Mark Lawrence - The Prince of Thorns

'The thorns taught me the game.

They let me understand what all those grim and serious men who’ve fought the Hundred War have yet to learn. You can only win the game when you understand that it is a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him lose them all. '

Mark Lawrence's bloody début The Prince of Thorns is the opening novel in the 'Broken Empire' trilogy. Set in the 'Broken Kingdom' a land governed by Knights, Lords, Kings and an Emperor, a brutal land that has risen from the ashes of an atomic war that pushed mankind to the edge of extinction.

Lawrence follows the story of Jorg, a young Prince of the kingdom of Ancrath whose childhood is cruelly ended when his mother and elder brother are murdered before his eyes. His indirect path to seek vengeance is the main driving force of the narrative. Jorg unburdens himself of his morality so that he can do what others cannot and live without fear. Jorg uses all the tools he has at his disposal: his few friends, his road-brothers, and his youth to gain the advantage in seemingly impossible situations. It is Jorg's age that makes his violent acts disturbing to a modern reader, in a society where we strive to protect our children from the realities of life it is shocking that a child is exposed to, and flourishes, in this extremely violent society.

 

The reader is taken on Jorg's path of vengeance by Jorg himself as the story is written as a first person narrative. By writing the story in the first person, Lawrence gives the reader a sense that the land of the 'Broken Kingdom' is richly steeped in history, politics and intrigue without getting the reader lost in the detail. If details don't concern Jorg they don't concern the reader. This leaves the reader with tantalising questions about the land, its people and its history that will, hopefully, be answered in later books. I personally would have preferred more description of the areas and people as I felt that the story moved from one setting to another very quickly, which at times left me feeling slightly alienated. 

Overall, I enjoyed The Prince of Thorns, the lack of descriptive text left me feeling like I wasn't connecting with the supporting characters which, I suppose, was Lawrence's intention as we are seeing the story from this prospective Jorg, who has learnt at a young age to cut out all of his emotions. 

If you want a fast-paced post-apocalyptic-medieval-fantasy novel then this is definitely worth a look. It's a good read but probably not a novel that I would re-read anytime soon and because of that I will give it 3/5 Jester's cap and bells.

The Second Shepherds' Play

"A fat sheep, I dare say!

A good fleece, swear I may!

When I can, then I’ll pay,

But this I will borrow!"

On Saturday 8th December I saw the medieval mystery play The Second Shepherds' Play at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.  The production was performed by the Liverpool University Drama Society and directed by the medievalist Dr Sarah Peverley of the School of English.

Beginning just before Gabriel's visitation to the shepherds, the play follows the comic exploits of three shepherds, a sheep stealer called Mak and his crafty wife Gill. The play masterfully juxtaposes ideas, themes and messages; comedy with seriousness, mock nativity with real nativity, darkness with light, and revenge with forgiveness.

Elements of the language and pronunciation of the play text was modernised by the Director, Dr Peverley, so that the story was immediately accessible to all age groups without losing the medieval flavour that makes a mystery play like this one so unique.

The performance took place in the perfectly fitting Medieval Room of the Walker Art Gallery; to a full audience of 40 people of varying ages.

The cast of seven performed an excellent version of the play, their comedic timing was excellent, as was the delivery of their lines. My personal highlights of the play were: Gib's 'advice' on marriage; the sheep stealer Mak, moving the sleeping Coll and Gib into a spooning position; the medieval song 'Sumer is Icumen In'; the attempted slaughter of the stolen sheep by Mak and Gill with an oversized cleaver; and Daw's gift of a tennis ball to the baby Christ.

I'm hoping that a recording of this play will at some point appear on YouTube (if it does I will post a link). It really was a well produced and acted play that highlighted some of the treasures that medieval drama contains. Hopefully, through performances like this, new audiences will be exposed to and become aware of medieval theatre and plays like The Second Shepherds' Play will be performed more often. Our rich theatrical heritage goes further back than Shakespeare!

Instagram - Photographs, Copyright, Filters and Privacy

Like most people I enjoy taking pictures. With the birth of digital cameras it's become easier and cheaper than ever to snap items that you might have otherwise not wanted to take the risk of wasting an expensive film on. The rise of cheap digital cameras means that snapshots of life are now being taken by millions of people during every second of everyday, last year alone more pictures were taken then in the rest of history put together.

100 million people decided that they wanted to share these snapshots by using the social media website Instagram. For those of you who aren't aware of Instagram, it's a free website that hosts pictures you upload to it from an Android App, Apple App or desktop application. You can, if you wish, add filter effects to the picture, follow other users, like and comment on pictures; in a nutshell it's social networking based on pictures.

