The latent or the lurking

                                               You are now
                                                In London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow
                                               At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore
                                               Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more.
                                               Yet in its depth what treasures!

                                                - Percy Bysshe Shelley

Since my last post yesterday I have been to London and back, staying last night very close indeed to where I was born. I am with the seventh Lord Balfour of Burleigh rather than with Dr Johnson with regard to this one.

It's all meat from the same bone

Another one. N'oubliez jamais.

That is of course the late Bobby Keys playing saxophone.

Musée des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

                                   - W.H. Auden

Earthly novelty is too soon dulled

              According to Brueghel
                                           when Icarus fell
                                           it was spring

                                           a farmer was ploughing
                                           his field
                                           the whole pageantry

                                           of the year was
                                           awake tingling
                                           near

                                           the edge of the sea
                                           concerned 
                                           with itself

                                           sweating in the sun
                                           that melted
                                           the wings’ wax

                                           unsignificantly
                                           off the coast
                                           there was

                                           a splash quite unnoticed
                                           this was
                                           Icarus drowning

                                                     - William Carlos Williams 

And through thick woods one finds a stream astray

Call it a good marriage -
For no one ever questioned
Her warmth, his masculinity,
Their interlocking views;
Except one stray graphologist
Who frowned in speculation
At her h's and her s's,
His p's and w's.

Though few would still subscribe
To the monogamic axiom
That strife below the hip-bones
Need not estrange the heart,
Call it a good marriage:
More drew those two together,
Despite a lack of children,
Than pulled them apart.

Call it a good marriage:
They never fought in public,
They acted circumspectly
And faced the world with pride;
Thus the hazards of their love-bed
Were none of our damned business -
Till as jurymen we sat on
Two deaths by suicide.

          - Robert Graves

More Mostly Marignano

It's been a grim, grim day so, cathartically, let me write about some things that don't matter at all.

The second evening of Marignano fell rather flat with an easy French victory. On reflection it had all been decided during the first night's play with the Swiss missing a move card, not being grizzled (although one shouldn't feel too sorry for them as they were still fierce, stubborn, murderous and swift) and suffering heavily from the artillery. It was sufficiently flat for James not to write it up, but the solo run through of the revised scenario that he is reporting on in his blog looks an improvement.

Other wargaming news is a bit light for various reasons. I have completed a third Roman villa which in line with my usual standards is crap but usable. I bought a pdf download from the Wargame Vault for $2.90. It's supposedly 1/72 scale, but I printed it out a half size and that gives a much more suitable footprint, especially as I shall be aiming to have perhaps five on the table. They do other villa styles, but being careful with money I shall probably just build another couple of the same ones.

Boardgaming included Abluxxen, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Mush!Mush!, and Skull & Roses. Abluxxen, or Linko as it also seems to be known, was rather good and I was rather bad at it, thereby placing it in a large set of such games. Mush!Mush!, or Snow Tails 2 as it also seems to be known, hadn't been on the table for quite a while, but seemed to go down well. One of the reasons I took it along was because I thought it would appeal to the younger demographic that sometimes attends and I was right. I also won the race, coming from behind on the final straight with judicious use of my bonus dice.

Une Amende Honorable

I have used this nominally wargaming blog recently to draw attention to the shortcomings of the US judicial system when dealing with institutional violence against black people. In light of the verdict in the Jimmy Mubenga trial, and even more so in view of this morning's revelations about evidence that the jury were not permitted to hear due to a ruling of the judge, I have to hold my hands up and acknowledge that this has been a case of the pot calling the kettle - well you know. The UK is, in this respect, clearly every bit as bad as the US.

It's true that life goes on regardless - I was wargaming last night myself - but events such as those in Australia and Pakistan (and all over the world if we're honest with ourselves) cast a long shadow. I know that I'm seven days early for this, but my own pie-in-the-sky Christmas wish is peace for all.

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality." - Dr Martin Luther King Jr

A post of no interest to anyone else - no change there then

Brentford 3 Blackburn Rovers 1 - you have no idea how much that scoreline makes me smile. 

Gary Blissett - he wasn't playing yesterday

These bats are bred for one purpose...

I have seen The Hobbit: Battle of The Five Armies, a title that somewhat misleads as the fifth army hasn't even arrived before it's all over for them courtesy of some oversized animals. Such large beasts ('bred for one purpose') appear a lot in this film. Should you ever have harboured the ambition to see Billy Connolly riding a pig then your dreams have come true. My hearing isn't the best and even with my hearing aid turned to the appropriate setting he appeared to be playing a sweary, dwarf lord called 'Dave'; one part of that description isn't particularly surprising. In any event, cue Black Sabbath:

The film is, as you would expect, complete tosh, but is very entertaining. The dragon in full destructive action is most impressive. However, I can't help feeling that the whole series of films is simply the various scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy reassembled in a different order with different characters. Good fun though. One word of advice: revisit the previous two episodes prior to going; no recap is provided and I was completely lost until I remembered that it doesn't actually matter that much.

