da Pinchi?

By chance I have read both of the books in the current London trial about the Da Vinci Code, as well as Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.

The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail named Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln contest Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code as having many similarities with their work. They describe a secret society identified by Sauniere known as Priory of Sion dating back to the first crusade and creation of the Knights Templar. The assertion in the Leigh Teabing (sic) book was that the Merovingian dynasty were descendants of Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene. They used a cliffhanger episodic ending to chapters and say their style has also been pinched.

Rennes-le-Château, France is a key location in these conspiracy theories and secrets about the foundations of Catholicism. Rennes-le-Chateau involves claims about the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, Priory of Sion, the Rex Deus, the Holy Grail, the treasures of the Temple of Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant, ley lines, geometric alignments and is even site of the Gabriel Knight computer game.

Elements of the Jesus/Magdelane ideas were also incorporated into Umberto Eco's 1989 novel Foucault's Pendulum.

So, did Dan Brown like the ideas in the other books (some of which have been popular 2am coffee conversations, in any case), did he invent it all, drive his own separate investigation? or what?

When I read Da Vinci Code, I enjoyed it as an adventure yarn and enjoyed some of the references, such as the Louvre pyramid (where I have stood and passed my hand into the mystic point of pyramid focus, well before I read da Vinci) and I've also reflected briefly on the correlation between the various stories - not as 'theft' more as parallel musings on a related topic.

In my opinion, Dan Brown's earlier book Angels and Demons, may be his best defence. It was written years earlier and has some elementary plot similarities with the later novel. I read it and considered it as a test bed for the da Vinci novel. I read the demons book after da Vinci Code (like most people) and I'm sure I can't be the only one to spot thematic and plotline similarities.

And then, still in 2am coffee mode, there's the origin of Tarot cards, maybe as a catechism to pass on the secret messages?

Another one to watch for the next few days.

Tag: da vinci code, allegedly, Sauniere

flipped

Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, is Pancake Day. In the olden days, during Lent the eating of all dairy products was prohibited, so pancakes were made to use up eggs, milk and butter. The pancakes could be easily made and cooked in a pan or on a griddle. They were fried in butter or fat and served flat or rolled and sprinkled with powdered sugar, topped with preserves or sometimes doused with alcohol.

I prefer thin, flat pancakes, served individually, with lemon juice and sugar. And don't forget to flip them in the pan!

Tag: pancake, Lent

PJ-amarama

Yesterday's New York post was supposed to have a musical attachment, but it didn't work. I wanted to include a music track that had been going through my mind for a few days. Its Radiohead meets PJ Harvey - "the mess we're in" and I've edited on an introduction by PJ. So here is a second attempt, with another random photo from my wanderings in New York and the opening lines of the song..."Can you hear them, the helicopters? - I'm in New York - No need for words now."


Tag: music, guitar, PJ Harvey, radiohead

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

just a new york conversation

I think I spent the whole afternoon and evening on the phone to New York. Here's a random picture from my last visit to the great city. As the Lou Reed song goes...
I was sleeping, gently napping, when I heard the phone
Who is on the other end talking, am I even home
Did you see what she did to him, did you hear what they said
Just a new york conversation, rattling in my head

Tag: music, New York, Lou Reed

Christina sings

We've put up the first semi-complete version of 'long way down' across on Christina Nott's site (I admit I had/have a hand in making it). There is more of an account of producing the track over there - although its a long way from the detail of GuitarGAS.

John wants us to re-make a version with electric fuzzed guitar, but I suspect we will actually add some other instrumentation to the current version, such as keyboard and maybe some synthesiser strings.

I guess I shall need to crank up my X-station for that.

greatest hits?

What do Mara Carlyle, a Ford Ka and Mrs Henderson have in common...?

...They all seem to be amongst my daily hits to rashbre central. So as a special treat to whoever you are, here are all three together! And I will set up a shadow tag for all three as well.

Tag: ka, Mara Carlyle, Mrs Henderson Presents

bongo

Well it looks as if the Bongo Club will come through as a venue for Bubble and Squeek's production at the Edinburgh Fringe. The Bongo Club runs as a cafe, exhibition and rehearsal space during the day, and then transforms into a multi media venue for live music, theatre and clubs at night. It recently moved from its disintegrating site in New Street to a funky new location in Holyrood Road.
The Bongo Club specializes in the art and music of the underground, so is ideal for a mixed music, art and theatre piece about underground artists! The Bongo Club mixes live music, film, theatre and DJ's breaking the traditional mould for a nightclub.

