obfuscation

Someone please throw a brick through my TV.  Last night, instead of getting on with writing Left Luggage 3, the third and final volume of my Left Luggage science fiction trilogy, I became hooked in the Japanese film, Zatoichi. Even the title drew me in. There was beauty mixed with violence and I had to find out if the blind man would defeat all the baddies. He did, but not until 3.45 am. Aaaarrggh. By which time any hope of being tired enough to sleep had passed me by. Tonight, BBC Four are doing mathematics – Fermat's Last Theorem and the beauty of equations. Damn them -  my favourite subjects. Usually I tune into Radio 3 and let operas and sonatas wash through me while I write. Trouble is that Radio 3 tend to broadcast lectures and talks late at night so I jab at the remote to find something banal. You might, like my wife, suggest turning the box off, but I remain with a problem. I have tinnitus so bad that I need background sounds, preferably music, to mask the twittering birds and sirens in my head.

Ummm, the Beautiful Equations programme has much bo**ocks. Typical of British programme makers to idolise Newton at the expense of Pythagorus and dozens of other non-UK mathematicians. I can safely switch to an opera DVD. Welcome, Richard Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos. And so back to LL3.