The Return Of The Orreryery



There is a part-work out at the moment which each week supplies you with a small component of an orrery for you to make at a total cost of something like £300. Not sure if you could get a fully assembled version for less than that and after thinking it was made of plastic I have found out here that it is actually made of brass. With all the PC stuff to simulate the Universe in great detail, this can only be something for the 'drawing room (you can just see into ours if you go by on the top deck of the 'bus). I am much more impressed with this Lego version which reminds me of the Lego record player I made at primary school. It had gearing to turn the record and an arm which supported a pin stuck through some paper as a resonator. The only uncool thing about it was the fact that I only had one record - a single that went along with a book of the film The Aristocats. That was remedied with the purchase of two soundtrack records - Big Horror Themes and TV Themes which gave us both the Theme To Colditz and The music for Three Days Of The Condor.

This months Wiretapper CD is probably the best yet. There are often some very difficult tracks on these CDs but this month's seems to be tending slightly towards less demanding music. Not that it is in any way a compromise or a sell-out - it has a long way to go to rival even the most left-leaning of other music magazines - unless there is a John Cage Monthly out there.

I have luckily noticed that I spelled Aristocats wrongly up there and that is a completely different story. Don't Google it at work whatever you do.