Privateering? - Why Mark can't play the blues

A double CD and a big disappointment. Although the six previous solo albums from  Mark Knopfer have gradually lost impact, his latest Privateering  has hardly anything to commend it. A self indulgent descent into blues territory is actually pretty dire, and that is something coming from a big fan. Mark can do folk/country rock better than most, and his experiments with Celtic influences have mostly been fine. But blues? No way. Someone should have told him that putting together a band of talented musicians to back his virtuosity on guitar is never enough. There was no "blue" in his blues, no guts. Just interminable, bland work throughs coupled with some unstartling lyrics.

So having bought my ticket for this years residency at The Royal Albert Hall (and a superb seat it was too, having priority booking from having attended his last three concerts there), I eventually decided to give it up. I noted from my review from the 2010 concert that it was not as good as before, and that the instrumentals went on far too long. Having now read the first reviews, I'm very glad I didn't go. Here are some of them:

"Most of the material from new album Privateering was frankly awful"
"But for every rare classic there was an interminable trip back to the old country"

"a set of seemingly interchangeable epic, directionless new songs"

"it was too often a bore"

"material from new album Privateering sounded hammy, overcooked"

"a bit of damp squib"

"too much time was spent putting us through the newer material"

"Not quite Money for Nothing, but too darned close for comfort"

 

Most reviewers said he was playing for himself and not the audience. This was emphasised by the lack of numbers from his Dire Straits years, only three on most occasions, whereas we used to have six or seven. I'm glad I have the memories of those concerts instead.

Tring Book Club - The Sea by John Banville

We only chose one book this time, so we met again on Wednesday evening. I had recommended this novel having read a positive review of John Banville's latest book Ancient Light. But I found it a great disappointment. Described as a family drama and winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize I thought The Sea  would be right up my street, especially as many reviews had called the writing beautiful, poetic and high art. However, I found there were passages that were really boring. Some of the descriptions seemed too contrived and the author seemed to spend more time introducing words that I had never heard of, than concentrating on the story. Even when he is being witty, ("the champagne flowed like a bubbling and slightly rancid river") it still falls flat.

That is not to say it was a complete waste of time. Whilst the main character (and our narrator) is quite a pathetic soul, the family with whom he becomes involved as a child are all interesting and well drawn. These passages are the best in the book. It is when we get back closer to the present day that I found it pretty turgid. So it came as a big surprise that most of the book club thought it was great. And I have to say that during our pretty long discussion, there seemed far more depth to the story than I had imagined, and I began to think it might have been good after all. In fact I agreed that the first half was very good, and that I had been distracted by the heavy descriptions and the use of words I didn't know. So maybe I ought to read it again, which was probably what the author wants anyway.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

When we first put up our bird feeder, we used basic bird seed. This was totally ignored by the birds, and the fat balls were not much better. Once we changed to sunflower seeds, we started to get a lot more visitors.

The latest change has been to sunflower hearts, and these have been very successful. We started off with blue tits, great tits and coal tits, then the finches arrived, chaffinches, greenfinches and recently goldfinches. But in the last two weeks, who should turn up but a greater spotted woodpecker. He must be feeding some young, as he now comes a couple of times every day. And a beautiful sight he is too.

The Seagull at the Oxford Playhouse

Headlong Theatre (whose acclaimed artistic director is Rupert Goold) are a company that tries to make exciting new work and "radical reinvigorations" of old classics. Anton Chekhov's The Seagull certainly fits the latter category. Not only do we have a modern setting, but a new modern language version by John Donnelly that works superbly well.The director Blanche McIntyre has used a minimalist set to great advantage, and has coaxed some superb performances from the actors. The casting director has actually done a brilliant job.

The production is sharp, dynamic and fierce. I guess everything Chekhov would have wanted. The dialogue crackles and spits as it embraces the themes of small town/country claustrophobia, generational tension and the culture of theatre. The combination of writer and director have made for a superb take on a familiar story.

