Everything on hold

Two weeks ago today, Alison ran her 250th parkrun, the last such event before it closed. One week ago we ran by ourselves in the middle of the day in Wendover Woods before the car park closed the following week.

Two weeks ago tomorrow I ran the Milton Keynes 10K and afterwards we went  to a (fortunately deserted)  Patisserie Valerie for lunch.

The following day I took a load of garden rubbish to the (again fortunately) deserted tip, only for that to close the very next day.

My last trip to the cinema was on the 10th March. I was very lucky to be able to attend my last theatre at the Oxford Playhouse just over two weeks ago when I went to see the brilliant Pride and Prejudice (sort of). 

Obviously book club will not take place on Monday, perhaps we will discuss The God of Small Things online.

Sport has disappeared from our screens so there is nothing of that sort to watch on our new TV. The last sport we watched was the All England Badminton Championships before that finished on 14th March. That was all there was. We have started watching some old episodes of our favourite detective series: Poirot, Vera, New Tricks, Morse and Midsummer Murders. We have our DVD of Bleak House, and Saturday night will be film night. Sunday is the Antiques Roadshow. But we may give up on Belgravia. Although we are not watching half as much TV without the sport. I have ordered more novels.

There has been plenty to do in the garden although it is now pretty much up to date. So when the weather warms up, there is jet-washing the pavings and cleaning the conservatory. What joy!

Fusillata Casareccia

Alison bought this quite expensive pasta when there was no other on the shelves. She cooked it longer than the suggested 8 minutes for al dente and it turned out to be the most delicious pasta I have ever tasted. It went so well with the frankfurter, bacon and vegetable sauce. No other pasta will ever taste the same.

Green Thumb

Yesterday the people who treat our lawn, Green Thumb, arrived as promised, taking all necessary precautions. This included a phone call from the van when it arrived on our drive. So there was no contact whatsoever.  Well done Green Thumb.

CUSTOMER UPDATE In these unprecedented times for us all, we would like to wish you well over the next few weeks and months. With the warmer weather approaching you are likely to be spending more time in your garden soon, so we would like to reassure all of our customers that GreenThumb is still providing lawn treatments, as usual.  As a business we are aware of our responsibility towards our staff, and our customers, and will be taking all of the necessary precautions to carry on providing our service to you.  We will follow all of the Government guidelines in order to carry on doing this, particularly

Our Lawn Operatives will call you on arrival rather than knocking on the door – they can talk you through the treatment being delivered, recommendations or anything else you require.

	If you would like to talk to the Operative please be aware that they will maintain a safe distance.
	We have provided handwash facilities and antibacterial gel in all of our vans, along with single use gloves.

It is easy to pay us without physical contact - our automated payment line  - 0330 128 1233 is open 24 hours.  You can pay by bank transfer or post a cheque - remember to quote your full customer account number (format  xxxx-xxxxx) rather than handing anything to our Lawn Operatives. Account Name :                 GreenThumb Account Number :              90810562 BSB :                                   60-17-30

For customers on our Enhanced or Complete packages, payment is by monthly direct debit and you need do nothing but enjoy the lawn!

	If we have to go through your house to access your lawn,  we will reschedule your treatment
We hope you are reassured with the steps we have put in place to ensure our services remain uninterrupted during this challenging time – we do this to care for our customers and lawn operatives Should our situation change in the future, we will keep you updated. Thank you for your continued support, we sincerely wish you all the best of health at this time, from all of The Team at GreenThumb.

Westworld Season 3

What do Episode 1 of Season 3 of Westworld and Pride and Prejudice (sort of) have in common? The answer is even more strange - it's Pulp. As I said in my post on the latter, I was not familiar with this band, but their song "Something Changed" during the play was exactly right. Just one reason I will go to see it again, anywhere.

And then only a few days later Pulp are there again, this time on Westworld  with "Common People", a song I did know, again probably appropriate to the story, if only we knew why. Jonathon Nolan and Lisa Joy have written another superb introduction to Season 3, quite baffling in some ways, but always thrilling.

