Is it Christmas already?

Well, obviously, no it isn't. But at choir rehearsal tonight we started practising for the carol service, which makes Christmas seem terrifyingly close!

A lot of the music is, of course, very familiar - it would be a very disappointing carol service that didn't include Hark, The Herald Angels Sing and O Come, All Ye Faithful - but among the pieces that I hadn't heard before is this absolutely gorgeous one:



Isn't it just glorious? The serenity! The simplicity of the line! The harmonies! Morten Lauridsen is an American composer (of Danish parentage), born in 1943, and this particular piece was written in 1994, but I'm pretty sure he's got the staying power of Tallis and Byrd.

Guy Fawkes and Anonymous

Remember, remember the fifth of November and all that...

But recently, Guy Fawkes seems to have developed a new life of his own, in the form of the masks worn by protesters at various demonstrations. The group "Anonymous" started it, for example at their demonstrations against Scientology, but they're also a common sight in the "Occupy" camps.

It makes a certain amount of sense that anti-capitalist protesters in London might take Guy Fawkes as a role model, but he's hardly a household name outside the UK, so how has he become such a global symbol?

The thing is, they're not really Guy Fawkes masks as such, but V For Vendetta masks - the image is taken from David Lloyd's illustrations for the graphic novel, and it's undoubtedly the 2006 film that's popularised it as an anti-government symbol. The character of V in the book is an anarchist fighting against a dystopian fascist dictatorship* who, taking Guy Fawkes as his inspiration, tries to blow up the Houses of Parliament - and, unlike the original Fawkes, he actually succeeds, so at least to that extent I suppose he makes a better role model than the real-life figure...

Ironically, the masks are actually official film merchandise, and Time Warner get a licensing fee every time one is sold - so this symbol of anarchy and anti-capitalism is actually contributing to the profits of one of the biggest media companies in the world.

*As opposed to a utopian fascist dictatorship...

A Polish rainbow in Brussels

My lunchtime errands have been much more colourful for the last month or so, as the esplanade in front of the European Parliament has been hosting a little art installation in honour of the Polish Presidency of the EU.

It's called "The Rainbow", imaginatively enough, and is made of thousands of artificial flowers attached to a metal frame. The artist is Julita Wójcik, an artist from Gdańsk who specialises in installations and performance art.

Apparently it symbolises a different kind of gateway into the European Parliament, and peace and harmony and all sorts of things like that, but I mostly think it looks quite pretty in the autumn sun. Yes, I am a philistine.

When I grow up, I want to be Harriet Vane

As an antidote to my previous rant review of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I've been re-reading Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. I love this book sooooooo much: it's snobbish and classist and pretentious, and utterly, utterly delightful.

Dona Eis Requiem

Today is All Souls' Day, which we commemorated at church this evening with a performance of Fauré's Requiem. Fabulous piece of music, and as a viola player I can only approve of a score with divided violas and cellos and only one violin :-) This time, though, I was singing alto - the Offertoire is our big moment, but my favourite section is the Libera Me.

Apart from a couple of wobbly moments - mainly due to not having enough rehearsal with the orchestra, I think - it went pretty well this evening. I enjoyed it, anyway!

NaNoWriMo

For the last thirteen years, November has been National Novel Writing Month, the challenge being to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Now, I have neither the time nor the inclination (nor, indeed, the talent) to write a novel, but since 2006 there has been an alternative: National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo, which involves writing a blog post every day for a month. And seen as I have a blog, and seen as I haven't posted anything on it for the best part of a year, I thought I'd give it a go. This is going to go marvellously well, isn't it...