Tuesday 31 July 2018

A Kind Of Last Post

I have been thinking long and hard about this.
As I get older and The Old Man gets older, I spend so much time being angry about stuff that words fail me. And I don't find so much to laugh about. Of course this could be the consequences of old age and a long memory whilst I still have one.
This blog and your company have helped me through some rough patches, in particular during the early days (2010) when The Old Man became suddenly and seriously ill.


You can read those posts at "Heart Surgery" though remember they will run back to front chronologically.

But now The Doll and The Old Man are packing up the blog bags for a while. Mrs D will miss me (The Doll) I know... and The Old Man ... naturally! 
Meanwhile she continues with her own Syb&Me site where she struggles with learning animation and other things creative.

So for now, in this place, it's time for me and The Old Man to say "Good Bye, my dears. Take care. Keep safe. And Thank You."



Monday 9 July 2018

Sun, Crime and Podcasts

 
The weather is still hot and dry. 
Unbelievable for misty old Cornwall. 
We hide in the granity darkness of our sitting room. Walks have to be taken before 9 in the morning or after 7 in the evening. I was watering the vegetables in the garden the other evening  and looking up at our cherry tree saw that, to my horror, even this tall tree's leaves were wilting. Alors! What will survive this dry, hot spell.

I have another review posted on the Euro Crime site. This time it is a crime novel by Greek writer Pol Koutsakis. "Baby Blue" is the second in his series featuring self-styled "caretaker" Stratos Gazis. Greatly inspired by the American Noir films that Gazis quotes by heart, this one involves a hunt for the killer of a journalist and is set in contemporary Athens. Head to the review to find out more.

Meanwhile I am still hooked on listening to fictionalised podcasts.  Still following "Tanis" (see the "Tanis Post") I have also subscribed to PRA's "The Black Tapes" which actually preceded "Tanis" and ran for three series from 2015 to 2017. 


It's another drama played as investigative journalism. "Alex Reagan" (voiced by Lori Henry) and her producer research demons, ghosts and the work and life of the supremely sceptical Dr Richard Strand. Will the podcast return for another series? Is there a rumour out there? Whatever happens, the beauty of podcasts is that you can still listen in as they bob about in the podcast interspace!

Meanwhile The Old Man uses Wimbledon as an excuse for sitting in the dark watching telly all day.

Tuesday 26 June 2018

Mid Summer - And More Criminal Reading

It's hot. Dry. The other day a bee swarm flew through the garden looking for a new home .. chasing that queen.

In fact it is too hot for The Old Man in his current state. At least, this is what he says, as he sits indoors in the dark watching tennis on telly and occasionally making it out to the frosty air of a local, air-conditioned supermarket.
But actually I believe him.

And then there's all that waking up at 4 in the morning... tossing and turning. Not long after that... the dawn chorus starts and it grows light. Though I don't really mind. There is a blackbird whose distinctive song I seem to have heard for years. Is birdsong hereditary? No. I don't really think so. It must be an old bird ... just like I.

So ... all of this contemplation of time passing and the aging process has made me a little reluctant to post recently. Alors! Also - so much makes me angry these days. Brrrr! Whaaa! What to do with it.

I have another book review up - over on the Euro Crime blog. This is for "The Memory of Evil" third in Roberto Costantini's weighty Italian-Libyan trilogy of "Evil" built around Commissario Michele Balistreri of the Rome Murder Squad - from his childhood and youth in pre-Gaddafi Libya through to  his police career in Rome and on up to 2011 and the fall of Gaddafi, and his search for resolution of his own past and that of his blood-brother gang in 1960s Libya. The trilogy is impressive and not for the faint-hearted on many counts. For further detail - pop over to Euro Crime via the above link and read the detail.

Meanwhile... I'm off to drink some more water and contemplate a slice of watermelon for lunch.

Wednesday 16 May 2018

Criminal Activities: Reading & Watching

My latest review on Euro Crime is for James Wolff's first novel "Beside The Syrian Sea". It's set in the Middle East and involves a son's attempts to get his father, an ISIS hostage, released from captivity. The father is an earnestly moral cleric and the son is a desperately introverted intelligence worker finding himself suddenly without the boundaries he has so carefully maintained and quite literally in a new land.
I was gripped by it, not just by plot and thrill but by  its characters and their relationships. I also somehow found it "terribly British" ... in the nicest possible way. Read the review in full detail here at Euro Crime.

