it, listen to your body and keep a balance. My first injury bookmark was difficult (left ankle, three months off running), I lost concentration when crossing a road and tripped. Lesson learnt, watch where you put your feet, James.
Third, you don't want to look silly running and know that everyone will be watching you. This is most probably based on your experiences at school during physical education. By running now you feel like you will be inviting all those children from your memory, plus everyone you see in the street, to judge you. You feel like you won't be able to do it right, because you feel running can only be right or wrong.
This is something I felt for many years, it was difficult to see through it. To begin with, I knew I had to do something to keep fit, and running was the best activity for me at the time. Then, as I started running more regularly my thoughts switched from worrying about what others saw to how I was actually doing. Ultimately, and this goes for all runners, don't think about anyone else, you are the runner, you are doing something for yourself, not that person on the street or that guy in the car[6]. At the end of the run, be it one mile, five kilometres or a half marathon, you will be doing it for you. Well done when you do it.
Fourth. Well, let's face it, you're not convinced. In fact, you know there's nothing in running you would enjoy and you don't have the time. You're right, so right, about that. More than the anything else I've written here this I am sure of. Don't believe me? You remember that four weeks thing, here's your means of testing it. Run three times a week for five weeks then stop, completely stop.
At the end of this one of us will be right.
Notes and references
1 - No reference for this one, kind of a massive spoiler for one of my favourite books.
2 - The Beatles, White Album, 1967.
3 - Nope, it's a mystery, make your own journey to the west.
4 - Planetine.
5 - Another late friend, another bookmark found. I started listening to the Delgados again, the tunes shaped by the craftsmanship of the band and what I would highlight in conversations with the departed. That song, "they all say the planets don't exist," why, that's clearly a full hour's worth of drinking beer and talking in there, me thinks.
6 - During a recent run I was shouted at by two men in a Peugot car. It was heading through Headingley on my first 10km in months, and they were stuck in traffic. While it's not great being shouted, and I try to be aware of what's happening around me, I usually find myself wondering why they'd do it. I mean, stuck in traffic?
Saturday, 30 January 2016
Poem
Press Play Again - 28/01/2016
What shape does that sound have,
Of the regular, rhythmic beat and the swish, swoosh, swoon of a melody.
How can you leave me be,
Opened up, bare, bear hearted to the world,
With a glance and a glimpse, you are gone.
Paused.
Stopped.
Press play again.
Where do those words come from,
The simple complicated way of saying complex, clear things.
- "I never knew I was a lover"
I always had an inclination,
Cornered, not like the others, fighting, singing,
I hold you are long as I can, you are gone.
Fade out.
Skipped.
Press play again.
Why do you leave me so messed up,
Three, four minutes of joyfulness confusions, of love and Beatles references.
- "Just because I stole the thing you hide"
Did it take you long to write,
The effect you affected,
To completely change my life around?
Repeat.
Repeat.
Press play again.
After the world changed, after the noise and the words,
I do not recall the before, I cannot recollect the silence.
- "I want to be the King of Spain"
I keep you in my head,
I keep you in my heart,
You may never know what you did to me,
I may never even tell.
I play your record again,
Just once again.
Press play again.
Note - So, yes, this is a draft, I want to change it, certainly some of the lines and words in the third quarter. But also, yes, I like this a lot.
Round-Up '90
A rough collection of the notes I've made for blogging recently.
December music trawl trawls into January
I'll be honest, what started out as a good idea got caught in what John Lennon called life. I thought thirty-odd songs that I like and wanted to share.
Urged on by friends, spending time listening to videos on YouTube, it was a great idea. Maybe. My videos weren't that out-there, the left-field I covered didn't compare to the left-field of friends (or more correctly, I wouldn't compare my left-field videos to the awesome left-field suggested by others), and then there's life.
Life. And unfortunately life can be annoying. So maybe I shall record my December trawl with just one video, which links into something else I'll be writing about later.