Mostly Marignano

James has explained the Marignano game on his blog (which I am assuming you read - and if you don't then certainly should) and last night it got under way. Peter took the thankless task of attacking as the Swiss against the dug-in French troops of James and me. It was a playtest of the scenario and one must reserve judgement until we are finished, probably in early January. However at this early stage I would suggest that the Swiss chance depends on making good use of their march cards and rallying back UI at a steady pace. Turn one ended on a double with one Swiss march card unturned; that might prove costly. One question for the playtest is how many captains the Swiss need for their pike blocks. Whatever is decided the exisitng commanders on either side have not performed well so far. The commander of the attacking forlorn hope declined to cross the earthworks with his valiant halberdiers - subsequently destroyed by counter-attacking French pikemen -  and the commander of the French light cavalry screen left his men abruptly to pay a visit to the king, although a frosty reception saw him sent straight back to the front line. We resume next week for turn three.

The right sort of Halberdier commander

I haven't got anywhere with my refight of Tewkesbury. I have painted up eight bases of Levy Bow, two of Levy and one of Retinue Bow (all bases are 40mm square and have four figures on them) only to find that I am still short of Levy Bow. Not only that, but I have completely denuded the enormous pile of unpainted plastic of all suitable figures. I shall paint up some more Retinue Bow and they will have to be demoted for this battle. Also on the painting table are some Roman auxiliary cavalry, plus yet more civilians to provide a bit of colour.

Me at my painting table

 And to finish, some Sam Cooke.

One way or another

There's only been one topic of conversation in Otley for the last few days: the one-way system. (Actually, and before any pedantic interjections, one of the one-way systems; I wouldn't like to give the impression that this is such a small place that it can't boast of two of the things) Anyway, the authorities decided to reverse the direction overnight on Thursday resulting in anarchy with a capital A ("Isn't anarchy with a capital A simply Anarchy" asks the Rhetorical Pedant, who can be kept out no longer. "No." is the reply.) There were some hopes that the mass civil disobedience as the motoring public insisted on driving the wrong way along the roads involved, was a symbol of their determination to not be cowed by The Man, but sadly it was almost certainly just a reflection of the selfishness of everyone when they get behind the wheel and the fact that they can't be bothered to read road signs or - as I witnessed with my own eyes - to obey the raised hand of a police officer. Good job we're not in the US.

In Otley obeying this is optional

Anyway, I braved the chaos with a capital C ("You've done that one!") to head off for some boardgame action. All of which reminds me that I didn't report on last week's games. So, briefly:

• Sheriff of Nottingham - a rather good bluffing game at which I sucked
• Sail to India  - which I think was the first time I'd played where we managed to get the rules right - a very good game
• Boom: Runaway  - impossible to describe or teach, but a quick and clever game
• Family Business  - always brings out the worst in people
• Quantum - which I like; a clever design
• Ticket to Ride: Europe - I'd never played this version before, but did as badly as usual
• Among the Stars - a so-so game which I won by concentrating on the end scoring phase

It's like deja vu all over again

Does music get any better than this?

I'm not sure that it does.

Nice coat Ian.

I look pretty young, but I'm just backdated

I have been to see The Who, which would be another addition to the list of bands that I haven't seen for forty years as I was at one of their iconic Charlton gigs (1), except for the fact that I also saw them about twenty years ago touring Quadrophenia with P.J. Proby and Billy Idol. That last time they were supported by The Stereophonics and they went down the power trio route once again last night, the first set being by a band with possibly the worst name of all time - and I used to play in an outfit called 'Or Is It?' so I know whereof I speak. The Standard Lamps - no, really - were however rather good. I thought I detected elements of Grand Funk Railroad; although it's possible that my pre-gig curry had just been too spicy. What is undeniable is that they did a fine rendition of the Dylan song 'I Shall Be Released'. Whilst the song appeared on 'Music from Big Pink', 'The Basement Tapes', 'Before the Flood' and 'The Last Waltz' - fine versions all - I always associate it with the Tom Robinson Band. Their version was in the support of the claims to innocence of George Ince, famously fitted up by the police for The Barn Restaurant murder. Ince (2), you may remember had the rather unfortunate alibi - which he was understandably reluctant to use in court - that he had been in bed with Charlie Kray's wife at the time.