The company was recently bought by Facebook, who quite possibly, hold the largest amount of personal information in the world. On 19th December 2012 Instagram announced that it was making some changes to its terms and conditions. These changes have caused a hue and cry in the Instagram community as the changes mean that Instagram can use your data and pictures in whatever way they see fit;

"You hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or through the service."

And;

"a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos, and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

Although the change regarding the pictures annoys me (I never imagined any of my Instagram pictures making money), it is the second statement that concerns me more. Basically, Instagram are staking a claim to all the data that is posted which will include the metadata that is collected when the picture is originally created.

 

For those who aren't aware of the term metadata it is a term used to describe data that is about data. Everything we create electronically will have metadata attached to it; it can either be very simple data such as the date and time it was created, or the artist and album information on an mp3 file, to more specific information such as the GPS location of where a digital photograph was taken. The changes to Instagram's terms and conditions will have a bigger impact on people's data and privacy than it has on their right, and risk, to their copyright.

The more you post pictures to Instagram the more accurate a picture they get of your hobbies, spending habits and location. This metadata coupled with your profile details, and the Facebook account you have linked to Instagram, become an extremely valuable commodity that can be sold to companies that want to specifically target new customers. With these new terms and conditions Instagram has turned itself from a photo sharing site into a data gathering site.

It is hardly surprising that Instagram has made this move. Facebook has spent $1bn when they bought the company. Facebook didn't want to purchase the photographs of 10 million users' dogs/sky/meals, Instagram was purchased for all the metadata and information that came from Instagram users' activities. The only way you can stop your data being used in this way is by deleting your Instagram account by the 16th January 2013, after this date all your metadata, profile information and pictures will be able to be used by Instagram in whatever way they see fit.

Instagram on 19th December released a statement saying that 'it is not our intention to sell your photos' and to tell you the truth I believe them, as there is no money in it. If they are seen to back down on this copyright issue then they will be seen to be listening to their communities concerns about copyright. I personally believe that the issue of copyright is a smokescreen and Instagram users should be more concerned with how their information and metadata is being used. This is an issue of privacy clouded by the emotive subject of photograph ownership and copyright.

If you're using a service that is free you are always a user that has no rights and no say into how the product handles your information and the only way a free service can make money is through using your information to target advertisements at you. If you truly want control over your information then you will be better off paying for a photo storage and sharing service. If you are buying a service you become a customer with customer's rights, you can ensure that your information is only used for the purpose it was intended for and you can control what happens to that information. By buying a service it also makes the service provider ensure that they are proving the best product available to keep your custom, it also means that they will not view your data as an alternative income stream.

Instagram has proven that like all things in life nothing is ever free.

Oedipussy - One Mother of a Love Story

"Here I am myself—

you all know me, the world knows my fame:

I am Oedipus[sy]."

As we're the proud owners of a new nine month old baby it's not often that my wife and I have the opportunity to do anything 'cultured'. Last Saturday however, was an exception as we left our baggage (baby and doggy) with the grandparents and jumped on a train to Liverpool to watch the play Oedipussy, written and performed by SpyMonkey, at the Liverpool Play House.

Oedipussy is a comical take on the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex. If you imagine can a teenage boy's copy of Oedipus Rex with all the sexual and vaguely sexual scenes and situations underlined, highlighted and expanded by notes then you have the foundations for Oedipussy. If you then add in a few James Bond references, a saxophone, a minimalist set, inventive props, a pinch of slapstick and actors with excellent comic timing and likeability then you'll have a good feel of what SpyMonkey's Oedipussy is all about.

The thing about Oedipussy is that as soon as you book the tickets you're thrown into the comedy and tragedy of the play. Never, in all my life, have I dreaded being asked by my mother what play I am going to see. When I told her she didn't hear the Oedi all she heard was the word pussy and all I heard was a small silence, which I filled by telling her it was a Greek tragedy about a son who kills his father and marries his mother. This was met with an even longer silence and I immediately felt a little naughty for saying the word pussy to my mother and a little ill for mentioning that the main plot is about a man who marries his mother (as the SpyMonkies would say 'Oedipussy no one wants to go where he has been').

Oedipussy is a feast for the eyes

SpyMonkey have adapted Oedipus Rex masterfully, they've taken a serious Greek tragedy concerned with a taboo subject and made it farcical and entertaining  and yet still maintained the thread of tragedy. The gouging of Oedipussy's eyes and the rape of Chrysippus by Laius are masterfully handled by SpyMonkey, both scenes have the veneer of comedy applied to them but are powerful enough in their own right for the audience to be both shocked and humored.









