I am finally without obligations to write or read or otherwise study anything I don't particularly want to. I have finished my Dissertation and Special Subject essays, and two days ago I sat down for three hours in a draughty sports hall to quickly scribble out anything and everything I knew about the period between the Romantics and the Victorians at the expense of two parker ink cartridges and the feeling in my right hand. It is perhaps strange then that for the past day of blissful nothingness, I have been choosing to read about the 'Wonders of the Solar System'. After spending most evenings over the Christmas holidays watching Professor Brian Cox's series of the same name, and some wonderful nights with my Mum outside in the garden after watching 'Stargazing Live' I thought I would take myself down to Waterstones like the bibliophile that I have been for the past 22 years and go and get the companion book. It is a MARVELLOUS thing to be sure, with beautifully set out pages, illustrations and photographs a bit like this sort of thing:
The Orion Nebula
I have included this image, of the Orion Nebula, because Orion was the only constellation you could make out in the skies above Leicester last night, as everything else seemed to be covered in a veil of dense fog. The moon however shone very brightly indeed, illuminating our path to the library and back, at 9:45pm. It continued to shine through my skylight window all night bathing my room in its translucent glow. I now have a renewed interest in things I haven't really thought about since secondary school, and it is quite lovely for the moment, when I have no deadlines, to read something purely for pleasure. For all my word is worth, I put it into this recommendation:
And only £9.40! (... but I bought it from Waterstones for £10)
... And that's not all!
I've got some film recommendations too,
'Le Diner du Cons' - A small but perfectly formed French comedy which is currently still available to watch on the BBC iPlayer here
'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' - A brilliant thriller with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and despite its age, it doesn't look or feel at all dated to me, perhaps in part because I don't watch the kind of ridiculous horror/gore films which do so well at the box office these days.
'Wall.E' - I just adore Pixar films, and this one is no exception. It made a perfect film to watch when a bit sleepy on New Year's Day.
Over the past few days between my own bursts of singing, I have been listening almost exclusively to Rufus Wainwright. It has been a sort of revisiting of some wonderful times a few years ago, and when I was lucky enough to see him in Sheffield when I was 17 or 18. Here are some of my favourites:
On his website you can watch his music videos: http://www.rufuswainwright.com/media/video/
I would suggest watching 'Going to a Town', it reminds me of a lot of paintings put together into a video. Very beautiful indeed, and it puts all the rubbish we see day in, day out on MTV to shame.
With love,
x
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