Twelve Bells Ring

End of the Road

2010-06-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

Time for a final installment.

The last posting saw us taking in New Orleans, last Fall. Fuelled by hangovers and the remnants of an all-night breakfast we eventually made it back on the road, and on to the rest of our tour of the South. Sad to leave this town, but such is the nature of the road trip.

The remainder of the tour took in various towns in Alabama, a family estate in GA, and we finished up in legendary Ashevegas, the Eugene of the East. I'm not really doing justice to our last few days, but now that I'm finally wrapping the story up, it's probably more appropriate to look forward and start planning the next road trip. How time flies, eh?

In the last few months real life has been moving quickly, too. In a short time AAP and I will be making a move to a new city, new jobs and some new directions. Exciting times!

And it's time for a change, blog-wise. I started this incarnation when I moved to the States, and the previous chapter came to a close. It's time to turn the page again. Maybe there'll be another blog, maybe not. We shall see....

Leaving you with two quite different songs, but they're both about the journey, and staying on track. First up, the Dubliners:

And finally, the most exciting new music I've heard in a while, Janelle Monae. This woman is almost certainly the future of popular music:

So long, Twelve Bells!

Who dat

2010-02-21T10:42:00.000-08:00

Yeah, New Orleans. Beautiful, awesome, sad. I want to go back.

First, I should note that the Saints did indeed go to the Super Bowl, as everyone in town told us they would last Fall. Not only that, but then they went and bloody won it, too. Amazing. Alli and I celebrated the match and the win with a gathering here at the cottage, complete with homebrew, ladderball and even a little sunshine.

But back to Road Trip '09. I know, so last year.

By the time we left Anahuac with our lives and our rental car intact, we were done with small towns for a while. New Orleans to the rescue, and once again William Shatner helped us find an excellent hotel, for peanuts, putting us bang in the middle of the French quarter.

Of course, we immediately sucked down several hurricanes, and then careered up and down Bourbon street and the surrounding area. I think it was when I told a barmaid she didn't even look like a stripper (she wasn't) and received a frosty stare to go with a round of Jagerbombs that we knew we needed to change gear. We weren't keeping it real.

And New Orleans seems like the kind of place which helps you change gear when you need it. A chance conversation led us out of the French Quarter and up to Merigny and Frenchmen Street, where we found a neat neighbourhood club and a cool band playing through the early hours. It turned into an excellent night. Good times.

We spent a couple of nights in town, and there was plenty more to do, including an unintended wander around the Iberville project, street-cars across the city, Cafe du Monde and Absinthe in a pirate bar. But for the music, the atmosphere and the food, you've gotta get to this town.

Oh yeah, how about some of that music? We got chatting to a awesome trombone player on a street corner one night, and here's a clip of him 'boning:

(The world is very small. A while ago a commenter on this blog recommended a favorite band of his, the Hot 8. Turns out this trombonist plays for them.)

And this is John Lisi, whose band we saw playing in Merigny:

Now that's pretty cool.

You might like it

2010-02-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

Aaand...we're back. It's been a busy couple of months. I had a trip to San Francisco, closely followed by excellent Christmases in Georgia and Croydon, with Alli and our respective families. And soon after an Epsom-flavoured New Year I began my new research fellowship, surrounded by snow and ice. Fun times. Actually, a lot of fun, but just not a lot of time for blogging.

In other news, Obama just about made it through his first year in office, the iPad finally launched (my reaction) and airline security was stepped up during my travels, once again just in time to prevent something that's already happened. Sportside, we have another exciting Six Nations, the Super Bowl tomorrow, and both Brits and the Oregon Ducks fell at their final hurdles. Plus ca change.

Now, where was I in terms of our road trip? Ah, Anahuac, East Texas. Sweet Anahuac. This was a place we pulled into on a whim, just past Houston, as we thought back to the small-town good vibes of the 2008 West coast trip.

But whereas every small town on the 101 seemed to welcome the weary traveller with open arms, Anahuac was more Impeach-Obama this and turn-left-past-the-trailer-park and pull-up-by-the-howling-dogs that. We stayed at the only motel in town:

The Batesian image above doesn't capture our rapidly rising anxiety, but it's the only photographic evidence of being in Anahuac. Let me add that although it was a low point of the trip, I think we all learned something important that night.

Next up New Orleans, and that deserves its own post, along with a report on the Saints performance in the Super Bowl.

In the meantime, let me leave you with two snippets. First, this song by Kevin Shields, taken from Lost In Translation. I didn't quite notice it when I first saw the movie several years ago, but it's lovely. A worthy addition to the MBV legacy, which is saying something.

And finally, something which may amuse long-term readers of this blog and its predecessor, Days in the Wake: Anne Hathaway is looking for someone to teach her about string theory. I'll let you trawl through the Wake rather than link you to the relevant post.

Legends of the Road

2009-12-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

Back in the early days of my American adventure, I was joined by a couple of Brits to undertake the first annual road trip. Since then I've taken the whole road tripping idea quite seriously, travelling with Allison down to Utah, and taking in some of the Northeast, solo. But we all knew the time would come for a second installment with the same crew, and a few weeks ago, it happened. In the South.

It all started in a little town called Dallas. Actually, it started in next-door Fort Worth, with which Dallas shares an airport. But whereas Dallas was all grassy knolls and ten-gallon hats, its neighbour felt surprisingly like an American Croydon, replete with mega-pubs and hen nights. Fort Worth was however notable for one thing in particular: the first one-armed waitress of the trip. We saw only the one one-armed waitress last year, but this early sighting gave us a lot of hope that we might set a new record this time out.

From DFW we headed South, to the college town and state capital, Austin. (Do you know your state capitals? Some surprises in there.) Brilliant city, though it was disappointing to've missed Henry there by just a few months. Luckily, he left friends behind, and S guided us to some decent food, local beer (Firetruck 5? Fireman's 4? I don't think I ever mastered it) and superb country music. But it turns out that Austin's not just about country music, and is somewhat well known for its indie scene. Here I am in front of Daniel Johnston's landmark:

So, yeah. Texas was going well. And I should mention that thanks to William Shatner and Priceline, we'd been for the first two nights staying in some pretty swanky hotels. You might even say the best hotels.

That was all to change in Anahuac, TX.

Turkey Day

2009-12-03T23:05:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know you're bored with stories of how brilliant the US is, but one of its holidays is, yes, brilliant. It's thanksgiving.

I'm no expert on the history. But in my three thanksgivings, I've enjoyed the company of some awesome friends, eaten too, too much food and gotten drunk. Plus, I've avoided the excessive present-giving and card-sending that can infect Christmas. It's my perfect holiday: revelry without the reverence. Oh, and we get a four-day weekend.

In the spirit of the day, we again had many people around to eat turkey, and share their own excellent recipes, and I had a great time. I give thanks for Allison, for my friends and for my family. Roll on next year.

Music-wise, I give thanks for Bibio. I listened a lot to this guy a couple of years back, when he was in a folk-electronic phase. His latest album, Ambivalence Avenue has so much variation, I don't know whether I'm listening to Boards of Canada, Prefuse 73, Radiohead or Badly Drawn Boy. Here are three snippets:

Could perhaps have been an edgier addition to Bewilderbeast? And now the track that got me hooked on this album. Listen at least til 1:39, when it blew me away:

And then

Enjoy your week.

(I'll just confirm that they're dead.)

2009-11-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

Another year, another Hallowe'en. Remember Pac-Man and his ghosts? This year it was time for a binary duo, with Allison and I teaming up as the robots from Flight of the Conchords. Here's my costume:

There was really very little difference between us and the originals. Check it out.

Also a massive game in the football, last weekend. Oregon destroyed Southern Cal 47-20. Yes, 47-20! An even bigger win than when I saw them beat SC two years ago, in my first ever football game. Let's hope this time Oregon hold it together and win out the rest of their games.

You might recall that we started the season pretty badly. But right now, our nemesis that first day, Boise State, is in trouble. Against Louisiana Tech. I know it's ridiculously complicated, but if Boise lose they're almost certain to drop below the Ducks in the national rankings. Go Tech!

UPDATE 11/8: the worst possible series of results. Boise prevail against Tech, and then the Ducks lost yesterday. To Stanford! Who're a bunch of geeks, right? The new rankings don't look great, but we can still win the Pac-10....

More next time on Louisiana, trombone players and the second installment of the now semi-legendary annual road trip....

Really Tea

2009-10-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

You know, I'm not one to moan, but after more than two years here, the topic of tea still preoccupies me. I make pretty good tea here. I've even converted a Frenchwoman, an American girl (who happens to be Alli) and a Canadian guy to my style of tea-making.

But still, every now and then, someone will offer me tea that isn't really tea. And then they'll claim it's tea. But it just isn't. Is it so hard to accept the definition as being the leaves of a particular plant, steeped in hot water? As opposed to just any old leaves?

But you know I don't write a blog post unconstructively; it takes a while for me to get round to writing one, after all. So, I have a plan. I'm going to buy some excellent kidney beans from Market of Choice, roast (or maybe toast) them over our newly-built fire-pit in the garden, grind them and then serve them as 'coffee'. Then we'll see how they like it. I mean, it's just beans in hot water, right?

Y'all know how much I love the golden age, but when KRS-One keeps making music, you wonder whether it'll go downhill. Except, it doesn't, it's awesome.

Are you here to make friends?

2009-09-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm on the East coast for a (mainly) work trip, and now back in Cambridge, MA, after visiting Boston, Princeton, Philadelphia and DC. And in a way I was here to make friends. Sorry, reality TV, I f***ed up. But the good news is, I now have some new friends. Plus, I got the chance to meet up with some old friends. So it was friends all round, really.

Work aside, on my weekend off I also got to sneak into a University of Virginia game, thanks to the persuasive powers of SMR. UVA lost miserably, but Georgia and Oregon won, so college football still rocks my boat.

And if that wasn't enough excitement, SMR, Alli and myself visited the federal city the next day. There was something very powerful about seeing the White House, the capitol and the various monuments to Presidents past. Of course, the Smithsonian reminded me how passionately the Americans have hated the Brits throughout their brief history, so you can't have everything.

As I say, I'm briefly back in Massachusetts. Kind of exhausted, and ready for the EUG.

Later, Crater

2009-09-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's not just my blog that celebrates birthdays round here. I had a biggie too, last weekend. So a few folks headed down to camp by Crater Lake (I mean, with me, it's not that they were trying to escape) and ring in the new year in style.

The lake? It's pretty pimp.

And the phantom ship. Ooh, scary.

Finally, it's me, wearing some substantial Wayfarers and grinning like an idiot, as only a thirty-year-old can. Also, Alli.

This makes it look like we were fairly active over the few days we were down there, but I should reassure you that most of our time was spent around a campfire eating s'mores and drinking birthday beers. Happy birthday, me!