In Seasons 1 and 2 Dolores changed from a frumpy cowgirl into an avenging host.

Now she is more a ruthless glamour model with added violence.

So Westworld is back, better than before. Bernard is still here, hiding out in plain sight. Charlotte Hale is now somebody else and telling everyone what to do. However there was no sign of Maeve in this episode. But we do have a new character called Caleb. Fortunately he didn't fall off the beam in the top picture. When the reviews mention the programmes motto, Shakespeare's "Violent delights have violent ends", they forget Friar Lawrence advises us to "Love moderately. Long love doth so". 

Great Film Composers: The Music of the Movies on Sky Arts; The 1970's Part 1

The 1970's was time of experimentation in film music. From lush orchestration to jazz to the avante garde. The programme started with a biography of Nino Rota, a child prodigy with a classical background who was a major composer of Italian cinema. With Federico Fellini, he wrote the scores for a number of the director's movies from 1950 to 1979 including La Strada and La Dolce Vita. Then with Franco Zeffirelli, he composed the music for The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet. With so many compositions for films through the 40's, 50's and 60's  why is Nino Rota placed in the 1970's for this series? For one big reason. The Godfather. 

Francis Ford Coppola sought Nino Rota to compose the music for this 1972 classic movie. Each character is given their own theme, but it is the  instrumental "Love Theme" that is so well known (turned into a hit song "Speak Softly Love" and sung by Andy Williams. Rota followed this with the music for the whole trilogy.

Georges Delerue was another European composer with a broad classical background. He worked with Francois Truffaut on the classic 1962 French movie  Jules et Jim. Again working over many decades on countless films, he achieved recognition in Hollywood and the UK for his scores for A Man For All Seasons, Women in Love and Anne of a Thousand Days. Again, I guess he featured in the 1970's episode for his music for 1973's The Day of the Jackal and particularly his Academy Award winning score for the little known 1979 movie A Little Romance.

Jerry Fielding did not start composing for movies until after the end of the blacklist with 1962's Advise and Consent. He went on to compose the music for many Sam Peckinpah films including 1969's The Wild Bunch, 1971's Straw Dogs, The jazz loving Clint Eastwood picked Fielding to score The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1976. All these films were notable for their common unsettling themes as Fielding was in the vanguard of experimentation.

At last we were told about Marvin Hamlisch, another child prodigy and a prolific master of movie music. Before he was seven years old, he was given a place at the Julliard School.His proficiency playing jazz as well as composing brought him to the attention of Woody Allen with whom he composed the music for Take the Money and Run and Bananas. In 1973 he adapted Scott Joplins music for The Sting which won Hamlisch his first Oscar. It's classic theme The Entertainer. was a huge hit. In the same year he won two Academy Awards for the the score and title song for The Way We Were. He went on to be nominated another seven times for an Oscar.

Michael Small was notable for his sores to thrillers including Klute (1971),  The Parallax View (1974) and Marathon Man (1976). Lalo Schifrin is famous for composing the theme to the long running Mission Impossible TV series that was later repeated in the movie versions. In 1967 he scored the movie Cool Hand Luke, then Bullitt (1968), Coogan's Bluff  (also 1968), Dirty Harry (1971) and The Eagle Has Landed (1977 amongst many other major movies. He was nominated for an Academy Award on six occasions.

I have to admit that the only composer with whom I was familiar with Marvin Hamlicsh. As for Nino Rota, Georges Delerue, Jerry Fielding and Michael Small, I knew some of their music, but none of their names. This has been an education.

Stuck on 249

On the 2nd November last year, I posted I was stuck on 242 parkruns due to my heel injury. Now I am stuck on 249!

Notice of cancellation

Hi David,

We’re writing to let you know that, in line with public health advice, we have taken the decision to close all parkrun events across the United Kingdom with immediate effect. Initially, this closure will be in place until the end of March, however this is largely to bring all parkrun countries into the same time frame and we very much expect closures to continue through April at least.

