Sound and Fury

Ignoring Buster’s exhortation we discuss diet and fitness. Plus, as we finish reading Murakami’s novels we make some reading recommendations; Norwegian Wood The Wind Up Bird Chronicle Kafka On The Shore 1Q84 And in our navel-gazing section this week we re-visit the Yanis Varoufakis podcast and discuss Brunei bookstores. Recommended impulse buys; George Orwell Essays John Updike: The Early Stories 1953 - 1975 Martin Amis: The Rub Of Time

Haruki Murakami is not awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize. We discuss other literary greats who also share that distinction - especially Leo Tolstoy.

Join me for a drive and a Thai curry as we continue our futile quest for headphone utopia. We discuss Netflix’s ‘The Expanse’ and beginning Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’.

With a little help from my friends I escape from Brunei for drinks across the border. So pull up a plastic chair and join John Inman and the Beatles as I wax lyrical about alcoholic bolt holes and Haruki Murakami- again.

We enjoy the wonders of a Bruneian sunset before tucking in to a 1983 London transport documentary. Guest starring Des O'Connor, David Essex and some Nazi war criminals.

Not quite everything you need to know about Brunei (but were afraid to ask) but an opening gambit in our exploration of how to survive in this intriguing country. We discuss everything from cycling with the Sultan to where to hear the Cutlery Concerto.

A quick update on my soft landing in Brunei, monkeys at the supermarket and finishing another Murakami.

As the Pattaya holiday draws to a close we discuss diaries, depression and early morning rituals.

In this podcast we chat with Kaz about his former life as a professional musician. We learn how Kaz established a viable musical career in London and we revisit his time working at Shakespeare's Globe theatre.

In this episode it was my privilege to chat with one of Thailand's most interesting and renowned writers, Jonathan Finch. Already a successful novelist and poet, Jonathan has more recently documented his life in Thailand, and the Pattaya bar scene. We also delve into Jonathan's deep reverence of Shakespeare and his other formative literary influences in a fascinating and wide ranging conversation. https://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Finch/e/B01B91HLIM https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/720802.Jonathan_Finch Website: https://authorjonathanfinch.com/ Twitter: Jonathan Finch ?@JonathanFinch12?

We discuss Japanese writer Haruki Murakami's 1987 novel 'Norwegian Wood'

In the lovely Sketchbook Art Cafe, Pattaya, I chat music and composition with the composer Marcus Tristan. Marcus Tristan is an award-winning and internationally performed composer who has very wide experience of composing music for a huge variety of musical and vocal ensembles. His music was described as ‘visionary’ by The St Petersburg Times. He was the Associate Composer with the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Klassika between 2003 and 2009. Marcus Tristan is a composer whose music has always been both innovative and, at the same time communicative with a wide audience. He has worked with some of the best musicians in the world, including a long-standing association with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir and Nicolai Korniev, who premièred a piece for 40 solo voices in the St Petersburg International Festival in 2009, the Coro Odyssea in Lisbon, and the inspirational Portuguese choral conductor Gonçalo Lourenço, who premièred Requiem in Indianapolis on 14th February 2013. He has also worked with poet Wendy Cope on an anthem that was premièred in Winchester Cathedral in 2010. He is currently working on an orchestra and choir piece called Ayutthaya Symphony commissioned by the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the yearlong festival to commemorate 250 years since the fall of the city of Ayutthaya to the Burmese in 1767. The composition will be premiered in April 2017. Website: www.marcustristan.wix.com/marcus-tristan

We discuss Jordan Peterson, discipline and meditation

Saying goodbye to my grandmother, holidaying in Thailand, Billie Holiday, Murakami and Radio 4's Shipping Forecast.

The end of the year is celebrated with style, panache and humour.

Woken and cheered by the workings of democracy we have a little chit-chat about the UK election.

Whilst wishing some late night roundabout traffic would conveniently evaporate, we remember the sci-fi classic 'Earth Abides', written by George R. Stewart in 1949.

Rob Mynott is placed firmly in the centre of the stereo field as we discuss the Beatles' 1967 masterpiece Sgt. Pepper. We talk about Giles Martin's new remix plus we find out all about Robert's loving recreation of the album. https://soundcloud.com/robmynott

America 1 Earth 0 'If I and my advisors had never learned what Science is or how & why it works, then I’d consider pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord too.' Neil deGrasse Tyson

Ruminating on Julian Assange's potential freedom leads to thoughts of other famous extradition cases; notably Roman Polanski and his particular take on Thomas Hardy's novel 'Tess of the D'Urbevilles', the bewitching beauty of Natasha Kinski, Mary Poppins at the Dubai Opera House and Charlie Brown style American school buses. We also explore colour literacy (again) and aliens in sci-fi movies. http://freeassangenow.org/