So many things...

Hello all.

It's done. Well, a readable draft is done. Well, I say readable...

My thesis.

Chloe can maybe print a copy and give it to Ed (if Chloe has the time, which given the last time I saw her she had been at work until 2am the previous night may be doubtful), who has experience with lengthy dry texts on silly subjects.

Adam can mistake it for some concrete poetry.

Tom will have to wait until the 28th, whereupon I will descend on London with a copy, and we can both drink whisky and discuss how it's really, when you get down to it, a lot like Lit. Theory. And then fall over.

Will can... well, you get the idea. I don't expect anyone to read it. But have a look at it, if only to appreciate the size. And the pretty pictures. And the number of glaring grammatical errors that it will be my job to excise from the document in the coming weeks.

In those coming weeks (well, week) I will be absent from these Isles; I have a workshop in Dresden again (and another shot at that Cheese shop, plus the newly restored Frauenkirche), and after that in Bern (or Berne, if you'r feeling Germanic), where I have a job interview of sorts. Yes, I may well be joining the ranks of the expat. On the other hand, I've also applied for a job in Birmingham. Failing that, I suppose I could always reprise my guesting role as MC Kinley with the newly reformed Absinthe, although their new acoustic sound might not quite match my vocal stylings...

Either way, it seems likely that in the next few months I will be leaving Bath, and to that end, I would like to invite those in the country to a birthday shindig. Keep the 27th of January free, if you can. The plan is for much wine and cheese. Rest assured that if I leave the country on a (semi-)permanent basis I will also come to London for a hoohah.

That's enough about me. How are you?

The return of Mathcore

In a continuation of my obsession with stupid music, I present proof theory --- an American grunge metal band.

Not to be confused with proof theory --- a thing I do...

Sufjan Stevens Christmas Album

I think this will go down well; since tomorrow is the beginning of advent I feel fine posting it

Sufjan Stevens Christmas Albums (via Metafilter)

A disturbing tale

If you haven't seen this, I won't spoil the genre meshing; Tom, this one's for you in particular...A halloween story

A History of Viggo

Have you seen a History of Violence? I hope you have, and if not see it; it's very good.

However, This is Howard Shore's theme for the main character(Realplayer file, via Amazon). Does Mortensen insist on a flute theme?

Mariners; their Rimes and Revenge songs

I've finally got around to listening to the Decemberists properly; while I initially agreed that they sound a bit nasal, in the end I was won over by such wonderful songs as "The Mariner's revenge song". Alas, not available online, but I do recommend 16 Military wives.

At 8 minutes, 33 seconds long, "The Mariner's revenge song" is the second longest song about Mariners that I know. This is the longest, courtesy of the Maiden, at 13 and a half minutes. This is a video of the live* version. That means that people went to a concert, and they played it. Including the creaking ship sound effects and the Coleridge voiceover.

In other maiden news, apparently They did follow him to India, regardless of how "tired by the combat, pain and the glory they were.

People less concerned with dubious metal; and more with the semantics of classical proof theory will be glad to hear that the thesis proceeds apace...


P.S. By the way, did we really miss the song about Dune?:

"He is the Kwizatz Haderach.
He is born of Caladan
And will take the Gom Jabbar"

*I don't mean a live video feed, but a video recording of a live performance. When Bruce Dickinson has to perform any works live on the net to support his fencing habit, we'll know he's fallen on hard times, but the Rime live 24 hours a day? That would be one desperate man.

The Shining

As presented by Hollywood, today:
Shining Redux
(via Metafilter)

Ugh

Photo-0057
Originally uploaded by Omission.

A void musical...

I had a thought in't north, with Will, that a particular book of P*r*c's might form a good musical. Avoiding an obvious pitch would cast it in syzygy with said work's raison d'-- you know. Not that i know this work, but Tom and Richard say good things...

I don't know if any of you did try this at all , but it's bloody difficult.

