Return From Eden

It's amazing how some albums grow on you. Elbow's 'Cast of Thousands,' for instance. First time through and it somehow leaves you cold - but then you try to work out what it was you didn't like, and it's hard. You liked the metallic howls of 'Snooks (Progress Report)'; the clatter of 'Buttons and Zips' is still running through your mind; and you get chills just thinking about the end of 'Grace Under Pressure.' So you listen again, and realise that actually, there's not a bad song on the album - the weakest perhaps being the sketch-like 'I've Got Your Number' - so why are you not grabbed by the whole? And then you listen for the third time and realise, somewhere around the point where the melody of 'Ribcage' finally breaks free of the skittery stumble around it, that you get it. That it makes sense. That this really is one of the best albums you've heard in a long time.

I think too much. About everything, all the time. Music is just about the one thing that can make me stop thinking, and then only now and then, mostly when it's live. That's a big reason why I like going to gigs, and why seeing Elbow and PJ Harvey at the Eden Project last friday was so memorable. You get a venue like that, and it's easy to let the sound wash through you; to feel rather than think of Gus Garvey's anguished howl at the end of 'Newborn' leaving you breathless. At least, that's how I felt. After that, PJ Harvey had to work not to be put in the shade by her support, but she managed it, just about - running through vast reams of her back catalogue and extending to two encores in the process (although, as wg later pointed out, they missed a trick by not having Garvey sing Thom Yorke's part on 'This Mess We're In').

So that was a good evening. Thanks to wg, domh and danmilburn for going down with me and putting up with my incessant singing for the whole weekend (especially on the way back; functioning on two nights of minimal sleep with a bruised head, I'm not at my most considerate). We did a bunch other things whilst we were there; visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan, ambled along a few miles of the Cornish Coast (which I enjoyed; genes will out, I guess), ate copious amounts of fudge. Before and after (thursday evening and last night) I went to see films with Emilia and Rae (and a varied cast of extras): Koi Mil Gaya on thursday, Pirates of the Caribbean last night. All of these things deserve their own entries, but they'll have to wait because I need to work. Haven't even had the chance to check my friends page yet today: Hope you've all had a good time the past few days, as well.

Libraries

Giles would be outraged:

"The library has the potential to be the 'living room of the city' or a 'club for everyone'," says the report, Better Public Libraries, citing a score of developments as pathfinders for the new approach. "New libraries should increasingly be long-stay places for students, a safe haven for children, even a home from home. They should include cafes, lounge areas with sofas, and chill-out zones where young people can watch MTV, read magazines and listen to CDs on listening posts."

Necessary updating or cultural vandalism? I think I might be in the former camp on this one - I think the above paragraph is pretty much spot-on. Except maybe for the MTV part. Libraries should be places you want to go to relax and culture-surf. That should include all forms of culture - albeit with an emphasis on books, since they're less readily available elsewhere. Later opening hours and a less sterile environment would definitely help. Maybe it would be heading for a functionality-collision with the sort of book-cafes you're starting to see here and there, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The libraries are there: They just need to be better used.