http://blog.jameshiggs.com James Higgs's Blog Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:16:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you follow me on Twitter, it should be obvious that I didn't enjoy the last of Daniel Barenboim's Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle at the Festival Hall. My main purpose in going was to hear Schoenberg's brilliant Variations for Orchestra, op. 31 rather than the piano concerto, which I expected to ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2010/02/03/barenboims-three-ring-circus/ Last night I attended the premier of the Royal Opera's new production of Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Antonio Pappano and directed by Christof Loy. As has become routine with this most conservative of audiences, the production team was loudly, yobbishly booed. This attitude disgusts me. First, it implies that Loy and ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/09/30/why-the-royal-operas-new-tristan-should-be-applauded-not-booed/ This morning I finished my second complete viewing of The Wire, and I'm more strongly convinced than ever that it is the best TV ever made. Enough has been written about how great the show is, and if you haven't watched it, I urge you to do so immediately. It's ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/09/12/the-wire-season-five/ [Update: Hunter Ford has taken the time to extend my very basic script so that it includes the details of the sender and an extract of the text of the mail in the Growl notification. Head over there and grab the new script: it's way better than mine.] If you use ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/08/28/growlmail-on-snow-leopard-a-temporary-fix/ Just before Christmas last year, as I was putting the finishing touches to my family's presents, I noticed a CD with Herbert von Karajan's name on it. It was a recording of his final London concert, given on 6th October 1988 at the Royal Festival Hall, in which he and ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/08/13/karajans-last-london-concert/ It should be fairly obvious by now that the MPs' expenses scandal is both a genuine and big story. In my opinion - for what it's worth - it's the biggest political story since Thatcher's resignation in 1990. The problem isn't one that can be solved by simply paying a few ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/05/14/heres-how-the-mps-expenses-system-should-work/ Twitter changed the way that the @reply facility works overnight (UK time). Users are not happy, me among them. I can't think how many people I now follow who I discovered through this mechanism. I've even met up with some of them face to face as a result of conversations ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/05/13/how-twitter-can-sort-out-fixreplies/ Yesterday, my friend Shane Richmond sent me a draft of a blog post to comment on as he does from time to time. I thought it was excellent. Later, he published it on his Telegraph blog. It's about how David Simon, creator of The Wire is an 'amateur' TV producer, ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/05/08/charles-arthur-should-read-before-slagging-off/ I thought long and hard about whether to respond to Milo Yiannopoulos's post about women in the technology industry. Mainly because I find his argument repulsive and I don't want to draw attention to it. On the other hand, I get no traffic anyway, and there is a very clear ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/04/23/252/ Dear Mr Briatore, I'm not a lifelong QPR fan, but I've held a season ticket for several years, and for much of that time, the football has been dreadful. The facilities are no better: my seat has an obstructed view of the goal and the seats in front of me cut ... http://blog.jameshiggs.com/2009/04/11/an-open-letter-to-flavio-briatore-and-the-board-of-qpr/