The top acting credits go to Alexander Cobb, a youthful and tormented Konstantin, and Abigail Cruttenden as his overbearing mother, the famous actress Irina Arkadina. But I guess the revelation of the evening was the performance of Pearl Chanda in her theatrical debut as Nina, having only graduated from RADA this year. Someone to look out for in the future.

Bear Creek by Brandi Carlile

It would have been hard to choose my favourite Brandi Carlile album, until now. From the promise of her first self titled album, to her classic collection on The Story (and it's final track of "Again Today" that made it to my 131 Songs) and the following album Give Up The Ghost (that includes the magical "Before It Breaks"), we now have what is her best music to date.

There is not one dud track. The songwriting of Brandi and The Twins (Phil and Tim Hanseroth) gets better and better. Phil, especially, shines with "What Did I Ever Come Here For" and Brandi matches that with her "That Wasn't Me". Both could have made the list of my favourite songs.

The Beginner's Goodbye, Capital and The Accidental Tourist

The Beginner's Goodbye is the first time I have read anything by Anne Tyler and it wont be the last. It was fairly lightweight novel in terms of the story and the length. But it had an interesting central character, Aaron, and a portrait of his life before and after the death of his wife Dorothy. So a little domestic drama with a fairly implausible happy ending. But I found it warm and appealing.

The publicity about Capital by John Lanchester refers to it being about the residents of Pepys Road, in an affluent district of London. But the only residents we hear about inhabit just four of the houses in the street. The four stories (and one about an immigrant traffic warden) are hardly linked as the occupants do not really meet. The book alternates fairly rapidly between the four stories, and in retrospect each is pretty lightweight. Maybe what would have worked a whole lot better is if the author had chosen instead to write five novellas instead. In fact that is what we have. Five novellas which are broken down into short alternating sections. That is not to say there is nothing to be enjoyed here. There are some engaging and interestingly flawed characters. But at times, their clever portrayals are interrupted by the writer trying hard to cram in everything he can about modern London. And the device that is supposed to link the stories is eventually pretty silly. However, I think I'm glad I read it. It's content does have a certain familiarity of our wonderful capital.

Having read my first Anne Tyler (see above), I thought I would start to catch up on some of her earlier novels. The Accidental Tourist seemed to be one of her best, certainly one of her most famous books, and the early chapters were very good. But somehow I began to get bored with what seemed a repetitious story that never delivered. I did enjoy the writing, and her dialogue is exceptional. I just got a bit muddled at the end when a couch is delivered and thought I had picked up Capital by mistake where the same thing happened.

Oxford Town and Gown 10K

Ever since I started running just over a year ago, if there was one race I wanted to enter it would be the Oxford 10K. I had been to watch Alison run it a few times, so I was looking forward to running it myself on Sunday.

 

We were very lucky with the weather. Although the day started distinctly chilly with a cold breeze, at least it was sunny. We arrived in Oxford nice and early and parked on a meter in St Giles. Across the road was a cafe, open early, so we had a nice cup of tea. We joined a lot of people making their way to the start, but once we were in The Parks, we were amazed by the huge throng of runners collected by the tents.

 

We were getting quite cold despite the sun, so were glad to get the the starting area that was absolutely packed. It was not long before Christine Hamilton got us under way. The route was brilliant. In no time we were running in a wide road so we were not held up at all. The city roads were superb in the sunshine and I made sure I looked at all the buildings that we passed.

 

I didn't run with Alison, but I know she kept just behind me for the first 3K or so. My stop watch told me I was going too fast over the first few kilometres, but I was trying hard to run below my maximum. The result of keeping to my training plan was evident in the result.

 

I finished in 54 minutes 49 seconds. This is the equivalent to 8 minute 50 seconds minute mileing, so I was very pleased with the time. I came in 1,455th of the 3,039 runners and 27th of 70 male vets over 60 (being at the top end of this group, my age grade put me at 16th in this category). My overall position on age grade was 338th.

