Tom Roper's Weblog

Newbury

I'm not going anywhere near this all-weather nonsense at Lingfield. Today, at Newbury:

205: How's Business
240: Cue to Cue
340: On Borrowed Wings

These are posted a little late, but in the interests of posterity, I record them anyway.

Franz is unwell

I am looking forward to Radio 3's Spirit of Schubert season. All his music will be played, at one point or another, over . They have gone to town with social media, with a Tumblr and a Twitter account, the latter under the name Franz is unwell.

My introduction to Schubert came I think through the pages of Look and Learn, an improving magazine for young people which, strange child that I was, I begged my parents to buy me. Every week there was a single page cartoon strip biography of a famous figure from history. I remember Schubert's, and one illustration in particular which depicted a plump bespectacled man in a Vienna café, composing on the back of a menu. I remember learning that he died young, in miserable circumstances, though the magazine had not one word about syphilis in it. Later, the very first piece of music I played in an orchestra was the Rosamunde overture, under the genial baton of Graham Sudbury, the school music master. There is a clarinet figure a little way in,  not technically difficult at all, but to an eleven-year old, terrifyingly exposed. I took the part home and practised and practised. A treasured eighteenth birthday present was a recording of the Tod und das Mädchen quartet. I played the Impromptus on a cassette in the first car I owned, driving to the funeral of my parents' closest friend. I transferred the CDs of the Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore's lieder recordings onto my first iPod..

I am intrigued by Twitter accounts in the names of the long-dead and famous. Though I follow no living celebrities, apart from Stephen Fry, and this only because the government has decreed that all British citizens must follow @stephenfry, I find the tweets of such as @AlexanderIII or @MmedePomp, to name but two, endlessly fascinating. There are two modes of tweeting if you are a dead historical character; in the first the tweets are more or less entirely made up of the character's sayings or writing; in the second the character will comment on twenty-first century events and concerns. I have nothing but admiration for the people behind these accounts. Apart from a deep knowledge of one's subject, the tweeter must be endlessly resourceful to maintain a string of entertaining tweets. I could never do it. Mind you, has anyone claimed Edward Gibbon?

The return of Brighton LibTeachMeet

The second Brighton LibTeachMeet last night was one of the occasions at which one really understands what it means to be part of a profession.  Held under the auspices of the CILIP Sussex sub-branch, and ably chaired by Melinda Davies, @medav, Clinical Librarian at our hosts, the Brighton and Sussex NHS Library and Knowledge Service, we heard speakers from health, universities and public libraries. Apart from some technical difficulties, inevitable when trying to support a twenty-first century event with the legendarily unhelpful NHS IT network, it was a great success. I couldn't live-tweet, so I offer some notes below on the speakers; I've given Twitter accounts where I know them.

Jil Fairclough (Brighton and Sussex Medical School, @bsms38) - Not outreach – inreach: getting to medical students: Jil showed us how library and knowledge services have integrated themselves into the medical school curriculum.

Tom Roper (West Sussex Knowledge & Libraries, NHS, @tomroper) - Marketing an outreach service in West Sussex the rolling English drunkard way: I shall say nothing about this presentation. My slides are on Slideshare, if anyone wants them, and I've embedded them at the end of this post.

Richard Hawkins (CILIP, @usernametaken10) - Live streaming events: a quick start guide: Richard wanted to show us live streaming in action, but was frustrated by the NHS firewall, though he and the organisers had asked for the relevant ports to be opened well in advance. He showed us how it's done, with witty illustrations of his own devising, and referred us to the CILIP Bambuser channel for examples.

Gary Green (Surrey County Council Library Service, @ggnewed) - Spreading the word using ifttt.com: Gary managed to make me understand how iftt.com works; I signed up for an account ages ago, but have never used it. Now I shall.

Ceris Howard (East Sussex Public Libraries) - Promoting public library services to teens: Ceris told us how East Sussex reach young people. One of her points applies to any group, that is, if you ask people what they want, you should act on what they tell you. A simple point, but often neglected.

Joseph Norwood (University of Sussex, @DreamingEntity) - Targeted Tweeting: How to find out who's really using your social media and how to connect with them: Joseph showed how he had analysed Twitter followers of the @SussexUniCareers account which he runs, and introduced scheduled tweeting, to make sure tweets appear at times when they will get maximum exposure.

Emma Illingworth (University of Brighton, @wigglesweets) - National Libraries Day 2012 - a national campaign - a local experience: Emma told us about how the University worked with the public libraries to use National Libraries Day to promote both services.

Rebecca Somers (West Sussex Libraries) – Outreach, engaging with families in the community: Becky told us about her work with hard-to-reach families in areas of social deprivation in the north of the county. I hope her slides will be up soon, as I look forward to seeing her photographs.

Ed Boyden (University of Sussex) – QR code use in the library as a way to report high levels of noise in silent study areas: Ed had come up with a fascinating and original idea. If readers are bothered by noise in silent areas, they can scan a QR code in a poster on the wall, which sends a text to the Duty Librarian, who will come running to chastise the wrong-doers.

Suzanne Tatham (University of Sussex) - Suggest a Book: Promoting Library Services at the University of Sussex: Suzanne showed us how they had used Facebook to take, and respond to, suggestions for stock; see http://www.facebook.com/suggestabooksussex. Some in the audience questioned whether this might not lead to long debates about selection decisions but it seems an interesting precursor of the move to user-selected stock and an excellent way to generate debate about collection development policies, something we usually pay lip-service to when writing and promulgating such documents.

