Into the labyrinth of remembered music

Some music never leaves you. In the late 70's or very early 80's there was a television advertisement featuring an offshore oil drilling platform. I think it was for BHP or Esso. I don't remember much about it but that the music went something like this (mp3). It stayed with me and I wrote something that used those elements, which is what you hear in the clip.

The music is played in the Dorian mode. That mode was used again in a television show I watched on ABC Television in the eighties and again it stuck with me. I found it in my head last night and finally decided to try to find it.

I seemed to recall that it was written by a Carl, maybe Carl Davis or Carl Vine, but that search returned fruitless. So I dredged up what I could remember and tried:

"1980s English tv series children underground magic kingdom"

Success! It was a series called Into the Labyrinth about three children who travel through time searching for a magical object called "The Nidus" and the music was composed by Sidney Sagar.

Several episodes are available on YouTube.

Now, what I remembered of the music (mp3) is a little different to the actual segment from Sidney Sagar's score (mp3), though it is better developed towards the end of this clip:

I found a few other television shows from my childhood on YouTube. Children of the Dog Star was another whose music has stayed with me.

Such cheesy Amiga graphics from New Zealand! Also from the same New Zealand team was Under the Mountain with the scary Wilberforces.

Finally, Chocky, whose music I had forgotten.

Some of my childhood series, like The Goodies and Monkey Magic, I've managed to share with my son. And some shows from my childhood continue to this day, such as Doctor Who and, on the big screen, Star Wars (the Last Jedi will be released this week). Their music has made a huge impact on my life - witness all the concerts I've attended! But listening back to some of these other shows it's interesting how epic the music is remembered in your mind, but how cheesy it often sounds when listened to in the actual show. Into the Labyrinth was filmed in Cheddar!

TV vs Tablet

I inadvertently performed a little test of consuming a television program via a television as compared with a tablet.

After catching up with the previous episode of the ABC's excellent series Cleverman on their iView app on my tablet I then watched the following episode "live" on a dumb television.

On iView I had constantly paused at the difficult bits, when I wanted more information about something or been interrupted. Now that wasn't possible - it was all in one go.

I quite enjoyed it, plus the 576i picture quality looked better on a 37" full HD screen at a distance than on a 10" 2K screen up close.

Didn't stop me from catching up on some Chaser's Election Desk on iView afterwards. The freedom of being able to watch things at your own convenience is great, but so is doing something free of distraction.

Time and Relative Dimensions in Cake: Baking a TARDIS (and a Dalek)

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." The Doctor, Blink

There was an incident fifty years ago this month. Another that happened a tenth of that time ago at almost the same time of year. The two events are not connected by cause and effect, except they were today and by a big ball of squeezy wheezy blue stuff.

On November 23 this year we celebrate fifty years of Doctor Who. I'm not that old (though my Mum shares a name of one of his original companions), but I grew up watching the British series. I've been fortunate enough too my son Alex has similarly developed an enjoyment of the program and asked for a Doctor Who cake to celebrate his birthday this year.

What better way to celebrate five and fifty years with a cake of the Doctor's time machine, a blue policebox called the TARDIS? After all, it's rectangular, which hopefully meant it would be relatively easy to bake and decorate. We may have been "forced" to outsource the party to a play centre this year, but at least can put some effort into a decent cake.

Cake decorating seems to have expanded into more general society, judging by the number of cake decorating shops and shows on the topic on Pay TV. I have a couple of colleagues at work who are obsessed by the subject. Neither my wife B nor I are professional, semi-professional or even vaguely professional cake decorators. However, articles on the Internet and various YouTube videos make it seem a lot easier than it actually is.

Armed with a YouTube video and a few blog posts we set about making the TARDIS. Whilst the TV version may be bigger on the inside than the outside ours was just cake on the inside covered with icing.

Baking the actual cakes was the easy bit. B did the orange cake and I the chocolate mud cake (sans coffee). Both recipes are delicious. That night we also made the chocolate modelling paste to construct the outer shell of the TARDIS cake. We used melted white chocolate, corn derived glucose syrup and blue gel dye. This formed a thick blue dough which we rolled up and left overnight and into the next day.

I printed out a picture of the TARDIS as a template, but it was too large. How large should the template be? This is where relative dimensions come in, along with a bit of math. Yes, mathematics is useful!