We didn't see a bear, but if we had, it probably would've looked like this. Except real.

Hilarity as only Fox can do it.

And now? Now, I am in Boston, which has been fun and productive so far. More of that later, but I should first remind you that the football season began somewhat tragically for Oregon. First, we lose our opening game, with most of our players performing worse than I would in a Ducks uniform. But then, after the final whistle, what promises to become the infamy of the season:

Blount, our best running back last season, won't be playing for the Ducks again.

Here's another song by Songs:Ohia, the guy who did that Two Blue Lights track. You know, the one I keep playing to people and they keep realizing it's pretty much one of their favourite songs ever. This track is live, so quality is suboptimal, but I like it.

I think if I'd brought fiddle and banjo with me this is how we'd have celebrated midnight on the eve of my birthday. Probably would've annoyed any nearby campers.

Birthday Bells

2009-08-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

Something funny happened earlier this month; my blog celebrated (very privately) its second birthday. Kinda took me by surprise.

Of course, this whole thing started when I left the wake, and began my new life here in the States. You've since learned about cheerleaders, getting to know Eugene, and starting a new job. I also worked out what kind of car I'd always wanted without knowing it, and then bought it. I've seen some excellent shows, and after a year out here I moved into the cottage. Oh, how I love it's rosey cottageyness. You've seen me exploring some of the great outdoors, my work has progressed surprisingly well, and I've had some super-fun visitors from home. They even get on well with the new friends I've made here.

But the most important of all? I met Allison. There isn't one particular post to point to, but you'll probably have noticed that she's kind of awesome, and that we've had a lot of fun together.

So, happy birthday, Twelve Bells.

Dog Days

2009-07-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

"When the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies.''

Yeah. I buy that. It's 106F (41C) here in Eugene, and I'm sitting here in the cottage, wrapped in a wet towel, downing pints of iced water and, as it happens, surrounded by dogs. Earlier today it was so hot our wireless router and/or modem stopped working. I now have them sitting in the firing line of one of our fans, like I'm in some kind of supercomputing facility.

Other than the heat, things progress as per usual. The latest paper is nearing completion, a grant got submitted, and I'm planning some travel. It's been pretty awesome this year to be in Eugene for the Summer and saving my carbon, but in September I'll be tearing it up (work-wise) on the East coast for a bit. Then a road trip in October. It's all going on.

Can England win back the Ashes? The heroics of 2005 seem like such a long time ago, but we only need three more draws for a repeat. Given that the weather in England seems a little different than here, we've got a chance. I also wonder if I have more of a chance than Pierre to get mentioned on TMS, now that I'm a Brit listening abroad?

*UPDATE*: Yes, and yes.

Meanwhile, baseball is failing me---my local team (uhm, Seattle) are dropping back in the AL West, day by day. Damn those consistent The The Angels Angels of Anaheim.

Only a month to go til college football kicks off and then everything will be alright.

What happened in/to June (Part 3)

2009-07-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Is it me, or is June always very busy? It certainly seems so, and I guess that's my excuse for not blogging more. Or maybe it's just that I couldn't live up to my last post title, which worked on three (count `em!) levels. This time I'm just going for mild humour through repetition.

All the same, it has indeed been busy. Alli's birthday was upon us as soon as we returned from Athens and Atlanta, and somehow she got to have two parties. There are photos from the second party which probably shouldn't see the light of day. I can recall playing beer pong and getting involved in a cupcake-based confrontation, but it's perhaps for the best to leave it there.

Three days after all those shenanigans, the parents-kind-of-in-law rolled into town---their first visit to Eugene since Allison moved here, and the return leg of our previous match-ups. We visited Ashland for the Shakespeare festival, did some fun stuff in Eugene and grilled out. A lot.

Oh, and in the meantime, the garden's been growing. A lot. And here are some pictures. Remember the little herb garden? Look at it now:

We already had to cut down the coriander by half, as it was scaring the other herbs. We also have some lettuce and rocket, and some budding tomatoes:

Plus there's the grass to take care of, which simply wouldn't respect either the landlord's rusty reel mower or our weed strimmer. So I now have a little gas lawnmower from Willie the lawnmower man. As you can see, it's a 4HP beast of a machine. Respect the beast.

Finally? The roses. Oh, the roses. They are somewhat magnificent.

And all in our back garden. Boy, I like the Eugene Summer. Now I just need to finish up this next paper. Which I very nearly have.

A lot of music to catch up on. First, it's Blondie's birthday, so how better to celebrate than with a bossa nova version of `Heart of Glass'? It's by French band Nouvelle Vague. Of course, they would be French. Give it a listen if you don't know it already, it's actually pretty awesome.

Speaking of the French, I really liked the soundtrack from a film that came out a couple of years ago, `Tell No-One'. The composer is a guy who goes by the name of M (again, only the French, right?) and here's the outro for the film. A cathartic moment, as you'll know if you've seen it.

Finally, my favourite song of the moment, by Elvis Perkins:

I like it a lot. It's been a strange week, and this is a good song to listen to for that, I think.

Southern Bells

2009-06-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

Last week, Allison and I took our first ever flight together. Amazing, really, since we've (a) both travelled a lot in the last couple of years and (b) even ended up in the same places sometimes, just by different routes. Anyway, we survived the experience, although I did nearly miss our connection watching the Champions League final in a PDX bar. There's always something satisfying about being the last guy to cruise on to a plane, with no lines to wait in. It's less satisfying when your girlfriend is already sitting there, grimacing at you, but only a little bit.

We were visiting Georgia, only my second visit after last year, and there was a lot to pack in. Allison's niece, Maggie, was born the second day of our visit, and then we were off to Athens, GA for EP's wedding. The wedding was fun---and very traditionally Southern. EP's grandparents live in an old Sorority house in downtown Athens, and the reception was in a hydrangea-strewn marquee in their backyard. Here are two belles, enjoying it:

Following the reception, which began dangerously early in the day, we headed to a pool party and then downtown. I spent only a small fraction of my previous visit to Athens neither drunk nor hungover, and the same applied this time.

After the wedding we spent some time in Gainesville, where the parents live, playing on Lake Lanier among other things. Never having `tubed' before, I didn't realize that it wasn't supposed to start with both me and the tube being dragged underwater, and so I gamely held on until we resurfaced. Lesson learned. I also drove a pick-up truck and fired an assault rifle (not at anyone), so all things considered it was quite a trip.

Next week, Allison's parents fly into town for the home leg. I'll keep you updated.

This track by Songs: Ohia was my favourite song this time two years ago, and I think it deserves a re-run. Plus, I needed a chance to use the word awesome in this post.

Where are they now?

2009-05-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Long-time readers, and I'm talking really long-time, might remember The Department.

Back in the day, Chris and I began to document the lives of PhD students in a mildly amusing comic-strip. Yeah, I know it's been done already. But we figured that grad students had enough time on their hands to read at least two comics. At least.

Despite critical acclaim, The Department ground to a halt after a mere six episodes. But now, two years on, we are proud to bring you its return! Conveniently, the lives of the characters have also moved on two years, and we will be looking in on them to see what's up. Where are they living, do they have jobs, will there be flashbacks to the `70s and will anyone be wearing a beige jumpsuit? These questions and many more will be answered.

Click on the image below for "Episode 7: The Postdoc"....

For this and other comics, check out Chris' website, also linked from my sidebar.

Box of Rain

2009-05-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

I ended up listening a fair amount to the Grateful Dead while Allison's friend KP was visiting last weekend. It was awesome to see her, but Box of Rain pretty much summed up Eugene for the whole visit.

Right now it's sunny again, but what was wet and miserable for us seems to've been good for the garden. Remember the herbs we planted?

Now they look like this:

Definite growth there, right? And the coriander (cilantro, as they insist on calling it here) tastes awesome. Here's the rest of that planter and a close-up of one of the rose-bushes:

Tune in again for more gardener's-world-type updates.

I was thinking of putting some Dead on here as Song of the Day, but last week I also came across this modern classic. It puts together three great MCs (and one so-so), plus the best hip-hop producer in history. Check it out.

Guess what? Mr Monk has a blog. A lot of it is about techie stuff, which may or may not turn you on, but I see he's now ventured into civil liberties and DNA-databasing. Oh my. Anyway, I'm proud to add a link to my cobwebbed side-bar.

It's not all work work work

2009-04-25T12:10:00.001-07:00

...is a phrase that sticks in my head, from this ancient NatWest commercial. Do you remember it? Anyway, while it's not all work work work, some of it is. So maybe you deserve a work update.

The first good news is that due to the power of Open Access, you can now download my PNAS paper, if you like. I explained the gist of it a while ago, before it came out officially, but now you can see it in print. Pretty exciting stuff!

The second news is that my recent trip to Swindon (you know, the one where I got all excited about wi-fi on trains, and got to drive the magic roundabout) was somewhat fruitful. The visit was to interview for a research council `Life Sciences Interface' fellowship, and I heard a few weeks ago that they are awarding it to me. Which is great---it'll give me the chance to collaborate with some good people, and work on some cool projects. And get a MacBook Air.

In other work-related news, I hear that DMR is moving to the dark side---he's becoming a biologist. Many congratulations on your conversion! It really is what all the cool kids are doing.

In other non-work-related news, South-African-dude and I recently introduced both Allison and his girlfriend to the joys of Withnail and I. Here's one of my favourite scenes.

Sometime soon I'm going to have to walk into an American cafe and demand the finest wines known to humanity. And cake.

Eggsactly

2009-04-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

I'm learning, along with Allison, to garden. We've planted a lot in the last couple of weeks, and I plan to take photos to show the updates. For example, here's our new little herb-garden, planted two weekends ago:

Two varieties of thyme, some oregano, sage, parsley, coriander and chives. Plus spearmint, peppermint and some creeping rosemary to complement the standing variety elsewhere in the garden. It's gonna thrive. I can just feel it.

Oh, and just for Pierre, here's a big daisy:

Last weekend was Easter. Having broken through a major problem in one of my projects on Good Friday, I was all ready to celebrate Easter Saturday in the best way possible: painting eggs. Not that I did all that much painting. I find such things are often best left to craftier folk, but I did my best. A bunch of people came over for eggs and brunch, and here are some of the outputs:

That's Bryce, by the way. Did I ever mention Bryce?

Time for a sports update. I never commented on Ireland's historic and momentous grand slam. Awesome, and I'm glad to've caught a few of the matches in this year's tournament. Watch out for England coming back next year, though....

We've also had the Masters golf, and just like last year my predictions for English success were scuppered by, er, reality. As usual I've almost entirely ignored the basketball season, but excitingly baseball is back on. I'm supporting Seattle this season (Northwest solidarity) and they're doing OK.

