Voice - an episode from Series 5 of The Digital Human audio series from the BBC, presented by Alex Krotoski. The other episodes I've found only moderately interesting, but this one was founded on the obvious-only-when-you're-told-it insight that while social media are dominated by text, pictures and video, the exchange of audio (with the important exception of music) is far less significant. Why is speaking less important as a means of self-expression in the digital world? Discuss.
Talk the Talk trailer - promotional video for a FutureLearn MOOC about giving presentations, whose production I've been overseeing. Interestingly in the light of the above entry (Voice), the team have focussed on the speaking aspect of presentation, so that the course doesn't become just a primer in designing PowerPoint presentations. Great trailer, and it looks like being a great course; well done Mirjam, Helene, Marshall, Bill, Lee - and especially Liz, who's been holding it all together.
Cognition, Episode 2 The Wise Monkey - it's been a year since I played Episode 1, but I dropped back in to the "later the same night" continuation as though I'd never been away. Once again, great voice acting and very good gameplay, with clever use of Erica's psychic powers, as you take her on the trail of another serial killer. I was going to take Episodes 3 and 4 on holiday, but annoyingly they're not available on the iPad; I'll just have to play them on PC.
Stephen Cleobury training day for Polymnia, the choir in which I sing - great value, with the bonus of singing afterwards in King's College Chapel, as he encouraged us to higher standards of precision in tone production, vowel sounds, and continuity of melodic line (we were doing Renaissance polyphony). His advice included: if your part has got something interesting, let people know about it; if your part has got something ordinary, find a way to make it interesting. Good advice too for writers of teaching materials; it never occurred to me before how much the two activities have in common.
BBC Young Musician of the Year - the instrumental finals and overall final on TV. We had trouble understanding some of the judges' choices of winners, but there was no disputing the merits of the pianist (Martin James Bartlett) who won, and the percussionist (Elliott Gaston-Ross) who was our second choice. Astonishing to see such evident musicianship in performers so young (ages 17 and 15 respectively). There was also welcome encouragement and reward for approaching music-making in a collaborative spirit; perhaps the days of the egocentric soloist are coming to an end.
The Story of Women and Art - BBC TV series, presented by Amanda Vickery. There's a feminist political message, of course, but fundamentally this is about some great pieces of art which truly opened up new or different ways of seeing and representing the world - making their obscurity and occlusion all the more tragic. (There were several pieces which she had to call up from storage to make the programmes, because the galleries didn't think them worth having on display.) I found the final programme, on six influential women artists and designers from the 19th and 20th centuries, the most inspirational and the most moving.
The Circle, by Dave Eggers - interesting new novel, right of the moment. The Circle is a globally hegemonic digital company, like a combination of Google, Facebook and Twitter, seen through the eyes of a young woman who joins it full of excitement, initially at least completely buying into its vision of total data integration and universal connectivity. The arguments for its utopian programme are persuasively put forward by the company's leaders: total transparency of data, they claim, will end crime, oppression and political corruption. But right from the beginning there are hints that things are not going to be so unremittingly positive, outside the cult-like atmosphere of The Circle and its Circlers. (As well as the Moonies, The Circle reminds me very much of the glass city of continuous mutual surveillance in Vevgeny Zamyatin's We, the original dystopian novel; even its slogans - "Secrets are lies", "Sharing is caring" and "Privacy is theft" - sound Orwellian.)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Northern Ballet Theatre at Milton Keynes Theatre. Northern Ballet always deliver value for money (as I console myself, when hesitating over the price of tickets), but this was especially wonderful, with the Dream set into the story of a ballet company, riven with conflicts and tensions, whose collective dreaming on an overnight sleeper train brings them resolution and healing. The Ballet Master, who becomes Puck in the Dream, was a truly magical character, appropriately lithe and spirit-like in his movements, in both roles bringing about change and transformation with his staff, like Hermes.
Botanicula - wordless graphic adventure game from the Samorost team, who also produced Machinarium; in this, a team of little tree-dwelling creatures try to save their environment from destruction by a venomous predator. Endlessly inventive, with great visual and aural jokes and gags. It works beautifully on the iPad too.
9 Elefants - puzzle game, set in Paris. I suppose it's good to keep the brain active, and the hot jazz soundtrack keeps things buzzing along, but I'm not enjoying it so much now that I'm half way through and the puzzles are starting to get more difficult.
Music in the Mountains festival - based in the Alpujarra region of Spain, where it has run for some years thanks to the energetic organisation of musician and Alexander teacher Cat Jury. Polymnia, the choir in which I sing, gave three concerts under the Festival's auspices: in Granada Cathedral, the Cuevas de Nerja, and the church of Mecina. An admirable feature of the festival is that Cat makes sure the visiting musicians bring trade to local businesses; so as well as the Hotel de Mecina Fondales, we ate at the three local bars (the bar Aljibe, the Cuevas de la Mora Luna, and El Baranquillo) - as well as the beautifully located Chiringuito (Casa Emilio) on the seafront at Salobreña after our Nerja concert. The Archbishop of Granada publicly invited us to return to his Cathedral for another concert, and we'll be happy to do so.
Alhambra palace - the must-see site, which we duly visited on the afternoon of our Granada concert. Having seen it so much in pictures and on television, it was hardly a surprise (though the walking distances required to get through the gardens were daunting), but still very beautiful and impressive in its scale.
Bernard Rudofsky exhibition, at a gallery in Granada, just by the cathedral - filling in a spare half hour between the Alhambra and our rehearsal. His classic work, it seems, was called Architecture without Architects, and he sought to bring the humane qualities of folk design and construction back into the professional world. Interesting chance discovery.
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