Anyway, back to The Who and the excellent concert. It was, as you would expect, mainly a run through their greatest hits - excluding My Generation oddly - and none the worse for that. Townshend's guitar playing has lasted the course better than Daltry's singing as they have aged, and the singer looked unhappy at certain points. I'm always intrigued to see what artists from my youth look like today. Daltry has morphed into Stephanie Cole while his colleague looks like nothing so much as John 'Geophysics' Gater of Time Team fame.These two surviving members occupied front of stage, but they were - and I mean this literally - joined in performing a couple of the songs by Keith Moon and John Entwistle - the latter appearing to deliver a lengthy bass solo during 5:15 - notwithstanding the undeniable fact that the other two are both dead. As Dr Johnson said under remarkably similar circumstances 'One is surprised to see it done at all, but frankly bass solos are always a pile of crap'. Pinnacle of the evening was 'Won't Get Fooled Again', but with a back catalogue like that every song is a highlight.

(1) I can't for the life of me remember which one. There are very good reasons - e.g. physical location - why I couldn't have been at either the 1974 or the 1976 concerts, but I definitely attended one of them. My 1970s have now started to mimic the 1960s in that only the fact that I can't remember anything proves that I was there.

(2) Not to be confused with George Davis; the only real similarity being that while both were not guilty neither were innocent.

Sound drums and trumpets!

I have recently been painting a few Romans (and making a really bad model villa and a not much better marching fort) to provide some more variety to the Romans in Britain game. However, I have been assuming that we won't be playing it again for a while and have been wondering what to set up next in the wargaming annexe. A side conversation during last week's Seven Years War bash in the legendary wargames room of James 'Olicanalad' Roach has led to some action.

As you may have seen on his website, James is designing another campaign. Among the mechanisms that he described was a random countdown to define the campaign length, reminding me that various Peter Pig rules use something similar. That led me to re-reading Bloody Barons and that has led to the Wars of the Roses figures hitting the table, at least in the sense of being set-up. Real life has so far prevented any actual dice rolling.

I have gone for Tewkesbury - using the scenario in the book - for a variety of reasons, but mainly because it's relatively well balanced compared to most WotR battles. I've had to bodge the basing of what the rules refer to as Generals and Captains because it doesn't match mine, and to work around a shortage of levy bowmen; the rules are for 15mm and therefore tend to require a lot of figures. Sufficient reinforcements have left the mound of unpainted plastic and joined the workbench and will quite possibly be finished before I get round to playing anyway.

Bloody Barons involves motivation dice rolls a bit reminiscent of Blitzkrieg Commander plus some pretty traditional rolling for hits followed by saving throws. A word of warning though, the rules are really badly written, not so much in the sense of the mechanics being poor, but more in the sense of trying to work out what the hell they are in the first place. If anyone has worked out what the 'Extra arrows' markers are for then please let me know.

An ant on the move does more than a slumbering ox

The Seven Years War game being played at James' reached a conclusion last night, which he has documented here. To my astonishment it was actually quite a close finish, prompting a bit of reflection on how I could have performed that little fraction better. I'd taken the view that as I was probably going to lose anyway I should issue morale challenges at every opportunity in the hope of the dice being with me. Maybe if I'd been more discriminating and shepherded my morale chips, I could have just edged it? We shall never know; the question is, - how can I put this? - rhetorical. One other thought, there were perhaps eight cavalry melees of which I won one. If I had won four out of eight I'd probably have won overall. Excellent game though, and I still prefer the dominoes to D20s.

In other wargaming news, I continue to paint at an excruciatingly slow pace, which might be acceptable if I was also painting to a reasonable standard. I have completed yet more Roman civilians, including a road building crew and an ox cart, plus a whole four Roman auxiliary cavalry. I've also been working on a scratch-built Roman marching fort to sit on the edge of the table and act as the source of reinforcements in the 'Romans in Britain' rip-off of 'Pony Wars'. I've adopted a prefabrication technique that, on the plus side, has led to relatively quick assembly, but on the down side has led to some parts not being quite as perpendicular as one would wish. Still, in the glorious traditions of wargaming at Casa Epictetus, it will do.

There has been the usual boardgaming, this week featuring Doodle City, Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Hanabi. I can only describe the first by saying that it did my head in. Following half an hour or so of rolling dice and marking up my pad (it's a sort of turbo-charged Beetle Drive), the only thing of which I am certain is that we were all playing by different rules. The second game is one that I have played and enjoyed before and my pleasure this time was heightened by the fact that I won quite handily. The last is a rare creature indeed: a co-operative game that I liked and would play again.

Land of the Free?

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you. 

     - Langston Hughes

Eight pints and a curry for two quid

Not long ago this blog embarked on a series - admittedly so far rather short - on the great bridges of Wharfedale and the Washburn Valley. It seems that we are now similarly engaged in reviewing the great curry houses of Morley Street in Bradford, because just a couple of weeks after visiting the International I have been to the Kashmir. Neither of these were in any sense unknown to me although the feeling of being sober as I entered certainly was. The Kash has changed very little: new features amounted to a flat screen tv and computerised till (them) and a kindle (me) plus, disconcertingly, it is now b-y-o and people were sitting there with bottles of red wine and cans of Polish lager. I am pleased to report that I only drank from the jug of water kindly provided. Unlike at the International, the Kash's menu is still the same and so keema madras and three chapattis was consumed for the extortionate cost of £5.

