Saturday
İstanbul is engaging
Another long, wonderful, and entertaining day in İstanbul.
After breakfast at the hotel again, we walked over to the Grand Bazaar to beat the crowds. It's over 4000 shops, all covered to allow haggling in all weather. Somehow, we came back with bags we didn't arrive with.
We had a hefty lunch at a busy restaurant, then retired to the hotel for a quick rest.
Out again by 2:30pm, we walked to the nearby Aya Sofya (also known as Sancta Sophia in Latin, Haghia Sofia in Greek, and the Church of the Divine Wisdom in English). This is probably the best sight in İstanbul. The Emperor Justinian had it build in 537, and it was the greatest church in Cchristendom for nearly a thousand years. When the Ottomans conquered İstanbul in 1453, Mehmet had it turned into a mosque, and the Christian paintings and mosaics plastered over. It stayed thusly until 1953 when it was turned into a museum. Now many of the original artworks have been uncovered and restored, and Christian and Muslim imagery exist together inside the colossal building. It was incredible, with many recognizable religious mosaics.
After that, we went underground to the Basilica Cistern. It's an amazing reservoir - 143m long and 65m wide - created in AD 532, forgotten at some point before the Ottoman conquest, and then rediscovered in 1545. It's even got fish in it.
After some tea at an outdoor cafe and another rest, we took a ferry across the Bosphorous Strait for dinner. Technically this means that we left Europe for a few hours and had dinner in Asia, since the continents split İstanbul. We found a great restaurant with only Turks in it. There was a great deal of confusion with our order, and we ended up getting served a meal for 5 people. After some arguing about who made what mistake, they capitulated and charged us the price for what we ordered.
Ferry ride back, a beer at the restaurant around the corner, and a last nightime look at İstanbul from our hotel roof.
This is a truly amazing city. I've described what we've done, but haven't even tried to capture the energy, the people, the friendliness, the sense of age, and the mingling of culture.
Friday
City at night
After our mid-day nap, we strolled to the nearby Sultan Ahmet I Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque because of its coloured tiles. It's a huge early 17th-century place of worship, and quite impressive inside and out.
Afterwards, we waited out the rain by having some tea. Then we took the tram up to the new part of town called Beyoğlu. We walked from Taksim Square down the major shopping street of İstiklal Caddesi, made some purchases, stopped at a tavern for a cold beer, and found (after some wandering) Refik, a great restaurant recommended by one of the Aussie's Turkish friends.
It's midnight again, and we've trammed home to get an early start: tomorrow is Grand Bazaar day.
Topkapı Palace
We spent the day up 'til 2:30pm in Topkapı Palace.
The Palace was built shortly after the Ottomans took over in 1453. It was used by ths sultans from then until 1839. The sultans then moved to more European palaces they'd had built, and the palace became a museum.
It was very impressive. It has vast green courtyards, a warren of tiled rooms where the sultan lived and kept his harem, pavillions, an armoury, and holy relics (beard whiskers, teeth, cloak, etc) of the prophet Mohammed. The treasure rooms of emeralds and rubies and daggers and candlesticks - plus some Christian relics (the arm and skull of John the Baptist, in their golden reliquaries) and the world's fifth largest diamond (86 carat).
It's as grand as palaces we've seen in England and France and Spain and India, but different from them all.
We ate at one of the restaurants in the tourist are because we knew they'd be open during Ramazan, but it was still delicious.
Morning in İstanbul
Sleep wasn't perfect: new place, thin walls, and of course the 5:30 call to prayer broadcast over the city common to all Islamic nations.
It's a bright, beautiful day, though. To breakfast!
Thursday
First impressions of İstanbul
Wonderful.
It's unlike anywhere we've been. It really is a meeting of east and west. We're still taking it in, but the old part of town is a lot to absorb at once.
Our hotel is fine. We went for a walk and we're within a stone's throw of the Sultan Ahmet (Blue) Mosque, Topkapı Palace, and Aya Sofya. There's a night bazaar on for Ramazan (what they call Ramadan here), and we bought some baclava and had some tea at an outdoor cafe.
We had a pretty swish dinner at a rooftop restaurant near our hotel. It's nearly midnight, and we're going to call it quits for today to plan and rest up.
We're here
We're in a taxi between Ataturk airport and downtown Istanbul. Right now it looks like any other busy city street at rush hour: gridlock. Plus, it's streaming rain.
Still, it's cool to be here.
We're off
Sod's law: if you're running late for a flight you can be sure that there will be queues and delays, but if you're organised and get there early you'll sail through and have hours to kill.
We're through security at Heathrow now, waiting (for a while) to board our Turkish Airlines flight. Security has relaxed since the recent foiled plot, but it's still tighter than it used to be. No liquids of any sort - no drinks, no spray deoderant, no mascara, no contact lens solution - can be brought through security. Such items are allowed in checked baggage, though, and you can buy them and take them on the plane once you're past security (unless you're flying to the US), so not much problem, really. They're making everyone take off their shoes, too.
Adventures coming soon!
Wednesday
Hols
Wow, it feels really good to be leaving work for a while.
I know that I shouldn't say that. That in some fair-minded and considerate sort of universe, I should be thankful I have a job that pays me good money and gives me a measure of freedom.
But no real person feels that way. Everyone (except the very sad) resents - in some small way, at least - the fact that they have to toil to be able to make a good living. That toiling may be for someone else, or it may be for yourself but still in service of customers, but it's still toil, and sooner or later everyone needs a break from it.
Some people say that they need work in their lives. Not me. I could easily fill my time with leisure and learning and travel and all sorts of other non-toiling pursuits, if only someone would pay me enough for an elaborate lifestyle while I do so.
Yes, I am a sell-out. Tell me something I don't know. :-)
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I know that I shouldn't say that. That in some fair-minded and considerate sort of universe, I should be thankful I have a job that pays me good money and gives me a measure of freedom.
But no real person feels that way. Everyone (except the very sad) resents - in some small way, at least - the fact that they have to toil to be able to make a good living. That toiling may be for someone else, or it may be for yourself but still in service of customers, but it's still toil, and sooner or later everyone needs a break from it.
Some people say that they need work in their lives. Not me. I could easily fill my time with leisure and learning and travel and all sorts of other non-toiling pursuits, if only someone would pay me enough for an elaborate lifestyle while I do so.
Yes, I am a sell-out. Tell me something I don't know. :-)
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Turkey
Tomorrow, we go to Turkey for eleven days. This will rock. I will blog when I can. I will take lots of pictures.
Our rough itinerary:
Our rough itinerary:
- We will land tomorrow in Istanbul. We're staying in a hotel in the Sultanahmet district of the city, near the Blue Mosque. Hopefully we won't have too much trouble seeing the things we want to see, because although Istanbul is now a very tourism-oriented country, we are visiting during Ramadan. We stay in Istanbul for three days.
- We fly to the central region known as Cappadocia, to spend three days in its "fairy chimneys" and underground cities.
- We fly to the Aegean coastal town of Bodrum for a couple of days of hotel luxury, warm seaside, and nightlife.
- We make our way up the coast to spend a couple of days around the phenomenal ruins at Ephesus. After that, it's back to Istanbul and home.
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Class
Well, I attended my first epistemology class last night. I enjoyed it right off. The lecturer is energetic, and doesn't just read from prepared notes. He entertains tangential discussions. It kept my interest. The class is small in size, too: only nine people for the first session. This is good as it should provide lots of chance to participate.
For those who don't know, epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge and justified belief. Last night we basically just covered this definition, and the outline for the course. There was some initial discussion about what "belief" is (as distinct from, say, "desire"), what "justified belief" is (for example, I can be reasonably justified in believing that the picture on the wall that I saw a second ago is still there now, even though I've just turned away from it), and "knowledge". We didn't get too far into knowledge, because that's the point of the whole course. Our exercise for next week's class - which I won't be able to attend, unfortunately - is to write down ten things which we know to be true (and, optionally, ten things which we believe to be true).
By far the most interesting part of the first class was the introduction of the nine students. All but one are older (much older) than me. Here's the summary:
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For those who don't know, epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge and justified belief. Last night we basically just covered this definition, and the outline for the course. There was some initial discussion about what "belief" is (as distinct from, say, "desire"), what "justified belief" is (for example, I can be reasonably justified in believing that the picture on the wall that I saw a second ago is still there now, even though I've just turned away from it), and "knowledge". We didn't get too far into knowledge, because that's the point of the whole course. Our exercise for next week's class - which I won't be able to attend, unfortunately - is to write down ten things which we know to be true (and, optionally, ten things which we believe to be true).
By far the most interesting part of the first class was the introduction of the nine students. All but one are older (much older) than me. Here's the summary:
- One fellow is a retired surgeon. He's taking this course - and several others - to, in his words, "ward off Alzheimer's". I liked this guy a lot. He lives along the Central Line tube too, so after class I rode back with him.
