My answers to Itchyfidget's questions...

[rhythmaning]

1. What are your architectural tastes?


Were I to be flippant, I would say I haven’t tasted much architecture… But that’s not really my style.

I have broad tastes. I don’t really like post-modernism, because I am not sure that all the post-modern bits kind of hang together.

I like Georgian architecture – particularly in Glasgow and Edinburgh; Bath never seems like it is actually lived in, and the London squares and circles always seem too white.

I like a lot of modern buildings: walking in the City of London I still find exciting.

I think most of all I like just catching glimpses of buildings, pitting one architectural style against another. Walking through New York is intensely exciting, just for the passing views one gets of the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building – the strange juxtapositions one gets through the avenues and streets.

The Taj Mahal is truly the most beautiful artefact I have ever seen. It is breath-taking. I have been there a couple of times – at sunrise and sunset both times (very much the tourist!) – and every time I have seen it, it made my spirits soar to think that people could have built such a thing.


2. If I recall rightly, you're another city dweller. Ever get fed up with the noise and mess and rudeness and think about up and moving to the sticks?


Yes. And no.

So I don’t think I could ever live in the country permanently – if only because my wife can’t drive. And I really like what cities have to offer – bars, galleries, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, clubs, concert halls – and even if I don’t make as much use of all these great facilities as I think I should (largely down to laziness), I would really miss them.

I am not sure that I could ever find the one bit of the country that I would want to live in – somewhere over on the west coast maybe – north of Torridon, perhaps – but even then I would probably choose to live in a town rather than the country (Ullapool perhaps; until it is ten feet under melted glacier water).

But cities can get to one. London I certainly found too much – hence moving back to Edinburgh.


3. Recommend me one jazz album. You can skip Miles Davis' Kind of Blue because I already know that's great :)


One? Just one? If you really know that “Kind of Blue” is great, you’ll already have discovered “A Love Supreme” and “Everybody Digs…” – two very different records by musicians on the “Kind of Blue” sessions.

So let’s go for something really different. I would be inclined to go for some Mingus – perhaps the Mingus Big Band’s “Blues and Politics”, because they have some really powerful settings of his music – but most probably “Mingus Ah Um”. Or maybe some Ellington – and it would then be a toss-up between “At Newport” (1956 – there is another, completely different set from 1958, I think) – the ’56 vintage is brilliant, the fifteen minute version of “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” is stunning, exciting music – or perhaps “Such Sweet Thunder”, a brilliant suite. (frankie_ecap would call it “fanfic”, I guess, since all the titles are based on Shakespeare.)

But it wouldn’t be too hard for you to come up with those yourself. So, having listed several records, I shall actually choose one I doubt you would come across: “Spirits Rejoice” by the Dedication Orchestra, a big band playing the music of expatriate South Africans who were based in London (and later France) in the sixties and seventies. Again, it is just really exciting music. And it swings like the clappers.


4. What do you do with your spare time when you're not reading, listening to music or having good conversations over dinner?


Watching tv, or answering questions on LJ!

I don’t watch a great deal of tv – though that is relative, of course. We tend to know what we want to watch, and very rarely channel-hop. At the moment, there are only four or five shows we regularly watch, so I guess only four or five hours a week are spent watching tv.

If we are not watching tv, there is almost certain to be music, or the radio, on. I listen to the Archer, and usually the Radio 4 comedy at 6.30pm – whichever evening it is.

I don’t go to as many concerts – jazz, rock or classical – as I think I should. We do sometimes go, but I miss more concerts than I go to!

We used to go to the movies a lot – most weekends – but a couple of years a go the habit slipped, and now we rarely go. Strange. Instead, we have a stack of DVDs to watch!

We often go to dance performances. The Festival Theatre in Edinburgh is a great dance venue, and they put on a lot of shows. For me, dance captures the mix of music and theatre perfectly (conversely, I can’t stick opera, though that is probably because I dislike classical signing. I just wish they would stop singing so I could listen to the music).


5. What's the most interesting place/country/city you've ever visited?


Again – just one? I think state would be Sarawak: largely because of the forests. But country I think would have to be India, because of the diversity – and so much of it is so different from my usual experience. Plus the Taj Mahal!

If I had to chose a city – Paris, New York or Venice, I guess (though I love Amsterdam – and Rome…). Probably New York.

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Well, as I have just responded to you elsewhere, they were good, challenging questions.