Thursday, 29 September 2005
A summer's end
Work starts in four days. I spent the afternoon polishing shoes and gardening. Very Zen, I know.
The mood isn't as bleak as the title suggests; in fact, quite the opposite. I was informed of -- and hurriedly booked tickets for -- The New Pornographers' visit to London on 2nd November. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I have no idea whether they're playing any more dates in the capital; the official website currently mentions only "UK/EU shows in November and more in December". Anyway, a perfect birthday present (from me to me). Twin Cinema is a definite grower; "Use It", "The Bleeding Heart Show" and "Sing Me Spanish Techno" have buried themselves in my head. My brother is furiously deliberating the possibility of travelling back from uni for the gig. Classes? Pah!
And of course there's Sigur Rós a week later. My limited edition copy of Takk... has arrived, replete with beautiful packaging, additional artwork and -- fine, I'll stop drooling now. "Hoppípolla", an obvious highlight, is on repeat on the CD player; of the songs I hadn't heard already, "Saeglopur" was immediately striking in its intensity. I eagerly await the live performances.
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Thursday, 08 September 2005
New dawn fades
Out with the old; in with the new. Submitted the dissertation today; start work on 3rd October.
Critics of Bayesian confirmation theory point to the problem of old evidence as a weakness of the account. Traditional attempts to resolve the problem include the counterfactual strategy and the humanised Bayesian strategy; I argue that these approaches are not entirely satisfactory. I then turn my attention to plausible reasoning in mathematics, focussing particularly on the problem of old evidence in mathematics, and argue that some form of humanised Bayesianism can contribute to our understanding of confirmation and old evidence in mathematics.
So there.
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Tuesday, 06 September 2005
Mercury
Congratulations to Antony & The Johnsons, who've won the Mercury Music Prize 2005. I was rooting for The Go Team! or maybe M.I.A., but what the hey, at least Coldplay didn't get it. Antony's voice (and appearance, I suppose) is definitely an acquired taste. I've warmed to tracks such as "Cripple And The Starfish", "Fistful Of Love" and "Hope There's Someone", but I can't help feeling that "You Are My Sister" (the current single?), which has been getting airplay, is horribly sappy and over the top. There's a whole bunch of mp3s here for your sampling pleasure.
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Monday, 05 September 2005
Subscriber
So I was browsing through my Bloglines account, while stuck on a philosophical difficulty in my dissertation, when I discovered that I have a subscriber! It's Jeff McIntire-Strasburg over at sustainablog, and I reckon I ought to big him up (i) in order to encourage this kind of fine behaviour (subscribing to my blog, that is), and (ii) because he does a great job in covering sustainability issues (how does he find time to sleep?).
Bloglines is also highly recommended; it aggregates feeds from your chosen blogs to save you checking each one individually. The only danger is information overload, to be honest.
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Wednesday, 31 August 2005
Republic of Heaven
I've finished His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman; it took little over a week. It's not often that I can't put a book down, and I hope I haven't done any permanent damage to my vision.
I can't recommend the trilogy highly enough. "Epic" is tossed about terribly freely as a soundbite description nowadays, but I think HDM deserves it fully. The last book I felt so profoundly moved by was The Lord of the Rings trilogy, many years ago, or possibly The Great Gatsby and some of Douglas Coupland's works, more recently. HDM and LotR are alike in some ways, and different in so many others. It's also evident that Pullman and Coupland have a similar Weltanschauung; it would be rather interesting to sit them together at a dinner party.
I have no wish to dissect the text in minute detail, nor is it possible for me to do justice to Pullman's astonishing achievement with a review. But please do read HDM if you haven't already. And the next time I'm in Oxford, I may even pop by the Botanical Garden...
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Tuesday, 23 August 2005
Update
General update on various things:
- First draft of dissertation is done and under my supervisor's consideration. Fingers crossed that I won't have to change/rewrite/add much.
- Taking a break from the Discworld series to read His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Most of the way through the first book now, and it's fab! Could those in the know please tell me how it compares to the Harry Potter series, which I've somehow avoided (in book and film form)?
- Picked up Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers and I Am Kloot's self-titled at Fopp today. Pleasant surprises all round: I hadn't realised that the latest New Pornographers album was out in the UK already, and it was only a tenner.
- The British music press seems to like Stars' Set Yourself On Fire. From the songs I know, I think I prefer Heart (2003), but hopefully they'll perform a mixture of old and new at their gig on 7/9.
- Made my first mix in over a year, and it seems to have got a great response -- which is nice!
- Started playing regular tennis again.
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Wednesday, 03 August 2005
Another gig
Tickets to Sigur Rós @ Brixton Academy, 9 September.
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
If they perform "Svefn-G-Englar", my life will be complete.
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Sunday, 31 July 2005
Upcoming gigs
Oh my, it's been a while. No point apologising -- although I do hope that some people will still read this -- and let's just get on with it.
I got up early yesterday morning. (I'm still technically a student, so 9am counts as early.) Why? For this. Yes, my brother and I have tickets to see the Pixies in a month's time. Rock on. In fact, it's going to be a fan-bloody-tastic 3 weeks. Stay tuned; I might even write about the following gigs:
- Pixies, 31/8 @ Alexandra Palace
- Stars, 7/9 @ The Garage
- Lemonheads, 15/9 @ Shepherd's Bush Empire.
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Thursday, 07 July 2005
London
I'm sorry that it took something like this to make me update. Just a quick one to say that my family and I are ok, and to say thanks to those who enquired after us.
Interesting reactions so far:
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Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Rachael Yamagata @ ICA
I first discovered and wrote about Rachael Yamagata pretty much exactly a year ago. She's come a long way since then: she performed on The O.C. (Season 2 Episode 11, in case you were wondering -- not that I watch the show) and appeared at Glastonbury last week. Having missed her gigs at The Enterprise a few months back, I wasn't going to make the same mistake with last night's show at the ICA.
Supporting was a young American singer-songwriter named Johnathan Rice (note spelling). The one-man-and-guitar act isn't easy to pull off, and despite Rice's best efforts, the overwhelming feeling I got from his 45-minute set was one of dreariness and tedium. The songs, while not poor per se, all sounded similar and dragged on for too long. Several of the song titles had connections with war -- not sure if I'm missing something there.
And so on to the main act. RY opened her set, as she did her debut LP, with "Be Be Your Love". A full band provided the backing, including the obligatory cellist and violinist (I wonder what classical musicians think of them). The setlist comprised a good mix of tracks from her self-titled EP and the Happenstance LP, plus unrecorded new material. "Why Did I Leave" (formerly known as "What About Steve", we were informed) was showcased as a song that will appear on the next album, with recording due to start in August.
The double whammy of "Letter Read" and "Worn Me Down", arguably her two best songs, provided the highlight of the evening; the latter included an audience-sung chorus. RY's rapport with the smallish crowd was excellent all night; there were anecdotes about London cabbies, performing in Glastonbury's trance tent (!), and even some scatological humour. The encore included "Reason Why" (the O.C. track) and the hidden track from Happenstance, a duet for which Johnathan Rice returned to the stage.
It was, overall, a decent gig. I think the majority of the audience expected more songs from the LP, and I would certainly have enjoyed hearing "Under My Skin" and "1963" live, but she can't be faulted for serving up a varied setlist.
I was admittedly disappointed that the stripped-down version of "Worn Me Down", which introduced me to RY in the first place, didn't feature. If you missed it last year, no worries, because it's been reposted at Achtung Baby!.
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