If you can't travel, there is always the internet to assuage that February cabin fever. Although I've only been there once I've had a fascination with New York City and its mythical status for years it probably started with Spider-man comics in the 70s. John Lennon's murder, the CBGB's rock scene, umpteen tv shows and movies, stories about mobsters and maniacs, the famed museums and galleries all added up to a NYC that existed in greater detail in my mind than probably any other city that I have spent so little time actually in. I also have to mention the fabulous book McSorely's Wonderful Saloon by 1930s newspaper columnist Joseph Mitchell, which I've blogged about in the past. I picked that up an old 25 cent Harlequin imprint in a Montreal years ago.
After I saw the Gangs of New York, a flawed but colourful film, I satrted reading alot about the History of New York going back to its founding. Right now I'm reading a couple of books on the subject, Five Points The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum and Hell's Kitchen : The Roaring Days of New York's Wild West Side by Richard O'Connor.
This evening I discovered a really great web site called Forgotten New York which takes you on historical tours of different 'forgotten' parts of the city. This evening I checked out the Bowery.It's really a large and thorough site where you can check out different neighbourhoods, alleys, see old ads and lamp posts and in the necrology section you can learn about streets that no longer exist.
1/26/2006
Duran Japan
It all adds up now. I went to the central library this afternoon and took out some CDs. One of them was a recording I remember form Tom Parker's collection in 1980. Japan's Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Now I know where Duran Duran got their sound and image. In fact if I didn't know that Japan's lp came out two years before RIO, I would think that Simon Lebon and all his Andys were getting ripped off. To me at the time it just seemed like that was a generic British /London sound so I never made the connection. Japan went on to be far more "out there" in their experimentation. You can here the same kind of bass and keyboards as what turned up on RIO and the vocals and made DD rich. Even the hair style of David Sylvain seems to have been an influence.
JAPAN
Perhaps they both drew their influences from the same well. That well? Roxy Music I would say. If Duran took more of theBrian Ferry into them, Japan looked to Brian Eno.
JAPAN
Perhaps they both drew their influences from the same well. That well? Roxy Music I would say. If Duran took more of theBrian Ferry into them, Japan looked to Brian Eno.
1/24/2006
1/22/2006
1/21/2006
Snow Day
We haven't had many big snowfalls this winter, but last night we had a huge one. We woke up to this winter wonderland. Everyone was out taking pictures. Drivers were even stopping to take pictures with phone cameras.
1/20/2006
Slime
From the primordial ooze to Slime 1977 style.
This was a strange toy. It was some green chemical compound that felt clammy and oozed between your fingers. You could blow it into giant bubbles, make fart sounds by pushing it into the trashcan it came in. A favourite of kids was to let it drip like a grotesque snot avalanche from your nose. It also was great at picking up pet hair and other debris from carpets. If you didn't store it in it's air tight can it would grow hard and crusty.
This was a strange toy. It was some green chemical compound that felt clammy and oozed between your fingers. You could blow it into giant bubbles, make fart sounds by pushing it into the trashcan it came in. A favourite of kids was to let it drip like a grotesque snot avalanche from your nose. It also was great at picking up pet hair and other debris from carpets. If you didn't store it in it's air tight can it would grow hard and crusty.
Primordial Ooze
If you have the time and inclination you may find this article on "emergent properties" to be of interest. It discusses how otherwise particles communicate with each other or otherwise exchange information, opening the door to debate on such things as self-awareness or consciousness, intelligence and definitions of life.
Life is traditionally split into various types in science including bacteria, archaea, and eukarya ( which includes plants and animals). Archea are life forms that lie somewhere between bacteria and animals. Understanding archaea has been important to understanding how single celled organisms evolved into multi-cell organisms Getting to the bottom of this has lead to an exploration of how otherwise discreet organisms communicate and organize themselves in co-operative systems.
A recent discovery is how bacteria communicate between each other in a way similar to how cells communicate in an organism. Interestingly bacteria have also been shown to interact in ways parrallel to multi-cellular organisms.
I won't go on but I do find this article incredibly interesting. Especially the discussion on theories of consciousness.
As information is concentrated, it has the capacity to move around, be shared or seemingly amplify itself by providing a model for less-organized neighboring systems, explains Cornell University physicist Paul Ginsparg. "Once atoms form we can see how they communicate to form molecules and eventually how genes communicate to orchestrate life processes. It seems to me that information processing is possibly the thread that ties together complexity and the richness of the universe."The fundamental question out of which theory develops is how does the inanimate become animate. The starting point being how do the simplest forms of matter interact to create more complex forms of matter.