Meanwhile, as they say, there has been much to watch on telly. I haven't really enjoyed Season 2 of the Belgian thriller "Salamander" but I still watched it through. Nor, I must say, am I enamoured of Belgian thriller "Rough Justice" either. But still watching. Perhaps my dissatisfaction lies in the completely straight-faced, lugubrious main characters of each series? My Belgian favourite? (Sounds like a variety of iris, don't it.) When it comes to Belgian thrillers on British screens over the last 12 months - my highlight remains Season One of "Professor T". Not at all to everybody's taste, (sigh) it was to mine. The Old Man gave up on its fantasy musical breaks and opted for the washing up, but I was hooked. Although ... I realise now ... it carries the motif of straight-faced Belgian leads to bizarre extremes with its emotionally locked-in, germ-obsessive, forensic genius that is Prof T. Yes I know there have been other series predicated on emotionally damaged, clever-clogs analysts - but they don't have fantasy musical numbers! End of.

Aah! Not Belgian I know - but I forgot  season Four of "The Bridge". Now there's another "straight-faced" lead  - but no fantasy musical numbers - yet.
Am I watching? Of course I am.

Sunday 6 May 2018

Time Flies: The Doll Catches Up


What a difference a month makes. And where have I been? Not on a luxury cruise. Not in a remote corner of the Far East. I have been at home. Not sleeping, staring at the rain and feeling anxious.
But now (ta-da fanfare) the sun is shining. And here I am.

Why am I anxious? You ask. I grow old, I reply. And I don't like the way the world is going. Enough!

I am still reviewing crime fiction. Yes, me: The Doll, Mrs D (aka Lynn Harvey) -- ils sont tout moi. And you will find my review of Antti Tuomainen's "The Mine" over at the Euro crime blog. 
I am a fan of Finnish writer Tuomainen's crime books. Each different (so far) and each written from a fresh point of view. I am trying to catch up on the ones I have missed. So the next on my list is "The Man Who Died".

I am also still exploring dramatised fiction podcasts and hope to recommend some more series to you. Although I remain addicted to "Tanis" and find it difficult, frankly, to find something else that matches up ... but I have a few in mind to try.

As for Mrs D? It is hard to pry her/me away from her animation efforts. I/she ... am/is really excited about the possibilities of GIFs or animation loops. She says "At last something where I don't get bogged down in the narrative but can stay with the image... more like a poem or a painting than a film". (And no ... I am not including the chopped up videos of celebrity bloopers or gestures here). So the Mrs D part of me is embarking on a GIF series over at Syb & Me. It's based on imagery that started out as lino cuts that I made years ago. A childhood theme featuring a character I like to call Queenie. Please take a look.

And at the same time? The swallows are back and the sun is shining. My potatoes and broad beans are up in the garden... and I'm trying not to be anxious.
No. Don't mention Trump ...Brexit ... Climate Change ... the UK Government. Don't mention the Health Service... Social Care....
Don't mention any of it do you understand?

Friday 6 April 2018

Animated Goings On and Smartphone Obsessions: PicsArt Animator

I have become so obsessed with my smartphone as a mini computer that I am getting warning notices from my supplier that I am exceeding "my bundle usage". Truth is, being an old ginner and new to this area of consumption, I don't know what such people are talking about. Except that up to now this sin has only cost me an extra 50p. I blame Tanis (see previous post) for my abused bundle. But I don't care and will continue to download this podcast with devotion.

I have installed an animation app: PicsArt Animator. (Maybe this exhausts my poor little old bundle?) It is fun ... as advertised. Although the animations you produce are watermarked "PicsArt". I tried FlipaClip which is pretty good too. But it also watermarks your animation. So for now I will stay with PicsArt ... it being the devil I know. As an animation app PicsArt Animator seems geared to creating GIFs but it does a lot for its size. Its instructions are cryptic to non-existent, so good luck with that.
(I seem to spend my days battling with cryptic instructions. Of course, this could mean the onset of dementia ... the bugaboo that is driving all of us old ginners into the corner from fear. Hey! Want to exercise your brain? Try mastering a smartphone with no phone-savvy people by your side I say.)



