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Why I'm Protesting the Pope

2010-09-18T10:49:00.000+01:00

There's one thing that I think needs to be made clear regarding my opposition (and I'm sure many others') to the Pope's State Visit to the UK this week, and that is this:

It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I'm an atheist and he believes in a god. My reason for protesting against him has nothing to do with theology.

It has everything to do with the fact that he has actively encouraged the cover-up of child abuse scandals in his Church, commending bishops who refuse to turn in paedophile priests and threatening abuse victims with excommunication if they go public with their accusations.

It has everything to do with the fact that his Church's opposition to (and in some cases, blatant lies about the effectiveness of) condoms causes untold suffering throughout the world due to HIV/AIDS and other STIs, not to mention increasing poverty (impoverished families having even more children because contraception is "evil") and overpopulation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/11/bad-science-pope-anti-condom

It has everything to do with the fact that he and his Church continue to vilify gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transexuals (http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE4BL2FE20081222) leading to untold guilt and depression in any Catholics (and often people outside the Church) who discover they may not be heterosexual, and contributing to the fact that lesbian and gay youth are more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers.

It has everything to do with the fact that his Church's fetishising of the small cluster of cells known as the embryo holds back embryonic stem cell research, one of the most promising fields of medical research. Their concern for potential human beings outweighs their concern for fully grown humans in pain. In the past they've shown their opposition by not only threatening Catholic scientists who carry out such research with excommunication, but also similarly threatening politicians who support legislation allowing such research to ahead.

It has everything to do with the fact that he and his Church use their priviliged position (gained on the shaky premise that the Vatican is a state) in the UN to prevent consensus on women's rights and reproductive issues, often aligning themselves with radical Islamic states in order to do so. http://www.seechange.org/media/News%20Releases/UNfulfilled.htm

It has everything to do with the fact that he and the Catholic Church oppose abortion and a woman's right to choose, even in cases of incest and rape, meaning that in some Catholic states around the world a woman found to have had an abortion can be jailed. In 2009 in Brazil when doctors carried out an abortion on a nine year-old girl carrying twins after she'd been raped over several years by her stepfather, the Catholic Church immediately excommunicated the doctors (as well as the mother of the girl, who'd approved the procedure, necessary to save the girl's life), yet took no such action against the rapist. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/07/2510130.htm?section=world

And finally, it is because of the fact that, in a time when government services, as well as funding to the sciences, arts and education are being cut, the UK government is spending over £12 million to honour this man.

That is why today, I'll be protesting the Pope. I hope to see you there.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130662863635445
http://www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/2010/07/march-and-rally-main-event-for-the-protest-the-pope-campaign/

Tim Minchin's ode to the Pope

2010-05-03T23:38:00.002+01:00

Brilliant.

Lyrics:

Fuck the motherfucker, fuck the motherfucker,
Fuck the motherfucker he's a fucking motherfucker.
Fuck the motherfucker, fuck the fucking fucker,
Fuck the motherfucker he's a total fucking fucker
Fuck the motherfucker, fuck the motherfucker,
Fuck the mother fucker, fuck him, fuck the motherfucker.
Fuck the motherfucker, fuck the motherfucking pope.

Fuck the motherfucker, and fuck you motherfucker
If you think that motherfucker is sacred.
If you cover for another motherfucker who's a kiddy-fucker,
Fuck you, you're no better than the motherfucking rapist.
And if you don't like the swearing that this motherfucker forced from me
And reckon it shows moral or intellectual paucity
Then fuck you motherfucker, this is language one employs
When one is fucking cross about fuckers fucking boys

I don't give a fuck if calling the pope a motherfucker
Means you unthinkingly brand me an unthinking apostate.
This has nowt to do with other fucking godly motherfuckers
I'm not interested right now in fucking scriptural debate.
There are other fucking songs and there are other fucking ways,
I'll be a religious apologist on other fucking days,
But the fact remains if you protect a SINGLE kiddy fucker
Then Pope or Prince or Plumber, you're a fucking mother fucker.

See I don't give a fuck what any other motherfucker
Believes about Jesus and his motherfucking mother.
I've no problem with the spiritual beliefs of all these fuckers
While those beliefs don't impact on the happiness of others,
But if you build your church on claims of fucking moral authority
And with threats of hell impose it on others in society,
Then you, you motherfuckers, can expect some fucking wrath
When it turns out you've been fucking us in our motherfucking asses.

So fuck the motherfucker, and fuck you motherfucker
If you're still a motherfucking papist.
If he covered for a single motherfucker who's a kiddy-fucker,
Fuck the motherfucker, hes as evil as the rapist.
And if you look into your motherfucking heart and tell me true
If this motherfucking stupid fucking song offended you,
With its filthy fucking language and its fucking disrespect,
If it made you feel angry, go ahead and write a letter,
But if you find me more offensive than the fucking possibility
The pope protected priests when they were getting fucking fiddly
Then listen to me motherfucker - this here is a fact,
You are just as morally misguided as that motherfucking,
Power-hungry, self-aggrandized bigot in the stupid fucking hat.

Wonderful! You may continue to mock...

2010-04-25T23:45:00.000+01:00

No sense of humour at all, Part II

Amazing that the Church expects the world to show it any respect, given the scandals that have come to light recently.

Best election poster ever

2010-04-24T12:07:00.003+01:00

Fuck yeah!

2010-04-24T00:27:00.000+01:00

Volcanic shock waves

2010-04-20T21:50:00.001+01:00

Unbelievably awesome. Pressure waves from the explosions at the crater of Eyjafjallajökull.

A Single Man

2010-04-11T23:33:00.001+01:00

I saw Tom Ford's much-raved-about debut film A Single Man, and found it to be as stunningly beautiful as everyone has said it is. Not just visually; the score stays with you long after the film has finished. I ordered the soundtrack pretty much as soon as I got home. It reminds me of the music from The Hours, another of my favourite films (and soundtracks).

Regina, Regina, Regin-ah-ah-aaaah

2010-04-11T22:34:00.001+01:00

Also, why has it taken me so long (albeit not quite as long as the Human League song) to get into this song?

Don't you want me - Human League

2010-03-30T21:09:00.002+01:00

Why the hell has it taken me this long (all 25 years of my life) to discover this song?

Pure 80's synth bliss.

Regret is...

2010-03-26T11:48:00.002Z

... rediscovering Daft Punk's Alive 2007 and wondering for the 100th time why the fuck you didn't see them live in Tokyo when you had the chance.

Spring marches in...

2010-03-17T23:26:00.002Z

Every morning on my way to work I walk through Victoria Embankment Gardens. During winter the trees were bare, and the gardens lifeless... well, almost. If you stopped to take in your surroundings, you could see the buds on the end of the branches of the trees, waiting out the winter, ready to burst out come spring. And spring is finally here.

The first flowers have started appearing under trees, while others are just starting to poke their tips through the soil in the flowerbeds scattered throughout the Gardens - it's so exciting walking through there every day, just to see how much things have grown. Last year I saw flowers I'd never seen before, given that I've spent most of my life in the subtropics. I took loads of photos of the Gardens last year, and never got around to posting them. So are some of them - a taste of what's to come as spring marches in.

Re: Aaaargh!!

2010-03-07T23:54:00.001Z

Apologies to the lack of follow up to the last entry - February ended up being a rather busy month. Did the world decide that just because February is a couple of days shorter than the other months, that it had to do twice as much to compensate?

Anyway, to follow up: I did get to meet Richard Dawkins... and thus was given the chance to have an incredibly awkward and stilted conversation with him. I'm not sure if it was that it hadn't been explained to him why I was there, or just that he was a bit distracted (he was writing notes on some paper - his notes for the introduction he was giving to Prof. Chris Stringer's talk, I guess), but he didn't really seem to be feeling particularly talkative. Which is a shame, because it is through reading his books (such as The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker) and others like them (such as Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True) that I've rediscovered my love of science, and have found some sort of focus for future studies.