King of Spain, The Tallest Man on Earth
Lindi Ortega/Doubts
Lindi Ortega is currently touring in Europe, playing live tracks from her most recent lp, Faded Gloryville. This is a good lp, I'd recommend it for a listen, Lindi is one of those artists who seemingly (for me) just go and it's good and entertaining and sings about stuff I think about.
At the Brudenell Social Club on 26 January 2016 Lindi introduced Faded Gloryville as one of those places one ends up in if they are washed up or are passing through when one is having doubts. Artists have doubts, everyone does, where they are going, what they need to do, when will their time be. While that lp is something I've listened to a number of times, watching her introduce it that way live kind of made it even more approachable.
The lovely thing about watching Lindi Ortega live is the surprises. Dancing, encores, fantastic instrument playing (the guitar sound was awesome, but that bass), just a good night all round.
The Buried Giant Review
I was given this book as a birthday present at Christmas, having spent most of the year looking forward to reading it. Now, with about thirty-forty pages left to go I find myself trying to stretch out the experience. Since I reached page 250 I've started and read about a third of Terry Pratchett's Sourcery and advanced considerably through my bus-read, Dune.
There is not much left to do. Thirty pages is a good, relaxing evening session, an hour of really intense ignore-everything reading, it's not going to take long. So it might have to be finish, break for a day or two, then crack on with reading it again.
The curious thing is I've only ever done this with a handful of books at various times in my life. When I first got reading as opposed to having reading thrust on me as a product of school, I read through Pratchett's Mort three or four times. I was about fourteen I think (rough guess) and had been introduced to the series by a rather enthusiastic uncle. The next time around it was Richard Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout.
While rereading Mort was about exploring the joy of reading, rereading Sombrero Fallout was the joy of exploring where thoughts and words can take you. Both books are fantastical, though not the same kind of fantasy, and both books feature keys and time pieces. The third book I've ever reread straight away is Bo Fowler's Scepticism Inc. I am led to believe this is a natural phenomenon which does not need exploring.
Kirkstall Spoken Word and Performance Festival
Working on Kirkstall Festival has been one of the best experiences of my life. Actually, community activism has led to some of the best and most beneficial experiences of my life, the Festival, Kirkstall in Bloom, the On The Edge Festival, all of those things have made me realise the link between myself and my community. I am firmly of the belief that one should establish that link as soon as they can and then work on it for as long as they can.
Myself, preparations for this year's Festival are underway (feels like it's been on since the day after the last one). And it will be good, packed with activities, stalls and performance. You should come, you should.
I've been thinking that beyond Kirkstall Festival's main activities there would be the potential to hold an event that focused more on spoken word and performance. Both of those are part of the main festival but I want to move them centre stage, and bring together poetry, drama, performance, comedy, story-telling, and presentations.
There's a couple of possible shapes for how this could happen. An all-in-one-day festival with multiple stages or a series of daily events linked by the theme of the SWAP. It's early days, and there's a lot of things happening, but it is a good idea that could fly.
Poetry Workshops
I've signed up to a poetry workshop run by Jen Campbell. It will be exciting to see how I do, I've always written and made notes for poems but never really forced it anywhere. There's a lot of scraps of notes of lines, serious stanzas or silly single sentences of words that amuse me. In the run up to the workshop I made an effort to do two things, firstly, I've been working on something linked to the few lines below, secondly, a draft of a full poem released elsewhere on my blog.
{Poem removed}
Is the earth flat?
December music trawl trawls into January
I'll be honest, what started out as a good idea got caught in what John Lennon called life. I thought thirty-odd songs that I like and wanted to share.
Urged on by friends, spending time listening to videos on YouTube, it was a great idea. Maybe. My videos weren't that out-there, the left-field I covered didn't compare to the left-field of friends (or more correctly, I wouldn't compare my left-field videos to the awesome left-field suggested by others), and then there's life.
Life. And unfortunately life can be annoying. So maybe I shall record my December trawl with just one video, which links into something else I'll be writing about later.
King of Spain, The Tallest Man on Earth
Lindi Ortega/Doubts
Lindi Ortega is currently touring in Europe, playing live tracks from her most recent lp, Faded Gloryville. This is a good lp, I'd recommend it for a listen, Lindi is one of those artists who seemingly (for me) just go and it's good and entertaining and sings about stuff I think about.