 

Alison did very well considering her disrupted training from her minor op, and being busy at work ( I can run whenever I want to). She came in 1,779th overall but 504th out of 1335 female runners and 701st overall on age grade. She was 62nd of 202 female vets 45 - 50 but 42nd on age grade. So she was also very pleased.

 

We didn't stay in Oxford afterwards, but called in at Waterperry Gardens on our way home for an early lunch. No other races are planned, just our Saturday morning Park Runs whenever we feel like it. It will be strange running without a strategy for a big race. But perhaps more relaxed.

Relatively Speaking at Milton Keynes Theatre

Relatively Speaking is a classic Alan Ayckbourn comedy from 1967, currently on tour before a spell in the West End. After a muted opening scene in the flat of a young couple played by Max Bennet and Kara Tointon, we are transported ( via an old 1960's map of the home counties) to rural Buckinghamshire (hurrah!) and the house of a mature, but troubled married couple played astonishingly well by Felicity Kendal and Jonathon Coy.

Here starts a whole series of misunderstandings that are brilliantly written. We, the audience, gradually understand what is going on and watch the characters on stage struggle to make sense of what is going on. There is a huge amount of fun to be had from the linguistic pyrotechnics, and even more from the silences that greet yet another piece of a mixed up jigsaw. Director Lindsay Posner is to be congratulated on a superb retelling of this play set, as it was written in the mid sixties. I looked for, and found, the orange decor that found it's way into all our homes.

Tring Book Club: Gone Girl and Engleby

The marriage of Nick and Amy is not just going through a bad patch, more a terminal disaster. Then Nick gets a call from a neighbour, and Amy has gone. It looks like an abduction and the police are called. In "Gone Girl" Nick narrates what happens next, but we also get to hear from Amy's diary, her version of their relationship right from the start. I really enjoyed the first two thirds of this intriguing thriller. Up to then it was more of a mystery drama. Here there were all sorts of questions that would obviously be answered later on. Why does Nick need to get rid of his disposable phone? I liked the setting. Carthage, Missouri situated right on the Mississippi river is wonderfully described. In fact Gillian Flynn's writing is sharp and drives the story relentlessly on. Our sympathies for Nick and Amy swop wildly from one to another. There are twists and turns as Nick becomes increasingly suspect to the detectives on the case. "It was my fifth lie to the police. I was just starting". The helpers at missing person's headquarters are equally nervous. "I'm just driving Mr Dunne to the police station. I'll be back in less than half an hour. No more than half an hour". I loved Amy's diary. Who is this person? Equally, who is Nick? Our sympathies for them veer wildly from one to the other. Nick's sister Go (short for Margot!)and Amy's parents are a brilliant characters. Unfortunately, the last third was disappointingly unreal. It was clever, but fanciful. And the ending was what the author wanted. There was an alternative that would have been so much better.

"I have these blanks". So says our narrator Mike Engleby, one of the most interesting characters I have ever encountered in any novel. But he is not particularly nice (to put it mildly). But he makes up for this with a dazzling intellect and a bunch of neuroses that might be familiar to many of us of the male species. The result is Sebastian Foulks' highly entertaining story of Engleby's life,that starts in the 1970's when he is at a top university, If you met him then, you would think he was a real weirdo, but we know he is a brilliant one. We also know that he has a thing for Jennifer, a student at another college. But as Mike says, are they "polar opposites"? "Jennifer ... always knowing the right thing to do .... trust old Toilet (Mike) to take the duff option". When she goes missing, Mike is as concerned as anyone. But he has a problem, those first four words. We now have a mystery, but fortunately Faulks never lets plot get in the way of Engleby's life story, and we still have a book packed with philosophical ruminations that we can all relate to. How can such an odd guy be such good company? Partly because he dabbles in drugs, more than dabbles in alcohol (pubs take up a large part of his time) and is a casual thief, but he is also interested in literature (he changes course from this subject as "it was really just a parlour game I happened to be good at. It didn't seem like scholarship, which ought to have been harder". He has an encyclopedic interest in music: classical and rock (someone please count the namechecks of 70's bands, hardly any of whom I have ever listened to - did Graham Parker ever play the Hammersmith Odeon?)and movies. No wonder this novel has such an appeal. Oh yes, he also listens to "The Archers" in the bath. Well he doesn't really listen, forget it, read the book.