- Two of them are psychoanalysts. One is retired; the other is a woman who sat next to me and muttered an affirmitive "Mmmhm," every time the lecturer finished a sentence.
- Three of us are physicists or engineers or technology workers who simply have an interest in something very different. The other two are both retired.
- One fellow - the young guy - is a musician who's into eastern philosophies and religions, and is taking this course (which is analytical and based in the western tradition) because he thinks it'll provide some useful balance for him.
- One woman already has a degree in philosophy, and went to university at the same time as our instructor. Tragically, she suffered a stroke last year, and has lost significant parts of her knowledge. She's basically retraining her brain. It's a bit of a sad story, but she seemed quite chipper about it.
- One gentleman said that he's taking this course because he wants to understand why the traditional scientific opinion of sensory input is restricted to the five senses defined in Aristotle's time, because he thinks it's quite clear that we have a sixth sense: our ability to sense temperature.* Further, he's interested in the relation between this heat-sense neglect and global warming. That's certainly the oddest and most specific course goal I've ever heard.
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Sounding off
I'm upset about my MP3 player earphones.
I ditched my iPod standard-issues earphones and bought some sweet Etymotic ER-6i ones last year. They fit and sound brilliant, but unfortunately they developed a short after about a year. I ditched them and bought another pair. They're not cheap, but they sound so good.
I'm now convinced they've got a problem with build quality, because yesterday - after about 6 months of use - the left earphone blew. Its volume has dropped away to almost nil.
Now I have to find another good brand. I don't feel like taking a third chance on this brand.
I ditched my iPod standard-issues earphones and bought some sweet Etymotic ER-6i ones last year. They fit and sound brilliant, but unfortunately they developed a short after about a year. I ditched them and bought another pair. They're not cheap, but they sound so good.
I'm now convinced they've got a problem with build quality, because yesterday - after about 6 months of use - the left earphone blew. Its volume has dropped away to almost nil.
Now I have to find another good brand. I don't feel like taking a third chance on this brand.
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Tuesday
What do I know?
Service with a smile
I've blogged before about the wacky dry cleaners' around the corner from us. It seems like everytime I go in there it's a sitcom or a drama.
Today I went in to pick some stuff up. There were three people in front of me. The first was being served by the Indian lady who runs the dry cleaning bit, and it looked like she had a fairly complicated order. The Italian guy who repairs shoes started helping the next people in line; they were both women, and he greeted them each in turn with, "How can I help, angel?"
When it got to my turn, he said, "How can I help, mate?"
I said, "What, you're not gonna call me angel?" The Indian woman broke up laughing.
Italian guy leans over the counter, sees I'm wearing shorts, and exclaims, "Not with legs as hairy as that, mate! People would talk." The Indian woman laughs harder.
He tries to find all the items in my order, but has trouble. The Indian woman's free by this time, and shoos him away to do it right. While she serves me, another woman comes in with a pair of shoes. Italian guy leans over the counter.
"How can I help, Angel?"
"Hey!" I add, laughingly.
The woman looks at me, then back at Italian guy, confused. "Did you just call me Jill?" she says.
"No, dear; I called you angel. I'd have called you Jill if your name was Jill." The Indian woman just shakes her head.
The woman with the shoes still looks confused, but continues. "You repaired these for me the other day, but this piece you've added in is giving me terrible blisters. Can you do anything about that?"
"Let me see those," he says. "Who did this? It must've been the other fellow in here who did this work." I've been in that dry cleaners' a thousand times. He's the only one I've ever seen working on shoes in there. "Hmmph." He goes off to work on the shoes.
The Indian woman hands me my dry cleaning. "Thanks very much," she says, with a big smile.
Today I went in to pick some stuff up. There were three people in front of me. The first was being served by the Indian lady who runs the dry cleaning bit, and it looked like she had a fairly complicated order. The Italian guy who repairs shoes started helping the next people in line; they were both women, and he greeted them each in turn with, "How can I help, angel?"
When it got to my turn, he said, "How can I help, mate?"
I said, "What, you're not gonna call me angel?" The Indian woman broke up laughing.
Italian guy leans over the counter, sees I'm wearing shorts, and exclaims, "Not with legs as hairy as that, mate! People would talk." The Indian woman laughs harder.
He tries to find all the items in my order, but has trouble. The Indian woman's free by this time, and shoos him away to do it right. While she serves me, another woman comes in with a pair of shoes. Italian guy leans over the counter.
"How can I help, Angel?"
"Hey!" I add, laughingly.
The woman looks at me, then back at Italian guy, confused. "Did you just call me Jill?" she says.
"No, dear; I called you angel. I'd have called you Jill if your name was Jill." The Indian woman just shakes her head.
The woman with the shoes still looks confused, but continues. "You repaired these for me the other day, but this piece you've added in is giving me terrible blisters. Can you do anything about that?"
"Let me see those," he says. "Who did this? It must've been the other fellow in here who did this work." I've been in that dry cleaners' a thousand times. He's the only one I've ever seen working on shoes in there. "Hmmph." He goes off to work on the shoes.
The Indian woman hands me my dry cleaning. "Thanks very much," she says, with a big smile.
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Monday
Nine Inch Nails DVD, anyone?
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em
I have taken the Evil Plunge: I now have a MySpace spot. I'm doing this not because I want to cyber-cruise hot teens (though that is a side benefit). I'm doing it for the musical networking. There's a lot of new tunage out there. And, like it or not, many bands have more up-to-date info about tours, etc., on their MySpace pages than on their own web pages.
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Time for change
I stopped into Marks and Sparks on the way home tonight to get some things for dinner. At the express checkout, the items came to £4.97. I handed the teller a £20 note, which were all I had in my wallet.
The cashier opens his till, inspects it, then looks at me apologetically and says, "I'm sorry: I don't have any tens. Or fives. Or two-pound coins. All I've got is pound coins."
"Wait a minute," I say, "I do have some change in my pocket. Let me see if I have enough." I reach in and pull out one coin, two, three. I count it out. I have £4.96. Precisely one penny short. I am not making this up. I look at the cashier.
"Sorry," he says.
I walked home with droopy trousers, my right pocket full to bursting with Sovs.
The cashier opens his till, inspects it, then looks at me apologetically and says, "I'm sorry: I don't have any tens. Or fives. Or two-pound coins. All I've got is pound coins."
"Wait a minute," I say, "I do have some change in my pocket. Let me see if I have enough." I reach in and pull out one coin, two, three. I count it out. I have £4.96. Precisely one penny short. I am not making this up. I look at the cashier.
"Sorry," he says.
I walked home with droopy trousers, my right pocket full to bursting with Sovs.
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Immigrant Song
The statistics support a trend I've observed in London: since they became part of the EU Polish people are coming here in huge numbers. They've filled labour and service jobs that Brits didn't seem to want. Now they're spreading into other sectors.
As an immigrant who came here to work, I say good on 'em. The UK unemployment rate continues to hold at a low, low 3%, so there seems to be lots of work to be done.
As an immigrant who came here to work, I say good on 'em. The UK unemployment rate continues to hold at a low, low 3%, so there seems to be lots of work to be done.
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Sunday
The Madcap Laughs at Communism
We've just returned from a play and dinner. Awfully civilized, no?
A couple of SWMNBN's work mates joined us in Covent Garden to see Rock 'n' Roll, a new work by British playwright Tom Stoppard. Everyone liked it: I thought it was some of the most brilliant theatre I've ever seen. Its themes ran from a discussion of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia and in Cambridge academic circles, to family, to Sapphic poetry, but it was largely about the rebellious, emancipating power of rock 'n' roll music. Scenes were separated by musical snippets from The Rolling Stones, Guns 'n' Roses, The Beach Boys, and others. I've certainly never seen a dramatic work that required so much familiarity with the history and work of Pink Floyd and - especially - Syd Barret.
Brian Cox and Rufus Sewell were both in it, and were both excellent (although Sewell had to call for one line, bless him). It was a complex play, one that took some work to follow. In the end, though, it felt informative, joyous, intellectual, and redemptive to me. I really, really enjoyed it. The critics and the public like it, too: after it finished its run at Royal Court theatre, it's moved to its present home at the Duke of York's theatre.
Afterwards we all went to Chez Gérard in Covent Garden where the She-Aussie joined us for dinner. It was nice: warm enough to sit and eat outside, where we could watch the crowds and listen to the bands busking for the tourist crowds below.
Another super day.
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A couple of SWMNBN's work mates joined us in Covent Garden to see Rock 'n' Roll, a new work by British playwright Tom Stoppard. Everyone liked it: I thought it was some of the most brilliant theatre I've ever seen. Its themes ran from a discussion of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia and in Cambridge academic circles, to family, to Sapphic poetry, but it was largely about the rebellious, emancipating power of rock 'n' roll music. Scenes were separated by musical snippets from The Rolling Stones, Guns 'n' Roses, The Beach Boys, and others. I've certainly never seen a dramatic work that required so much familiarity with the history and work of Pink Floyd and - especially - Syd Barret.
