• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
Walking Commentary

Walking Commentary

Thoughts while waiting to walk from Manchester to Rome in 2022

  • ManRom22 Cancelled
  • Latest Comments
  • Archives

Crosswords and Sudoku

March 29, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

29 March 2020 – 20:39 GMT – 1°C Mostly Clear – Co. Dublin, Ireland

It’s that kind of day. Cleaned some windows. Watched the news on TV while my wife visited with a public health nurse to learn about injecting our daughter, in case she needs the help later in her treatment.

I’ve been practising social distancing. I think the best defence is to behave as if you’re infectious and do not want to infect anyone else.

Fascinating catch-up TV about Eel Pie Island. As often as I walked past it while doing Thames Walks, I had no idea just how important it was to the music of the 1960s.

And right after that, another music program. As much as I have enjoyed The Beatles Sgt Pepper album over the years, I had no idea that the technology behind Sgt Pepper was so innovative and revolutionary. A huge collection of calliope rolls cleverly repurposed and sampled, for example. The BBC 50th anniversary program said that it took 55 hours to make Strawberry Fields Forever. While not on the album, along with Penny Lane, it was recorded in the same creative phase. Explore the technology for yourself at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08tb97f

The movie Barry Lyndon had indoor scenes recorded in candle light. That required the creation of lenses with apertures of 0.8. Which meant depths of fields in millimetres which in turn meant keeping very fine control of focussing.

The movie 1917 has an incredibly long introductory panning shot. Some nine minutes. It recreated many feelings and emotions associated with the organised chaos of war not previously portrayed in a cinema setting. Excellent movie too.

What got me thinking about these was the recent Rotterdam philharmonic virtual performance of Ode to Joy. We have a 3ms lag through our amplifier when we push the sound from our TV to other speakers in the room. I wondered how the orchestra synchronised themselves across the internet, a medium full of time delaying obstacles.

And that’s the point. When the novel technology works seamlessly, we are in awe. And sometimes, the first awe is perpetual despite, like Swiss watches, the many imitators that follow and refine and improve the products.

  • Sailing Scotsman’s Bay masks my mask. Not a defence against a micron-sized virus, it might help with anxiety and be a visual reminder that you’re using mitigation and suppression protocols. Lovely bowl, wish I knew its name but I do know the artist  #ruthieashenhurst
  • Staying isolated. Remembering a trip to photograph “Overhead in Brussels”. Wishing we could be standing in front of a “Summer Meadow” as nice as this beautifully lit scene by  #orlagh_m_murphy. Soon. We trust.
Photos © Simon Robinson in Dublin, Ireland

Filed Under: ManRom2021 Tagged With: imitation, infectious, movies, music, photos, technology, tv

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe

You’ve been successfully subscribed to our newsletter!

Recent Comments

  • Simon Robinson on 2023 Subscriptions
  • Catherine Dunne on 2023 Subscriptions
  • Lia Mills on Apertures
  • Lia Mills on Limerick Walls
  • Simon Robinson on Via Graffiti

Categories

  • Anchoritism
  • Chapbooks
  • Fake Memoir
  • ManRom2021

Tags

ahmet altan albert einstein bbc birds bird watching booklink bracket books ireland brian greene burma cancer chapbook colum mccann computing Covid-19 dog dun laoghaire fabhappy flowers food geology geophysics hans rosling ireland irish times issued lia mills london movies nobel prize pandemic PEN international photo photography photos photozines plants poetry popular simonscarves the uplift kit travel ungrievable volcano walking walkingcommentary

Recent Posts

  • Rounded
  • Watershapes
  • Machine Driven
  • 2023 Subscriptions
  • Apertures

Archives

  • January 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (2)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (1)
  • August 2022 (1)
  • July 2022 (1)
  • June 2022 (1)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (1)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (2)
  • December 2021 (2)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • September 2021 (2)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • May 2021 (9)
  • April 2021 (30)
  • March 2021 (31)
  • February 2021 (28)
  • January 2021 (31)
  • December 2020 (31)
  • November 2020 (30)
  • October 2020 (31)
  • September 2020 (30)
  • August 2020 (31)
  • July 2020 (31)
  • June 2020 (30)
  • May 2020 (31)
  • April 2020 (30)
  • March 2020 (31)

Footer

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • ManRom22 Cancelled
  • Latest Comments
  • Archives

Subscribe

You’ve been successfully subscribed to our newsletter!

Copyright © 2023 · Revolution Pro on Genesis Framework