The lost room

A couple of weeks ago I watched a DVD called "the lost room". This was a box set for a TV series. The lost room refers to a motel room that no longer exists. There were a series of objects in the room that have special powers, such as a key that could open any door, or a pair of scissors that could rotate things. There were groups of people, known as collectors, trying to get the objects. Some people thing the room and objects were part of God. Now that I look at the synopsis above it all looks a bit nerdy, ok it looks very nerdy. But I think I would enjoy life a lot more if I was searching for every day objects that had magical powers. If you see me wistfully clicking a new pen, then I am actually testing its magical properties, so I suggest you step back. There were very few episode (approx 6), so I was disappointed when it ended. I was talking to some people about DVDs in the pub. I noted that box sets were worse than cocaine, because they soak up so much time. (I would like to point out that I have never taken cocaine, just in case some nasty human resource person is reading this).

Can't stop Won't stop

I have just finished reading a book called "Can't stop. Won't stop" by Jeff Chang. This book is a history of hip-hop, mostly before 2000. It is one of the best music books I have ever read, because it also deals with racism and being creative in a corporate world. I now know who Afrika Bambaataa is and the importance of Grand master Flash. The book contains a lot of interesting material on political organization and compromises. When I read about the million man march in Washington, I kept thinking that I lived in the US then. My recollection of that event was through the prism of the media.

Christmas wishes (not)

I can't say I am A great fan of Christianity. The links my family have had with the church have never been a positive thing. I have always regarded Christmas as a holiday from the cold of winter. I usually send blank Christmas cards, where I write "happy holidays". (Ok sometimes I forget to write peoples names as well, because I am always in a rush). Thanks to Dawkins I now know that I should wish people "a happy Newton's day". Bah humbug!

Last year's resolutions

It is nearly the new year, so it is time to make some new years resolutions. I pulled myself from my lethargy on the couch, limped to the bathroom, and looked at myself in the mirror. My blood shot eyes, and beer destroyed body, shimmered with stress, and told me in the no uncertain terms that my dreams of a modelling career were finally over. But I thought what new years resolution could improve my elagantly wasted appearance. Last year my new years resolution was "going more mainstream". Instead of snorting when someone mentions that they like the killers or snow patrol, I was going to try smile and fake some interest in that person, even though they didn't deserve my attention. Anyway somehow hating the killers is hardwired into my brain, so that resolution lasted about 5 seconds. Also after reading Cope's last book on underground Japanese bands, I had to buy the CD Satori by the flower travellin band. When I heard the first track, I was disappointed because I thought it would make my head explode. After the second listen I think it is incredible. Even better, the CD cover for Satori claim that only 1000 copies were made. I have copy number 188. Fu*k mainstream music!

Vodka from Liverpool

Someone told me that there was a brand of vodka from Liverpool. Seemed unlikely, but it may have been true. I tried to order it in a Russian restaurant in Liverpool, much to the disgust of the waiter. Even the mighty google let me down, because I couldn't track vodka from Liverpool down. I found a bottle of Imperial Vodka, distilled in Liverpool, in an off license in Glasgow. The evidence is above. Now I need to search for something else. It passes the time.

TV

I have spent the last 5 days at my mum's house relaxing and doing the Christmas holiday thing. I was talking to my mum and brother about various technological things about TV. In particular the merits of digital TV recorders. I learnt how to use the joost internet TV while I was at home. Nice, but the interface needs more work. One of my other questions is what the f*ck is smileTV. It is one of the freeview channels, but is only on from 3am to 7am. As I get older I can't stay awake until 3am, but I am taunted by the TV page when I switch channels. Umm now I know.

Physics under attack

Although this is not a science blog, I feel moved to comment on the attack by the funding agency (STFC) on fundamental research into particle physics in the UK. Apart from the cuts in funding, what is also particularly annoying is that STFC have a number of "big questions" that are meant to focus research on important areas. The older funding agency called PPARC had questions such as "what are the basic properties of the fundamental particles and forces?", that can be potentially answered. With a new funding agency comes new big questions, the only one that is potentially relevant to particle physics is "why is there a Universe?" What sort of question is that? If you are nine years old then this is perhaps a reasonable question, but it is hard to even know how to start answering such a question. Who wrote that crappy STFC delivery document? If you put "why is there a Universe" into google scholar (that searches books and journals), then you only find that phrase in books on theology, philosophy of science, and one entry in "Nursing Administration Quarterly, 2000". If you search for the phrase "why is there a Universe" using google you find hits from Hawking and string theory people. So this question has nothing to do with physics, reality or experiment. Things would be much simpler in the US, where I would sue STFC because they broke the separation between church and state. In the UK I can only complain to that nice Richard Dawkins bloke, and let him spew some polemic at STFC. Things don't seem and better in the US, where the accelerator I have been focussing most of my phenomenological studies on has just been cancelled. However the funding for a new machine has almost been approved.