Volume (V) = height (H) x width (W) x depth (D)

First find the maximum volume of cake available for use (Vc) by using the above equation (Vc = Hc x Wc x Dc) and the dimensions of the cake. Also we need to calculate the relative scale of the TARDIS (t) by using the dimensions of the template (m) where the dimensions can be written as a ratio with one side = 1. Despite the template being only two dimensional we know the depth = width as the base of the TARDIS is square. We need

Vt = Ht x Wt x Dt = (Hm x Wm x Dm)/Dm . Because of the square base this simplifies to Vt = Hm/Dm (neglecting units here).

For your information, Hm/Dm comes out to be about 1.6. So the TARDIS dimensions are of the ration 1:1:1.6.

If we let H, W, D be the dimensions that we'll use for our cake and taking advantage of the fact that the base is square then we get:

D = (Vc * Dm / Hm) ^ 1/3
W = D
H = Hm/Dm * D

And those are the dimensions that you need to make the cake. This meant carving the cake into blocks and pasting together with butter cream. The whole lot was covered with butter cream. We then cut out the four vertical sides of the TARDIS from the blue chocolate modelling paste with white icing for the windows and black writing icing for details. I printed the signs on ordinary paper and cut them out - they stuck easily enough to the chocolate.

And there you have it!

Alex gets a second birthday party at childcare, where he has a Doctor Who obsessed teacher. So we made a simpler Dalek cake using leftover red fondant from the previous year's birthday cake (briefly microwaved to soften), liquorice strips and chocolate coated marshmallows.

Now I've educated you about some mathematics, maybe you would like to read Andy Connelly's article in the Guardian about the Science of Cake.

Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular - Sydney

It was Sydney's turn today to host the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular. Back in February the family attended one of the sold out Melbourne shows and I reviewed it as

One of the best concerts that I have attended. A perfect performance by the orchestra, choir and soloists as well as a wonderful atmosphere generated both by the production and the audience that attended it. The whole family loved it.

So how did Sydney compare?

A bit has changed between the two shows. I'm now more familiar with the music, having had time to listen to the Series 6 soundtrack. Much of the music of Series 6 takes a few listens to appreciate in full, but it is highly rewarding to do so.

Gone were the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Concordis Choir and the venue of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, to be replaced with The Metropolitan Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and that most famous of all concert halls in Australia: the Sydney Opera House.

Alex Kingston (River Song) and Mark Williams (Brian Williams) replaced Mark Sheppard (Canton Everett Delaware III) in hosting duties.

The line up of pieces to be played changed slightly, with An Untimely Arrival, Almost People Suite and the Closing Time Suite replaced by Brianosaurus and The Final Chapter of Amelia Pond.

I was quite curious to see how The Metropolitan Orchestra would perform as I've been quite disappointed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's performance in comparison to the Melbourne Symphony. At least the conductor would be the same Ben Foster who conducted not only in Melbourne, but for the series recording  themselves.

The Sydney Opera House is a lot tighter venue that the Melbourne Convention Centre. The foyer was chaos as Doctor Who attired patrons attempted to buy merchandise, pick up special memorabilia packs, purchase drinks or take photos with various Doctor Who cutouts and costumes. Fortunately there is an outdoor area, where we escaped to watch the Costa Romantica cruiseliner push past the Harbour Bridge and berth at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. I met a work colleague also attending the concert and we chatted while B and Alex bought a TARDIS soft toy. Then it was time to go in.

Our seats inside the concert hall were quite far back as the very large front sections were unaffordably expensive. Still, I don't think they were any further than in Melbourne. The hall was much narrower, however.

After a prerecorded introduction from Matt Smith, the current doctor, on the video screen behind the orchestra the performance began with A Madman in a Box. Immediately, I thought the Soprano Antoinette Halloran was tonally wrong, despite her flawless performance in Melbourne. In fact, the whole orchestra's sound seemed a bit off.

The reason why didn't hit me until Alex Kingston emerged to introduce herself and the next performance. She was typically sassy, taking full advantage of River Song character being a far more substantial member of the series than Mark Sheppard's Canton. However, her voice, and that of every other announcer, came out of the auditorium speakers sounding thin and missing in middle and base frequencies. Either the speaker system is flawed or the acoustics of the hall are faulty.

Unfortunately, these issues detracted from the entire concert for me. The orchestra sounded unbalanced, unlike the near perfect sound in Melbourne, but I just don't know if it was them or the venue. The choir too sounded unbalanced, with the male voices too weak. It looked to me that the choir had fewer members than in Melbourne.

Despite the problems, I did enjoy the concert, still got tingles down the spine when listening to The Majestic Tale of the Madman in a Box, the Saturnyne vampires in Liz, Lizards, Vampires and Vincent, farewelling Amy and Rory in The Final Chapter of Amelia Pond, the powerful countertenor voice of Daniel Bonic-Goodwin sing Vale Decem and the encore Song of Freedom.