At the Brudenell Social Club on 26 January 2016 Lindi introduced Faded Gloryville as one of those places one ends up in if they are washed up or are passing through when one is having doubts. Artists have doubts, everyone does, where they are going, what they need to do, when will their time be. While that lp is something I've listened to a number of times, watching her introduce it that way live kind of made it even more approachable.
The lovely thing about watching Lindi Ortega live is the surprises. Dancing, encores, fantastic instrument playing (the guitar sound was awesome, but that bass), just a good night all round.
The Buried Giant Review
I was given this book as a birthday present at Christmas, having spent most of the year looking forward to reading it. Now, with about thirty-forty pages left to go I find myself trying to stretch out the experience. Since I reached page 250 I've started and read about a third of Terry Pratchett's Sourcery and advanced considerably through my bus-read, Dune.
There is not much left to do. Thirty pages is a good, relaxing evening session, an hour of really intense ignore-everything reading, it's not going to take long. So it might have to be finish, break for a day or two, then crack on with reading it again.
The curious thing is I've only ever done this with a handful of books at various times in my life. When I first got reading as opposed to having reading thrust on me as a product of school, I read through Pratchett's Mort three or four times. I was about fourteen I think (rough guess) and had been introduced to the series by a rather enthusiastic uncle. The next time around it was Richard Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout.
While rereading Mort was about exploring the joy of reading, rereading Sombrero Fallout was the joy of exploring where thoughts and words can take you. Both books are fantastical, though not the same kind of fantasy, and both books feature keys and time pieces. The third book I've ever reread straight away is Bo Fowler's Scepticism Inc. I am led to believe this is a natural phenomenon which does not need exploring.
Kirkstall Spoken Word and Performance Festival
Working on Kirkstall Festival has been one of the best experiences of my life. Actually, community activism has led to some of the best and most beneficial experiences of my life, the Festival, Kirkstall in Bloom, the On The Edge Festival, all of those things have made me realise the link between myself and my community. I am firmly of the belief that one should establish that link as soon as they can and then work on it for as long as they can.
Myself, preparations for this year's Festival are underway (feels like it's been on since the day after the last one). And it will be good, packed with activities, stalls and performance. You should come, you should.
I've been thinking that beyond Kirkstall Festival's main activities there would be the potential to hold an event that focused more on spoken word and performance. Both of those are part of the main festival but I want to move them centre stage, and bring together poetry, drama, performance, comedy, story-telling, and presentations.
There's a couple of possible shapes for how this could happen. An all-in-one-day festival with multiple stages or a series of daily events linked by the theme of the SWAP. It's early days, and there's a lot of things happening, but it is a good idea that could fly.
Poetry Workshops
I've signed up to a poetry workshop run by Jen Campbell. It will be exciting to see how I do, I've always written and made notes for poems but never really forced it anywhere. There's a lot of scraps of notes of lines, serious stanzas or silly single sentences of words that amuse me. In the run up to the workshop I made an effort to do two things, firstly, I've been working on something linked to the few lines below, secondly, a draft of a full poem released elsewhere on my blog.
{Poem removed}
Is the earth flat?
Thursday, 21 January 2016
Quiz night is alright for... answering questions
I organised a quiz night, and asked most of the questions. Prior to starting the actual event I was rather nervous, there was a short turn around to organise the night, and I am not the most overly keen public speaker.
Answers
General knowledge
1. Bamber Gascoigne
2. Pierce Brosnan
2.a Madonna
3. Ghosts
4. Zips
5. Galaxy
6. Otter
7. University and Colleges Admissions Service
8. 45 seconds
9. His middle name, Winston, Winston Churchill and Winston Smith.
10. Magpie
Sport
1. Riverside Ground/Chester-le-Street
3. Eddie Izzard.
4. Six
5. 2012
6. Twice, 2014 and 2015
7. Madeira
Anyway, here are the questions for the quiz night, further below the answers.
