Mel Hutchwright

John Lewis in the Buchanan Galleries should have a selection of them.

I'm currently re-watching the whole thing (3 episodes into the second part of the final season), and I'd partly agree. On second viewing I'd say that Pine Barrens is still arguably the most enjoyable episode, but not necessarily the best. Long Term Parking is indeed simply magnificent television.

Season Two's my favourite as well, albeit Four runs it a very close second, but it does seem to be quite commonly cited, along with Five, as being the least popular season. Right that's it, once I've finished my current re-watching of The Sopranos, I'm going to do the same thing with The Wire. You can't stop me.

If The Sopranos has taught me anything, which it hasn't, it's that a man should keep his simmet on during 'relations'.

The penultimate episode of this season, Long Term Parking, is just about as good as The Sopranos gets. I shan't give anything away, but it is gut wrenchingly tense television.

The lovely odour in my flat when it's in use really is one of it's beauties. It also appears to have clung to my wool (blend) overcoat. I smell delicious, although there's a risk that hungry dogs will begin following me in the street.

Thanks to Santa's generosity, I'm now a proud member of the club. I feel that I've been set on the road to somewhere very special indeed.

Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories ~ Raymond Carver Generally speaking I'm not the biggest fan of short stories, and would usually far sooner immerse myself in a novel, but this collection is simply magnificent. Carver was a masterful writer, with a powerful, sparse prose style, who's ability to evoke so much from such brevity is really pretty awe inspiring. Some of these stories are nothing short of gut wrenching.

For all those naysayers still girning about the smoking ban, that's exactly what happens when exposed flames come within close proximity to alcohol.

On this subject, if you get the opportunity to go and see Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra doing their Sun Ra (amongst others) tribute thing, I can highly recommend it. I went to see them at the, disapointingly sparsely populated, Usher Hall a couple of weeks back and it really was great. Fantastic spectacle too, what with their headresses and robes and Egyptian/Spaceman type stage set.

I've kind of gone completely Richard Yates daft of late, and can't get enough of his oppressive American suburban ennui. The last couple of his I read were Young Hearts Crying and Cold Spring Harbor, and I'm currently the best part of the way through A Good School. It's a commonly held opinion that these later novels are of a lesser calibre than both Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade (my personal favourite of his) but, for all that there is certainly some truth in this, they are still very fine books. Most of his novels are pretty much variations on the same theme, essentially the unfulfilled lives and corroded ambitions of people who feel trapped by their relationships and the suburbs, but what a theme.

Belbury Poly ~ Adventures In A Miniature Landscape I'm having to fight the urge to dance along to it like some kind of medieval fool, and I'd be lying if I claimed that this is a fight I'll necessarily win.

The Human Stain ~ Philip Roth Although I'm something of a fan of Roth's, I found it difficult to fully engage with this novel and consequently found it a wee bit of a slog. One problem was that I struggled to really care enough about the main protagonist; a college professor forced out of his job after being wrongly acused of racism. It's not exactly unusual for there to be a certain degree of ambiguity at the core of Roth's characters, and he doesn't always make them the easiest to like, but I found it hard to muster too much sympathy at all in this instance, regardless of the gross misjustice he was undeniably the victim of. It's difficult to say too much about the novel without giving too much away, but I also never felt that the motives behind the truly life changing decision the principal character made were really fully, or particularly convincingly, explained. However, Roth is such a wonderful writer that, for all the novels flaws, there were still occasions that I couldn't help but admire his sheer stylistic brillance. All that being said, it was by no means a bad novel, it just stands in pretty poor comparison when judged against some of the other books of his I've read, in particular American Pastoral.

Sparks ~ The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman The brothers Mael were approached by Swedish National Radio with the idea of developing a radio musical, and this is the fruit of their labours. Sparks being Sparks, it is overblown, somewhat baffling, self indulgent, maybe a little pretentious, and quite, quite magnificent. God, I love Sparks.

It was a 2009 film, or at least I certainly saw it at the pictures last year. The score was composed by Clint Mansell, erstwhile frontman of Pop Will Eat Itself, who's been responsible for some really fine soundtracks in recent years. It is indeed gorgeous.

By it's very nature, the film was always likely to struggle to recreate McCarthy's novelistic style and, given that it's a novel that people seem to feel quite strongly about, the film was always likely to suffer in comparison. Certainly those I know who saw it prior to me were somewhat underwhelmed by it, so I did go to see it with pretty low expectations. However, for all that it undeniably does compare unfavourably with the book, they did make a pretty good fist of it, and the two central performances really are excellent.

The Road Having read, and been hugely impressed by, Cormac McCarthy's novel, I did approach this with a little wariness but, for the most part, this is a really fine adaptation. I don't feel it quite managed to capture the sparse beauty of McCarthy's prose, and the unremitting bleakness it portrayed, and could possibly have done with being a bit longer to better emphasise the sheer relentlesness of the father and sons struggle for survival, but it was a powerful and affecting film nonetheless.

The Easter Parade ~ Richard Yates Yates is an author I've been intending to read for a while, as he's frequently cited as an influence on people like Richard Ford, who's novels I really admire. This novel follows the lives of two sisters over 40 or so years, and the complex relationship both between each other and their family. Despite following completely divergent paths from each other, both sisters are in their own ways unfulfilled and trapped by the way their lives have turned out. Yates somewhat misanthropic view is almost unremittingly bleak, sometimes painfully so, but he's such a wonderful writer that it's a completely absorbing and thought provoking work. I thought it was masterful. I'm now about a third of the way through the same novelists Revolutionary Road (as adapted into a recent film which I've yet to see) and, thus far, it's another very impressive novel.

Thanks, it's now on my shopping list. I'm currently reading The Bascombe Novels by Richard Ford, which is a rather nice hardback collection of his three novels concerning the character of Frank Bascombe; The Sportswriter, Independence Day and The Lay Of Land. I've read all of them before over the years, but I consider them such a great series of novels that it's been a real pleasure becoming reacquainted with them. Like slipping into my favourite pair of slippers.

The only Coetzee novel I've read is Disgrace, which I thought was something of a masterpiece. I've no idea why I haven't subsequently read any of his others, but that's something that I'll need to remedy. Regarding The Plot Against America, it's an alternate history novel where the antisemitic Charles Linbergh defeats Roosevelt in the 1940 US presidential election, and the repercussions this has on the Jewish community, including a fictionalised version of the Roth family itself, in Newark, New Jersey. I thought it was a really impressive novel, but then I invariably do when it comes to Phillip Roth as he is such a fine writer. Apologies to The Shire Voice Of Reason for butting in incidentally.

I'm no prude, but Sam Rockwell's gratuitous display of his bare behind must surely be a contributory factor also.

I'm far from enamoured that Mazzy Star's beautiful Into Dust is being used on a Virgin mobile advert. You've got some nerve Branson, using songs I'm fond of for your nefarious means.

This heat is indeed becoming a bit insufferable. I was that close to taking my pyjama top off in bed last night.

Whilst driving up to Arbroath today to spend the weekend in the bosom of my family, I was perturbed to see that the Welcome To Dundee signs with the Beano style lettering, which I always found most pleasing, have been replaced with new deadly dull ones. I do not care for these new signs one little bit.

I was aware that a film was in the pipeline, but I didn't know about the soundtrack. Presumably it will be a collaboration with Warren Ellis? I really like the soundtrack they did for The Assasination Of Jesse James......