The staging, props and costumes fit the play beautifully. The costumes look like they've partially come from the 1984 film Dune and 1964 film 300 Spartans with my personal favorite being the 'space underwear' which is the actors standard form of attire. The minimalist staging works well with the subject of the play as it does not act as a distraction to the audience; if it's on the stage it is meant to be on the stage, nothing is there as window dressing. The lack of scenery can work against an actor if they aren't comfortable with their role as there is nothing to distract the audience with. This, however, isn't the case with the SpyMonkies as the audience is immediately made comfortable and welcomed into the world of the Oedipussy by four actors who obviously feel comfortable around each other and enjoy their craft. 

Greek chariots have never looked this good

The great thing about Oedipussy is that you don't have to have a degree in Ancient Greek Drama to find it funny. If you know a little about Greek Drama and/or you've read/seen Oedipus Rex before then you'll understand the basis of the parody, but you won't miss out on any of the jokes if you haven't.

Oedipussy is a fantastic night out, if you can see this play then please do as it's very entertaining and beautifully crafted. If like us you don't get out much then I would definitely use one of your get out jail free cards to see this.

Going Solo

'I don't know how long I played. It could have been ten minutes or an hour. But my hands weren't used to the strain. They slipped and the music fell to pieces like a dream on waking.'

                                                                                    (The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothuss).

Around twelve months ago I decided it was time to learn how to do something creative. I hadn't learnt anything new, apart from work related things, since completing my MA in 2008. My wife is very musical, all of her life she's sung and played musical instruments so she encouraged me, again, to learn how to play the guitar, as I briefly tried to learn from a book a few years earlier. I found this method of self teaching extremely difficult as I had no experience in playing any instrument, no knowledge of musical theory and no idea of where to begin, so I quickly gave up.

I was determined that this time would be different and I would learn how to play. My wife was pregnant with our son and I really wanted to be able to teach him something when he was older that would stay with him for the rest of his life. My hope was that if I learnt how to play I'd be able to teach him a skill that will be a creative outlet for both of us and provide a good opportunity to bond.

So over the last year I've been having guitar lessons at my local music shop. As a total beginner to everything musical my rate of learning has been slow and steady. All the basics have been covered, scales, chords, etc. At £20 for an hour long-lesson each week it hasn't been cheap but it has given me a good grounding in the basics that will allow me to progress.

Last month I knocked the lessons on the head because the lesson price would be going up to £25 per hour, a price rise of 25%. £5 extra doesn't seem a lot each month but when you consider you have to have a lesson each week on an average month that's £100 for four hours worth of lessons. I also thought it was a very calculating thing to do as the shop was selling lots of kids guitars over Christmas and promoting their tuition service. So a lot of parents who had just bought their kids a guitar will have to pay an extra 25% for their lessons after only a few lessons at the old price.

After going solo I decided that the first song that I would learn would be Johnny Cash's cover of the Nine Inch Nails' Hurt. Cash's cover is an extremely powerful song made even more poignant by Cash's vocals, the simplistic tune and feeling of finality regarding the career and life of Johnny Cash.

Due to the simplistic, yet powerful, nature of the acoustic guitar in the song it was a tune that was high on my need to learn list. After searching the net I found a number of different tab versions of the song which I started to use as a reference point. I also searched on Youtube for a few 'how to play guides' and there are a lot. Most of the guides I found unhelpful as you immediately got the feeling that the creator had only posted them in the aim to get noticed as a singer, so the actual tuition side was poor, at best.

The best video I came across was by a bloke called Justin Sandercoe, @justinsandercoe for twitter fiends. I have to say Justin's video's are excellent, all the songs are very clearly explained and there is normally a simple version of the song and a more complex version. You can see with his guide for Hurt that everything is explained and demonstrated in a lot of detail and clarity.

Through using Justin's Youtube video I'm well on my way to getting Hurt learnt. I've only briefly looked at Justin's website but it looks full of extra resources and he's also produced a number of different guides which seem quite reasonable in price too. If you're looking to learn a new song I would definitely recommend your first port of call being Justin's Youtube video's. He's an excellent guitarist and tutor.

http://www.justinguitar.com/

Baby Sign Language

'[…]For I am in love with you and this

is what it is like or what it is like in words.'

('Words, Wide Night' Carol Ann Duffy)

Language. Our ability to communicate our thoughts, feelings and desires are, at least to me, the one thing that makes our species of monkey, a man. If there is a God then our ability to communicate complex ideas is surely the closest thing which we would have in common. The written word is still the only way man can achieve immortality. 

When my son was born one of my biggest hopes for his future would be that he had a love for language and literature. It's my belief that the more articulate you are in expressing yourself the more likely you are to be successful in society and life.