Going to the Kash always (a strange word seeing that I haven't been there for forty years) reminds me of Diddy David Hamilton, although that's a dull story, unlike the sort-of-related one about the labrador (or possibly golden retriever - the details have faded somewhat due to the passage of time); in any event I haven't got time for either. I merely bring it up because the only other occasion  that I saw the chap in the flesh as it were, he was playing for Fulham in a testimonial at Griffin Park; I think for Jackie Graham, although that's even less relevant. The actual point of all this is to note the fine 2-1 victory of the Bees over Fulham last night. It was Brentford's 125th anniversary last month and a survey of fans rated the 4-0 win over Fulham in the penultimate match of the 1991-92 title winning season as the best ever match. I was there.

So, why was I walking the mean streets of Bradford again so soon? ["Exactly how mean are those streets?" enquires the Rhetorical Pedant "Isn't the city centre of Bradford actually rather nice these days, especially the lake and fountains at City Park?"] Well, I have been to see Jools Holland and his Big Band at St George's Hall, which was all rather good. Holland's cheery style of bonhomie isn't to everyone's taste, but he can certainly play the piano and has assembled very talented musicians and guest singers. I've seen Marc Almond sing with them three or four times now and he is always good value. He was educated nearby and always speaks warmly of the bands he saw at the venue. He mentioned Marc Bolan specifically and for the first time I wonder if that's where he got his stage name from. It's all a bit self-referential as his biggest hit and major crowd-pleaser tonight 'Tainted Love' was of course originally recorded by Bolan's girlfriend. The other main singer Ruby Turner was also on top form and the set - which ranged from big band standards through Ray Charles, Big Bill Broonzy and the Supremes to Soft Cell's "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" - was a great success.

The evening of nostalgia is heightened by my own memories of being a bouncer at a Squeeze concert at St Georges back in the seventies when Holland was still playing with them and they were supporting Eddie and the Hot Rods.

"Cos you look just like a commie and you might just be a member".

Pot35pouri

Life has become rather complex at the Casa Epictetus, as it does sometimes when I get carried away. However, there has been a certain amount of reportable action including the next installment of the Seven Years War game chez James. More fun, although my success was as limited as the initiative that I won. The low point was rolling a 1 on a D12 when I was plus 5. Still, it wasn't looking good before we started so it doesn't really look much worse as we enter the home straight.

On the boardgame front I played Evolution and Pastiche, both of which get the thumbs up from me, although I really don't understand the relevance of the name of the latter, and being colour blind doesn't help either.

Now, the clicks on the site go down whenever I mention politics, but as they are bumping along at pretty much zero it doesn't matter a great deal. So, weighing in on the controversy du jour, can I say that anyone draping the England flag from their windows is at best a simpleton and at worst a fascist and that they deserve all the sneering they get. The fact that we're no longer allowed to laugh at these racist thickoes is political correctness gone mad.

Ramblings about nothing

"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it." - Robert Frost

A process of elimination has revealed that the Roman and Celt civilians that I found in the box and have started to paint are by Newline. A dozen of them have left the painting table for the plastic box in the annexe together with ten Roman Auxiliaries and the really naff villa that I've just built. I have acquired some cavalry for both sides and they will be next up.

An entirely gratuitous - and dreadful - picture

We got half way through a most enjoyable Seven Years War scenario at James' last night where I was the Russians fighting off Prussians attacking from all directions. Unfortunately, this being Piquet, I couldn't turn any infantry move or reload cards and therefore had to do it all with my cavalry. I don't rate my chances much when the remaining Prussian reinforcements arrive, but it has been fun. I say that the game was Piquet, but James and Peter's version is gradually drifting away from the original via Field of Battle towards who knows where. It does seem to work though.

Larry the Lamb

Did you know Shari Lewis was dead? No, neither I nor the Rhetorical Pedant did either. And did you know that if you type 'Shari Lewis' into Google it suggests that what you are really interested in is 'Sharia Law'? Bit of a one-track mind there Mr Google.

The irrelevance of this is that in an effort to beef up my knowledge of ye olde Roman times I have been watching a series fronted by Larry Lamb on Channel 5 entitled something along the lines of "Rome: The First Superpower". Now, I can't remember ever having watched anything on Channel 5 before - for the benefit of colonial readers, this is a terrestrial TV channel in the UK that has been owned for much of its life by a pornographer and whose programmes have generally been even more downmarket than that would suggest - but this is actually rather good.

For a glove puppet, Lamb is a pretty impressive presenter, fully engaged with the subject and asking sensible questions of the experts involved. The last programme I saw was on the subject of Tiberius Gracchus, the Tribune who stood up for the poor against the rich, ["Good God" says you-know-who "That's a second link back to the previous post - you're on fire."] and Lamb also showed himself to have his heart politically in the right place. Good stuff.