What better place to stage a production?

In the words of the Scotsman, "The Bongo Club seems to have lost none of its inspired chaos."

This weekend the various papers are being examined and then the pre-production work will start in earnest in May. Expect updates here until the proper web site kicks in soon.

allegedly

lorry during robbery on security camera
The biggest ever cash robbery in UK history took place a couple of days ago near Tonbridge, in Kent, which is south east of London. The ruthless armed robbers stole circa £50m ($80m) and had held family members hostage at gunpoint and tied up members of the Tonbridge depot.

Now we hear that two days later a woman has been detained by police at a building society in south east London, when trying to pay in rather large sums of used banknotes, some of which allegedly had bands around them bearing the word 'Tonbridge'.

These hardened criminals have not watched enough movies and certainly not any Ealing Comedies to fall for that ol' trick. Another interesting element is the alleged recent lifestyle change of one of the members of the depot who has apparently recently placed a deposit on a rather expensive Spanish villa.

And £50m is a pile of banknotes 38 stories high, weighing between one and two tons.

I shall watch this unfold (unravel?) with interest.

Update 1

Photofit of one of the robbers pretending to be a policeman and image of Michael Caine as underworld crook Carter, from Get Carter

Update 2

Now the police have found a white transit van with some reasonable quantities of money in it parked at Ashford International Hotel, which is adjacent to the fast Eurostar rail link to France and Belgium.

The hotel is a good, oh, 20 miles from the robbery scene and is the big well-appointed hotel by the side of the rail link which has one station in the whole of England apart from London.

Here is my simplified map (distances in miles and all major twists and turns shown):

London-50->Tonbridge Robbery-20->Ashford-20->Dover->France

See the news video report

Tag: robbery, heist, Tonbridge, banknotes

фотографии

фотографии seems to be the Russian word for photograph. Debra says she doesn't speak Russian; I thought a quick expedition to Russia would be interesting, so I took a Russian word from an old post and dropped it into Technorati.

Bingo, it found some links. I selected the first one, found rusprimavera and browsed a few interesting photographs. Then I found a word that looks like photograph (фотографии) and selected it also on technorati. I now have an interesting selection of 'life in russia' pictures and accompanying blogs. Quirky, but fun.

Tag: фотографии, mad scientist

seven detags

I got tagged today by debra, who couldn't think of anything to write home about. And on a Thursday - which is really a Thursday Thirteen day. So I'll answer debra's Seven today and pass the tag along.



And as seven is such a powerful number, here are the seven chakras: Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishudda, Ajna, Sahasrara.

Seven things to do:
1 Make a difference
2 Perform a live gig at a music festival
3 Visit Tokyo
4 Get a book published
5 Cross Canada on a road trip
6 Help make Christina Nott famous
7 Make magic a constant part of my life

Seven things I can’t do:
1 sing convincingly
2 eat shellfish
3 watch television soaps
4 drink creme de menthe
5 make a U shape with my tongue
6 most blog tags
7 construction involving wood
8 count accurately (I'm fibbing)

Seven things that attract me to my mate:
1 love
2 caring
3 humour
4 sensuality
5 sharing
6 drive
7 opinions

Seven books I love:
1 Through the looking glass - Lewis Carroll
2 Gravity's rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
3 Girlfriend in a coma - Douglas Coupland
4 Pattern Recognition - William Gibson
5 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
6 The Prophet - Khalil Gibran
7 Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco

Seven things I say:
1 fabullariffic
2 ta
3 there is some fun going forward
4 eek
5 hmm
6 strangely strange but oddly normal
7 yay

Seven movies I’ve loved:
1 Casablanca
2 Moulin Rouge
3 Pulp Fiction
4 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
5 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
6 Mulholland Drive
7 Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Seven people to tag:
1 aetheria
2 unmade bed person
3 bookgirl
4 cq
5 nikki-ann
6 laquet
7 you

roof

Julie's car is back shiny and clean, with new tyres and through it's MoT. Now we must look forward to weather which will be good enough to lower the roof!