Placeholder

Tom has chastised me for keeping silent, so here is a cobbled together mid-thesis post:

Agony: Mrs. Omission brings home a notice she wrote for work and it was written in the forbidden typeface. I suitably chastised her.

Gypsy whimsy: Mrs. O. makes up for this with a great story about a gypsy who came to the door to try to sell "enchanted gyspy stones", which turned out to be marbles.

Organic goodness: Went to the Organic Food Festival in Bristol. Decided not to buy an Ox-tongue, purely because it was very hot that day and I doubted being able to get it home on time. Instead I bought lots of vegetables, including tomatillos (small green mexican tomatolike things of goodness).

Well, back to the grindstone. I should be able to post my progress so far in a couple of days --- I know how much you all enjoy reading my academic outpourings.

I am so Mathcore.

About typeface

A subject close to lots of people's hearts, this:ban Comic Sans.

Mathrock!

Clearly my blogging goes through some kind of cycle: even though there are exciting food-related things going on in my life at the moment, I feel much more inclined to talk about music:

First up though: I spent an excellent few days in Belfast, partly with Will and partly at a wedding. In particular, we spent a fine evening getting drunk and listening to the Rundgren. Belfast is a fine city, and home to the UK's finest coffee :Clement's.

But, onto music. First of all, a fantastic track by Tom Waits that can be downloaded
from the web: Step right up

Secondly, Tuva's premiere throat singing rock band, Yat Kha - listen to their cover of "LOve will tear us apart" and weep.

Thirdly, I have discovered the genre "Math rock", typified by odd time-signatures and dissonant harmonies. Don Caballero is math rock, apparently. It's all a bit shit, but I'm finding some gems. Not sure if I'll be drunk enough in the near future to try "Mathcore" though.

I might start referring to myself as Mathcore...

The world of writing up...

...involves more Diagnosis Murder than you'd expect.

This episode, which I'm watching with one eye as we speak, costars Robert Vaughn, and has Patrick Macnee as a guest. Very odd...

Roquette/Rocket/arugala

Waitrose are my supermarket of choice --- I know that sends certain people into spasms of antismugness, but it's an addiction I can't shake.

Nevertheless, they are very silly. They've taken to calling rocket "roquette", a doubly absurd affectation when you consider that rocket is an english salad with a very long history of being eaten in england.

This advert makes it all better. It's the one where people wave salad at each other and sing, and if you haven't seen it, do.

Burgermeister

Sorry for the extended leave of absence --- I'm sure you've all managed to get by...

So, I AM the burgermeister. After visting the Port of Call in New Orleans, and having my burger rare, I couldn't not buy a mincer and make my own burgers. Armed with some braising steak from the farmer's market (aged to perfection), I rediscovered alchemy, turning meat that needs two hours to cook into a burger that took ten minutes, and was sublime.

I guess you had to be here.

Finished the talk

Phew!

Now I just have to deliver it.

Arse.

Bem Vindo a Omission Statement

Ah yes. The only Portuguese I know, and I learned that that from Nando's. Sorry for the lack of posts, and I promise a full series of cruise and Nworlins posts forthwith, but at the moment I'm more concerned with my current situation; I'm in Lisbon, I'm giving a talk tomorrow at 11;15, AND IT ISN'T FINISHED YET (sometimes accidentally pressing caps lock is just so right...)

Fuuuuuck.

I'm too tired - still suffering from jet lag, as my return from the states was delayed by two days. That also accounts for why I didn't plan this talk days ago.

Aaaarse.

They say Lisbon is easy to fall in love with. That remains to be seen. What I do know is that I had a very nice grilled Dorade and a couple of beers for dinner, and that espresso is ridiclously cheap. In fact, at my hotel it's free.

I'm going to bed, so I can get up early and finish the talk. Wish me luck...

New Orleans and the cruise experience

Hi folks

Quick post now - I'm using precious access time. I will compose other posts offline and upload them later.

