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note to invading aliens: avoid this town
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| | Subject: | Closed. | | Time: | 02:53 am |
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| This journal's in archive mode; I'm not going to come back to it. All the action's at ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) covertmusic these days; if you're interested in my musical escapades I"ll see you there!
Andrew |   |
| What have you done this year that you're happiest about or most proud of?
- A (accentuating the positive) | | comments: 17 comments or Leave a comment |
| There is *no* way I'm going to navigate this LJ backlog. If there's anything you want me to read or invite me to or whatever, mail me! Please!
- A (not waving but drowning) | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | having a punt | | Time: | 07:19 pm |
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| As if further confirmation was needed, sometimes it's even clearer than normal that Cambridge is a very weird place.
Take punting. Not only are there only three places in the world where they think driving a boat with a pole rather than using some sensible method of propulsion (like, say, a mechanism which actually displaces water; Archimedes took those baths for a reason, after all) is a good idea; but one of those has what amounts to flooded roads, and for that matter has merrily ditched the gondola and adopted the speedboat as being an essential aid to drug-running, robbery and other parts of one's mafia lifestyle, whereas the remaining two can't even decide for their collective lives which is the right end of the punt to stand at when they're trying to accomplish this task. This, when the populace of the two towns in question are meant to be amongst the more intelligent of those you'd find anywhere. Don't believe the hype.
What's particularly bizarre about punting in Cambridge, though - and cycling for that matter - is the way the normal rules of the world are suspended. It's the nearest thing to a temporary autonomous zone I've found outside a gig: all self-restraint and dignity lost in a primal clash of splintering wood and pride. Emeritus Professors are seen swinging their punt-poles with malice aforethought (and astern); invective (from the erudite to the scatological) is hurled across the water (host to far worse pollutants: don't fall in. I've got a perfect record here; once in the Cam, once in the Cherwell), and everything from a champagne cork to a paddle to a bridge is a fair weapon in this particular battle of wits. Maybe it's something about the nature of the Cam, and when cycling, the roads; they break up the somnolescent atmosphere of much of the University, which dominates the centre of the town, and this sense of boundaries feeds through into how people act. I like the idea of this wild, lawless vein stranding through the town.
I reckon it's mostly about showing off, though. There's three sorts of punt on the river, I reckon: tourists, and the running competition between the Scudamore's touts of who can get away with the most absurd lies about the university's history (apparently, King's Chapel was buried beneath a hill until 1978); societies, out to get drunk and hopefully gain a war-story of someone being knocked into the river (bonus points if they catch a rat in the process, of course); and couples, either actual or potential, and either moon-eyed or with one of the pair becoming increasingly less subtle as the day and wine wear on in their efforts to either impress or seduce their target. Total ego-war! Desperation plus booze plus a complete absence of professional ethics plus booze plus sunburn (or drizzle, or both) plus even more white wine. Heavily arm all the combatants and ensure that the majority of them have no idea what they're doing, sit back, and watch the fallout. Opposite the Granta is highly recommended for this; the weir sorts the dilettantes from the few highly-skilled punt technicians out there. The absence of a white-knuckle grip on the punt pole and the profound lack of mortal terror are pretty good indicators, if you're trying to spot them in advance.
Actually, It could be that this is one of the factors that stabilises the university - the knowledge that running through what's effectively our back gardens, there's a peculiarly English anarchist haven. Like the Reality Checkpoint, a lamp-post in the middle of the biggest open area in the town, it's a delineation of where the University starts and ends; a much-needed escape from ourselves. Strange that it'd do that - but somehow that'd only be appropriate. | | comments: 16 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Selwyn Snowball setlist | | Time: | 02:01 pm |
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| Radiohead - Everything In Its Right Place (Kid A)
The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (DJ Downfall's Persistent Beat Mix) (Patient Zero - Sub Pop comp)
The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds (The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld)
Ulrich Schnauss - On My Own (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Redpoint - Middlesex Beach (Smell of Music EP)
Tortoise - The Lithium Stiffs (It's All Around You)
Air - Cherry Blossom Girl (Talkie Walkie)
Grand National - Talk Amongst Yourselves (Sasha remix) (Involver)
Lali Puna - Left-Handed (Faking The Books)
Bjork - Hyper-ballad (Post)
DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World (Endtroducing...)
