LIfe in the Dictionary

My wife who has an intense dislike for the Music of Philip Glass ( I may have understated that) actually quite liked his version of Low. I myself prefer what she calls the 'diddly-diddly' of things like Music in 12 parts. or Music With Changing Parts. There is something 'environmental' about these long pieces. They are like the Peter Greenaway tracks I mentioned in my first week of logging. Maybe they wouldn't go with an episode of Eastenders but for an hour of relaxation you can't beat them. I first heard (and saw) Philip Glass on a Channel 4 program and I was hypnotised. The fact that people would actually practice circular breathing in order to play the Saxaphone parts which had no allowance for breathing was stunning and it gave the whole thing a dangerous edge. My Aunt has a Didgeridoo and although I can get a satisfying note out of it, there is no way I can extend it beyond one single lungful of air. How do they do that?

Is it me or is it no longer cool to be weird? I have just put on 'Outside' by David Bowie and looking at the sleeve notes, which at the time I bought it .... oh dear - I have a mobile comma. A small worm-like bug just alighted on the screen after the phrase 'bought it' and walked around. That was very weird and very apt. Editorial comment from the insect world. Back to the game in progress folks. ... the sleeve notes, which at the time I bought it (1995), were very weird, are now just a bit silly. Bowie himself was on the Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday and not being a mad keen fan I have not heard him speak for ages - (actually the only time I can ever recall him being interviewed before this was when he appeared on a current affairs program in the 60s as the spokesman for a group of men complaining that they were discriminated against because they have long hair. I need to be able to do footnotes don't I?) - and I was struck by how 'normal' he actually was. It was as if all the old strangeness and Eno archness had been swept away. Maybe children do that for you. I suspect this could be put down to Postmodernism but I have never really understood how to describe Postmodernism and that fact is part of it in a self-referential way.

The album is still very good and makes we want to click my fingers in a sort of beatnick way. All they display in the foyer of the Tate gallery are Christmas Trees (of varying weirdness) thank God. The Tate is a modern art Gallery for goodness sake so why complain when their Christmas tree is modern art? I so much want things to be interesting. So much is boring. I still look at The Great Bear and find interesting things I hadn't noticed. Lets try it with the London Underground map.