Wagner

Very purposeful on the old purchasing front last night and ordered a batch of 12v LED flashing lights in various colours so as to create some HO scale neon signs for the diorama that  will in turn, I hope, create a night-club street scene. See this link for some illustrations.

http://www.frenchmodelrailway.com/2013/08/paris-night-life-neon-signs.html

More immediately I want to install a strip of LED lighting under one of the canopies of my pink building to illuminate a model cafe I'll create on the pavement there.

Fortuitously, the strip turns out to be the right length AND, unexpectedly comes with a black cover that will make installation easy.

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Currently listening to:

A discussion on Radio 3 extolling the virtues of Wagner.

Wagner is probably the only classical composer that bores me to death - not dead keen on the Baroque period either.

Basically, this chap was saying that Wagner, and in particular the Ring cycle, is greater than the sum of its parts.

Over the decades, I have tried very hard to like Wagner's music and spent hours listening to the boring rubbish that I consider it to be.

I keep reminding myself that he has millions of devotees and that maybe it is only a matter of time until I too fall under his spell.

Anway, that phrase, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, struck me immediately and with great force. Maybe my sense of musical appreciation is too limited. Perhaps, I will have to put in many more hours of listening to Wagner so that I can get a handle on the "whole". And then maybe I too will become a devotee.

Last week, a friend of mine was telling me about his brother who is chronically ill and lives in squalid circumstance in the East End of Glasgow.

Not only are his conditions squalid (AND he is loosing some of his state benefits), but he is tormented by drunks from the pub underneath his flat.

Horrified, I asked, "Does he have any consolations in his life?"

"Yes," my friend replied, "listening to Wagner."

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Last night's dinner:

Chicken pie, mashed potatoes and peas

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Currently reading:

I laughed so much on reading a passage in this book today about the ups and downs of being a stand up comic that I choked on my lunch.

The passage

The lunch

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Miscellany:

Used Glasgow's subway to travel to the south side of the city this afternoon.

Exit at West Street station