Son Et Lumiere. Et Mange

No!  Not That Kind Of "Mange" -
 - as in "dog with scrofula" mange.  No, I refer to the French for "eat". Also "sound" and "light"
     I'm sorry, I was trying to be clever.  Sound, light and eating - what I am about to describe to you.  A concert, a gig, a film and some cooking/baking, the social elements of which go some way to explaining why, for the first time evah* I recycled some old stuff from December 2013.  Shortage of time, you see.

A salty dog.  Close enough.
Sorry, not good enough?

Mange tout.  

The Philip Glass Ensemble
(Part of the "Son")
Conrad booked this concert back in the summer after seeing Eels at the Bridgewater Hall.  Make no mistake about it, this is a concert.

Before

     Philip and the Ensemble came on in evening wear, and bowed to the audience, who applauded them before they began playing. Note also the sheet music - there was acres of this being used.  It was rather peculiar to hear the susurrus of the audience instantly vanish once the house lights dimmed before the ensemble appeared.
     Things were delayed when Michael Riesman realised his upper keyboard didn't work - a jack at the rear had come loose, probably when the stage audio engineer was mucking about with cables.  We then kicked off with "Music In Similar Motion", a work from 1969 noticeably different from the later compositions and which really rattled along at a frantic pace.  

During

Then there was "Parts 1 and 2", "The Grid" from Koyaaniquatsi, and "The Building" from "Einstein on the Beach", during which the synthesiser bass made the ground tremble - just to let you know that the PGE could do it if they wanted - and after the interval, "Floe", "Facades" and "Rubric".  Phil introduced the Ensemble because he thought they were about to play "The Photographer" - Michael had to remind him about performing "Rubric", at which Phil explained this was why Michael was the Musical Director.
     I missed the ending of the last piece as I had to catch the bus home.
     Which was late**, so I could have seen it to the end.
     Only three photos, as the Ensemble really do just sit there and play.  Conrad did wonder if there was a policy about taking photos during the performance, and, like the coward he so truly is, decided to wait until other people did.  Well, they didn't.  So mine are the only photos.

After

And here's a link to "Floe", which is quite short, as a taster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoJmBzTi0IQ


Claw The Thin Ice
And at the other end of the music spectrum***, we have CTTI, who were playing a free gig - and yes this was definitely a "gig" - at Guilty By Association.
     You can sum up the venue as "Bare Brick Chic" or perhaps "Breezeblock Black Attack", in a basement, with low lighting.
     I know Ian, the guitarist and composer, from work, and asked if they minded people taking photos - not at all, was the reply - but no bad ones of himself. Now, since I won't see him till Monday, I shall have to be careful about what I do post.

Feet and effects pedals are okay, right?

     I have to say that a band playing live possess one thing you can never get at home - SHEER VOLUME!  Yes, this is an essential element of live music, so Conrad^ was somewhat puzzled by several audience members proudly wearing earplugs.
     Next, the band were very tight.  No fluffs, wrong notes, false starts or other flaws - they were obviously very practiced ("Up to three times a week" admitted Ian) and it showed.

I think this is okay at Ian is mostly invisible

     Conrad's elderly ears didn't pick up song titles but a couple were outstandingly good.  I would pay money to see this band again^^.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBrff4mt2oo
     Another link - and by wild coincidence they are playing in "Travelling Man", my fave comic shop, whose owner Haroon I could swear was in the audience for Dream Themes^^^.  


"Interstellar "
(The "Lumiere" part)
Because there was a long time between end of work and the gig, I managed to squeeze in a viewing of "Interstellar".
The Trailers
Conrad managed, by low animal cunning, to avoid the adverts.  "Yes, yes," I hear you squeal, "But what did you think of the trailers, Conrad?  Illuminate us!"
"Exodus" - Ridley Scott does pre-Biblical epic.  See this at the cinema, it won't come across well on the small screen.  Heck, it may not come across well at the cinema, but at least it will come across BIG.
"Birdman" - just a brief glimpse of this one.  Michael Keaton underdressed. That's it.
"Ex Machina" - this looked intriguing.  Artificial Intelligence, humanoid robots, skullduggery afoot~.
"The Hobbit - the Battle of Five Armies" - clips of five armies, battling. Once again, BIG. The key question we all want to know - will Sylvester McCoy be in it? - remains unanswered.
"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay" - having no interest in the first, Conrad disengaged attention during this trailer.  It's about someone doing something somewhere.
"Paddington" - No! Not the station. A bear.  Ho hum.  Conrad enjoyed Paddington - when he was ten.  Not keen on him again.  After the TV series nothing else can satisfy.

Interstellar itself.
Well, the main feature.  Conrad enjoyed it, and again, this is a film you need to see at the cinema because the detail will be lost on your mobile, honestly.  It scores 9.0 over at IMDB, so people like it a lot.  I'm sure you're familiar with the plot outline: Earth is close to ecological collapse, so an exploratory journey via a wormhole takes place to examine three potential surrogates for Earth.

Er - wormholes?

     Conrad would like to point out that the title is a misnomer and should actually be "Intergalactic".  Anyhow, the mission - obviously! - goes badly wrong. I won't give away plot points, but relativity bites hard in this film - the characters realise each hour spent on a particular planet's surface is the equivalent of seven years passing on Earth.  They have to compromise and trade off time against survival - their own and their home planet.
     The ending is a bit "Deus ex machina" and contrived towards happiness - oh Mister Nolan did the studio have a hand in that?

$152 billion to go for a bit of a paddle.

     I would like to commend the robot designers: TARS and CASE really are unlike any other robots seen before, to the point of having programmable sarcasm.  And the "Endurance" has a slightly tatty, lived-in look to it, nothing pristine; again suggestive of things running down.

TARS in the stars

A Tale Of Minor Disasters
(The "Mange" part)
Conrad had baked a gluten-free Lemon Drizzle cake for Friday and the Children In Need festive food fund, viz:

In tin

     However, when I cut into it in the work kitchen, the middle was raw, uncooked batter.  The bin appreciated it.
     On Thursday evening I was frantically blogging and making lemon curd.  I managed to make it, but had to leave for the pub quiz before it cooled.  One is supposed to stir it whilst it cools.

As of this afternoon

     I came back to a crust of curd sitting atop a lemon slurry.  I've stirred it up again and got the same result, so I'll persist this afternoon and if it doesn't homogenise and thicken, once again the bin will be dining in style.
     Not that these omissions were really felt.  Allow me to post more of Friday's food:

     Thanks to Sophie~~and Anna~~~ there were cakes aplenty, and newbie Janice provided even more.  Conrad didn't have much for tea that evening, having already loaded up with tsatsiki, tahini dip, crisps, caramel shortbread, bread, crackers, three lots of sushi, persimmon, brie and wensleydale.

Phew!  Well that's all for now.


* See?  See how "street" I am?
** Thank you First Bus.  10:20 p.m. with hardly and traffic and few passengers and your 181 service still manages to be late.  First Bus - taking inept to new depths!
*** I know it's a mixed metaphor.  Once again, whose blog is it?
^ The oldest person present by far!
^^ So ought you, too.  Remember, BOOJUM! knows where you live ....
^^^ See?  See how everything connects to everything else?
~ Is that a mixed metaphor?  Answers on a postcard ...
~~ Glamourous understudy Sophie
~~~ Glamourous understudy's understudy