This is an index and summary of the things I’ve talked about over the last month. Links for multi-post subjects go to the first post (even if it’s before this month), you can follow the internal navigation links from there. (TV shows without full posts will not be linked, but will be listed.)
Books
Fiction
“Whiskey and Water” Elizabeth Bear. Sequel to “Blood and Iron”, part of Read All the Fiction. Kept.
Total: 1
Concerts
Crimson ProjeKct (12 March 2014, Shepherd’s Bush Empire).
Maximo Park (Manchester Academy, 15 March 2014).
Total: 2
Films
Vikings Live – live broadcast from the British Museum’s Vikings exhibition.
Total: 1
Links
Total: 3
Museums
The Cheapside Hoard – exhibition at the Museum of London.
Manchester Museum – mostly the Egyptian collections.
Total: 2
Photos
Total: 3
Radio
The Berlin Conference. In Our Time episode about the Berlin Conference of 1884 and the Scramble for Africa.
The Phoenicians. In Our Time episode about the Phoenicians.
Invention of Radio. In Our Time episode about the invention of radio.
The Tempest. In Our Time episode about Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
Total: 4
Talks
“A Beautiful Burial: Decorating an Old Kingdom Mastaba Chapel” Ann Macy Roth. Talk given as part of the annual Charles Wilkinson lecture series in 2013, we watched the video of it on youtube.
Adornment for the Afterlife: Jewelry and Identity at Ur and Nimrud” Kim Benzell. Talk given as part of the annual Charles Wilkinson lecture series in 2013, we watched the video of it on youtube.
“In Quest of Paradise: Accommodating Death in Islam” Lisa Golombek. Talk given as part of the annual Charles Wilkinson lecture series in 2013, we watched the video of it on youtube.
Total: 3
Television
Non-Fiction
Animals Overnight: Sleepover at the Zoo – programme about sleep and animal sleep patterns. They set up cameras around Bristol Zoo to record what various of the animals did overnight when no-one was around, and also visited various sleep scientists to talk about what we know and don’t know about sleep. Most surprising fact for me is that REM sleep appears to be the result of convergent evolution, even if we still don’t know what its purpose is.
Britpop at the BBC – nostaglia programme about Britpop, using footage filmed by the BBC, mostly for Top of the Pops.
Border Country: The Story of Britain’s Lost Middleland – programme about the history of the area of Britain around the England/Scotland border, presented by Rory Stewart.
The First World War – a 10 part series covering the whole of the war.
Mind the Gap: London vs the Rest – two-part series about the increasing gap between the economy of London and the economy of the rest of Britain.
Monkey Planet – series about the biology and behaviour of primates.
Pagans and Pilgrims – series about the sacred places of Britain, presented by Ifor ap Glyn.
The Plantagenets – Robert Bartlett covers the history of the Plantagenet dynasty, who ruled England for nearly 300 years.
Polar Bear: Spy on the Ice – one-off programme filming polar bears using hidden cameras.
Return of the Black Death – slightly shallow C4 programme about the Black Death using the skeletons discovered while digging Crosstrail as the jumping off point. Part of the Secret History series.
Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness – three part series presented by Waldemar Januszczak about the Rococo art movement, as a sequel to his series on Baroque art.
Tales from the Royal Bedchamber – one-off programme presented by Lucy Worsley about the role of the royal bed and bedchamber in English and British history.
Unnatural Histories – series about human influence on areas of the world that we traditionally think of as “untamed nature”.
When Albums Ruled the World – nostalgia for the heyday of the vinyl LP, the 60s & 70s.
Total: 14
Trip
A Wander Around a Bit of London – we walked along Fleet Street to the Strand to see what we could see, lots of photos.
Total: 1