Maybe the most exciting sports news of the moment is the soccer. Or football. Whatever. What's important is that rumours of the demise of this season were greatly exaggerated. I really don't know if Man U will hang on to win the premiership. I think they might not. Wow, I didn't think I'd be saying that. And three English teams in the Champions League semi-finals. All very exciting.

I often mis-hear song lyrics, but one of my recent mistakes was kind of unusual. I credited Beck with declining the Greek definite article "η, την, της, τη" in the song `Hell Yes'. How very learned is Beck, I thought.

Turns out the lyric is the less exotic "hate taste tested", according to the internets. See what you think, it first comes up about a minute in.

Part 2: Arches, Canyons, all that jazz

2009-04-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Time for some pictures from the second half of our UT road trip. I've just been reminded that all the cool kids are on Twitter, and that (being cool) I should be, too. If I were already twittering, you'd have had a verbal description of all this over a week ago. So, I'm sorry about that. You'll just have to make do with the photos. Late.

One thing we noticed, in between the amazing natural beauty, was the incredible desolation. Once you're off the interstate, many of the small towns in Southern UT are just falling apart. Particularly noticable was the succession of depression-era cars, simply abandoned and untouched for maybe eighty years. Here's an example:

The best one, I didn't get a photo of. It was a railroad car, on a single pair of rails, completely isolated. I guess at some point Utah decided to close that railroad and recycle the tracks, and I was imagining some intransigent train driver, sitting on his train refusing to budge, til they just removed all the tracks from around him.

Back to the cool scenery. After small town desolation, we moved on to the tourist hotspot of Moab. Everything there was kind of overpriced, but it was an ideal location for the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. This next picture is Landscape Arch.

And here's the view from the Island in the Sky, in Canyonlands, with and without us jumping:

As I tried to explain earlier, this whole place was made by aliens. Finally, do you recognize this pose?

What are Pierre and I pointing at? We may never know.

After Moab and the parks, we dropped into Salt Lake for a night on our way up North. It reminded me how terrible Hilton hotels are these days. And from there it was a long, long drive homeward! This time without snowstorms.

This song is pretty cute. Unfortunately, it's in a chip commercial here, but I gather in the UK that Slow Club still retain some indie-ness.

Hi, Deseret!

2009-03-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Ah, that most American of vacations: the Road Trip. Last year I had a superb run down the Oregon and California coasts---ably accompanied by those scholars and gentlemen, RWH and MFM. We had a lot of fun, made friends with bikers and various one-armed bandits and caught some spectacular scenery. But a year has now passed, and last week it seemed about time to step on the road once again. Spring break or bust, betches!

This trip the contestants were myself and Allison, and the destination was Utah---the beehive state. To get there we battled through snowstorms and 70mph gusts, but did we give up? Of course not! For we are true road warriors. The aim was to cruise down to see the National Parks in Southern UT, find some more spectacular scenery and make some Mormon friends. One of my favourite parts of the trip was camping in Zion Park, and here's the evidence we were there:

This next picture is the view back down the valley from near the top of `Angel's landing', a nice little hike with a bit of scrambling towards the end.

And here we are in the Bryce canyon amphitheatre, a short hop along from Zion.

The weird sandstone formations you can see behind us are called Hoodoos, which are basically huge boulders perched on layers of softer sedimentary rock. Here're a lot more of them, without us in the way:

Crazy, man. Were those things made by aliens or what!?!

More next time, plus the details of my masterplan to develop the website bridesandgroom.com.

Before then, some music. One day, Sufjan Stevens will have an album for every possible US roadtrip. But in the meantime, commiserate with me while we listen to some Will Oldham:

Why commiserate? Well, I'd bought tickets to see him play in PDX, but some kind of brain-wrong made me book the road-trip for the same time. Our friend Colin benefited from my stupidity, and I'll just have to wait a bit longer before I next see Will play live....

It just goes to show you can't be too careful!

2009-03-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Eugene, where the skies may be blue, but the clouds are most certainly grey, and indeed blocking most of the sky. Still, a hot cup of silver needle does make everything better.

The UK trip was fun, and productive. And inexpensive! Even if I'd been paying for it myself, the flights were only 550USD, and it was the best route and times possible. I even treated myself to United `Economy Plus' on the way home, which entitled me to oodles of leg room and the left-overs from Business class. So what does this all mean? Either I should take week-long trips to the homeland more often, or you should all be visiting me. Or both.

One of the left-over items was the Observer, so I got to do my first Everyman in over a year, and also laughed out loud at this David Mitchell column. I thank him for introducing me to the phrase `democratising the shit out of' something, and for encouraging people to insert the title of this post into comment threads around the internets. He's a funny chap, that Mitchell. I wonder when the next Peep Show series is due out.

You may've noticed that I was on a train to Leeds at some point in my trip, and that that train had free wi-fi. This is basically awesome, and I wish the States would develop the infrastructure to run fast and reliable trains. (With free wi-fi.) Wouldn't it be great to cruise down the West coast in a matter of hours, continually refreshing Facebook as you go?

Finally, the rugby. I've caught a couple of Six Nations games online, but it was fun last weekend to watch one on a TV set. Ireland-Scotland, to be precise.

Poor old Scotland. With their first-half competitiveness and second-half capitulation, they are fast becoming the Italy of this year's championship. That is, if Italy were not so ably continuing to fill that niche themselves.

I suppose the Wooden spoon is technically in the balance, and England's resurgence is intriguing, but the key question is: will Ireland win the Grand Slam?

Swinging Swindon

2009-03-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

Wait a whole year for a trip to England, and two come along at once. Yes, having arrived back in Eugene just over six weeks ago, I'm about to head to the homeland for another visit. Looking forward to seeing some of you and making PNAS jokes in person.

Other than the travel-news, I've been getting all excited about progress on my current project, and drinking my weight in silver needle white tea. The two could be connected. Watch this space for more details in due course.

The Andrew Bird show in Portland last weekend was, of course, awesome. As usual, Allison and I filled up on quality sashimi while we were up there, which nearly made us late for the Bird-man. But fortunately he was playing kind of a cosy venue, which meant we could sneak up to the front despite arriving only five minutes before he came onstage. Nice.

This is one of my favourite songs from his new album, `Noble Beast'. Takes about two minutes to hit its stride....

Is Andrew Bird the song of the day? Kind of, but there's something else I want to post, and actually meant to a while back. If you haven't listened to a SOTD for a while, or never have, start here and now:

It's by Fleet Foxes, and a pretty stunning performance, once it all kicks off and the harmonies take over. I need to see them live.

Alright for some

2009-02-21T12:07:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a good week for me. The ecology paper I've been trailing recently was accepted by PNAS, which is great news.

So what's it all about, and is it interesting/useful to anyone? Let me give a quick summary, and you can decide for yourselves.

The original idea came out of a workshop in Santa Barbara, aimed at integrating two big theories in ecology. The first of those theories proposes that while differences between individuals might seem like they should be important for understanding community structure, those differences actually don't matter for predicting certain large-scale ecological patterns. That's Neutral Biodiversity Theory, and its conclusion is that the single most important factor in determining the variety of species in a community is simply the randomness of births and deaths of individuals: demographic stochasticity.

Neutral Theory has been pretty controversial in ecology, but it's a great step forward in generating testable predictions. On the other hand, there's another big theoretical framework that a lot of ecologists have worked on in the last ten years or so: the Metabolic Theory of Ecology. Metabolic Theory emphasizes that differences between individual metabolic rates actually are crucial, at least for predicting some ecological patterns. And metabolism is closely linked to body-size, so the theory basically says that differences between the sizes of individuals in a community are essential for understanding its structure.

What we are doing in the paper is to put parts of those two theories together, and the mathematical framework is (surprisingly) somewhat related to quantum field theory. We end up with something that takes account both of demographic stochasticity and also of individual variation and ontogenetic growth. Some of our predictions agree with Neutral Theory, some agree with metabolic theory, and some predictions are entirely new, and I hope relevant for ecologists. The whole is more than the sum of its parts, and all that.

Something else I want to discuss in more detail here, once I've got my head around it, is Open Access and the merits of the various publishing models we currently use. We chose to submit to PNAS for various reasons. It's the third highest-impact general science journal, after Nature and Science, so the paper should find a wide audience. It's also the only one of those three that regularly publishes pure theory in ecology, so it made sense for this particular paper.

But it also has a good open access option. We have to pay them quite a bit of cash to take up the option, but hey, it does cost money to run a good journal, and this way the science is available for all. Right?

One show down this week, one to go. On Wednesday night my dad had bought us tickets to see a famous gospel band, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Here they are, performing the awesome `Run on':

And tonight, we're off to see Andrew Bird, in Portland town. Should also be awesome, judging from the 2007 version.

RIP, John.

MFV

2009-02-13T19:48:00.000-08:00

Another year, another February the 14th. And another home-made Valentine's card. I don't think I ever put up pictures of last year's craft-y effort, but this time I had to do better, to outdo myself.

The outcome is a hybrid iPod/card monster. Kind of like one of those cards that plays a tune when you open it, only this time the tune is a playlist, and a good one. Did anyone else do better than that? Or are Valentine's cards just not cool these days?

In other news, my first month back in Eugene has flown by, but we've the chance for some more skiing, a trip to the coast, and of course the final football day of the season. It's sad, but there won't be any more football til August. Ugh.

As usual, this Super Bowl was rated as the `best Super Bowl ever', but maybe this time that claim is closer than usual to being accurate. We had a close game, the longest play in history

and a great finish. Mind you, last year wasn't too shabby, either.

In other sport, obviously I'm ignoring the cricket. That much is obvious. I shudder even as I write the word. But the Six Nations is still in the balance, and am I crazy to hope for an England win tomorrow in Cardiff?

UPDATE: Yes (as usual)

More next time on the details of the ecology paper I submitted recently, which seems to have been well-received by editor and reviewers. In the meantime, given the date, MBV should play us out.

Taking the boy out of Croydon

2009-01-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

I'm in Eugene now, and it is less snowy and cold, and more rainy and lukewarm than when I left. Other than that, I think things are much the same, which is to say, good. Still, it was a great trip back to the homeland. Cool to be able to hang out with the parents, catch up with friends. And see former-officemate-David pass his PhD defence. (Woo!)

It was also a chance for Allison to visit the UK, and here we are on a trip to Cambridge, where we stayed in the Judge's room:

This is us the next day, in Great Court, flanked by Newton's old rooms and my old rooms:

Hmm, what else? Well, New Year's Eve was welcomed in next to the Thames, with RWH, though be thankful I spare you the drunken pictures here. (Facebook provides the evidence, should you need it.) And we also found the energy for a festive excursion to see the Nutcracker, and a country drive down to Churchill's home, Chartwell:

Perhaps in hindsight not the ideal time to've visited....

