Friday, September 05, 2008

154


It’s funny how being back at work and having less spare time really focuses the mind and emphasises how crucial it is to fully appreciate one’s leisure hours. For example, the pleasing ritual of buying and poring over Friday’s Guardian is a dozen times more enjoyable after five days of earnest and honest toil. I’m keen to listen to more radio this autumn and have started to tune into BBC 6Music in the later evenings more often. Gideon Coe’s show is fantastic, a really intelligent mix of music and banter, although at the moment the ebullient Gary Crowley is filling Coe’s chair and doing a smashing job. Waiting for me when I returned home tonight was a proud package I ‘won’ on EBay: a Digital Versatile Disc boxed set of the first series of The Wire. I have read and heard nothing but praise and plaudits for the Baltimore-set televisual drama and I hope its merits will entertain me vigorously through the dark nights that approach.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Coleser,
Just back from a month in me old China. This very box set (The Wire Series 1) plus a portable DVD player go tme through some plane journeys and post-work entertainment sessions.
Got Series 2 itching to be watched now back in Blighty and weather is inclement.
T

Cole said...

Welcome back to our fabled shores. I've only watched the first three episodes but promising, very promising. Blimey, one whole month in that there Asia...a great experience no doubt. I shall be leaving Europe for the first time in my life next Easter: Myself and Master Cole shall be visiting New York (named twice, I am told) and are mightily and rightly excited.

Anonymous said...

NYC - Very nice too.
Although expensive to stay in. Food, clothes, CDs etc all cheap. And exciting to wander through places you've seen on films. The hiliriously named Meatpacking District is pretty Hip, ditto The (Greenwich) Village.
Numerous gig venues too - I did REM at Madison Square Gardens whilst there earlier in the year.

On a more mudane note, just starting Season 2 of T'Wire (as it's known up North). Initially not such a grabber, but it is a slowburner - listened to the director commentary on Ep1, Season 1 & he said as much - the story arcs over the full 12/13 episodes, demanding yet ultimately rewarding to the viewer.