Brian Cox and Rufus Sewell were both in it, and were both excellent (although Sewell had to call for one line, bless him). It was a complex play, one that took some work to follow. In the end, though, it felt informative, joyous, intellectual, and redemptive to me. I really, really enjoyed it. The critics and the public like it, too: after it finished its run at Royal Court theatre, it's moved to its present home at the Duke of York's theatre.
Afterwards we all went to Chez Gérard in Covent Garden where the She-Aussie joined us for dinner. It was nice: warm enough to sit and eat outside, where we could watch the crowds and listen to the bands busking for the tourist crowds below.
Another super day.
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Old hood = good
I'm tellin' ya, today was awesome.
Not only did I accomplish all the mundane things: dry cleaning, faxing, shaving, post, cleaning supplies, etc...but we also went for a big walk around Mayfair and Knightsbridge, and met up with the Aussie and his SO and his FM. Drinks at the Gallery, dinner at Sarracino's: it don't get no better.
Not only did I accomplish all the mundane things: dry cleaning, faxing, shaving, post, cleaning supplies, etc...but we also went for a big walk around Mayfair and Knightsbridge, and met up with the Aussie and his SO and his FM. Drinks at the Gallery, dinner at Sarracino's: it don't get no better.
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Saturday
Osama been Dead?
There are reports in a French newspaper that the Saudi intelligence service believes Osama bin Laden died a month ago.
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More films
A couple of movies I've seen since last night:
- Chuck and Buck. I read the description on the back of a movie case for this film when it came out in 2000, and have wanted to see it ever since. A digitally film where the two leads are (or were, at the time) screenwriters and not actors, it's an unsettling, creepy, sometimes symapthetic story of childhood obsession and diverging lives. Okay, it's quite creepy. But well done.
- Battle Royale. I saw the first half of this cult Japanese hit a few years back, and finally saw it in total this weekend. In a near-future where disrespect and violence from children is out of control, the authorities come up with a unique (and action-packed) method of thinning the pack. Violent and cool. I'll watch anything with Beat Takeshi.
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Friday
The Sleepover of the Ring
I called the British Film Institute today. They confirmed that they'd received my submission for the London Film Festival, and said that it looks like I'd gotten most, if not all, of our choices. I didn't ask them to go through each one, so I'll wait until they post my tickets to me in a week or two.
I've received my first special offer through the BFI, though:
I've received my first special offer through the BFI, though:
THE BIGGEST SCREEN IN BRITAINThe Lord of the Rings trilogy all-nighters
Friday 29 and Saturday 30 September
The BFI IMAX plays host to two very special all-nighters of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Peter Jackson's hugely successful, Oscar-winning films will be available to see in their original theatrical 35mm versions for two nights only.
Boasting the biggest screen in Britain - the height of five double-decker buses - and a 12,000 watt digital surround sound system, the BFI IMAX is the only place to enjoy this fantastic trilogy.
Screening times are as follows:
21:00 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PG) 178 mins
00:30 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (12A) 179 mins
04.00 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (12A) 201 minsThere will be a 30-minute break between each film and free teas and coffees will be provided throughout the night. Prize draws during the evening will all be part of the fun - and why not come dressed as your favourite character!
Snacks, sweets, soft and alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase.
How to book
Tickets are on sale now at £10.00 for one film, £15.00 for two films or £25.00 for the trilogy.
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Format
I was making some blog template changes and now I seem to have lost all my paragraph breaks.
Damn.
EDIT: looks like I've got them back.
Damn.
EDIT: looks like I've got them back.
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White and Nerdy
'Weird Al' Yankovic's parody of white rappers. And nerds.
Catching up
The spread of personal video recorders means that an increasing amount of television programes are time-shifted when they're watched: that is, they're recorded and watched later, not during the broadcast.
I know that we watch a great deal of our television this way, especially late-night movies that we record. One of the great advantages of this is that you can quickly skip past adverts. We're now pretty slick at ramping up the speed and dropping it back at just the right moment so that we whizz through commercial breaks in mere seconds.
Advertisers know this, however, and they want their ad-time back. Here in the UK, one network is planning "PVR-resistant" ads. These will be long shots of single frames, so that even if you're skimming through at high speed you'll get a clear image of the product or phone number or website that the ad is promoting.
I hate ads as much as anybody. It is hard to fault networks and advertisers trying to regain our attention, though, since they are paying for the shows. Maybe I'll just watch more non-commercial BBC channels.
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I know that we watch a great deal of our television this way, especially late-night movies that we record. One of the great advantages of this is that you can quickly skip past adverts. We're now pretty slick at ramping up the speed and dropping it back at just the right moment so that we whizz through commercial breaks in mere seconds.
Advertisers know this, however, and they want their ad-time back. Here in the UK, one network is planning "PVR-resistant" ads. These will be long shots of single frames, so that even if you're skimming through at high speed you'll get a clear image of the product or phone number or website that the ad is promoting.
I hate ads as much as anybody. It is hard to fault networks and advertisers trying to regain our attention, though, since they are paying for the shows. Maybe I'll just watch more non-commercial BBC channels.
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300
The director of 2004's Dawn of the Dead
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Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 about the Spartan's Battle of Thermoplyae
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music clip from Nine Inch Nails
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Cool movie trailer
EDIT: Warner keeps shutting down those who try hosting the trailer.It seems to be up at ifilm Oh well, if you didn't see it before, you'll have to go find it yourself.
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Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 about the Spartan's Battle of Thermoplyae
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music clip from Nine Inch Nails
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EDIT: Warner keeps shutting down those who try hosting the trailer.
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Thursday
Visitor
She Who Must Not Be Named and I met up with a friend of the family in central London last night. She's doing some travelling, and has a couple of days here before moving on.
Not only is it fun to meet people from back home, it feels good to help someone who's somewhere they've never been before. A friendly face, a bite to eat, and a few words of guidance can make a strange place a lot more manageable: we know this from personal experience.
Besides, it's the Maritimer thing to do.
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Not only is it fun to meet people from back home, it feels good to help someone who's somewhere they've never been before. A friendly face, a bite to eat, and a few words of guidance can make a strange place a lot more manageable: we know this from personal experience.
Besides, it's the Maritimer thing to do.
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"I'm The One"
I drove into work today. I don't drive very often: maybe once every 3 months or so, only when I need to bring something heavy to or from the office. Today it was some maple syrup that a guy at work bought.
The drive today - much like the last time - made me realise how much I love riding the train now. The traffic nearly made me lose my mind. The only thing that made me smile: the car in front with a window sticker that said, "This car survived the monkeys at Longleat...just!"
However, it did give me a chance to listen to my Earl Greyhound album, Soft Targets, that arrived yesterday. And what a truly rockin' slab of music it is, too. There's probably not a song that's better than "S.O.S.", but "Monkey", "Yeah I Love You", and "Fashion" come close, on first listen. This album won't win the Nobel for Literature, but it's hyper-cool, impressively played (those DRUMS!) and well-sung (Kamara Thomas's sexy vocal layers are really wonderful additions to Matt Whyte's slightly raspy rock voice). This is a fun, exciting, jubilant rock album.
The drive today - much like the last time - made me realise how much I love riding the train now. The traffic nearly made me lose my mind. The only thing that made me smile: the car in front with a window sticker that said, "This car survived the monkeys at Longleat...just!"
However, it did give me a chance to listen to my Earl Greyhound album, Soft Targets, that arrived yesterday. And what a truly rockin' slab of music it is, too. There's probably not a song that's better than "S.O.S.", but "Monkey", "Yeah I Love You", and "Fashion" come close, on first listen. This album won't win the Nobel for Literature, but it's hyper-cool, impressively played (those DRUMS!) and well-sung (Kamara Thomas's sexy vocal layers are really wonderful additions to Matt Whyte's slightly raspy rock voice). This is a fun, exciting, jubilant rock album.
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Wednesday
Famous last words
A report in the Guardian:
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The last words of the 376 prisoners executed in Texas since 1982 are faithfully recorded on the state justice department's website.The entire database is online here. My favourite so far is #83, Warren Bridge, who said only: "I'll see you."
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Bloody good thing
I've just given blood for the first time in six years.I used to give blood in Canada very regularly, and donated about 30 times. But since I've moved to the UK I haven't, for many reasons: schedules, travel to places that temporarily prohibit it, etc. But I was free and clear this time, and have just squeezed out a pint of the red stuff.
I've always viewed this as an important thing to do. It doesn't harm me in any way, and because I'm O-negative I'm a universal donor (i.e., everyone can use my blood). I feel good right now, doing something I've wanted to get back into for some time.
