Aug. 13, 2013
In 2005, towards the end of the second year of my PhD I presented a poster at a conference in Dresden, Germany. My eccentric colleagues and I stayed on a huge canal boat moored on the Elbe for no discernible reason other than it seemed like a laugh at the time. In reality I was the second worst snorer of the three of us and it also turned out that our room was right underneath the gang-plank and every morning at six the person who made breakfast would stomp across it.
Aug. 12, 2013
It’s so good that I paid to see it twice! There, that’s the review done. Despicable Me 2 is great for so many reasons. I reckon pretty much anyone aged from 3 to 103 would enjoy both movies’ warm heartedness and most will love the minions’ riot of anarchic slapstick. And if they don’t, I guess they aren’t our kind of people anyway, right? Here are a few good reasons for loving “Despicable Me 2” (and actually most of these reasons apply to the original “Despicable Me”):
Jul. 31, 2013
Another four albums for you this month. Sometimes the problem is not finding albums to listen to but actually finding time to listen to them! Often it is not because I don’t have time but because I have already found some great albums this month and I am busy listening to those instead. As a result, a couple of these albums are ones that I have only listened to for a week or so, but they are interesting enough to write about.
Tags: Music, Album Digest, July, Pet Shop Boys, Fuck Buttons, James Holden, Ramin Djawadi, Thirteen
Jul. 30, 2013
“The Ocean At The End Of The Lane” is the new novel by Neil Gaiman. I was so intrigued by it that I bought the hardcover, which is unusual for me because I prefer paperbacks. I’d been excited by reading the first chapter online at the Guardian website and from reading a blog post about the novel written by the author’s wife Amanda Palmer. I’d not read any of his novels before but they had long been on that “to read” list that is typically as long as your arm.
Tags: Neil Gaiman, Books, Novel, Thirteen
Jul. 29, 2013
I want to see a TV show about great mathematicians of the past on a channel like BBC Four. Programmes about mathematics tend to be rather condescending, at least to anyone who has a bit of mathematical knowledge. Perhaps a way around this is to delve into the social and historical circumstances of the great mathematicians and how that along with their personality produced the mathematical results for which they are famous.
Jul. 24, 2013
Ibrahim El-Salahi is a modernist artist from Sudan. I believe this exhibition is a first for an African artist at the Tate Modern. Much like the Choucair show (which is still on everyone!), it’s an engaging but too short introduction to an interesting artist that you have probably never heard of. The pieces are roughly divided between large blank and white ink drawings that are mounted on multiple panels and oil paintings in earthy colours that depict abstract scenes.
Tags: Art, Tate Modern, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Thirteen
Jul. 23, 2013
There were no mornings or afternoons. It was one seamless day, every day, until the sun began to arc and fade, mountains emerging from their silhouettes. This is when we sat and watched in silence. Today I finished reading “Point Omega” by Don Delillo. I have wanted to read one of his novels for a while and though this is a slip of a novella, I certainly enjoyed it. I accidentally came across it when I looked at the wikpedia page for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin last week as part of research for another post that I am writing.
Tags: Don Delillo, Books, Novel, Thirteen
Jul. 5, 2013
This week I read “Skios” by Michael Frayn (who was born in Mill Hill). It’s another book from now customary pile of books that tends to develop around this time of year. “Hawksmoor” and “The Marriage Plot” were on the same ever-increasing pile. “Skios” is something of a change from what I normally read: it’s a comedic farce about stolen identities set on the (fictional) titular Greek island. Amusingly, the wikipedia page for the novel currently reads “Praise for Skios was entirely misplaced”, probably thanks to some curmudgeon who doesn’t like the novel.
Tags: Michael Frayn, Books, Novel, Thirteen
Jun. 30, 2013
Just two albums this month as I am still enjoying last month’s albums so much (and I spent loads of time getting reacquainted with Boards Of Canada at the start of the month). I listened to a few more albums but not often enough to write loads about them so there is an “honourable mention” section at the end of the post that briefly discusses a few more albums. Without further ado, the two albums are:
Tags: Album Digest, June, Music, Boards of Canada, Jon Hopkins, Thirteen
Jun. 26, 2013
Peter Ackroyd’s “Hawksmoor” was first published in 1985. I bought a recent reissue that forms part of Penguin’s decades collection whilst on a spree in Waterstone’s. It appealed to me as I recently realised that despite growing up in the eighties and nineties, I had read very novels that were either written or set in the eighties. Happily “Hawksmoor” is both of these, sort of. It also appealed to me because it is (again, sort of) a detective story and I’ve found myself getting into those lately.
Tags: Books, Peter Ackroyd, Novel, Thirteen, London
Jun. 24, 2013
I have written a lot in these posts about how music gets indelibly tied up with places, events and feelings. For me this album by Fanfarlo is tied up with all three of these. It makes me happy and sad at the same time in memory of great times that are now gone but are fondly remembered. I am aware that this is the youngest album on the list so far and so it might be a bit early to endow classic status upon it, but “Reservoir” is a fine album and to my ears it stands up really well.
Tags: Understated Classics, Fanfarlo, Music, Thirteen, Rock
Jun. 22, 2013
Today I went to see the new Superman reboot Man of Steel with friends. I really enjoyed it, particularly the more reflective take on the superhero myth. Starting out with the fate of the planet Krypton, Man of Steel approximately fuses the events of both the first two original Superman movies. We get to see Superman’s arrival and childhood on earth and then the arrival of Zod, a maniac bent on replacing the earth and everyone on it with a new race of Kryptonians.
Tags: Films, Thirteen, Black Hole Rules, Science Fiction