Come On Michael.

Where did you put Tommy Kowie's Car?

It is a classic after all. And I bet that you did not leave it in Queen Alexandra Road.

Gosh it is years since I used to avidly buy and work through every one of the I-Spy books. I vaguely recollect that there was some sort of club and certificates but these were of minor importance compared to actually spotting many of the wonderous things that were contained in these books.

Now, this review is not meant to be a nostalgic journey in search of a long lost youth. Nor is it intended to be a trip down memory lane, yearning for all our yeaterdays. I can hear it now...things were never as good as when I was a lad...you were lucky. We used to dream of walking twenty miles each day to school and back with only one raincoat between 59 of us in our family...by the heck lad things were tough in my day...etc etc.

This little book certainly makes one look back and recall some halcyon days but to me it represents missed opportunities. I bought this book for my ten year old son to give him some ideas about experiences in England as a child of his age, but also to educate him a little about the wider world and show some of the similarities and differences between British and United States cultures. The newer editions of the series play a more openly educational role that the earlier ones, a development I am not entirely happy with.

The emphasis has shifted clearly from the interested individual seeking out strange new words and new items, to a more informative book directing the reader to examples. Personally I prefer the encouragement of initiative to write down the when, where and why fore's but that is just me.

I-Spy books such as the one here represent to me the innocence and wonderment of childhood where there is so much to know to explore and to learn. They encouraged an inquisitiveness in children like me which is pre-empted now by all of these TV shows telling us about everything. To me that is to miss the point and treat children like empty vessels to filled while making lots of sound.

These books are no longer around except in Amazon's and other pages. Perhaps they should be resurrected globally to reflect individual nation's own individuality. Our children should be nurtured mentall and physically and taught how to draw on their own reserves through guidance in the way of the old I-Spy books. Perhaps I am an old fuddy-duddy wallowing in nostalgia but this little book made me think a little longer and harder about how we raise our children to be the people that we want them to be and that cannot be a bad thing.

I heartily recommend this book and others like it to children of all ages and from all countries.

After such a lousy day yeaterday I was so please that this re-release arrived in the mail today. From 1970 this is the band's second album and like the spiritual flower the lotus, this album is a blossoming out of the themes that were first heard on In Blissful Company.

Along with the devotional songs and chants there is the musical awesome sound of Quintessence. With this band you never got to feel that any of the solo players were more important than the band themselves. Even though the vocals, flute and lead guitar were highlighted the band played as one. Much is made of the blistering psychedelic guitar and the haunting flute but this often misunderstands the centrality of their devotion and influences from India in the actual music itself. While the listener is often captivated by the wah-wah this can distract from the similarities with the Indian musical organisation. Listen to an early raga of Ravi Shankar and you can appreciate the direction that the group were going in.

Having said that, it is very clear that the music is an aid to transcend the physical and to help take the listener to a higher plane. It is no surprise that the live performances led some of the attendees into near trance like or ecstatic states.

All in all this is a superlative album and a must for any collection. I am happy that their is a live version of Jesus, Buddha etc as the additional track but I fear that it does not do justice to the power of their live performances.

I always loved St. Pancras for all sorts of reasons which I cannot go into hear but it is a poignant point that that station in London has just been closed for refurbishment as it is transformed into a Eurostar terminal. The future travellers will be unaware of the significance to a Jewel in the Crown of the British music scene at the end of the '60s and the start of the 70's.

An afterthought: this music is just as wonderous whether you are a Hindu or not

in his review of March 2004 "Complex plots and enjoyable viewing, March 14, 2004
Reviewer: Frank Behrens from Keene, NH USA wrote that Inspector Morse was assisted by Troy.

I do not wish to nitpick but the name of Sgt. Lewis was Robbie.

Much as though this series is an enjoyable puzzler, the plots are nowhere as complex as those of Morse but they are pleasant enough sojourns into the bloodied fields of merrie Englande.

I was drawn back to Eamonn Butler's 1985 book while working my way through the latest venture by Brian Snowdon and Howard Vane. Almost twenty years after the publication it still seems as fresh as ever and should still be considered the best introductory work about Milton Friedman particularly for the student.

Given the advances in macroeconomics which have taken place since the 1970s, an era now fading away thankfully into distant memory, it is not surprising that concerns about money continue to dominate the debate. World events, such as deflation in Japan and the tremendous efforts by Federal Reserve Governor Greenspan to prevent such an occurrence in the United States, continue to place the Friedman analysis and theory at the centre of the ongoing discussion.

