France is opening the tallest road bridge in the world. Reaching a height of 343 metres (1,125 ft) it carries cars over the river Tarn at 270 metres (835 ft). It was built to bypass a bottleneck at the town of Millau on the road from Paris to the Mediterranean. It sits just above the clouds on most days.
And I hope to never take it. I wonder if sometimes we overreach.
The roads I will be taking get me from London to San Francisco via San Diego and Palm Springs for the holidays.
14 Dec 2004
6 Dec 2004
Time goes by ...
How can it possibly be only 19 days to Christmas and 10 days before I leave for the US? I once heard there is a chemical in the brain that speeds the perception of time as one gets older, so that time 'goes by faster the older one gets'. Can anyone verify?
Went to see Akram Khan with Tim last week. I loved it. Dancing, Sufi singing and percussion, interesting little stories. The rest of the group seemed blase, but I enjoyed it. Except that I really had to pee and the amplified drumming was like a vice on my bladder ...
Watched both Kill Bill volumes 1 + 2 this weekend. I hadn't expected to like it, but I enjoyed the first one so much I went back to the video store to get the second volume. Also watched King Arthur which I thought much better than the reviews it got.
Reading Melvyn Bragg's The adventure of English. Part of me wishes I was listening to him read it out aloud in his famous BBC voice.
Kirsten and Andrew have put their house up for sale and will move to Perth, Australia if it sells. I'm not happy.
Went to see Akram Khan with Tim last week. I loved it. Dancing, Sufi singing and percussion, interesting little stories. The rest of the group seemed blase, but I enjoyed it. Except that I really had to pee and the amplified drumming was like a vice on my bladder ...
Watched both Kill Bill volumes 1 + 2 this weekend. I hadn't expected to like it, but I enjoyed the first one so much I went back to the video store to get the second volume. Also watched King Arthur which I thought much better than the reviews it got.
Reading Melvyn Bragg's The adventure of English. Part of me wishes I was listening to him read it out aloud in his famous BBC voice.
Kirsten and Andrew have put their house up for sale and will move to Perth, Australia if it sells. I'm not happy.
22 Nov 2004
Eternity
It's been ages since I've written - busy with work and all that. Apologies if for some insane reason you drop in on my occasional ranting. Hope you've enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Went to see Jan Garbarek at the Royal Festival Hall.
I know nothing about jazz. Very little. Some Ella, some Miles Davis. I know enough to dislike Jamie Cullum, but not enough to occasionally not find Diana Krall charming. So it's no surprise that I had no idea who Jan Garbarek is.He's a quite internationally famous Norwegian jazz saxophonist (if not THE most famous Norwegian jazz saxophonist. I don't kow). He's touring in a quartet that includes a rather manic (and frightfully dressed) female percussionist who filled practically every minute with the tinkering of little bells or enormous drums.
Tim, who introduces me to new and better things, found it slightly tedious -especially the extended solo slots. He's allowed. He knows better - I don't. I grinned stupidly as I do when listening to live music and wondering how they play 'all of those notes' and enjoyed myself. The wine may have helped. And getting to spend time with one of my favourite people (Tim, not Jan).
In a couples of weeks, Akram Khan and the Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery.
See, I can do high brow too.
Otherwise:
Reading: The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (the 2004 Man Booker prize winner)
Watching: Spooks (Rupert Penry-Jones. Sigh)
Listening: Rufus Wainwright, Want Two
Went to see Jan Garbarek at the Royal Festival Hall.
I know nothing about jazz. Very little. Some Ella, some Miles Davis. I know enough to dislike Jamie Cullum, but not enough to occasionally not find Diana Krall charming. So it's no surprise that I had no idea who Jan Garbarek is.He's a quite internationally famous Norwegian jazz saxophonist (if not THE most famous Norwegian jazz saxophonist. I don't kow). He's touring in a quartet that includes a rather manic (and frightfully dressed) female percussionist who filled practically every minute with the tinkering of little bells or enormous drums.
Tim, who introduces me to new and better things, found it slightly tedious -especially the extended solo slots. He's allowed. He knows better - I don't. I grinned stupidly as I do when listening to live music and wondering how they play 'all of those notes' and enjoyed myself. The wine may have helped. And getting to spend time with one of my favourite people (Tim, not Jan).
In a couples of weeks, Akram Khan and the Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery.
See, I can do high brow too.
Otherwise:
Reading: The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (the 2004 Man Booker prize winner)
Watching: Spooks (Rupert Penry-Jones. Sigh)
Listening: Rufus Wainwright, Want Two
12 Oct 2004
Bless ...
I don't normally countenance this sort of thing, but as godfather I feel compelled to point you to pictures of Sophie, clearly a charmer.
7 Oct 2004
Why I love Paris, no.1
The walk to the no.7 line in the Montparnasse metro station is a long tunnel with a moving walkway. It normally travels 2.5 km/h. Today, I took the new superfast moving walkway. It's 9 km/h. It flies through the tunnel. So much so that one feels compelled to giggle like a child on a snowsled. I did worry about how one gets off the speedy walkway. Would I go flying? No, because at the other end, little steel rollers gently ease one off the 9 km and back to walking speed.
It's one reason why I love Paris.
It's one reason why I love Paris.
5 Oct 2004
It's my brithday and I'll pleurer if I want to
Off to Paris for a quiet birthday celebration so happy birthday to me.
6 Sept 2004
Voice
Today Alison Moyet releases Voice, an album of 'classic songs' (not covers, mind.) It's stunningly beautiful, simple, tasteful. Arranged and produced by Anne Dudley, Academy Award winning composer, it's an eclectic affair - Purcell, Brel, Elvis Costello, and Michel Legrand. The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies-O!, which every schoolkid in England apparently knows and Elvis Costello's Almost Blue are both sublime. And she sings in French - Je crois encore entendre and Brel's La chanson des vieux amants.
She says in interviews that it's not a 'covers' album as she learned all of the songs from the original sheet music and her singing is sweet and unadorned. I hope she tours with it.
She says in interviews that it's not a 'covers' album as she learned all of the songs from the original sheet music and her singing is sweet and unadorned. I hope she tours with it.
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