Stalingrad and Anzac Day

After having had it on our Zip list for six months this highly rated documentary about Stalingrad arrived. I was really disappointed. I know a lot about Stalingrad (and the Ostfront generally) but from the reviews I was expecting to learn something new. I didn't see anything in this doc that one wouldn't know if one had read any recent general history of the Ostfront, let alone, say, Anthony Beevor's excellent account of the Stalingrad campaign specifically. I guess it might be OK for someone who knows nothing about the subject.

It's Anzac day. On this day 14 years ago I arrived at Melbourne airport with a shiny new resident's visa. I walked out of the terminal building and jumped in a cab. The cab driver was Turkish. So it goes.

Weirdest dream in a while

Last night I dreamt about a river. It was a big river; wide with sandbanks and low banks. I saw what looked like a Beluga whale and then some more Belugas. It looked like a mother whale with a pod of baby whales but the babies were adult sized and the mother was huge. Every time one of the babies got near to shore it was attacked by lions and giraffes. Big, savage, toothy giraffes which tore great bleeding chunks out of the baby whales. Then the whales all swam away together down stream.

Interests and icons again

This time for psychochicken

Isabel Bayrakdarian is a very lovely and talented Toronto based soprano. She is also a close friend of the wife of one of my friends. I saw her sing Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare at the COC a few years ago. Ravishing in every sense!

Chip butties are one the basic food groups in Lancashire. Ideally, the bread should be a buttered bap, the chips hot and fresh and the salt and vinegar added with discretion.

What pervert doesn't like Victorian porn? Sadistic uncles having their wicked way with more or less reluctant wards. It's one of the few interests I share with Philip Larkin.



This shows how particles can and cannot propagate in 1+1 dimensional spacetime given the constraint of special relativity. I nicked it from Patricia Schwarz at Caltech.



This is the lovely Isabel (see above). Long gloves and a pearl choker would come a close second to one of the outfits she wore as Cleopatra which consisted of chains and not much else.



The Sanctuary Knocker from Durham Cathedral. It's been there since the middle ages sometime. The original is now in the cathedral museum but there is a copy on the door still.

Comment to play.

Gin

I've discovered a gin I really like. It's New Amsterdam. It's got a distinct orange peel note and is definitely best enjoyed just with ice. The packaging is rather swish too.