He was fairly chatty with another gentleman who was also backstage - BHA Trustee Robert Ashbee, who was quite friendly - but after a while he left and it was just me and Dawkins. After a few minutes of awkward silence, I asked him if he would sign the copy of On the Origin of Species I had in my bag, as I just happened to be reading it at the time, and hadn't had time to go home to pick up any of my copies of Dawkins' books. However it is apparently one of his rules not to sign any books he hasn't authored, and as my copy of Origin was an edition he hadn't written the foreword to, he couldn't sign it. Fair enough, I suppose.

After a few more moments of awkward silence, after finding out I studied physics, he asked me why it is that elements heavier than iron are not produced in stars. After managing not to pee myself due to the fact that Richard Dawkins was quizzing me on physics, I realised that he was asking just because he was actually interested himself, and calmed down a little, managing to mumble out something close to the real answer, I hope. He then asked me something about parabolic motion and escape velocities, never my favourite subject, and I had to fight to control my bladder once more.

By this stage, Prof. Stringer had arrived, and as it was about 5 minutes before the talk was due to start, we had time for one quick photo, and then I exited (back)stage-left.

Professor Richard Dawkins, me and Professor Chris Stringer

So it was a bit of a disappointing meeting, but I've since spoken to a number of other people who've also met him, and have heard similar stories. So I'm not taking it personally. I've now met him, and I've previously had a book signed by him (the brilliant Ancestor's Tale), so I've no real desire to meet him again. He's a brilliant scientist and communicator of science, an academic after all, not a celebrity in the Hollywood sense of the word, and so what does it matter that he's not the chattiest of folk?

The main event of the night was of course Chris Stringer's talk on the evolution of humans. It was a fascinating talk, as he discussed the fossil finds that have built up our understanding of our ancestors (and the other species that lived concurrently), and the various theories that have developed to explain the evolution from ape-like creatures to homo sapiens.

This is one reason I love London - these sorts of lectures are on all the time. I'm planning on attending a lecture at the Royal Institution at the end on March, and the Voltaire lecture, to be given by Professor Brian Cox, in April.

Aaaargh!!

2010-02-11T15:59:00.002Z

I've just won a competition run by the British Humanist Association (BHA), and as a result will be having drinks/chatting with Professors Richard Dawkins and Chris Stringer before tonight's Darwin Day lecture!!

I'm now freaking out and hoping I don't make a fool of myself. All I have to do is remember in what order words go, and I should hopefully be okay....

In which I attend mass suicide event...

2010-01-31T23:02:00.004Z

Yesterday I attended a mass suicide attempt, in which 50 or so people in central London, as well as hundreds elsewhere in the UK and the rest of the world, consumed whole bottles of homeopathic medicine.

The 10:23 campaign was organised by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, designed to raise public awareness of the ~~sham~~ alternative medicine that is homeopathy. In particular, the campaign is aimed at the UK's largest pharmaceutical chain Boots, in an effort to stop them selling homeopathic substances as medicine.

The trigger for this campaign was the testimony of Paul Bennett, professional standards director for Boots, before the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee investigating the scientific evidence behind homeopathy. In his testimony, Mr Bennett admitted that Boots sell homeopathic medicine not because there is evidence to suggest they work, but simply because people want to buy them.

"There is certainly a consumer demand for these products," he said. "I have no evidence to suggest they are efficacious.
"It is about consumer choice for us and a large number of our customers believe they are efficacious."

"So what?" you might think. If people wish to buy these products, who are we to stop them? And you're right, people are entitled to buy whatever they like. However, the problem is that these products are designed to look like real medicine, and sold to people as real cures. A major pharmaceutical chain selling them makes them look even more like authentic medicine. Not only that, the NHS also spends around £4 million every year on homeopathic medicine, money that could pay the salaries of 200 nurses. There is even an NHS-funded Homeopathic Hospital!

So, in an effort to show the public how worthless and ineffective homeopathic medicine is, over 300 people across the UK, as well as others in Canada, the US, Australia, NZ and other places, consumed whole bottles of homeopathic pills, in a mass "suicide" attempt. So why were they not afraid of dying due to excess consumption of arsenic, sulfur, deadly nightshade or whatever else their meds supposedly contained? If you look at the numbers involved, you'll see why.

What is it?

It was only recently that I realised how bat-shit insane homeopathy actually is. Read this page for a full description of the principles behind homeopathy, but basically it comes down to:

Like cures like - you can be cured of your ailment with diluted substances that can cause the symptons you're displaying. For example, a rash can be cured with dilute preparations of poison ivy, or your insomnia could be treated with a dilute preparation of caffeine, which would ordinarily keep you awake. (Note that this is a different principle to vaccination, which introduces weakened or inactive pathogens that actually DO cause an illness, in order to spur the body into developing an immunity to the pathogen, so that when the body encounters the live pathogen it knows how to fight it.)
The substance must be diluted.... and diluted and diluted and diluted. Apparently the more diluted the substance is, the more powerful its effect... flying in the face of common sense. A 1C prepation would involve diluting one volume of the substance in 99 volumes of water, so the final preparation of 1C sulfur would be 1% sulfur. However, 1C is far too strong (or weak?) for homeopathic purposes - most substances are sold at 30C strength - meaning this diluting process takes place 30 times. So the concentration of the "active ingredient" in the final preparation is one part per 10^60, ie for every 1 molecule of "active ingredient", there are 10^60-1 molecules of water. Given the molecular mass of water is approx. 18g/mol, this means that in a final solution of 30C homeopathic substance, to be sure of still having a single molecule of your active substance, it would have to contained in approx 3x10^37 grams of water, or 3x10^34 (3 with 34 zeros after it) litres of water. This is equivalent to 3x10^31 cubic metres, so if you imagine this as a ball of water, the radius of the ball would have to be 1.9x10^10km - that's 131 times the distance from the earth to the sun. And in that ball is exactly 1 molecule of sulphur, caffeine, or whatever the "active ingredient" is. Another brilliant example can be found on the wikipedia page for homeopathy:

A popular homeopathic treatment for the flu is a 200C dilution of duck liver, marketed under the name Oscillococcinum. As there are only about 10⁸⁰ atoms in the entire observable universe, a dilution of one molecule in the observable universe would be about 40C. Oscillococcinum would thus require 10³²⁰ more universes to simply have one molecule in the final substance.
So how do homeopaths get around these staggering numbers? After all, you'd need a lot more than 1 molecule of a substance for it to do any effective work in your body. As Matt Parker puts it:

To put homeopathy in a medicinal context, if you wanted to consume a normal 500mg paracetamol dose you would need ten million billion homeopathic pills. Where each pill is the same mass as the Milky Way galaxy. There is actually not enough matter in the entire known Universe to make the homeopathic equivalent of a single paracetamol pill.
The answer, according to homeopaths is that water has memory, and so somehow retains a memory of the substance it has had in it. Right... To quote Tim Minchin from his brilliant "9 minute beat poem" Storm:

Water has memory!
And while it’s memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite
It somehow forgets all the poo it’s had in it!
Then, as in the case of the homeopathic medicines many of the attendees of yesterday's event had, the much diluted preparation (that has apparently retained a memory of the original substance, and somehow forgotten all of the bladders it has passed through throughout history - probably repressed those memories) is dropped onto a small sugar pill. And then evaporates. So you're really just eating sugar - after all that diluting, none of the memory-retaining water is even left. You may as well be eating Tic Tacs. In the case of homeopathic liquids, you're just drinking water.

So the 10:23 campaign really is true - there's nothing in it.

So did anyone die yesterday?

No, of course not. The only way someone could have died from consuming a bottle of homeopathic pills was if they were diabetic. Or choked.

And what was the homeopaths' response?

According to The Press Association:

The Society of Homeopaths said treatments are "person specific" and based on taking a series of small doses, so it did not expect any reaction in the protesters unless one already had symptoms matched to their remedy.

"Person specific" - right, that's almost the ultimate "get out of jail free" card. And the "based on taking small doses"? Well remember that according to homeopathy, the weaker the dilution, the stronger the effect. Which reminds me of a joke I heard recently (I can't remember where):

What happened to the man who forgot to take his homeopathic medicine?
He died of an overdose.

So what's the harm? Why shouldn't people use homeopathy?

