Posts by thewatcher

  • The Thread Of Complete Randomness

    Quote from Backdrifter

    Trippy!


    A planisphere is a relatively cheap and useful purchase (or a good xmas/birthday list inclusion) and can be carried easily in a pocket. I was a bit of an astronomy enthusiast as a kid and had a telescope, star charts etc. I didn't pursue it beyond that but was given a planisphere for my birthday a while back and have enjoyed using it since.

    It is trippy, it's amazing to think about the motion of celestial bodies and how small we are.


    Thanks for the tip. A planisphere - I confess I've never heard of such a thing but will investigate. I had downloaded an app where I point my phone at the sky and it shows me what's up there. It's called sky map I think. This is screen grab from it. I never would have realized there was so much stuff line up with the moon right now!


  • The Thread Of Complete Randomness

    I'm not a stargazer by any means but I read an article a couple weeks ago that Mars is unusually bright these days. I then saw this very bright reddish 'star' that wasn't twinkling, and used a phone app to confirm that it was Mars. It's really striking. I see it every morning walking to the train. What's even cooler is if I turn 180 degrees, there's a very bright white thing in the opposite direction that's not twinkling and it turns out it's Venus. At that time they are both the brightest things in the sky pretty much and they line up fairly perfectly so the earth/I am in the middle. It's a trippy feeling.

  • What TV shows have you been watching ?

    Quote from thefarmer

    We are watching Away. It looked good. If you like SF which I do it's a bit crap. If you like soap operas which Mrs Farmer does ( well just one these days thank goodness) then this is the space soap for you. It should be called Home and Away but I think that title has gone already .

    Yes, I wasn't gone on it at all. In the same wheelhouse (but not quite as bad) as the truly awful The Loop. Looks like it's been cancelled too which is a little surprising.


    I just started a Russian series To The Lake. It's another apocalyptic virus out of control show, but very gripping so far. Well made.

  • GENESIS - The Last Domino? Tour

    Quote from seven-eight

    Glad to hear they are rehearsing if that is in fact true. More rehearsal time may make for more songs for them to try out and/or tweak for the shows, whenever they might be.

    Yes! This is it guys. Now or never. Time to flex your muscles and break out mad man moon, chamber of 32 doors and seven stones. An indulgence of treats for fans, young and old, an expansive exploration of your deep catalogue. Different sets from night to night, surprises around every corner.


    Yes. I know that's not what they do. Ever. And no, I still don't think the tour will go ahead. I can still hope. On both fronts.

  • Corona Virus - Stay Safe

    Quote from CountingOutTime

    The footage last night on the balcony at the White House where Trump stood stoically for a photo op, after being released from the hospital, it was apparent he was struggling to breathe. If someone had wiped the orange goop from his face, I'm sure he would have looked very pale and sickly. The White House is not releasing any new information on his progress, one way or the other, and Trump tweeted this morning that he has ordered his negotiators to stop any advancement in the move to help put forth another stimulus package for Americans who have lost their jobs and are about to lose their homes. He states that once he is re-elected he will agree to restart negotiations for a new stimulus package. Hell, by then millions more people will be living on the street. The guy is a monster. I hope we never see anything like him ever again. Half of the voters in this country are sucked tightly up his ass and think he's amazing. I can't help but feel that these people have gone mad, or is it me whose lost his mind and Trump actually is the "stable genius" he calls himself?

    I think the Trump-voting portion of the electorate comprises a mix of people who are assholes, extremely selfish or extremely stupid. They only need one of the three attributes, but can have any combination. This refers to the people who intend voting for him in 2020, not necessarily those who did so in 2016.


    Regarding his covid, I agree he doesn't look well. There are some well informed theories on twitter about how the combination of unproven therapies he received and the timing they were administered could backfire. If I were him I'd be very very nervous for the next week or so... But his ego wouldn't allow that.

  • The Genesis Trivia Quiz

    1. IT

    2. WCD

    3. Genesis

    4. Duke

    5. Abacab

    6. CAS

    7. ATTWT

    8. Lamb

    9. TOTT

    10. W&W

    11. SEBTB

    12. Foxtrot

    13. NC

    14. Trespass

    15. FGTR


    So... Not quite in reverse chronological order. BTW I haven't researched this. It's a guess!

  • Selling England By The Pound - 45th Anniversary

    Quote from Backdrifter

    I've always liked MFM. Side 1 is one of the best sequences they ever did, four completely different tracks, slotted together brilliantly well. One of the many reasons I love this band is that few others, if any, would've been capable of programming a side like that. And MFM kind of sums it up for me - two absolutely stonking but very different prog epics and a catchy quirky single, rounded off by a delicate acoustic ballad. It's a bit incongruous, unexpected, but that's why I love it. I completely get why many here dislike it and feel it's out of place but obviously I don't share that view.


    To just qualify my dismissal of Battle: I like some of the wordplay and PG's vocal dexterity and I absolutely love The Reverend. I actually think it's one of the best things they did of that era. I also admire the front to stop the song and insert a distinct segment musically seemingly unrelated to what's gone before, telling a story within the story, then smoothly take us back to the main theme. It stands out quite starkly. But the track as a whole doesn't hang together.

    I really dislike Battle, and can't articulate why as well as you did. It definitely doesn't hang together well but there's something very tedious about it for me, which is massively different to how I feel about pretty much any other long genesis song. It feels very forced to my ears, both music and lyrics including the vocal delivery. Even songs like burning rope that I'm not gone on have some passage or chord change that excite me but Battle is just that.... A battle that the song loses every time.


    It also knocks the album right down my list because it's such a big clunky presence in the middle. Firth of fifth is otherworldly, and after the ordeal is beautiful in the same vein as hairless heart (and a warm place by nine inch nails!), so I find it a shame there isn't a better 12 minute long track in place of Battle on there.

  • Supper's Ready.

    I also enjoyed reading lucky folks' reminiscence of seeing it live, and lament the lack of recordings of it from 1982 and the bit they did in 1986. As for the song itself, it's clearly their epic, and arguably most majestic song. Is it their best? I don't think so, but how would you even define that. It's not my favorite of their songs (gun to my head as I write I'd go for HBTS), but I will echo what everyone else has highlighted as the strengths: the propulsive rhythm and skill on display in apocalypse, which really does sound apocalyptic, the wide screen glory of the last part, and the beauty just preceding apocalypse.


    One interesting tidbit I remember reading in one of those track-by-track books. The writer noted that the song ends kind of abruptly with the needle up against the edge of the vinyl, as if they were running out of space. Any merit to that? I mean, I think the song was done, but it does kind of cut out maybe a bit suddenly.