HR

A very domestic day filled with jobs, chores, errands and assorted work bits and bobs. Plus all the needs and requirements of not one, but now two, school-age children in the house. Children who can always be relied upon to keep me on my toes. I wouldn't have it any other way.

So, no cultural activities today, but just to recap, did end up going to see Tree Of Life last night as planned. A pretty extraordinary piece of work, by turns astonishing, beautiful, haunting, wonderful, brilliant, bewildering, baffling and at times it seemed like footage from a completely different film had been added to the mix somehow. To say it is a singular vision is to put it mildly, it looks like Terrence Malick has put his creation up there on the screen 100% undistilled with no interference from outside parties and certainly with little regard to possible audience reaction. There certainly won't be another film like it this year that's for sure. Whether that's a good thing depends entirely on your tastes.

Have been listening a lot today to the new album from Beirut, a group who in the past I've admired but have never actually got through an album of theirs from start to finish. It always seemed too busy, too much going on, and the stylistic inflections that at first seemed so invigorating soon palled. Not so on this new one, it's absolutely glorious right from the get-go. And when those trumpets kick in on the opening track, it makes everything seem alright.

[Full stream of the album can be found [url=http://www.npr.org/2011/08/07/138984737/first-listen-beirut-the-rip-tide?ps=mh_frhdl1]here[/url]]