I was pleased to see that my donation physiology hasn't changed. That is, my right arm bleeds better than my left, but the vein is very deep and hard to find. The nurse had to do a little bit of poking around before she was able to hit it.
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Picture this
The BBC News website runs an annual photography contest. Why not take a look and vote.
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Tuesday
Catch my Drift
There are albums and artists that I like instantly. There are some that I hate without need for a second listen. There are also growers and faders, that move to one extreme with a few listens. But I've never been so challenged, so hard-pressed, to figure out what I think about an album as I have by Scott Walker's The Drift.
I had no idea who Walker was until I was perusing Metacritic's best albums of 2006 list one day and found The Drift at number eighteen. It has glowing reviews, but even these admit that it is a difficult, uncompromising, avant garde work of music. I read up on Walker: he's a mysterious figure that was a teen idol singer back in the '50s and '60s, had a musical duo after that, then got gloomy and psychedelic in the '70s. In recent decades he's become mysterious and reclusive. This is his first album in 11 years. So I found, and acquired, The Drift.
It's weirding me out. The pastiches of dissonance and percussion are barely music, but they become really emotionally engaging in spots. It's unsettling to listen to, especially because of Walker's voice, which is now a high-throated warble that annoys me. The lyrics are dense and spooky and really odd. I see glimpses of brilliance in there, though. It's so hard to listen to, but something in the songs grabs me, compels me to keep listening.
Then, at some moments, I wonder why I'm trying so hard. I wonder if it's just because I know it's a work with intense critical acclaim, critical acclaim that challenges me by saying what a difficult - but rewarding - piece of music it is. I really don't think so, though. I really do hear things that make me go, "Wow." I hope that there are other rewards in there for me.
I had no idea who Walker was until I was perusing Metacritic's best albums of 2006 list one day and found The Drift at number eighteen. It has glowing reviews, but even these admit that it is a difficult, uncompromising, avant garde work of music. I read up on Walker: he's a mysterious figure that was a teen idol singer back in the '50s and '60s, had a musical duo after that, then got gloomy and psychedelic in the '70s. In recent decades he's become mysterious and reclusive. This is his first album in 11 years. So I found, and acquired, The Drift.
It's weirding me out. The pastiches of dissonance and percussion are barely music, but they become really emotionally engaging in spots. It's unsettling to listen to, especially because of Walker's voice, which is now a high-throated warble that annoys me. The lyrics are dense and spooky and really odd. I see glimpses of brilliance in there, though. It's so hard to listen to, but something in the songs grabs me, compels me to keep listening.
Then, at some moments, I wonder why I'm trying so hard. I wonder if it's just because I know it's a work with intense critical acclaim, critical acclaim that challenges me by saying what a difficult - but rewarding - piece of music it is. I really don't think so, though. I really do hear things that make me go, "Wow." I hope that there are other rewards in there for me.
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Ultra-violence
I watched A Clockwork Orange for the second time last night. It truly is a piece of cinematic art. It's talking about so many things, about so many real problems, but in such a stylish way.
I also realised that the film is even more of a pop-culture reference than I thought: that the band Moloko took their name from it, that Rob Zombie wrote a song ("Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)") that referenced it, and that - in addition to the obvious nods to it - The Simpsons has done at least one more subtle nod.
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I also realised that the film is even more of a pop-culture reference than I thought: that the band Moloko took their name from it, that Rob Zombie wrote a song ("Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)") that referenced it, and that - in addition to the obvious nods to it - The Simpsons has done at least one more subtle nod.
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Monday
Who's to blame?
- Pope delivers speech on the topic of co-existence of reason and belief. This speech includes a quoted exchange between a 13th-century Christian Byzantine emperor and a Persian scholar wherein the emperor claims that while rational thought can be reconciled with Christianity, it cannot with Islam because of the latter's position on violence against non-believers. Pope must be an idiot, knowing that - although he now says he was only using it as an illustration of what makes religion at odds with reason, and that this was not his personal belief - in the current climate, Muslims would take it very, very personally.
- Muslim extremists - angered by the insinuation that Islam is an irrational religion that uses violence to attack and silence those who are against Islam - threaten violence in response.
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For my dad
A list of puns I saw recently:
- Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love, and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent!
- A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."
- A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
- A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says, "A beer please, and one for the road."
- Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other, "Does this taste funny to you?"
- An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at.
- Two natives sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly, it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
- A woman had twins but gave them up for adoption. One of them went to a family in Egypt and was named "Ahmal." The other went to a family in Spain; they named him "Juan." Years later, Juan sent a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she told her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responded, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
- Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super-calloused fragile mystic vexed by halitosis.
- Finally, there was the person who blogged ten different puns, hoping that they would make his friends laugh. No pun in ten did.
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Major tunage
Songs that my iPod shuffled for me this morning:
**This is not a lie, nor a joke. Although her vocal style can get a bit tedious, and the ballads are dire, she has phenomenal range and power in her voice, she writes her own music, and the songs are super funky.
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- "Rock Star" by Bran Van 3000
- "Something's Gonna Die Tonight" by The Doughboys
- "Presuming Ed" by Elbow
- "Bleed Forever" by Super Furry Animals
- "Talk About the Passion" by R.E.M.
- "Film-Maker" by The Cooper Temple Clause
- "After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young
- "Groove Holmes" by The Beastie Boys
- "Circle" by Sarah McLachlan
- "Lost In You" by Jimmie Vaughan
- "Summer Shoulders" by The Prime Ministers*
- "Your Blood" by Destroyer
- "Underwhelmed" by Sloan
- "Dirty Trip" by Air*
- "Five Long Years" by Eric Clapton
- "The Sky is Fallin'" by Queens of the Stone Age
- "In Too Deep" by Matthew Sweet
- "Here It Comes" by Doves
- "Shuffle Your Feet" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- "Egg Man" by The Beastie Boys
- "Nobody 'Cept You" by Bob Dylan
- "Lavender" by The Go-Betweens
- "It's All Over Now" by Bobby Womack
- "Colossal Head" by Los Lobos
- "Carnival" by Tori Amos
- Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
- Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
- Richie Havens - Wishing Well
- Spearhead - Yell Fire!
- Spencer Davis Group - Greatest Hits
- Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
- Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
- Basement Jaxx - Crazy Itch Radio
- Beyoncé - B'Day**
- Bonobo - Days To Come
**This is not a lie, nor a joke. Although her vocal style can get a bit tedious, and the ballads are dire, she has phenomenal range and power in her voice, she writes her own music, and the songs are super funky.
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Chit chat
I spoke with M_Blogler last night, catching up on family, work, and upcoming plans. It was nice. Free VoIP applications rock.
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Sunday
"There'll be no morning for us."
It's movie day. Just watched Dracula: Prince of Darkness, the 1966 hammy Hammer horror vampire outing. This was Christopher Lee's return to the role of the Count. It's as cheesy and predictable as you'd expect from a horror movie of the era. But I find this sort of cheap, predictable shlock much more watchable than most throwaway movies made in the last 30 years.
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"What queer finery he wears."
I recorded The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse the other night, and watched it this morning. It was pretty good.
For the non-Brits, TLOG is the name of a four-man comedy troupe. They created radio and stage skist based on the exceedingly bizarre inhabitants of a make-believe English town that were popular enough to warrant a late '90s TV show and, last year, a movie. The movie worked because it wasn't just a long version of the show: it put in a big twist, melding the "real world" with their fictionally-created one. It's weird, sick, and often juvenile, but it was worth a few laughs if you're familiar with the characters.
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For the non-Brits, TLOG is the name of a four-man comedy troupe. They created radio and stage skist based on the exceedingly bizarre inhabitants of a make-believe English town that were popular enough to warrant a late '90s TV show and, last year, a movie. The movie worked because it wasn't just a long version of the show: it put in a big twist, melding the "real world" with their fictionally-created one. It's weird, sick, and often juvenile, but it was worth a few laughs if you're familiar with the characters.
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Lions and tigers and monkeys, oh my!
I heard a bit on the radio once that Britain has more eccentrics per capita than any country in the world. I think part of that is because there's a history of established wealth here: probably more of us would be loony if we inherited a lot of money. Anyway, Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, has a huge stately home and vast grounds known as Longleat in the southwest of England. Thynn is a bit of a nutter: a painter, a poet, a musician, and a womanizer. But he also loves animals, so he's created a drive-through safari park on the Longleat grounds. A big-game safari park in England makes for quite a popular attraction, and there's even a TV show about the park and how it's run.SWMNBN, the She-Aussie and I made a day of it yesterday. After battling traffic for a couple of
hours, we saw giraffes and camels and tigers and lions and monkeys and rhinos and wolves and antelope and all sorts of other animals.The giraffes were fun. The monkeys come running and jump all over your car. They also try to rip off anything that they can, and we saw plenty of vehicles have door stripping, radio antennas, and windshield wipers all ripped off to become monkey toys. Luckily, our car had no loose bits, and because the radio antenna is removable I'd unscrewed it before we went in. A couple of small monkeys jumped onto the car, but they didn't stay long, liking the looks of the SUVs behind us better.
