Something elevating for you philistines

Having acquired a new hifi recently (no, not in the extreme shopping event which hit our cities), I've been playing everything which highlights fine stereo and crystal clear reproduction, which basically means a lot of 4AD and classical.

Here's a version of Thomas Tallis's Spem in Alium, a 40-part monster from the reformation period. I've actually become such a snob that I took off the King's choir version to replace it with the Chapelle du Roi recording. I like religious music when it's in Latin. Despite having a (bad) Latin A-level, I don't understand a word, so can ignore the pernicious meanings and simply revel in the stunning noises being made.

However, here's a rather wonderful version: shame there's no indication who it is, though it's very close to the Chapelle recording.



Anyway, shouldn't you be over here, asking me about your first academic job?

That Friday feeling

How I wish I was mentally living the weekend already - fat chance with a pile of marking and three lectures to write for Monday. I'm coping by playing very calming music (Tallis, Allegri) in the office and breaking off for the occasional peruse of my new Norton edition of Le Morte Darthur. Mmm.

Did anyone watch 10 O'Clock Live last night? Channel 4's homegrown version of The Late Show (and full marks for the imaginative title guys), intended to be a satirical take on politics and news for the 18-30s. With a cast of David Mitchell (his compulsory presence is a clause in all channels' charters), Lauren Laverne, Charlie Brooker and Jimmy Carr, I assumed it would be 75% good.

Oh dear. David Mitchell: informed, spontaneous, quite funny. Charlie Brooker did what Charlie Brooker does. Good, but hardly innovative. Poor Lauren, for whom I have a deal of respect, was badly used as eye candy and in terrible, terrible sketches. She's brighter than that. I really hope the scriptwriters up their games. They clearly hate Jimmy Carr (and fair enough). Why else would they have given him the lamest, oldest jokes they could find on the internet? Perhaps they knew it's the kind of material he's most comfortable with. At least it kept him away from his Gypsy material.

Live satire is difficult, and a first show always has teething problems - but it was still unwatchable.

Halcyon days of summer

Morning everybody. It's a good day. I've done 56 lengths again, it's a little gloomy, and the rain's beating on the window like a locked-out girlfriend. I'm expecting Daniel for a day's work under my watchful eye, and I'm planning to settle down with a copy of Almanac, the yearbook of the Association for Welsh Writing in English. Other than that, I've a couple of meetings with management as I'm on duty for the union this week and an early manuscript of my colleague Steve's manuscript on Hinduism to look through. Today's soundtrack is Slint (to whom I introduced Neal yesterday) and perhaps some Thomas Tallis.

All in all, it's going to be a perfect day.