Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Seeing Kitson tonight at the Playhouse. First time. Glowing reviews to follow.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

I've been enjoying Derren Brown's latest series. What I've enjoyed most is watching public reaction - and I'm convinced Derren is enjoying it as well.

After the lottery trick, the amount of time spent proving it was a trick was completely unprecedented. I can only assume that people feel the need to try to prove a magician is actually a magician, and not a wizard, because he's been so successful in the past at baffling people. His act often dresses up magic in the guise of being something deeper. He may certainly be better at controlling minds than other magicians (the Heist stunt, for instance, is no illusion) but he is still, at the end of the day, a magic act that use a wide variety of methods.

The anger at his explanation - I've seen people say they've written to advertising watchdogs because of false claims - was particularly amusing, especially if you really watch the show. The punchline of the show - after giving his obviously false mathematical explanation, and his even more absurd 'fix the draw' explanation that was designed to taunt the real cynics - was simply "I'll maintain that it was just a trick", a throwaway reminder that the idea is could be anything else is just ridiculous.

If anything, the reaction to the control the nation event was even better. Commenting on the Guardian's live coverage of the show, many people seemed keen to point out, in a tone that suggested they were in some way superior, that it had not worked for them. Quite frankly, anyone who tried it with that attitude was never going to experience anything else. It should be noted that there was a punchline at the end of this show as well - this time mentioning that all the tricks has nothing to do with subliminal messaging. Cath chatted the entire way through it, but I've got it on my DVR, so I'll give it another go later, and let you know how it goes. I deeply want it to work. I think that would be more interesting than standing up.

Friday, September 11, 2009

I've never really listened to my iPod using the shuffle facility - I prefer to listen to whole albums. That said, I recently decided that I'd try to listen to all 2496 songs on my iPod because sometimes I think I don't know all the music I own. There are so many times I listen to the first twenty minutes of an album on a journey, and as a result don't really.

Anyway, I also thought I keep an on-going log of my progress and any thoughts. We join things at track 144 - Anaal Nathrakh's 'Yellow King' from the 'Eschaton' album. An incredible album, very heavy, yet surprisingly accessible, with clean vocals and even guitar solos. It's the majestic black metal of Emperor mixed with the Midlands grindcore of Napalm Death, with soaring chorus breaking out dense walls of noise. This track is less so - its all pummelling drums, gurgled vocals, and a crushing bursts of guitar. It's very grim - but in a good way.

Track 151 - 'Red Tape Suckers' by Nasum, of their rarities disc Grind Finale. Two seconds long, consisting of the lyrics 'red tape suckers' and a single blast of noise. I love grind. Moving on.

Track 161 - Darkthrone - 'I En Hall Med Flesk Og Mjod' off of 'Transylvanian Hunger'. I can never distinguish tracks on that album without checking (the Norwegian doesn't help), because there all a lot like this - almost hypnotic, repetitive, not a trace of warmth anywhere in the music. Much better to listen to the whole thing than individual tracks for the proper necro black metal experience.

Monday, September 07, 2009

I've been wanting to post this news for a while, but there have been delays in everything being official.

At the age of 25, I have a job. Specifically, a research fellowship at SKOPE, a research group in the Univeristy's Department of Education. They were clearly fooled by my succinct yet persuasive CV (Craig Holmes, 25, unemployed, talented economist, hero to millions of children). It's perfect really - lots of academic freedom for research (within their research programme), but also more security, the ability to publish more often and at a more noticeable level, and most importantly, an office with my name on it. And an employer - nothing makes you get out of bed and start your day like having an employer (Exceptions: fire, dreams about spiders, violent wife). I'm very pleased, is all.

If anyone knows anyone who does poster design quickly, send me a message. I need to send for an order by the end of the month at the latest.