On our way home, we drove through the little village of Lacock. It's a town owned and preserved by the National Trust, and nearly all the buildings are pre-18th century. Walking around it, especially as the light dims at the end of the day, is really beautiful. We've been there before, on our way to a friend's wedding in Wales last year. After a stroll around, we had dinner at the Red Lion Inn. Great meal.Technorati tags:
Saturday
How I spent my Friday
I went back to the dentist to get the filling I mentioned I needed. The process is so easy now: 10 minutes for the procedure, that was it.
Then work all day, of course.
Tonight I had a bit of Japanese food and some drinks with mates down in Soho. Good times, good friends. I love weekends.
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Then work all day, of course.
Tonight I had a bit of Japanese food and some drinks with mates down in Soho. Good times, good friends. I love weekends.
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Friday
LFF
Okay, that's it. I became a British Film Institute member today. This means I'll be able to book tickets for the London Film Festival from Monday, ten days before they go on general sale.
I'm going to have to do some research on the films on offer over the weekend. I see that Day Night Day Night, Blindsight, and Requiem, all of which my brother Dan has rated highly, are playing. So is Candy, but based on his opinion I think I'll give that a miss. I really want to see The Last King Of Scotland. I only know one or two of the other films.
Thanks again to Dan and Nellie Dee for giving us the inspiration to do the movie festival this year.
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I'm going to have to do some research on the films on offer over the weekend. I see that Day Night Day Night, Blindsight, and Requiem, all of which my brother Dan has rated highly, are playing. So is Candy, but based on his opinion I think I'll give that a miss. I really want to see The Last King Of Scotland. I only know one or two of the other films.
Thanks again to Dan and Nellie Dee for giving us the inspiration to do the movie festival this year.
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Rail violence and chaos
It was travel chaos coming home last night. My train stopped less than halfway in, at Slough. We were told that no trains were going in and out of London Paddington because of a death on the line.
We were all shunted around a different rail line to Windsor, where we were put on another rail service that runs into London Waterloo. That took a while, since that service only runs every thirty minutes. I got off at the Richmond stop and took a bus that goes direct from there to Ealing.
Reading the news this morning, it sounds as though it was all due to some sort of horrible domestic violence: apparently a man stabbed his wife to death in west Ealing, and was later hit and killed by a train in Hanwell (which is the next stop west along that line). It's not yet clear whether he killed himself or was trying to flee capture.
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We were all shunted around a different rail line to Windsor, where we were put on another rail service that runs into London Waterloo. That took a while, since that service only runs every thirty minutes. I got off at the Richmond stop and took a bus that goes direct from there to Ealing.
Reading the news this morning, it sounds as though it was all due to some sort of horrible domestic violence: apparently a man stabbed his wife to death in west Ealing, and was later hit and killed by a train in Hanwell (which is the next stop west along that line). It's not yet clear whether he killed himself or was trying to flee capture.
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Thursday
Shantaram
I started reading Shantaram this morning. She Who Must Not Be Named has told me (and several others) that it's very good, so I decided to give it a go. It's the incredible story (autobiographical, purportedly true, but there must be a bit of poetic license given the amount of detail) of an Australian criminal who escaped prison and fled to India where he did some amazing things.
I'm only a couple of dozen pages in, but I think I'm hooked.
There's one reason why I'm not hooked: the author's tendency to wane a bit flowery with his language. Luckily, it's not like that all the time: just in those instances when he feels he needs to stop and describe some experience in more detail.
I am hooked because the plot's immediately engaging, and - given what's written on the back cover - it will become even more so.
But I'm especially hooked because the book opens with his arrival in Bombay, and it feels almost exactly like my own arrival in that city did. He describes the smell of Bombay on arrival; how leaving the airport and driving on the highway initially felt like almost anywhere else; how suddenly he passed the slums and felt shock and shame and anger; how eventually that feeling numbed; of arriving in Colaba; of the people and crowds and colours and touts; of Leopold's Bar; of Chowpatty Beach. It's freaking me out, this written experience that is mirroring the precise one that I had.
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I'm only a couple of dozen pages in, but I think I'm hooked.
There's one reason why I'm not hooked: the author's tendency to wane a bit flowery with his language. Luckily, it's not like that all the time: just in those instances when he feels he needs to stop and describe some experience in more detail.
I am hooked because the plot's immediately engaging, and - given what's written on the back cover - it will become even more so.
But I'm especially hooked because the book opens with his arrival in Bombay, and it feels almost exactly like my own arrival in that city did. He describes the smell of Bombay on arrival; how leaving the airport and driving on the highway initially felt like almost anywhere else; how suddenly he passed the slums and felt shock and shame and anger; how eventually that feeling numbed; of arriving in Colaba; of the people and crowds and colours and touts; of Leopold's Bar; of Chowpatty Beach. It's freaking me out, this written experience that is mirroring the precise one that I had.
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Fancy a pint sometime, mate?
I've done something that I should have done a long time ago: I have become a Camra member for a year. In fact, both SWMNBN and I have - I got a joint membership, since it was only a couple of quid more.
I really like British ale, and it deserves my support. We got the Aussie a Camra membership for his birthday recently, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought I shuld have one for myself.
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I really like British ale, and it deserves my support. We got the Aussie a Camra membership for his birthday recently, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought I shuld have one for myself.
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Movies
Dan and Nellie's enthusiasm about the Toronto International Film Festival has made me think about catching some of the London Film Festival. The lineup has been announced today.
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Push beyond that comfort zone
Last Wednesday night I was sitting in the local recreation centre gym looking at a piece of paper trying to decide whether to sign it or not. I did not really want to sign it as it represented a commitment to do something that was definitely beyond my comfort zone. I realized though I had recently fallen into that zone much too far and needed to start pushing myself beyond it. It was one of those simple moments, although I will not say life changing as it has only been a week, still somehow very important to me now that I look back on it.
What was I doing?
Well, my son has been bugging us for some time about wanting to take Kung Fu. I took him to the first session last week thinking I would just go and sit and watch and encourage. My loving wife (what would I do without her) though was pushing me to sign up as well. I didn't really want to I admit. It was, as I said, beyond my comfort zone. When it came to that moment of truth I am glad I did sign that paper and take that step forward.
I practiced some during the week with my son and the second session was last night. I need the excercise and it is a great thing for the two of us to do together. Funny, I think I may be enjoying it more than he is....
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What was I doing?
Well, my son has been bugging us for some time about wanting to take Kung Fu. I took him to the first session last week thinking I would just go and sit and watch and encourage. My loving wife (what would I do without her) though was pushing me to sign up as well. I didn't really want to I admit. It was, as I said, beyond my comfort zone. When it came to that moment of truth I am glad I did sign that paper and take that step forward.
I practiced some during the week with my son and the second session was last night. I need the excercise and it is a great thing for the two of us to do together. Funny, I think I may be enjoying it more than he is....
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I can change a tire, too
I'm of just the right age that I was closely involved in the personal computing evolution. I learned on a Commodore PET; my friends had VIC-20s, and I adored my 64. I learned how to do simple programming in BASIC and FORTRAN, and did a little bit to understand assembly language. I later graduated to an Apple Mac Plus, and then several generations of DOS- and Windows-based PCs. Along the way I picked up a little bit of VisualBasic programming and some specialised languages like the visual dataflow programming language "G". I'm now far away from the programming world, but I think it's nice that when I use huge data-churning apps I have an understanding of the fundamentals happening far below the surface.
If I was still a programmer, I think that it would be more than just "nice" to have that understanding, I think it would be advantageous. I think it would make me a better programmer. And maybe I'm just a cranky old techie, but I often wonder whether newer computer users that perhaps should know these basics - and I know that's not everyone - do.
So I found today's lead article in Salon, on this very topic, very interesting. You'll need to watch a short ad first if you want to read the whole thing.
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If I was still a programmer, I think that it would be more than just "nice" to have that understanding, I think it would be advantageous. I think it would make me a better programmer. And maybe I'm just a cranky old techie, but I often wonder whether newer computer users that perhaps should know these basics - and I know that's not everyone - do.
So I found today's lead article in Salon, on this very topic, very interesting. You'll need to watch a short ad first if you want to read the whole thing.
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"Everyone, just...pretend to be normal."
We recently saw Little Miss Sunshine. We loved it, just as Dan did, and as all the critics did. Greg Kinnear's part was a little bit stereotypical at times, but still a pretty good performance. The rest were just brilliant. I'm glad that Steve Carrell didn't need to go over-the-top wacky. Well-written, very funny, very touching, even a bit unnerving (but that creepiness is used to good effect). The movie's message is really the same one that The Simpsons started out with: how messed up you are doesn't matter, but being yourself and having a loving family does.