Chicago with Tom was a blast - the conference less so.

Louisiana is, Tom, hotter and more humid than Chicago. I ate much gumbo, and also
a fine pig's tail and cabbage (of which more later).

Cruise is made entirely of cheese. Crazy crazy. Of which more later.

Peace out people. Be excellent to each other.

Snack time

Conference food is variable. At snacktimes, doubly so. Sometimes it's just complimentary biscuits and coffee, and other times there's fruit too.

Typically, America is different. They like to give people food, as Tom observed today "to assuage the guilt of the low wages" --- I paraphrase.

A trolley has arrives, containing packets of crisps, and M&Ms, and kit-kats, and skittles, and starbursts for the love of god, and two big ice-and-soda-bottle-filled trays, and tray of cookies and brownies, and now the food lady has gone, I can only think she's gone to get pizza, or a fatted calf. Made of candy.

I, on the other hand, had mutton biryani and smoked brisket inna bun for lunch. Very nice.

Pimms taskforce

We have arrived in Chicago, and I speak to you from the conference venue's very generously provided wireless internet connection. Even more generous ha been Tom, who cooked a great vegetable lasagne for us last night. Lunch today is going to be courtesy of the Taste of Chicago festival I'll speak more of this after lunch.

On Homophony and other such things

This is a fun game, suggested by Harry, and one round has been played by Will and won by Chrispin.

(Now, bear in mind that this game is too easy when played with New Zealanders, who only have one vowel.)

The game can also be played with Californians, and indeed when one is married to a So-Cal girl it is less of a game and more of a bothersome inevitability.

However:
1) A girl's name
2) a verb, meaning to join
3) an adjective, meaning happy and often applied to holidays and widows.

I'm leaving the country tomorrow, but fear not, for I shall have internet access, and I will probably post more frequently. My first port of call is the Windy City. I'm not sure what is is that winds so much, perhaps it's the streets. I do know that it's de rigeur to ramble whilst there, which klends support to my hypothesis.

The Best Lionel --- punditry

I have been encouraged, nay, exhorted, to pick a side in The Best Lionel survey. I'm faced with a quandry. You see, Chris really was my favourite Morris, but My Favourite Lionel is Blue, (most definitely not the UK's first openly gay rabbit). He's not on the list.

So, reluctantly, I say "Vote L-Train!"

Separated at birth?

Not wishing to trivialise a major news story of last week, but...


Deep Throat, aka Mark Felt


Max Zorin, aka Christoper Walken
Of course, if they were separated at birth, Walken would have also been frozen,
to account for the age gap...

Chippenham Folk Festival and offal burgers.

Made it to the last day of a local Folk festival
on Monday, and didn't have time to mention it until now. Having voted for my favourite Morris in spiritofthetin's survey, It was fun to see a parade of local morris men, but I think my vote of "Chris" was the correct one.

The music was fun --- the stalls less so. With the exception of a great musical instruments tent (replete with drums and electric fiddles) and a leather stall, where I bought myself a money sack (in the spirit of "here is a purse of monies, which I am not going to give to you"), everything was new-agey crystals and second hand hippy-garb. Is this in general true? Will I have to put up with this claptrap when all I want is a foaming flagon of nut brown ale, a rustic foodstuff, and a browse of the merkin stall?

One final plus, which brings me comforatbly out of this extended foray into music blogging and back to more familiar epicurian territory. I had a burger from a local fast food institution, and the burgers contained "17% beef hearts". Heart burgers and Nando's infamous Bucket O' Liver suggest to me that fast offal is a growth industry. Invest now!

Deeeeeead! dead dead dead dead dead!

Last.fm just played "The man who went hunting" from Shock Headed Peter for me. Superb.

I am stuck in my miserable office, typesetting model answers for ungrateful, rude, miserable underachievers. Grrrr....

Omission101 @ Last.FM

Presenting Radio Omission.

Last.Fm learns what songs you like, and plays you songs from the playlists of people with similar tastes. I stumbled upon it looking for the Decemberists (it's played several of their tracks for me, and they are great, Tom).

I have discovered a band called "Architecture in Helsinki" that I think I could grow to like. Similar sounds to some of the poppier Stephin Merritt.

In case anyone missed this

League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse - not a trailer, but a five minute piece of the film.

And the results of Liam Gallagher's attempts to grow his sideburns so they meet under his chin? Close, but no cigar.

Backstreet's back. Alright? Well, no.

Um, Charlotte Church. Wasn't bad. Disturbingly, she reminded me of Tina Turner.

And the Black Eyed Peas. They're not bad.

Enjoyed the Kaiser Chiefs. They were quite good.

Omission on pop. Oh Yes

In lieu of the Eurovisionfest, here are my pronouncements on Top of the Pops.

As we boogied away last week, who knew that
Yes are cool again. Eh?
Very odd to see a whole band pretend to play "Owner of lonely heart.". I wonder if they do Journey to the centre of the Earth as an encore?

Success!

Those following my academic career will no doubt be glad to know that, after two sucessive failures, my paper has finally been accepted at a workshop. So now I'm going to Lisbon. Hurrah.

Mostly, it's been lovely to see people I haven't seen for a long time over the last couple of weeks. Hello. However, I would like to point out (particularly to those of an simian disposition that there has not been, for some time, a culinary post on this blog. And the last time I did mention food, it was to a) Invite people to partake, b)a comment on how long it took, and c) very much in passing. I resent the insinuation that I'm a one trick pony.

So there.

Eurovision semi finale

Watching now. It's the Irish entry. They want to win like they want nuclear waste.

Norway rock! Wig wag sound like not only the nineties but also the eighties never happened.

Eurovision preview

Saturday night is eurovision. Since a certain big player on the international stage is probably sick of Europe by now, I'm taking the precaution of videoing the big night so I can enjoy it at leisure.

Seriously poor rhyme seems to be the order of the day: Bulgaria's Kaffe can "still remember Lorraine in the rain", and I can do no better than reproduce the first verse of Nuno Resende's "Le grande soir":

Ce soir, tous ces regards
Là dans le noir
La peur et l’espoir
Ce soir, il n’est pas trop tard
de croire
Aux rêves de gloire
Ce soir, une lumière, dans un éclair, changer d’histoire

Very powerful, I'm sure you'll agree. The use of "avoir" in the third verse is in particular touching.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter B&H) have gone all meta- on us, with a song about Eurovision. Quite how they portray that on stage should be a treat.

Finland's Geir Rönning is a champion of the amateur philosoph, bellowing "Why?" and asking "Will we ever find the answer?" He isn't too aloof, however, to end the first thee lines of his song with, repectively, "burning", "yearning" and "returning". Perhaps the question he is considering is "What does Boris from Croatia mean when he says 'I am like leaves carried by the wind
Wolves die alone'?"

"My persistence is outrageous
You'll be mine cause I'm contagious" - That's Cypriot men for you...

Greece answers "You're delicious
So capricious
If I find out you don’t want me I'll be vicious" Gosh. So they'll
be giving each other the full twelve points then.


My favourite so far is Austria, who sing a trumpet filled song about a girl from cuba who falls for a yodelling austrian.

Boris is the law!

According to Fox News, Boris Johnson is a "Conservative lawmaker".

Can someone name me a law that good old Boris has made?

Quis exterminet ipsos extermines

Or something like that.

So, the Dalek epsisode that Terry nation's estate didn't want. Well, the one they wanted lots of money for.

Brill. Fantastic.

Somehow one dalek is seriously scarier than lots. You believed it could have killed everyone on earth. Or I did. And finally we find out what all those balls on the lower portions of a dalek are for.

