today i have mostly been eating alot

OH NO!

I'm addicted to documentaries

A citizen's guide to the 21st century

my pipe

storm

I think it was last year that the church on my parents street was struck by lightning. I took this from their garden. I wish I'd got the spire in focus! 

My Dad was in the kitchen, immediately left of the photo.

I've been recording the wind

I have a growing bank of redundant recordings, largely unheard.
The past week or so has given gales that have blown through my house and collapsed grand accomplished trees in the graveyard by Balgay. I've not yet processed film or recordings from it, here is a recording from some monstrous rain in Hyderabad, India, 2009 instead.
white noise?

NHS

what a thing

bevan

bbc centenary lecture Aneurin Bevan

first you peel the banana

Then you eat the banana; thus disarming him.

a great dinner

I went all Mediterranean after seeing a new friendship blossom between my two friends Erman and Tony.
BBC cyprus country profile

Their families live either side of the green line.

My dinner which I am still nibbling now consisted of fried halloumi and houmous pitta with garlic chilli olives finished off with some fresh, overpriced lemonade. Very salty and zesty.

Much better than the Sunday dinner leftovers that have provided sandwiches for the last few days.

anna waiting for some inspiration/beaming up

johannes photoshoot

a list from today

We made a list of song titles. The best and most poignant is:
I cried when my Dad shaved off his moustache.

The rest were probably a bit silly but I have them saved on my phone for another time.

bottom up

Eric Boyd's photo.

thesebuildingsnowemptybuildings

bats ears, owls ears and human ears

I'm only really thinking about ears.
Managed to see the ossicular chain in situ today, delicate and hard to find and also slightly worse for wear. Feeling pretty good about my project so far (The anatomy and physiology of the auditory pathway) but also a little out of my depth with very learned tutors both intimidating and inspiring. I had intended to look further into the emotional influence of music and tonality but there is little room for such an advanced subject.

One great fact I recently added to my limited repertoire, from the excellent Professor John Peters, University of Dundee:
The owl, has two ears which are assymetrical, that is to say, they sit at different heights on each side of the head. As we humans generally have ears at the same height on both sides of the head, we can locate the source of sound in one plane. Sound reaches one ear before the other.
An owl can detect source on both a horizontal and vertical plane! I think that is pretty great.

Another fact I read about which I like:
A decrease in the duration of a waveform increases energy splatter (spread of spectral energy) and the tone is therefore perceived as a click rather than a pitch...

Need to read more about the pinna and whole outer ear. I had dismissed its role in hearing completely.

auditory cheesecake

http://scienceline.org/2006/11/bio-schrock-music/

Lars Von Trier

Developed a slight obsession for Lars Von Trier a few years ago and bought many DVD's. As you often do wth a passion, you try to share it with others, the result being that I now have no DVD's in my possession. And so commences the reclaim. I may even do a love trilogy day to get all my emotions out for the year.
Manderlay is also very good.

Roald Dahl Switch Bitch

Currently reading these short stories. Very good. Only recently been introduced to his "adult" writing. Please read.

Another few snapshots from Kerala 2009. This was around the same time as visiting an Ayurvedic retreat and frictions between me and my temporary travel partner. I walked into the nearest village, getting away from the expensive restaurants and vendors and found myself in a wee residential area. Sprayed on the ground were many hammer and sickle symbols; Kerala is the only communist state of India. These friendly boys were interested to talk to me and contrary to my usual correspondence with the young men of India without chaperone, they were exceptionally polite and and had an honest curiosity. Excellent English. They also tried to trick me into believing the house I was then photographing was haunted; it was kind of creepy. I emailed them the photographs but never heard back. Not great photos but I like their cheeky faces.