Archives for 2009

What am I listening to?

Oh, thank you for asking.

  • I’ve been listening to a lot of choral music as I bought a nice boxed set before Christmas and have been working through it. Its the Harmonia Mundi Sacred Music set which has some lovely recordings in it. (The Rene Jacobs recording of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is a Christmas Cracker and not to be missed).
  • My spotify playlist shows me that I’ve been listening to the Very Best of the Temperance Seven rather a lot. (Especially Hard Hearted Hannah whom we know to have been a vamp from Savannah).
  • I discovered Paulo Nutini recently, on someone’s recommendation and have been enjoying Sunny Side Up. (He’s from Paisley, you know).
  • Also on spotify, I’ve been listening to A Little Night Music having seen a gorgeous production of it in London this year. (How is it that I’ve never seen a Sondheim production before?)
  • And I’ve tried twice to listen to a recording of the Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve and have not made it to the end yet. I’m looking for redeeming features, but I just don’t find them. Indeed, I put a snarky comment on facebook saying so and was very surprised that others joined in. It obviously isn’t just me who thinks its long past time for something from Kings that feels less pickled in the past and less mired in manufactured expectations.

So that’s me, what about you?

China

Woke myself up at 2.30 am this morning to say some prayers for Akmal Shaikh, the British man who was executed at that time in China.

The whole story about this case is horrible. Few people will want to have much sympathy for anyone caught carrying heroin. However no-one commenting on this case seems to think that this man was anything other than a dupe.

Much has been made of the fact that Mr Shaikh appears to be mentally ill – it is one of the things that was used in vain attempts to appeal for clemency from the Chinese government. However, I’m against all uses of the death penalty. The Chinese use of the ultimate sanction appears from the statistics gathered to be particularly barbarous.

Of course, Britain is not in a position to get on too high a horse about drug smuggling in China. It used to be vitually national policy and led to the Opium Wars.

Interesting to note in passing that one of the early opponents of the first Opium War was Gladstone who was born exactly two hundred years ago today. Friend of the Scottish Episcopal Church and the great liberal leader of his time, Gladstone deserves to be remembered with honour.s