Captain Corelli

I have just finished Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. Written in 1993 it tells the story of a number of characters on the Island of Cephallonia during the second world war and during the occupation of the island by German and Italian troops.

The story focuses on the daughter of the local doctor, Dr Iannis, who is forced to take in an Italian officer during the occupation. The daughter, Pelagia is betrothed to a local fisherman called Mandras who leaves the island to fight the Germans. Mandras returns from the war as a tramp having had to suffer the winter in the mountains of Greece and then leaves again to fight with a communist group leaving Pelagia to the charms of the Italian.

Her relationship with her gentlemanly oppressor starts badly as Pelagia tries to maintain an atmosphere of loathing but quickly changes to love.

As the war leads to a conclusion the island is witness to the type of brutality that you would expect from the Germans and Pelagia thinks that her lover has been killed and lives the rest of her life wondering what could have been.

It's a tragic love story with some twists and turns along the way and describes how war can affect an entire community and the love between two humans who just happen to be on the opposite side of the war's fence.

It was a great book but took me a lot longer to read than I had expected. It was a little slow to start and really only picked up towards the end but is, nevertheless, very well written and worth a read.

Those Damned Horns

I have been watching the World Cup like most of you. I'm not sure if it's been a particularly spectacular affair. The Argentinians and Germans have played some of the most exciting games in the competition but both failed to get through to the final. Brazil had a great start but fell before the last 4 and Spain, favoured by many, including myself, to win started badly and then dominated everyone without scoring very many goals. Having 60% - 70% of the possession is one thing but you have to convert that into goals. Switzerland managed to sneak a goal passed them in the first round and The Netherlands are a far better team with a few capable of scoring so the game should be a great one, but you never know. They may cancel each other out as the

fellas from Portugal and Brazil did and then we will be presented with 90 minutes or more of turgid football.

I have selected Spain to win tomorrow and need it for the pool that we entered in the office. The annoying thing is that we have a few Canadians who know nothing about the game who went on line and copied the predictions of various websites and tried to pass them off as there own and they are now winning. Some of them actually have Holland and Spain in the final where the more experienced among us had a Brasil / Spain final. Those damned hockey fans. I'll never live it down if I'm not near the top of the winners.

Let's hope for a great game tomorrow and one without those bloody horns. From the first game I saw they've spoiled every game and turned the beautiful game into the incredibly annoying game. It's like listening to a hornets nest for 90 minutes. I just hope that the fans from the domestic teams from around Europe don't adopt them. They should be banned forever.

Mark E Smith Interview

No, not one I did. This is one that is linked through The Fall's website:

http://thequietus.com/articles/04568-mark-e-smith-of-the-fall-on-art-the-artist

Enjoy

Your Future Our Clutter

Another wonderful album from our friends, The Fall. This one sees our Mark produce a record of 9 songs that are some of the tightest he has created, or rather conducted. The opening track kicks off with a long introduction of thundering drums followed by the guitars and growling bass and the second song, Bury Pts. 1 + 3 is class in a glass. This one begins as if it's been recorded off the telly using one of those old tape recorders before becoming a little clearer for a few bars and eventually evolving into full clarity for the majority of the song. The video for this is brilliant, each band member filmed in crystal clear slow motion. Check it out on

http://www.visi.com/fall/index.html

Go to the Fall News section and the recent posting on the right.

It's almost as good as Fall Heads Roll (which is saying something) so I'd like you all to rush out to your local record emporium and purchase a copy and double the sales for the poor man. Mr Black has done his bit by going to see The Fall live in Aberdeen (thank you Sir). It would be great to see them tour over here but, alas, I think I'll be waiting a long time.

Look on the discography section of the above website an you will see all the live and compilation albums that the various record labels of the Fall have released over the years. It's hard enough keeping up with their own studio output without adding the myriad of spurious records that regurgitate the same songs but there do appear to be some live gems amongst them.

I would also recommend the Peel Sessions boxset that was released shortly after John Peels untimely death. A great deal of the track on that lot (8 discs) are superior to their studio cousins.

The Fall continue to be a wonderful example of a band that get better with every record. They can be a challenging listen to the uninitiated particularly if you start with their early stuff but once you get over that initial shock of hearing something completely different to the other stuff you've been listening to you may just find a sound that you can stick with.

Mark E Smith's voice has changed over the years and his ability to hold a tune has diminished with age, but at 53 he's still capable of whipping a bunch of younger musicians into shape and the latest batch seem very tight.

Teenage Fanclub

I have just bought Shadows, the new album by Teenage Fanclub and I can tell it will be a grower. I already love it but it will get better as I listen more over the next few weeks. You can check out a variety reviews on the world wide interweb and they all say the same thing; The Fannies have been growing into their ever evolving sound for the past 20 years. The twists of screeching feedback and scuzzy sounding guitars have given way to a softer folky feeling but the harmonies are still there and their mastery at song writing.

They still have the odd Big Star moments but sound more like The Byrds in some cases. I read one review and it compared their earlier work to a band called Raspberries so check them out on YouTube.

They are coming to Vancouver in October and playing a small club on the south side of downtown so Tracey and I are going with a couple of friends.

Here's the link to their website:

www.teenagefanclub.com

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Although this is a childrens' book and full of the imagery of fairy stories, CS Lewis must have been smoking something when he wrote it. People have read biblical connotations into these stories for years and I guess Aslan in resurrected at one point but I think I'd have to read all the Chronicals of Narnia to see it.

In any case the story is well known to everyone. I used t watch the cartoon version at Christmas when I was a kid. The recent live action story is slightly more detailed than the book itself (the cartoon is much closer to the original), but at the end of the day it's a children's book and not shouldn't be considered anything else.

He was definately on something when he wrote it though. I'm surprised there's not more references to Alsan calling everyone Dude.

Frankenstein

This gothic tale of reanimation was first published anonymously in 1818 and tells the story of young Victor Frankenstein who studies philosophical sciences (not sure what this is, exactly) and creates a human form from bits of other people. Through a process that is left very vague, but involves lightning, the figure comes alive and sends extreme fear through young Victor, who flees his laboratory.

Years pass without sight or sound from the creation until it becomes clear that is simply a temporary respite. Shunned by society the creation, referred to throughout as the "daemon", hides in the countryside and observes society from the safety of the shadows (not the group that Cliff sang with). He comes across a family deep in the woods and observes them for some time, learning their language and their history.

This curiosity leads to the daemon to approach them one day to befriend them and finally be accepted within a, albeit small, community and feel the love that everyone else experiences, only to be shunned again and driven away. This send the daemon into a rage and he decides to pursue his creator, intent on bringing misery to his life.

This story was said to be the inspiration for modern horror as it deals with reanimation, murder and fear. It's a dark and tragic novel with no real ending. You're left with a sense of dissatisfaction but it's nevertheless an exiting account of revenge and pursuit.