blood music

I know I keep promising to read at least one book by Doris Lessing (from the two I already own). As a warm up, I read "blood music" by Greg Bear. This is a great science fiction novel about a scientist creating intelligent cells. He injected the cells into himself, which frankly was a bit stupid. The novel works on many levels and is full of ideas. If you are wondering why reading "blood music" is a warm up to reading Doris Lessing, I would like to point out that Lessing is quoted on the wikipedia page about her as mentioning "blood music" as evidence that science fiction is an important literary form.

six the mark unleashed

I watched a fairly strange DVD called "six the mark unleashed". I thought that this was an action movie. There was a resistance movement who were fighting a supreme leader (by stealing cars). Normally action movies such as this one, end with the leader being overthrown, and everyone going off into the sunset. This film was different. It seemed to involve a lot of Christians, who were rebelling against the system by happily geting their heads chopped off. Looking at the reviews I think I would have got more out of the film, if I knew more about the bible, than that Jesus turned water into wine. Anyway this is what happens when you rent DVDs from the local library at Hillhead. There was an offer on, that if you checked out 6 books, you could rent a DVD for free. Given that I hardly read at the moment, this didn't seem like a good idea. (The cute librarian didn't look pleased).

Mountain Goats

When I lived in Lexington Kentucky during the early part of the 90s, I used to buy a lot of tapes from the Shrimper Record label. The tapes were mostly by lo fi folk bands. One of the bands I really liked were called the Mountain Goats. Tonight, I am going to see the Mountain Goats play at he Oran Mor venue that is just down the road from me! I am so excited. Emmy the great is playing support as well, so that will be cool. When I was in Lexington I think I was hoping that I could put one over John Peel by listening to stuff he had never heard of. When I came back to the UK, I heard that he played the mountain goats and Simon Joyner, so there was really no way to beat the man. Of the bands signed to Shrimper, I really liked "paste". Paste were some intense singer and complaining guitar. I was happy to see that the Shrimper Record label lives on (in a sense).

Fool moon

I keep meaning to read something by Doris Lessing, mostly because I bought some of her books, so I should make an attempt to read them now that she is a Nobel prize winner. However instead I spent part of the weekend reading Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. The book was part of the Dresden files series. The story is about wizard versus werewolves in modern Chicago. The book is not great literature, but is well written with a lot of hooks that occur at the end of chapters. It is good to be reading fiction again. I will get around to reading some books by Lessing soon.

Janis Joplin

A couple of nights ago I had a dream where Janis Joplin was not dead. In the dream I was reading a WIKIPEDIA article about Joplin. She made some records with Led Zeppelin during the 70s. I used to listen to a tape by Janis when I was 17 or 18. We also taped a documentary about Janis and used to watch that in rotation with a documentary about Phil Ochs. Anyway I was pretty sure that Janis Joplin overdosed, but I used to be fairly drunk when I watchd the film about Joplin, so perhaps I missed something. The last time I thought about Janis Joplin was when I heard Cohen say that his Chelsea hotel song was about Janis Joplin. In fact, it looks like all my information about Janis Joplin comes from the TV. This is what used to happen in the days before the internet. I can feel a quest coming on to find Janis Joplin.

Are you ready for the LHC?

Are you ready for the LHC? Hey, forget about tuning your Monte Carlo, what you should be reading is the book "keeping it real" by Justina Robson. In 2015 the quantum bomb opened up the world to the realm of Elves, demons and some other things. The quantum bomb was caused by the explosion of the superconducting supercollider in Texas. Umm, yes, perhaps if she had done a little more web surfing she would have found that that accelerator had been cancelled in the early 90s. I don't see any acknowledgements, but perhaps Brian Cox was involved as a consultant, and he was able to help with his legendary grasp of particle physics. The book was a mixture of fantasy and cyberpunk. The heroine is a cyborg. Science fiction is very different to fantasy (please don't get the two confused). This cross-genre was good, because it mixed scifi with fantasy elements such as magic and elves.

