alnya

freya_bean and I leave for New York today (via seeing wonderful friends in London) and we're ridiculously excited - I've not had a holiday for more years than I care to remember.
We've got tickets for the Met Opera, Wicked and (fingers crossed) the Daily Show - depending on if we win the lottery. Of course, the highlight will be meeting the proper Santa.
We're there for 7 days, so want to be tourists, and also want to chill out and be. So, in the spirit of that, and the knowledge that my LJ friends are a well travelled and cosmopolitan lot, what awesome must-see thing did you do when you were in New York? What good bars, restaurants, random cafés, book shops did you find?

In our continuing season of Peter Mandelson watching, it's nice to see he's going to get another job to add to his portfolio.

Minister of Information.

Doubleplus ungood.

Not content with drafting internet legislation that ignores expert findings and review on the back of a champaign label whilst on his holidays, its seems our favourite unelected minister is at it again.

Universities, he says, should focus more on practical training and links to industry. They should not exclude on the basis of academic achievement. They should, in short, be polytechnics.

There are problems in education; finance is the main one. And yes, university isn't for everyone (nor should it be) etc etc. However, lowering the barrier to entry and looking for corporate sponsorship ... yeah, that's never been tried before. Way to screw arts students Mandy, well done.

Brilliant!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present DEM Alan Grayson:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/22/794216/-Grayson-SCHOOLS-Paul-Broun-on-Constitution.-He-will-NOT-yield!-%28Update:-Now-with-even-more-EPIC-WIN

Fox News and their Republican Collaborators are the enemy of America. They're the enemy of anybody who cares about healthcare in this country. The enemy of anybody that cares about educating their children. The enemy of everybody who wants energy independence or anything good for this country. And certainly the enemy of peace. They are the enemy.

I think I might be in love

I'm still exhausted after an amazing weekend of good friends and great singing.
From Friday until Sunday I was at a residential course, working on vocal technique and other great stuff. It wasn't totally full on, but hit the goldilocks spot in the balance between working hard and having time to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

On Saturday night, there was a cabaret event, and so I ensnared some fellows into an arrangement of Kylie's Cant Get You Out Of My Head I hastily put together. It went down very well, and thankfully no one looked at the latin translation too much ;) My later performance of Inflatable You was maybe a slight misjudge of the audience's tolerance for playful smut, but it was being talked about the following day, which to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, can only be a good thing.

Yesterday was a hasty dive back to Edinburgh, a quick change and back into town for St Giles at 6 and coroedina's first public concert, and my conducting debut. St Giles is just a beautiful cathedral with a great and forgiving acoustic, so it was a great privilege to perform there. We had a great audience (around 200) who seemed to enjoy it a great deal, and we made a few contacts that will hopefully result in bookings for the future. I was just pleased that my parents and nik were there.

My stuff went quite well, although there were some hairy moments, its a testament to the quality of the singers that they pulled it back together. I got some good pointers and notes from people; definite things to improve on and think about such as not being clear enough in some cases, moving around too etc. Regardless, I had a blast and while I was probably more nervous than I have been about anything for a long time, it was absolutely worth it.

Excellent Franz Ferdinand vs the Beastie Boys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJwCJfbA3Mk

Richard Wiseman has posted an interesting article on luck, and "luck school" - tips and techniques to improve your luck (its a 2003 article, so you may have already seen it).

Do you consider yourself to be lucky or unlucky? I personally don't feel either: that luck is just the spin you put on events that happen to you. Of course, you have to be willing to have events happen to you, which is sort of the point of the article.

good luck

My first gig as a conductor is this weekend; the culmination of months of lessons, practising, preparation and looking like a prat in front of the bathroom mirror.

Yesterday's rehearsal went really well from my point of view - it helps that all the singers involved are wonderfully patient, dedicated and talented - and the sound is close to how I want it to be. I'm relaxing more, thinking about it less, and discovering that, actually, while preparation is vitally important (as is knowing each piece of music intimately) really it just comes down to waving your arms about and trying to express something musical as something physical.

