June 2004 Archives

Something I've noticed about the BBC lately and it's nothing to do with their programmes. Well, not directly.

When I'm watching TV, I tend to notice a lot of the background music either in adverts, trailers or in an actual programme and it seems to me that someone at the BBC in charge of incidental music, or however it's known, has been listening to a lot of Craig Armstrong.

Now I don't expect many of you to know who he is or to have heard much of his music outside of films - he did the music for the wonderful Plunkett & Macleane for example and also for Love Actually. Recently I've heard his music during coverage of Euro 2004, Wimbledon, those "dramatic" looking things for Eastenders, and I think on a couple more commercial adverts.

I've nothing against his work being used in this manner; it's great to see him get some recognition. It just makes me wonder why so much of his stuff is being used in quick succession, almost as if someone somewhere has discovered his music and is determined to use it as often as possible!

I'm not sure how I can describe his sound - to me it's very distinctive because I've heard so much of it. None of his work sounds the same but a lot of it has the same feeling about it. He produces some emotionally driving material that gets you going! I think that's the best way to put it.

I'm aware that this update hasn't been one of the more interesting ones - a lot of people have rubbished the Royal Mail in recent times and even more so the BBC. [Originally this was part of one update to the old style site - Feb 2005] But at least you know what the BBC uses for its music! Craig Armstrong, go and buy some of his stuff... I can highly recommend his 2002 album As If To Nothing.

[Update - Feb 2005: I've now notice that Top Gear use his work a lot. If you see an atmospheric shot with choral music in the background, chances are it's Craig Armstrong's stuff]

In this Sunday's Telegraph (yes, it's something that appears in our house occasionally...) there was a rather excellent piece by Roya Nikkhah on the front page with the headline "MPs are sent letters about misdelivered mail by post watchdog - but none of them arrives".

Now although this pretty much speaks for itself some elaboration is needed.

"The letters, addressed to 49 MPs at the House of Commons, were posted first class from Ely, Cambridgeshire, on May 13. Each was clearly marked with the Postwatch return address. After a fortnight, it became clear that none of the "Stamp Out Misdelivered Mail" campaign material had been delivered."

A Royal Mail spokesman is quoted as saying "As far as we are concerned, the letters are not in our system." The article goes on to state that Postwatch suggests around 14 million letters are lost by the Royal Mail every year. 14 million. How is it that difficult to get a letter to the right place? I really don't understand this.

Apparently last month, the Royal Mail admitted that it had failed on all 15 of its service targets. A record of such poor performance has not gone unnoticed it seems and Nikkhah closes by pointing out that the company is likely to receive an £80 million customer compensation bill by the industry regulator.

I'd love to say that I've been hugely busy, or that I've had lots of other massively important things to be doing instead of writing for here. But it wouldn't be true.

This month seems to have flown by without me really contributing much to it. Let's see what I have actually achieved this June...

Well, the month started on a Tuesday with me in a panic - believing that I was going to fail my forthcoming exams - and also trying to complete my History of Maths essay based upon the Fibonacci Series and their influence in art, architecture and nature. A subject that I found completely absorbing and very fascinating once I managed to prise my way into it.

What else... well, on the 6th (a Sunday) I was to be found in York's Grand Opera House watching Ken Dodd's Happiness Show, a present for my 21st birthday earlier this year. I must admit it was very funny and had a wonderful time.

Then came the barrage of exams. Four in four days. No idea how they went yet as results are to follow.

Thursday the 10th brought the highlight of the year so far though. Not only was it the last day of exams, but there I was in the evening being part of the wonderful event in the Sheffield Leadmill that was part of The Divine Comedy's trio tour. Words cannot describe how wonderful the atmosphere was or how amazing some of their old songs are when played in a light jazz style! The line-up featured Neil Hannon, a cellist and a pianist - a very versatile set of musicians that managed to recreate some of the lesser known songs by the group admirably, including Sweden and My Lovely Horse...

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the week after that had a couple of maths deadlines to adhere to, so those days were mainly filled with maths and much head banging...

Since that last deadline on the 21st, well, there's been a lot of overtime available at work, meaning that today was the first day in a while where I haven't had something to do and even then I've spent most of the day shopping for things for a small expedition I'm toddling to in a couple of weekends time... More on that later.