Ten days meme
Five books/movies/tv series/etc that you'd recommend
1. Bergman's The Seventh Seal. I can watch this over and over and get new stuff out of each time. It's also one of those essential things to have watched because it has given rise to so many parodies; notably the title sequence of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
2. Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. The first time I read it I just enjoyed what is a highly amusing take on the British upper classes in the 20th century. The second time was struck by the beauty and economy of the language Powell uses. The third time I realised just how artfully crafted the whole series is. The 1980s BBC radio version is very good too. The Channel 4 TV version is highly abbreviated but watchable. The most recent BBC radio version is an abomination that should be cast into very depths of Hell.
3. Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. I know it's more a reworking than a translation but it's beautiful. There's a lovely Folio Society edition of it and also, highly recommended, CDs of Heaney reading it.
4. Roger Penrose The Road to Reality. This is the best summary for the layman of the current state of the search for a theory that unites our understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics with what we know about gravity, space and time. It's long and not an easy read; much harder I suspect if you have less maths than I do, but you don't have to understand all the mathematics to grasp what he's on about.
5. The 2006 Salzburg Festival production of Mozart's Il Nozze di Figaro. It's beautifully sung by a brilliant cast and the production is thought provoking; more Strindberg than commedia del'arte. A good alternative, more traditional, version of this most accessible of operas would be Gardiner's version with Alison Hagley and Bryn Terfel, recorded at Le Chatelet in Paris.
1. Bergman's The Seventh Seal. I can watch this over and over and get new stuff out of each time. It's also one of those essential things to have watched because it has given rise to so many parodies; notably the title sequence of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
2. Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. The first time I read it I just enjoyed what is a highly amusing take on the British upper classes in the 20th century. The second time was struck by the beauty and economy of the language Powell uses. The third time I realised just how artfully crafted the whole series is. The 1980s BBC radio version is very good too. The Channel 4 TV version is highly abbreviated but watchable. The most recent BBC radio version is an abomination that should be cast into very depths of Hell.
3. Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. I know it's more a reworking than a translation but it's beautiful. There's a lovely Folio Society edition of it and also, highly recommended, CDs of Heaney reading it.
4. Roger Penrose The Road to Reality. This is the best summary for the layman of the current state of the search for a theory that unites our understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics with what we know about gravity, space and time. It's long and not an easy read; much harder I suspect if you have less maths than I do, but you don't have to understand all the mathematics to grasp what he's on about.
5. The 2006 Salzburg Festival production of Mozart's Il Nozze di Figaro. It's beautifully sung by a brilliant cast and the production is thought provoking; more Strindberg than commedia del'arte. A good alternative, more traditional, version of this most accessible of operas would be Gardiner's version with Alison Hagley and Bryn Terfel, recorded at Le Chatelet in Paris.