Unfortunately for me, it's an embarrassing process. You really need to work with musicians to improve, which means they get to work with you when you're rubbish. I guess it's like losing your virginity with the olympic figure skating judges watching on the sidelines.

I am slightly bemused as to why Mr President Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize since I don't believe he's done anything to bring about more peace in the world. He's talked about it a lot, which is good - I'd go so far as to say very good - but correct me if I'm wrong but the US is still involved in two wars, Guantanamo Bay is still operational and nuclear weapons are still pointed at an array of countries.

It seems as though he's getting it by virtue of not being George Bush. Or, as they put it, he has "created a new climate in international politics."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snicker/3395944637/

(How do you think they discovered this was going on behind their back?)

Our cat Sofi had been acting strangely since the weekend. She was agitated, patrolling the house and yowelling all through the night, way more than usual. Last night she really wouldnt settle, and at lunchtime today she had a little fit, collapsing on the hall rug. We took her to the vet, who did some tests and kept her in for observation, but she had another fit later on this afternoon. Her test results weren't looking good either: nervous system damage; possible tumor; possible liver failure.

We put her to sleep at 4pm. We love her, and we miss her.

I've never made a claim for anything before, so the last 15 minutes have been very educational. The chap on the phone asked for a complete description of events from just before the accident up until now. He stopped me when I was telling him the cost and brand of orange juice, and estimating the distance between it and my former laptop's keyboard, taking into account the elevation of the coaster.

They remind you so much about fraud, don't they. Almost makes you guilty, like how you feel when you see a policeman.

I've also got the cold, and feel wretched.

6 weeks ago, my upper lingual brace was fitted. It wasn't a great experience, and my sibilants were affected for about a week. Laterly my speech has returned to almost normal, and any pain or inconvenience has gone as I've gotted used to it.
Today, my lower ceramic brace was fitted. This doesnt affect my speech, but it is visible (oh God, is it visible) and feels like it weighs about two stone. No doubt I'll get used to this too, eventually, but right now its less than comfy.

11 months to go...

The government's u-turn on internet piracy is utterly hilarious.

Never mind that the consultation phase is still on-going - actually, it's refreshing that the government is just ignoring the consultation so brazenly, as opposed to ignoring it privately; never mind that it goes against the EU's ruling on the same issue; never mind that it ignores the government body (OFCOM) in place to handle this stuff; never mind that a ruling was already made before this by those set-up to review the matter; never mind its technically unworkable, will be hugely expensive and intensive to implement and is unconstitutional, illegal and politically stupid. That it will be enforced by guilt through accusation, rather than due process. That it is yet another intrusion into our civil and social liberties - where people who have done nothing wrong will still have their internet traffic examined, in case they're breaking the law.

It's hilarious because an unelected politician, with no oversight, constituency or review, can simply decide it's going to happen. It maybe because he went on holiday with the richest man in the entertainment business, maybe because his actually a big fan of deep packet inspection - who can say.

I appear to be stalking @amandapalmer. I didn't intend to, but sometimes these things just happen. I've been following her on twitter for a while with mild interest - her album is great if you haven't bought it - through the various trials and tribulations: the rebellyon, the rent auction, her blossoming relationship with @neilhimself. I started following her assistant, @bethofalltrades too. It started when the auction was on and I've continued to follow her, and add her on livejournal (she's actually very interesting and awesome). Then I friended amanda on facebook and subscribed to her newsletter. This is still fan territory, but become increasingly night-vision goggly.

This week, amanda is in Edinburgh for the fringe. She's performing an official gig (I have tickets) and has been seeing things, doing other shows. Her arrival here is what has tipped me over the edge into full stalkerdom. Based on pictures she's posting I'm trying to work out where she is. I'm replying now to all her tweets, offering pointless and bizare advice, local information and recommendations and coded messages. This blog, in some ways, is a meta extension of that. I'm starting to feel wrong, dirty. That may be the camoflage make-up.