Life is traditionally split into various types in science including bacteria, archaea, and eukarya ( which includes plants and animals). Archea are life forms that lie somewhere between bacteria and animals. Understanding archaea has been important to understanding how single celled organisms evolved into multi-cell organisms Getting to the bottom of this has lead to an exploration of how otherwise discreet organisms communicate and organize themselves in co-operative systems.
A recent discovery is how bacteria communicate between each other in a way similar to how cells communicate in an organism. Interestingly bacteria have also been shown to interact in ways parrallel to multi-cellular organisms.
I won't go on but I do find this article incredibly interesting. Especially the discussion on theories of consciousness.
1/19/2006
Farm On
When we left the experimental farm we had to catch the number 3 back downtown. While we waited we both notice this snow sheep.
1/18/2006
Pop Music
I think my favourite pop song has to be " Cruel to Be Kind" by Nick Lowe. I first heard it in a compound in Saudi Arabia. The radio then was full of Foreigner, Styx, Queen, ELO, The VIllage People, The Bee Gees, songs from the Wall and a whole lot of obscure (to me at the time) British pop. I'll never forget the lyrics and the chord changes from this song. It sounded so fresh and cool that late afternoon in 1978. Oh and clever:
"You say your love is bonafide
But that don't coincide"
With lyrics like that is it any surprise that Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello were friends?
"You say your love is bonafide
But that don't coincide"
With lyrics like that is it any surprise that Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello were friends?
1/17/2006
Leslie has a near photographic memory and she recalled from her visit in the summer that there was a knitting shop somewhwere along Bank Street. One Friday afternoon we wandered up Bank in search of it, but we didn't find it. We stopped just a block short, where the Queensway overpass dissects the city. We looked it up the next day and found it and many other surprises on the other side of that line including a brew pub and some really good home-made pizza at Nicastro's.
On our way back home we went into my favourite Ottawa pub, the Manx. It's not easy to find a variety of good beer on tap in Ottawa as there seems to be a monopoly by certain brands, however at the Manx they have McAuslan products like their Pale Ale and award winning Oatmeal Stout. (Oh Montreal if for nothing else I miss your true love of good beer!) Other things I like about the Manx is the ambience and the food. Ecletic and healthy fare unlike most pubs in this town.
By the time we left it was dark out. Confederation Park was filled with coloured Christmas lights but the holiday season was coming to a close...
as evidenced by these guys taking down this giant wreath (with the lights still plugged in?).
No flash
With flash
On our way back home we went into my favourite Ottawa pub, the Manx. It's not easy to find a variety of good beer on tap in Ottawa as there seems to be a monopoly by certain brands, however at the Manx they have McAuslan products like their Pale Ale and award winning Oatmeal Stout. (Oh Montreal if for nothing else I miss your true love of good beer!) Other things I like about the Manx is the ambience and the food. Ecletic and healthy fare unlike most pubs in this town.
By the time we left it was dark out. Confederation Park was filled with coloured Christmas lights but the holiday season was coming to a close...
as evidenced by these guys taking down this giant wreath (with the lights still plugged in?).
No flash
With flash
1/15/2006
Christmas
The holidays are over. Leslie is gone home and it's -27C outside with the wind. Time to recall Christmas fun. I managed not to gain any weight back even drinking beer (I just stayed away from everything else for the most part). We were only there for three days but it was a packed three days.
1/14/2006
1/05/2006
The Experimental Farm
We took a trip to the ominous sounding Experimental Farm today (probably why it's referred to as the Agricultural Museum these days). We wandered around the snowy landscape from barn to barn visiting horses, cattle, sheep pigs and a donkey. By the time we were done we smelled of the farm . The nice thing about it was that neither one of us cared. More photographs to come.
1/04/2006
Dangerous
From the The World Question Center:
The Edge Annual Question — 2006
WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?
The responses recieved from scientests, philosophers, mathematicians, psychologists and other thinkers provide enough food for thought to feed the world (although I'm not sure what Micheal Nesmith is doing here. Maybe I have underestimated the Monkees).
The Edge Annual Question — 2006
WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?
The responses recieved from scientests, philosophers, mathematicians, psychologists and other thinkers provide enough food for thought to feed the world (although I'm not sure what Micheal Nesmith is doing here. Maybe I have underestimated the Monkees).
1/02/2006
Birthday Wishes
Thank you to everyone for your Birthday wishes. I've saved Killer Kane's phone song as it makes me laugh so much. I'll have to try to record it onto an mp3. I'm feeling a lot better whereas Leslie had to go see a doctor today to get some antibiotics. Not too fun for her but surprisingly still cheaper for her than making the same visit in Colorado without insurance.
Photo by Siobhán
Photo by Siobhán