Perhaps I am the only idiot trying to make animations by pawing at their smartphone with fingers like bananas ... but do you know what? I just treat it like a sketchbook. Which is very helpful. AND it has reintroduced me to GIFs. Which I first tried to make in the 1990s...

DOLL:"Well, hello stranger."
GIF: (Blink. Blink.)
DOLL: "I see you are all kitted out as hot stuff now."
GIF: (Blink. Blink.)
DOLL: "Well who would have thunk it."
GIF: (Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink .......)

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Discovering Podcasts: More Wierdness with "Tanis" from PRA

I am still hooked on my smartphone and listening to podcasts. Having finished "Rabbits" (see that post) from the wonderful Public Radio Alliance ... I am catching up on their earlier show "Tanis" which happily for me and my obsession has just started Season Four.

If Rabbits gave me game-playing conspiracy with a hint of spook - then Tanis gives me horror, myth and murder set in the Pacific North West of America. It's "presented" by podcast host Nic Silver and is constructed as an investigation into the weirdness of Tanis. Which is what? A cult? An entity? Its dark goings-on are said to shift place every 400 years or so. But its current location is ... Yes indeed, Twin Peaks territory. Which does make an old Peaky comme moi very happy.

PRA has made a show full of gripping style: mysterious woods, dark beings, alternate spaces, conspiracy and serial murder. What an elegant shivery stew. PRA calls it: "what happens when science and fiction start to blur".  (Sigh) I am just so hooked.

How to Listen to Tanis




Thursday 22 March 2018

A Night Out At The English Touring Opera - Puccini's Gianni Schicchi

Just last week The Old Man and me did potter off to The Opera at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro ... which by the way is due to close this summer for at least 20 months whilst being redeveloped into a bigger and better venue ... they do say.
Where will us West Cornwall opera folks get to see an opera in the meantime?

But I do digress. English Touring Opera never fail. They are a great company that do save our opera-going bacon. This time we attended their version of two of Puccini's short operas: the dramatic and moving "Il Tabarro" (The Cloak) set aboard a barge on the Seine ... and the comic "Gianni Schicchi".

Despite viral throats having struck some of the singers, I was duly moved by the tragic Il Tabarro with its minimal, rusty iron, dockside setting.
But Gianni Schicchi did steal the evening. Everything about this ETO production - sets, costumes, singing, movement, acting were as ensemble, sharp, and knockout as can be. Stylised, yes, but it triumphed. The audience laughed out loud - and not just polite titters. Really - if you get a chance to see this version of a comic tale of scoundrel scam vs. rampant greed, you must give it a go. You've got till June!


Wednesday 14 February 2018

Discovering Podcasts: The Wierd World of "Rabbits"


I'm a little old lady exploring the smartphone world. Of course I had listened to podcasts before ... on my pc ... but now I am bravely entering the world of podcast apps and podcasts on my phone.

I tried one app which seemed easy to use. But it immediately refused to play my downloads if I wasn't connected to the internet...which didn't seem to be the point. And yes I did look under "settings". So I ditched that app and got another - PodcastAddict - so far so good. It does what it says on the tin: I download episodes and can listen to them anywhere. No more sitting next to my wi-fi box.

And so I've just started listening to "Rabbits"  - a US docudrama podcast produced by PRA. It's narrated by "a journalist investigating the sudden disappearance of a friend" as she becomes aware of that friend's involvement in a sinister, underground and ancient game known as the aforesaid "Rabbits" (think burrows and maybe even Alice, although the last is my idea and may be very wrong!!)

I admit that I can be a bit at sea in "Rabbits", being too old to have dived into gaming which is very much the background to this thriller ... But hey, I used to read William Gibson. I can cope.

Public Radio Alliance likes to describe itself as "creating television for your ears". And that sounds very fine to me. I shall be investigating their other podcast series.

Oh! And I have discovered the joy of falling to sleep to podcasts rather than audible books ... which is ... that when the episode finishes, the broadcast stops. I don't have to trawl backwards through the book to find my falling asleep spot! Though I expect there is an app for that.

How to Listen to Rabbits

Tuesday 6 February 2018

MrsD's Criminal Reading: The Greek Wall by Nicolas Verdan

Mrs D has been reviewing again. This time it's a thriller by Swiss/Greek writer Nicolas Verdan called "The Greek Wall".  She enjoyed the novel's strong evocation of land and city-scapes, the plot's convolutions, character writing ... and getting a Greek view of some fairly recent events.You'll find her full review over at the Euro Crime Blog.