General Knowledge - Generally everyone likes a bit of knowledge, right? I started out randomly writing questions very straight (like question one) though as I did more I started to mess around. I wonder if Gone In 60 Seconds ever won an Oscar...
1. Who was the original host of University Challenge?
2. Spectre is the 24th Bond film and features Daniel Craig, who played Bond in Die Another Day? a. Bonus point for who performed the title song and had a cameo in the film?
3. What is phasmophobia the fear of?
4. Japan’s YKK is the world’s largest manufacturer of what?
5. Which celestial feature shares its name with the Greek word for milk?
6. Holt is the name of the den created by which animal?
7. What does the acronym UCAS stand for?
8. How many seconds do Oscar winners have to make a speech, 30 seconds, 45 seconds or are they gone in 60 seconds?
9. What does John Lennon share with a war-time leader and the central male character of 1984?
10. The Pica Pica bird is more commonly known as what?
Sport - And there's always a sport round, but here I managed to slip in Mogwai and a comedian. During the actual quiz I think I changed the wording of question 7 to involve cake, and I might have boo-hissed Lance Armstrong (probably didn't, wanted to).
1. In cricket, what is to Durham that Headingley is to Yorkshire?
2. This is an out of date question:Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy has recently become the fifth English player to score in seven or more successive Premier League games, name one of the other four? Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, Mark Stein, and Daniel Sturridge a. Bonus point for naming all four.
3. Which actor and comedian ran 43 marathons in 51 days in 2009, a feat which earned him a special award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards?
4. How many times has Baroness ‘Tanni’ Grey-Thomson win the London Marathon?
5. In which year was Lance Armstrong stripped of his Tour De France victories?
6. How many times has American triathlete Gwen Jorgensen won the ITU Triathlon World Championships?
7. Cristiano Ronaldo was born on which Portuguese island in the north Atlantic Ocean?
8. Leeds Rhinos recently won the Super League, the top tier of rugby league. How many times have the Rhinos won the Super League and the Championship (as it was until 1996), was it 7, 10 or 13?
9. Glasgow band Mogwai provided the soundtrack for a 2006 film examining the playing style of which French football player then at Real Madrid?
10. Who are Arsenal ahead of after beating Aston Villa in the 2015 FA Cup Final?
Movies and Music - I really went to town with this round, trying to stretch my imagination with the questions. I think the first one is lovely, though number 7 was a revelation.
1. Who links Joseph ‘Joe’ Dredd, Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, William Cooper, and Julius Caesar?
2. American band Fall Out Boy named themselves after the sidekick to which Simpsons superhero?
3. The Apprentice’s theme music is Montagues and Capulets comes from a Prokofiev ballet based on which Shakespeare play?
4. “Our whole universe was in a hot dense state” is opening line to The Big Bang Theory theme, who sings it?
5. What was Billie Holiday’s nickname?
6. Adam West played Batman in the original 1960s TV series, and as himself as what in Family Guy?
7. Back to the Future day was held on 21 October, way back in time Steven Spielberg directed the first ever episode of which detective TV show?
8. Which band’s version of Uptown Girl reached number 1 in 2001?
a. Bonus Point: Who sang the original?
9. West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum was the third studio album for who?
10. What is “awesome” in the Lego Movie?
In-Law, Outlaw, Statues and Statues - The quiz night had been organised for law students, and I wanted to incorporate a very specialised theme to proceedings. In the end it was a lot easier than I thought, and not as specialised as it might have been.
1. In-Laws: Rita Hayworth and Paola Mori were spouses of which American actor and film director?
2. Outlaws: What did Han Solo do in 1977 that he didn’t do in 1997?
3. Statues: Which German city donated a Drayman to Leeds in 1980?
4. Statutes: In which month and year was the Maastricht Treaty drafted?
5. In-Laws: Which actor and singer’s marriage links Princes Leia and Mrs Robinson?
6. Outlaws: “Marian, why don’t carry on with what you’re doing, ‘cause there’s always trouble brewing” is the opening lines for which Sherwood Forest-based BBC One children’s programme?
