Russell Davies

autumn cranes

Not Basho:

The crane's legs
have gotten shorter
in the spring rain

sunday weather

like the opposite of an analogy

This is just a thing that happened. It's not interesting. It's blogging.

I went to see The Necks last night with my friend Ben. (Not that Ben.) Ben's been known to do some professional reviewing in his life but this was a night off, he was just there to spectate, so we joked that he should try not to have any opinions or come up with any analogies, since it was a night off. (I say joked...)

Which reminded me of the Analogy Library, so we talked about that for a bit, and I couldn't remember any of the examples, so we looked it up and there, right there, were the Borromean rings - "a configuration of three rings arranged so that no two rings are interlocked but all three together are".

Haha, we thought, The Necks are a trio, this'd be applicable. But, actually, The Normally Excellent Necks seemed (to me at least) to be having a bit of an off night. They were like the opposite of that - each of two rings were interlocking, but all three weren't. D'yasee?

Like I say, just a thing, not interesting, blogging. You've got to have this stuff if you want the other stuff.

 

 

 

on terms with tools

I didn't get to dConstruct, which was a shame, I was especially looking forward to Tom Armitage. Fortunately, the audio of his talk is available here. It's lovely, it made me think of this moment from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:

"Taking the marble he slowly rolled it round his hard, powdery palm and Roach knew at once that he was very skilful at all sorts of things; that he was the kind of man who lived on terms with tools and objects generally."

 

big-town folksy

Scamp has started blogging again. Which is nice.

He's written something thoughtful about capturing 'tone of voice' which reminded me that pithy statements of tone are things I collect.

Here's the latest I've found, from Nicholson Baker's The Way The World Works:

John Updike described the tone of the New Yorker as "big-town folksy".

Isn't that perfect? Big-town folksy.

daylight music

I went to see Richard play at the Union Chapel today as part of the Daylight Music thing. It was at noon.

He was very good. Quiet and acoustic but rigorous, controlled, not soft and folky - building loops and phrases rather than ordinary songs. Perfect.

I've never been much for going out in the evenings. I'd always rather be at home, so I miss a lot of stuff I'd like. And this reminded I've always wanted to go to gigs in the morning. Before work. Before school. While it's still cold and the streets are still quiet. The Russell Square cafe would be perfect. Outside. Music like Richard's would be perfect.

It might deliver a feeling like the start of Birth Of A New School from A Moveable Feast:

"The blue-backed notebooks, the two pencils and the pencil sharpener (a pocket knife was too wasteful), the marble-topped tables, the smell of café crèmes, the smell of early morning sweeping out and mopping and luck were all you needed."

Maybe it wouldn't just be music. Could be talks, readings. But, early, so there's something under your belt before you start the day. With coffee.

that was a good summer

balloons, slow data sounds, locks

A fascinating day at EMFcamp with Paul, Tom and Arthur.

Excellent talk about High Altitude Balloon and Rocket launching and tracking from Adam Greig of CUSF.

 

Practical demo.

Listening to the radio tracking being decoded.

  

Also, lock-picking: