November’s stuff

Bumper CDr packages from John in Ronda and Iain in Tokyo – cheers, guys. Will I have time to do anything else this month?

Paul Schutze – New Maps Of Hell

The Idealist – I am The Fire

Cousin Silas – Ballard Landscapes 2

Jliat – The Dancing Horse

John Luther Adams – In The White Silence

Arve Henriksen – Chiaroscuro

Shukar Collective – Urban Gypsy

The Residents – The Voice of Midnight (with ltd. edition ‘The Sandman Waits’ CD)

Pere Ubu – Why I Remix Women

Fred Frith/Evelyn Glennie – The Sugar Factory

Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex – Moa Anbessa

Group Inerane – Guitars From Agadez

Barry White – Together Brothers OST

Pole – Steingarten remixes

Negativland – A Big 10-8 Place (new issue with No Other Possibility dvd)

Negativland – Our Favorite Things – dvd

Specialten Issue 20 – dvd magazine

MonitorPop Issue 1 – dvd magazine

Dons humped

Just back from Tynecastle, feeling good after a convincing 4-1 victory over Aberdeen.

Often good value for money in the humour department, the Dons travelling support unveiled two lengthy banners before the game, reading “Lithuanian State Circus” and “With Diving Cheats” – and when the floodlights failed temporarily in the middle of the first half, they were quick to come up with ‘Who’s not paid the bills, who’s not paid the bills.’

Fortunately, though, the joke was very much on them. Some very dirty and professionally cynical tackling ultimately led to only three bookings for the visitors, though there should have been more – and a sending off for a vicious blow to the back of Nade’s head. If Hearts had finished all their decent chances (and the Dons theirs), the final score might have been more in the region of 8-3.

The first two goals were both typical SPL goalmouth stramashes, but we proved ourselves well worthy of the win with two well-taken second half chances. The sheep just didn’t look capable of matching us, and couldn’t capitalise on the few errors we made.

Better yet, the 3-goal difference means that we leap above the Dons into 6th place in the SPL.

Into The Wild

BAFTA screening earlier this evening of Sean Penn’s ‘epic’ two and a half hour bio-pic on Christopher MacCandless, a troubled young American who, calling himself Alexander Supertramp, hoboed it around the States until finally taking on more than he could handle by venturing into the Alaskan wilderness without much by way of supplies or local knowledge.

MacCandless, having (according to the film) attained a level of understanding he’d aspired to, tried to get out of the wilderness, but the shallow river he’d crossed was in spate and he was forced to turn back. He died of starvation, having run out of his meagre supply of food and unfortunately turned to poisonous berries for sustenance.

Penn’s film paints a complex portrait of MacCandless as a noble and questing (if troubled) individual whose dangerous combination of lofty principles and limited expertise ultimately let him down badly.

Forgive me for this, but I was disappointed that the film didn’t also identify what an utter idiot he must have been.

I read his Wikipedia entry, and apparently there was a hand-held tram crossing of the spated river not five miles from where he failed to cross it, a highway less than 20 miles away, and several hunters lodges within a few miles radius which were stocked with food and supplies. MacCandless didn’t know any of this, because he hadn’t bothered to pack a map. Doh!