Of course, this trip also entailed Allison's own meet-the-parents moment. That encounter seemed to go very well, and we all spent plenty of time together for the week Allison was over. Mainly eating my Dad's glorious cooking, it seemed.

After seeing Allison off at Heathrow, I had a cross-country trip to an Irish wedding in Essex, and then a flight over to Dublin to visit the other side of the family. Here I am with the 98-year-old grandmother. I think it captures my caring side.

It's a strange experience, being back in the old world for a few weeks. I had a lot of fun, and it was sad to leave my mum and dad. But there was also something reassuring about hearing American voices when I landed. So what's that all about?

While you ponder that, here's an interesting version of one of my favourite Will Oldham covers. Already a fragile song, this version sounds like it's about to fall apart. But doesn't quite.

It's Snow Joke

2009-01-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

Shalom. It is not often I miss a month of blogging, but thankfully for you guys I'm back. Is anyone still out there?

There's plenty to report from the intervening period. In work, much of the last ten weeks or so was occupied with completing my first ecology paper. The good news? It's done. And dusted. Readying the manuscript for submission wasn't entirely without drama, but I'm really excited about what's been accomplished in the project. Here's a snippet:

That preparation time was longer than I expected, and it struck me as quite different from theoretical physics, where the focus is on banging your results on the archive as soon as you have them. That's probably more efficient in terms of getting working on new projects as soon as possible, but I think the extra work we've put into this paper makes it more readable than a typical theoretical physics paper. So, I hope that that means more people will read it! We shall see.

Of course, there are always other projects going on, and in December I took my final work trip of 2008, to Davis, CA, where I met collaborators from UC Davis and UC San Francisco. My work on that project is going to have some close links with the paper I've just submitted, but has a different flavor. 2009 will reveal all.

Enough of the science. And more of the magnificent snow. Yes, not long after I returned from sunny Davis, Oregon got dumped on. Here are some pictures from Eugene. First, The Man and The Cottage:

And here are our various wheels, snowbound:

Pretty cool, huh?

More of my Christmas and New Year next time, but in the spirit of year-end introspection let me just recall an anniversary. I noted this Summer that TBR had been running for a year. But in a way, the true beginning was back in the Wake. That was fully two years ago, and boy have things changed since then.

Happy New Year!

Turkeygiving

2008-11-30T18:44:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday night, and I'm nearing the end of the Thanksgiving break. So let me explain how this wonderful four-day holiday works round here.

Thanksgiving itself is on the Thursday, but late on Wednesday night I sent out a nearly-complete draft of The Paper to my coauthors. This meant I could devote my full concentration the next day to celebrating Squanto---apparently his efforts to help out the Plymouth pilgrims are remembered by eating as much food as humanly possible. It's also crucial to do this in the company of other people, and we ended up entertaining ten at the cottage. Ten!

This prompted some very-necessary rearrangements, but I think we turned the living room into a passable dining room. Allison then roasted an enormous bird, which combined with everyone's desserts and sides meant that, frankly, we did eat a little too much. As I say, that seems to be the point of Thanksgiving.

Friday is a second day off work, which we spent making Christmas happen in the cottage. It still seems a bit early for all that, doesn't it? But somehow it felt right to be standing on a ladder putting up lights and decorations. And there's more...Saturday brought a near-infinite number of college football rivalry games, including Oregon whipping Oregon State 65-38.

Which was cool. And yet still I had Sunday left to run some errands, apply for a patriotic new credit card and get prepared for work. I want more four-day weekends.

The other news of note is that I'm the proud owner of a new Macbook Pro.

Yes, I'm finally cool enough. Make of that what you will.

This track is currently airing on a LeBron James commercial...but it's by Cornershop! Believe it or not, the song is from the same album as Brimful of Asha.

White boy hippy dancing

2008-11-20T11:12:00.001-08:00

Before I came to Oregon, I confess I didn't know much about bluegrass music. But since several members of my department play bluegrass weekly at a local pub, and several other friends seem to be big fans of the genre, I've been gradually exposed to more and more of it. Almost without realizing.

Last week it was time to take a leap: I went out for KD's birthday to see Old Crow Medicine Show, who hail from Nashville, TN and are kings of all things old-timey. Here's the video for Wagon Wheel, the song everyone seems to know round here:

Anyway, being at this show meant I needed to do some dancing. Hippy dancing, as they call it. I think I did pretty well, though probably it's easier to pull off if you're wearing a baggy pair of denim dungarees, a straw hat and have dreadlocks.

The other exciting recent happening was that I went to see the the Oregon Ducks play Arizona, at the mighty Autzen stadium:

I went with Allison, and we tailgated with my old housemate before the game. It was all pretty awesome, and the Ducks won 55-45. Yes, 55-45! None of your low-scoring SEC games out here in the West. And after those efforts, Oregon are back in the Top 25. (Just about.)

OK, you've had music, you've had sports. I thought that might be enough, but there are a couple of other news items to throw in. First, the gender analyzer tells me that my blog has a 71% chance of being written by a man. On the other hand, Pierre's old blog has a 72% chance of being written by a woman. Who knew?

And finally? Johnson could be the new Dr Who!

The New New World

2008-11-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

You probably noticed there was an election this week. And you're probably desperate to hear my commentary on it.

Well, I'm happy, and happier than I expected to be. I think there was a small, unvoiced fear at the back of my mind that Obama would lose, so now that he's won I feel there's some kind of weight lifted. Does anyone else feel like that? It's going to be an incredibly tough four years for him, but I'm optimistic to see what can be done.

One thing the election highlights is the lack of a reasonable option for American conservatives these days. I'm sure the numbers will be analyzed in excruciating detail over the next few weeks, but I won't be shocked if Palin is picked out as the biggest liability in the campaign. There surely are many conservatives out there who are not anti-science, anti-intellectual or as exuberantly parochial as Palin. My guess is they didn't vote GOP.

But let us not dwell on that. Let's keep the excitement and optimism and just see what the new guy can do. God Bless America!

I am Patriotic

2008-10-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

But that's not enough to save me from being a victim of...the Patriot Act. I thought it was just Michael Moore and African-Americans who would fall foul of the Act, but it seems I'm not immune.

It started when I was 'pre-selected' for a credit card offer. I've never been a big user of credit, but on the other hand I thought it would be useful to begin building my credit rating here in the States. You know, just in case I want to get a mortgage some day. (You're probably going to start needing a credit rating for that again, one of these days.)

So all went well, and a couple of weeks later I had credit. Or so I thought. Having approved me and sent me a shiny new platinum card, Capital One promptly locked the card and then informed me that I was under investigation for fraud! Apparently, my social security number wasn't showing up in their database. Never mind that they'd already approved me. Never mind that I had the social security card in front of me. As far as they were concerned, I was committing a federal crime.

After a few days they managed to check a better database, and realized that I did exist, after all. But by then it was too late---I had to run around collecting documentation for them 'under the requirements of the Patriot Act'. Ugh.

But the happy ending is that I do now have credit. And another credit card offer sitting in front of me. Dare I take it?

Remember Hallowe'en last year? Yes, I was Pac-Man. Well, I'm not sure what this year's costume will be, but there's now an alternative to the usual 'vote Barack' sign sitting on my front porch:

Allison and I had a lot of fun carving, and now have a lot of pumpkin to eat.

Teachage

2008-10-21T00:15:00.000-07:00

Summer in Oregon is pretty beautiful. The rest of the year the weather is more British than Britain, but for four months we have almost uninterrupted sun, and all without the terrifying humidity found in other parts of the US. But come to an end all good things must, and with the end of September things took a turn for the wetter. Oh well.

Something else changes in Fall: students. They appear. Everywhere. During the Summer the campus paths were empty enough for me to ride my bike blindfolded, but suddenly I was weaving around stoned 18-year-olds every pedal of the way.

Still, after a few days of indulging my inner curmudgeon I decided that being surrounded by The Youth is actually kind of fun. Brings a bit of life to the place that people with degrees can't quite manage. And what's more, this time I was teaching some of them. Just a couple of classes when my boss was away, but I took the opportunity to use my cutting edge pedagogical methods.

Make of that what you will.

If you're interested, here's my problem set for the week:

Weddage

2008-10-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

It's always more momentous than I expect, when a good friend gets married. I think it's because in the cases I have in mind, marriage has seemed like it would be a normal, completely natural progression. No big deal. But then I turn up and it's much more than that.

And so it was when I flew out to G-Rap, MI, to see Henry and Nyssa marry last weekend. It could be because I didn't get much sleep or food before the wedding (I flew out overnight), but it was all very moving. I was moved. And I think they'll be very happy.

Two nights after the wedding, Allison and I went to see Iron & Wine. This is a nice song, by him.

I thought she was just a maniac, now I know she's an imbecile

2008-10-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

To whom do I refer? Sadly, potentially the next vice-president.

In general, I would say I aim to be non-partisan, as much as is possible, and in my opinion conservatism is a respectable political perspective. I mean, the Tory party became the Conservatives with the Tamworth maxim `reforming the ills and conserving the good', or somesuch, and you can hardly argue with that.

But Palin is simply embarrassing. As one of the CNN commentators put it, she is `supremely unqualified for the office to which she aspires'. Watching her in the interviews below, it's as if someone came into a physics, or indeed biology seminar, having never studied the subject. I feel like saying, you may or may not be a very nice person, but don't try to talk about policy or politics. You are in the wrong place. You need to go home.

I don't feel like that with John McCain. I never supported him for president, but at least his political experience provided his candidacy with some degree of legitimacy. Hasn't he lost some (most?) of that legitimacy by selecting Palin as running mate? I hope that conservatives will realize that. If you haven't seen the interviews with Katie Couric yet, watch the videos below, or the extended versions on youtube or the news channels. It's bad.

I'll bring em to ya!

Cut Me I Bleed Obsidian

2008-09-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

As is sometimes the case, I had an eventful weekend. It begins with our adventure on the Obsidian trail last week, to celebrate the return of Not-Boss-Jess. Was anyone wondering whether Oregon was beautiful? It is. For example, this colourful mountain is Middle Sister, viewed from our trail:

And here we all are in the shady forest below the mountains, looking happy taking a break:

Finally, The Liz, walking through a field of Obsidian. Had to get some Obsidian in there somewhere.

Still, beautiful scenery can mitigate only so much, and things took a turn for the worse when we turned in the wrong direction, extending a ten mile day-hike to a twenty mile day-night hike. There was beef jerky to sustain us, and a stunning full moon to act as guide. But by the time I got to bed at 3am I was ready for sleep.

