Linky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W79BC2eEKrU&feature=youtu.be

One for the Manthrobs amongst us - an antique Victorian wooden trinket box which, when a carved ivory token is placed atop it, reads the relevant M. R. James ghost story.



(OK, so the guy that makes them uses wooden trinket boxes from eBay, stains them to look antique, and the tokens are 3D-printed, with an embedded RFID chip to trigger an Arduino hidden in the box, which plays MP3s of Michael Hordern reading the M. R. James stories.)

Very nice, and I like the idea of triggering spoken word with RFID. I may have to thieve that.

I went to see Robert Lloyd Parry read Oh Whistle... and The Ash Tree at The Leeds Library (the oldest subscription library in the world, with a distinctly Hogwarts vibe) on the Eve of Hallowe'en. It was excellent, spooky stuff, despite my knowing the stories almost verbatim

Good stuff - he's doing the same stories in Glasgow at the end of the month but unfortunately Gaynor and I are double-booked and will miss it. It's at the Glasgow premises of the Theosophical Society - not quite as grand a location as the Leeds Library, but suitably suitable all the same.

Shame, he's well worth the watch. He's done it for so many years now that he's got all the coups de theatre down to a fine art. He did a totally cheesy bit of stuff with slamming a book shut which didn't deserve to work, but had half the audience fighting over the defibrillator.

Michael Hordern is an excellent choice as he starred in the very best television interpretation of an M R James story. 

I was 12 when my parents sat me in front of a television set in order to imbue me with a terror of whistles, beaches and bedclothes.

I remember that it was very odd at the time as it was made as an episode of Omnibus, which was an arts documentary series. 

In many respects, 'Don't blow the whistle' was wise advice in the UK in the 1960 - 70s

Unlike today when whistle-blowing is something of a dead end. It seems to be quite acceptable to be a lying cheating entitled bastard because it's "baked in" so that's OK then.

True indeed.

Directed, of course, by Jonathan Miller, which I guess kite-marked it as art.

I rather like Jonathan Miller. He's always struck me as being a genuine renaissance man, unlike some of the modern pretenders - I'm looking at you, Fry.

Yeah, I agree, though he's got a bit judgemental in his old age.

What's the old git been saying? There was that disparaging assessment of David Tennant a few years back when Tennant did Hamlet and Miller described him as 'that man from Dr Who' and suggested that his celebrity was the reason he got the role. I haven't kept an eye on his recent doings.

 

He had a pop at the BBC being run by - as I remember - "Media Studies twerps" a while ago, and another at the National Theatre for not commissioning him. He also grumbles about ageism in the arts. 

Jonathan Miller: Him no longer grumbling about ageism in the arts, him gorn.

My God, I just saw that. And I'd went and poked around in the attic last night to retrieve my copy of his 1966 Alice in Wonderland after thinking about him the other day. Soz - must be my fault.

Well, I hope they stick a few of his plays and films etc on the telly.

He was the people's theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist, Private Eye contributor and medical doctor specialising in neurology.

OMG now Clive James has gone too. Can we stop this thread?

I mean, Alan Bennett will be glancing over his shoulder with some unease...

I know. Twattery. The world was much better with him for all his cantankerousness. Clive James, too: I think it's the prospect of a Johnson government  that's dropping them.