Is It Just Me...?

Brent Spiner [Lt. Commander Data in Star Trek]


Tory Boy

No time for serious blogging just now; post-vacation "real life" has hit me with a vengeance. However I can't resist this bit of snark. With all the talk of a General Election (or not) in the UK, I've been paying more attention than usual to the characters involved. Now I'm sure this may have been said before but is Tory leader, David Cameron, the doppelgänger of Brent Spiner (the actor who played the sentient synthetic lifeform, Lieutenant Commander Data, in Star Trek: The Next Generation)? Having said that, I'm not sure if an android at the reins of power would be a bad thing.

Friday Music Blogging: Rhassan Roland Kirk

Since my return to reality at the beginning of the week I've been overwhelmed with urgent stuff to do as well as cope with the idiosyncracies of a new computer at work and the usual post-longhaul flight rhinovirus infection. Thus proper blogging will have to take a back seat. In the meantime here's a clip of one of my all time favourite jazz musicians (Rhassan) Roland Kirk playing a signature piece, Serenade to a Cuckoo, on the flute and making use of the overblowing technique which he largely pioneered.


P.S. I should add that I saw Mr. Kirk at Ronnie Scott's Club, London in 1970 and was simply astonished by his technique. Apart from his flute pyrotechniques he also demonstrated how to play three saxophones simultaneously and how to do circular breathing. Jethro Tull do a pretty good tribute to RK here.

Got It (the Grant Not the Disease)!

Well the email inpile was not quite as bad as I'd imagined. One of the messages was a notice for a grant award to study typhus. This seems like a little bit of compensation for spending last year's Thanksgiving holiday slaving over a hot laptop preparing an application that was subsequently rejected like a piece of discarded chewing gum. Devotees of this site may recall (don't feel bad if you didn't: I had to search for the post) that I submitted a modified re-application in June. Well the pain was worth it. Apparently funds will be released in about two weeks so now I'll have to get my arse rear end in gear to get the work done. There's absolutely no breathing space here. Oh well, it's better to be busy...

Hooray!

I'm Back

Sunrise at Aghios Stephanos last week.

Sadly I'm no longer in Greece. Normal service will be resumed as soon as I've dealt with my email inbox (urgh, shudder) found my mobile phone, and adjusted to the inevitable Seattle drizzle....

War Stories: Battle of Britain Remembered

My brief transit through the UK has reminded me that it's the anniversary of one of the most critical battles of World War II. The Battle of Britain was fought in the skies over the South of England throughtout the summer and autumn of 1940. The peak of the battle is generally regarded as ocurring on September 15th -a day in which nearly 300 German aircraft were shot down by the RAF's frighteningly minimal squadrons of Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. The Luftwaffe's losses were unsustainable and the following day their attacks virtually ceased. Operation Sealion, Hitler's plans for the invasion of Britain, were postponed indefinitely. Here's a few photos lest we forget that turbulent time 67 years ago:

A Spitfire squadron scrambles

Heinkel bomber over the Surrey Docks, London

London burning

Vapour trails over St. Paul's Cathedral

Heinkel bomber crash landed at Findon, West Sussex.

Normal Service Will Be Resumed As Soon As Possible

Did I mention that from today I'm off to the Ionian Islands (via London) for a couple of weeks? I did? Fancy that. Anyway in the unlikely event that I'll find myself in a wireless broadband zone, normal blogging will be resumed on or after October 1.

Go Zorba José...

Yassas.

Stairway to Heaven

Unfortunately Mad Dog will not be here.

Damn! On that day I'll be Over the Hills and Far Away. Here, specifically. Clearly a Communications Breakdown.

On This Day: Famous Birthdays

Today the following have birthdays:

1575 - Henry Hudson, English explorer (d. 1611)

1818 - Richard Gatling, American weapons inventor (d. 1903)

1883 - Gus Cannon, American blues singer and jug band leader (d. 1979)

1888 - Maurice Chevalier, French singer and actor (d. 1972)

1913 - Jesse Owens, American athlete, Hitler’s nemesis (d. 1980)

1914 - Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (“Q” in James Bond films) (d. 1999)

1921 - Stanisław Lem, Polish science fiction writer (d. 2006)

1931 - Sir Ian Holm, English actor, genius

1943 - Maria Muldaur, American jazz singer

1944 - Barry White, American singer, inexplicable cult icon (d. 2003)

1951 - Bertie Ahern, Irish politician

1957 - Rachel Ward, Anglo-Australian actress

1972 - Jason Statham, English actor, Olympic diver, Cockney wide boy

1980 - Yao Ming, Chinese basketball player, giant, Apple pitch man

???? - Mad Dog, Eccentric, blogger, geriatric

Ode to a Grecian Urn*

Parthenon, Athens, 1972. Photo taken by Mad Dog in the days when it was permitted to climb all over this priceless site.

"What's a Grecian Urn?"

"They say Prince Philip makes about £359,000 a year from the Civil List"

Drum roll and cymbal crash

Don't expect any sense out of me over the next few days as thoughts of my impending vacation seem to have addled my brain (in an insouciant kind of way).

* With apologies to John Keats.

Happy Anniversary!

Parents "Going Away", September 1947.

This weekend would have been my parents' 60th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately their earthly togetherness was only to be just over three decades. In the 28 years of the marriage that I witnessed, I never heard an argument or angry word. And I took this blessed and wonderful relationship for granted. As they say, it was a hard act to follow...!

Friday Frivolity

The last 5 seconds (be patient) of this clip have got to be the funniest thing I've seen in years.

Farewell, Maestro

Luciano Pavarotti, 1935-2007

Well its "addio" to unlucky Luciano Pavarotti who sang his last aria yesterday after a losing the battle with pancreatic cancer. While he was known for his classic operatic deliveries and performances with fellow tenors, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo he was also happy with cross-cultural mixes and appeared with all kinds of popular music celebrities including James Brown, Queen (yay!) and the Spice Girls (yes, really). Goodbye, Maestro, we'll miss you sorely.

Reading Material

Mad Dog is having a rematch with James Joyce in the next month.

Ohara has asked me what I'm going to read on my imminent Grecian vacation. This is a good question. One of the delights in my adult years has been selecting a number of books to consume on holiday. My life being what it is these days, this is the only time I get to do any serious reading. So here's my selection:

1) Ulysses
James Joyce
Joyce, you bastard, you won't defeat me this time.

2) Journal of a Plague Year
Daniel Defoe
What else for a microbiologist?

3) Cracking the Emperor's Codes
Michael Smith
I love this nerdy, military code cracking stuff.

4) McCarthy's Bar
Pete McCarthy
Apparently hilarious Irish travelogue -I'm intensely curious about my parents' country.

5) Blindness
José Saramago
I've got to have one serious offering from a Nobel Laureate.

6) The 4 Hour Work Week
Timothy Ferriss
Retirement planning of sorts; shameless NY Times best seller pulp filler.

So that's my top six. A mix of fiction and non-fiction, humour and gravity, intellectually challenging (not difficult these days) and lightweight as well as another epic battle with Ulysses (what better place than Greece for this?). And absolutely no bloody Dan Brown or JK Rowling.

PS Yesterday a friend loaned me Issai Chozanshi's classic The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts. I'll try to sneak that one in too.

Exhausted

Damn! A week's gone by without a post. I've even got few drafts ready to upload but haven't been able to summon the energy. The past few months have been physically and emotionally exhausting and I'm absolutely knackered. A lot has been going on at work (good but demanding), there's been a pile of legal/administrative stuff to do at the end of the Big Personal Project (tedious and a bit ugly) and just about every electro-mechanical device I own has failed (expensive and irritating). In addition my lovely fluffy cat has twice burst her stitches following recovery from a nasty operation. I feel like I'm walking around wearing lead diver's boots while at the same time waving the white flag. Never mind, in two weeks I'll be here:


Corfu, Greece. Photo taken by Mad Dog, 1972.

No email and no phone for 14 days. Just a lot of books to read and a gentle existence. I can't wait...

Wallpaper

Railway viaduct, Co. Durham.

Once in awhile I get pangs of nostalgia for scenery like this. Quintessential England. Sigh...

Summer of Love 1

There seems to be a musical leitmotif going on around here at the moment. Probably something to do with all the stuff I keep hearing about the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Was it really all that remarkable or is my retroscopic vision bathed in a rosy glow of nostalgia? Well here's what was in the UK Top Ten charts in August 1967:

1. The Beatles: All You Need Is Love
2. Scott McKenzie: San Francisco (Flowers In Your Hair)
3. Dave Davies: Death Of A Clown
4. Vikki Carr: It Must Be Him*
5. The Monkees: Alternate Title (aka Randy Scouse Git)
6. Tom Jones: I'll Never Fall In Love Again
7. The Turtles: She'd Rather Be With Me*
8. Stevie Wonder: I Was Made To Love Her
9. Pink Floyd: See Emily Play
10. Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade Of Pale

Remarkable? It was bloody amazing...!

* My apologies to Vikki Carr and The Turtles but I couldn't find suitable video clips.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy blogiversary to me.

Three years and 346 posts.

Who'd a thunk it...?

Twinkle Twinkle Super Star

Brian May on the Roof of Buckingham Palace Plays for the Queen.

Well congratulations to Brian May of Queen who sucessfully defended his PhD dissertation in astronomy yesterday, 36 years after abandoning it for a career in music. As I always told my graduate students, the key to success in science is tenacity. Now a word of advice. Bri, it's been 29 years since you, Freddie and the boys had me standing on my seat at Wembley Stadium and I've been a fan since the early 70s, but don't you think that permed hairdo is a little bit passe and unseemly for a 60 year old man?

PS I wonder if you're going to do a postdoc now...?

Many Happy Returns

Inexplicably my 8-year-old daughter turned 23 today.

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

Friday Music Blogging: Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia

What with one thing and another there has been a preponderence of musical themes in my posts recently. Even so, I'm unapolgetic for today's offering of one of my favourite contemporary jazz groups, Barabara Thompson's Paraphernalia. I've been attending their concerts since the late 1970's and we seem to have grown up together. This clip is BT's signature song, Little Annie-oo, which I was delighted to find on YouTube a few days ago. The late, great, Ronnie Scott is the compere who makes the introductions in his own inimitable way.