Annoyed with myself for missing the dawn prayer. Poor excuse: Noi is not around, having driven up to Melaka with our massage lady to cater to the needs of the family there, and my routines are out of wack. I thought I'd set the small wristwatch alarm on the bedside table to wake me for the prayer, but it turned out I'd reset this to wake Noi at 08.00 yesterday as she was accompanying me to the doctor's but needed to get up later. To be honest I thought I'd just wake up automatically this morning but I seem to be catching up on lost sleep lately so there are no guarantees as to when I will stir. I did wake up ahead of the alarm, but not by enough, I'm afraid.
Anyway, once up and running I popped out to get a newspaper, grabbed a bowl of healthy cereal, at least that's what the packet proclaims, drank a cup of sugarless tea and luxuriated in Copland's Appalachian Spring, before hitting the table for the first bout of marking today.
09.00
Watched a couple of the games last night getting the season off to a start. Thought Chelsea looked reasonably strong in a fairly boring manner - business as usual. Intrigued by Man City, but it's going to take a little time before a clear picture emerges of whether they've simply dug themselves a big hole or are destined for great things. Looking forward to United's kick-off, which is the early evening game here.
In between the games I played a bit of early Genesis, the magical Foxtrot. So much of what so-called progressive rock bands threw up makes somewhat embarrassing listening today, but not this one. Whatever is vaguely pretentious here is in the service of a genuine striving for a wider range of expressive possibilities and an overwhelming sense of excitement over the sheer range of what five ultra-talented musicians can do splicing various idioms together. It helps, of course, that they're obviously having fun. Even at its most grandiose the extended Suppers Ready is grounded in a delightful sense of its sheer oddness - I mean 9/8 time for the climax! Who would have thunk it?
10.00
And the marking goes on. Trying to finish by noon so I can goof off into the real world.
11.00
Found I had to goof off a bit early, playing some of Zappa's Uncle Meat just now, quite an arbitrary choice. I suppose I was looking for some refreshing weirdness - and certainly got it. Alongside it I'm reading the corresponding segments from the oddest, daftest, most entertaining book related to rock music ever written - Ben Watson's Frank Zappa's Negative Dialectic of Poodle Play. Illuminating and irritating in equal degrees, but always fun.
And now it's back to the grindstone, but the noon target is achievable, assuming I lower the volume.
12.00
Marking completed I'm now contemplating a bit of early afternoon reading. Hesitating between Gardner's 5 Minds, which still seems to me very superficial but has the virtue of being easy to read, possibly too easy, and The Ring and the Book. I'm about three quarters of the way through Book 7, the Pompilia section. I intended to complete it last night but the footie got in the way. Both Book 7 and Book 6, focusing on Caponsacchi, the heroic St George figure who attempts to rescue her, initially seemed attractively easy to read, allowing new light into the claustrophobic repetitiveness of the story, but each opened out new demands in terms of following the particular concerns of their protagonists, especially in the broader terms of the ideas, or rather consciousness, they represent. They let in fresh air, but then you need to learn to breathe the air. Can't honestly see finishing the poem ahead of bulan puasa.
13.00
Settled to The Ring and the Book and thoroughly enjoyed the end of Book 7 in which Pompilia sort of forgives Guido and then contemplates her relationship with Caponsacchi. Browning achieves a genuineness otherness here, a sense of purity and innocence that convinces. I suppose one might consider here the Victorian obsession with images of women as angelic, holy figures, almost too good for this world. Pompilia is of that ilk, yet with a genuine radiance. But there's lots more to come of the poem and I'm looking forward to seeing how Browning moves away from the still centre of the thing to other concerns.
Feeling tempted to do some reading on the side. When we were last in KL I got hold of a few out-dated magazines cheap at a bookstore which seems to regularly provide this service. I picked up the May issue of Rolling Stone, a magazine I haven't looked at for years, and a couple of back-issues of The Word, with free CD compilations, this being the publication I picked up at the same shop last year at a knock-down price.
14.00
It looks like it's a hot day outside, the kind of lazy heat that's just right for the weekend. So why am I stuck indoors? Just that five minute trip to pick up the newspaper this morning was enough to set off the pain in my right leg, so a nice walk to the beach is, sadly, out of the question. But I seem to have recovered from the strains caused during the run-up to the recent show so that's something, a lot, to be grateful for. Basically the doc's advice is to reduce my walking and standing to the bare minimum for the time being, so I suppose, reluctantly, I'd better do that.
15.00
The football review showing the highlights of last night's games is about to start so I'm just off to survey the possibilities for the season.
16.00
Startled over the Arsenal result, but pleased in a way. I have a soft spot for old Arsene and his way of doing things. Wondering what happened to Everton though.
Decided to finish 5 Minds, which is suspiciously easy to do. Must then listen to something and get the old ears tuned.
17.00
Just played Dylan's Infidels in the bedroom. For some reason this CD is extremely picky regarding whether it will allow itself to be played. It doesn't do anything in the car, or on the main Bose system. I wasn't too sure it would play on the cheap Pioneer system in the bedroom, but it did, and sounded pretty good in the confines of the room at high volume. Unusually for me I listened with a set of the lyrics at hand, from my Lyrics 1962 - 1985. Nice to know what the Bobster is actually singing about. Lots of great melodies on the album, by the way.
Have done with the Gardner having found it platitudinous in the extreme from beginning to end. Nothing to disagree with, so nothing exciting.
18.00
Have made good progress on The Ring and the Book, finishing the highly entertaining Book 8. Lots of comedy, easing the intensity of the central books, and less emphasis on the specific details of the case. I'm beginning to get a sense of the overall architecture of the poem.
Now thinking about food, as was the good Dominus Hyacinthus throughout his defence of Guido.
19.00
I'm expecting Noi to ring sometime soon to tell me she's on the way back. She intends to set off after the maghrib prayer, which is nearly due. I rather suspect I'll be in bed by the time she arrives.
20.00
Now gearing up for the big game - kick-off eight-thirty. Just listened to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring under the baton of Bernard Haitink as played by the London Philharmonic. Stirring stuff, though I can't quite see it causing a riot today, except in the interior of one's mind.
Noi has just rang and is about to set off, through the storm and rain up north by all accounts. Looking forward to life getting back to normal here.Think I might just have time to continue on the Haitink CD with Petruschka, but I must ring Mum soon.
21.00
Mum's complaining that there's nothing on tv today partly because she can't get the United game live. No such problems exist for me, so I'm rushing back to the screen after this quick report.
22.25
Well that's it at the end of a distinctly satisfactory day. A solid 3 points for United rounds things off nicely, especially considering the makeshift back four. I'll be turning a few more pages of Browning as I lie between the sheets, but as it is I'm ready to drop.
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