endlessrarities: (Default)
[personal profile] endlessrarities

Today, of course, is Valentine's Day.  My husband and I carried out the time-honoured ritual exchange of chocolates, which means that I now have (thanks to my beloved) a worthy stash of interesting Thornton's chocolates which will keep me going at least two months.  I will be sampling the Organic Truffle collection, amongst other things.  Yum!!

I also cooked dinner, which was a once-in-a-blue-moon event.  I haven't cooked since Christmas Day, but thankfully I hadn't quite forgotten what to do.  I used a Jamie Oliver recipe - I've got one Jamie Oliver cookbook, even though I get really irritated by Jamie Oliver's style.  I can't be bothered with all the smug photos of the Author, Family and Friends scattered through the book.  It's too glossy and schmalzy.  The Essex boy prose style also leaves me cold. 

But some of the recipes are rather good.  My chosen recipe of the day was 'Smashed Celeriac' - cubes of celeriac cooked with garlic, thyme and a little stock.  I served it with vegetarian Cumberland style sausages, and home-made potato 'chips' done in the oven with olive oil and herbs.  It was good comfort food for a dreich winter's day.

I now have the misfortune to find myself watching David Dimbleby's Seven Ages of Britain.  I've been studiously avoiding this series until now.  I watched some of an architectural series he fronted a few years ago and hated it because I found it dumbed down beyond belief.  This new series is no different.  In fact, it's even worse than I'd anticipated.  It's the Tudors tonight; so far it has focussed entirely on England.  In fact, it should probably be called the Seven Ages of England. 'The Golden Age' that Dimbleby's referring to was pretty rough on the Scots.  Our abbeys got wrecked in the Rough Wooing and Henry's cronies were keen to exploit pre-existing schisms in the Scots nobility to their tyrannical King's advantage.

This programme's being shown at 9pm but it feels like it's aimed for primary school kids.  It's a shame, because I'd expect better from David Dimbley.  He's an intelligent political journalist and interviewer, and I really don't know why he can't put his name to something a bit more high-brow.  I don't really see why it's given such a prominent place in Scottish programming, either...  Watching David Dimbleby doing a daft impression of someone fighting with a poleaxe (complete with stupid sound effects) really doesn't do anything for me whatsoever.

Bettany Hughes talking about the role of women in the Bible, aired earlier this evening on Channel 4, made much better viewing...

Date: 2010-02-14 10:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bellakara.livejournal.com
I gave up on those history programmes years ago. Simon Schama was the final straw.

Date: 2010-02-14 10:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] endlessrarities.livejournal.com
Simon Schama has much more of a broad-brush approach than this one.

There's some seriously good material culture being shown on this programme, but it's put across so badly! I love artefacts, as you know, but I find this artefact-based programme almost unbearable. It's random and episodic and I just don't like it.

It ended with a recitation of the piece from Shakespeare which has the quote about the Sceptred Isle which just about turned my stomach.

Strange, isn't it? Here I am, genetically speaking a quarter English, and I find this jingoistic nonsense obnoxious...

I thought of a wonderful spoof. You could have David Dimbleby doing the final episode on modern art. Picture the scene. He's presenting gushing eulogies on such marvellous examples of skill and exquisite craftsmanship as Tracy Emin's unmade bed or Damien Hirst's Cow/Calf combo.





Profile

endlessrarities: (Default)
endlessrarities

January 2013

S M T W T F S
  1 234 5
6789101112
13141516171819
202122 232425 26
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 17th, 2025 01:06 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios