There have been 68712966 versions of the ‘Charles Darwin‘ entry on Wikipedia. You might think the Christians have a bit of a chink in their arguments armour. I mean, you don’t see the Buddhist suppressing information, even if they think its a lie.
Archive for the 'life' Category
Well that was the loneliest birthday I ever had. Should have followed my intuition and stayed were people loved me. 31. Yay.
Thank you Gina. You Rock!
Imagine if you found out that moments after you life expired this world and everything in would cease to exists.
How would this affect you and you life until then?
“Yeah, we got one of our code monkeys to do it.”
Thanks to Seb for this recipe. He showed me how to do this one in London in 2005 and recommends doubling (or tripling) the proportion of herbs (and adding chilli powder I imagine). I’m not sure where this was originally taken from (Seb?). Masur Dal means ‘red lentils’ and are the basic lentils apparently.
1 cup red lentils
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 potatoes, chopped
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
4 green chillies (optional)
2 tablespoons ghee
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon garam masala
Wash the dal, soak, drain and boil in 5 cups water, adding turmeric, salt and cumin together with the potatoes and tomatoes. When the potatoes are cooked, add the coriander leaves and green chillies. Heat ghee and fry garlic and onion till golden. Stir in the garam masala and fry for two minutes. Add to the dal, mix well and serve hot with rice.
Have you heard about World Press Freedom Day (WPFD), 3rd of May 2006? I hadn’t until a friend found the site that Loesja, an international NGO funded by the European Cultural Foundation, put up to promote their writing workshop that will be taking place in many countries around the world on the day. The work of which will be compiled into a book and send around the world. I spent the day in their Berlin office and found out more about this girl called Loesja.
Loesja’s focus is hard to define, and searching around the web doesn’t seem to help much, but on the surface their main focus would seem to be group writing and designing of posters that are designed to provoke positive thoughts. Its best put in her own words:
“Together we form a writer’s collective, an NGO, a poster activist group, an international organization, a creative network, a contagious idea – many titles, call it what you will. I’m Loesje, and I’ve given my name to this growing group of world constructors and dreamers, people who are helping me to conquer the world.”
Loesje is the name that is always signed on all of the posters produced and is the ‘avatar’ of the idea. The small group who make up the Berlin office spend most of their time organising and giving workshops, and facilitating creative action generally. They also travelling to different countries, to anywhere a Loesjes group might have sprung up, and guild the locals though a Loesje style workshop. These workshops are really just brainstorming sessions for group writing and collaborating mainly for the puroses of producting posters, but not always as in the case of WPFD.
Its hard to gauge the number of Loesje groups as many have started up independently of their own initiative and sometimes more than one in the same city, each unaware of the other until they see a poster they didn’t put up. Although the official language in the organization is English, groups are encouraged to write in there own language and tackle issues that are relevant to their social circumstance.
The underlying concept it quite simple and pure which gives the movement a the appeal of clarity. It does not try to change the world though any single action by any single individual, but instead hopes to change people with the collective creative of many.
Bought my ticket to Berlin today! Leave Sydney, Australia on the 10th of April at 14:20 and arrive in Berlin on 11th April at 09:20 (via Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam).
A new start. A new Alexander!
I last Thursday (17th Nov 2005) I went to see Squarepusher supported by a live DJ set from Luke Vibert at Koko. I was completely blown away by it all!
I went with Dean Chamberlain (thanks for all the pictures) who is a big Luke Vibert fan and manager to spot the man before things got started hanging around the sound mixing booth. We arrived lot long after doors opened. The que was picked at by the mixed carrion of touters looking to buy tickets and party promoters pushing the next gig. It was quite intense which set the mood for the intense evening to come.