This magnificent little book has at it's centrepiece Friedman's work on Monetary Theory. Butler, writing from the position of a fellow free-marketeer does an outstanding job restraining his infectious free market self to provide an exemplary elucidation of Milton Friedman's writings and how they overcame sustained attack from the Keynesian orthodoxy to establish themselves as a counter-revolution. He does not assume much prior knowledge of the reader but seeks to establish with remarkable clarity Friedman's position and how he got there. He certainly does real justice to the nature of the attacks and examines their arguments carefully. Fairness is a good description of his approach. He is not afraid to bring in criticism from the Austrian school to show that attacks on Friedman's work are not only from the left.

In the latter sections of the book he also looks at Friedman's position as a free marketeer and some of the policy proposals he has made and also in the final chapter, which for me was the most interesting he looks at some of the methodological issues generated by Friedman.

One is reminded of the remark attributed to Popper that a theory which explains everything explains nothing when reading this chapter. Butler robustly defends Friedmans theorizing based on empirical evidence and casts aside the majority of objections to this approach. he chides those who make their models more and more complex to include new developments and candidly criticizes those economists who talk among themselves in the rarified realms of abtruse reasoning. As John Lennon once said, 'life is what happens when you are busy making other plans'. There is one issue where Butler concurs that Friedman's theory is open to attack and that is on the question of adjustment costs involved in relative price changes as a result of a monetary diturbance.

I am not convinced that the final chapter should not have been the first but it certainly fits nicely into the logic of the book that Eamonn Butler has written so well.

This is a book that is enthusiastically recommended for any student of economics or even just an interested reader. Should also be required reading for anyone going into public service for the first time but then so should much of Eamonn Butler's other work which comes from the Adam Smith Institute.

This has grown to be my favourite Inspector Morse of the entire Morse series! The more I watch this the more enchanted I become with it uncovering little pieces each time. Exquisite indeed!

The murder is set in the arcane world of examiantion boards which were affiliated to some of England's major universities as arbiters of the academic development of students at ages 16 and 18. This obscure branch of academia is nonetheless an ivory tower existance disguising basic human failings of jealousy, greed etc.

When a relatively new examiner is found dead at home the detectives seem to be looking beyond the workplace but in the course of the investigation the examination board becomes the centre of attention.

Essential Morse has three main interests, his love of opera, his appreciation of real ale (microbrews in American parlance), and his fascination of crosswords. It is in the last of these that we find the core to this story. As always the story is composed like a crossword such that the clues must be solved before completing the case. Here, however, the crossword assumes a much greater role. One of the other examiners, and as such a suspect, turns out to be an intellectual hero of Morse, Daedalus, who sets a particu;arly challenging crossword which gives Morse great pleasure. The two men share similar interests and it becomes apparent that they have a similar view of the world. They become competitors in trying to resolve the case but only until Daedalus (played superbly by Michael Gough) is also murdered although he leaves some difficult clues behind.

Another dimension to this story is the love interest of examiner Monica. Again there is a crossword perspective. Morse is intrigued by the physical and intellectual beauty of this woman, but as usual he cannot solve the clues to understanding her. He is torn between his feelings for her as a person and the growing suspicion that she is somehow involved in the murders. Ultimately this conflict is only resolved when it is too late.

The plot twists and turns and has several blind allies but it is compulsive viweing and by the device of Daedelus we get to see a mirror image of Morse the man. Kevin Whately puts in another superb performance as the long suffering Lewis who we perceive as the apprentice of the master but also the master's concience.

An excellent vintage and quite excellent indeed.

The DVD version is a little disappointing in that it delivers a full-screen format with a cleaner sound. Moreover Barrington Phelong's incidental music does not benefit from the transfer. It would certainly benefit from a remastering. The other additional features are minimal but did make me replay the Jeremy Brett version of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sign of Four" shortly afterwards to find John Thaw in fine form. I am sure that Inspector Morse fans would appreciate the show even more if it was available in the widescreen format but I am afraid that that is unlikely.

Still, this remains an exceptional introduction to the Morse series and an absolute must have for one's fledling DVD collection.

I was a little trepidatious about buying this album, after all five years is an eternity in elctronika/ambience.

You can imagine the feelings of apprehension being replaced with relief then sheer joy at the discovery of this album.

Playing it the first time was a delight at the recognition of some of the samples particularly Terry Riley with In C and Poppy Nogood and also the Neu but the album is about more than samples.