Going forward we will update parkrunners regularly and aim to communicate important information as soon as is appropriate. 

We know that this message may be a difficult one for you to receive, and many people will be wondering what to do without their regular weekly catch-up. Please rest assured that we are working hard to develop our strategy so that we are able to support the health and happiness of parkrunners around the world during this difficult time.

Remaining active is incredibly important, and we are working on ways to encourage and support that, however please do not arrange group gatherings at your parkrun venues whilst parkrun events are suspended.

I was so glad that Alison was able to run her 250th parkrun on Saturday, but who knows when she will be able to show off her milestone t-shirt!

Milton Keynes 10K

Perhaps this could be my only race of the year. So having recovered from my plantar fasciitis and put in lots of training, I didn't want to miss it. I kept away from people as much as possible, no hugs from some running friends we met. It was a much smaller field than two years ago, 919 runners compared with 1,321 so 30% down!

In the end I was very pleased with my result of 58 minutes and 46 seconds at a pace of 9.27. My Garmin told me (without even pressing the lap button on the way) that at 5K I was there in 28 minutes and 18 seconds, at a pace of 9.04. Well it was mainly downhill. The second half was slower, and I did feel as if I was struggling at times. 30 Minutes and 28 seconds meant this was at 9.50 pace which was not that bad.

I was first of the two men running in the 75+ age group and even first of the four in the 70+ and 75+ categories. My age grade of 65.97% compared favourably with  the 66.14% exactly two years ago for the same event when I ran two minutes faster, and with two 10K's in 2017, both three and a half minutes faster with an age grade of 67.04%. Especially as I had been out for nearly three months with my heel injury.

We were very lucky with the weather, fairly mild at around 10C although still windy. I actually became too warm in the two layers, so was quite grateful for the light drizzle that started a mile before the end. The rain became much heavier on the way home and poured down all afternoon.

True History of the Kelly Gang, The Invisible Man and Fantasy Island

A strange retelling of the familiar story of Ned Kelly, almost at times like an art house movie, especially towards the end as Ned becomes increasingly unhinged. Director Justin Kurzel has made it quite surreal in many ways, saved by a good screenplay and an excellent ensemble cast. Russell Crowe turns up early on in a small part and acts everyone else off the screen. George MacKay is suitably bonkers as Ned, Essie Davis is brilliant as his mother and Thomasin McKenzie as Mary is unrecognisable from the girl in Jojo Rabbit. Not sure about Nicholas Hoult as Constable Fitzpatrick. Yes, strange but always interesting.

A stand out performance from Elizabeth Moss turns a quite nasty adaptation of The Invisible Man story into something much more dramatic. The scariest thing about the movie is the sound. Without it it would have been just funny.

Fantasy Island was much better than I was led to believe by the critics, but I had to agree with them that after two thirds through it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. The early scenes are the best as we follow four sets of characters embark on their "fantasies?". In store for them are surprises that are original and well staged. Almost free of special effects, the film relies heavily on the script. This is a mixed bag, only awful on occasions, mostly just about OK. The colourful set and scenery are well photographed, it constantly looks good on a big screen.

Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) at the Oxford Playhouse

You don't have to be a fan of Jane Austen's classic to enjoy this fabulous entertainment. This modern feminist mash up of comedy and pop songs is a complete joy. I had to wonder how much of the brilliant script was Austen's and how much was that of Isobel McArthur. The latter's jokes punctuate the dazzling dialogue, much of it fast interaction between the actors. Director Paul Brotherston, with his choreographer Emily Jane Boyle, has given us a something spectacular. The set, lighting, sound and costumes are all great.

The story is told (at times narrated) by the cast of six servant girls who dress up as the characters from the book. This device works so well, especially for those famous males in the novel. The fact that underneath the costumes are their servant smocks reminds us where we are. Except we never see Mr Bennett, the father, only the back of his armchair and his newspaper. I started to wonder if he was really there, but the cast always talked to him, so he must have been.

