Morning 24 December
Joni Mitchell WOODSTOCK
You will have to hum this, since she has withdrawn from Spotify in protest against Covid mis-information podcasts. This is the bit that I was thinking of:
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who I am
But you know life is for learning
I have tried, really I have, to design a holiday / New Year card but inspiration has left me this year, and even my end-of-year blog fills me with a kind of existential dread. Of course, I want to make a connection with you – close friends, friends and friendly acquaintances, but for the life of me I can’t get going on this. It’s not depression, at least, I don’t think so, but I have a kind of block against making cheery wishes of peace in the face of the current reality. Maybe we should just wish ourselves the best we can do.
Later
His Dark Materials / Nine Lessons and Carols
Listening and watching, although not at the same time , of course. BBC & HBO have spared nothing on the production, the last in the first Phillip Pullman Trilogy . I am not going to forget in a hurry the scene where Lyra is parted from Pan as she chooses to cross the river to the land of the walking dead. The notion of being accompanied throughout your life and at the appointed time, being gently lead out of the world of the living is also becoming a familiar meme. (We are awaiting the next SANDMAN episodes). Maybe it is a seriously comforting thought that your death comes with a friendly hand and slips you over the threshold before your brain gets a chance to catch up with what your body already knows. This production is especially poignant for Pullman fans who have already experienced the first two books of the second trilogy, telling us where Lyra’s story started and picking her up as as a rather sad and confused young adult. Apparently, according to his August 2022 Twitter feed, Pullman was yet to finish writing the book, stating that he was “working at it day and night as steadily as his health, age and the story itself will allow”. I sincerely wish him enduring good health and stamina.
Now – I am just over 2/3 of the way through Nine Lessons – my own personal Christmas Eve tradition. It is absolutely not the case that the Devil has all the good tunes, although Pullman make a good case for the Devil being a fan of organised religion. The opening bars of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ always brings a bit of a spinal shiver, and the moment when the Kings College organ comes thundering in really deserves Dolby Surround. But as for the readings. The early ones especially, from the Old Testament, remind me all over again of how much I dislike this paternalistic claptrap. (Sorry for the offence, but I really can’t take the Bible’s human origin story on any level. Rejecting knowledge. Inventing shame! Just NO. )
The general arc of the story is a bit more tolerable and the music is a divine mix of the modern and traditional. I especially like the image of the lion eating straw, and the swaddled infant playing on an ass, but the readings generally don’t move me. The music does.
You can find the recording on BBC Sounds, or catch up on Radio 3 on Christmas Day. Of course, it is an almost tooth jangling 1950s class ridden style with Latin names liberally scattered amongst the playlist.
And he pedestrian housekeeping bits?
We have been putting in some box moving time to clear a space in what was previously a storage room so that Al can try some acoustic recording. There are still many boxes, but actually they are pretty good for the sound. Thank you IKEA for leaving the perfectly designed IVAR shelving quite alone. They are assembled with no screws, weird connectors, brackets or anything except small stainless steel pegs. They disassemble equally easily and that makes me wonder why I have left several sets behind for others to enjoy. Never again. These are with me for life.
Christmas Eve lunch by the sea – salad (lettuce with figs, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and shaved parmesan, and chips. The Greeks seem to excel at chips – I think the combination of good potatoes and olive oil. Our version of the Mediterranean diet 😊.
Stacking yet more boxes in the storage room downstairs, I found a pack of Christmas cards, some going back to the year 2000. So here’s a selection. You might recognise one…. I was about to chuck them out, but there was a real sensation of connection when I saw actual signatures and sometimes messages and even entire letters, thoughts passed from hand to hand, so rare now. 2023 resolution coming on…
We also parted with one old friend. This was my sound system, carefully chosen by Al for KiwiStar in Tottenham Court Road and went with me when I left London for what is now Croatia, with a loaded Citroen DS and Gillian Faulkner riding shotgun. It has survived storms, parties, moves, storage and had a good innings in Bristol. Still has a little life in it. There are no charity shops here, so we did the traditional thing and left it by a recycling bin. A tough one, this, but we hope it has a second life.
Oh – and I have listened to many iterations of 9 Lessons and Carols on it. So the serpent has eaten its tail.
Coming soon: A New Year