When an artist you like is so new-media savvy, with so many ways of getting news about them, I guess this is inevitable. Partly I think the psychology of it is skewed because of the language of these websites - you're "watching" them as a "friend" who "follows" - and partly its the gossip magazine thing. We like hearing about people we're interested in, and that person can be Jordan or a former living statue.

There was an episode recently when someone following her was very public about stopping - saying it was "too much work." I understand where that feeling comes from - the girl was following, sending messages, hadn't won a competition and was pissed off. She's mistaken a one-way stream of information for a conversation. A friendship. (you can read amanda's response here).
I was reminded of this last night when a good friend sent me a text message, pointing out that I was getting a bit wierd on twitter. "Too stalkery?" I replied. "Not yet" she sent. Not yet.

Twitter's a funny thing. I have many real-life friends on there, many random followers who are frequently funny and witty, who I haven't met but enjoy reading, and a bunch of famous people. The famous people are all strictly one-way (although, every so often, you'll be replied to or RT'd and a little thrill will shiver through you). That these three sorts of people occupy the same space is the other thing - the other confusion. If you're not careful you could starting thinking of someone famous as a friend - and that road leads to camping in the bushes at 3am.

"Limbaugh: It's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook. Now, what are the similarities between the Democrat Party today and the Nazi Party in Germany? Well, the Nazis were against big business. They hated big business and of course we all know that they were opposed to Jewish capitalism. They were insanely, irrationally against pollution. They were for two years mandatory voluntary service to Germany. They had a whole bunch of make-work projects to keep people working, one of which was the Autobahn. They were against cruelty and vivisection of animals, but in the radical sense of devaluing human life, they banned smoking. They were totally against that. They were for abortion and euthanasia of the undesirables, as we all know, and they were for cradle-to-grave nationalized healthcare"

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/rush-limbuagh-sez-democratic-party-are

Sweet, america's getting an Autobahn!

The cat got me up, again, at 6 this morning; pointing in her mouth with one paw, trampling over me with the other three. I shambled through to feed her, dodging as she capered around me chirping relentlessly. I inadvertantly stood in cat foot. Swore.
I was in the bathroom, washing my foot when I saw the hugest fucking spider I've ever seen. It waved at me, and went back to it's morning paper. It wasn't just in the bath, it was taking up the whole bath. Legs were dangling over the side. I left, quickly.
The cat, full and happy, proceeded to chirp loudly for the next hour and a half, forcing me to just get up and deal with the day. I stared down the spider (who had moved on to the crossword), decided best not, and had a quick wash in the sink, one eye nervously checking the spider's current location.
A contact lense failed to sit right, scratching accross my cornea like emery cloth. I woke Nik. Missed the bus.
Got to work, one eye out of focus. I decided to fix it, and lost the lense down the plug hole.

I now have no depth perception.

I hope the spider's gone when I get home.

From this article :

We are very similar to the Spice Girls in that we all have a different personality, I am the one with long hair

The Jungean model as written by Loreal, there.

Nik and I were at our first fringe show last night (Sarah Millican, who was very witty, engaging and sweet). Thankfully, any fears that it would become a "Men do this, Women do that" show were dispelled, and I'd recommend you go see her.

BUT, at one point she asked the audience to describe what they thought as Male and Female traits. My lovely partner didn't bat an eyelash when she replied "Feminine wiles", but when I was asked what was great about being a man, I honestly couldnt think of anything. She moved on to give me time to think, came back to me three suggestions later. I still had nothing.

It's been bothering me - I still can't actually think of anything. I'm maybe taking this too seriously.

(for women, the list was Vaginas, feminine wiles, shopping and being let out of junctions whilst driving; for men the list was Your Mates, lazyness, vaginas, and getting to piss anywhere)

What's so great about being a woman / man?