the briefest of updates

It has been pointed out by a number of friends that things have come to a grinding halt here for the last couple of weeks. I haven't had a moment to update from the last few days of South Africa, or from Paris or the return to Santiago where I've been getting on with the project started in Cape Town since getting back home. All well and I've been spending days and dreams surrounded by kappa symmetry equations - all good!

This weekend I had a couple of old friends from back home to stay which has been lovely, as always, and somehow we've fitted in a huge amount to the weekend. We took a trip down South to Redondela last night to a music festival where some friends of my good friend, collaborator and current housemate, Alex, were playing. Caspian Hat Dance came on at about 2 in the morning and I've seen such electric reactions from a crowd on only a handfull of occasions - these guys are incredibly talented musicians and play with such a flair and style their klesma/gypsy/folk/rock combo that the whole of the front turned into a giant mosh pit where people were going crazy for the whole performance. Apart from being bounced around like a pin-ball and waltzed through the crowd by a bearded, long haired stranger (one of life's more surreal moments) I jumped and sweated to the music and had a fantastic time getting lost in the atmosphere. The group is coming to Santiago this evening and will play in Casa Das Crechas before descending on my flat where we will have a full house of seven tonight.

The next couple of days I have to finish off a few calculations before handing over to my collaborators as I fly to England Wednesday and then Croatia Thursday on my way to a summer school in Trpanj on Black hole physics. I'll have a couple of days in Dubrovnik first and am thoroughly looking forward to exploring this old city and getting in some good photography while I'm at it.

So, for now I leave you with these scant relics of the last couple of weeks but will see if there's any time for something more substantial before getting lost in the Balkans.

Arrival in Cape Town

We come to the end of the craziest week in some considerable time, as I sit in the 'tree' (only by name) apartment in a self-catering guest house a short walk from the University of Cape Town and in the shadow of Table Mountain.

The week started off with my first Tango lesson, which passed without too much bloodshed or too many twisted ankles. Sadly as I'll be traveling pretty constantly for the rest of the year, this is only going to be a very occasional occurrence but I'll see if I can get in a couple more lessons before going to Buenos Aires in July.

Tuesday saw my first ever performance on the Geiger Counter at the quantum music festival in front of a crowd of several hundred

videos to follow. While Wednesday and Thursday evenings saw music courtesy of Emir Kusturica and some fine blues players in Dado Dada.

Friday the fun began for real.

Friday afternoon I headed over to Paris to meet up with a good friend from Beijing, who, five years ago got me involved with the Couchsurfing scene. I've since hosted well over 100 people in my place in Santiago, thanks to this connection and it has been a fantastic aspect of life since then, getting to know people from all over the world and, something which has been an added bonus, to be able to explain many aspects of my work and science in general to a huge audience of people who are interested but generally come from non-scientific backgrounds. Being able to share the passion of what I do is a real pleasure and in return I find out about cultures from every corner of the world, usually accompanied by some fine local cooking.

Anyway, so I spent the night in Paris, going out to a few bars and meeting a very international crowd in the Richard Lenoir and Oberkampf districts, before getting up slightly woozy headed on Saturday, making my way to CDG airport and flying to Istanbul. I was advised by the air stewardesses that I wouldn't have time to go into the city but I got the name of a good restaurant from them and, with newly acquired visa in hand, I took a taxi to the banks of the Bosphorus to the site where the first light house sits, on the inlet from the sea of Marmaris as the river makes its way into the city.

I sat watching the sunset and had an excellent meal (though outrageously overpriced - had I had more time I would definitely have gone somewhere a lot, lot cheaper) before heading back to the airport and waiting for another four hours as the flight was delayed (in the mean time I bought the most expensive cup of coffee I'd ever bought - at over 5 euros I thought I must have been mistaken but sadly it was already in my hands when I discovered that this was truly the price!

From Istanbul I flew with Turkish airlines (who served some of the best in-flight meals I've ever had) to Johannesburg where we waited for an hour to refuel before coming to Cape Town where I sit now in a beautiful apartment and wait for sleep to roll over my tired eyes.

It's going to be a very busy couple of weeks here but I'll do my best to update when possible.

Txalaparta in Quintana

On Thursday night I went to a truly remarkable concert, part of the season of music and events which are going on every day in Santiago at the moment. This concert was in the Plaza de Quintana, the main square at the back of the cathedral and in my opinion a much more pleasant space than the main square at the front.

The Txalaparta is a Basque instrument, played by two people who act as one. The instrument comes in a variety of forms, but in essence it's a large xylophone, played with wooden sticks and where the players play alternating notes (or alternating pairs, etc.). The players on this occasion were two of the most famous, Igor and Harkaitz, this time accompanied by Aziza Brahim a woman with a voice like the desert.

They came with two txalapartas, one wooden and one of stone, though accompanying the players were videos of their recent tour where they have been going around the world constructing txalapartas of all manner of materials, including ice. The trailor for this video can be seen here and is well worth a watch:

The speed at which the musicians play and the perfect synchronisation are truly remarkable and with the accompanying voice  of Aziza Brahim and the setting with the cathedral to the right and the rising walls of the nunnery to the left it was a powerful evening. (bad quality due to high ISO, sorry).

These guys seem to be touring most of the time and I'd highly recomment trying to see them if they're in town.

Sun Propellers seen in Santiago de Compostela

And we pass seamlessly from redbows to sun propellers (also known as crepuscular rays), the rays of light shining up from a setting sun as distant clouds block some of the paths of light.

As we all know, the Mongolian for sun propeller is Huun-Huur-Tu and this is the name of the group of singers and musicians I saw tonight in the Baroque church of the University. A wonderful hour or so of overtone singing and a variety of weird and wonderful instruments resounding off the ancient dome made for a lovely evening.


