Sunday Summary

This week, I have mostly been…

Reading | Perfect, by Rachel Joyce

…author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry which knocked my walking socks off last year.

{via Goodreads}

I’m not far into Perfect but here’s the general idea: in 1972, two seconds were added to time. Young Byron Hemmings believes he has witnessed the adding of the seconds, but when he tries to make his mother, Diana, aware of the phenomenon, it has a devastating knock-on effect on their day.

Joyce writes with an easy, accessible style but I have to say I’m not enjoying Perfect as much as I did Harold Fry. There seems to be too much effort on the author’s part to create a sense of place through deliberate reference to brand names, programmes and publications of the time, and it jars with me a little. But I may well get over that by the end of the novel.

Listening | to Ellie Goulding and Passenger

…the two albums I downloaded for 99p each last week. 

Ellie Goulding is, as ever, magic – and Halcyon Days sounds equally amazing underwater! Here's Burn for your delectation:

And Passenger. Oh, Passenger.

I think I’m in love. You had me at All the Little Lights.

He reminds me a little of a cross between Amy Macdonald and the Guy from Once and yet he’s also unique. His best-known track to date, Let Her Go, has recently been nominated for a BRIT – and here’s for why. It’s just a gorgeous song.

Watching | RENT in concert

My sister booked tickets to the 20^th Anniversary RENT concert performance at the Hackney Empire last night, and in short, it was terrific. I’ve never seen RENT live before – my knowledge of the musical is based purely on the excellent 2005 film adaptation starring Idina Menzel, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms and Taye Diggs among others:

The live performance is a slightly different kettle of fish – much like the stage production of Les Mis, every line of dialogue is sung whereas some is spoken on film. And the concert performance is different still as movement is limited to work around the band, who are also on stage.

RENT is based on Puccini’s 'La Boheme', and takes place at the end of the 1980s, centring on a group of friends “living with, not dying from, disease” under the cloud of AIDS and HIV.

All the cast members are great but in the performance we saw last night there were a couple of absolutely stand-out performances by Ruthie Stephens as Maureen, Kenny Thompson as Benny, Mykal Rand as Tom Collins and Ian Stroughair as Angel. 

***SPOILER ALERT*** 

There's a scene towards the end of the musical where Tom is eulogising at Angel's funeral to a reprise of I'll Cover You (the original of which is a magnificent love song for Collins and Angel) and overhead is played a film of Angel removing her wig and make-up -- it's a moment of pure vulnerability which, paired with the depth of Rand's voice, was just perfect last night. Sneef!

http://rentinconcert.co.uk/

Right, time for QB's Internet Trawlings of the Week

# Over 100,000 images from the Wellcome Library have been made available to the public:

{A man standing on his hands from a lying down position. Photogravure after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London}

# Is the end nigh for the iPod?

# {Adopts resonant, prophetic movie-trailer-voice} Angelina Jolie is MALEFICENT -- check out the trailer. She's scary.

Also, the soundtrack song, Once Upon a Dream, sung by Lana Del Rey is available for free on Google Play for a limited time. GP, you are spoiling us!

{Witches be trippin'.}

# I have a feeling I may have featured some similar images before but -- 33 Amazing Ideas That Will Make Your Home Awesome

{See-through bath. Really don't know if I love this or fear it! via here}

# And finally ... Someone didn't get the memo that the clue's in the name, here: 

{via The Poke (and my friend Evie who has unlimited resources of internet silliness)}

Peace out, y'all. 

And avoid supermarket trolley bays. They're bloodbaths.