Mississippi McDowell's wise words

The lyrics to You Got To Move, a McDowell song covered by the Rolling Stones on their Sticky Fingers album in 1971 (here they are playing it live), are inscribed on the headstone of Mississippi Fred's grave in Panola County, Mississippi. McDowell was highly influential blues player and is considered the father of hill country blues.


Photo by 'joseph a' from Flickr.

The Shield

After watching 89 episodes of 7 seasons of US TV's The Shield DVD box set over the last 4 months, I finally reached the end the other day. It's 'the story of an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct where some of the cops aren't above breaking the rules or working against their associates to both keep the streets safe and their self-interests intact.'


An awesome made-for-TV series, engaging beyond the norm of television. Dating from 2002-08, it was shown on FiveUSA UK Channel at 11pm on Sunday nights, a time guaranteed not to hit the jackpot in our household.

Vic Mackey, the lead character played by Michael Chiklis, is so watchable as the bad-but-good detective who does everything his way. The sub-plots in each episode all wind cleverly around each other - both the writing and the editing are excellent. The visual work, done by two hand-held cameramen, is what is said to give The Shield its unique look and feel.


Forest Whitaker (who won an Oscar for The Last King of Africa) plays an internal investigator Jon Kavanaugh who Mackey consistently manages to stay one step ahead of,  and Glenn Close, who briefly takes over as the police station Captain; both feature in just a couple of the seasons.

IMDB 8.9/10 - and worth every decimal point above the 8. 


89 x 45min episodes (plus the voiceovers and deleted scenes) amount to nearly three days of my life - a sobering thought, but only lost sleep, really. To think I have never even watched a single episode of The Sopranos, yet. Only 5 more seasons to watch of West Wing, too... No wonder TV is so much more 'on demand' nowadays. No adverts, either, if you use the boxed DVD sets.

Fever Pitch in Fairlight

To Fairlight in East Sussex with Fever Pitch for a charity fund-raising choral concert. Right next to Hastings, the walk beforehand along the Firehills footpath overlooking the sea and the bay over to Dungeness marshes, wind farm and power station were glorious on this fine late summer afternoon. 

We came across an unusual wedding in a tiny chapel right by Pett Level seafront, where a bagpiper played in a Tam-o'-Shantered and bewhiskered groom and his glamorous wife.

After a trip up St Andrew's church tower, from where there are unexpectedly wonderful views, we sang a mixed programme of Bach to Beatles. The usual Fever Pitch eclectic mix included a Bach motet and English traditional folk song arrangements. 


Sadly, we missed the chance to celebrate Richard D'Oyly Carte (founder of the Savoy Theatre, Savoy Hotel, and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which produced the Gilbert and Sullivan light operas) and Anglican choral composer Thomas Attwood Walmisley, who are both buried in the churchyard.

Mark Who?

Mark Zuckerberg - if you've never heard of him then it's not surprising. But he is one of the co-founders of Facebook and The New Yorker magazine has an interesting interview with him here.

Not to be confused, of course, with Justin Timberlake (below), who is not playing Mr Zuckerberg in the upcoming movie, The Social Network. Jesse Eisenberg apparently has that privilege.