Going visiting

I have been somewhat restricted recently by the arrival of a client who not only wanted me to do something, but was prepared to pay for it. Wargaming, the opera, other ways that I pass my time that you don't need to know about, they have all had to take a back seat while I have been on the odd day trip to Aberdeen. So, there is little to report, but unfortunately for readers that isn't going to stop me reporting it.

It doesn't look like this

Firstly, I have done a little more on the Romans in Britain game. I have dug into the pile of plastic and begun painting some more auxiliaries. It turns out that some of the plastic pile is lead - some civilians - not sure which manufacturer - have also been mounted and undercoated. I have also acquired yet more bases - from Warbases - on which to mount everything; next time we play there will be even more Celts on the table. and then there is a new villa. The original game calls for several homesteads and for the settlers to move between them for hoedowns; and so more Roman houses were called for. My original villa is an old card model much bashed about over the years. The new one is a card model that I found for free on the internet. Possibly I printed on card that was too thin, but for what ever reason the new one, despite being new, is even more bashed about that the old one. Still, no-one ever suggested that wargames at my house were about the aesthetics.

In other news, I saw the excellent Becky Mills at a concert in aid of the Otley Food Bank. She did a set of mostly her own stuff plus covers of songs by June Tabor and Hazel O'Connor. There has also been some boardgaming during which I managed to avoid any more dreary worker placement games, but did enjoy the two I played: Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Istanbul.

The wings of a wren

"Break, break, break,

         On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

And I would that my tongue could utter

         The thoughts that arise in me."

- Tennyson

Sharp-eyed readers of this blog ["Oi" interjects the Rhetorical Pedant "everyone knows that there aren't any readers any more"] will have recognised the title of the previous post as coming from Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Eagle of the Ninth".

The original Pony Wars wargames rules were intended to represent a Hollywood wild west and logic therefore suggests that the Romans in Britain rules derived from them should aim for a similar vibe. However, whereas anyone my age is steeped in cowboy films and their heroes - Wayne, Eastwood, Cooper, Stewart, Ladd etc etc - I don't have anything like the same background in sword and sandals. I've never even seen Gladiator. When discussing the issue Peter suggested "The Eagle", a film based of course on Sutcliffe's book. Now that one I have seen, and didn't really care for what I saw as non-historical sentimentality.

"Get off your horse and drink your milk"

With all that in mind I went, as one does, to a lecture on classical Greek and Roman themes in Star Trek. It was fascinating stuff, the main point being that Roddenberry wasn't employing the themes for their literal meanings, but as commentaries on US society in the 1960s. Now the subtexts of TV Star Trek episodes on civil rights, Vietnam etc are fairly blatant so there wasn't much dissension from the audience. One question was raised however as to the morals trying to be made by big screen treatments of Roman history. Most of these were dismissed by the lecturer as simply being pro-Christian  propaganda, but he did have warm words for one film which is, apparently, a spot-on commentary on the war on terror. Starring Channing Tatum and the bloke who played Billy Elliot, it is of course "The Eagle".

"Tea, Earl Grey, hot"

As the sea breaks against a rock

We have given another try to the Romans In Britain rules. The combat rules had changed a bit based on our previous game, I had written some notes around the various civilians and road users in the game, and I had bought some more bases at Fiasco to tidy things up a bit.

Once again it was an enjoyable evening in which the Romans slaughtered 250 or so Celts for the loss of a couple of dozen men. I think that we can say that the very simple combat rules work OK. On the other hand there weren't enough vehicles and others passing along the road, so that bit didn't work. And the rules regarding the sheep were somewhat fiddly; less is more, less is more.

Centurion Horatius holds the bridge

In the post-match discussion one common theme to emerge was the conviction that the Pony Wars rules (which both Peter and James played with the authors at shows many years ago) were written before large numbers of modern techniques and accessories in wargames were ever thought of. So, having deliberately tried to mimic the original rules as closely as possible - with some success it has to be said - the time has come to completely revisit them, using elements from current practice, while hopefully retaining the spirit. Funnily enough given my liking for games like Piquet and C&C, the cards will be the first to go.

Chimes of Midnight

I have been to the Alhambra to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's Henry IV Parts 1 and 2. The first was the matinee and the second the evening performance. They were both excellent, but it was an awful long time to sit still, even allowing for the two hour break between. I spent said break having a Lamb Bhuna and three chapatis at one of Bradford's famed cheap and cheerful city centre restaurants. For the benefit of my Luxembourg correspondent, it was the International; no significant improvements to report.

Star of the show in every way was Sir Antony Sher as Falstaff. I wondered whilst watching how he had aged up, but a bit of subsequent investigation showed to my astonishment that he is 65. If he's that old then I must be knocking on a bit myself. Who knew? Anyway, where was I? Ahh, yes, Sher's Falstaff. Obviously he's got some great comic writing to play with, but nonetheless he squeezed every last laugh out of it, and at the climactic coronation scene he was also pitch perfect in his note of pathos.

Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions.

A special mention should also be made of Trevor White whose fiery Hotspur reminded me at least of Billy Idol.

Pot34pouri

I find it interesting that since I started writing about wargaming again the number of readers of the blog has plummeted; even the Russian spambots have deserted me. Still, I only ever write for myself and of course for Elkie Brooks' greatest fan, so I press on regardless. I like to see myself as a character in Beckett - failing again, failing better.

I am minded to write about the David Cameron incident in the centre of Leeds the other day. My confidential source who was watching from the windows of the Civic Hall gave a very different description of events to the official version, so who knows what to believe? One thing everyone agrees on is that after the PM had been hustled away there was an immense amount of shouting and finger pointing among those remaining. My own experience over many years of the British security services was that they were spectacularly useless, so nothing about this incident really surprises me.

As I'm in full old-man chuntering mode can I complain about something of even less interest to the rest of you, Radio 2's list of the greatest song covers of all time. Of the top five two weren't even the best cover of that song let alone alone among the best covers ever made. Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' is, in my opinion, not as good as k d lang's, but I'll grant that it's arguable. What is not in the slightest debatable is that the Stranglers take on Bacharach and David's 'Walk On By' isn't a patch on that by Isaac Hayes on his 'Hot Buttered Soul' album. Who are these numpties?

Boardgames played included BakerSpeed (sort of like Panic Lab with a very tenuous Sherlock Holmes paste-on theme), Takenoko and Keyflower. Which just leaves wargaming. I didn't think Fiasco was very good as a show frankly, but we had a pleasant -if brief - run through of Harran. I made the mistake of volunteering to gain revenge as the Saracens, but despite having the coolest named commanders in Jekemesh and Soqman they didn't perform at all. Yet more rolling of ones and failure to turn the Manoeuvre card on my part meant that the Crusaders had the initiative and used it to roll up the infidels. there goes my 100% record in convention games. In another break with recent history I actually did some shopping, buying a bridge for the squex version of C&C Napoleonics and some more bases for Romans in Britain.

When lights close their tired eyes

Here, unsurprisingly perhaps, is some Jack, in this case with added Rory.

Romans in Britain

Not the Howard Brenton stage play which was at the centre of an early manifestation of the social intolerance of the Thatcher era, but rather a bastardised version of the Pony Wars rules. I have mentioned before that many years ago I had a doomed plan to interest my (then) young daughters in wargames by setting up an asymmetrical, narrative driven game. I rejected the obvious colonial games such as the Northwest Frontier, Cowboys and Indians, Zulus etc for reasons of political correctness. My own favourite would have been the French Foreign Legion , but given that we lived in Bradford I didn't see any virtue in a game where the baddies were all muslims, or indeed where all the  muslims were baddies. In the end I decided that the period would be early Imperial Roman Britain and that the natives would be the Celts - more specifically the Brigantes of the Wharfe Valley; in other words 'us'. Or at least would have been 'us' had not both my daughters been born in London rather than Yorkshire and if their roots weren't a mixture of Huguenot, Irish, Gypsy and - a guess based on my mother-in-law's appearance and demeanour - fearsome Viking looters and pillagers.

The barbarians sweep past a somewhat battered villa

Anyway, the advent of the wargames annexe meant that this long abandoned project has been revived. After fiddling about with Patrols In The Sudan and Pig Wars I decided that something as close as possible to Pony Wars was the answer. However, I had a difficult time adjusting the rules to deal with the lack of ranged fire. Indeed, having fixed a date for a game I despaired of getting it to work and nearly abandoned it completely and set up something fifteenth century instead.

A formidable host of hostile tribesmen arrives

I didn't in the end and am glad because it turned out to work rather well and gave us an interesting and enjoyable game, narrowly won by the Romans. We treated it as a brainstorming session and refined the rules as we went along. Normally that would have been right up James' street, but he was noticeably tired on Wednesday. Despite that I think we ended up with a useful framework which I shall write up in due course. I also now have a small modelling and painting list to flesh out the game with some more possible events and perhaps make it look a bit better. It feels quite odd to have such a gap (certainly ten years or so) between conception of the idea and doing all the painting and then getting round to actually playing the game; but better late than never.

Pot33pouri

The run through of Harran prior to Fiasco came to a conclusion with the Saracens being driven off, unwilling to gamble their last morale chips (can't remember if this bit is in James' write-up) and settling for a simple defeat rather than an overwhelming one. I spoke too soon when I referred to my luck with the cards. I turned a March card with an extra segment for cavalry and then rolled up three segments increased to four by the card. This enabled me to push my flanking cavalry over the river poised to sweep down on the crusaders. Sadly however, that was that. No more March cards were turned leading to the invaders own flanking forces grinding me down in melee (repeatedly because I kept rallying back) until I ran out of morale chips. Naturally James has changed the scenario again prior to the show, but as with any game using his figures it will definitely be well worth coming along to see.

