Sir Patrick Moore. 

I was slightly surprised this evening, following the passing of Patrick Moore, to see some fairly negative assessments of the man and his work. Understandably, there's been a bit of mixed reaction, mainly due to the man's quirky (if not downright unpleasant) politics. But let's not lose sight of his immeasurable contribution to the creation of new British Scientists over many decades. His appearances on the BBC moon landing coverage led me to read his books, and take up a lifelong love of astronomy in particular and science in general. 

...and I am not the only one.

He sometimes came across as a reactionary, misogynist little Englander of a type that is very thankfully a rarity these days. But to think of him as only that is to totally miss his main contribution to our culture. 

This man single-handedly inspired several generations of children to become astronomers and scientists. I remember, as a young boy, taking my first telescope out into the freezing Scottish winter night with a copy of his Observers Book of Astronomy which told me that I could see the moons of Jupiter (I could!), the rings of Saturn (there they were!) and that Polaris is in fact a binary star (and there it was!). He made the sky magic, and I took my own boys out on starry nights and showed them the planets and stars he showed me. 

A towering figure. 

We were lucky to have him.

Marvel vs DC

Cards on the table. I'm a bit of a Marvel bloke. I bought into Stan's whole "Make Mine Marvel" ethos in the early seventies, and mainly for good reasons. Marvel comics had a complexity and (seems odd to think of it now) realism that DC didn't even attempt to emulate. Sure, in hindsight, those comics were crude and even a bit silly at times (The Yancy Street gang, I ask you!). But the characterisations and interweaving story lines were just the right recipe for the impressionable younger me.



















In contrast, DC has some of the biggest superhero hitters, but they had a house style that seemed trivial and a little juvenile in comparisons to Marvel at the time. Some of that legacy is still there in DC mythology - the Riddler just so happens to be called E. Nigma, for instance, and much recent revisionism tries to make sense of this - but that was all par for the course in those days. (Yes, I'm well aware that Marvel had their fair share of silly names too).

Time moved on, and from the late seventies and into the eighties, DC adopted something much closer to the Marvel style, with increasingly sophisticated story lines. Some of the best work in mainstream comics has come from DC since then - Watchmen, Sandman, Hellblazer and The Dark Knight Returns, to mention just a few. And there's a telling point. Of those, only one featured an existing DC top property. With The Dark Knight Returns, Batman seems to have been the superhero big hitter most suitable for a dark, more realistic, more adult redevelopment.

Comics have moved a long way since then, in many ways. But the big business right now is the superhero movie. This year already the biggest movies have been The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man.

So, to get back to my point. I'm a Marvel bloke, deep down. I liked Spider-Man. Really good fun, well crafted, and even thought-provoking (especially if you, like I do, spend a lot of time working out how the story line does and will fit into the original Spider-man mythology and/or maybe the Ultimate universe mythology). Even better, I absolutely loved The Avengers. Spectacular. Fun. Surprisingly, not just bangs and crashes, but actually interesting too, at almost every turn. But maybe I would have always liked The Avengers. I was rooting for it before it began. By the way - I can't help but love that The Avengers' Nick Fury is played by Samuel L. Jackson - as not-so-subtly suggested by artist Bryan Hitch in Marvel's Avengers reboot, The Ultimates as far back as 2002

However, that's enough of that. I've just come back from watching The Dark Knight Rises, and it's head and shoulders above any of those. It covers every base. It's at turns, gritty, spectacular, thought-provoking, surprising (yes, there were things that I didn't see coming - when's the last time a Hollywood movie did that?), and even quite moving. If The Dark Knight was all about The Joker, and about challenging black and white morality with shades of grey, this new movie is about Bruce Wayne, and what drives him to fight on, even when there seems to be nothing to fight for. Even when it costs him everything. Even when it has maybe already cost him everything.

Christopher Nolan has done a great job with this franchise. Cleverly, Warner Brothers/DC have allowed him a great deal of control, and seem to have even allowed him to draw a line under a lucrative film series. I guess maybe they figure they can always reboot again another day, when the cash registers will roll again. To their credit, though - allowing Nolan to craft a coherent trilogy of thoughtful films for grown ups about a guy in a rubber mask...

I don't need to tell you any more. I'm still a Marvel guy deep down. I know if Galactus doesn't get us, Ultron will. Or Doom. Or Loki. But there will always be a quinjet there somewhere. It doesn't stop me thinking that the Batman movie was the best superhero film I've seen in some time. In fact, it's a good movie full stop.

höchste Lust!

A quick note, and a recommendation. I saw Welsh National Opera's Tristan und Isolde at the Wales Millennium Centre last night. Absolutely awesome. I think there's only one more performance, which I believe is in Birmingham on June 16. If you get a chance, go.

"Tristan" is a work I was very familiar with in my misspent youth, experienced, libretto in hand, mainly listening to Solti's Decca recording on 5 LPs, with Birgit Nilsson.


Oh the magic of those old boxed sets! I've just pulled it out of my record collection for the first time in many years (to take this photo), and I can tell you right now, if I had a working record deck, that would be me for the rest of the day.

As a result, most of my previous experience of Wagner, and Tristan in particular, is in sound only. The "pictures" were all in my head. I have to say, there were a few times in last night's performance, where I closed my eyes and just soaked up the music. This was particularly so in the three overtures, which were rich and moving - and the tone from the orchestra pit gave a dimension to the music missing from my old black vinyl and the Spotify version I've been using to re-familiarise myself with the work. Sometimes the presence of the audience was a bit of an intrusion on a very personal experience. Of course, once the actors were on stage, there was plenty to see, and the modern use of surtitles means that I can now follow the details of the libretto every bit as well in the theatre as I used to when listening at home. Wagner really needs that detail. There are few, if any, show-piece arias and no Italian-style sing-along numbers. This is all about the drama, and it is all done in music at every step of the way. If you don't know what they are singing about at any given point, it's actually extremely difficult to appreciate either the music or the drama.

Now; an essential skill for the opera aficionado is the ability to suspend disbelief. After all, life isn't generally sung! But there's even more suspending to do when the heroic tenor medieval knight turns out to have had far too many super-size meals from McD's. My apologies to any comfortably-built tenors who may read this, but I just can't picture you taking on the warrior hero of Ireland and giving him a drubbing in hand to hand combat! However, close your eyes, and the voice is simply wonderful. Ben Heppner (Tristan) really came into his own in the third act, when his wounded hero gets the chance to sing his love and agony away from the vocal shadow of Isolde.

In many ways, it's all easier when listening to records and matching the real (and amazing) voice to an imagined hero. However, the bottom line is the music, and Wagner totally nails it here. If you are not familiar with Wagner, this is not a great place to start. You really need to have spent some time getting your head round his way of working and expressing emotion and drama. I can see how inaccessible it must sometimes appear - but how it is worth it! Once you've worked your way into the Wagner mindset, it becomes a magical, transporting place. The music sucks you into the drama and the inner emotional lives of the protagonists. In the dénouement of the WNO production, as she sings her epic final piece, Isolde removes her black cloak to reveal a white gown; the dress for her wedding to Tristan. Ultimately, we are left with nothing but the internal emotions of Isolde - everything else has fallen to nothing. In many productions, Isolde finishes by collapsing dead on Tristan's body. The WNO production instead achieves more by gradually dimming all light on the stage to leave finally nothing but Isolde's face illuminated. So absorbing was Anne Petersen's Liebestod that it was a while before I even noticed that everything else had disappeared. In the drama, Isolde is singing her own death - but her song is desperate and blissful. It is entirely appropriate that the audience is effectively drawn into Isolde's personal, isolated inner world, to the exclusion of all else. That is the real end of the drama - and it's utterly wrenching. Of course I cried like a big baby. I knew I would, but it speaks volumes for this performance that it hit me so hard. I even had another blub when Anne Petersen came out for applause at the end.

Draining. Wonderful. If I could go to this again today, I would.

Book Review: Abundance - WSJ.com

What's a Geek Urn?

Am currently enjoying Neal Stephenson's "Reamde". More of a techno-thriller (so far) than a Geek fest (see "Cryptonomicon", "Snow Crash", The Baroque Cycle, and best of all, "Anathem"), but a great read and certainly full of techno-fun. I'm only halfway through, deep in the depths of a scare-a-minute ride through China with hackers, Russian Mafia and Islamic terrorists. Typical of Stephenson, though, we have an undercurrent of a story that's actually happening in a virtual world (a close relative of World of Warcraft), and I have a suspicion that this won't be over till the Earthtone Coalition and the Forces of Brightness have sorted out their differences on-line. But maybe it's not about that at all.

There's the usual mix of savant characters - including Stephenson's trademark Geek Girl (who knows the system better than the guys and always gets her way - usually by knowing geeky stuff better than anybody else). All great fun. It has to be said, though - thus far, not quite as hugely satisfying as "Anathem" or the Baroque Cycle. Probably up there with "Cryptonomicon", though.

Full update when I've finished.

PS. In the weeks waiting for Christmas (and "Reamde" as a present) I re-read "Ilium" and "Olympos" by Dan Simmons. I cannot begin to tell you how enjoyable these are. Greek Gods who are really scientifically enhanced humans. The real siege of Troy, with Hector, Paris, Agamemnon and Odysseus - as described by Homer, but with a techno twist. Achilles in Tartarus. Terra-formed Mars. Little cyborgs from the moons of Jupiter that really love Shakespeare and Proust.

My favourite line is a slight spoiler, but it's the first sentence from the second book (Olympos) and is just wonderful -


"Helen of Troy awakes just before dawn to the sound of air raid sirens."

Love it, love it, love it. I cannot recommend these books highly enough. Read them, and enjoy.