When he loses the election, I bet he blames it on the gypsies

My favourite bit: Michael Howard is asked how he can place limits on immigration when Scotland wants economic migrants. He replies that yes, he's aware of that and that the problem is caused by young people leaving Scotland because Engalnd and Wales are more prosperous. He then caimed that this was because of the large amount of immigration in England and Wales.

So wait. England is prosperous because of immigrants. Immigrants that Howard wants to limit.

Uh?

Eminem vs. Tv themes

Genius,
if only for the bit where they do The Bill (which, unlike the other themes, is in 7/4, yet is seamless).

A moving message

We're probably moving. Apologies to anyone who'll miss our spooky cellar and big living room, but we're tired of playing at the 1930s. And our landlady has gone gaga - apparently it's outrageous to expect hot water in the kitchen, or electricians who take less than two weeks to wire in your hot water boiler. Mental.

It's not listed (as far as I'm aware), and doesn't have a cellar, but our new flat used to be a fish and chip shop*. Oh yes, and it has hot running water in the kitchen. Come and visit, and I'll cook you fish and chips. And I promise it won't take three hours like it did last time.

*No actual equipment left, but the counter's still there, giving the flat a trendy kitchen bar.

Morris

I should come out and say that, much like Tom, I have been watching lots of Morris recently; I should make it clear that I was not berating but congratulating him when I noticed his use of the phrase "a special gun" in an earlier post.

I haven't shelled out for the Day Today yet, so I have to make do with Jam and Brasseye. The shows are clearly brilliant. But the special feature on Jam deserve mention. This is but one of many.

If you select "Play All", unlike on most DVDs you are given three choices:

Play all once: what you'd expect;
Play all at once: the first frames of the six episodes all appear on screen, followed by a big red "WHY?", to the old Thames TV ident tune;
Forced viewing: plays all the episodes back to back forever until you eject the DVD.

Bizarre. Made me slightly queasy and scared, like when I first found tragibutes (now sadly gone) or the Blue Jam
site.

Missing: presumed playing GTA

Regular readers will know that the user known as "uberpause", real name Christobald Ketch, has contributed much in the way of comments and well wishes on this blog.

Following a mysterious message on his blog, Chris has been uncontactable. The only clue was a message I recieved via encrypted email this evening: it contained only this photo:



Who is this girl? Is it perhaps his boyservant Pip dressed as a lady? Can you help? Have you seen them?

Thank you. And please, don't have nightmares.

All quiet on the blogging front

Apparently it isn't the done thing to update one's blog at the moment; I shall fly in the face of fashion.

Tomorrow we head off to Paris for our wedding anniversary: it's a little late to ask for recommendations, but tell me where we should have gone.

Americaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Ok, so I've seen this in a few places but you might have missed it. It's a touching song about the best country in the world.

Corned beef hash

Well worth waiting for.

Mmmmmmmmm.....

The cure

Corned beef was boiled and eaten yesterday - for those who don't know Irish/american corned beef is a world apart from the cheap Argentine mush we get over here. Tom is right when he says that this beautiful and thrifty dish is sublime, and I'm looking forward to his corned beef hash recipe.

In filmic news, I have eschewed the lure of mainstream twice this week, taking in Pieces of April (music by the god-like Stephin Merritt) and the achingly-long but visually stunning Il Gattopardo . Both recommended,
but for god's sake watch Il Gattopardo on a lazy sunday afternoon, and not at night when your wife is liable to fall asleep or complain all the way through the last half an hour.

Also, I have a new website.

Bellow!

In light of the previous post's comment, I shy away from mentioning the folk in this blog, for fear of rousing the anger of that notorious Chicago hitman, the "Filleter"; the nexus of fiddles and offal being his niche.

However, today's events must not pass without comment. I promise not to mention graphic novels or the pope.