There has also been boardgaming. A couple of rounds of Blood Bound followed by Dead of Winter. I rather liked the first and rather didn't like the second. Blood Bound is another of the Werewolves/Resistance/Coup type of deduction and bluffing game and works well. At least it does when participants don't do what I did and misunderstand the hierarchy. I sacrificed myself nobly in the cause of our clan only to find out to my surprise that I was in fact the leader. Dead of Winter is a zombie killing game so that's one reason for disliking it. It's semi co-operative and that's another reason. It does have some nice mechanics, especially the Crossroads Cards drawn by one of the non-players each turn which add both uncertainty and narrative context and it passed the time until we all died and the zombies won. But it's not really my cup of tea.

What is definitely my cup of tea is the blues; as in "I woke up this morning, my woman done left me". I have been to see Thieving Lloyd Cole and was very impressed with their delta blues virtuosity, especially the shit hot guitarist. One can't beat a bit of Howlin' Wolf on a Saturday night (and I'm well aware that the above clip is Katchaturian via Dave Edmunds rather than Robert Johnson via Chicago - but it does illustrate my point about their technical ability). If it all seems out of place in a pub in Ilkley one should remember that Jimi Hendrix also played a pub in Ilkley until the Old Bill stopped the concert. True story.

Intertextual frisson

I have been to see Opera North's new production of La Traviata which was simply superb. I learn from the programme (which has risen 25% in price since last season!) that this is the most popular of operas and I am not particularly surprised because it has it all: top tunes, completely bonkers story and a heroine who dies of consumption while singing her heart out. I have a feeling that I wrote something very similar in my review of La Boheme not that long ago and so we shouldn't be surprised to find that work at number three in the same list. When ON get round to reprising Manon and/or Manon Lascaut then I shall write the same again; for some reason TB in kept women tickled the creative juices in composers.

The programme also tells us that, according to Anthony Powell, one of the characters in the background of Béraud's 'La Madeleine chez le Pharisien' was Dumas fils. The relevance of this is of course that his autobiographical novel La Dame aux Camelias was the basis of Piave's libretto plus that the model for Mary Magdalen was a well known grande horizontale herself.

Scorda l'affanno, donna adorata,

So, if Dumas was Alfredo then who are we? I suspect that I spent much of my parental life as Giorgio Germont, but perhaps now in my mid-life crisis I am actually Violetta herself.

Soffre il mio corpo.
Ma tranquilla ho l'alma.

Some gaming - no really

There has been gaming, quite a bit actually. We started playing through the Harran scenario that James is putting on at Fiasco. He has written it up with nice photos so I won't say much except to say that I don't remember that fat, bald bloke being in the room. James rightly draws attention to my consistent rolling of ones and therefore my commands not moving very often. However, on the plus side the second turn ended on a tied dice roll after I had turned all my March cards and before Peter had turned his. In addition on the occasions my horse archers had a shot at his cavalry I rolled very well and he rolled very low and they basically disappeared so I think the luck has evened out so far.

Brigantes, dozens of 'em

One major learning experience from C&C Napoleonics in the wargaming annexe has been that cheap and cheerful prototyping can be an effective way to experiment. I have therefore set up my long-planned, but never played, 'Romans in Britain' version of Pony Wars. The main problem is the lack of ranged fire, but I have some ideas for making melee bloodier (for the Brigantes at least) which I have been trying out with a mish mash of terrain. I think that they will work, but it has thrown up problems with trying to merge the original rules relating to movement in the wild west with my vision of what Wharfedale would have looked like a couple of thousand years ago. Nothing insurmountable though.

Civilians wait at the villa to be rescued

And then boardgaming. Games played were Mystery of the Abbey, Takenoko, Skulls & Roses and Coup: Reformation. The first is essentially a jazzed up version of Cluedo, but was very enjoyable if confusing. Once again Templars reared their heads and once again I fingered the culprit without being entirely sure how. I also won Takenoko, a very nice little game about growing bamboo for a panda owned by the Emperor of Japan. However I was undone when it came to the two bluffing games that we finished with; I just look too shifty. I'd never played Skulls & Roses before, but enjoyed it despite being bad at it. It is very easy to pick on the weakest player and humiliate and destroy them; I like that in a game. I've played Coup before and found this expansion which introduces factions to be even better. Confusingly, in different printings of the game one faction is alternately named 'Catholics' and 'Loyalists'; not sure which one is aimed at the Ulster market.

