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This page represents only my own views, and not those of any university or other body. Posted Tuesday 18th September 2012 at 3.44pm Speed graphic Ben Folds Five's new album is out today! Here's a review that I largely agree with. One line, One of BFF’s greatest legacies was to have excavated the piano as the rock instrument that it both can be and should be. reminded me of one of my favourite descriptions of BFF's debut, from The war on silence: Tori Amos plays the piano like her nerves are woven into the strings, and that's remarkable, but Ben Folds plays the piano like it's a six-month-old puppy on speed that he's somehow trained to jump ninety feet straight up in the air to catch the frisbees of the gods, and that's remarkable in another way. Tori's playing is Expressiveness, while Folds' piano sounds like the hyperactive Muse of Melody, come to Earth to remind us what the word "frolic" was invented for, perhaps because the other Muses were about ready to strangle her. It doesn't even sound like he's actually playing the music; it doesn't seem like he could. The piano must be generating it itself, and Folds is just shaping and directing by pounding on the soundboard and flailing inspiringly at the sides of the thing. New album: Old school: 0 comments Posted Thursday 13th September 2012 at 10.40pm Finally Twigged At last! A sensible article about the GCSE English exam grades fiasco! Here's the main point: "I do believe in tackling grade inflation... in a planned and coherent way. Michael Gove must be able to understand there is a difference between ensuring rigour in a planned way, and changing the rules after exams have been set. The education secretary has said he feels 'sympathy' or 'sadness' for what has happened to pupils. But he has refused to act." The problem is, regrading will take too long, and an independent inquiry will take way too long. In fact it's already been too long. This is one of the problems with the current system. Grades are announced in August, and the new school year starts in early September. There's no time for anyone to launch alternative procedures if anything goes wrong. The best case scenario now is that a load of kids are held back a year. 0 comments Posted Wednesday 5th September 2012 at 12.27pm Gordo II: The return of Gordo How does "Britain's most popular prime minister in 15 years" suit you, Mr Brown? Maybe we should start a new form of democracy. The entire parliament is elected by parading candidates before the crowd at the aquatics centre. Those who get the loudest cheers are made cabinet ministers. Anyone who's booed is thrown into the pool, either fully clothed or naked (their choice - we're not barbarians). 0 comments Posted Wednesday 4th September 2012 at 12.49pm Extra dimensions This is pretty cool. I wrote a piece of coursework about this kind of stuff for my A-level physics coursework 10 years ago! 0 comments Posted Tuesday 4th September 2012 at 12.19pm Boooooo I'm not normally one to advocate (serious) booing at sporting events, but I think I'll make an exception for once. 0 comments Posted Monday 3rd September 2012 at 12.26pm Some interesting economic analyses It's a year since I wrote my new blog architecture! Happy blogiversary, me! A new golden rule for Labour Impose cuts faster We can't grow ourselves out of debt The last one is one corner of an argument that asks why we fixate on economic growth so much. It's an important measure of how the country is doing, but it's not the only one. I seem to remember an episode of the Simpsons where Homer stands for mayor and his headline policy is a free buffalo in everyone's garage. (Maybe it wasn't the Simpsons, wasn't Homer and wasn't buffalo, but that's not the point.) Of course it's not the state's job to spend everyone's money on buffalo, but the state could reasonably easily buy a buffalo - even a Buffalo buffalo - per household if it really wanted to. Now imagine that instead of a buffalo per household it's 20 pianos and 50 ping pong tables per city. Cost: peanuts. If they're vandalised (difficult in the case of the ping pong tables assuming you make them sturdy enough, like the ones in Paris) then replace them. I'm not saying forget about economic growth or raise taxes or cut taxes or stop the cuts or make the cuts faster. I'm not even saying buy pianos and ping pong tables. What I'm saying is that very small, inexpensive things can make a significant difference. If we can't afford free public libraries or inexpensive leisure centres, there are still things we can do to make people's lives a little bit more fun. And, like economic growth, fun is important. PS There are elections in Quebec today. I've taken very little interest in Canadian politics while I've been here, but I think it's safe to say we should all have our fingers crossed. PPS I read yesterday that "The large poster that welcomes visitors to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills office in London exudes the state's irrelevance: 'Great Britain: low corporation tax and less regulation'." I really hope this is not true. Less regulation than what? A one-legged hamster in Stockport? 1 comment Posted Sunday 2nd September 2012 at 4.45pm Grounded fireflies By Alex Pitt. I wonder how long it took to get these... 0 comments Posted Saturday 1st September 2012 at 9.21am Back in our old town Here's an interesting article about Nottingham's music scene. It completely fails to mention Tindersticks, but apart from that it has some interesting stuff. 0 comments Posted Wednesday 29th August 2012 at 9.59pm A moan Time for a little moan. I need a work permit to work in Canada. When I arrived, I had a letter saying that I was coming to work for one year, with a possible extension for another year, from 23rd September 2011. I requested a work permit for 2 years; they gave me a work permit that was valid only until 31st August 2012, so a bit less than a year. At the time I thought that was a bit annoying, and now I'm actually leaving (after one year) on 21st September, which means I had to renew my work permit (which costs about $100) for just 21 days, it's definitely a bit annoying. But it happens. So towards the end of June I thought I had better renew my work permit. The government website told me that the processing times were around 38 days. I got a letter confirming that I was staying for the second year (at the time I still was) and sent off the application on 29th June. The end of July came and went, and so I checked the government website again. 60 days! That took me almost to the end of August. Hmmmm. So I checked again the next week. 67 days! It seems they'd done absolutely nothing that week. The pace of increase then slowed for a while, but this week it went up by another 6 days. It's now on 74 days - almost twice the length of time it advised me it would take when I submitted. So I will be starting September with no work permit. If this rate of increase continues I won't actually receive my work permit before I leave Canada. Incidentally the processing times for applicants with a new employer are running at 61 days. So it would have been quicker if I wanted to change jobs. Bizarre. 5 comments Posted Tuesday 28th August 2012 at 7.57pm Nick Clegg demands possibly a bit of something please maybe. Come on the Cleggster! A bit more like it... but "If we want to remain cohesive and prosperous as a society, people of very considerable personal wealth have got to make a bit of an extra contribution"... a bit of an extra contribution? Are you a man or a mouse? 0 comments
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