I was less ready for getting up at 8am the next morning, to travel to Lake Arrowhead for a genomics conference, with The Liz and Visiting Spaniard Albert. Arrowhead was very beautiful also, in a man-made, populated by movie-stars a long time ago kind of way. But we had quite a journey to make it there. Missed connections abounded, and eventually we found ourselves in a taxi at midnight, driven by a McCain-supporting born-again Christian `former gangster' from Indonesia. By the time we got to the conference center, I was once again ready for sleep.

All good things must come to an end, and after many pork ribs and a little inappropriateness, Visiting Spaniard Albert is leaving for his home-town of Barcelona.

Adios Hermanos.

Maybe the most romantic song I've heard for a while. Scout Niblett and Will Oldham provide. It took a couple of listens, but I love it.

In my prime!!!

2008-09-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

I have to say it was one of the best birthdays I've had. Let me take you through it.

Morally speaking, I think I can start the story on the wednesday three days before my birthday, when Joe of Joe and Emily fame sent me a message telling me they were at a !!! show. Long-time readers may remember that we all went to see them play at the Fillmore last year, in San Francisco. I had a lot of fun at that time, and so Joe's message naturally brought back some happy memories.

Now fast forward to the night before my birthday. Allison had swept me up to Portland for a surprise show. And what band should be playing? You've guessed it. When I sat myself down in the Doug Fir lounge and finally looked at the name on our tickets it was just...perfect.

(Of course, in the cold light of touring schedules it makes total sense, but there's no point in ruining the magic, right?)

Next up was a super-fun Saturday in Portland, involving arts and crafts, cake, pastrami, and the movies. And the day nicely rounded off with the Oregon Ducks winning their opening game of the season---by a huge margin against huge rivals, University of Washington.

As we were driving back to Eugene on the Sunday, I felt that all of the above constituted a pretty good birthday. A lot of fun stuff in one of my favourite cities. Laughter, tears, surprises, reader is richer for the experience and all that. More than enough.

But no! You've guessed it again, there was one more surprise. To confirm this, when we arrived back at the cottage, a bunch of people leapt out of the bushes shouting `surprise!'. Inevitably, this situation lead to a party, involving american football, baseball, beer-pong and...beer. Oh, and more cake. All good stuff.

Fortunately for her, Allison now has a whole year to plan my next birthday.

It's pretty much impossible to capture the !!! experience on a record, and so I wasn't sure whether to put their music up today. I would just see them live.

But, I suppose noblesse oblige...

Song of the day (37)

Who da man?

2008-08-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, you guessed the answer. It's this guy!

That picture was taken when Pierre spotted something important during our visit to Waldo lake. It may or may not have been a mosquito, but there were many, many mosquitoes. Here we all are together, looking happy because we found the one spot not infested with them:

Peter and Niru visited Oregon for just over a week, and along the way we did much barbecuing, some wine-tasting, and of course we enjoyed America's favorite pastime:

That was us watching the Portland Beavers. In Portland, obviously. On our way up there, we came across this fine establishment: Wanker's Corner. I kid you not.

Anyway, it was super-fun to have Peter and Niru visiting, and I'm looking forward to the next time.

August the 30th means something special...the start of college football! I'm hoping to see the Ducks play Utah early in September, and I advise you all to keep up-to-date on their results this season. It's gonna be a good one, I can just feel it.

Sitting outside the Jackalope bar with Peter, we were made aware of this epic, Bowie-esque number by Midnight Juggernauts. Check it out---I like it.

Song of the day (36)

Videos of the Day

2008-08-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

First up, my cousin tells the reunion story of the legendary '90s band: Discus.

Note the drumming on the beach, and the Snickers bar.

Anyone noticed the Olympics are on? In addition to an outstanding performance by the British team, there's a new adjective in town: Phelpsian.

I'm not quite sure how to describe `Phelpsian' in words...but I know I want to use it, like all the time. Formal definitions welcome.

Automatic for the People

2008-08-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from the second of two work-trips in the last month. The first one was a Gordon Research Conference, in lovely Maine. It worked really well---about eighty participants, all theoretical ecologists, and so a lot of opportunity for fruitful discussion. There was certainly an emphasis on metabolic scaling theory, which isn't (particularly) my bag, but it provided an opportunity to talk about theoretical ecology in general, and my projects in particular. So that's all good.

Oh, and we had the afternoons free, for kayaking and and George HW-spotting, among other things.

The latest trip was a biggie: the annual conference of the Ecological Society of America, held this year in exotic Milwaukee, WI. Another talk to give, which apparently went well, and another opportunity to make a few more connections, but I think I've had enough of travelling for a while.

It wasn't a surprise, then, when I reached some kind of mid-conference burn-out, but a day-trip with office-mate-Helene to Chicago was the ideal tonic. How time flies---this was the first time I'd been to Chicago since October of 2006, and a much better experience this time round.

In between the two conferences, I had a wonderful opportunity to `meet the parents', in Georgia. Fun! Here I am in Gainesville, discussing my intentions for Allison with her father:

Here I am again, this time with Allison and sister Kitty, marvelling at the presidential suite in our hotel in Athens:

Athens, GA, you say? Isn't that where R.E.M. hail from, and didn't they name their most well-known record after an Athens eaterie? And did you make a pilgrimage to have your photo taken in front of said establishment? Why yes, I did!

Next up, Peter`The Man' Mann tears shit up in Eugene. Watch out.

Part 2: Cottaging, but not that kind

2008-07-28T21:01:00.001-07:00

I know, it's nearly the end of July, and I'm still back in June. But something else important did happen, and it needs to be documented. The news is that Allison and I are now living in The Cottage. It all happened over a couple of crazy days at the end of June. Mum had just left, I was preparing a last-minute talk for a conference, but somehow everything got packed, moved and unpacked in a very short space of time, and with minimal breakages. Mainly due to Allison's efforts, of course, but I did my bit and the Liz and Kathryn helped massively, too.

So, I guess I'd better show you what cottaging is all about. First up is my new office, the backyard:

Here's the kitchen, and living room:

And here's the view from the front. Benz just visible, to the left.

Basically, I would say that cottages are a good thing.

Next time, I go automatic for the people in Athens, GA, and meet George HW Bush. Tune in!

Sometimes, I like to play Elliott Smith, because hey we're in Oregon and I also kind of love his guitar playing.
Song of the day (35)

And, er, one more thing. I started this little old blog a year ago. How did it get this far?

What happened in/to June (Part 1)

2008-07-09T21:13:00.001-07:00

Uhm. I didn't mean to hiate, but in any case I'm back now.

June was a very busy month, and do let me take you through it. Well, first up was Allison's birthday. Did I ever tell you guys about the Bier Stein? It doesn't quite match the magic of the Bircus, which incidentally is no longer in existence, but it does stock a surprising proportion of the same beers. Richard can confirm that they even serve Kwak in Kwak glasses. (If he wants to.)

Anyway, I digress. The plan was to attend the Stein for Allison's birthday, but due to a sewage problem we were summarily ejected. That's really all I wanted to say about the evening, apart from the facts that it was of course a roaring success, ended drunkenly and served as an adequate celebration of said birthday. Adequate, that is, if you ignore our subsequent, surprise trip to a secret location on the coast. It involved a lighthouse:

Well, isn't that enough already for a June, you might say? But no, here comes my mum, to visit Eugene for a couple of weeks. It was a really great trip, and nice for her to see me in my element. We visited the coast, Portland, the Ashland Shakespeare festival, various cute towns, and she got to meet many of my colleagues and friends out here. She'll probably recommend you to visit Oregon, if you give her half a chance. For some reason I don't have any photos of mum in Oregon, to prove that all of this took place, but she did take this one. It was a glorious day up at King Estate winery:

Next time I write, I'll tell you all about the cottage. And my current trip to Maine. Maybe even my upcoming trip to Atlanta, GA, if it's happened by then.

It's all go.

This guy from Seattle is almost unspeakably indie. He's been on an insurance TV commercial, and yet is still indie. That's pretty indie.

Song of the day (34)

I might catch him in Eugene, after the travels.

Biologically Speaking

2008-06-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a secret. Back in the day, when we wanted to work out if some set of equations made sense, the question to ask would be: "what does this mean, physically?" Now I can reveal the key difference in my new career as a theoretical ecologist. You've just gotta be able to ask: "what does this mean, biologically?" And you're all set.

So, that's one thing I've learned over here. Another big change from the PhD days came round this week---several years of having my homepage firmly pointing to the BBC News finally came to an end. Yes! It's sad, I know. My attachment to the Beeb survived at least one overhaul in format and even the recent addition of advertisements for overseas users...but it couldn't survive Google calendar.

Nowadays it might take me a little longer to work out when Hillary's bowed out of the nomination race, but I do know exactly when my next metagenomics meeting is. The march of progress.

Last week was the latest installment in my Summer of travel: a second workshop down in Santa Barbara.

My first visit, back in October, was something of a watershed. I understood hardly anything I heard at that meeting, but it did spark a lot of ideas and turned out to send me off in some fruitful directions. So it was good to get back there and see all the same bigshots, but this time with more to say for myself.

In fact, I really did have to say something. My first night in Santa Barbara, a few beers into watching the Celtics kick ass, my boss called me to say I should be prepared to give a talk the next morning---and that it should be good. According to the bigshots, it was. Which is nice.

People predicted that `In Rainbows' would be predictably good. Predictably, they were right.
Song of the day (33)

I have a drinking solution

2008-05-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for the perfect Summer drink? Look no further! It's the Richmond Gimlet, invented in Eugene and much practised by myself. It's really very straightforward to make, and rides the line between sweet and sour like no other cocktail. (What is the line? You'll find out.)

Here are the ingredients:

To make two gimlets, you'll need

4oz Tanqueray No.10 Gin

2oz freshly squeezed lime juice, which'll require around two limes

2oz simple syrup (made from equal volumes sugar and water)

A handful of torn mint leaves

These ingredients go into a shaker, loaded with ice. (You'll probably want to run the lime juice through a sieve, to filter the pulp and seeds.) Then shake like you've never shaken before for around 45 seconds, and pour the contents of the shaker into two Martini glasses (holding the ice). If all has gone well, there should be a thin layer of foam atop your gimlet, and some scraps of mint floating. It'll look good.

Do it! Once you've tried one, you won't go back.

Tomorrow I'm seeing Mason Jennings in Eugene, but today I'll play some Lucksmiths:

Song of the day (32)

All about the Benz, baby

2008-05-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

It's finally happened. Not only do I have a driver's licence, but I also have a car! A German Blonde, of a certain age. She's a beauty:

Just to prove that this is a car I own (or at least that I have the keys), here I am sitting in it:

and on it:

and in front of it. With a dog.

Do y'all like it? I hope so. I wonder if I'll ever again drive a car that's not a Mercedes-Benz. I may never again drive a car that's not a Mercedes-Benz.