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Wednesday
I certainly won't ever trust sheep again
I recently finished reading A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. He's a great modern writer. His style, while peppered with western pop culture references, retains a real Japanese feel to me: austere, matter-of-fact, and infused with a surreal plot twist. I liked A Wild Sheep Chase better than Sputnik Sweetheart, which I read last year.
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Earl Greyhound: Nice Rock Gods
EG win my Double Cool Award: I sent them an email saying that I enjoyed their music and that they should tour the UK, and Matt (the lead singer and guitarist) sent me a really nice reply.
If you're here in the UK, and want to buy their music, it's only available via import at the moment. Their EP can be found here at CD-WOW, and their full album, Soft Targets, can be found through several Amazon sellers.
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If you're here in the UK, and want to buy their music, it's only available via import at the moment. Their EP can be found here at CD-WOW, and their full album, Soft Targets, can be found through several Amazon sellers.
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Tuesday
S.O.S.
Heavy rock. I love it. It's the sound of my youth. If bands stopped creating that sonic wall of head-crushing sludge, I'd give up living. Especially when those bands are power trios.
If you agree with this, then download "S.O.S." by Earl Greyhound and play it loud. Then go to their MySpace (ugh) page and listen to two more songs. Then go buy their album.
"S.O.S." is so many shades of awesome that I just can't stop playing it. How can a band this thumpingly, grindingly heavy be so tight and melodic, even on the heavy songs? These guys get my cool award.
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If you agree with this, then download "S.O.S." by Earl Greyhound and play it loud. Then go to their MySpace (ugh) page and listen to two more songs. Then go buy their album.
"S.O.S." is so many shades of awesome that I just can't stop playing it. How can a band this thumpingly, grindingly heavy be so tight and melodic, even on the heavy songs? These guys get my cool award.
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With (clean) Teeth
I'm just back from the dentist. Got a cleaning, which feels good on the ol' choppers. My checkup revealed I do need a small filling, though, the first in many years. It's on the back of my right upper canine. I've already had a filling in the same spot on the opposite side. This is because there's a bad spot for catching stuff back there: my eye teeth were removed when I was a youth, due to crowding in my small jaw, so the teeth don't fit properly back there. I've had a lot of dental work done in my life, though, so this is minor stuff.
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Now on DVD
I've downloaded The Last Man On Earth and Detour. This morning, whilst working from home, I also burned TLMOE to a DVD, and checked that it works in my player. Nice. There's tons of old movies at that site: I'm going to build a little B-film library!
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"FBI! You're safe!"
Jodie Foster is awesome. She was especially awesome in The Silence of the Lambs.
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Aye
The Scotsman is back in the UK for a few days. I and a few ex-work-mates met up with him down in Covent Garden and Soho tonight for a few jars and a wikkid curry.
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Monday
Eat
In summary: dinner party at the Aussie's. He can cook. Tuna meatball pasta was delicious, as was the pavlova.
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Sunday
No wonder Snowy's confused
My title at work is changing. The function that used to be known as "New Product Introduction" (always abbreviated, in true high-tech company stye, to NPI) is now being called "Technology Introduction". Since I'm going to be a Technology Introduction Manager for our operations in Europe, people at work are pointing out that I will then be the TIM. And my name is Tim, so isn't that funny?Indeed, the Aussie found this so wholly amusing that he has created a visual aid to mark this splendid convergence of name and function.
Thanks, mate.
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Free movies
Thanks to torrentfreak:
Technorati tags:Nosferatu, The Last Man On Earth, House on Haunted Hill, Detour, and The Little Shop of Horrors are five movie classics that are in the public domain. Free to download, free to share, free of DRM. The movies are hosted by publicdomaintorrents.
Sci-fun
I watched two movies yesterday that made me smile: It Came From Outer Space and Repo Man.
It Came From Outer Space is the 1953 B&W classic. Cheesy monsters land in the desert, and only one man believes it: BUT WHAT IS THEIR PURPOSE? The story, by Rad Bradbury, is probably one of the few sci-fi films from that time that wasn't a veiled warning about the threat of communism. It's fun, but very cheesy. Might have been better in its 3-D big-screen presentation.
Repo Man is a classic of another sort: a suburban punk fantasy from 1985. Emilio Estevez makes money and gets his kicks repossessing cars, but the movie is set in a world so irreverent ("I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either."), zany ("Food"), cult-referential ("Paging Dr. Benway."), and self-referential ("A plate of shrimp.") that it's hard to keep up.
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It Came From Outer Space is the 1953 B&W classic. Cheesy monsters land in the desert, and only one man believes it: BUT WHAT IS THEIR PURPOSE? The story, by Rad Bradbury, is probably one of the few sci-fi films from that time that wasn't a veiled warning about the threat of communism. It's fun, but very cheesy. Might have been better in its 3-D big-screen presentation.
Repo Man is a classic of another sort: a suburban punk fantasy from 1985. Emilio Estevez makes money and gets his kicks repossessing cars, but the movie is set in a world so irreverent ("I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either."), zany ("Food"), cult-referential ("Paging Dr. Benway."), and self-referential ("A plate of shrimp.") that it's hard to keep up.
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"Dress Code is Funky Glamourous"
We went down to Soho last night to meet u with a get-together the Colombians were throwing. They're moving to Brussels soon for a work assignment. We've known them for a long time, so it'll be a little sad without them. I have a business trip to Brussels next month, though, so I'll be able to visit them at least once.
The shindig was at La Floridita, a very cool Cuban bar. It's a guest-list only place, a basement restaurant with big tables and swinging live Cuban music with lots of dancing. Bartenders will show off their bottle-juggling skills to make you as many £8-daquiris as you like. It was a very upbeat, busy spot. It was nice to go out in style. EDIT: and I spotted Woody Harrelson on Oxford Street on the way home, too.
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The shindig was at La Floridita, a very cool Cuban bar. It's a guest-list only place, a basement restaurant with big tables and swinging live Cuban music with lots of dancing. Bartenders will show off their bottle-juggling skills to make you as many £8-daquiris as you like. It was a very upbeat, busy spot. It was nice to go out in style. EDIT: and I spotted Woody Harrelson on Oxford Street on the way home, too.
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Saturday
Chicks in a Cave
Last night I watched The Descent. My opinion of it was about the same as the Metacritic summary: generally favorable.
I really liked Neil Marshall's first film, Dog Soldiers. In that movie, six men found themselves trapped in a situation with some horrible monsters, and Marshall used equal parts scare, gore, and humour to entertain us. In The Descent, it's exactly the same except with six women and a slightly better budget. I felt this film was a bit more clichéd than Dan did, especially the Rambo-like transformation of a couple of the women. I'm glad that I got the original British ending, though (The Descent came out here in 2005; the North American release was delayed to avoid coinciding with The Cave, and Marshall was convinced to shoot a more Hollywood-friendly ending during that time).
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I really liked Neil Marshall's first film, Dog Soldiers. In that movie, six men found themselves trapped in a situation with some horrible monsters, and Marshall used equal parts scare, gore, and humour to entertain us. In The Descent, it's exactly the same except with six women and a slightly better budget. I felt this film was a bit more clichéd than Dan did, especially the Rambo-like transformation of a couple of the women. I'm glad that I got the original British ending, though (The Descent came out here in 2005; the North American release was delayed to avoid coinciding with The Cave, and Marshall was convinced to shoot a more Hollywood-friendly ending during that time).
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A very tasty rut
The Aussie and his SO, SWMNBN and I went to the Red Lion pub and then ate at Osteria del Portico last night. We're in a rut.
Friday
Now I'm just being silly
An African classic
I have a couple of Ali Farka Touré's albums: Talking Timbuktu (the album he did with Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and others) and Niafunké. I love his smooth style, his low, bluesy guitar-tunes, and how that sounds coming from an African tradition.
Touré died earlier this year, but his final album, Savane, has recently been released. I got it off eBay this week. It's wonderful. Others agree with me.
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Touré died earlier this year, but his final album, Savane, has recently been released. I got it off eBay this week. It's wonderful. Others agree with me.
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The rectal bulb syringe of pop
Alex Petridis has written a hilarious - but middle-of-the-road - review of Justin Trousersnake's new album, FutureSex/LoveSounds. Some excerpts:
"I'm bringing sexy back," he snarls..."You motherfuckers don't know how to act." This seems an odd thing to sing on two counts. For those unaware that sexy had gone anywhere in the first place, the initial claim seems presumptuous at best...Even funnier than the parts where he's trying to be humourous, though, are the parts where he draws comparisons between this album and works by David Bowie, Kraftwerk, and Sonic Youth!