Nicolas Verdan will be taking part in "Literally Swiss" - a ticketed event billed as a "literary cabaret of writing from and about Switzerland" on Feb 9th 2018, 6pm at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill, London.

Thursday 1 February 2018

The Loss of the Old Coast Path from Porthleven to Loe Bar

We think of the granite cliffs of Cornwall as standing against erosion - but things are fragile in times of storm and climate change ... and not all the cliffs of Cornwall are granite.

Part of one of my favourite local stretches of coastal path (Porthleven to Loe Bar) has disappeared, undercut and fallen away after recent storms. This means it is now too dangerous to walk and has been closed by the National Trust whilst they work out how to reinstate a route by taking it further inland.

So these are a few photos from a walk I can no longer take.

 
Being observed
Bluebells

Grass and sky
Looking west towards Rinsey



Wednesday 24 January 2018

Animated Discussions: Loving Vincent

I'm looking out for "Loving Vincent" - a film produced by Polish animator Dorota Kobiela and film director Hugh Welchman (who also worked on the 2006 animation "Peter and the Wolf"). They just got an Oscar nomination and the European Film Academy gave it their 2017 European Animated Feature Film Award.
The project was Kobiela's labour of love which everyone said could not be done: a film about Vincent Van Gogh animated with frames individually painted in the style of the man himself. "CGI it": they said. "No": said the team whose dream it was.

From a test run in 2012 they managed to tackle problems such as frame size vs varying canvas size of source paintings; film timeline vs depicted seasons in chosen image; varying styles of the painter (Van Gogh) himself... you name it.

And with a team of 80+ painters (including Helford-based artist Sarah Wimperis) and a method involving rotoscoping live-action filming ... They did it.

Take time, if you can, to watch the "making of" video at the end of Ashley Lo Russo's  Review of "Loving Vincent" on the Canadian Animation Blog.


Wednesday 17 January 2018

Mrs D's Criminal Reading

I'm not really yawning, honest. But aint it hard to get up on a cold and frosty morning? Or in my case a grey and raining morning.

But I can have a lie-in because this post is about Mrs D's criminal reading habits. She's contributed a list of her favourite Brit-Euro-Crime reading in 2017 to the Euro Crime blog and you'll find that list here.

Now I guess I had better get up and put the kettle on.

Sunday 14 January 2018

Whiffled

Has you ever been whiffled by a horse? Well, that is to say, breathed with and snuffled quite warmly, gently and noisily. It was very new to me. As was I to the horse, a young rescue who still won't be ridden because of the way he was introduced to the idea.
But his rescue owner said he would be fine. And he was. And it was me that was all giggly and nervous. But there. Now I have shared breaths with a horse.

Wednesday 10 January 2018

The Miniaturist

One of the British telly programmes I enjoyed over Christmas was The Miniaturist. Well I would, wouldn't I ... all those miniature lovelies destined for Nella's dollhouse; a touch of the supernatural; lovingly detailed Dutch interiors; a flavour of family saga (although exceeding brief - a touch, a blink as such); an insight into the religious and social politics of that place and time.

I didn't understand why the BBC broadcast it in two unequal-length parts (one and a half hours and then an hour) which tripped up the pace of the ending for me.

But it was very sumptuous, visual ... and lovingly miniaturised.


Wednesday 3 January 2018

January 2018: The Doll's Doubts

So here I am again and here you are too. I have to say that, after posting to this blog for seven years or so, I am wondering whether I can go on with this. I get older, ironically angrier, and therefore less inclined to play and have fun.

I wondered whether to simply make images with a single sentence or link: one a day... snap, snap, snap.

I wondered whether to migrate to another platform (cos Blogger is lonelier than it used to be and Mrs D do enjoy her time at WordPress.) But where to go? Tumblr's parent company has been gobbled up by Verizon - not a fan of net neutrality.

Instagram is owned by the giant Facebook now ... although I think they are currently supporting net neutrality...

I am full of confusion. I may pack my bags and leave but, for now, I appear to have made another post!

All good wishes for 2018. As the immortal Bette Davis said in "All About Eve" 
... "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night."