February diversions
Films: Only a couple this month - Rocknrolla and The Escapist, discussed briefly here (in short: The Escapist bad, Rocknrolla good).
Books: I'm still in the middle of reading the same book I was reading at the beginning of February - The Great Stink by Clare Clark. Fortunate then that I'm enjoying it, despite its dark and painful story of one man's struggle with PTSD, following his horrific experiences in the Crimean War, set mostly within the sewers of London around the time of the massive rebuilding work to provide London with a modern sewerage system. This wholly unromanticised account is by painful, moving, ugly and tender.
Next up will be Crusaders by Richard T Kelly (lent to me by immortalradical), which will be followed by Anathem by Neal Stephenson (given to me by lamentables and abrinsky)
TV: Been watching Being Human, which is unsatisfying at best.
Whitechapel wasn't even quite that good; the first episode in particular felt like a heavy pastiche of eighties cop shows and period school dramas, by the second episode the tone of the show, the characters, and even Rupert Penry-Jones' accent had changed so much it felt like a different show. By the third episode it had perked up a bit, but overall it was a bit of a poor effort.
CSI has been excellent; the slow-burning exploration of Grissom's anguish has been masterfully handled without it feeling as if it has become The Gil Grissom Implosion Show.
And speaking of excellent, we finally finished S4 of The Wire in February, which has almost transcended mere excellence. Very possibly the best season so far, and certainly the most painful. Onto the S5 next :-)
Music: Went to see the sublime Ray LaMontagne at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Was brilliant. *sigh*
Books: I'm still in the middle of reading the same book I was reading at the beginning of February - The Great Stink by Clare Clark. Fortunate then that I'm enjoying it, despite its dark and painful story of one man's struggle with PTSD, following his horrific experiences in the Crimean War, set mostly within the sewers of London around the time of the massive rebuilding work to provide London with a modern sewerage system. This wholly unromanticised account is by painful, moving, ugly and tender.
Next up will be Crusaders by Richard T Kelly (lent to me by immortalradical), which will be followed by Anathem by Neal Stephenson (given to me by lamentables and abrinsky)
TV: Been watching Being Human, which is unsatisfying at best.
Whitechapel wasn't even quite that good; the first episode in particular felt like a heavy pastiche of eighties cop shows and period school dramas, by the second episode the tone of the show, the characters, and even Rupert Penry-Jones' accent had changed so much it felt like a different show. By the third episode it had perked up a bit, but overall it was a bit of a poor effort.
CSI has been excellent; the slow-burning exploration of Grissom's anguish has been masterfully handled without it feeling as if it has become The Gil Grissom Implosion Show.
And speaking of excellent, we finally finished S4 of The Wire in February, which has almost transcended mere excellence. Very possibly the best season so far, and certainly the most painful. Onto the S5 next :-)
Music: Went to see the sublime Ray LaMontagne at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Was brilliant. *sigh*