"Music needs an enema," he told one journalist, stopping just short of calling FutureSex/LoveSounds the rectal bulb syringe of pop. Later, he outlined his plans for the future. Foremost among these was the fulfilment of a unique personal ambition: "I've got to kick myself in the balls"...He has escaped the world of the manufactured boyband, enticing America's hippest, most innovative urban producers to set aside their prejudices, work their sonic magic and aid his quest to become a serious artist. Admittedly, this seems less amazing than it once did - in the years since his 2002 debut Justified, a raft of depressing releases have given the impression that America's hippest and most innovative urban producers would be willing to set aside their prejudices and work their sonic magic on a bag of ericaceous compost if its cheque contained enough zeros...
"Let's take a trip to Dubai," Timberlake croons seductively. "You know I want a piece of that pie." Dubai? Home of Jim Davidson, repressive authoritarianism, and forced hormone therapy for homosexuals? That sounds romantic...Four years ago, "Cry Me a River"'s Britney-bashing had a certain gossipy compulsion. Now it seems needlessly sour, given she's the one whose career is in freefall and who appears to have married Jed Clampett by mistake...
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I am an oddball freak
My brother Dan blogged the other day about the strange search terms that sometimes lead people to his blog. I've noticed the same thing in the past.
These days, most of the searches leading to this blog have been about my hometown of Parrsboro and Griddly Headz, the maker of Headz Gamez, who are setting up operations there that will double the size of the town. I've blogged a few times about this, and Parrsboro is relatively very small, so it's not surprising that I'm getting those hits (I bet Dan is, too).
However, I noticed that today I've received a hit from someone doing a Google search on the phrase "Hebrew hotties". I found this hilarious: what could I possibly have posted that had these words in it? And what kind of oddball does a search for something like that?
So I searched The Plummet Onions, and found that I did in fact blog, after a business trip to Tel Aviv nearly two years ago, about my perceptions of Israeli women. And I titled that blog entry, "Hebrew Hotties".
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These days, most of the searches leading to this blog have been about my hometown of Parrsboro and Griddly Headz, the maker of Headz Gamez, who are setting up operations there that will double the size of the town. I've blogged a few times about this, and Parrsboro is relatively very small, so it's not surprising that I'm getting those hits (I bet Dan is, too).
However, I noticed that today I've received a hit from someone doing a Google search on the phrase "Hebrew hotties". I found this hilarious: what could I possibly have posted that had these words in it? And what kind of oddball does a search for something like that?
So I searched The Plummet Onions, and found that I did in fact blog, after a business trip to Tel Aviv nearly two years ago, about my perceptions of Israeli women. And I titled that blog entry, "Hebrew Hotties".
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Thursday
Once again, Dino helps me slay the Boredom Beast
Dylan sells
Not just critical acclaim, then: Dylan's Modern Times is selling well, and his first #1 album since Desire.
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Taking the opportunity
From the BBC:A Swiss man caught speeding on a Canadian highway has blamed his actions on the absence of goats on the roads.The man was caught driving at 161 km/h (100mph) in a 100 km/h (60mph) zone. A traffic officer's notes said the Swiss driver had said he was taking advantage "of the ability to go faster without risking hitting a goat".
Canadian police spokesman Joel Doiron said he had never found a goat on the highways of eastern Ontario in his 20 years of service. "Nobody's ever used the lack of goats here as an excuse for speeding," Mr Doiron told the AFP news agency. "I've never been to Switzerland, but I guess there must be a lot of goats there," he said.
The driver was ordered to pay a fine of C$360 (£175) for speeding.
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The lost art of parsley sauce
Eel pie and mashed potatoes is an exceedingly British dish. It was a traditional meal for poorer east-end Londoners because eels can be caught in the Thames.
This audio slide show from the BBC shows a bit about one of the few remaining eel pie shops. I feel as though I should go try it out before it fades away, too.
This audio slide show from the BBC shows a bit about one of the few remaining eel pie shops. I feel as though I should go try it out before it fades away, too.
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Wednesday
Lynch mob
I am a David Lynch fan.
I own Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive on DVD. I love Dune and Twin Peaks and Eraserhead (which I saw at a late-night cinema show with Dino: that was oddly cool, dude), and his odd web films.
Therefore, I think that this award is well-deserved.
I look forward to seeing Inland Empire.
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I own Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive on DVD. I love Dune and Twin Peaks and Eraserhead (which I saw at a late-night cinema show with Dino: that was oddly cool, dude), and his odd web films.
Therefore, I think that this award is well-deserved.
I look forward to seeing Inland Empire.
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Spiral Frog
Yet another music download service, called Spiral Frog, is going to go online soon. Its angle: free, legal MP3 downloads, but you have to watch ads to get the songs. They struck a deal with Universal to start off their catalog.
At first, I was unsure whether this would succeed. If you give things aware for free, they become devalued. And so many people can download music for free today, why would they bother to do it after watching ads?
But I've since heard Spiral Frog brought up by people who aren't very tech-savvy: that means it's getting buzz. Also, perhaps I've underestimated the percentage of people who would be willing to download if it was legal, or would rather download legally, even if it means watching ads. And today sees the news that Spiral Frog has struck a deal with EMI for their catalog as well.
Maybe this frog has legs, after all.
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At first, I was unsure whether this would succeed. If you give things aware for free, they become devalued. And so many people can download music for free today, why would they bother to do it after watching ads?
But I've since heard Spiral Frog brought up by people who aren't very tech-savvy: that means it's getting buzz. Also, perhaps I've underestimated the percentage of people who would be willing to download if it was legal, or would rather download legally, even if it means watching ads. And today sees the news that Spiral Frog has struck a deal with EMI for their catalog as well.
Maybe this frog has legs, after all.
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Whatever you think I deserve, that's not what I'll get
Unusually, the Mercury Prize went to the odds-on favourites, and the Arctic Monkeys go home with the award for best British album of 2006. I go back and forth on the merits of their album: sometimes I think it's brilliant, sometimes it sounds contrived. As I blogged yesterday, I really have no idea if it's the best album frmo the short-list, though. I should listen to the rest.
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Tuesday
Service
Once in a while my low expectations of customer service in the UK are upset. That happened this morning.
I arrived at the train station and went to the machine to buy my ticket. I pressed my buttons and put in my money and got my ticket and my change. I noticed there was a lot more change than there should have been. I looked at my ticket: it was to the wrong destination. Damn. I was pretty sure I'd pressed the right buttons. So now I've got a ticket I can't use.
My cynicism kicks in: The ticket staff are rubbish, I thought. They'll say, Sorry, you've got to buy a whole new ticket. They were unhelpful a couple of years back when one of these machine ate my money, telling me I had to buy a new ticket and submit a claim form by post (although - and perhaps this is the part that I should have remembered - that eventually turned out okay). But I didn't have the right cash to buy another ticket from the machine (I can't use a £20 note for an £8.80 ticket because they only give £9 change max, and the archaic machines don't tale credit or debit cards). So, I queued for an agent.
A moment later I'm at the agent, and I tell my sob story, not holding out much hope: the machine gave me the wrong ticket. Without query, pause, or dry look, the agent immediately issued me a new return ticket for my destination and charged me only the difference in price. No problem.
Thank you, First Great Western.
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I arrived at the train station and went to the machine to buy my ticket. I pressed my buttons and put in my money and got my ticket and my change. I noticed there was a lot more change than there should have been. I looked at my ticket: it was to the wrong destination. Damn. I was pretty sure I'd pressed the right buttons. So now I've got a ticket I can't use.
My cynicism kicks in: The ticket staff are rubbish, I thought. They'll say, Sorry, you've got to buy a whole new ticket. They were unhelpful a couple of years back when one of these machine ate my money, telling me I had to buy a new ticket and submit a claim form by post (although - and perhaps this is the part that I should have remembered - that eventually turned out okay). But I didn't have the right cash to buy another ticket from the machine (I can't use a £20 note for an £8.80 ticket because they only give £9 change max, and the archaic machines don't tale credit or debit cards). So, I queued for an agent.
A moment later I'm at the agent, and I tell my sob story, not holding out much hope: the machine gave me the wrong ticket. Without query, pause, or dry look, the agent immediately issued me a new return ticket for my destination and charged me only the difference in price. No problem.
Thank you, First Great Western.
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I hate to admit it, but I don't think Muse's album is good enough to be on this list
I'm afraid that this year I can't make a prediction about a likely winner for the 2006 Mercury Prize because I'm not "up" on the music of all the nominees. The award will be given tonight.
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Cob in my gob
I love sweetcorn (we used to just call it "corn" in North America, since we never felt the need to differntiate it from livestock feed grain corn). We boiled some cobs last night and ate 'em with plenty of butter. Delicious. That's childhood comfort food.
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Getting Peter Gabriel to do it? That'd be cool
I want to check out this cool book from Daniel Levitin, called This is Your Brain On Music. Levitin was a record producer, but has since become a neuroscientist who studies the effect that music has on our brain (and the effect that that has had on humankind). It looks quite cool.