One of the first things my wife and I wanted to teach our son was baby sign language. Apparently, babies can pick this up and communicate their basic needs and desires, through sign language, a lot quicker than they can learn how to communicate verbally. If you start to do a few basic symbols most babies will be able to sign a few things back to you by the time they are around 8 - 9 months.

So for the last 8 ½ months every time my son had a bottle of milk, was being fed solids or drinking from his cup we've been doing the appropriate symbol for that action. For most of this time our baby observed us making the signs but wasn't reacting to them. It was only during this weekend that he started making the sign for milk back to us just before the normal time he received his milk feeds.

It was such a great experience seeing that he'd learnt something which my wife and I had taught him. You obviously see them learning how to sit and hold a spoon but these events, at least to me, are skills he's taught himself whereas the signing was something which we've taught and he'd learnt. Hopefully, he will soon start signing the other signs we're doing back to us but now that he has learnt one he should pick them up too.

If you're a new parent I can't recommended enough learning and teaching your child baby sign language. It isn't any extra 'work' as you're already doing the task and it is only a matter of signing the appropriate sign at the start of the action. As a father I, personally, found it to be a fun way of interacting with my baby in the first few months of his life when all he wanted to do was drink milk and sleep. If your wife is breast feeding new Dads can feel like a spare part in these early months as the baby will go to your wife for milk and they will associate that with comfort. Unfortunately meaning it will be harder for you to settle them if they are upset as they'll just want their Mum (don't take it personally it's just anatomy).

If you've got a new baby, you probably won't have time to read a book on baby sign language, we certainly didn't. The way we learnt was by downloading some Apps for our smartphones. There are plenty to choose from, most with a free trail, and all the ones we got are great. A word of warning there is British and American baby sign language which differ slightly. It doesn't really matter which one you use but just make sure you are consistent, once you've decided on which sign language you're going to use then stick with that one as any alterations will confuse your child.

There has been research carried out into the possible benefits of teaching your baby sign language. To be honest I haven't read any of it. I wanted to teach my son baby sign language in the hope that he would eventually sign back to me, if he didn't pick it up then it wouldn't have been a problem as it was/is a lot of fun making the signs and interacting with my baby. There is nothing better than making the sign for milk or food just before his feed and seeing him get all excited!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

My culinary skills have evolved from the basics that I learnt at university. The basics involved cooking quick and easy things and nothing more. Over the years I've added to these basics by reading recipes, following  instructions and having semi-decent timing. 

I've never tried baking anything before, I don't know if it's because I saw baking as cooking 'for fun' instead of out of a necessity. Today however, on the first day of my extended paternity leave, I thought I'd give it a go in the hope of one day being able to teach my son how to cook for himself (and for his Mum and Dad!). 

My first step on the road of bakery would be taken with me making/baking/creating a Lemon Drizzle Cake (one of my favourites). I have to say I had a lot of fun baking the cake and it tasted pretty good too. I followed a standard recipe but made a few changes (added more lemons for the added zest).

If you too would like to make this culinary masterpiece you need to follow these simple instruction. I did it, so it isn't that hard.

Things you'll need

Oven

Scales

Oven Gloves

Cake baking tin (the thing that goes in the oven with the cake mix in)

Grater

Mixing bowl

Ingredients

(I've put caster sugar down in two separate measurements as you need two lots)

2 Lemons

4 Eggs

225g caster sugar

85g caster sugar

225g butter

225g self raising flour

 

What to do

1.       Pre-heat your oven to 180c for fan assisted oven or gas mark 4.

2.       Mix 225g of caster sugar and 225g butter into a mixing bowl. Keep mixing until the mixture goes paste like in texture.

3.       Add four eggs to the mixture and mix them in.

4.       Slowly add 225g of flour to the mixture and mix until it's all added.

5.       Grate the skin only of two lemons (the zest) and add this to the mixture (don't chuck the lemons as you will need these).

6.       Mix well.

7.       Butter up the cake tin or line it with baking paper.

8.       Add the mix to the cake tin.

9.       Place into the oven for 45mins.

10.   After 45 minute check the cake to make sure that it's cooked. Slide a knife into the cake and if it comes out with any cake mix stuck to it then it will need to bake for longer. Repeat until no cake mix is stuck to knife.

11.   Squeeze the juice from the lemons you used for the zest .

12.   Add 85g of caster sugar to the lemon juice and mix together to create the drizzle.

13.   Stab a knife through the top of the cake in multiple places.

14.   Coat the top of the cake with the drizzle.

15.   Let the cake cool.

16.   Eat the cake.