July 2008 Archives

...was tremendous good fun!  Good, quick hosts, good questions, a lot of fun.  It'll be up on the web soon (I'll write again when it is with a link), but a pleasure to have my first ever telly appearance.  Even if it was over the phone.

They're going to have some young reviewers talk about the book on Thursday, so tune in (if you can) and see what they have to say.  I don't know, they might have hated it!  If so, how embarrassing for me that I'm recommending it...

Sorry for the very short notice, but I only found out while I was away on holiday last week (I was away on holiday last week, did I tell you?), but if you're in Ireland and/or have access to RTE2, I'll be appearing as a disembodied voice on The Buzz, a fast-paced, LIVE TV show.  And I'll be doing this TOMORROW!!  As in 29 July 2008. 

I'll be talking over the phone to the lovely hosts about The Knife of Never Letting Go at about 4pm, I think.  So, if you can, tune in, let me know how it looks.  And then we can all watch it again online on their website.  Very exciting stuff.

I also had a very good review in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph, which is also nice.  Just ignore what she says about the dog.

And I'm including Peter Pan El Musical:

Rain Man, starring Josh Hartnett and some guy.

Book your tickets now, it ain't gonna last.

Just found out (seconds ago!) that The Knife of Never Letting Go has been longlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize, which is a most excellent prize indeed.  It's the first year they've even published their longlist, so very nifty to be on it, I must say.  Several of the books that I'm on the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize longlist with are on there, so tough competition for both.  Very pleasing, as I work my fingers to the bone finishing up the sequel...

But a good music day yesterday.  New albums by both Jim Moray and Liam Finn, both of which are might excellent.  Jim Moray's even got a sea-shanty cover of All You Pretty Girls.  Bliss.  And Liam (son of Neil) is an amazing combo of his father and Elliott Smith.  I couldn't be happier.

And I just finished a great book, too, a few years after everyone else.  The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard.  Won the National Book Award and the Miles Franklin and is incredibly moving.  Everything here is highly recommended, now, isn't it?

Yeah, here's one so weird, I couldn't resist.  If you type in "drag" in the search box of my iTunes, you get five songs.  Good God in heaven, what sort of weirdo would like this?

Dragostea Din Tei by O-ZONE (Um, yep, it's that "numa numa" song, can't really explain satisfactorily why it's on my iPod, so moving swiftly on...)

Frog's Legs & Dragon's Teeth by Bellowhead (A jig, an actual jig.  Or is it a reel?)

Dragonfly by a-Ha (see previous entries for defence of a-Ha)

Dragging Me Down by Inspiral Carpets (Yeah, you can have your Oases and your Blurs, but there's only one Inspiral Carpets.  From Bradford!)

Dragonfly On Bay Street by Ron Sexsmith (a song I dislike (the box is unticked) by a singer/songwriter who I do like very much - try Foolproof instead)

I take the Fifth.

Holy crap!  Did you see that yesterday?  Tennis is the sport I like the most, and I've watched Wimbledon since I was teeny-tiny, and the only match that's even come close to that is the Patrick Rafter/Goran Ivanisevic one.  But this one was better.

And the right guy won.  Argue with me, go on, I dare you.  Nadal winning is good for a number of reasons: 1) it challenges the omnipotence of Federer (sport is boring when one guy always wins), and 2), more importantly, it gives a nice shake-up to all those boring guys who only ever concentrate on clay (of which there's way WAY too much on the tour).  Good stuff, very heartening.

And did you notice Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani in Roger Federer's box?  Didn't you think Gavin Rossdale cheered like just the most incredible asshole?  Didn't it make you hate Roger Federer a little?  Or a lot?

Had a great cultural experience last night.  Saw the London Gay Men's Chorus sing a show at Cadogan Hall.  Based around William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, it was quite startlingly high-brow, but genuinely wonderful.  I'd recommend that you go see it, but last night was the final performance.

They sang Taverner and Vaughan Williams, a Kate Bush tune, Mack The Knife, 'Tis a Gift to be Simple, and - perhaps inevitably - I Feel Pretty.  Tremendous show, exceedingly well-sung and executed.  Also, incredibly moving.  Got a tear in my eye during Jersusalem, and not for excess patriotism.

I don't even mind that they sang my least favourite song of all time.  Seasons of Love from Rent (the show that only people who haven't seen it actually like).  It's that "Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes" song.  Makes me stomp on hamsters.

But I'll forgive them for that.  If you like excellent performances of terrific material, you really should check out the London Gay Men's Chorus, regardless of proclivity or inclincation. 

Yes, it is, indeed Independence Day, which - as you might imagine - is pretty uniformly ignored in England.  As a long-term ex-pat (nine years in November), I tend to go with the English flow.  You know, "When in Bolton..."  I don't really celebrate Thanksgiving or, I don't know, President's Day.  One day here and there seems a pittance when everyone in Europe gets seven weeks holiday a year (versus the two I had at my last American job).

I did, however, go to a Thanksgiving dinner several years back hosted by an Irish friend for his American friends.  There were six of us in total, three Americans, an Englishman, a Scotswoman, and the aforesaid Irishman.  In the middle of the turkey course, someone said, "Look at how we're eating."  Every European was using a knife in one hand and a fork in the other the cut their turkey.  All three Americans, without except (and one of us was even a woman), were doing the one-handed fork thing where you press as hard as you can to cut off a piece.

Call it rude manners, call us hillbillies, I say it's cleverly leaving the free hand open to multi-task.  And THAT's why we rule the world:  One-handed food cutting.