7. Statues: Monument, the landmark on Pudding Lane in London, commemorates what?
8. Statutes: Which country was the first to give women the vote?
9. In-Laws: Which husband and wife appeared in series five of Strictly Come Dancing?
10. Outlaws: How many days was Chinese artist Ai Weiwei imprisoned for tax avoidance in 2011, was it 61 days, 81 days, or 101 days?
11. Statues: Eric Morecambe is commemorated by a statue in Morecambe, Lancashire, which part of the Leeds metropolitan area has a statue for Ernie Wise?
12. Statutes: It is no joke, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 took effect on which day in 1999?
13. In-Laws: As a fraction how many of Henry VIII’s wives were beheaded?
14. Outlaws: What connects a bay in North Yorkshire, an airport in South Yorkshire and a battalion in the British Territorial Army?
15. Statues: Before creating the Angel of the North, Sir Antony Gormley proposed a larger, brick sculpture for Leeds, what was it of?
16. Statutes: What is the act (including the year) that guarantees equal health care to all Britons?
General Knowledge - Generally everyone likes a bit of knowledge, right? I started out randomly writing questions very straight (like question one) though as I did more I started to mess around. I wonder if Gone In 60 Seconds ever won an Oscar...
1. Who was the original host of University Challenge?
2. Spectre is the 24th Bond film and features Daniel Craig, who played Bond in Die Another Day? a. Bonus point for who performed the title song and had a cameo in the film?
3. What is phasmophobia the fear of?
4. Japan’s YKK is the world’s largest manufacturer of what?
5. Which celestial feature shares its name with the Greek word for milk?
6. Holt is the name of the den created by which animal?
7. What does the acronym UCAS stand for?
8. How many seconds do Oscar winners have to make a speech, 30 seconds, 45 seconds or are they gone in 60 seconds?
9. What does John Lennon share with a war-time leader and the central male character of 1984?
10. The Pica Pica bird is more commonly known as what?
Sport - And there's always a sport round, but here I managed to slip in Mogwai and a comedian. During the actual quiz I think I changed the wording of question 7 to involve cake, and I might have boo-hissed Lance Armstrong (probably didn't, wanted to).
1. In cricket, what is to Durham that Headingley is to Yorkshire?
2. This is an out of date question:
3. Which actor and comedian ran 43 marathons in 51 days in 2009, a feat which earned him a special award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards?
4. How many times has Baroness ‘Tanni’ Grey-Thomson win the London Marathon?
5. In which year was Lance Armstrong stripped of his Tour De France victories?
6. How many times has American triathlete Gwen Jorgensen won the ITU Triathlon World Championships?
7. Cristiano Ronaldo was born on which Portuguese island in the north Atlantic Ocean?
8. Leeds Rhinos recently won the Super League, the top tier of rugby league. How many times have the Rhinos won the Super League and the Championship (as it was until 1996), was it 7, 10 or 13?
9. Glasgow band Mogwai provided the soundtrack for a 2006 film examining the playing style of which French football player then at Real Madrid?
10. Who are Arsenal ahead of after beating Aston Villa in the 2015 FA Cup Final?
Movies and Music - I really went to town with this round, trying to stretch my imagination with the questions. I think the first one is lovely, though number 7 was a revelation.
1. Who links Joseph ‘Joe’ Dredd, Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, William Cooper, and Julius Caesar?
2. American band Fall Out Boy named themselves after the sidekick to which Simpsons superhero?
3. The Apprentice’s theme music is Montagues and Capulets comes from a Prokofiev ballet based on which Shakespeare play?
4. “Our whole universe was in a hot dense state” is opening line to The Big Bang Theory theme, who sings it?
5. What was Billie Holiday’s nickname?
6. Adam West played Batman in the original 1960s TV series, and as himself as what in Family Guy?
7. Back to the Future day was held on 21 October, way back in time Steven Spielberg directed the first ever episode of which detective TV show?
8. Which band’s version of Uptown Girl reached number 1 in 2001?
a. Bonus Point: Who sang the original?