It was also nice to hear from the composer Murray Gold, who again attended the concert.

Four year old Alex was a bit tired today and fell asleep during the beautiful Abigail's Song, to awake after the interval for the Daleks of Battle in the Skies. He asked too many questions during performances and complained later that the show was too long. Understandable, as he usually sleeps longer and some of the pieces are a bit slow for his age. I let him play Angry Birds on my phone for a while to keep him quiet. When the Daleks, Cybermen and other creatures appeared on stage Alex loved it. Especially, when a vampire lady stalked the aisle beside us. He also swung his arms around  in excitement, conducting and dancing, when he heard the recurring I Am The Doctor theme, his movements reaching fever pitch during the Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme. He was singing it out loud as we walked along to the Opera House.

Was it as good as Melbourne? Sadly, much as I still enjoyed this concert I could not answer yes to this question. Perhaps the orchestra and choir wasn't as good as the MSO and Concordis choir, but more than anything I blame the venue. The Sydney Opera House may be  the most famous piece of architecture in Australia, but I am certain now that there are serious issues with its acoustics and it's really starting to annoy me. (That, and the sloppy disdain for modern popular music held by the Sydney Symphony and those associated with it).

But if you are a Doctor Who fan and there are still seats to the Symphonic Spectacular available don't let my criticisms stop you. You must come and see the concert, because it really is spectacular and a lot of fun.

Music performed

The Madman With A Box
I Am The Doctor
Amy
A Stitch In Time
Brianosaurus
Abigail's Song
The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe Suite
INTERVAL
Battle In The Skies
The Majestic Tale Of A Madman In A Box
Liz, Lizards, Vampires & Vincent
The Wedding Of River Song
This Is Gallifrey/Vale Decem
Pandorica Suite
The Final Chapter of Amelia Pond
Song Of Freedom
Doctor Who Theme

Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular

Doctor Who is the world's longest running science fiction television show. It began over a decade before I was born and I grew up with it on our television, through the ABC endless repeats and new screenings (interestingly my Mum shared a married name with one of the Doctor's first companions). Now, thanks to the latest incarnation of the series my wife and three year old son have also been converted to Doctor Who fans. Alex has been known to run around his childcare shouting "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Throughout the Doctor's many incarnations two things have remained the same: his blue police box TARDIS space/time ship and Ron Grainer (an Australian!) and Delia Derbyshire's theme music. Since Doctor Who returned to our screens in 2005 this music has been joined by Murray Gold's spectacular incidental music. His highly complex and thematic compositions are one of the great highlights of the modern series, with nine compact disc worth's of music released so far by Silva Screen records.

When a colleague mentioned that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was performing a concert of Gold's music to Doctor Who I knew immediately that I had to go. When you are a fan of orchestral screen music in Australia you have to make the most of your limited opportunities and I've flown down to Melbourne a couple of times before for MSO concerts of John Williams music.

This time the whole family was going, so we made a short holiday of it, booking seats at the matinee session. When we arrived about 45 minutes prior to the performance the atrium of the Melbourne Convention Centre was already packed with people in fezzes, Tom Baker scarves and other Doctor Who related costumes. There were huge queues for merchandise and programs. Alex and I abandoned the queue for our seats in the hall once the entry chimes sounded, but B steadfastly refused to move, making it in just in time for the start of the performance, along with a t-shirt, program and the CD of the latest Doctor Who soundtrack, only just released in Australia.

According to the posters outside the symphony's box office at the Melbourne Town Hall both performances were sold out and I couldn't see a spare seat in the house. We were seated up in the balcony, with good views, but too far away from the orchestra for my liking. It also meant we were away from the various Doctor Who creatures that made appearances throughout the performance.

Having seen the 2010 Doctor Who at the Proms special on ABC we had a fair idea of what to expect, and indeed there were many similarities in the performances. Instead of regular companions Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) and Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), we had to make do with Mark Sheppard (Canton Everett Delaware III) as compare, though he did a fine job. Matt Smith's (The Doctor) appearance was limited to a prerecorded video segment, but honestly, I was just there for the music and wasn't expecting him. The biggest difference was the appearance of more music from Series 6.

I was a little disappointed by this, as I had not yet had the opportunity to listen to much from Series 6 prior to the performance and Murray Gold's music does reveal its full impact after a few listens. Furthermore, his music hasn't, to my knowledge, been played before in Australia and many of his earlier themes from the preceding five seasons are possibly a bit more exciting or emotional than some of the Series 6 selections. Time will tell, now that I've got the soundtrack to listen to!

