Edmund Lester

Okay, the question has been answered. I had enough time to post three book reviews before the episode finished... Hope you like them. I might post a film review or two in the next few days. Those kindly folk at Organic Marketing have been good enough to send me some more review copies and I think I might post the details here. Or at least short notes about them. I may still go out to find them an alternate home whilst my main market is temporarily unavailable. (Terry from Murky Depths is going on holiday for a bit so there's not going to be much in the way of activity in that direction.) The episode of House BTW was the right back from the beginning - Occam's Razor from near the start of season 1. Cool show although my wife occasoinally tells me I'm about as subtle as House and have other of his idiosyncrasies. Mind you she does know me best.

I said yesterday I was going to post some reviews and so the next couple couple of posts will contains them. How many I'll post is pretty much up to Dr Gregory House. I'm watching the end of an episode of House before I get some sleep so...

I like the way the US makes TV shows. I like the way that they have 20+ episodes a year to develop an idea - providing of course the show makes it that long. Well ok, maybe except for stuff like Dexter with only 13 - still more than most UK shows get for a season. So recently I finally cottoned on to House - only partway through season six. Then I finally decided to check out Smallville and found it nowhere near as bad as I had feared. I felt it could be a Beverly Hills 90210 with super-powers and, well ok it is a bit, but it does have merit. Third show I tried (belated) was Lost. The story of Lost, when it was first advertised five years ago, just never appealed. A group of people get stranded on a desert paradise only to find weird stuff. Didn't grab me. But over recent months a number of people I work with convinced me it was worth watching. And fortunately they were right. And now I've got a fourth. I was in Blockbusters the other day and noticed a TV series box set on sale...

I like episodic television. Okay most of it tends to be science fiction in nature but I do occasionally venture outside sf. I followed ER pretty regularly. I watch CSI and Bones. Okay looking at those alternates I guess they are fairly science based. So it might not be that much of a remove. And I've found another series that's hooked me - House. Again not much of a departure I guess as it's heavy on the medical science. But evidence that I might not be up to date with things. After all House has been running for five years before I happened upon it. Never said I was the most observant of people. Still at least it does mean I have quite a number of episodes to catch up on - thanks be to the people who first thought of selling episodes of TV shows on tape or disk.

A couple of days ago, on a whim, I bought the Father Ted box set. That was definitely a good idea. Watching the episodes has cheered me enormously. Fantastic fun - I have the episode "The Plague" playing at the moment. There are only about four or five situation comedy series I have really liked. Blackadder is one of course, Fawlty Towers another. Red Dwarf I found fantastic, if I don't think about the last couple of episodes and the recent re-union thing. I like Monty Python, the Fast Show and some other comedy sketch series but I generally find sit-coms annoying. But Father Ted is something rather special.

I know tastes change as you age. I accept this - in many ways I look forward to it. I have always enjoyed new things - okay new to me might be a little more accurate, this can involve discovering musical artists I'd previously overlooked, old films, re-runs, classic novels and the like. But one thing I have noticed recently is that my tastes have edged darker and heavier. In many ways they've gone back to the type of things I used to watch and listen to when I was a kid. Musically my favourite bands at the moment are Metallica, Rush, Iron Maiden and Dream Theater. I still like The Who, Yes, Pink Floyd, Suzanne Vega and the like. It's just I prefer something a little heavier these days. When I feel like some music I'm more likely to put on Nick Cave, Disturbed or Stonesour than REM or U2. My reading tastes have darkened too - I'm reading horror as the norm, rather than sf. I'm watching horror films and crime and horror TV shows like Dexter and Bones and my old fa...

I am an intelligent and educated man. I studied astrophysics at University so I feel this boast is backed up by some evidence. I can speak Italian (reasonably well) and some French. I like theatre (although not musicals), I visit castles, cathedrals and country houses for fun - even venture into the middle of nowhere to see stone circles and other prehistoric sites. I have a fondness for cairns, dolmens and other stone age structures. I read science books, history books, archaeology, mythology, politics, art etc etc etc. I consider myself a cultured fellow. So why is it then that I have just watched, and thoroughly enjooyed, bull-riding on the TV. What gets me especially is that, on top of everything mentioned above, I'm English. I've never been to Texas (I know, I am implying this is a purely Texan sport - let me off on this one, I'm on a rant). So bull-riding, hmmh! I might pretend to being all high-brow and superior (remember ranting, I'm honestly not too bad - I hop...

