• Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Music thread 4

    @syzygy  I love your description!  Am working on the relationship between text and music at the moment for my thesis (specifically literary fugues…) so it rings lots of bells. Great clip too!

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Books thread

    Just re-read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which was every bit as wonderful as I remembered it being.  And then I read La Belle Sauvage – first in the new Book of Dust trilogy, which I also highly recommend!  Part 2 is due out in October.

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Films thread

    @whisht @blenkinsopthebrave yes, yes, yes to Arrival.  A truly beautiful film.  I really didn’t want the lights to go on in the cinema when it finished as I was still sobbing.  Thoughtful and subtle and unexpected.  Soundtrack is brilliant – by the late Johann Johannsonn who died far too young but left us some wonderful work.  I will track down…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic The Kebab & Calculator

    Seconding @pedant ‘s praise for First Man.  Gripping, claustrophobic, intense – and a remarkable amount of suspense given that we all knew that they would make it there and back again!

    Also seconding commiserations & best to @missy – hope things start to improve soon.

  • Hello all, have been AWOL for a while but prompted to post re a couple of TV things.  First off, Years and Years, highly recommended. Very RTD (in both its virtues and its flaws).  Managed to be funny and heartbreaking and provocative – not perfect by any means (I won’t be too specific about my quibbles for those who haven’t seen it yet) but b…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Music thread 3

    Good to see lots of love for Jimi here!  His musical legacy is extraordinary – who knows what he might have achieved if he’d lived a bit longer…

    Also now immersed in retrospectives for Andre Previn – obviously one has to reference the Morecambe & Wise sketch, which is of course utter brilliance, but hope to listen to some of his jazz piano…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Music thread 3

    @winston @thane16 @pedant Many thanks.  And @pedant – that Buffy quote has come to mind so often lately, it just sums up the experience of losing someone, at whatever stage of life and in whatever circumstances.  It’s always sudden.

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Music thread 3

    @thane16  Thanks for the thoughts!  It seems appropriate to talk about my mum-in-law (who died just before New Year) on this particular forum (she’s had a mention or two elsewhere, mainly in relation to the challenge of watching the Christmas special with her after the dementia set in and her attention span was somewhat erratic), as she was a m…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Music thread 3

    @thane16 @geoffers @whisht Just been enjoying some Snarky Puppy on BBC Radio 3’s Saturday jazz prog, J to Z, which we listen to religiously.  I was thinking, now where have I heard that name before, and suddenly realised it was in this lovely place!

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic Website comments (2)

    We have a couple of posts, in German, from two different individuals (supposedly) on forums relating to BG Who (The Daemons pt 1 and The Awakening Pt 2).  I don’t speak German so can’t comment on the content but both include links to the same something or other (obv I haven’t clicked on anything!).  Probably safest if they’re deactivated!  Cheers

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic The Kebab & Calculator

    I resist Christmas for as long as possible.  The point I give in is when I put Its A Wonderful Life on the DVD player, and settle down to have a long weep.  I’ve blogged here and on my own blog site  about this film, and why it is both heartwarming and devastating.  Not sure when I’ll watch it this year – either tomorrow pm or Xmas Eve once we’…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic On The Sofa (9)

    @rtdfan  I’m not sure what you see as being a problem here.  Looking at the responses to your posts, I see debate and discussion, and civil disagreement, not hostility.  You say:

    I didn’t start this thread to get people swapping ideas on morals

    but you raised the issue of whether the current series is heavy-handed in its treatment of moral issu…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic On The Sofa (9)

    OK so the big festive question to which I am now putting my mind is which previous Xmas special to line up for a watch on Xmas Day, since we don’t have a new one.  I’m currently favouring last year’s, because of the whole Armistice centenary thing (and I recently saw an amazing contemporary opera about the Xmas truce in the trenches), but the…[Read more]

  • I loved this one.  It helped that it referenced in so many ways (starting with the title) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which was a huge part of my childhood.  I do also recall having a lengthy and fractious discussion on The Other Place about whether the narrative was attributing a mystical power to maternity, or whether ( as I argued) t…[Read more]

  • Thanks @kevinwho for an excellent post. And I think this thread (with a couple of notable exceptions) shows how this Forum engages with posts with which they may not entirely agree.  Mutual respect, constructive […]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic It Takes You Away

    @mudlark True, the Theseus myth is specifically Mediterranean but I like to think that most of these things have a universal element, and that aspects of that story found their way into this new Norse myth.  OK, I agree Ribbons is more Gollum than Minotaur, and the svart alfar/troll king reference is definitely relevant.  But I do think there’s a…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic It Takes You Away

    @kevinwho  Ahhh – do I envy you that dream?  The joy, yes, but the waking up….

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic It Takes You Away

    @idiotsavon YES to the Ariadne’s thread motif (both in the Antizone and in our world).  The Antizone certainly shared some characteristics with the labyrinth, and Ribbons perhaps the Minotaur – although I think it echoed many 20th/21st century retellings of that story by making the Minotaur rather less terrifying, and locating the threat…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic General Music thread 3

    @pedant – we were gutted to hear of Pete Shelley’s death. Only 63  – we expect to be losing some of the old guard (as sad as we have been to see some of them go) but that’s far, far too young.  When punk arrived, I was initially utterly loyal to prog. I couldn’t see why people should want to embrace what seemed to me so often to be ugliness, in t…[Read more]

  • Cath Annabel replied to the topic It Takes You Away

    @pedant Ashamed to say Ghibli is unknown territory to me.  I know.  I must address that!  Still mystified by the connection that’s niggling away in my head.

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