The 10:23 website gives a pretty thorough rundown of Why You Can't Trust Homeopathy. I would say that number 9 on that list is the most important reason - if people think of homeopathy as a viable and effective alternative to real medicine, it means that they may put themselves in danger by either not having serious conditions diagnosed, or by using ineffective remedies in cases where taking the correct precautions is extremely important. Some examples I've seen given include someone suffering depression committing suicide as they were taking homeopathic medicine instead of a real anti-depressant, or someone visiting a homeopath to treat their high blood pressure, which then leads to a heart attack, something they could've avoided if they'd visited a real doctor. Another frightening example is given by Simon Singh on the page "Homeopathy; what's the harm?" - in this case a woman taking a homeopathic anti-malarial, prescribed by her homeopath, contracted malaria and suffered multiple system organ failure, spending two months in intensive care.

So there you go - homeopathy is bullshit. Spread the word.

Note: Before I really got into this, I associated homeopathy with herbal medicine. As the 10:23 site makes clear, they are very different:

Herbal medicine and homeopathy are two distinct concepts, with homeopathic 'remedies' being more akin to a magic potion than anything else. Many herbal medicines can have real, measurable effects on the human body; some even form basis of modern medical treatments. Aspirin, for example, was derived from willow tree bark.
Conversely, there is no active ingredient in most homeopathic treatments. They are just sugar and water.

Very cool

2010-01-26T22:55:00.000Z

Slime mould simulates Tokyo rail network.

Here Lies Love

2010-01-26T21:49:00.002Z

2009 was a phenomenal year in music, and 2010 is shaping up to be just as good... if weirder. January has seen the release of Owen Pallett's wonderful and much-raved-and-blogged-about Heartland (about which I also planned to blog about), and March will see the release of a studio version of Tomorrow, in a Year, the Darwin electro-opera Moo and I went to see in Copenhagen last September (did you know Moo and I went to see a Darwin electro-opera??? Don't you wish I'd stop talking about it? Too bad!)

However, February will see the release of perhaps the strangest musical release of the year (yes, stranger than a Darwin electro-opera). Here Lies Love is a 2-disc album featuring songs written by David Byrne, in collaboration with Fatboy Slim, and with contributions from almost every alternative (in some form or another) female singer who's big today. The list includes Florence Welch (of Florence & the Machine), Sharon Jones, Santigold, Cyndi Lauper and Tori Amos (each with their own song, as well as a duet!), Martha Wainwright, Róisin Murphy, Nicole Atkins, Sia and... Steve Earle.

But that's not the weird part. The weird part is that each of these singers will be singing as... Imelda Marcos. The ex-First Lady of the Philippines. She of the many shoes. (I'm assuming Steve Earle will be singing as Ferdinand Marcos, but then I would hate to assume anything about this project.)

The album will be released on 23rd February 2010, however you can download the first song to be released, Please Don't (feat. Santigold) from the website already. David Byrne has really done his research, often including actual quotes from the woman in the lyrics. This song talks about the short trips Imelda used to take to visit foreign diplomats, what she called "handbag diplomacy". These trips allowed her to build up her status. She could promise things in these visits, and if her husband acted on her promises she got the credit. However, if what she promised wasn't acted on, well, it was okay too as she could say she tried but in the end she was just the President's wife, not a politician, and so nothing she promised was binding. A very clever woman.

This project sounds absolutely bonkers, and I personally cannot wait for it to be released!

Snow in London - Jan '10

2010-01-14T00:20:00.005Z

I woke up this morning to find to my surprise that London was covered in snow. So far this year, despite the large amounts of snow elsewhere, central London had experienced a relatively light covering. So while light snow had been forecast for today, I certainly wasn't expecting the scene that awaited me as I drew back my curtains.

The view from my window this morning.

Here are some photos I took on my way to work this morning.

Our patio - much more inviting in the summer.

When it snows I love the way that the landscape is blanketed in white - nearly all trace of colour is gone, as everything blends into everything else. The tiniest flash of colour that manages to peek out of the snow is precious.

This reddish-brown tree in Vauxhall Park stood out amongst the black and white of the snow-covered trees.

I'm not sure, but I think this is holly.

The tiny snow-covered village in Vauxhall Park.

Another train service suspended by the snow?

Looking across Vauxhall Park. The red of the man's bag stands out amidst a sea of white.

Looking across the Thames at the fog-enshrouded Houses of Parliament.

Looking up Albert Embankment - once again the only colours are the red of the life-preserver and the red brick of the wall.

Things are warming up, however - on Sunday we're expecting a balmy 7ºC!

Discovery

2010-01-10T02:39:00.002Z

Michael Tomasky is a Buffy fan.

Awesome.

2009 in concert

2010-01-09T17:28:00.013Z

2009 was a phenomenal year in music and, having just moved to London, I was in the perfect location to experience a great deal of it. So here were the concerts I attended in 2009.

March

12th - Patrick Wolf @ Heaven. Supported by Micachu and the Shapes. I'd never heard of them before, but was absolutely blown away by them, and probably enjoyed them more than the main act (and certainly more than the awful first support act). I think I ordered their album as soon as I got home that night.

13th - Patrick Wolf @ Koko

24th - Animal Collective @ The Forum. After listening to their deservedly raved-about album Merriweather Post Pavilion all through the winter, I finally had the opportunity to dance like a maniac to Brothersport.

April

April 28th - Micachu and the Shapes @ ICA

We were also due to see Tori Amos at the Savoy Theatre on the 27th of April, however she was ill and so forced to postpone the concert (only the 2nd time in her career she's done so). So we went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Prince Charles Cinema instead.

No Tori makes us sad pandas... except Simone.

May

11th - Tori Amos @ Savoy Theatre - rescheduled Acoustically Attracted to Sin show.

14th - Yann Tiersen @ Electric Ballroom. This was really disappointing. I think a lot of people at the concert expected this to be like his Amelie soundtrack. I knew he'd done other albums, and liked them, but this concert was very rocky, and not even good rock. At one stage there were 4 guitars on stage. I much preferred the support act, Matt Elliott, who did some interesting looping with guitars, some sort of wind instrument, his voice, anything he could throw at it really!

27th - Bell Orchestre @ Dingwalls. Went on a whim, and enjoyed the concert immensely. Had the feel of a group of musicians just jamming and improvising, and they clearly enjoy what they do. At one stage the trumpeter and horn player both jumped into the crown right behind us and kept playing. Great fun.

28th - Final Fantasy @ Union Chapel. Undoubtedly the best concert I went to all year, both Rachel and I were blown away, and all by a (very attractive) man with a violin and looping pedals, and a woman with an overhead projector. All while sitting in the pews of a gorgeous church and drinking hot chocolate.

Check out the video below for a taste of Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy live (in Bristol a few days before our concert) - Lewis Takes Action.

June

1st - Patrick Wolf @ Electric Ballroom. Supported by YACHT, another surprisingly good, and very fun support act.

4th - Patrick Watson @ Union Chapel. My 4th concert in the space of 8 days, and my second at Union Chapel in a week. Another brilliant concert - they performed pretty much all of their latest album Wooden Arms in order. Then at the end Patrick and the rest of the band came down into the pews, Patrick with a Dr Octopus-looking contraption on his back, a megaphone at the end of each arm, and got the crowd singing along with him.

29th - Regina Spektor @ Serpentine Sessions at Hyde Park

July

13th - múm @ The Tabernacle. Another concert in a church.

15th - Nine Inch Nails @ O2 Arena. Some long distance Trent lovin', from the nose-bleed section of the O2 Arena. Best parts of the concert were I'm Afraid of Americans (sadly sans David Bowie), and Gary Numan coming out to do Metal and Cars.

16th - Fever Ray @ Shepherds Bush Empire. Another busy week - my third concert in 4 days. A very atmospheric concert, with excellent use of lasers and creepy set.

August

1st - Final Fantasy, Micachu and the Shapes, Santigold, Little Boots @ Field Day, in Victoria Park. My first festival, and in true English festival style, spent half the day stomping around in mud.

17th - BBC Prom 43 @ Royal Albert Hall. My first trip to the Proms. Heard Ravel's Bolero played by a full orchestra for the first time - was left breathless.

20th - Animal Collective @ Brixton Academy. Brilliant again. And made even better by the fact that we could walk home from the venue.

September

2nd - Tomorrow, in a Year @ The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark. The highlight of my year. But more on that later.

4th - Jenny Wilson @ Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark. A complete fluke, when Moo and I were in Copenhagen for Tomorrow, in a Year, we picked up a guide to the happenings of the city, and spotted Jenny Wilson's picture with a date just after we were due to leave. Lucky for us, they'd misprinted, and she was actually playing two nights before we were due to leave. Even luckier, there were still a few tickets left.

10th - Tori Amos @ Hammersmith Apollo. My first experience of Tori with band. An amazing performance, with almost every song I wanted to hear live, and Tori showing she can't count.

11th - Tori Amos @ Hammersmith Apollo. Second night of Tori, and another amazing performance.

Happy Tori fans

October

15th - Candy Panic Attack @ The Good Ship. My friend's band :)

November

15th - Patrick Wolf (with special guests Florence Welch and Alec Empire) @ The Palladium. Once again supported by Micachu and the Shapes.

December

4th - Regina Spektor @ Hammersmith Apollo

5th - Fever Ray @ The Forum

Quite an exhausting year, especially due to the fact that the concerts I wanted to attend seemed to bunch together! But this is one of the reasons I moved to London, and I certainly haven't been disappointed. And I've already booked tickets to two concerts in 2010 - Final Fantasy on January 25th, and Grizzly Bear on the 13th of March. And hopefully Tomorrow, in a Year will make it to London.

Busy year!

2010-01-06T22:22:00.011Z

Wow, have I been slack - my last post was back in July?! Well, 2009 was a very busy year, so click through to see what I've been up to...

January
I started working as a Library Assistant at the library of the London School of Economics on January 5th.
At the end of January I went with Simone on a trip to visit Mer, Victoria and Ian in Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa, and saw my first castles.

Warwick Castle (I think)

A very old part of town

Simone, Victoria and me in Birmingham

February
Got snowed on. Marched in a London for a Secular Europe rally, went to an anarchist tea party, and a friend's birthday party all on the same day.

Protesters gather at the start of the rally. Peter Tatchell is on the left.

Walking proudly behind the British Humanist Association banner.

March
Completed a Peer Mentoring course with the Outzone Youth Project. Went to visit Camilla in Sheffield.

The breathtaking landscape outside of Sheffield.

April
Over Easter weekend I went to Oslo, Norway with Rachel. A week later I swam in the 2009 Swimathon, raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Looking out over Oslofjord, at about 6pm

Reindeer steak for dinner in Oslo

May
I moved with friends into a flat in Vauxhall. My walk to work along the Thames passes by Lambeth Palace, the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye, before crossing over Waterloo Bridge.

June

I became secretary of the Library & IT Services Environmental Management Group. Went to a Darwin, Humanism and Science day, where I (very briefly) met Richard Dawkins (and he was kind enough to sign my copy of his phenomenal book The Ancestor's Tale).

I also visited JP in Oxford, where I ate chicken, corn and curly fries surrounded by portraits of English kings and queens in the 300+ year old dining hall of Christ Church College, where they filmed the dining hall scenes of Harry Potter.

Bodleian Library at Oxford

Inside the dining hall at Christ Church College

July
Marched in the London Pride Festival.

Stonewall at the Pride festival, with their brilliant slogan "Some people are gay. Get over it."

Also, I created a terrible army of Nancys for work. I had no idea being a library assistant would involve that much glitter.

August
Moo moved to the UK!! We learned that the Nutbush is a dance that only Australians seem to know.

September
In what was the highlight of my year, Moo and I went to Copenhagen, Denmark for the opening night of the Darwin electro-opera Tomorrow, in a Year, with music and libretto written by the Swedish electronic duo The Knife. We visited Kronberg Castle (the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet) in Helsingør, and also went to Malmö, Sweden for an afternoon. And ate lots of pølser.

Moo in front of The Royal Danish Theatre, a couple of hours before the performance.

Kronborg Castle in Helsingør

October
I joined the committee of GALHA, the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association. And went to a wicked Twisted Cabaret costume party to help raise money for Stonewall.

Costume parties - excellent excuse for MOAR GLITTER

I also got really sick for my birthday. That wasn't so much fun. And while ill, I tried to bake something for the bake sale at work to help raise money for Cancer Research UK, but had a massive cake fail. Let this be a lesson to you. Don't bake if you're slightly delirious. Or an idiot.

November
Began taking French lessons. Got to meet Stephen Fry at the GALHA annual lunch, where he was presented the annual award for services to Humanism and LGBT rights. He said he liked my name :)

Also went to see Inherit the Wind starring Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic Theatre. It's really been a Darwin-filled year!

December
Moo and I finally accomplished a long-term dream of going to Iceland, going with three other wonderful Tori/Björk fans. An amazing place, the sun didn't rise until after 11am everyday, and the landscape was awe-inspiring.

Drinks in Kaffibarinn, the Reykjavik pub that was part-owned by Damon Albarn

In front of Geysir

The church opposite our hotel in Reykjavik

Gulfoss - the golden falls. By the time we got here it was 4pm, and nearly dark.

If this doesn't make you think of a Sigur Rós album...

Back in London, I went to see the brilliant 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People, an inspiring celebration of science and reason.

Finally, to round out the year, I went with friends to a New Year's Eve Eve masked ball in the tunnels beneath London Bridge.

So, an incredibly busy year! Oh, and I also went to a shiteload of concerts, which I will post in a separate entry.

Militant Atheists

2009-07-03T14:42:00.001+01:00

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Unbelievable!

2009-05-29T00:57:00.001+01:00

I've just returned home after seeing Owen Pallett (aka Final Fantasy) live at Union Chapel, and ... wow is pretty much the only word I could say once it was over. One of the most incredible concerts I've ever been to - the man is a genius. Using only his voice, a violin, a looping pedal and occasionally a keyboard, he was able to create music richer, more complex and awe inspiring than so much music around these days.

Here's a live clip of Owen performing a cover of Joanna Newsom's Peach Plum Pear, to give you an idea of what he's capable of.

Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms

2009-05-23T13:02:00.001+01:00

Great song but... erm, just ignore the panda.

(Obviously NOT an official video.)

The things one learns working in a library...

2009-05-09T08:56:00.002+01:00

Under the Library of Congress Classification system, the Bible and books related to the bible (including books on creationism) have the classmark BS.

:)

Scandinavian/Nordic music: múm

2009-05-07T21:46:00.001+01:00

múm - Icelandic band who've undergone a number of lineup changes over the years. Their album Finally We Are No One is without a doubt one of my top 5 albums of 2008. The singer on this album has since married one of the members of Animal Collective, and produced an album with him.

Green Grass of Tunnel

The Land Between Solar Systems - 12 minutes long, but worth it. Sounds like a probe flying towards the outer edge of the solar system, before making its way through the Kuiper Belt and then finally smashing through to the empty space outside (quite possibly the sound they were aiming for? - except of course there is no sound in space...)

We have a Map of the Piano

They Made Frogs Smoke Til They Exploded - from their most recent album Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy. A change in sound due to a change in the band's lineup.

múm have just announced they'll be playing a show in London mid-July, where they'll be debuting some of their new stuff, with an album to be released soon. I can't wait!

Nordic music: Jenny Wilson

2009-05-03T18:53:00.001+01:00

Jenny Wilson - Swedish, sang with the Knife on the song You Take My Breath Away. Released the album Love and Youth, a gorgeous album full of reminiscence and nostalgia in 2005. Didn't fully get into this album until last year, just before I left Japan.

Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward

Summertime the Roughest Time

A Hesitating Cloud of Despair

Nordic music: Fever Ray

2009-05-01T18:50:00.003+01:00

Fever Ray - Karin from The Knife. I bought her self-titled album in Norway, as I felt I should buy something Scandinavian. A brilliant album - similar to Silent Shout upon first few listens, but comes into its own after that.

When I Grow Up. I've been listening to this song non-stop for the last few days. The video is wonderfully weird.

If I Had a Heart - try to find this on youtube, the stupid UK ban on music videos (apparently selective) isn't letting me find it.

Keep the Streets Empty (not the official video... obviously)

Coconut (not the official video) - reminds me somewhat of something off of Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV

Nordic music: The Knife

2009-04-29T18:25:00.001+01:00

I've always had a fascination with Scandinavia. I think it began when I saw the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Games on TV (and also I think since learning as a child that Roald Dahl was Norwegian. That's the thing that always comes to mind when I think of Scandinavia). My interest in Scandinavia has only increased over the last few years, due to the fact that so much amazing music is produced there!

I recently visited Oslo, Norway with my friend Rachel over Easter, and upon returning to London I had a bit of a hard time coming down from the experience. So to help I made up a playlist of Scandinavian/Nordic (since much of it also comes from Iceland) music on my ipod. Over the next few days (weeks?) I'll post some of the artists and songs I've been listening to.

The Knife - the ridiculously talented and unique Swedish electronic duo (brother and sister) Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson. They are currently composing an opera based on the works of Charles Darwin, which will premiere in September 2009 in Denmark. I MUST be there!

Silent Shout - possibly the best electronic song I've heard

Heartbeats (live). The original is superior to the Jose Gonzalez cover, and in my opinion, this live version is superior to the original.

We Share Our Mothers' Health - sounds like every video game noise from the 80's put into one glorious song

Like a Pen

Pass This On - Olof is the one who starts dancing with the "singer" first. Karin is the girl who remains seated throughout the video.

Swimathon 2009

2009-04-23T11:38:00.006+01:00

On Saturday 18th of April I swam in the 2009 Swimathon, as part of the Central London Humanist group team. This year the Swimathon was raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care, a NPO providing free nursing to patients suffering terminal cancer, allowing them to die peacefully in their homes instead of in hospital. They also conduct research into the causes and treatment of cancer, and research into palliative care. My Poppa passed away from cancer last year, and so while I initially jumped at the chance to enter the team as a way of getting back into swimming, I had extra motivation once I found out to where the funds raised would be going.

Despite having never met before (it was all organised over email, via the group's mailing list), our little team, headed by team captain Phuong, met at 9:30am at Ironmonger Row Baths in central London, to don our bright orange swim caps and swim our little humanist butts off.

Before the swim: (from left) me, Stuart, Olcay, Debra and Phuong
Photo credits to team photographer Gerard!

With our stylish orange swim caps on

We were required to swim 5km in total, and after some last minute lap swapping (the total distance ended up being shared fairly evenly across the team), we finally decided on our swimming order.

Debra was off first, and after recovering from a nasty knee injury (due to the fact that she runs a ridiculous amount every week!), did the team extremely proud.

Debra - first in the water

Stuart was up next, followed by Phuong, who remarkably had learnt to swim only two years ago, and was now swimming in a Swimathon! While each swimmer was in the water, the other members of the team cheered/chatted from the side, while the loudspeaker blared the (supposedly) inspirational power chords of Eye of the Tiger and Reach for the Stars.

Stuart in the water

Olcay was fourth in the water, and got off to a powerful start. So powerful in fact that it splashed the pool assistant counting our laps (but it was okay, she probably needed the wake up).

Olcay kicks off

Olcay maintained the power throughout her swim, and eventually cruised in for her final lap. Finally it was my turn in the pool. Everything had gone so smoothly all morning, there was no reason things should be any different for my turn. I jumped into the pool and prepared to kick off.

Me looking like a dork while waiting to start

Just as I was waiting for Olcay to reach the end so that I could start, however, disaster struck! Just before entering the pool, my goggles (which I've had for three years, and had been close to dying for a while anyway) had broken - the seal around the right eye had come off! Luckily Olcay was there to save the day, and allowed me the use of her goggles.

The transfer of the goggles. It kinda looks like I'm wearing nothing but a swimcap in this photo, but rest assured, I'm just wearing white (super-stylish :P) Aussiebums.

I finally kicked off to swim my laps (although, having not taken the time to fit the goggles properly, I had to empty the water out of my right eye every few laps).

Action photo

Then in a time of just over 2hrs and 20 minutes we were done!

As a reward for our efforts, we were each given a Swimathon medallion, and allowed to keep our bright orange swim caps .(You laugh, but I'm actually wearing mine when I go swimming in the mornings. I think the orange helps me go faster.)

Phuong modelling our medals. Well, one of them.

Finally, just enough time for some silly group photos outside in the glorious London spring sun, before heading to the pub for a hearty lunch.

And that was it for Swimathon 2009! I'm looking forward to entering again next year, although I think I may try a solo challenge. I think solo swimmers can swim 1.5km, 3km or 5km, and while I don't think I could do 5km yet (Olcay managed it 8 years ago - I'm so impressed!), I'll probably be up to swimming 3km by this time next year.

So thanks to Phuong, Stuart, Debra and Olcay for being such great teammates - it was a pleasure swimming with you! Also, big thanks to Phuong for organising the team, despite having never met any of us before.

Enormous thanks also to everyone who sponsored me (and the team), either through the webpage or by direct sponsorship. Your support was very much appreciated. Once I've collected all donations I'll let you know the total raised, but at this stage I've got about £85 in online donations and another £150 in cash donations. (BTW, the online donation pages are still up, so if you would like to sponsor me or the team, you can.) The team has so far raised over £600 pounds just through online sponsorship, so hopefully once everyone's cash donations are in that figure will be over £1000! Check out the article on the Central London Humanist group's webpage as well.

I'd finally like to add in a plug for my Nana and extended family's teams in the Relay for Life. From 3pm on May 9th in Maryborough, Queensland, they will be walking (although I know Uncle Peter will be running!) through the night to raise money for Cancer Council Australia. If you would like to sponsor them in their tremendous effort, you can do so by visiting their team pages - Dad's Army and Mum's Army.

Update!

2009-04-22T22:12:00.004+01:00

Many apologies for the lack of posting of late - the last month or so has been insanely busy, involving swimathons, concerts and travel. But I'm in a blogging mood at the moment (or at least I was earlier this evening), and so have decided to strike while the proverbial iron is hot. Though, that iron may cool fast once I get to uploading photos!

As a quick update, here are some things of note I've done over the last month or two:

saw Patrick Wolf twice in two nights (with a third night coming up in June)
saw Animal Collective live
went to a taping of The Graham Norton Show, the very night the musical guest (unexpectedly) happened to be Sinead O'Connor. We got to see her perform an acoustic version of Nothing Compares 2 U (the first instance of text speak in a song?)!
went to my first gymnastics session in over 2 years (and was in pain for a week after). Hope to re-attend soon, as soon as I have a Tuesday night free again!
completed a Peer Mentoring course with Outzone - a gay youth group
saw La Clique, my first London show. Everyone in London, see this before it closes! Mum, I would like a ridiculously attractive, skin-tight jeans-wearing gymnast hanging from a swinging aerial hoop for my birthday :)
marched (well, strolled, really) in a London for a Secular Europe rally
visited Camilla (a friend I made in Japan) in Sheffield
went to Norway over Easter with Rachel (another friend from Japan)
swam in a Swimathon (more on that in another post)

So I've had quite a busy few months!

In the next few months I've got more concerts (Tori Amos next week, Micachu & the Shapes, Yann Tiersen [the guy who did the Amelie soundtrack, as well as a number of other very good albums], Final Fantasy and Patrick Wolf), a theme park visit, a Richard Dawkins lecture and a move to another flat. So more busy times ahead - I love this city!

Stupid Design

2009-03-18T23:35:00.001Z

A fairly amusing rebuttal to the argument that a Divine Being/Intelligent Designer had to somehow be involved in the creation of the universe and human beings in particular.

Also had to laugh, he's used a picture of Tori Amos at the end of the clip :P

Thanks to Chris for the link.

Why would anyone want to be called a Catholic?

2009-03-08T21:59:00.004Z

From Platitude of the Day:

The Catholic church bans all forms of effective contraception and then wrings its hands at the resultant abortions and STDs. It does all it can to protect paedophile priests until public opinion and the full force of secular law acts against it. It pursues an unrelenting and shameless policy of undermining equals rights for women and gays. It happily cooperates with right wing dictatorships and fascist governments provided they uphold the primacy of the church. Its leaders constantly declare their humility, usually in the most ostentatious way possible, yet hypocritically it dares demand "respect" and punishes any who have the temerity to mock it.

Pharisees!

You have to wonder, can an organisation like this stoop any lower? I certainly wouldn't have believed it possible, until that is, the case of the 9 year old Brazilian girl, raped since the age of six by her stepfather. The girl was pregnant with twins. The results of taking them to term doesn't even bare thinking about. Doctors did the only sensible thing and performed an abortion.

The Catholic Church, consistent in its efforts to be the most backward, ridiculous throwback to medieval stupidity on the planet, opposed the move with every power at its disposal, the young girl's life apparently irrelevant to this monstrous cabal's holy rules. But now it's gone even further, Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho has excommunicated the distraught mother, the doctor who performed the abortion and everyone else involved. That might not mean much to you or me, but to a Catholic believer it's a condemnation to hell. It is expulsion from the group of people that they turn to for support, guidance and love.

In its mercy, the church has not excommunicated the 9 year old girl. She was too young to understand the gravity of her crime. The rapist, who had also been abusing the girl's 14 year old disabled sister, remains an accepted child of the church. Raping young girls isn't an excommunication offence.

This is why we need to fight the insidious influence of clerics no matter where they raise their ugly head. No matter how gentle, reasonable or innocuous they seem to be, they carry in their hands a book of rules that can never be questioned, and behind them lies an army of ignorant believers ready to enforce their will. Whether it's throwing acid in the faces of schoolgirls in Afghanistan, or forcing 9 year old girls to give birth in Brazil, religious insanity always results in injustice and suffering. Its mindless devotion to an unchangeable book of rules should never be granted one iota of "respect".

And the quote appearing on the side bar of this page as I created this entry:

"Funny isn't it, a woman and doctors who do what they must to save a little girl's life after rape are excommunicated. A Holocaust denier who shows no sign of recanting his obscene views has his excommunication lifted. Still, I suppose that little girl should be grateful she's not living in Iran or Somalia, where women who are raped risk being stoned to death for adultery." - Ruth Gledhill

Sufjan Stevens - You Are the Blood

2009-03-06T22:59:00.002Z

New Sufjan Stevens, from the compilation album Dark was the Night, supporting AIDS research. Throws pretty much everything he owns into this song - electronics, piano solo, brass, guitars, crazy voices. Brilliant!

Panda Bear

2009-02-22T11:34:00.009Z

One of my most recent musical discoveries has been Animal Collective. One of their members, Panda Bear, released an album entitled Person Pitch in 2007. Here are a couple of songs from that. (I don't think these are official videos, just fan made.)

Take Pills

Bros (cuts out a couple of minutes before the end)

Also, here is Animal Collective's My Girls from their newest album, Merriweather Post Pavillion.

In other news, a friend and I booked flights yesterday to Oslo, Norway for Easter vacation!

The Vatican accepts evolution, rejects Intelligent Design

2009-02-17T23:23:00.002Z

The original.

The parody.

Storm by Tim Minchin

2009-02-15T20:11:00.001Z

A nine minute beat poem about a confrontation with a hippy named Storm.

Happy Darwin Day!

2009-02-12T22:54:00.001Z

Today (February 12th) marks 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin, and this year marks 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, in which he detailed his theory of evolution.

I've only really been interested in evolution in the last year (always found biology boring before then!), and the more I read, the more I am amazed. The rich diversity of life on this planet, and the ways in which it has come about, is incredible.

To celebrate Darwin Day, I have watched David Attenborough's Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life - a fascinating programme on how Darwin came up with his theory, along with evidence supporting the theory, including living transitional forms (the birds with claws at the end of their wings are amazing!). At the end of the programme is an animation showing a brief history of evolution, as the tree of life branches in the background. You can watch it for a limited time at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode..._Tree_of_Life/ .

I'm also currently reading Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True - an enthralling book detailing the extraordinary amount of evidence supporting our modern theory of evolution. It's very easy to read, even if you've very little background in biology - I really recommend it!

And just for fun, check out this neat optical illusion http://www.darwinillusion.com/

Snow day!!

2009-02-02T22:22:00.022Z

Those who followed my old blog may remember the day it snowed in Tokyo. Well, almost a year to the day later, it has once again snowed heavily in the city I live in. Yesterday London woke up to its heaviest snow in 18 years!

The snow started falling the previous night. This was the view outside my window at 9pm on Sunday evening.

2 hours later, 11pm:

For some stupid reason I woke up midway through the night, so took the opportunity to get a picture - 4am:

The view up my street as I left for work the next morning - 8am:

The carpark of my local Sainsbury's supermarket, which I walk through on my way to my tube station.

All of the buses in London were kept off of the road yesterday morning - the first time this has ever happened (they were even kept running during the Blitz!). As a result of this, the tube was EXTREMELY busy.

Everyday to get to work, I catch the tube to Embankment station, and then walk through Victoria Embankment Gardens. These pictures were taken as I walked to work yesterday:

A fairly quiet day at the cafe...

Snowy London streets - the street coming in from the left is the Strand, the street turning off to the right is Lancaster Place, which leads on to the Waterloo Bridge.

An old building around the corner from work

The blue lights in the ground outside the LSE library (not really sure why they're there, actually).

Since public transport failed so spectacularly (to be fair, it was an extremely rare occurrence, London just doesn't have nor need the facilities to deal with this sort of snowfall), more than half the people working in the library hadn't made it into work, and all classes at the LSE had been cancelled for the day. As a result of this, and to ensure everyone was able to get home, all staff were given the option to leave at 3pm, with security closing the library at 5 (as opposed to the library's usual closing time of midnight). I was meeting a friend for lunch at 2pm, so I just left then - a very early day! John went back to his work at 3, only to be told he was free to go as well, and so we met by Lincoln's Inn Fields around the corner and spent the next hour or so throwing snowballs at each other!

Some pics of Lincoln's Inn Fields - it's so unspoilt because they'd actually closed the gates for the day - usually you can walk through the park, and there are tennis courts and seating areas.

The LSE snowman?

Later on we walked down to the Thames, and continued the snow war whilst walking up to Hungerford Bridge. Naturally, we passed a frozen sphinx.

Much has been written about the joy that the snow brought to a Britain, and especially London, in the midst of a recession, with jobs being axed all over the place. This article in particular captures the feeling of London yesterday marvellously:

For a day at least, Londoners returned to a forgotten innocence. Yesterday the headlines howled about how £2bn would be lost yesterday thanks to public transport disruption. Two words: So. What. We're in the middle of a credit crunch and £2bn is the sort of money a hedge-fund trader might find in the lining of his Armani suit. Yesterday we stopped measuring our lives in coffee spoons, overdrafts and balance of payments deficits. It felt good.

We needed the snow to remind us of that innocence. We needed it to remind us of who we are.

I've not been here long enough to have lost the sense of wonder at this city, but this article fairly accurately describes the feeling one had while walking through the city yesterday. Strangers smiled at you as you readied your snowballs for throwing. Snowmen popped up all over the city.
Everyone seemed to have relaxed, knowing there wasn't much they could do until the snow melted, and so had decided to enjoy the rest of their day off.

Walking across Hungerford Bridge, around 5pm - still snowing heavily.

Whilst walking across the bridge, John accidentally hit a member of the group walking just ahead of us with a snowball intended for me, which led to playful snowball fight between the 2 of us and the three random strangers we'd met not a minute before.

And so, cold, slightly damp, but buzzing after one of the most memorable days of my life, I returned to my warm home, never more grateful for central heating.

The next day
Having learnt from my Tokyo snow day (do you think this could be an annual occurrence? Snow in whichever city Tyrone seems to be living in on the first weekend in February? Mayhap I should move to Dubai for next February?) that the day after heavy snow means roads and paths covered in ice, I was slightly dreading today. Sure enough, there was a LOT of ice around today.

Sainsbury's carpark

However, today was an absolutely stunning day - it really was even more beautiful today seeing the sun shining on a snow covered garden. Here this family of snowpeople was basking in the sunlight until....

.... two city council workers took to them with pickaxes - murderers!

Life goes on, despite the frost...

Yesterday morning, not a single bus was operating. Today, while waiting to cross the road, I saw at least 6 or 7 right behind each other.

Finally, walking home across Waterloo Bridge and looking down the Thames, you'd be forgiven for forgetting about the weather of the previous day. This is one of my favourite views of London, and you can see why I walk across this bridge every evening, rather than catching the tube from a closer station.

So, despite the fact that I could have stayed home yesterday if I'd wanted to, that I could have had a free day off like the estimated 20% of the UK workforce who couldn't get into work, I was so thankful I went in - on top of the fact that I love my work, I had one of the most enjoyable days of my life. I saw a London that is so rarely seen - the city covered in snow, relaxed, playful. I'd already fallen in love with this city, but yesterday I saw a new side to London, which made me fall in love with it even more.

Yuki! Yuki! Yuki!

2009-02-01T23:45:00.006Z

It's snowing in London. Heavily. I'm looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning to a street blanketed in snow. Should make the journey to work interesting!

Snow is very pretty, when you're inside. Not so much fun to walk in, when it's actually coming down. Walking home from my friend's place I looked like a lamington - my black coat covered with bits of snow.

Here is Yuki! Yuki! Yuki! (Yuki means "snow" in Japanese), taken from Anathallo's amazing album Floating World.

My sister - an Extreme Weather Hero

2009-01-21T22:27:00.004Z

As if my sister wasn't cool enough already, she's now an Extreme Weather Hero:

Go Lala!

miss you....

Another poster with an inspiring message

2009-01-21T21:38:00.003Z

Atheist ad campaign in London

2009-01-19T22:09:00.007Z

I'm sure most people have heard about the atheist bus campaign currently running in London (if you haven't, have a read of their FAQ page). So far I've seen a couple of the stretchy buses carrying the ads, one of which nearly ran me over! But I have to say if I had been run over I would have died a happy man, after seeing the ad.

But, did you also know they've got ads in the tube as well? These cards appear above the seats on the tube, and every time I see one I get a little buzz, and can't stop smiling. I think they're all extremely positive and uplifting messages, and a nice antidote to the poisonous message that first led to campaign organiser Ariane Sherine starting the campaign (she saw a Christian church ad leading to a website, which stated that all non-believers would be “condemned to everlasting separation from God and then spend all eternity in torment in hell"). I think the Katherine Hepburn and Albert Einstein quotes are my favourites.

Finally, a surprisingly open-minded interview of Sherine with the hosts of Seven's Sunrise:

The view as I walk from work to the tube

2009-01-15T22:29:00.004Z

And yes, that is the Thames!

Now it looks like giant bicycle wheel:

And literally just around the corner from my work:

Not Another Word on Gay Marriage Until They Execute an Adulterer

2008-12-22T02:18:00.003Z

From this article by Cenk Uygur:

Now the Bible says that a man shall not lie with another man. That is true. But it also says, in the same exact book, that adultery is an abomination. And the just punishment for this sin is execution. So, who will execute the first adulterer? Please step on up. May the one without any Biblical sin cast the first stone.

Here is a question no one can answer -- and lucky for the right wing, the media never bothers to ask -- why do you only focus on the part of the Bible against homosexuality but not on the part against adultery? It's one thing to say you're against adultery; it's another to take away their rights. How come no religious figure in this country has mounted a campaign to take away the rights of adulterers? Let alone execute them.

I'll tell you why. Because there are too many of them. Their followers are adulterers. They don't make for good scapegoats. They are not an easy target to ostracize and focus your hatred on. Gays are perfect. They are a small enough percentage of the population and different enough from the rest of us to be able to get people to focus their negative, barbaric instincts on them. The Bible is only a tool for this tribal, ugly tactic.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/not-another-word-on-gay-m_b_152282.html

Secularists' vital war on religion

2008-12-21T11:04:00.006Z

From this great article by AC Grayling in The Guardian, this stunning coup de grâce:

Secularists in the west say to the apologists of the religions: your beliefs are your choice, so take your place in the queue. They also say: you've had it your own way for a very long time - and committed a lot of crimes in the process - and you still fancy yourself entitled, but you aren't. You don't smell too good at times, so don't try to tell me what I can read, see on TV, do in my private time, think or say. In fact, keep your sticky fingers off my life. Believe what you like but don't expect me to admire or excuse you because of it: rather the contrary, given the fairy-stories in question. And when you are a danger to the lives and liberties of others, which alas is too frequently the wont of your ilk, we will speak out against you as loudly, persistently, and uncompromisingly as we can.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/20/wasilla-palin-church-fire-secularism

The limitations of Science

2008-12-18T17:58:00.003Z

From Jesus and Mo, one of my favourite web comics:

Proposition 8 - The Musical

2008-12-04T00:05:00.003Z

An Evil God? A Journey Through the Dark Parts of the Bible

2008-12-02T23:34:00.003Z

(Found on Pharyngula)

The owner of the blog Unreasonable Faith (formerly an evangelical Christian, now an atheist - see here for details of his loss of faith) has decided to look at the nasty parts of the Bible in detail - he's only up to part 2, but it makes for interesting reading.

His regular blog is also quite interesting. I like his post Why I Deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus - especially relevant given the time of year.

And this post should be required reading for anyone believing in an interventionist God.

My dinner tonight...

2008-12-01T22:17:00.002Z

Cinnamon-dusted partridge breast with cranberry sauce, with leek, potato and kale frittata.

I rule.

London Graffiti

2008-11-30T22:35:00.005Z

My friend Donna last night took me to a tunnel in Waterloo, London, in which graffiti artists can do their work without fear of prosecution - a very interesting idea, I thought! There was some really interesting work on the walls, although I had it stressed to me many times that it was much better a month or so ago (:P) - much of it now is unfortunately the usual tagging etc.

Here are some of the more interesting murals...

This one wins extra points for its nerdiness...

This one is freakishly realistic...

Graffiti with a message!

The Knife + Darwin = fuck yeah!

2008-11-26T21:58:00.002Z

An email I just received:

THE KNIFE IS WRITING AN OPERA

Danish Hotel Pro Forma has invited The Knife to write music and libretto for "Tomorrow, in a Year" a Darwin opera.

From hotelproforma.dk:

"In November 2009, it is precisely 150 years since Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, a work that describes the biological and geological world, as it has come into existence and continues to do so every single day. Our view of the world has been changed for ever as a result of the theory of evolution. Tomorrow, in a year uses Darwin’s way of observing and describing the world. Change as a process and the interrelationship of all things is the basic material of the performance."

Olof Dreijer is now at a field recordning in the Amazon to record animals, fish and plants.

Read more at Hotel Pro Forma.dk:
http://www.hotelproforma.dk/side.asp?side=2&id=438&ver=uk

Premiere will be in Copenhagen September 2009.

Love,
Frau Rabid

www.theknife.net

Heck, yes!! Must make plans to be in Copenhagen next September!

Maximum temperature for London tomorrow...

2008-11-22T00:56:00.004Z

3ºC!

On a more positive note, I went to see The Baader-Meinhof Complex tonight. An extremely good film.

Brisbane to London

2008-11-13T22:50:00.009Z

3 flights. 28 hours. 4 different airports. 4 continents. A ridiculous amount of food.

Take-off! Above the clouds...

Brunei Airport - incredibly dull. There's nothing to see, not enough time to leave the airport, only incredibly expensive and tacky souvenirs to buy, as well as postcards, but no stamps! The postcards I bought there had to be sent from London a few days later.

An interesting light fixture in Dubai Airport. We were only stopped in Dubai for an hour, during which I walked off the plane, from one end of the airport to the other, and then back through security. Exciting.

The plane video screens showed the direction to Mecca on the flight info screen. So... I wonder how much of a margin of error God allows. If you're only a tiny fraction of a degree off of the true direction shown by the arrow, that translates to a huge error, if you're quite far from Mecca. So how good does your aim have to be?

We're a long way from the Gold Coast, Beaker...

Over Europe - woohoo!!