There's a writeup on it in today's Salon magazine (you'll have to watch a short ad to see the whole article). I especially like the example they provide of how Levitin makes simple explanations of complex neurophysiology:
There's a writeup on it in today's Salon magazine (you'll have to watch a short ad to see the whole article). I especially like the example they provide of how Levitin makes simple explanations of complex neurophysiology:
Imagine that you stretch a pillowcase tightly across the opening of a bucket, and different people throw ping-pong balls at it from different distances," Levitin writes. "Each person can throw as many ping-pong balls as he likes, and as often as he likes. Your job is to figure out -- just by looking at how the pillowcase moves up and down -- how many people there are, who they are, and whether they are walking toward you, walking away from you, or are standing still. This is analogous to what the auditory system has to contend with in making identifications of auditory objects in the world, using only the movement of the eardrum as a guide.
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An excellent morning of tunes
This morning, my iPod randomised for me these tunes (my train was delayed):
- "Night of the Living Baseheads" by Public Enemy
- "Multitude of Casualties" by The Hold Steady
- "Jesus is Coming Soon" by Blind Willie Johnson
- "Man I Used to Be" by k-os
- "Nimrod's Son" by Pixies
- "Drop the Hate" by Fatboy Slim
- "Closer" by The Tiny
- "Fuel My Fire" by The Prodigy
- "Uncle John's Band" by The Grateful Dead
- "When I'm Sixty-Four" by The Beatles
- "I Shot the Sheriff" by Eric Clapton
- "Drive" by R.E.M.
- "Jet Airliner" by Steve Miller Band
- "Duppy Conqueror" by Bob Marley and the Wailers
- "Cancer For the Cure" by Eels
- "(There Is) No Greater Love" by Amy Winehouse
- "Midnight Rambler" by Larry McCray
- "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
- "Casino Boogie" by The Rolling Stones
- "Soul Rebel" by Bob Marley and the Wailers
- "Psychopomp" by The Tea Party
- "Go Fuck You (live)" by Hank Williams III
- "This Modern Love" by Bloc Party
- "Walking in L.A." by Missing Persons
- "Trust in Love" by Bill Bourne
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Films
We finally watched Ray last night. I think the film deserved its accolades, especially Jamie Foxx. Sure, there's a standard feel to most big biopics like this: adversity, a source of inspiration, the guts to work hard, success, new adversity, remembering the source fo inspiration, contentment and salvation through acclaim. But it's the truth of Ray Charles's life, cliché or no. I saw the great man perform live once. It's important to remember the innovators, the trailblazers.
I will not be going to see Neil LaBute's Wicker Man. The original is a wonderful piece of Britishness that needed no tampering. This version looks rubbish (although I am a bit surprised that they kept in one non-Hollywood element of the original), and all the critics hate it. If it's ever on TV I'll watch it for free.
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I will not be going to see Neil LaBute's Wicker Man. The original is a wonderful piece of Britishness that needed no tampering. This version looks rubbish (although I am a bit surprised that they kept in one non-Hollywood element of the original), and all the critics hate it. If it's ever on TV I'll watch it for free.
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Monday
The soundtrack of my life
Toon
Don't work too hard
Happy Labour Day to my friends and family who have a holiday today in Canada (and happy Labor Day to you spelling-challenged Americans).
I'd always wondered why the celebration of the achievements of organised labour was held on the first Monday in September in North America, instead of on the first day of May as it is in most of the rest of the world (and appropriately called May Day). According to the Wikipedia wonks, there are several reasons: these include union actions that took place around that time of year in the Americas, as well as simply not wanting to align with "internationalist" labour movements.
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I'd always wondered why the celebration of the achievements of organised labour was held on the first Monday in September in North America, instead of on the first day of May as it is in most of the rest of the world (and appropriately called May Day). According to the Wikipedia wonks, there are several reasons: these include union actions that took place around that time of year in the Americas, as well as simply not wanting to align with "internationalist" labour movements.
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Sunday
Safeguarding the memories
This lazy Sunday afternoon was spent doing the boring but sensible task of backing up important files. I keep all my photographs and music stored on an external hard drive, but I also back them up onto removable media. Obviously music for which I have CDs doesn't need an extra copy, but all my downloaded music and all my vacation pictures could disappear with a single hard drive crash. Today I used up the last of my CD-ROMs, but I got everything duplicated. I'll move to DVD-ROMs for the future.
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Hungry
The She-Aussie came over today, and we went to the Common Room for breakfast this morning. It's a funky neighbourhood bar (it's near Ealing Common, thus the name). Breakfast was really tasty. I'd go back again.
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Huge nuclear reaction delays UK train!
Train schedules - and, more to the point, train delays - are a topic of frequent moaning here in Britain. It's a rare week that my journey to work isn't delayed by a points failure or a signalling failure somewhere along the line. Another standard joke among us users of public transit is when trains are brought to a halt each autumn because of - gasp! - leaves on the tracks!
This article on Yahoo! News says that our fragile British trains are beset by even more problems: the wrong sort of snow in winter, and - most recently - the wrong sort of sun!
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This article on Yahoo! News says that our fragile British trains are beset by even more problems: the wrong sort of snow in winter, and - most recently - the wrong sort of sun!
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Stairway to heaven
Back in the mid '90s, when I was working at the Canadian Space Agency, I went to a seminar on how to get into space cheaply. It focused on buying payload space aboard Russian rockets and other methods of sharing launch vehicles.
Safer and cheaper methods of getting into orbit continue to be an area of aeronautical interest. Space elevators have captured a lot of the buzz in the last decade or so, moving out of the realm of science fiction with the discovery of ultra-strong carbon nanotubes.
Now NASA is sponsoring a competition to see who has practical, workable ideas about how space elevators might work. I think this is exceedingly cool. An elevator would be much cheaper than arranging a rocket every time you wanted to get stuff up there. While it would have its own share of risks, I think it would be less risky than igniting 2.03 million litres of rocket fuel strapped to your belly. Moving all sorts of stuff out beyond the atmosphere and into orbit would be simple. And what an amusement park ride it would make.
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Safer and cheaper methods of getting into orbit continue to be an area of aeronautical interest. Space elevators have captured a lot of the buzz in the last decade or so, moving out of the realm of science fiction with the discovery of ultra-strong carbon nanotubes.
Now NASA is sponsoring a competition to see who has practical, workable ideas about how space elevators might work. I think this is exceedingly cool. An elevator would be much cheaper than arranging a rocket every time you wanted to get stuff up there. While it would have its own share of risks, I think it would be less risky than igniting 2.03 million litres of rocket fuel strapped to your belly. Moving all sorts of stuff out beyond the atmosphere and into orbit would be simple. And what an amusement park ride it would make.
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Family ghosts
SWMNBN and I went back to our old 'hood of West Hampstead tonight. We met the Other Canuck and had a great meal at The Banana Tree, a place we used to frequent. We then went over to the Tricycle Theatre, an arthouse cinema we sadly did not frequent for some reason, and saw Volver. Almodóvar's latest is a decent film, an examination of mothers, daughters, and sisters, family wrongs, and forgiveness.
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Saturday
Stuff
The spring clean came late this year. We've just dropped bags of old clothes and junk we never use at the charity shop. Everyone alwas says it, but it's true: it's amazing how you accumulate stuff.
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Nocturnal
We have motion-activated lights outside our flat. Just before retiring to bed last night, the light came on. I looked outside and saw no one. Then a flicker on motion on the lawn caught my eye. It was a fat little hedgehog, making a break for it after apparently having checked out our downstairs neighbours' new flower pots.
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"Al Queda!"
Me and the Laydeez went to see Crank last night. Jason Statham seems to be getting into this ludicrous action-film motif, so I'm willing to go with it. It was, indeed, stylish, over-the-top, contrived, full-on crazy action violence. Canadian film critic Geoff Pevere gets it right when he says that, "Crank qualifies as a superior piece of slick, shallow-souled trash. And I mean that in the best sense of the term." Most critics don't seem to like it, though, which doesn't surprise me.
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Friday
Munch hunch
Still no word from Norwegian police about how they tracked down the stolen paintings The Scream and Madonna, or why no one has been arrested.
There is speculation that the paintings were only stolen as leverage or a distraction for a big bank heist investigation from a couple of years ago, and that the paintings' location was given up by an incarcerated criminal for better prison conditions. This would match the facts. It also fits in with the difficulty that exists about why anyone would steal these paintings at all: as many have pointed out, they're effectively priceless and far too famous to ever sell.
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There is speculation that the paintings were only stolen as leverage or a distraction for a big bank heist investigation from a couple of years ago, and that the paintings' location was given up by an incarcerated criminal for better prison conditions. This would match the facts. It also fits in with the difficulty that exists about why anyone would steal these paintings at all: as many have pointed out, they're effectively priceless and far too famous to ever sell.
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