This month in media

This month has been a bit strange for me. What with starting university, I haven't been watching as much tv as usual; and by the time I've finished reading for my essays I barely want to see another book again!

But I have been listening, reading (occasionally) and going out to see plays. 

Music

 

Spotify's Evening Acoustic playlist is perfect for when you need a bit of relaxing music. I don't tend to listen to music whilst I'm studying, but I'd make an exception for this. (particularly whilst trying to find obscure articles on the Internet!)

Colonel Spanky's Love Ensemble - a local Cambridge band, this group has played at a few of our college events and they're always a crowd pleaser.

The Civil Wars - I have a feeling that I'm pretty late to the party here, because this husband and wife team is sadly no longer together, but they have an incredible range of covers and originals songs, all characterised by mesmerising vocals.

Elgar's Cello Concerto - I heard this recently at a concert and fell completely in love. If I ever needed any more motivation to drop violin and take up the cello, this was it.

Warlock's Capriole Suite - We played this in orchestra last week. It's a series of pieces which sound mildly Baroque in style, but were actually composed in the nineteenth century. (I've made it sound duller than dull, but I promise you it's worth a listen!)


Drama/TV



The Habit Of Art by Alan Bennett @ ADC Theatre, Cambridge - a thoughtful play about Benjamin Britten and WH Auden.  It was the first play I went to see here, and I think it was an appropriately artsy choice!

The Caravan @ ADC Theatre, Cambridge - not quite as good as The Habit of Art, in my opinion, but still an interesting production about the life of an ordinary girl in the Eighties.

Clean Eating's Dirty Secrets, BBC iPlayer - mention any food-related trend and it's likely that I'll have heard of it. This documentary was really interesting; clean eating is something that I've looked into quite a lot, but this really shed some light on some of the issues associated with it, such as the development of eating disorders. I wrote an article about this recently for a local newspaper, which you can find here.



Books




To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - I picked this up in York when I was there in September. I'd always intended to read some Woolf, but had never gotten round to it until now. A great book; the narrative takes a bit of getting used to, initially, but once you settle in it makes perfect sense. A rather ordinary tale told in extraordinary way.

Ms Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - you may have seen the film version of this, but I hadn't even heard of it until it was recommended to me by a good friend of mine. A really interesting book, mildly creepy, but it makes a welcome break from seventeenth century Spanish.

Dangerous Liaisons by Laclos - I can't resist throwing in another set text from my course this year. Honestly, this book is fantastic - full of lover's intrigue, cunning plots and witty remarks (some of which are just as relevant today as they were back in the eighteenth century), it could rival any modern romance today. 





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