I’m trying hard not to think about this day, five years ago, in Manhattan. Nor the days immediately following. Those were among the worst experiences of my life, being so close (but very luckily, far away enough) to the events. But the whole thing gets replayed by the media every … Click to continue reading this post
Well, Roy Hargrove was as good as I recall from the last time I saw him, in one of my favourite jazz clubs, the Village Vanguard in New York. In view of other live small club music events I’ve been to in LA, I admit that I was expecting a … Click to continue reading this post
I have this problem: I don’t really have enough hours in each day. One of the symptoms of this problem is a huge pile of unread or partially read issues of the New Yorker. Sometimes I try to catch up. This catching up is incomplete, of course, and sometimes I … Click to continue reading this post
One of my hobbies for a while when I was a young ‘un was origami. It was swiftly overtaken by other arts and crafts, and these were hobbies long before I started taking apart cameras and radios, and the like, to see how they worked, and collecting pondwater and pressing … Click to continue reading this post
As you wind down the week’s activity, take a moment or two to pause and admire Mount Etna, which is undergoing a spectacular series of eruptions (click for larger images). Remarkable. You can look at a live webcam and make your own snapshots like these (which are
So I learned earlier this week that one of my favourite young trumpeters, Roy Hargrove is going to be at the Catalina Bar and Grill from Wednesday through this weekend… …and -bizarrely enough- one of my favourite young saxophonists, James Carter is going to be at the Jazz Bakery precisely … Click to continue reading this post
I just happened upon the middle of Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” , which is on HBO (it is an HBO film, I think). I was transfixed, and horrified, all over again. I’ve set the system to record the next showing of all … Click to continue reading this post
I learned from New Scientist just now that various researchers working on modified gravity theories are casting doubt on the direct evidence of Dark Matter that was presented by Douglas Clowe and collaborators a few weeks ago. Recall an earlier post on it, here, and Sean Carroll’s post with more … Click to continue reading this post
Impressively, Stephen Hawking seems to have the Guardian newspaper doing his “help wanted” ads for him by cunningly disguising them as news articles. I spotted this here, in the Education section. I’ve no idea what this means, but it seems rather odd to me. Anyway, I’m knowingly passing on the … Click to continue reading this post
Actually, it’s even better than I thought! There’s a whole collection called “The String Doll Gang”. Here are some of them (click for larger): Cute aren’t they? Yes, each apparently made of onecontinuouspieceofstring. More about them, and closeups (and prices) at this site. Now, being a responsible citizen … Click to continue reading this post
The corn has matured (they’re less full because of low volume of watering while I was away… but that’s ok… they’ll taste great!), and I’ve got a huge corgette/zucchini for my trouble. Must get around to harvesting the peas soon. Upcoming…. that flower promises a tasty patty-pan squash in my … Click to continue reading this post
So this semester, at the request/suggestion of the people who bring USC freshmen the Freshman Seminars, KC Cole and I started a new course. Turned out we were brought in to replace another professor who was originally billed to do what looks to be an Art appreciation course. Looked good. … Click to continue reading this post
Apparently, we are hard-wired for superstition and religion. This is according to Bruce Hood, of Bristol University, in the UK. I learned this from an article in the Guardian by James Randerson, which you can read here. The good professor: suggests that magical and supernatural beliefs are hardwired into our … Click to continue reading this post
The BBC’s Radio 4 starts a new programme about astronomy tonight. Called “The Cosmic Hunters”, it sounds as though it will be rather good, so do tune in. It will be on Wednesdays at 9:00pm. It will be discussing various areas of recent research, using some of the optical telescopes … Click to continue reading this post
… since on Friday, our event of Thursday night, along with a photo of KC and myself in action, made the front page …of the campus newspaper, the Daily Trojan! This is a big deal, you see. Front page spots for faculty in the student newspaper…. and colour photos to … Click to continue reading this post