When the servant girls break into the first song, we know this is going to be more of a musical, fortunately with classic songs rather than mediocre originals. It's karaoke, but the selection, presentation and performances are original and outstanding. We have an accordion, a harp, a trumpet and something with keys at the back?

The whole cast are excellent, no household names, no movies to their credits, hardly any TV, but wow, they put their heart and sole into the production and it shows. Of course, they have to play multiple characters, but this just adds to the fun. Although Meghan Tyler is nearly always Elizabeth Bennett ("persona non-starter") ,the pivot of the story. Isobel McArthur (the writer) also plays Mrs Bennett and Mr Darcy, an amazing combination. Christina Gordon alternates Jane Bennett with Lady Catherine (more later) and Clara. Hannah Jarrett-Scot, Felix Forde and Tori Burgess have at least four roles each.

Here is Mr Darcy. At his entrance later on, the women wonder why he is not wet!

So lets get onto the songs, all picked for their relevance to the plot.

Will You Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles. (A great ensemble piece)

You're Just Too Good To Be True - Andy Williams

Your So Vain - Carly Simon (Obviously sung by Elizabeth to Mr Darcy)

If You Leave Me Now - Chicago

Young Hearts Run Free - Candi Staton

Every Day I Write The Book - Elvis Costello (My favourite on the night)

Something Changed - Pulp (not familiar, but a fabulous song and so appropriate to the story)

There are mentions on reviews of songs by Kylie Minogue, The Devine Comedy, Etta James and others, but I may have missed them. Then there was Lady In Red, all to do with Lady Catherine de Bourgh (below) and her (almost) namesake composer.

Finally, at the top of my list, (and maybe missed by most) a Christmas gathering of a depressed Bennett family is introduced by those unforgettable first bars of Mud's Lonely this Christmas. Absolutely brilliant. So a wonderful evening, quite long but not a moment's padding. There was something about it that reminded me of One Man Two Guvnors, it was in that bracket. All the reviews I read gave it four stars, I cannot think why they were not five.

PS Two Oxford reviews have just given it the five star treatment, oxinabox and oxfordmag. One wanted to give it sixth star. Why not.

Balancing Acts, Big Sky and Symposium

For anybody interested in the theatre, Balancing Acts is essential reading. Scattered amongst the reminiscences of his twelve years as artistic director of the National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner delves into the texts of some of the plays for which he is responsible. These little essays describe his thoughts about many of the classics, particularly Shakespeare. On "Henry VI Part I" he tells us:

"Hal, Falstaff, the king: the plays, like most of Shakespeare's history plays, have little time for women. Despite being written when the most successful and powerful of all English women was on the throne, they marginalise women more even than they have been marginalised by history...….. What kind of incomparable panorama of England leaves out half it's population?...… I no longer think it's good enough to insist only that Shakespeare held the mirror up to his own world. To perform his plays is to invite universal participation in them."

Early in the book, Hytner describes the trials and tribulations of staging "His Dark Materials". Anna Maxwell Martin, Dominic Cooper and ben Wishaw were all at the beginning of their careers. The sections about "The History Boys" and "The Lady in the Van" are classics. He revels in the expertise of some of his actors: John Wood as Brutus, Simon Russell Beale, Zoe Wanamaker, Alex Jennings, Maggie Smith, the list goes on.

I was initially less interested in the part about musicals, but the way Hytner describes their emotional depth makes me want to see more. "Carousel" and "Miss Saigon" particularly. The origins of "One Man, Two Guvnors" were of great interest, having been fortunate to see James Corden at the Aylesbury Waterside theatre.

As well as the bid successes, Hytner does not stint on the failures. But overall, his twelve years in charge are a huge success. The transition from putting on only limited runs at the three theatres, to transfers to the West End, Broadway, national tours (e.g. "War Horse" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" and live transmissions to cinemas paved the way for a sustainable model despite cuts in subsidies. Nicholas Hytner has written all this down in a literate and entertaining book that I loved. 

