Frozen Borderline

[See this picture at a larger size in the Empty Places section of the gallery.]

Well, I must say that reading back through my recent postings I can't help but notice I've strayed somewhat from the stated purpose of this blog ... However, this would all be a lot quieter without my digressions into book club style ramblings, song recommendations, etc... so I feel I should warn you there's likely to be more of that to come...

In fact let me continue by pointing out that the great Chris Morris satire from 1997, Brass Eye, is now available to watch in its entirety on Google Video:

Animals.
Drugs.
Science.
Sex.
Crime.
Decline.

It's a bit shocking seeing John Major in the credits - he seems like a figure from the ancient past now - but otherwise the series holds up remarkably well. It's the use of language that tends to draw me back in - how can you resist phrases like "the twisted brain-wrong of a one-off man-mental"? Or Noel Edmonds (light entertainment b-lister with a strange connection with fatal accidents, for the benefit of our non-UK readers) solemnly telling us that Cake - the (entirely fictional) "superdrug from Prague" - affects the part of the brain known as "Shatner's bassoon"?

And, while I'm doing links, let me also point you to the video for John Cooper Clarke's Evidently Chickentown which bizarrely featured in one of the new episodes of The Sopranos. I'm not particularly a JCC fan, but you can't help but be aware of him as a constant presence on the Manchester scene for the last 30 years, and it seemed stunningly incongruous after watching an hour of New Jersey mobsters to suddenly hear a broad Salford accent intoning about cold chips!

This week's listening (a mile or two away from The Bard of Salford): Arvo Part, Orient & Occident (as performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, on ECM).