I wish I couldn't write

I have been to the opera, Opera North's production of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea; or was it? It seems, according to the programme, that he didn't write all of the music and in particular the best known bit - the duet at the end between Nero and Poppea - definitely wasn't by him. So, school of Monteverdi is perhaps a better attribution. The libretto was apparently all written by Busenello, but this is an English translation in a fairly modern vernacular. Indeed I swear I heard an homage to Hotel California at one point.

tamen vos can nunquam licentia

It's a raunchy production probably best viewed from my post-divorce eyrie in the upper balcony where one got the full flavour of the table-top writhings of the no-better-than-she-ought-to-be Poppea. Even at a distance they were hot stuff; I'm not sure how James Laing as Nero kept in tune with his face in Sandra Piques Eddy's cleavage.

Madame may need an insole

Being from the very dawn of opera as mass entertainment the piece relies on countertenors and women playing men's roles. Indeed it isn't until the arrival of Seneca about forty-five minutes in that anyone sings in a lower register. His arrival is also welcomed by a discerning section of the audience (that would be me then) because he was, as you know, a stoic philosopher of some renown. Neither that nor his broken voice did him any good though because he was dead by the interval.

La mort de Seneque

So, another Roman gore-fest only loosely based on history with people killing each other and themselves for fun. Not my favourite period of operatic music, but well worth seeing - although be warned that the bad guys win.

The reason why I'm wearing it

I have recently been to concerts by a couple of bands and/or artists that I haven't seen for decades. And now I can add Steeleye Span to that list. The previous and only gig of theirs that I saw was in December 1974 at Leeds Town Hall and now the second was in the City Varieties. The t-shirts on sale proclaimed this to be their 45th anniversary tour so I seem to have missed a good chunk of their career.

Ms Prior

I now rather wish that I'd had caught up with them during that time because it was a very good show, notable - in my untutored and amateur view - for very high standards of musicianship. Admittedly Maddy Prior now moves around the stage in a somewhat more stately fashion than she did before her MBE, but her voice is still excellent especially on what for me was the highlight, a cracking version of 'Thomas the Rhymer'.

They played a large selection of tracks from 'Wintersmith', last year's album based on one of Terry Pratchet's novels. Whilst Ashley Hutchings may have founded the band to be more traditional than Fairport Convention they have always seemed to me to be at the rock end of Folk Rock and much of this new material, especially the title track, rather reminded me of Jethro Tull; and all the better for that. In a further nod to Prog Rock their current line-up contains a genuine multi-instrumentalist in Pete Zorn.

Hold that shaft tight

They don't eschew their folk roots however. Not only do they perform 'Blackjack Davey', but one of the songs had a lyrical reference to the blacksmith holding his hammer in his hand; when in doubt stick a cliche in.

I love everything that is old

And so to the theatre. In yet another attempt to pretend that I don't just make this up as I go along, yesterday's post was headed with a quote by Oliver Goldsmith and today's is about his play 'She Stoops to Conquer'. This is the latest production by Northern Broadsides and unusually, possibly uniquely, for them contains no clog dancing. Their last offering, 'An August Bank Holiday Lark' was of course actually about clog dancing - a subject that Bazza and his men had seemingly been working towards for many years - and perhaps that's it and there will be no more. It does however contain music and director and composer Conrad Nelson has chosen to mimic opera of the late 18th century to accompany Goldsmith's comedy from the same period. In fact on two occasions he directly quotes a short passage from 'The Magic Flute'.

It's a very well structured piece which probably accounts for it still being regularly performed in the twenty first century. And it is still funny, although perhaps not uproariously so. Nelson chooses to portray Tony Lumpkin as very camp rather than the simple but sly rustic that I have seen before and it works well. It's all acted to a high standard as you would expect from Northern Broadsides and I recommend it if the tour comes anywhere near you.

Two further thoughts. Firstly, I see from the programme that Bazza intends to give us his Lear next spring. I for one can't wait, it's a part made for a man never knowingly under-hammed. Secondly, the authors of the two plays I've seen this week also shared an outlook on society. Goldsmith, of course, wrote in his poem 'The Deserted Village':

“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey 

Where wealth accumulates and men decay”

We live no longer in the dusky afternoon

 “Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.”
- Oliver Goldsmith

And so to the theatre. This time it is 'The Crucible', undeniably a classic and equally undeniably very long and very heavy, in a new production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. The play was of course written by Arthur Miller as a response to the McCarthy show trials at which he and many others had suffered in the, er, land of the free. Current attempts in the UK to improve our human rights by taking them away shows that one can never assume that any society is immune from political repression.

The man was a genius

My own inability, a result of centuries of rational scepticism (1), to empathise with a belief  in god let alone witches rather prevented me from emotional involvement with the characters. As Bertrand Russell wrote "I would never die for my beliefs, because I might be wrong". I remember a similar problem when reading Herman Hesse's 'The Glass Bead Game' with the spurious mathematics obscuring for me the anti-oppression message. Perhaps a simple soul like me needs the directness of Brecht.


(1) And I am well aware that people continue to be executed for sorcery in, for example, Saudi Arabia; a practice and a country which I think rather prove my point.