Japrocksampler

When I made my new years resolutions this year, I decided to try and move my interests more into the main stream of culture. For example when I am talking with an attractive woman and she happens to mention that she likes James Blunt, I was hoping to move way from snorting "you like the bland music that fu*king w*nker makes"? I thought that kind of outburst would hurt any potential relationship. Somehow the Satan tempted me to buy the book "Japrockersampler" by Julian Cope. Julian's book is about the Japanese underground music scene, in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Julian claimed that the Japanese music scene was less influenced by drugs, than what happened in the US/UK. It was interesting to read how the Japanese bands were influenced by the music coming from the US. Anyway, rather helpfully Cope provided a list of the top 50 albums by Japanese bands. Top of the list is a CD called Satori by Flower Travelling' Band. Well I have saved money by not buying CDs by Blunt so I deserve a treat,

metal machine

I have decided I am an atonal type of guy. On the freakzone radio show last week, the featured album was Metal Machine by Zeitkratzer. This was an orchestral version of Lou Reed's Metal Machine, that he released in the mid 70s. Many people view the original metal machine as unlistenable, including me (although I didn't try). However the orchestral version sounded so fantastic that I have just bought a copy. However, the new version of metal machine will still clear rooms.

emmy the great

I went out to see "Emmy the great" play at King Tuts in Glasgow last Friday. I don't go out to gigs that much these days, so I couldn't decide whether to go or not. I did decide that an evening of mucic and beer would do me good. The other times I have been to King Tuts it has been packed out, but it was fairly empty when I got there. (Most people were in the bar downstairs and slowly drifted up as the support acts played). One of the support acts was ballboy. I bought one of their CDs, maybe about 5 years ago, because it was championed a lot by John Peel. Also the CD had a song about a big fat stupid Manchester United fan, so the Gods of Liverpool forced me to buy it. I had thought that Ballboy was a band, but last Friday, it was just one guy strumming his guitar. I really enjoyed his set thought, because is was full of word filled songs. Emmy the great were great. I had heard them play a session on Marc Riley's Rocket Science. She sings controlled, sweet, and intense songs. She is Chinese, but the music is not Chinese traditional (I had to explain that too a number of people this week). There is a review of the same gig by someone at the Guardian. A bit wordy and pretentious for my taste. You can listen to Emmy the Great and decide for your self. Interestingly enough Emmy the great are playing a venue close to my flat tonight. More importantly she is playing Glasgow with the "mountain goats" on 10th December. I used to buy low-fi tapes by the mountain goats.

too pretty

I kept hearing about a new folk singer called Fionn Regan. I think he got nominated for a music award. I saw he was playing in Glasgow, but I didn't go and see him, because frankly he looked too pretty. I don't really think of "pretty" boys playing folk music. One of the radio 6 presenters played a track of his CD. The song was about him ringing someone up (ex-girlfriend ?) to apologize for stealing some books and things from their house. It was such a great song, that I regretted not going to see him play. Of course Dylan was pretty when he toured the UK in the last 60s. He was so feminine that a woman plays him in an up and coming film biography.

die hard 4.0

I watched Die Hard 4.0 on DVD on Thursday night. It was entertaining enough. They do all this fancy stunt work, but then there was a scene in the car that was clearly done with a blue screen. Other scenes were done in a real car. I payed 2.50 to rent that DVD, I don't expect to see blatant blue screen filming.

books about wizards

Last week I read a book called Storm Front by Jim Butcher. The book was about the adventures of Harry Dresden, a wizard in the Chicago area who solves occult murder mysteries. This is not high art, but the book was well written in an addictive way. (I don't think the book was a Harry Potter rip off, because I am too cool to read such stuff). Trouble is there is a whole series of these books. I am reading so few books at the moment to get involved in reading a series of books for mere enjoyment. I should really make a start on one of the Doris Lessing books I own. Perhaps I will just order one more book by Dresden.

Rashomon

I have just finished reading Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. This was a collection of short stories by a famous Japanese writer. There is a great film called Rashomon, that starts with a man walking in some trees. The book makes an appearance in the film "ghost dog" as well. A good piece of writing can warm my soul for a long time. I could feel the influence of a story called "hell screen" for a couple of days. There was a lot of ambiguity about the story, which describes a terrible but fascinating event. Ryunosuke changed writing styles later on his life. He started by writing historical stories, but later the stories were more autobiographical (set in the early part of the twentieth century). The last story was called "spinning gears". It involved him just jotting down things he felt and saw, some of which may have been real. He was so sensitive and depressed. I feel the same way when I have not talked to anyone for a couple of days.