Gary Green – Stats in a big font: Gary came back to tell us how, as part of an internal marketing campaign, he had simplified, and increased the impact of statistical presentations to library staff.

Tomroper libteachmeet 20 march

View more presentations from tomroper.

Cheltenham 2012: Gold Cup day

130: Baby Mix
205: Citizenship
240: Brindisi Breeze
320: Long Run
400: Cloudy Lane
440: Bourne
515: Astracad

Cheltenham 2012: Ladbrokes World Hurdle day

I had but one winner yesterday. Let's try again.

130: Sir des Champs
205: Our Father
240: Somersby
320: Thousand Stars
400: Hector's Choice
440: Up The Beat

Cheltenham 2012: Queen Mother Champion Chase Day

I can't claim that any great insight led to my two short-priced winners yesterday. Let's try again today:

130: Teaforthree
205: Monksland
240: Grands Crus
320:  Sizing Europe
400: Abergavenny
440: Vendor
515: New Year's Eve

Cheltenham 2012: Champion Hurdle Day

In a few hours, when the great cheer goes up that marks the first race of another Cheltenham festival, I'll be at the Speak Up for Libraries Lobby. I hope to see some of the races later on.

My betting strategy is often deliberately contrary, but today, even my twisted brain cannot find reasons to oppose the three odds-on favourites, Sprinter Sacre, Hurricane Fly and Quevega . The intellectual puzzles lie in the other races, not least the Cross Country. If the field remember to follow the course correctly, I think Willie Mullins Scotsirish has  a great chance.

1.30: Darlan
205: Sprinter Sacre
240: The Package
320: Hurricane Fly
400: Scotsirish
440: Quevega
515: Carrickboy

Newbury, Doncaster and Kelso

Newbury 310: Aerial
Doncaster 325: Benny Be Good
Kelso 335: Captain Conan

Chepstow, Kempton and Newcastle, and mating call of the eider duck

I've always been fond of eiders. I have never verified this, but I imagine that this afternoon's big race, the Eider Chase at Newcastle, is named after the bird: there is a colony on the Farne Islands. I have seen them occasionally, in St James's Park, and enjoyed the curious mating call of the male. The race is a tough four miles and one furlong. I have gone for James Reveley's Eyre Square

305 Kempton: Michel Le Bon
325 Newcastle: Eyre Square
345 Chepstow: Educated Evans

Out, vile jelly! Hecuba: the 2012 King's College London Greek play

Euripides' Hecuba is not often performed. I'm not sure why. Euripides also dealt with the aftermath of the sack of Troy in Andromache, and in the Trojan Women, which seem to appeal most to modern taste. The Archices of Performance of Greek and Roman Drama (whose database is being rebuilt) lists no British productions in the original since 1827. So it was bold of King's College London, and the director, Roseanne Long, to put the play on as their 2012 production, and equally courageous of the young cast, not all of them classicists, to act in a difficult and in some cases unfamiliar language.

It is a revenge play. At the end. the body count consists of Hecuba's daughter Polyxena, sacrificed to appease the ghost of Achilles and to secure a wind to blow the Greek ships off the Thracian coast, and her son Polydorus, whose ghost introduces the action, murdered by Polymestor for the Trojan gold he has brought with him. Hecuba seeks no revenge for Polyxena, but, with the Trojan women, lures Polymestor and his children into her tent, killing them and blinding their father with their brooch-pins. His eyes streaming with blood, Polymestor prophesies that Agamemmnon and Cassandra, Hecuba's other surviving child, will be murdered on their arrival in Greece and that Hecuba will be changed into a dog and thrown herself from the top mast of their ship.

The director said that she had deliberately chosen a traditional production, with a masked chorus singing the odes. Hecuba, played by Georgia Pearce, was queenly, impressively so for such a young actress, and was one of the non-classicists in the cast. Polymestor was agreeably hypocritical and avaricious.  Agaememnon and Odysseus, played by native Greek speakers, had admirable military presence. Other parts, Polydorus's ghost, Polyxena, the herald Talthybilis and the Maid were played confidently. If I had a quibble, it was that the chorus were a little unassertive.

I am sure there is a thesis to be written, if it hasn't been already, on blinding in the theatre. Polymestor's deserved fate, for transgressing the duty to a stranger-guest, reminded of Oedipus, of course, but also of Gloucester's blinding in King Lear. I remember the shock the first time I saw the play at the Arts in Cambridge;  I knew the text well enough, but that did not prepare me for this Cornwall (who was the actor?) who not only gouged out eyes, but stamped on them on the floor as he uttered the lines, 'out, vile jelly'.

The experience of seeing a play in a language one understands imperfectly is interesting. I remember a trip, as a sixth-former to a cramming fortnight in Paris for A level French. English boys and girls from all over the country were billeted in a French lycée over the Easter holiday, and subjected to intensive tuition. There was an optional trip to the Comédie-Française, to see a Molière play, I forget which. Only I and one other student put our names down and so Phillipa, as I remember her name, and I were dispatched across Paris to see a play neither of us knew. She was a far better scholar than me, and I was lost from the first few lines. She also had the misfortune to be escorted around Paris by a maladroit teenage boy; I am sure I could have made the experience more agreeable for her. I apologise now, if not too late.

I have also seen plays in German, and many in Greek. Learning from my mistakes, these days I learn the text in advance, and try my best to ignore the sur-titles, though they can be very seductive. I have nothing but admiration for the actors, who need not only to understand, but to deliver the text in a dramatically exciting way.