Covert - Rainsong (Unseen Rulers EP)
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy (Blue Lines)
Boards of Canada - Hi Scores (Hi Scores EP)
The Zephyrs - Stand Around, Hold Hands (Ulrich Schnauss remix) (Club AC30 #1 EP)
M83 - Run Into Flowers (Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts)
My Bloody Valentine - Soon (Loveless) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Audioscrobbler | | Time: | 04:22 pm |
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| This thing's very cool:
http://www.audioscrobbler.com/
Basically you install a plugin into your media player of choice (the protocol's fairly simple, and I reckon it wouldn't be hard at all to write one for jukebox systems) and it records the songs you play (all done over HTTP); it then compiles a personal chart and (here's the clever bit) using some kind of inference technique works out who else on the system has similar taste to you - using that it then makes recommendations of stuff to listen to.
Also, in conjunction with http://www.last.fm it creates a custom radio stream of your music plus recommendations! Nifty. (It's like LJ in that a free account is pretty full-featured, but you can pay for the extras, and it's all GPLed stuff - it grew out of someone at Southampton's final year compsci project)
Quite a lot of fun to see what other people are listening to, as well. This is me at work: http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/covertmusic/ - for example.
Anyone else interested? | | comments: 20 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Enormously long shot | | Time: | 03:01 pm |
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| A friend writes:
now if you know any analogue guitar amplfier engineers with valve experience who want to move to milton keynes then that would be great
Any analogue-electronics/sigproc people want a new job? I'll put you in touch. (I think it's probably Marshall Amps.)
- A | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Cheery vacuities nicked from Pitchfork... | | Time: | 12:25 pm |
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Jarvis Cocker to Score Next Harry Potter Film
Nick Patch reports:
John Williams must be rolling over in his grave. After scoring the first three Harry Potter flicks, the man responsible for the most annoyingly hummable movie scores of the last 25 years has been ousted in favor of... Jarvis! In a curious move by most sane people's standards, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will reportedly be writing most of the music for the fourth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, selecting the remainder of it, and may even have a cameo appearance in the movie. According to an article in UK paper The Sun, Cocker was selected by new Potter director Mike Newell in an effort to appeal to an expanded teenage audience... as well as, we presume, more Mojo writers.
| | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| 19th November: Student Radio Awards, London
21st November: Grandfather's 90th birthday, East Sussex
26th November: McLusky, University of London Union
30th November: Shellac w/ Electrelane, Scala, London
I am going to *die*. :)
- A | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| I totally missed this, but they published my paper on my birthday;
Density-functional study of charge doping in WO3
Andrew D. Walkingshaw, Nicola A. Spaldin, and Emilio Artacho
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, United Kingdom
(Received 16 February 2004; published 25 October 2004)
Phys. Rev. B 70, 165110 (2004) is the reference. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| Aargh.
The last post on my journal was me trying to explain something; it's now turning into a bouncing baby flamefest, which I'm more guilty of starting than anyone else, and I'm feeling pretty bad about it. I'm sorry, and the last thing I want is for people to wind up arguing over this; particularly when most of the people arguing are feeling down about *the same thing* - everyone mostly agrees - and it's ultimately a very trivial and unimportant dispute. :(
Please accept my apologies. I have this need to explain myself the whole time, and I wish I didn't sometimes. | | |
| | Current Music: | the Cardiacs - "Goodbye Grace" | | Subject: | and why | | Time: | 10:20 pm |
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| Some people on my friends list seem to be upset by what they see as public grieving for the late John Peel. I'd like to explain why I posted.
( Read more... ) | | comments: 11 comments or Leave a comment |
| I'm at most skimming LJ right now, so if you want me, email. (Contact details in my memories.)
-A | | comments: Leave a comment |
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note to invading aliens: avoid this town
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