9. West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum was the third studio album for who?
10. What is “awesome” in the Lego Movie?
In-Law, Outlaw, Statues and Statues - The quiz night had been organised for law students, and I wanted to incorporate a very specialised theme to proceedings. In the end it was a lot easier than I thought, and not as specialised as it might have been.
1. In-Laws: Rita Hayworth and Paola Mori were spouses of which American actor and film director?
2. Outlaws: What did Han Solo do in 1977 that he didn’t do in 1997?
3. Statues: Which German city donated a Drayman to Leeds in 1980?
4. Statutes: In which month and year was the Maastricht Treaty drafted?
5. In-Laws: Which actor and singer’s marriage links Princes Leia and Mrs Robinson?
6. Outlaws: “Marian, why don’t carry on with what you’re doing, ‘cause there’s always trouble brewing” is the opening lines for which Sherwood Forest-based BBC One children’s programme?
7. Statues: Monument, the landmark on Pudding Lane in London, commemorates what?
8. Statutes: Which country was the first to give women the vote?
9. In-Laws: Which husband and wife appeared in series five of Strictly Come Dancing?
10. Outlaws: How many days was Chinese artist Ai Weiwei imprisoned for tax avoidance in 2011, was it 61 days, 81 days, or 101 days?
11. Statues: Eric Morecambe is commemorated by a statue in Morecambe, Lancashire, which part of the Leeds metropolitan area has a statue for Ernie Wise?
12. Statutes: It is no joke, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 took effect on which day in 1999?
13. In-Laws: As a fraction how many of Henry VIII’s wives were beheaded?
14. Outlaws: What connects a bay in North Yorkshire, an airport in South Yorkshire and a battalion in the British Territorial Army?
15. Statues: Before creating the Angel of the North, Sir Antony Gormley proposed a larger, brick sculpture for Leeds, what was it of?
16. Statutes: What is the act (including the year) that guarantees equal health care to all Britons?
Answers
General knowledge
1. Bamber Gascoigne
2. Pierce Brosnan
2.a Madonna
3. Ghosts
4. Zips
5. Galaxy
6. Otter
7. University and Colleges Admissions Service
8. 45 seconds
9. His middle name, Winston, Winston Churchill and Winston Smith.
10. Magpie
Sport
1. Riverside Ground/Chester-le-Street
3. Eddie Izzard.
4. Six
5. 2012
6. Twice, 2014 and 2015
7. Madeira
8. 10, 13 being the number of times they have won the Challenge Cup
9. Zinedine Zidane
10. Manchester United, who have won 11 FA Cup Finals to Arsenals 12
Movies and Music
1. Karl Urban, in the films Dredd, Star Trek/Star Trek Into Darkness, RED, and Xena: Warrior Princess
2. Radioactive Man
3. Romeo and Juliet
4. The Barenaked Ladies
5. Lady Day
6. Mayor
7. Columbo.
8. Westlife.
8.a Billy Joel
9. Kasabian.
10. Everything
In-Law, Outlaw, Statues and Statues
1. Orson Wells
2. Shoots Greedo first
3. Dortmund
4. December 1991
5. Carrie Fisher and Paul Simon
6. Maid Marian and her Merry Men, which ran from 1989 to 1994
7. The 1666 Great Fire of London
8. New Zealand
9. Kenny and Gabby Logan
10. 81 Days
11. Morley
12. 1 April
13. 2 were beheaded, one-third of his wives
14. Robin Hood
15. Brick Man
16. National Health Service Act 1946
Monday, 11 January 2016
In The Doubtful World Of Speculation
I've finally managed to go for a bicycle ride in Cambridge. On a previous Boxing Day I managed a run around Chesterton and the river, this time I was led along the river out towards Fen Ditton[1] then back into the very heart of the city.
Cambridge strikes me as curious city, calamitous and claustrophobic, yet calm clearings in the Commons and along the Cam. I have only dipped my toes into odd pages of Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris[2], so that curiously cruel city is not a good comparison, though there's something mystical about Cambridge. Cambridge features in Douglas Adams's books, as a city of holistic detectives and time travelers[3].