Of course, it had to be.
Song of the day (31)

Found a Reason

2008-05-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

I took in two recent gigs in Eugene, which I'd like to tell you about. Both fun, in their own way.

First, a couple of weeks back, the mighty Cat Power took the stage at the McDonald Theatre here in town. The thing with The Power is that her voice is so compelling, she doesn't necessarily need to pay any attention to writing good songs. That's a little unfair of me, since she's written a few great tunes...but there's this sense that she could husk her way through the proverbial phonebook and still put on a good show. Whatever...with that voice, who cares?

Then, during the past week Allison and I made it a full, fey Juno celebration by checking out Kimya Dawson, nee Moldy Peaches, at the Indigo District. There were a lot of starstruck Eugenian indie-kids there, bless 'em, and Kimya also put on a good show. A cute show. I wonder if she's still kind of a kid herself, but maybe there's no harm in that.

Ohmygod I'm so excited. Something I've spoken about for a while is about to happen. More news on that in the next blog post!

Diva:
Song of the day (30a)

Cute:
Song of the day (30b)

Argylics

2008-04-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

In American argot: Boy, am I tired.

It's been a busy few days, starting from when I flew out of Eugene last Thursday night, bound for San Diego. The reason? My boss is a co-PI on a large grant to study the ecological implications of metagenomic data, and it looks like I'll be applying my manifold skills on that project---once I've finished up what I'm currently working on.

Ostensibly, the San Diego meeting was to discuss collaboration with some supercomputing folks at UCSD, but from my perspective it was more an opportunity to meet the other PIs, and perhaps even make a good impression. To aid the latter, I wore my new, smart shoes, and argyle cufflinks (courtesy of Allison):

The new shoes tore up my heels, which was painful, but I think the argyle worked its magic. In the sense that I'll be in paid employment for some time to come.

On my way back from UCSD late on Friday night, I received a phonecall asking me to go skiing the next morning. I couldn't think of a good reason why not, so Allison and I set off with Jess and Helene (the office-mates, or new-Davids as I call them) to Willamette Pass, after a minimal amount of sleep.

Pretty much the last skiing of their season, but well worth dragging myself out of bed for. And comparing my performance to last time, I think I'm dangerously close to becoming competent.

De La Soul, because it's all about James.
Song of the day (29)

Drive My Car!

2008-04-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, people in Oregon may now legitimately instruct me to do the above. On a rainy afternoon this week, I took my driving test and...passed. Here's an artist's impression of what my licence might look like, when they eventually mail it to me:

Has anyone else taken a driving test, recently? I was pretty nervous, and the instructor remarked afterwards that I'd seemed tense! But it helped that the Oregon test isn't particularly involved; the only manoeuvre was driving into a parking space. Oh, the madness of the British test with its three-point turns, emergency stops and parallel parking. Anyway, Allison's `Vo and I managed just fine.

There're some other recent events to talk about: another gig last weekend, and I still haven't mentioned my encounters in Ann Arbor. But, they'll have to wait, as tomorrow I'm off to San Diego to find out something about metagenomics. Woo.

Yes, driving is the American way, but the title demands I celebrate with a well-known British tune:
Song of the day (28a)

...but I guess I can also play some Freescha:
Song of the day (28b)

...and the most famous band from Athens, GA, since my first trip there may not be so very far in the future:
Song of the day (28c)

And Other Games

2008-04-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

In all the crazy excitement surrounding the Cribs, I forgot to talk about games. Or rather, sports.

Now, you know I've been working hard to develop enthusiasm for baseball and 'football'. But, I also like to keep in touch with sports in the homeland. And while a competition involving sixteen men and two tiny people messing about on a river might usually pass me by, being so far away from home somehow makes the Boat Race...well, makes it exciting. What's more, this venerable competition is one of very few British sporting events to find its way to American television. Thank-you, ESPNU!

OK, so Cambridge lost, this year. But telling Americans that the guy from House once competed almost makes up for that.

That was a couple of weeks back, and the sport of the moment is clearly...Golf. I guess I can point out that two English guys are well in the hunt after two days. Right? Is it crazy to suggest that one of them might win?

UPDATE: yes

Some Beirut:

Song of the day (27)

Cribbage and Other Games

2008-04-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, the title of today's post is a flagrant attempt to capture David's attention, since he's the only (cribbage) player among my readership. But that's just the title. The content is all about The Cribs, a band of brothers from Wakefield who make some noise. You may even remember me playing their music for you, back in the day.

It's not completely clear that I should like this band, and maybe it'd be more sensible to leave them for the (NME-reading) kids. But...there's something about The Cribs which has grown on me, so last night I took myself up to Portland with Allison to see them play the Doug Fir Lounge. Described by Q magazine as `the biggest cult band in the UK', it was kind of cool to see them play a tiny venue, standing about three feet away from us. And man, they rocked out. I think brother drummer is unlikely to avoid an aneurysm if he carries on that way. The same goes for the whole band---and on top of sheer physical exertion, it must be exhausting to be in an indie band that hates the indie scene so very much. All that anger!

As you know by now, Oregon is a cool place, and The Cribs bassist agrees with me. He's abandoned post-industrial Yorkshire for Portland, and nowadays adorns his guitar with `I love OR' stickers. I know where he's coming from. Plus, if you live here you get to meet Johnny Marr at barbecues.

I'm glad I'm not a mirror-kissing hipster. Or am I?
Song of the day (26a)

The support act was Jeffrey Lewis, whom some of you may know:
Song of the day (26b)

Diary of a Trip (Part 5)

2008-03-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Day 5 was our victory parade into San Francisco. Before settling in the city for the last two days of the trip, we took an excursion down to Palo Alto. It naturally reminded me of my previous visit, which brought back many happy memories. Oh, those crazy days! We also stopped in Sausalito, where I tried to consume the largest ice-cream cone in the world:

Of course, San Francisco was a lot of fun, as it usually is. I got to see Joe and Emily's new apartment, The Whale's new apartment, C, and a lot of Harvard graduates on coke. I also had the pleasure of meeting Allison's sister, as the two of them came down to meet us for some SF-style pubbing and clubbing. I leave you with this picture of us all, in front of a famous bridge:

To finish off the trip and the playlist, we stayed across the road from this famous hotel...ok, we weren't actually in it, but close enough.

Song of the day (25)

Diary of a Trip (Part 4)

2008-03-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

Still puzzling over the one-armed, two-armed waitress, on Thursday morning we left Fortuna and headed South. Again. However, we did make a change from the trusty US101, which we'd been driving on since Florence. The alternative was the ancient Highway 1, a road sufficiently tortuous as to induce a sense of sea-sickness. The true coastal experience.

View Larger Map

Our Thursday afternoon exercise consisted mainly of winetasting. We turned off the 1 at Mendocino into Anderson valley, which is (slightly) less well-known than the famous appellations in Sonoma and Napa, but well worth touring through. The weather and scenery were glorious that day---just right to inspire us to suitably flowery, British-infused viticommentary.

Having acquitted ourselves well in the Valley, we ended up in Cloverdale for the evening, where everything progressed smoothly...until we decided to shoot some pool. None of the relatively salubrious bars in the centre of town had a table, but we were eventually directed to an out-of-the-way biker bar, called Dante's. Wholehearted recommendations weren't forthcoming, but it was described by one guy as `safe'. Good enough, right?

In other news, having recovered from the `flu, I'm about to head to Ann Arbor to do some Serious Work. So the San Francisco installment of the road trip will probably be delayed a little while. I hope you all can cope.

Perhaps it'll help to hear that RH's long-term resistance to joining the Facebook has finally been broken! He, along with photos of our trip, may now be found there.

Continuing the vibe with The Band:

Song of the day (24)

Diary of a Trip (Part 3)

2008-03-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Day three of our road trip, Wednesday, saw us enter the promised land of California. The coast continued to be beautiful, as is its way, but after a recommendation in Crescent City we took a diversion inland to the Redwoods State Park. Here we are, surrounded by huge trees, and sitting on a dead one:

Fortunately, our evening destination was Fortuna. (Credit/responsibility for the puns goes mainly to MFM.) It was one of our quieter nights, but notable for the waitress in the Hunan Village, Fortuna's leading Chinese eaterie, where we walked in to be confronted by a girl with only one arm. An unusual career choice, you might think, but we went with it, and tried throughout our meal to set our facial expressions somewhere between indifference and admiration. ("Oh! You only have one arm. I'd never have noticed. But now you point it out, you're doing ever so well!")

The surprising thing was that later on in the evening, she grew another arm. I still don't know quite what the story was, but I used up a lot of pity that night and I want it back.

After Neil, it's only fair to have some CSN:

Song of the day (23)

Diary of a Trip (Part 2)

2008-03-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

Time for the second installment. Assuming there are more than just my two travel companions still reading (scream if you're having fun!), perhaps I should introduce us. Pictorially:

That's MFM on the left, myself on the right, RH centre and our Chevy Malibu LTV6 bringing up the rear.

You left us last time in Coos Bay, throwing away our fortunes in the local casino. Tuesday morning, we resolved never to gamble again and drove North---to the dunes. I'm not allowed to tell people in my department, but we were headed that way to ride ATVs. I mean, I hate idiots riding quad bikes along my hiking trail as much as the next hippy, but when you're riding dunes yourself it's actually kind of fun. Maybe too much fun. By the time my ATV broke down, we'd already sped a long way out of bounds, and were heavily fined for our efforts. (Apparently we were meant to notice a tiny post with a ribbon on it. Bastards.)

View Larger Map

Somehow, that little jaunt on the dunes cost us a lot more than the casino, but after (unsuccessfully) arguing the case with the owner, we recovered ourselves and headed South to Brookings. Here's an Oregon sunset along the way:

That night in the pub is a little hazy, but I do know there was a lot of jukeboxing, and I might have played some Neil Young:

Song of the day (22)

Diary of a Trip (Part 1)

2008-03-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

What follows is the chronicle of the first Annual Road Trip. Please love and cherish it.

View Larger Map

After a day of flight delays and non-existent supercooled rain on the East coast, KWAK (or RH as we shall call him from now on) arrived in Eugene on a sunny Saturday, a little like this one. The now-traditional Richmond Gimlet was followed by a cycle-ride into town to explore Eugene's legendary nightspots. We began with Nicole's kind hospitality at Rennie's, on campus, continuing with some Kwaks (yes! They drink them in Eugene) at the Bier Stein, cocktails at the Oak St Speakeasy and short drinks at the Horsehead. Ah yes, the evening turned out rather splendidly.

The Sunday morning was a little less splendid. Nevertheless, our gradual recovery was completed in time to welcome visitor No.2: MFM, driving down in his road-trip-impractical Miata from Seattle. That evening Allison and I took them up to the Whittaker, pretty much the hippy end of town, where RH was donated (but declined) perhaps the fattest spliff I've ever seen. If you find yourself in need of one, head that way and ask for Cuban Joe. He won't disappoint.