The only problem reading a Kate Atkinson novel is that when you are finished, that's it for a couple of years. I tried to spin out Big Sky, but it was so good I rushed through the 470 pages as usual. My only hope now is to read some of her back catalogue. The great thing about her Jackson Brodie books is that Jackson is only in it for about a quarter of the time. Instead we get a lot of "colourful" characters, some good, some very bad. I loved Ronnie and Reggie, a pair of young detective constables who should get a TV series of their own. I liked Harry, a sixteen year old with a wonderful stepmother called Crystal (an ex-glamour model?) and a younger stepsister called Candace. Crystal hade never had a pet, "Not even a hamster. Lots of rats around though".

The construction of the book is excellent, sometimes a chapter ends with someone in peril and the next starts with a completely different character. There is quite a lot of plot, but this is occasionally saved by some magical writing. There are two pages near the end that are a masterclass.  Then we have Jackson's taste for female country singers. In my review of the first Jackson Brodie novel "Case Histories", my posting of 11th March 2011 lists the seven female country/folk artists mentioned in the book, all of who's albums were in my collection (see below). This time Jackson's taste seem to have changed, or Kate is running out of artists. None of these appeal to me: Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, Lori McKenna (all too country), Maren Morris (strange choice). However, The Dixie Chicks (hurrah!) do get another mention and later on so does Patty Griffin. I'm not sure how I came by her first album, but it does not stand repeat hearings. But it was good she name checks both Dire Straits and Mary Chapin Carpenter for Mark Knopfler's "The Bug".

"There are seven American country/folk singers whose songs Jackson plays during the story. All female. And guess what? Yes, they are all in my collection. Allison Moorer, Trisha Yearwood, Emmy Lou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Lee Ann Womack and at the end, The Dixie Chicks. As Jackson says "why is my taste getting more and more depressive?" "

A typically short novel from Muriel Spark but superbly constructed, with elegant prose, sharp wit and impeccable dialogue. There is so much satirical stuff behind what seems simple writing about everyday life. I love how she brings in the reader in a conspiratorial way. Setting out the dinner party early on, the guests "are far better known to each other, at present, than to us". But not for long as their back stories come to the fore.

One of the two hosts of the dinner party is an artist called Hurley. He describes his profession: "If the public thinks you're too well off they figure the art must be too superficial, and if you're poor they think there is something wrong with your art, and why doesn't it sell?" Later on there is a house in St Pancras where there are nine nuns. Six "were as dreary as hell". But if you want a clue, Hilda was right all along. 

Frankenstein at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Here is Mary Shelley, at her desk in her room at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva, probably the 16th June 1816 (according to my Fiona Sampson biography, not the play), thinking about the story she is challenged to write. Byron's party have read some German ghost stories and he suggests they each write a ghost story of their own.

As eighteen year old Mary tussles with her imagination, the characters come to life on the stage. This play is therefore not about Mary's life (as it was in the much superior  play Mary Shelley that I saw in Oxford in 2012) but about how she created her literary masterpiece.

This theatrical device showing an interaction between Mary and her characters is the best thing about the play. At times cajoling, sympathetic, angry and excited, the novel comes to life. Having never read the book, I was amazed that here it was, crystallised into a short production. It's plot is far more devastating than any of the films I have seen for the simple reason it is true to the book as it describes huge family tragedies brought about by Victor Frankenstein's experiment.

Rona Munro's idea to place Mary on the stage alongside her characters works really well, it's just a shame that her script is somewhat hammy. This is not helped by the young cast, all of whom are not that much better than shouty amateurs. Eilidh Loan as Mary is certainly a presence on stage, but her constant nervous energy is over the top. I cannot imagine why the monster's accent is so strange, Michael Moreland could have been so much better. At least Ben Castle-Gibbs, Victor is a little better.

The production design is excellent, Becky Minto's set works well with a lot of the action taking place on those high balconies. The lighting and sound add to the atmosphere. A well imagined play that did not live up to it's promise.