Cultural Artefacts And The Zone Of Sanity

You have heard me whinge before about the world going to Hell in a handcart and in the past ten days we have had to bear the twin peaks of desperation that are the party conferences of our benighted major parties. First up we had Labour who announced a new piece of state sponsored larceny dressed up as widening share ownership. Hopeless and gormless as the Tories can appear (actually it's not an appearance - they are hopeless and gormless) it is them to whom we must look if we are going to avoid the Labour wrecking ball being taken to the economy. Cue an assembly of forced rictus smiles as the Tory party faithful attempt to put on a brave face whilst they destroy each other over Brexit. The brazen Boris Johnson makes shameless play for the leadership and poor old Theresa May essays as dignified a stab as one can manage at retaining some dignity. What a complete shambles.

So here are things to cheer us up. I've been listening to The Beatles blue album while I work - some paid labour and rather more work on the old thesis - will it ever be done? Quite possibly not. Now I know that the cool kids don't approve of compilation albums but the blue album can be excused since it reminds us just how sodding brilliant The Beatles were. Go on, search it out, ideally using it as a gateway to their entire oeuvre.

And another artefact to recommend. The Martian is the cheery and comprehensible side of sci-fi. Beatifully shot and deliberately not as portentous as the genre can be at. Behind the science (and there is a lot of it) there is a story of human endeavour and redemption. There are even some well constructed jokes. Worth a look. The bigger the screen the better. 7/10.