My evening's amusements (I downloaded the demo of Half-life 2, which is frankly scary in both technical aspects and atmosphere) were interrupted by a red haired lass whose aquaintance I had never made. She introduced herself as the manager of Bellowhead, and announced that since she only lived at No. 1 on my street, she thought she'd pop the Bellowhead E.P. I'd ordered around herself and refund me the £1.50 postage I'd paid.

Now *that's* customer service.

Adventures in the culinary arts

I'd say I don't want this to turn into a culinary blog, but I'd be lying. Especially if every day is as crazy and good as today...

So, ok, my breakfast wasn't crazy (although it was toast made from bread from
Hobbs House Bakery). And my lunch
was from Cafe Nero (they do the best readily-available italian sandwiches I am aware of in the UK. Parma ham and marscapone. mmmmm).

so, to the evening. My vegetable box arrived this morning, with my long awaited purple sprouting broccoli. Steamed and eaten with butter the moment I got home.

Better yet, I am currently corning my brisket and (in an unplanned double induction to curing) baconing my first pork belly (they were on offer, as they often are, at Waitrose). It'll be a good five days until I know if it's a success.

But my biggest surprise yet today - a tray of squid that Mary bought while I was at work - heads and guts and all. Pan-fried for all of a minute with olive oil, parsley and lime (a la Nigel Slater). Gosh

The easter bunny

Lately, I've been exploring the wonders of Bath farmers' market. The week before easter I bought a fantastic leg of organic lamb (at a fantastic price), and from it we ate roast lamb and some wonderful shepherd's pie.

For easter, since we had already explored the lamb angle, we decided to buy a rabbit. The cooking of the rabbit stew was a slight mishap (rabbit *does*, as people warn you, have a tendency to be dry, although it was very tasty), but the prize of the deal was that the rabbit came with heart, liver and kidneys attached. Eaten this evening pan-fried with a leafy salad. Delicious!

Die Aussparung auf Deutschland, Kapitel 1: Aussparung ist unheimlich Dummkopf

So, I am in Dresden, on a workshop whose aim is to banish bureacracy in proof theory.

This has largely been an excercise in me humiliating myself with poorly remembered german, until mid-morning, when the actual academic stuff began.

So far Dresden is not the hole I was led to believe it was (it is, for example, infinitely preferable from an architectural point of view to Turku, Finland), but my experience food-wise has been variable. I did find a shop selling organic bratwurst(also blutwurst), so only best before dates and prudence can limit how much of that I bring back. Canteen food is, naturally, dreadful.

But one of my hosts handed me a tourist leaflet containing the only thing you'll ever need to know, gastronomically, about Saxony.

I give you Pfund's Molkerei, *the world's largest cheese shop*.

www.pfunds.de/sprachen/eng/eng_index.html

Bis Bald,

Aussparung (Omission)

When Lions Roared ; Grrrr!

Out shopping yesterday with Mary, I picked up two absolute bargains at an aptly named bargain book store. Except they weren't books.

First off, I picked up a video of Coogan's Run, for the princely sum of £1.49. Secondly, a copy of Then There Were Giants ( otherwise known as World War II: When Lions Roared (1994) (TV)). This bemused me from the beginning. Which is least likely:

Michael Caine .... Joseph Stalin
Bob Hoskins .... Winston Churchill
John Lithgow .... Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I'll post about it again when I've actually watched it...

My paper

My first academic paper; wow.

Obscure vault - yuk! (7)

Slightly Telegraph in tone, but I thought my readership would enjoy: From Our Own Correspondent: Why cryptic crosswords are civilisation.

Weston Hypermare

I strongly recommend that you listen to Nebulous,
starring Mark Gatiss - 'tis very funny.

Russian mistranslation redux

Since a certain Mr Perrin enjoyed the last installment so much, I shall recount my other tale of mistranslation:

In the days before Babelfish, the Russians attempted to build a computer program to translate American engineering papers. Their attempt foundered, since the system systematically rendered "Hydraulic Ram" as "Water Sheep".