Someone please throw a brick through my TV. Last night, instead of getting on with writing Left Luggage 3, the third and final volume of my Left Luggage science fiction trilogy, I became hooked in the Japanese film, Zatoichi. Even the title drew me in. There was beauty mixed with violence and I had to find out if the blind man would defeat all the baddies. He did, but not until 3.45 am. Aaaarrggh. By which time any hope of being tired enough to sleep had passed me by. Tonight, BBC Four are doing mathematics – Fermat’s Last Theorem and the beauty of equations. Damn them – my favourite subjects. Usually I tune into Radio 3 and let operas and sonatas wash through me while I write. Trouble is that Radio 3 tend to broadcast lectures and talks late at night so I jab at the remote to find something banal. You might, like my wife, suggest turning the box off, but I remain with a problem. I have tinnitus so bad that I need background sounds, preferably music, to mask the twittering birds and sirens in my head.
Ummm, the Beautiful Equations programme has much bo**ocks. Typical of British programme makers to idolise Newton at the expense of Pythagorus and dozens of other non-UK mathematicians. I can safely switch to an opera DVD. Welcome, Richard Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos. And so back to LL3.
That is really interesting. My hubby records programmes (two at once if necessary) and plays them when nothing else is on to amuse him – or us. Also it is good if I get a long phone call while something I want to watch is on. Now, no one has shown me how to do this. In fact all I can do is switch on and press programme buttons – not that the right programme always comes up. I watch the early morning programmes depending when I get up – any time from 4 to 7. Usually before five or six anyway. But it is the World News and various reports which interest me (especially Hard Talk) and they are earlier ones. I don’t like noise when I’m on the computer. It would have to be loud to drown the noise in my ears and that is distracting. But occasionally, I do click on some of the computer music downloads when I’m not doing anything needing deep concentration. There isn’t much on TV that would cause me to leave creative writing but not much of that goes on now. And no-longer can I write in the early hours – I get incredibly cold without realising it. Dangerous!
Finished your Hot Air. Any of you who comes here not read it yet? You really are missing something. But I’ll write about the experience on my Wrinkly Writer blog shortly. Geoff – if you have a photo to go with it (you with your book?) I’d be pleased to have a copy.
Dear Geoff,
I did not care much for the new Zatoichi. We used to watch the old black and white ones on IFC, and seeing the new one was like watching the new movie of the Lone Ranger. Just was not right! They made him more pointlessly violent, and they borrowed almost the whole script, otherwise, from the other movies.
On another note, sorry about how your story got edited. It’s a shame. Lots of Americans have less problem reading Brit than various editors seem to think.
Good luck in the new year,
Sheffe