Holistically there is a lot to take in. Bicycling helps, as it connects a person to an area in the same way a speculative text delivers a reader a world to explore. If one cannot be at one with the universe, the saying goes, at least be at one with one's bicycle. And with one's book.
Out on the Cam I was heading to a particular universe, though my head was full of the first part of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant[4]. Here the world is shrouded in 'mist,' a forgetful, confused condition that is making Britons and Saxons do irrational things by amplifying their superstitions and beliefs.
One particular section featured a ferryman and a widow, and relayed a tale of an crowded island that people went to seek solitude. It reminded me a little a lot about the Earthsea Quartet's The Farthest Shore[5], this island that helped individuals forget the toils of their day-to-day lives. In both books there is a link between forgetfulness and forgetting pain and the truth of being human, to die.
The pan-dimensional beings represented by mice are also human in that they will die. In Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy[6] the order the construction of Earth so that it can work out what the ultimate question to life, the universe, and everything actually was[7]. Prior to switching on Deep Thought there is a debate on the need for 'clearly defined areas of doubt and speculation[8].'
Fiction texts are good at 'clearly defined areas of doubt,' they allow for the widest, wildest speculations. Yet doubts are to be avoided. Blade Runner[9], Ghost In The Shell[10], Sleeper[11], all discuss themes of what makes us human, what makes our experiences, what is it to be human.
To discuss Sleeper in particular, the film uses comedy to explore the extraordinary ordinary of the future. Dressed as a robotic manservant while his owner is throwing a fascistic party, Miles Monroe mixes food powder and water. In Star Wars The Force Awakens[12], Rey makes food in a similar way. Here the ordinary becomes extraordinary, we all need to eat, we just need to wait for the powdered bread. Or as the narrative of Back to the Future Part Two[13] has it, we have to wait for hoverboards.
A theme that is strong in both Sleeper and The Force Awakens[14] is whether the protagonist (or antagonist) is doing the right thing. Miles Monroe avoided eating red meat and smoking cigarettes as it would, he was led to believe, extend his life. Kylo Ren knows what he needs to do to both return to the light and to fully embrace the dark side. Both of these choices involve his family in general and father in particular.
[Spoiler one paragraph] Those Skywalkers, always suffering with abandonment issues or problems with their father and grandfathers. Though this is familiar ground for JJ Abrams, as both Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness[15] rely on the relationships Kirk and Spock have with their fathers and their fathers' actions.
[Spoiler ends]
Back to the Cam and Cambridge. Along the river and along the footpaths and banks there is doubt, though not the doubt of existence but the quandary of whether or not my tyre would slip on wet leafs or mud. In my extraordinary ordinary I think I'd opt for better drained footpaths.
Notes and references
1 - "Honestly, with my hearing I thought you said Fern Ditton," as if that helps.
2 - City of Saints and Madmen (Third edition), 2004, Tor Books.
3 - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, William Heinemann, 1987. I would also like to mention that other timetraveller Adams was involved with, Doctor Who, in Shada (Douglas Adams and Gareth Roberts, 2012, BBC Books).
4 - 2015, Faber & Faber.
5 - Ursula K. Le Guin, 1972, Atheneum Books.
6 - Douglas Adams, 1979, Pan Books
7 - The Mice had already received the ultimate answer, though I wonder if this might have anything to do with one of the Pyramid's proclamations to the residents of Night Vale (The Pyramid, 15 October 2012) that 'some of you have been given the questions, some have been given the answers, though not all questions and answers will match.'
8 - I'm paraphrasing this as I don't have a copy at hand to check.
9 - Ridley Scott, 1982
10 - Mamoru Oshii, 1995
11 - Woody Allen, 1973
12 - J J Abrams, 2015
13 - Robert Zemeckis, 1989
14 - And to be fair, in all of the text mentioned in this.
15 - J J Abrams, 2009 and 2013
Cambridge strikes me as curious city, calamitous and claustrophobic, yet calm clearings in the Commons and along the Cam. I have only dipped my toes into odd pages of Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris[2], so that curiously cruel city is not a good comparison, though there's something mystical about Cambridge. Cambridge features in Douglas Adams's books, as a city of holistic detectives and time travelers[3].