Loop Guru have created an ambience of chilled out sounds which are international yet distinctly British and yet also Indian sub-continent. Where they have done wondrous things is to create patterns of delight for imbibers and otherwise which make the album almost a single track. The tracks themselves are also like a pattern with interweaving which transcends formal boundaries. It is an inspiring album and yet it is laid back.

I love this. It reminds me so much of Quintessence in their heyday when the combination of the band's musicians in free form improvisations would generate patterns of such beauty they were ecstatic in nature.

What a difference the conjunction of cultures has made to Britsh society and art. This is the music of Henley and cricket as much as the music of Birmingham and London. Music of the spheres, of the Ganges and the Thames. The sun may have set on the British Empire but it is certainly rising again on British music and popular culture.

Long Live Loop Guru!

This is a really difficult review for me to write. I have been, and still am, an ardent supporter of the work of these two gentlemen, for many years. Wowed and zowed by their albums since day one.

I have played this album over and over, like other reviewers. I have played it softly and loudly, on OK sytems and good sytems. I have listened to it intently and as just music in the car.

It has everything one could wish for, great tunes, great lyrics, humor and pathos, fine singing, fine musicianship. It is well crafted with all of those great little flourishes and restraints. There are some awesome pieces hidden away in the overall sound.

There is not a bad or second rate apect to this whole album. It has progressed from the last but seems a logical extension of it.

You would think it is the perfect Steely Dan album. A sublime piece of excellence.

But I cannot help but feel that something is missing. It nags away at me on every listen but I cannot put my finger on the cause.

Maybe it needs a little touch of the serpent.

I very much enjoyed reading this second collection of articles from Mr. Ridley's now defunct column about the cant and hyperbole published by many of the so-callled green and environmental campaigners.

Mr. Ridley writes in a refreshing, fun way about serious issues which confront the environment without the pretentiousness and certainty that many campaigners do. He writes with irony and mocks a lot of the claims which are made but not substantiated by many alarmists. He also writes on the basis of having some knowledge and experience of the subjects he writes about which is a little unusual for this area.

I like the brevity and conciseness of the articles written on the level that the man on the Ashington Omnibus would understand without being offended by. He speaks to the regular individual who cares about his surroundings as much as anyone else.

Most of all I like the refreshing way that he exposes the environmental lobbies as being what they really are - self-serving organizations which create and maintain jobs for people out of touch with the realities of the world who go from one junket to another often without coming into contact with the environment at all.

This is an excellent little book both serious and amusing. Let us hope that the author will find another voice for us to share soon.

As a boy growing up in Sunderland I was always was aware of the weeds growing amid the rubble of derelict building sites and on visits to my grandparents in the local countryside I would pass the multi-coloured fields replete with cows and sheep. Mostly I remember the many shapes and sizes of butterflies who were very abundant. Forty or so years later on a recent visit I discovered the air being full of the heavy odour of the oil-seed rape who'se colour is like a giant highlighter marked across the land. And few butterflies!

Mark Pennington narrates a tale of a power struggle between those living and working on the land and on the other hand government as well as pressure groups supposedly concerned with the countryside and the Ramblers Association who want to trample the whole of Britain underfoot.

It is a fascinating tale which traces the gradual extinction of individual rights of ownership under both Conservative and Labour governments which extend to almost every aspect of life. Houses cannot be built, fields cannot be sown, trespassers can roam anywhere strewing refuse without challenge. Over all of this presides the distant European Union which has followed disastrous agricultural policies almost since it's inception in the 1950's and continues to do so today.

The English countryside is often portrayed as an unchanging familiar landscape where the natural features have been preserved for the general population over the years. The propaganda of England's pleasant lands is a powerful resonant force in the country. Pennington shows how successive government policies have shaped and changed that countryside over the years and not always in the best possible way. The worst example is the rise and spread of the sitka spruce at the expense of the traditional broadleaf a spread which has decimated the Scottish countryside at the cost of millions to the taxpayer and for little obvious benefit to anyone.

Pennington articulates a strong case for privatisation. Privatisation in the sense of restoring rights to individual farmers and landowners who are often castigated for their errors by the same politicians and pressure groups who have devastated the countryside to such a great extent. Their errors and mistakes pale into insignificance but were contained by their relatively small scales.

British politicians gather votes by campaigning to save the rural post offices or some other relatively slight issue while pursuing policies which cause the biggest impact. After over fifty years you might expect some politicians to realise that the answer is not big overbearing government but small scale individual ownership and accountability. Mark Pennington has done an excellent service in bringing these issues to public scruting.

On a final note I cannot help but state my final observation about the English landscape from my last visit. There were hardly any butterflies!