Oct. 12, 2013
Today I went with a friend to see Tate Britain’s “Art Under Attack” show. It’s an interesting, if uneven, affair that entertains but doesn’t quite succeed in everything it attempts to do. The big word that you learn is iconoclasm: the act of attacking an object believed to represent particular beliefs. The show splits into two parts: ideological acts of iconoclasm committed against works of art in Britain and the work of British artists who embrace iconoclasm as a means for making art.
Tags: Art, Tate Britain, Art Under Attack, Thirteen
Oct. 5, 2013
After a few false starts I managed to finish “High-Rise”, the next in my collection of JG Ballard novels. For a book that I had trouble getting into, it turned out to be a pretty good read - even if it was also a pretty unpleasant one. Published in 1975, “High-Rise” is perhaps ahead of its time in exploring the effects of social breakdown in stylised and artificial situations where people are in close contact.
Tags: J. G. Ballard, Books, Science Fiction, Novel, Reading Projects, Thirteen
Sep. 30, 2013
A nice diverse selection of albums this month:
Arctic Monkeys “AM” BT “A Song Across Wires” Goldfrapp “Tales of Us” Janelle Monáe “Electric Lady” Arctic Monkeys “AM” This whole review is basically me catching up with the rest of the world and realising that the Arctic Monkeys are ace. To be fair, I did notice how awesome they were at the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, and I have liked the odd one or two of their singles, but up until now I haven’t really wanted to listen to any of their albums.
Tags: Album Digest, September, Music, Arctic Monkeys, BT, Goldfrapp, Janelle Monae, Thirteen
Sep. 14, 2013
The single biggest fact of life is that you are always going to be alone, you just might not realise it. Listening to The Cardigans’ excellent 2003 “Long Gone Before Daylight” will help you see that all our relationships are essentially screwed – but at least it sounds great while it does so.
“Long Gone Before Daylight” (“Long Gone Before Daylight”) plays the role of “The Empire Strikes Back” in a trilogy of great albums that The Cardigans released between 1999 (the arguably better and slightly happier “Gran Turismo”) and 2006 (the unarguably inferior and definitely happier “Super Extra Gravity”).
Tags: Understated Classics, The Cardigans, Music, Rock, Thirteen
Sep. 13, 2013
Ellen Gallagher is an American artist and her “AxME” show recently finished at the Tate Modern. I went along a few weeks ago and have only now had a bit of time to write up my thoughts.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t go along to it sooner, so that I had a chance to see it more than once. It was certainly a larger show than I was expecting (it was about the size of the Ibrahim El-salahi and Saloua Choucair shows put together) and I hadn’t left myself with a lot of time to see everything when I did go.
Tags: Art, Tate Modern, Ellen Gallagher, Thirteen
Aug. 31, 2013
For reasons that will become apparent, there will be a short period soon where I will not be writing album digests. Until then, I’m clearing a backlog of some albums that I’ve been listening to but haven’t had enough time or motivation to write about. Only one of this month’s albums was released this month, something that’s not that uncommon at this time of the year as it is not the best time to release things.
Tags: Music, Album Digest, August, Washed Out, Bonobo, Atoms for Peace, Thirteen
Aug. 14, 2013
Motivation and Lies Motivation is a fickle thing. You can see it in action here on this blog, or rather in inaction as there are often “droughts” between posts (and draughts between drafts…). Back in June I tried to write a post each day that had a title of the form “X and Y”. I was overambitious and they petered out after a bit. This was one of those posts and was originally titled “Motivation and Lies” in melodramatic fashion.
Tags: Life Experiences, Work, Thirteen
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.
Tags: Ideas, LaTeX, Maths, Thirteen
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”):
Tags: Films, Animation, Thirteen
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.
Tags: Ideas, Maths, Lists, Thirteen