Cue Sinister Oboe

No!  That's Not Just Word Salad
You might be forgiven for imagining Conrad using a Random Word Generator to fill up a post, except he can generate enough random wibble using only his own brainpower, thank you very much.
     First of all, the Oboe.  The musical instrument, not the RAF electronic location system.  Art?

A Oboe

     This is the instrument you hear in television and film soundtracks when the production team want to bring in an air of unease or suspense.  Hence the "Sinister" bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAjU8j6FvSk

      That's a link to someone playing an oboe.  CAUTION!  Do not listen if depressed or in need of cheering up.
     Okay, oboes: are we up to speed on them?  Excellent!
     Now to change subjects suddenly and completely, and begin yet another whinge about the MEN Codeword compilers, because, really, they're taking the mickey.  I got the second one in last Saturday's set of three, no problem, and what's this word?
     "HAUTBOYS".  I only got that because they'd used it in a Cryptic Crossword a while back, and nothing ever gets lost in my rubbish-skip of a mind.  Art?
                       
                                                             Hautboys
     It's an archaic form of oboe - see?  See how clever I am? - and comes <checks his Collins Concise> from the French "Hautbois", which breaks down into "Haut" for "High" and "Bois" for "Wood".*
     Okay, that's not what I wanted to complain about.  The idea with Codeword is that the words should not be too complex, obsolete or foreign, because the things are hard enough already.  I got "HAIKU" on that second puzzle, no problem, but on the third?  "_I_IE_".
     What could it be?  "VIZIER"?  No, because then there'd be too many "Z"s with that as a solution.

A Vizier, because too much text is a worry

     "TIDIER"?  "TINIER"?  No, because "R" didn't fit in any other word properly, since you'd get a partial solution like "_RSTLD_" which is nonsense.  That ruled out "OILIER", too.  I footled around until I got "_ILIE_", at which point it hit me - "MILIEU".
     WHICH IS FRENCH!  FRENCH FRENCH FRENCH!
     Don't worry, the urge to strangle has long since passed, though my blood pressure has gone up after reliving the moment.
     Now to throw bags of cornflour mixed with water at the motley!**

The bags in question

Back To Barca
I did threaten you with this yesterday, so you can't complain about me keeping my promises.
     Okay, there happens to be a large and - to these eyes, anyway - rather Brutalist sculpture at one corner of the Place de Catalunya, which Art will now illustrate for us -

Note locals wearing heavy winter coats!

     There didn't seem to be any placard informing anyone just what this giant sledge-hammer of an 'installation' was, so - back here in the UK, I Googled for it.  

All will become clear

     It's a monument to Francesc Macia, who was effectively the first president of Catalonia waaaay back in 1932.  So - that independent urge has been around for a considerable length of time, which makes it history not Politics and thus an appropriate subject for BOOJUM! 

Because Science And That Black Hole Photo
If you have any interest in science-y stuff, then check out "Because Science" on Youtube, because Kyle Hill is an excellent and amusing Science Educator (he takes great pains to underline the fact that he is Not A Real Scientist).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZnkl0vV9ew&t=540s

     There's another link.  How wildly generous am I today.
     He has been analysing that Black Hole photograph, and putting a few numbers together about it.  Art?

"But it's all blurry," whined the whiners

     It is indeed a bit blurry, because, although the black hole that sits in the black part of the photograph is a monster of unbelievable proportions, it is also unbelievably distant: 55 million light years distant in another galaxy (Messier 87 if you want to know).  This makes it an incredibly tiny object in the skies.  Really, calling it "tiny" doesn't get across how small it is <thinks>.  Okay, there is an astronomical unit called a "Second" which relates to how large an object is in the sky.  Your raised finger held at arm's length will cover about one second of sky.  Our Friend The Black Hole covers about 150 millionths of a second.  This is why a whole clutch of radio telescopes were needed, over an observing period of days and days.

Just thought I'd throw this in -

     So, Disney's film is still hugely unrealistic, but a little less so.

Back To Ol' Pat -
 - and his list of failed sci-fi/fantasy shows of the Eighties and Nineties.  I shall jump to the last on his list, because I can and - once again, whose blog is it? - so there.  It was a show called "Covington Cross", which I'd never heard of before.  It isn't actually sci-fi, nor yet fantasy, so it's a moot point who the studios were aiming for as an audience.  Art?

They look a bit too clean and tidy for medievals, to my eyes

     Thirteen episodes were made but only 7 were shown because, although it was filmed in Perfidious Albion, with a cast from Perfidious Albion, and a crew from Perfidious Albion, the money behind it was all from South Canada.  The South Canadian suits thought it was underperforming and cancelled it, partly because it was so expensive to make.  The windswept, rainy, overcast UK: who'd have thought it an exotic overseas location for shooting!***
     If they brought it back now, then it would probably be a hit, what with all those sad wretches who can't get enough of "Game of Thrones" and swords and horses.

Ha!  Clickbait now added

     Right, time to stop and post this, as I am hungry, I want another pot of tea and Edna needs walkies.

     Tally ho!


*  It's also a type of large strawberry, but there's less article potential with that.
**  They turn solid when they hit.  Tee hee!
***  We do have lots of lovely castles, however.  A point in our favour.