Flatland the Movie – UK Premier!

We saw Flatland again last night – on a bigger screen than the tv we saw it on a few weeks ago… definitely preferred the big size, although the inter-titles became a little fuzzy round the edges. The animation stayed sharp, though.

It’s big and bright, with sometimes annoying voices (like in the book, but toned down quite a bit for some characters!). Very trippy at times, and the audience seemed to like it – M had thought the inter-titles a bit patronising, but they mainly got laughs – maybe because of their obviousness!

Only disappointment was that the nachos in the bar afterwards didn’t seem as good as they used to be!

Jackie Leven

So, we saw Jackie Leven again last night.

It was the first time we had seen him at Cabaret Voltaire but it’s a pretty good venue for him – several linked cellars under the South Bridge; bar to the side at one end, down a few steps to the main area with a low stage at the other end. The closer you get, the more the sound encloses you – the main section’s probably only about 10 feet high, 20 feet wide and 50 feet long.

Just him and his guitar and a fairly short set – maybe 75 minutes straight through, with no encore as they wanted to clear the venue for a club night later… No new songs, but new anecdotes! And some obscure cds for sale and signing afterwards. – one was Live at Bergen Men’s Prison, Norway!

Ian Rankin was there – they’ve appeared together a few times (we saw them maybe 5 years ago? at the Queen’s Hall). He was fine, but his little clique of friends took a couple of songs to shut up and listen to the music. Minor grr! We bumped into a friend who had come on spec to see what Jackie was like and ended up very impressed – he borrowed 20 quid off me to buy a couple of cds for himself!

Afterwards, he went off to Bannermans to meet up with Ian Rankin and we headed for home via the refurbished Wine Glass bar – now re-named something I can’t remember – and much improved with proper beer again at last. Until it changed hands a few months ago I don’t think I had been in for well over 20 years… it used to be pretty rubbish!

see also August 9, 2008: Jackie Leven

Aegypt – a tale long in the telling!

I recently started reading Aegypt by John Crowley from the beginning again and yesterday I overtook my bookmark from my first attempt. I’m now on page 147, having stalled on p145 for almost 21 years!

It’s recently been re-set and re-issued as The Solitudes and may I say that the new edition’s typeface and layout  looks much easier on the eye and would undoubtedly make the reading go easier and quicker than the Bantam h/c I have… (All 4 volumes should soon be available this way)

I’m not sure if I’ll continue beyond volume one immediately I finish this one; there are other aging bookmarks to be rescued first!

Birthday

To celebrate Madeleine’s birthday the other day, we went for a meal last night at a Jamaican restaurant not far from us called Coyaba.

Nice reggae background music – I recognised who maybe a quarter of it was, and I own a few of the tracks they played – and some quite low lighting.

A spinachy thing for my starter, followed by Jerk Chicken for me and Currie Goat for M – very good! Also included were wine, cake, coffee and good service

So, she caught up a year on me for three days but has now fallen behind again already!

Another Lecture! About Maths!!

Well, not really a lecture, more a casual talk. An event called Cafe Scientifique  takes place most months  in a bar at the Filmhouse (arthouse) cinema and last night’s was presented by a mathy friend of mine called Hannu. Ha was talking about the history and perception of dimensions, from points and planes to multi-dimensional string theory ones. A fair bit of it was related to the book Flatland – a film version of which I’m partly sponsoring when it’s shown at the cinema in a couple of weeks…

It was pretty interesting, pitched at a general audience, so I didn’t feel lost at all, with some good questions afterwards. And a couple of slightly weird ones! If I had been surer of some half-remembered stuff about recent developments, I might have asked one or two as well… kind of wish I had, as it would have given Hannu the chance to refute what I had heard and also talk about some original research he’s doing in the same area…

Quite interesting, but the beer was awfully expensive!

There’s a film we want to see being shown on Sunday, so we’ll be back spending £3.05 a pint for that, I expect!