More reading

Now Marie Antoinette has met her fate I've moved back to John Julius Norwich's The Middle Sea: a History of the Mediterranean. JJN is one of my favourite authors ever, so I'm reluctant to admit I'm finding it a bit disappointing. Maybe it's just not one for his fans. His three-volume History of Byzantium is brilliant, and one of the first things of his I read. I've now read it all two or three times, I forget, and I've read all his Venice and Sicily stuff. Naturally a lot of the same events occur in a history of the Mediterranean, but I can't escape the feeling that sometimes paragraphs are repeated verbatim. I think my quarrel isn't with the book itself, more with the project. Every now and then he seems to be apologising for straying beyond some undefined limit from the sea -- and given that he doesn't talk about actual sea events much it seems like an artificial sort of idea.

Still everything he's ever written has been worth reading and his Christmas Cracker compilations are brilliant. They make excellent gifts for invalids, among others.

Things I like but don't care about

popjustice have released the results of their pop survey. It gives me the impression that these people actually quite care about pop. Most people don't think Madonna should grow a beard, which is odd -- I'd like to see Britney with a beard too.

Another thing I can't get worked up about is Celebdaq which seems like it will stop being fun if I ever spend more than five minutes on it in one week. And that is why I occasionally make minus profits (losses, to get technical) and do about one tenth as well as the other people in my league. Probably. Or is it Jordan's fault? It's unlikely to be mine -- I'm quite intelligent you know.

Listening and reading

I am listening to The Rough Guide to Arabesque; I like track 3 best so far.
Once I've finished it I will return to the popjustice compilation CD which is just Great.

I am reading the biography of Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser. It's reminding me a bit of the gospels, where you're just getting into it and suddenly you realise he's on the road to Jerusalem. Otherwise it is not reminding me of the gospels that much.

Huge spider pop

http://video.umrg.com/shinytoyguns/ledisko/
Songs with sudden stops where they miss a beat are good.

What is it for?

This is frightening. First, it's just frightening. Secondly, I don't seem to be able to watch something like that any more without questioning my motivation in watching. On the one hand it's good to question your own motivations: on the other it means I turn everything into a question about me. From the comments most people's reactions are to do with what the armoured vehicles should have done. If we could work out the answer to that question it might still not neutralise the video clip.

Some things I like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbQNgOKzZh8
Maybe it's a bit like Spike Jonze's video for FatBoy Slim's Praise You, and the song is quite forgettable, but then also it's quite pleasing.

http://www.popjustice.com
Yay! Their compilation CD is very good, only some of the tracks are too short, and you're just getting into them when they fade into something else.