The world from my window

One of my all-time musical heroes is eighty five today. Take a bow, Mr John Williams . You are epic. By Chris Devers (Flickr: DSC_0937.JPG) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons This man, this incredible man, has provided the soundtrack to so many wonderful films which have become the soundtracks to our lives. Of course, there's Star Wars and Jaws and ET and Indiana Jones . He also wrote the music to  Schindler's List, Lincoln (now there's a film for current times), Saving Private Ryan,   Memoirs of a Geisha, Home Alone and many, many more .  The man is a legend, bringing classical musical to the masses through these fantastically atmospheric film scores. How can anyone not like the theme to Jurassic Park ? So when Mr Grigg and I were travelling travelling up to Heathrow last year (on our way to Colombia, don't you know) and heard a plug on the radio for a special Radio 2  Friday Night Is Mus...

Day two of Four Country Bumpkins go to London and we find ourselves all brushing our teeth in the tiny bathroom at the same time and talking gibberish. It is like a cross between the crowded cabin scene from the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera and Marlon Brando in cotton wool mode in The Godfather . From Middlesex Street, we head down past St Paul's to the Tate Modern. The main turbine hall is dominated by a very large shipping container, a great big dark steel box on legs. We sneer as we join the crowds making tentative steps up the tailgate. It is completely black inside, and we are tiny in a great big world. Our hands reach out and we are surprised to touch soft baize walls. We feel more comfortable and head to the back of the box. Elevated, we look back from whence we came, towards the light and the tall shadows made by those entering and exiting. 'Now what was all that about?' I ask Mr Sheepwash afterwards. 'Oh, to me, it represents existential nihilism ...