Holistically there is a lot to take in. Bicycling helps, as it connects a person to an area in the same way a speculative text delivers a reader a world to explore. If one cannot be at one with the universe, the saying goes, at least be at one with one's bicycle. And with one's book.
Out on the Cam I was heading to a particular universe, though my head was full of the first part of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant[4]. Here the world is shrouded in 'mist,' a forgetful, confused condition that is making Britons and Saxons do irrational things by amplifying their superstitions and beliefs.
One particular section featured a ferryman and a widow, and relayed a tale of an crowded island that people went to seek solitude. It reminded me a little a lot about the Earthsea Quartet's The Farthest Shore[5], this island that helped individuals forget the toils of their day-to-day lives. In both books there is a link between forgetfulness and forgetting pain and the truth of being human, to die.
The pan-dimensional beings represented by mice are also human in that they will die. In Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy[6] the order the construction of Earth so that it can work out what the ultimate question to life, the universe, and everything actually was[7]. Prior to switching on Deep Thought there is a debate on the need for 'clearly defined areas of doubt and speculation[8].'
Fiction texts are good at 'clearly defined areas of doubt,' they allow for the widest, wildest speculations. Yet doubts are to be avoided. Blade Runner[9], Ghost In The Shell[10], Sleeper[11], all discuss themes of what makes us human, what makes our experiences, what is it to be human.
To discuss Sleeper in particular, the film uses comedy to explore the extraordinary ordinary of the future. Dressed as a robotic manservant while his owner is throwing a fascistic party, Miles Monroe mixes food powder and water. In Star Wars The Force Awakens[12], Rey makes food in a similar way. Here the ordinary becomes extraordinary, we all need to eat, we just need to wait for the powdered bread. Or as the narrative of Back to the Future Part Two[13] has it, we have to wait for hoverboards.
A theme that is strong in both Sleeper and The Force Awakens[14] is whether the protagonist (or antagonist) is doing the right thing. Miles Monroe avoided eating red meat and smoking cigarettes as it would, he was led to believe, extend his life. Kylo Ren knows what he needs to do to both return to the light and to fully embrace the dark side. Both of these choices involve his family in general and father in particular.
[Spoiler one paragraph] Those Skywalkers, always suffering with abandonment issues or problems with their father and grandfathers. Though this is familiar ground for JJ Abrams, as both Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness[15] rely on the relationships Kirk and Spock have with their fathers and their fathers' actions.
[Spoiler ends]
Back to the Cam and Cambridge. Along the river and along the footpaths and banks there is doubt, though not the doubt of existence but the quandary of whether or not my tyre would slip on wet leafs or mud. In my extraordinary ordinary I think I'd opt for better drained footpaths.
Notes and references
1 - "Honestly, with my hearing I thought you said Fern Ditton," as if that helps.
2 - City of Saints and Madmen (Third edition), 2004, Tor Books.
3 - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, William Heinemann, 1987. I would also like to mention that other timetraveller Adams was involved with, Doctor Who, in Shada (Douglas Adams and Gareth Roberts, 2012, BBC Books).
4 - 2015, Faber & Faber.
5 - Ursula K. Le Guin, 1972, Atheneum Books.
6 - Douglas Adams, 1979, Pan Books
7 - The Mice had already received the ultimate answer, though I wonder if this might have anything to do with one of the Pyramid's proclamations to the residents of Night Vale (The Pyramid, 15 October 2012) that 'some of you have been given the questions, some have been given the answers, though not all questions and answers will match.'
8 - I'm paraphrasing this as I don't have a copy at hand to check.
9 - Ridley Scott, 1982
10 - Mamoru Oshii, 1995
11 - Woody Allen, 1973
12 - J J Abrams, 2015
13 - Robert Zemeckis, 1989
14 - And to be fair, in all of the text mentioned in this.
15 - J J Abrams, 2009 and 2013
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