Here’s some more of my favourite online radio, following on from my earlier list of great BBC online music shows.
There are several customised online radio stations out there now. These purport to divine your unique taste in music and give you what you really want to hear. Some of these are definitely worthwhile too, but there’s no substitute for a good human selector. These BBC shows have some of the best.
Harold Pinter’s Old Times portrays unsettling mind games played amongst a middle-aged couple and a visiting friend from their separate pasts. Last weekend I saw the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of this classic play.
Deeley and Kate play host to Anna, Kate’s old friend. Almost from the beginning, Anna seems to engage Deeley in a contest for Kate’s intimacy, almost like a grown-up version of a schoolyard “bestest friend” competition. Anna mixes up the past and present while Deeley looks frustratedly on. But in the end it looks as if Anna is not in control after all.
In a way, Kate and Anna seem to be different aspects of the same person. The play expresses Deeley’s battle to repress Kate’s wilder side. Maybe Anna doesn’t really exist after all, other than as a personification of Kate’s untamed past. The presentation of the play encourages such musings.
The Checker Shadow Illusion is the most mysterious optical illusion I have ever seen. No matter how long I stare at it, I can’t convince my eyes to believe it.
The two areas marked A and B are the same shade of grey in the picture. Print it out and fold the two parts together if you don’t believe it!
The illusion was created by Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision Science at MIT. His website has some more interesting illusions as well as a lot of theory to explain them.