It's really only a minor quibble though, as there was plenty of great music to be heard and the performance by the MSO was flawless. You'd hope that it was, with the original conductor and orchestrator Ben Foster waving the baton and Murray Gold himself in the audience and later on stage playing the keyboard. In the three times that I've heard the MSO I could not fault their performances. In contrast, I have often been disappointed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, even when conducted by the composer himself. I sometimes wonder if our local orchestra has the elitist attitude that if it ain't classical it ain't worth putting the effort in.

Also to be applauded were the Concordis choir, the soprano Antoinette Halloran and Tobias Cole, the countertenor. All were pitch perfect with no compromises on the performance of the music. There were times I had a tear in my eye the music was so beautiful.

I was a little surprised that proceedings started off with the relatively gentle The Mad Man With A Box, though the next piece An Untimely Arrival was much more dramatic as The Doctor crash lands in Amy Pond's garden. What got everyone going was one of Gold's most exciting themes: I Am The Doctor, concatenated with the rousing variation in Words Win Wars, including dialogue. It's certainly one of Alex's favourites.

The quiet theme for Amy followed. A Stitch In Time and The Almost People Suite featured music from Series 6, including music for pirates (Alex likes pirates), the embodiment of the Tardis and The Flesh. Abigail's Song was from the Series 5 Christmas edition, which I have only just discovered is available. The as yet unreleased The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe completed the session. Alex was getting a little agitated and welcomed the opportunity to get out during the 20 minute interval. The crowds at the merchandise stalls were still going strong.

On our return to our seats we were told that we were all Dalek slaves as a group of colourful Daleks patrolled the aisles to the music of Battle In The Skies. Alex loved it, but he was getting sleepy and nodded off during The Majestic Tale Of A Madman In A Box, despite its reuse of I Am The Doctor. Silurians and Saturnyne vampires appeared for Liz, Lizards, Vampires & Vincent, a suite of music from Series 5. I especially enjoyed the performance and it was difficult not to respond emotionally to the clips of Vincent Van Gogh on the screen that concluded the sequence.

Some more Series 6 music was performed with Closing The Suite and The Wedding Of River Song, then we were treated to Murray Gold arriving on stage before joining the orchestra on the piano. Alex awoke around then. As with the 2010 Proms the audience cheered with each regeneration of the Doctor, saving the loudest for David Tennant, as they were displayed above the orchestra playing This Is Gallifrey followed by Vale Decem. The former is one of my favourite themes and I would have appreciated actually being able to listen to it, but it's hard to deny the enthusiasm of the audience. I don't think this arrangement of This Is Gallifrey is as good as the album version anyway.

The Pandorica Suite saw a parade of monsters around the hall, including some scary looking Cybermen. Unfortunately, none made it near to us. That marked the official end of the program, but of course there were encores. The beautiful Song Of Freedom was complete with swaying tentacled Ood. The concert finally closed with Ron Grainer famous theme music to Doctor Who.

The Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular has to be one of the best concerts that I have attended. A perfect performance by the orchestra, choir and soloists as well as a wonderful atmosphere generated both by the production and the audience that attended it. The whole family loved it.

Music Performed

The Madman With A Box
An Untimely Arrival
I Am The Doctor
Amy
A Stitch In Time
Almost People Suite
Abigail's Song
The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe Suite
INTERVAL
Battle In The Skies
The Majestic Tale Of A Madman In A Box
Liz, Lizards, Vampires & Vincent
Closing The Suite
The Wedding Of River Song
This Is Gallifrey/Vale Decem
Pandorica Suite
Song Of Freedom
Doctor Who Theme

Train 'em up young

Everybody has a right to be an individual. Does the world really need another me? Probably not! But I can't help but want to share some of the twisted way that I grew up with my son. Think it as a way of connecting. And it looks like I am succeeding via the medium of music and television.

To ensure that Alex could share some of the experiences that I did when I was young I purchased a number of DVD's for our collection. The boxed set of all Monkey episodes and a number of Goodies episodes (and they are currently screening the series on ABC TV!).

So far the Monkey has mostly stayed in its box, but the Goodies has already had an effect. Alex sings out "Goodies! Goody goody yum yum!" and asks to watch them. I even taught him about lighthouses and rockets using a couple of episodes.

Occasionally Alex will also see a bit of the Thunderbirds on Saturday mornings. I used to set my alarm to wake up to watch them when I was a wittle boy.

This Wednesday I had another success. After playing the four CDs that comprise the Series 4 Specials and Series 5 soundtracks, then screening half of the first episode of Series 5 Alex suddenly started asking about "Doctor Who".