The first act up was meccano set. A table was set up with a meccano construction on it and a little Casio keyboard. Wheels and pulleys were set up to turn and hit little strips of plastic that were some sort of trigger for a drum sound. The keyboard was set up like a large wind-up music box which had a long black cylinder rotating over the keys. Little fingers stick out form this cylinder would press the keys down making the sequence of notes. There was also a busted up old toy record player that was playing making a recordy ambient sound continually. At first this set up was puzzling and it sat on the projection screen for the first couple of hours. Once its design was understood the novelty wore thin.
The ‘artist’, Pierre Bastien, made music with this sort of primitive, home made, sequencer drum machine set up which was at first curious and then amusing but wore thin after about 10 minutes. He also played a baby muffled trumpet over the top of this and did achieve a sort of blue melancholy sound for some of it. His sound reminded me of Nils Petter Molvaer but with less energy and sophistication.
Luke Vibert started his set completely unannounced. There was an obvious change in mood and track selection which ranged from some very nice down tempo drum and bass to funk, which was completely unexpected and yet another twist in the course of the nights musical meanderings. It was quite refreshing to hear rhythm and melody again after Mr Meccanos forays.
Squarepusher showed up quite late and the place was buzzing with anticipation by this stage. I was a bit annoyed at him showing up so late to his own gig. He finally appeared on stage at 12 and we’d been waiting since 8. None the less he pulled out yet another surprise: Jazz.
Tom Jenkinson (aka Squarepusher) started his set off with Paul Hession (drums) and Mick Beck (saxaphone). They did a half dozen psychedelic Jazz numbers mixed with some Squarepusher type bass playing. All the pieces were intense, full of energy and showed a completely unexpected dimension to this arts playing that had me completely impressed.
A sentiment not shared by all the audience who where expecting a more bangy start after a long wait and who probably weren’t into Jazz. This just helped to highlight the diversity in the crowd that ranged form nerdy weedy white guys to Camden style Goths to Punks to just average looking middle aged couples who were not used to staying up this late anymore.
Once the Jazz men had taken a bow Squarepusher went solo and did a long hour and a half set with two laptops and switch between three electric bass guitars. He played along to drum sequencing form the laptops that was more the crazy distorted drums and bass you’d expect form Squarepusher.
Up until this point I had never really understood where his bass playing was coming from but I realised as he held a fret down and beat out a sequence on the strings with his right hand that he was using the bass guitar as a percussion instrument! He has a background playing drums and Jazz (I assume) and so his music is not that far off modern Jazz percussion. He has changed to a more electronic instrumentation and is always chasing an intense vibe as found in modern dance music. The compositions are intricate and sophisticated. His bass playing technique is highly skilled and full if energy. An amazing performer and artist altogether.
At this point the dance floor turned mosh-pit and I managed to get close to the front near Dean who as glued to the railing right in front of where Squarepusher was playing. Eventually I retreated to one of the upper tears of Koko.
Koko in Camden is a superb venue. Its huge to begin with and used to be an old theatre I’m assume as it still looks the part. The interior is all a deep red colour and is covered in intricate lace work. There is a 4 meter disco ball hanging from its high roof, the biggest I’ve ever seen, yet it is lost in the feeling of space. There are five or six balconies with two of them sporting small intimate bars (and DJ booths).
The visuals were very well thought out and the most impressive I’ve seen to date. Mostly for their simplicity and effectiveness. The composition during the Jazz set was brilliant. A combination of simple screen wipes and two angle switching of the same shot. There band was emersed in a red wash that didn’t change much and was perfect for the mood. After the Jazz was over they quickly tore down the projection screen which revealed a the second matching box that dominated the stage. Squarepusher was squeezed between these lager rectangles who’s purpose was mystery until he did his first sequenced number, then they lit up jumping with simple white LED lights making patters that rected to the music and wowed the audience.
Overall an fantastic night out. My ears are still rigging and I’m happy to be in London!
Heaven is where the police are English, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and everything is organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything is organized by the Italians.
From:
Science gets the last laugh on ethnic jokes - Science Mysteries - MSNBC.com
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