Ancient voice, caught in soot

I think this is magical, and all the more so for the fact that the recording was made but with no way of playing it back until now.... so it feels like it was recorded as a message to the future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7318180.stm

All of which reminds me of something I got in a box of Ready Brek when I was quite a young child - no more than six years old. It was a thin plastic strip, probably about 12 inches long and no more than a centimetre wide (you can see how my age means I continue to mix up imperial and metric!). The strip had little ridges along its length, and, when it was pulled through a slot cut in the side of the cereal box, the ridges created vibration, which carried the voice of Churchill saying 'We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches.' I really wish I still had it, as I have never come across anything similar since.

Chris Garneau

Having just discovered Chris Garneau (think Sufjan Stevens meets Will Young - and I say that in a good way), I am a bit miffed to learn that, not only did he play London a few weeks ago and I missed him, but he'll be playing again in May - when we are on holiday in Romania. Bah!

I've ordered his album, 'Music for Tourists', so at least have that to look forward to. You can watch the video for a greta track called 'Relief' here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VHoYBvmTsg .

Movie Co-incidences

So last night we settled down for a quiet night in front of the telly, with the intention of dipping into our considerable collection of as yet unwatched DVD movies. First up, Almodovar's 'Live Flesh'. A fantastic, richly rewarding film, which, as it turns out, includes a central performance by Javier Bardem, which I hadn't realised until he appeared on screen. IMDB attests that the his co-star, the wonderful Liberto Rabal's career has not been quite so glorious. After that, we had a dinner of trout and kale, and then settled down to watch the Coen Brothers 'Blood Simple'. A great movie, but for me, much less enjoyable than the Almodovar film. I pondered on the fact that the three most enjoyable films of recent times that I have watched at home have all been European - The Lives of Others, The Edukators, and Live Flesh. Anyway, the random selection of the two films from our shelves threw up the interesting coincidence that both had at their hearts the theme of marital infidelity, photos being taken of supposedly secret liasions, and lovers being shot. So once I realised there was a patten, I ended up watching Blood Simple entirely through the filter of looking for links with Live Flesh. That is all.