Matthew Walton’s Blog

Living in Halls is tricky for another reason — music. Not the stuff my computer reproduces for me for hours on end, because I can turn that down or listen using headphones if necessary. I’m talking about the music produced by recorder when I’m playing it (yes it is the same sort of recorder people learn at primary school, and yes it really is a real instrument for which there is real music). Whether that’s actually music most of the time is debateable. I’m having lessons because I’m not very good.

Of course, everyone knows that to get better at an instrument you have to practice.

But where does one practice when the walls aren’t very soundproof and you’re sure half the building can hear you and is giggling, or storming to your door in a rage to beat it down and kill you? I have a lesson tomorrow and I’ve not done what I should have done. This is not going to go well if it continues, as I won’t be improving at any kind of rate at all.

What am I going to do?

So I’m four weeks into my PhD. I could say a lot. In fact, I could complain a lot. I could complain about living in Halls (and I have done repeatedly to my friends here and on the Internet, sorry guys and girls but it does help to share these things). Really I’ve been lucky — lucky with my flatmates, who aren’t really all that irritating and are mostly clean and well-behaved with remarkably good taste in music (i.e. I’ve not heard much of theirs and they’ve not complained about mine). No fire alarms in the middle of the night yet despite the ominous behaviour of people in the rest of the building. I don’t necessarily like them, I don’t like how they shout their way up and down the stairs, how they smoke outside my window, how they sing and shout in the car park and play football in it.

But they could be worse.

The thing I like best about this is the freedom. Being a PhD student gives me considerable leeway with regard to what I’m doing and how I go about doing it. To be honest I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I’m told that’s perfectly normal at this stage. The atmosphere in the department is very relaxed most of the time, everyone’s very nice and I like going into the office. Would be better if the desk was the right size for me (as usual I’m too big for everything) but it might suffice for a while. The possibility still exists to get something better, as that hasn’t been investigated yet and so nobody’s said no to me yet. Not sure if health and safety regs cover me as they would if I was an employee of the department, and I know I don’t have the status of a staff member for some things, but in other things they’re treating me like one so who knows? I shall of course investigate every possibility I can.

Supervision meeting this week. Maybe I’ll have a better idea where I’m going after I’ve had it. Louise has been extremely helpful and facilitating so far, may that continue until I’ve passed my viva.

Last night I went to see “Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit”, the first feature-length film starring the fantastic Plasticine duo. Not the dynamic duo, I doubt anybody’s successfully managed to model tights in Plasticine, and Wallace and Gromit are completely free of campiness.

I’m not going to write too much about the film, because at some point I’m going to reveal things which should not be revealed except through the act of watching the film instead. Let me instead say that the film is absolutely brilliant and should therefore be watched immediately, by as many people as possible. Serenity should also, but Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (and that’s just a brilliant title) will appeal to a great many more people.

Get to the cinema now.

Well, I’ve had my first-ever proper recorder lesson. An interesting experience, and full of useful information it’s going to take me weeks to get a handle on. Next week’s will presumably be more of the same, and I’m looking forward to it. This is the point where I can actually learn to play properly, rather than just by blowing down the instrument and fingering correctly.

The problem of course is that practising in Halls isn’t particularly good if you want to make your neighbours happy — at least, not if you’re as bad at this as I am.

Last night I saw the wonderful Kate Rusby at De Montfort Hall in Leicester. It’s just a short train journey from Nottingham, and then a ten minute walk from the station, so was really quite convenient. As at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Kate and the band were witty and did lots of talking. There still seems to be an obsession with developing the perfect mashed potato — the technique appears to have been modified since the folk festival. The music, of course, was excellent. I only caught one mistake, an easy enough one to make during ‘Let Me Be’. It continues to amaze me that these people can play so many songs without any music. All that in their memories… amazing.

But then the amount of rehearsal involved in recording the songs in the first place probably burns it into the mind forever.

De Montfort Hall is an excellent venue — big, impressive, fairly comfortable. And I got one of the best seats in the house, with plenty of legroom due to having the aisle providing access to the rear circle right in front of me, and with an excellent view of the stage.

If you get the chance to see someone you like there, it’s definitely worth it.