Trance, Oblivion and Olympus Has Fallen

An absorbing, slightly manic and convoluted thriller from Danny Boyle, Trance is a crazy but very watchable movie. The combination of a heist plot and the rigours of hypnosis is an unusual but effective story. Sometimes the screenplay by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge is too clever for it's own good, but Boyle keeps us enthralled with the settings and dazzling photography. I never know what to make of James McEvoy. He seems to always play these unhinged characters, and it is getting as if he is laughing at the audience. Maybe that's just me. Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel are suitably glossy and two dimensional. But as a package, I have to say it was an enjoyable couple of hours.

Oblivion is similarly, but more strangely, watchable. It is an ultra high tech science fiction film which depends totally on Tom Cruise in action man mode. He must have spent 90% of his time in front of a green screen which makes for an unsettling experience. But the CGI is top drawer, I guess it had to be. And in the best, but not largest screen in my local multiplex, it made for an impressive viewing. I never did see Tron, but the same director Joseph Kosinski obviously learnt his stuff well. The strangest thing is that the second lead is the brilliant Andrea Risborough, glammed up as never before. But she only appears well down the credits, as possibly unknown in the USA. Not any longer.

If you can picture the first Die Hard movie and transfer it to the White House, substitute Bruce Willis with Gerard Butler, and you get Olympus Has Fallen. All the old cliches are here, and nothing really original in the script. But the action makes for a reasonable thriller, but one that is instantly forgettable.

Waiting for Sunrise, Not The End Of The World and The Reuctant Fundamentalist

William Boyd is such a good story teller. The first half of the book is a joy. Lysander Rief is in Vienna in 1913 to see a British psychiatrist, and meets for the first time Hettie Bull. But it is his experiences in that city that are the real delight. But knowing Boyd, things start to get nasty. And from then on we are in thriller territory, and sometimes the plot overwhelms the prose. But this is a satisfying tale, and although it is almost designed to follow "Any Human Heart", "Restless" and "Ordinary Thunderstorms" to the TV, it is well written and a real page turner.

I'm not a big fan of short stories, but this is something else. It was the only book written by Kate Atkinson that I hadn't read, and I'm so glad I did. They could easily be described as "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" to borrow the title of Edgar Allan Poe's collection. Each has a grounding in reality whilst at the same time being somewhat fantastical. I have no knowledge of Greek Gods, but they obviously have a lot to answer for. Each story is a perfect little gem, and there are occasionally little connections between them that have you trying to remember where you heard a name before. But what really stands out is the writing. Typical Atkinson, sharp, witty, intelligent, modern. In fact everything I love in a book. Pure genius.

A gripping and enthralling short novel,"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid has an underlying feeling of menace. You, the reader,are an American "visitor" (what are you really?) to an old district Lahore when you are accosted by Changez. He persuades you to stop at a cafe and listen to his story. He is an educated Pakistani who knows about your country from personal experience. His story is wonderfully described, but this is a one sided conversation. You hardly get a look in, although you seem to have declined to say something about yourself. Maybe because his experiences are so much more interesting. Although still quite young, he seems to have had a successful career so why is he trying so hard to throw it all away.  So this is an original way of telling a story. It puts the USA in the spotlight and asks questions about it's hostile attitude to other parts of the world and how that might effect normal people. As Changez says "I am a lover of America", but is he really?