All of which shenaniging brings me to the true starting point of our trip: the Enterprise rental car-park on Monday morning. I was in MFM's Miata, hoping that nothing would go wrong. Of course, it did. As I was sitting in the car-park, one of the employees decided that her SUV was stronger than the Miata, and proved it by driving into me. An inauspicious start to a road trip, you'll agree, but it did mean that our chariot for the week was upgraded to be slightly less boring. Woo!

Courtesy of Google Maps, you may have spotted that we headed coastward from Enterprise, straight out to Florence. Chowder at the military-themed Moe's naturally led us to think about Supporting Our Troops, which, in as much as it has any meaning at all, seems fairly unobjectionable. But then, some people do tie that sentiment together with a lot of (perhaps less palatable) politics. Yes, politicians are sneaky---the first highbrow conclusion of the road trip.

On a Florence-derived recommendation we turned South to the ghost-town Bandon, and promptly aBandoned it for the hot-spot Coos Bay, our home for a night, where the residents were kind enough to let us spend our money on beer, pool and gambling. God Bless America!

We never ventured as far South as Ventura Highway, but nevertheless felt this was right for the road trip vibe:

Song of the day (21)

Just a great, great song.

Return of the KWAK

2008-02-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

My life so far in the US has consisted mainly of unicorns and puppies (or is it dancing girls and cocaine?), but this week two moderately frustrating events befell me.

The first thing to say is that I'm currently not paying tax. Shh! But actually it's all legit, as I'm on the UK-US tax treaty for two years. To benefit from this glorious arrangement one only has to fill in the appropriate form at the beginning of each calendar year. Shockingly, I was late this year, so I ended up paying tax for January. Me, late! I know! And now they won't give it back, so I must wait til 2009 to reclaim my precious dollars. Hmpf.

The second source of frustration: just as I'm about to obtain an Oregon driver's licence, they decide to change the rules on me. Not only do I now have to scrape together about 100 documents to prove I'm an upstanding resident of Oregon, but I also need to get a new licence each time I renew my visa. It's easier for a gypsy to get a licence than me. Maybe I'll become a gypsy.

Moaning now over, and on to the good news. KWAK, a long-time commenter here, and a friend since the age of four, is visiting me in Eugene next week. And we'll be joined by another expat, MFM, now resident in Seattle. What larks!

I apparently celebrated last year's V-day with an equation. This year I made the indiest card ever, and a passable dinner.

Cat Power: Song of the day (20)

Superbowl Won and Lost

2008-02-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

My first Superbowl on US soil turned out to be the most exciting one I've seen yet, with the New York Giants squeaking past the (previously unbeaten) New England Patriots in the last minute. A better game than last year, by a long way!

I even wanted the Giants to win, though mainly because it must suck to be a pro quarterback, only not as good as your brother. I think the NFL should engineer a sibling rivalry superbowl, next year. Right? Let's make it happen.

(I thought about using this picture from the half-time commercials, the inspiration for one of the funnier comments at our Superbowl party. But it wouldn't be fair on Eli.)

I'm about to reveal my guilty secret. Yes, it's...the return of Lost! The second episode aired last night, and it is highly exciting. I recommend you watch it.

And finally, time to reveal someone else's guilty secret.

Click on the song `Can't take this Away' to find out what Will Oldham has been hiding all these years....

Snow is all around!

2008-01-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

I've had two very snowy experiences, recently. Last weekend I took a last-minute trip to Mount Bachelor for some skiing, and returned intact. Is anyone impressed? There's proof:

Do I look like I know what I'm doing? In any case, I survived the slopes, which was nice. And even more excitingly...right now, it's snowing in Eugene! Here I am, earlier today. With a dog.

Can temperatures of 70F compete with snowflakes as big as this? I think not!

UPDATE 1/29/08: Normal service in Oregon -- rain -- is resumed!

I'm going to get back to the music at some point, but for now here's some more comedy. Mitch Hedberg kind of grabbed me with the opening line from this show, but I like the rest of it, too.

Coastal Walking

2008-01-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

Ah, the classic days of Cornish coastal walking. Up and down each of the seven sisters, popping into Boscastle to help with the mopping up, finding an unexpected level of sophistication on a drunken night out in Newquay. Fun.

Well, I haven't quite recreated those days here in Oregon, but with the Pacific coast nearby Allison and I have given it a good try. Here are some of the results:

The cute Lab is Logan. He belongs to Allison, but I think he quite likes me.

I've learned to watch TV since I've been over here, and this scene makes me laugh.

Next: skiing.

Fungal Grazing

2007-12-10T11:21:00.000-08:00

It's been five weeks since my last confession. But here I am, apostasy overcome.

What's the news, you may well ask? The latest is that I've just returned from a conference in the O.C., on extinction and biodiversity, where almost all the talks were very depressing. Apparently, we're in the midst of the sixth (or the fourth, depending on your counting) mass extinction in the history of life on Earth. Ugh. Every graph showed a downward trend.

In contrast, my own work has been progressing quite well. As far as I can tell, ecologists have not so far explored stochastic, spatially-explicit systems using the framework I intend to, but a lot of the machinery already exists in various corners of physics. Perhaps I should even write the (long awaited, much hyped) more technical description of my research interests sometime soon. Before all the species die out, and I have to switch fields again.

On my way back from the conference I paid a visit to San Francisco, where I had a brief meeting with H, who happened to be there between laundering, and then went to see Andrew Bird at the Warfield, with C. Unfortunately, my condition the next morning was a little delicate. (I'm not pregnant.)

There're a few other things that I've probably missed the appropriate opportunity to report. I gave thanks, for example. And have visited Portland---twice! Perhaps it's also newsworthy to say that I'm in general feeling quite at home here, which is nice. Of course, that feeling isn't enough to stop me visiting the UK, and I'll be back from the 22nd to the 1st!

Andrew Bird:

Song of the day (19)

Hallowing

2007-11-03T14:47:00.001-07:00

Obviously, Hallowe'en isn't a big deal in England. That much is obvious. I did go trick-or-treating one year, and I remember a woman shouting at us for offending Jesus. But here in America, not even the tightest part of the bible belt would reject Hallowe'en. It's just a national institution.

And the most important expression of the institution? Of course, it's the costume. An opportunity for the most conservative of women to dress in the skimpiest of clothing, and indeed an opportunity for your favourite physicist-turned-ecologist to get all craft-y.

The result? Pac-man! This shot probably doesn't do justice to the costume, but I think you can see that it was very yellow, and very unwieldy:

And yes, the look on my face is supposed to be frightening. It was Hallowe'en.

I've just heard a country version of the Smiths classic `What difference does it make', but can't find it online as yet. So that must wait, mesmerising as it is. In the meantime, how about some Port O'Brien?

Song of the day (18)

And I think I have to link to this amazing track from Karen Dalton. Apparently she was a big influence on the Dylan. Anyway, thanks to the girl whose surname is her username for passing it on to me.

Sandy Barbara

2007-10-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm writing having just returned from a lovely day trip to the Oregon coast. Clam chowder, Pacific waves, setting sun, more stars than you can shake a stick at. Basically, good.

The coastal visit followed a busy week, most of which was spent avoiding fires in Santa Barbara, while also unifying ecology with the help of some colleagues. Of course, we didn't succeed in the latter, but if we had then I'd have nothing to do for the rest of my postdoc. So maybe that's for the best. In any case, the meeting did give me some ideas for interesting research projects, and more importantly the chance to meet some huge ballers in the field.

The busy week was rounded off watching the Oregon Ducks at a sunny Autzen stadium, yesterday. It was pretty much an all-day affair, with tailgating starting at 9am or so and the game finishing up in the late afternoon. What's more, my first ever football game turns out to be the biggest game of the season so far, with Oregon squeezing past rivals USC 24-17, to climb to fourth in the national rankings. Go Ducks!

Anywhere, Anyone.

Song of the day (17)

Merc

2007-10-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

Two things that I have failed to do since arriving in Eugene are (1) buy a car and (2) become a hippy. On Friday I set myself on the road to resolving both of these issues at a party in `the Whittaker', the area of Eugene where drugs, dancing girls and alternative lifestyles abound. Also the area of town where my boss lives. Huh!

The party was hosted by Tony, apparently the man in the know when it comes to buying, selling and repairing classic Mercedes. And that's just the kind of car I've been keeping an eye out for. They last forever, look cool and if I want biodiesel Tony can "sort me out". I'll probably wait another few months before making a decision---but good to know this Mercedes heaven exists. Moreover, the party was balling.

Come on England!

Bibio. He's highly rated by Boards of Canada, and me.

Song of the day (16)

Moisture

2007-09-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

The rainy season has come to Eugene. It's pretty much like being at home, but I'd become used to sunshine in my first two months here. I suppose I'll survive, but the famous balcony is less hospitable than it used to be, and I think I'll have to stop wearing flipflops.

As if to compound the disappointment of the rainy-ness, I watched yesterday as the mighty Oregon Ducks suffered an agonising defeat in the football. Yes, football---I call it that, now. Sue me.

Despite these minor setbacks, I'm feeling very cheerful, if a little under the weather. Ray Charles explains:

Song of the day (15)

The Retreat

2007-09-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend saw me lose valuable blogging time, as along with the rest of CEEB I retreated to Lost Valley, a commune just outside of Eugene. Yes, the rumours are true: we did have to stand in a circle holding hands and singing before our meals. But what's wrong with that, I ask you?

Obviously these bonding sessions have the potential to be excruciatingly tedious; I probably need only mention the poster session and the getting-to-know-you game, to give you some idea. But it was all surprisingly fun. Jessica (my boss) decided that our lab poster should make an impact, so we went all multimedia and stuff. And the getting-to-know-you game was pretty good for...getting to know people. What a turn up.

The remainder of the weekend looks to be taken up with two shows. Tomorrow I'm seeing Bright Eyes accompanied by my new friend, AA, and tonight it's Black Moth Super Rainbow...perhaps this will give you some idea:

Song of the day (14)

UPDATE: check out our lab's poster/video

SECOND UPDATE: apparently the video is storming the science blogosphere, here and here and here so far. Hmmm.

The Celebration

2007-09-10T11:48:00.001-07:00

So, another week goes by in my American odyssey. It's almost like I live here, now.

This weekend, downtown Eugene was taken over by the Eugene Celebration. Celebrating precisely what, I'm not certain, but it's a good excuse to listen to a lot of free, live music, fuelled by a lot of food and drink, surrounded by a lot of hippies. I spent one night there with my lovely office-mates, and the next night with some undergrads I met a few weeks ago, two of whom were on E (not the person).