I may have to rearrange the couch so that he can hide behind it.

Malaysians make masterful meals

I must profess to rather enjoying the cooking competition series Masterchef, which is now back on TV, though I can only catch half an episode at most as the scheduling clashes with Alex's bath time.

The other night they had a challenge to recreate their fondest childhood food memories. Gosh, that would have been a challenge for me. Mum and dad cooked some okay food, but I cook and eat a whole lot better these days. Unsurprisingly, the challenge was won by Alvin, a Malaysian born contestant.

I say unsurprisingly because I contrast my childhood food experiences with that of my Malaysian wife. Food is possibly the single most important aspect of their culture. It's more than just laksas and curries. There are influences from India, Thailand, the West and the many provinces of China and the Arabs. The fusion of the Chinese and Malays with the Nyonya cuisine is an example. There are sweets and flatbreads, fruits and spices, noodles and soups. When we visit Malaysia it is mainly to eat!

Not only did B's parents own a restaurant and catering business, but eating out both at restaurants and the very cheap hawker stalls is very normal in Malaysia. And when they do cook  themselves it is often a feast of many dishes.

Last year's winner of Masterchef was Julie Goodwin. B bought her recently released recipe book and soon regretted it. You can see why she writes for Women's Weekly as her dishes are old fashioned Australia. Simple, heavy flavours that do not challenge the palate. Easy to cook comfort food. There is a place for that, but the recipe book was redundant.

The runner up, Poh Ling Yeow, also a Malaysian, is the exact opposite. She loves to experiment, while still exploring her culinary heritage. Plus her recipes and video are available for free on the ABC website.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to eat the wonderful meals dished up by my masterchef Malaysian wife (and try to contribute where I can!).

The ABC of BBC Comedy and TV

I'm excited to see that the ABC will be screening Psychoville from May 5. It's a black comedy from the creators of The League of Gentlemen, a very weird comedy of which I own all the DVD's. I watched the first episode of Psychoville on its very first screening last year while in London and couldn't wait to see more. 

Right now I'm enjoying the repeats of The Young Ones on Tuesdays on ABC2. It's utterly insane and absurdist comedy, so unlike the self-serious nature of most else on TV. Naturally, I can't watch it live, but fortunately the Playstation3 PlayTV recorded size is only about 1 gig so I can copy the files off the PS3 and on to a flash drive and watch it on my laptop in bed after everyone else is asleep.

PlayTV is set for the "other" region thanks to those stupid Australian Freeview restrictions that don't allow copying of programs out of PlayTV. It means that I can't record or view SBS using the PS3, but I have other recorders that can cope with that.

I also required the free VLC media player to watch the recordings on my PC's. I used to be able to use Windows Media Player, but something changed.

I recorded an episode of the new Doctor Who series on my laptop using my DVICO FusionTV usb dongle. The streamed file was over 10 gig in size! The included converter software fails on attempts to convert the software, but maybe that's just the small amount of free space left on my hard drive.

I'm really enjoying the new Doctor and the episodes, though you can tell that the producers were fans of the Tom Baker era. I do wish that the composer Murray Gold would reinstate "the middle 8th" in the main theme as it is my favourite bit of the music. We ended up watching the first episode on iView. We had it on the big television, then Alex decided to race around with his noisy toy lawnmower, then the mother-in-law arrived to interrupt us. We tried to play it later but Alex was woken up and started crying. ABC's iView is a pretty cool application and the quality was quite decent.

The other Time Lord

After a reasonably short delay (for us) we managed to watch the first part of the latest Doctor Who episode The End of Time. Timothy Dalton's appearance confirmed something I've long suspected: there is another Time Lord on Earth and he is not The Doctor or The Master. His name is Bond, James Bond.

I wonder if his TARDIS is disguised as an Aston Martin.

Mock Nobody - Television Star

You can catch my (probable) Logie award winning performance as Mock Nobody on ABC television's Catalyst science program or watch the video online. It may not be a speaking part, but my lugging around of an ancient Toshiba laptop computer was crucial to the portrayal of the whole wifi patent case. I'm sure that a movie deal is just around the corner!

Monkey tragic!

It's not just eyeVio that I am using to watch Japanese video. I just bought the boxed set DVD's of Monkey from the ABC Shop today. Now, at long last, I will be able to realise my childhood dream of watching the entire series. And maybe share a little of my childhood with my own child (I also have a boxed set of Goodies episodes). That is, if they can cope with the old fashioned special effects!

Check out the lyrics of the theme song to the series: Monkey Magic.

Born from an egg on a mountain top
The punkiest monkey that ever popped