They fed us soooo much on the way over. I had three flights - Brisbane to Brunei, Brunei to Dubai and Dubai to London - each of about 8 hours, and they fed us at the start and end of each flight. I had also eaten a big lunch before leaving Brisbane, and so in the space of 28 hours I had about 7 large meals, each one quite good. Luckily some of it was packaged, so I was able to store it (muesli bars, nuts etc). This wasn't so easy to store, but that's okay because there was no way I wasn't going to eat it - apple pancakes!!

Almost there!

The lights of a motorway. Looks like it could be a deep-sea creature.
My lovely welcoming party!

On the tube. Yes, it's called Tooting. So English.

An English pub... in England!!

My first meal in England... Lamb and mint pasty, and some English ale.

Monopoly tour!

A lovely Tudor building.

Anyone fancy a 3 night city break to Iceland? I think you can buy the entire island for only slightly more than this. All joking aside, I was so tempted to take up this offer! But must wait for Moo and Andrew to get over here. Anyone else want to go to Iceland?

ICSLT: Animal Collective - Did You See the Words

2008-11-13T21:38:00.004Z

After finding Animal Collective just the other day, I now can't stop listening to them. Here's an unofficial clip for Did You See the Words, from their album Feels. The ending is brilliant.

Animal Collective - Did You See the Words

Leaving so soon?

2008-11-13T08:24:00.002Z

You'd think leaving would be easier, the second time. And in some ways it is, the checking in at the airport, stepping onto the airplane, ready to be taken halfway around the world. That's the easy part, the pure physicality of moving. But the emotional aspect? Okay, it's not quite so scary this time around. But having to once again leave your friends and family, after having been away from them for the previous 18 months and then spending an all-too-brief 10 weeks with them? That's much more difficult. Spending time away from your loved ones and friends makes you appreciate the time you do spend with them all the more.

You realise how unique and special your friends are, that no matter how much you travel, you'll never meet anyone quite like them. Sure, you'll make other friends on your travels, with their own unique attributes, who you'll form equally special friendships with, but you can never replace that one friend who will dance with you to Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights while dressed as a pirate before robot-dancing to Nine Inch Nails, and who'll bring Passion Pop (and its cheaper alternative, for comparison) to her own book club the next day, just to be funny.

Or the friends with whom you persevered through 4 1/2 years of a maths/physics degree (including PHYS3020/Statistical Mechanics, a bonding experience if there ever was one), and can have you in tears all night with their stories of ex-housemates. It's pretty hard to find friends who'll laugh at the mere mention of a sharpening stone. Or who can perform Rock Lobster that well.

You'll make other friends you consider to be confidants, but how many of them own their own bumblebee suits? You've shared so many amazing experiences with your friends - your first concert, first love, first haloumi platter - these experiences can never truly be relived. Our friends have such a profound impact on our lives, whether we see them every day or once a month. Leaving people who're such big parts of your life is incredibly difficult.

Families are somewhat different. You've known them forever, and they seem like constants in your life. But nothing is constant. You come back from a long time away and find your relationship has changed slightly, into something more grown-up. You can talk to them about pretty much everything now.

With family there can be the tendency to think that, well, you're related to them, they'll always be there. Except one day they're not. You leave, expecting that of course they'll be there when you return. But with very little warning they can be taken away. When we hug them goodbye, we don't really know for sure that we'll see them again.

So why do we leave our friends and family behind, knowing that we're leaving behind such special people, who can't possibly be replaced?

Obviously a large part of the reason comes down to possessing an intense wanderlust - why else would we throw ourselves into a completely unfamiliar environment, having to rebuild a life almost from scratch. It's the thrill of new experiences, new sights, new foods, new customs, a new way of life.

But still, that alone can't explain why someone would leave knowing that they may never see some of their loved ones again, unless that person was completely heartless. Because it is terrifying, saying goodbye to friends, waving family members off at the airport, never knowing when you'll next get to hug them. If you think too much about it, it can be almost enough to make you cancel your ticket.

So I guess we do this, take this giant risk in leaving, because we know that if our friendships really are as strong as we think they are, they'll always remain, in some form, no matter which corner of the globe we next meet on. We know that our family loves us no matter what, and that all they want for us is to do what makes us happy. And while we may not see our friends and family every day, we're constantly reminded of them - they've shaped us as we've grown up, influenced us in the music we listen to, the things we find funny. We bear the (at least temporary) tattoos of their presence in our lives.

I guess the only other thing we can do to counter this fear of leaving everyone behind is to enjoy every moment we spend with them. The following rules worked for me, but you may need to change to suit your individual situation.

Give your cousins dizzy-wizzies while they're still small enough, as next time you see them they'll be far too heavy (not to mention too cool) to be swung around the backyard by their dorky older cousin.

Savour every inane and hilarious conversation your friends may have about how best to eat rice with chopsticks whilst simultaneously eating an icypole. Walk your dog any day you can - it'll make her happy, and she might not be around when you return years later.

If you're doing handstands in the park with friends and a packet of jam happens to fall into your hands, eat it - it'll make your friends laugh, and it tastes good. Accept your friend's unexplainable fascination with wrestling, and just appreciate them for the beautiful person they are. If a friend invites you to their birthday party, and you're worried about not knowing anyone else, go anyway - you'll get to see your friend, AND you'll meet their friends, who will most likely turn out to be lovely.

Enjoy every meal you eat with your sister, as you admire the confident, witty and uniquely brilliant person she's become. Appreciate the time you spend with your parents, whether you're talking to them about politics and music or UFOs, cranes and guitars. Throw away all pretense of being cool and dance like a loon, whether it's to Love Cats on the dance floor of a goth club's 80s night while dressed as a cabin boy, or to Groove is in the Heart in a friend's apartment.

Because life is too short to not enjoy the time we spend with our loved ones. Maybe it takes leaving your friends and family, or knowing that you've only got a month or two to spend with them to really understand this, but I think it's a good adage to live by. You never know if this is the last time you'll see them, and you'll never have friends quite like these again.

So to those I once again left behind in Australia, and those I left behind in Japan, I hope you know that I've truly enjoyed every moment I've spent with you so far, and that saying goodbye (again) wasn't easy. And I can't wait to hug you, dine with you, travel with you, dance with you, have inane conversations with you, at some stage in the future, on whichever corner of the globe we next happen to meet.

Okay, enough introspection - those who know me well know that I hate it, and suck at it. So I promise from now I'll try to stick to the usual photos and music formula for blogs.

I Can't Stop Listening To: Final Fantasy - The Butcher

2008-11-12T01:57:00.013Z

One of the best musical discoveries I've made this year is Final Fantasy, aka Owen Pallett. I've been so distracted by the events of the last few months I didn't even realised he'd released two new EPs!

Here's the clip for the song The Butcher, off his Spectrum, 14th Century EP.

Final Fantasy - The Butcher

Anyone doubting his nerdiness (if that were in any doubt given he has named himself after a popular video game) should listen out for the variation on "All your base are belong to us" early on in the song.

As further proof of his nerdiness, remember that this is the man who once sang about falling in love with video game characters (and well, Link is pretty good looking, as far as video game characters go. It's not like I want to marry the guy, I'm just saying...)

Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds

Tyrone in Tokyo 2: Cruise Control

2008-11-10T21:37:00.003Z

Welcome to my new blog - TYBLOGISAGOODBLOG. This blog is a sequel of sorts (can blogs have sequels?) to Tyrone in Tokyo, and carries on the tradition started by MYBLOGISAGOODBLOG and continued by such other fine blogs as MYBLOGISANOTHERBLOG and MYBLOGISAFAIRBLOG.
This blog will be fairly similar to my old one, just not in Tokyo. I'll still put up lots of photos from my travels, but I'll hopefully post more non-travel posts, and especially more music. For some reason, I felt somewhat constrained on my last blog, as though people were coming just to see photos, since that was the initial purpose of that blog, and so towards the end at least I didn't feel comfortable posting more random thoughts. Well, now, right from the outset, I'll say that with this blog hopefully I'll be more frequent in my posting. Not just photos. We'll see how long that lasts!

So, to start things off, a song I found today - I know I'm a bit behind in discovering Animal Collective, but I got there eventually. Here's the song that sparked my interest: Leaf House. Embrace its weirdness!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ylrmS6ayKv8

Thanks for reading!