I think the only low point was when I managed somehow to spill curry on the inside of one of said hippies' shoes, while he was wearing them. He was keen for me to make it up to him by swapping shoes, until he saw mine.

In other news, my accent, for all its charms in certain quarters, continues to be a source of confusion in others. Particularly in my local supermarket. While excellent food stores do exist in Eugene, my local Red Apple, apparently staffed and patronised by extras from Deliverance, is not one of them.

It's fine for basics, but asking for something as recherche as tomato puree met only with confused stares. Naturally thinking that the more words I produced the better chance I had of being understood, I continued to describe tomato puree in various terms until the checkout girl said: "Oh...you mean...tomAYdo. In a...tube? No. No, we don't have that."

Ah well, I guess you can't have everything.

I thought I'd have to wait til Christmas to play a Low song, but it seems I've reached the point earlier than expected. Lovely song.

Song of the day (13)

14+7+4+2+1

2007-09-02T22:34:00.001-07:00

The observant amongst you will have noticed that my birthday passed by, this week. Woo.

It was an odd birthday. I suppose I don't like to celebrate too enthusiastically unless I'm around all my close friends, which I wasn't this year. Why is that? It's like I want it to be perfect, or something, and if it isn't I'd rather not bother at all.

In the event, there was some celebration. The new office-mates, Jess Jr and Helene, baked me a cake, and people assembled to surprise me with a rousing rendition of the usual song. So that was fun. And afterwards, the girls took me climbing. Not my first choice of celebration, but given the unusual circumstances, it really made a crazy kind of sense.

Low fidelity, high quality.
Song of the day (12)

Aloft

2007-08-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

Sup homies. I report to you from my new room. The first thing to say is that I now have a bed:

This is great, but it meant I needed to buy an alarm clock. Why? Sleeping on the air mattress in my previous abode, I found myself naturally waking at 6am, then drifting in and out of a fitful sleep for a further couple of hours til I could bring myself to ride into work. My first night here I found that when I sleep in a proper bed, I just sleep. Hence the alarm clock, which you can see in all its glory by the bed.

The second thing to say is that I have a private decking area. It's highly exciting, and comes complete with cat:

Oh, and finally, I need some advice. Richard, my housemate, kindly donated this present hanging on my curtain rail:

Should I leave it there as a talking point for visitors, or should I go (almost) native and hoist it aloft over my decking area, for passers-by to salute? I think the latter.

Song of the day (11)

Once

2007-08-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

It's official: I like musicals. Or at least, this one, recommended to me by a friend.

I still need a little more time to digest the film fully, but I liked it. A lot. You really should check it out.

Songs from Once:

Song of the day (10a)

Song of the day (10b)

Everyone is asking: who is KWAK?

2007-08-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

But maybe we'll never know.

On to the news, which is that I now have a place to live here in lovely Eugene. Well, almost...I'll be moving in there next week. Given that I was going to share a place, I decided to aim for the other extreme to John K, the philosophizing carpenter/artist/writer.

The summary is that I'll be living in a very posh condo with two cats and a banker, and I think those regular sleeping patterns will be all the better for it. Probably the banker won't be as fun as John K, but hey---when we were kids we learned how to make our own fun.

Is it just me? Or is it kind of funny that in a town known for its recreational drug use, the student union is called the Erb? Apparently the coincidence is unintentional.

It's that Cat Power again.

Song of the day (9)

I want to hold the hand inside you

2007-08-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

My nomadic existence continues. I am now staying in the house of a graduate student in my research group---considerably further out of town than the first place, though again it's a temporary home. Where will I go next? A very interesting question.

It turns out that E, who lives above the flat where I spent the first week, is planning to move back to San Francisco next month. This fact E revealed to me when we first met, and I thought it might work to spend a month living down here in the second place, and then move back to take over her lease. However, it seems possible now she's having doubts about leaving, and after hanging with her quite a bit, I wouldn't object to the change of plan.

What a dilemma! Do I want to maintain a new friend, or do I want a place to live?

Song of the day (8)

Supernice

2007-08-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day in work, and my first opportunity to meet the new boss, Jess, in person. Not much work got done, but I had a useful chat with her about what I'd do to get started. And we are arranging group meetings, where eventually I'll have to start saying something useful. Meh.

Perhaps over and above the call of duty, she then invited me over to her house for dinner. So this evening I cycled to her part of town, `the Whittaker', met the husband (Steve, an artist) and kids (small and a little crazy) and ate pizza and drank beer. After dinner she took me on a walking tour of the Whittaker.

All of that was very nice of her, I thought.

Song of the day (7)

The Mogwai take on cycling.

Place to be

2007-08-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's what I'm looking for. Yesterday I went to meet John K, who is looking to rent out a room. He's 30, has just finished a philosophy PhD at UofO, and is switching fields, like me, only to something more practical: carpentry. I think he's a little fed up of being in academia, and seems to be interested in painting and scultpure in addition to the woodwork. He's also into cooking, drinking, smoking every day at 4:20 and just straight chilling.

So what are my reservations? Well, mainly that the distractions that make living there attractive may also be detractive, as far as my work is concerned. I don't know how my job will work out, but I want my working life and social life to be equally balanced. Other reservations are that the place is pretty shabby at the moment, and also that, according to John, two permanently-sozzled homeless people live right beside the house. But perhaps that's just the Eugene way.

Anyway, I'm going to think about it for a few days, and see what else turns up.

After seeing John's place, I decided to hit Rennie's again for some food and conversation. I heard quite a bit more about the Eugene music scene from a Missouri student, here for the Summer to fight wild-fires in the Oregon forests. It sounds pretty crazy, and apparently I'm going to check out a `jug' band at Tiny's bar, on Thursday.

You're expecting Nick Drake, but you get Bruce Lee. It happens all the time.

Song of the day (6)

Rennie's

2007-08-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

No, not the popular flatulence and indigestion relief, but rather the bar. And it's quite a nice bar. The kind of place where a cheeky pint and bite to eat turns into an extended session on Oregon microbrews with friendly locals. My quest to win hearts and minds in Eugene is underway!

This was all last night, and by the time I made it to Rennie's, it'd already been a successful day. I cycled on my Marin hybrid along the riverside path (above) to the mall, and added a mobile phone to my bike on the list of purchases so far. All this consuming---I feel so decadent! But it's the American way and I must comply.

Joan Wasser is a former girlfriend of Jeff Buckley, not to mention a former singer in Rufus Wainwright's band. I think this album has its moments:

Song of the day (5)

Good Cheer

2007-08-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

I'm currently staying at a place a few blocks East of UofO, and downtown Eugene is on the other side. On my inaugural walk through the campus, one of the first things I saw was cheerleading practice. Truly, a sight designed to make the weary traveller feel welcome and at his ease. The cheerleaders formed a kind of human pyramid and then jumped down and shouted `hey!' or something. It was cool.

I then resolved to buy a bicycle. Having googled the locations of various cycling shops, I had a kind of travelling salesman problem, and my solution was sufficiently inefficient that I saw plenty of Eugene. It was a fun day, though of course no-one understands me when I first start speaking.

Go ducks! Um.

Song of the day (4)

Landed

2007-08-04T00:47:00.000-07:00

Well, after 27.5 hours of being awake, this may not be the most lucid post ever. Whatever. I'm here, and that's what counts.

My impressions of Eugene so far? Dark, mainly. But I have had yet more reports of the place during my travels. In LA, the immigration officer - the immigration officer! - told me she went to school at UofO, and that Eugene was the only town she knew of where people smoke pot in the cinema. The immigration officer!

I guess it could've been an evil plan to ensnare me into confessions of illicit drug use. I don't think so, but in any case I just told her she shouldn't be talking about that kind of thing as she was a responsible person, now. She agreed with me and said she'd been too modern for that, anyway. Whatever that means. Was pot too old-fashioned and she was sucking on a crack pipe in the cinema? What kind of town is this?

Anyway, I am now safely ensconced in the bed of one of my new colleagues. She is away, at a conference. If I wake up tomorrow, I shall let you know what Eugene is like. The real Eugene. The one they don't want you to hear about. The Eug

UPDATE: I'm now awake, but before I go out and explore Eugene in anger, it's time for the SOTD. I think Elliott Smith must be the most famous Oregonian pop star, and this is from my favourite album:

Song of the day (3)

Cambridge isn't even that beautiful when it rains

2007-08-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was yet another day of goodbyes. The examiners approved my thesis corrections, and so it was time to head to Cambridge to hard-bind N copies of the final draft into a book format that very few people will ever read. And that's what makes it all worth it.

It was also the right time to clear my desk, and say goodbye to people in the department. Kind of a weird feeling, having been in that office so long. Once David has also moved out, will B0:40 ever be the same again? Some young tyros will move in, almost certainly taking down the montage we've painstakingly assembled on the notice-board: the rustic swingometer; the twinings tea relief; the David Mitchell photo; the completed Spectator crosswords; `Gary Gibbons: the Musical'. I could go on, for a long time.

Yes, the B0:40 vibe will undoubtedly be different in the future. But it won't match the halcyon days of 2004, when David and I were voted to be two of the three funniest people in the research group. Crazy days. Crazy, crazy days.

After sweating like a wild beast to transport my books, files and papers to the car, it was a swift drive back to Croydon to meet the newest member of the O'Donovan brood: Bethan. She is very beautiful. And Andy even seems to be a promising father. He's got the skills. When they say girls look for guys with skills, I guess being able to look after a baby is the fundamental one, in a sense. And he's got it sorted.

It was lucky for me that Bethan was born early, so that I could say goodbye to her, too. I don't think she understood, but even so.

So, I guess I should get back to the final throes of the packing. I shall blog from the other side. In the meantime, here is a fitting PJ Harvey song:

Song of the day (2)

Goodbye and Good Luck

2007-07-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

So read the message on the blackboard as I left the Beer Circus today.

There was nothing major this evening (apart from my tab, which needed to be settled for the final time). Just a cheeky half after my shopping expedition with M. It could be the last cheeky half I'll ever drink there though, as Graeme is selling up in the next couple of months. What did I say about a time of change?

At least my memories of it will continue for a little longer, in the form of the St Bernardus Abt and Bush Ambree they gave me to enjoy in Oregon. So long as beer doesn't explode in hold luggage.

Song of the day (1)

Songs: Ohia begin the second volume. Melancholy, sure, but does hope spring eternal? I like to think so.

The New World

2007-07-30T05:05:00.000-07:00

You made it? Excellent. To make things completely clear, this is my new blog. It's intended to document the move to Oregon, and my life there.

As I said at the beginning of my days in the wake, I can't promise that this blog will last long, the posts will be at all frequent or indeed that any of it won't be shit. But nevertheless, I shall persist for the time being.