I started this day on this blog... I decided to get back into the typing thing by blogging. I've not been all that much in the write frame of mind of late. Work pressures got to me. I admit it. I left my old job a week ago. The last few week's were fraught - after nine years it really became a wrench to the system. That and the last week I have been concerned about making a good impression at my new employers - hopefully not too obviously whilst I am actually there though. The evenings and this long weekend being the fraught time. So I have not been the most relaxed when trying to scrawl. I've been working on a short story - featuring demons and ghosts, zombies and werewolves. After a little over a week it is not half finished, and only about 800 words long. I've tried an article - got a great idea for a piece for Raving Dove, hoping lightning can strike twice - and I've tried reviews. Nothing doing. So I've watched an episode or two (Torchwood and Pushing Daisi...

Kevin Pietersen made his debut as England Cricket captain in a match which really doesn't matter. Ah well, it was good to see England on top for once - and Steve Harmison back bowling well - even if the result doesn't really matter with south Africa 2-0 to the good with just this match left. We've been enjoyed the latest Francesco da Mosto series - a voyage across the Mediterranean following the old Venetian trading routes. I've just watched last 's two episodes - a day late because I'd gone to a now-ex-colleague's leaving do. Wonderful show as always - Francesco is very charismatic and enthusiastic. He brings real feeling to his shows. I just wish he did one every year rather than one every other year. Mind you perhaps the wait contributes to my enjoyment...

This last few weeks have been crazy. They've seen me working days often longer than 12 hours and weekends. And by this I mean the day . The result of this is that I have written almost nothing. To compound my gloom most of the pieces I had sent out in the weeks before the MADNESS started were coming back during this period with rejections, or in one or two cases kind passes (book reviews where the book was not considered what they wanted to cover, although they did say the review itself was fine on both occasions). Add to this spending great deals of time emptying the house so it looks more appealing to anyone coming to view it - we are hoping to sell it and move a little further north - somewhere up near the Peak District would be nice. time consuming work but also depressing. My books are no longer on shelves, but all boxed up and in a storage unit about 12 miles away. I'd guess only about a tenth of them are still here and most of those will be going too. And in the middle o...

I'd established a rhythm with this blog. Writing an entry or two nearly every day - all seemed well. Then the last two weeks happened. Crazy time. Too much work to be done (day job wise) and downtime became recovery time. The little time I had with sufficient energy to write I decided to concentrate on writing things that might make me some money. So sorry about that - for anyone who is reading this blog. But I am hoping that things may return to normal somewhat, and that I can keep writing these entries. Anyway, the last two weeks! Well I have done more than just right code. Visual Basic and SQL hasn't been my entire life. Watched some good TV - Moonlight is a bit of a favourite, Dexter is seriously good and there have been the old favourites - Ashes to Ashes, Torchwood, Stargate , ER and the CSIs. and of course Time Team for my archaeology fix. All have been good, the return of Carson Beckett in Stargate Atlantis being surprisingly good - I was expenting a contrived little st...

The team were back in the west country, down near Bath investigating the site of Francis Popham's mansion at Hunstrete. Once more it looked like a quick and easy dig, after all they had pictures and inventories of the mansion. But once again the truth ended up being more than was portrayed, the team uncovering a nice piece of Georgian deception with regards the house... After more than a decade of watching this show I am still totally hooked.

More nights, more TV. I know it's hardly the most inspiring thing to blog about but I don't go out every night so, okay for that matter any night really - I'm not a social animal (I may have mentioned that before). But please don't think I sit in front of the TV all the time I'm not working. I don't. To be honest outside the shows mentioned in my blog and the occasional watching of an episode of the Book Show on Sky Arts and the odd documentary I don't tend to watch much TV. But that's digression. The TV shows - Torchwood is still great. The episode in question was fairly unoriginal in concept, a new team member has appeared out of nowhere, and everyone knows who he is and seems to believe he's been there for a few years. So obviously this new guy's not going to be good news. This has been done before repeatedly and this could have been a pretty poor episode. But to be honest the plot here was incidental to playing with the backstories of the cha...

The latest dig sees the team investigating World War 2 defenses in south London, trying to track down all the emplacements set up to try to hamper any invasion of England that may have happened between 1940 and 1944. Now World War 2 programmes are not amongst my favourites. I like my history to be considerably older, and I enjoy seeing the objects that were handmade that are uncovered on bronze age digs in particular. But WW2 does have one tremendous advantage for Time Team. It is about the only type of dig they do where they actually have eye witnesses, and this week there were a number of elderly gentlemen featured who remembered exactly where all these defenses were located. Good show

I was a passing fan of "Life on Mars", the coma / time-travel cop show on the BBC a couple of years back. I'd never describe it as one of my ultimate favourites, but it was well put together and entertaining. I'm now watching the first episode of the follow up series "Ashes to Ashes" and I have the feeling that I may well like this show a little more. The reason for this is quite simple... I am forty years old. In 1981 I was thirteen, and rather than the mid 1970s of the first series I remember this time. In the first few minutes we've had David Bowie references (an obvious given the title), Ultravox, Adam Ant and the like. Plus phone cards and walkmen as new technologies. This is the time I remember. And this is a series I simply have to watch.

I got home a little late from work tonight (something brown and sticky is once more hitting a rotating bladed device). When I arrived my in-laws were watching the new Poseidon Adventure on Sky Movies. (You notice I got the excuse for this in early.) Well, I was tired so I just sank down into the sofa and made all sociable - and, not wanting to be rude by suggestion the movie was switched off, I started watching it. I didn't catch it from the beginning, the boat had just flipped upside down when I sat down, but they were all still in the ballroom. But I will say one thing, it was entertaining. Yes, part of this might be the fact that we were gently poking fun at it, but it's not as bad a movie as I was expecting. Nice to get pleasant surprises.

Another Sunday means another Time Team - more holes dug in fields... This time the team were back in the Cotswolds at a Roman site. I get the feeling that you could trip over anywhere in the Cotswolds and find that it was a piece of Roman archaeology that was the culprit. This one started off incredibly well, with a mosaic being uncovered within minutes - but as they were reopening a hole dug by the local archaeology group it was a done deal right from the off. Still interesting though, and I guess I will never tire of it.

I occasionally catch bits of TV shows my in-laws watch. One such was Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. Now this is in many ways a good reality TV show - mainly for Ramsey. And this is not for his shock value. Yes he may swear a lot. Hell, so do I (and yes I am being tame here). But the man really knows what he is on about and I like that. I find intelligence and knowledge unbeatable - my heroes are scientists, Einstein, Galileo, Newton, Brahe, etc etc - and above all else Isaac Asimov - I know mainly a sf writer but he was a professor of biochemistry, earned not honorary. Ramsey knows his stuff. He is a great, great chef - yes. But he is also a good businessman and can walk into a failing restaurant and spot why it's failing and how it can be saved. Impressive stuff. But the format of the show worries me. In a one hour show surely I do not need constant reminders of what's still to come, or recaps of events after just six minutes. Masterchef does the same - one of the few...

A World War I soldier recuperating in St Teilo's is the key to saving the world. 1918 and 2008 are intersecting, flooding into each others time and threatening to destroy the world - yadda yadda yadda. Heard it all before? Well in all honesty you have - there is even a Torchwood season one episode that is very similar in plot. But it is well done and that rescues it. There is some genuine tension in some of the "ghost" scenes, and the human, emotional element is handled reasonably well without feeling too cloying. Three episodes of the season down and the best so far, but then I like time paradox stories.

Sunday brings its regular dose of archaeology to our screens. This episode saw the team searching for the remains of a medieval nunnery in Northamptonshire. The first thing I have to say about the episode is that I am jealous, jealous of the house that the people whose garden the team were digging up live in. All I can say is wow, that is a nice house. I would dearly love to own something like that, a great big Victorian country house. Anyway to get back to the digging part. This episode was an easy one in many ways for the team - clear geophysics (okay relatively clear), masses of documentary evidence and great big walls popping up in the trenches following a standard plan for such religious centres. Add plenty of solid dating evidence, all relative to the time detailed in the documentation and it all added up neatly. Okay it can be fun to occasionally see the archaeologists argue amongst themselves about what they find, but equally when they agree and are proved right you get more in...