In fact the group come from the Tuvan People's Republic, North of Outer Mongolia, now within the Russian federation. This is an area of mountains and grassland, flowing rivers and windy plains, and many of their songs are about their relationship with their homeland.

The Galician government funds a good number of cultural events around the province and I'm going to keep an eye out for more of these coming from both home and away

Living Beijing

A busy weekend, both work and play. I made it to the Beijing jazz festival on Saturday afternoon, which deserves more time than I have to write. I went for a wander around the park, into the gardens and took some photos of the nature on show there so will leave you with this snap for now:

(Click for much larger versions)

This month in Beijing

For reasons which I'm not going to go into now I'm working like crazy at the moment. I will probably be up all night at least for tonight, tomorrow we'll just have to see.

I'm taking a five minute break and so will put up a post I wrote a few days ago about the current goings on in Beijing. If work continues like this I'm not going to get to any of it, but I can always hope.

With less than two months left in Beijing I'm keeping a close eye on the things that I haven't done yet which I would like to. There aren't many places that I haven't explored in Beijing that I'm aware of but I'm sure there are many interesting hidden treasures to be found. The ancient observatory I would like to check out when I've time and the underground tunnels which are rumoured to go for hundreds of miles under the city sound intriguing.

There's plenty on over the next month too. There will be a couple of weeks of movies commemorating Bergman on at D22. This week there was The Seventh Seal, which is excellent and I'll definitely see it for a second time when I have a chance. The Bergman season continues with Wild Strawberries and The Magician on the 12th and 13th and finishes with The Virgin Spring on the 19th. Michaelangelo Antonioni's death is not going unnoticed with L'avventura, La Notte and L'eclisse on the 20th, 26th and 27th. Sadly Blowup is not being screened.

At the Box Cafe on the 25th is Au Hassard Balthazar, a very moving story about the life of a donkey, named Balthazar, directed by Bresson. Very very sad but a fine film.

Director Diao Yinan will be talking at Cherry Lane movies before his film Uniform, which I haven't seen but is promoted in That's Beijing.

Cory, from BoingBoing will be in Beijing next week at the Beijing Bookworm, so go early if you're around Sanlitun on Wednesday.

On the music front there's the Beijing Pop Festival in Chaoyang park this weekend, with a truly bizarre line up of Nine Inch Nails, Public Enemy, Brett Anderson, New York Dolls, Marky Ramone and a few decent Beijing bands (Joyside and the Scoff being the two who I've seen and enjoyed). Carsick Cars, Beijing's favourite band to make it outside China (currently on tour with Sonic Youth in Europe) will be back in D22 on the 29th which is bound to draw a big crowd.

I'll definitely be heading to the Beijing Jazz Festival (beijingjazz.com). For jazz in the meantime the Red Hand Jazz band every Sunday at D22 are well worth coming to listen to. I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw them for the first time a few weeks ago, though with D22's reputation and a manager who used to own a bar in New York, I shouldn't be.

Beginning of next month sees Faithless and Talib Kweli with Ozomatli on two consecutive nights at the Star Live. Ozomatli are supposed to be superb live.

For big nights out Armin Van Buuren is coming to Ba Hao at Chaoyang park on the 30th of September. The Tuesday night experimental electronica also continues at Dos Kolegas which is well worth a trip if you're feeling like something a little more interesting.

Beijing is getting in on the molecular gastronomy game with a relatively new restaurant, the Blue Lobster, which has superb reviews though is very very expensive. Depending on how work and cash flow goes it may be a treat for myself later in the month.

A friend and I have vowed to go to a new restaurant every week. Next week I have been promised by a friend that I will be taken to eat san nak ji (산낙지). (Only click on this link if you're not feeling squeemish - I really really mean it. - no, really!)

ok, that will do, but with many hours ahead I will need a break later...

All nighters

I was up until 4 this morning trying to get some work finished. We're getting there but still things to polish off. The time delay between my collaborators and myself means that there is always some dead time when one person has finished something and is waiting for a response. In fact I'm in this non-overlap time now while I wait for the others to wake up before I can give them my results from last night.

I took the dead time yesterday evening to go and see the Kabuki performance at the Poly theatre in Beijing given by the famous Chikamatsu-za group. I've gone on about this before on the two previous occasions (here and here) I've seen Kabuki in Tokyo but if you have any interest in the arts at all and in particular of the exotic Eastern variety then you have to go and see this amazing spectacle. It's truly a beautiful thing to watch, and though I didn't understand a word of it bar the Chinese surtitles I could make out I was mesmerised for two and a half hours. In fact so much so that I'm going back today - I'm not expecting to see much Kabuki in Spain!

Anyway, with a very late night to the tune of Sufjan Stevens and Devendra Bernhardt I got some good work done yesterday as I glugged my strongly brewed tea into the early hours of the morning.

OK, back to it...

------

In addition: Anyone else who was at the Kabuki, did the audience get up and leave before the show was over? I believe there was another act to see! I will see tonight, I hope.

Max Roach 1924-2007

I just read the sad news that Max Roach died yesterday. Max was one of the most influential jazz drummers of the last century.

Although most seem to claim that Kind of Blue is the best jazz album of all time, I have a definite soft spot for Money Jungle, from Blue Note Records, on which Max created a spectacular album with Charlie Mingus and Duke Ellington.

If you're either a fan of jazz and don't know this great album (I've met several people who passed it off because they figured Duke Ellington was purely big band) or if you haven't heard much, take today to listen to this stunning record. If you know it already, sit back, listen and remember some of the amazing records this guy produced. (M+D, you'll find the album in my collection, do put it on).

Max with Billy Harper, Cecil Bridgewater, Reggie Workman, enjoy.



RIP M.R

Headlines

John Denver is big here in Beijing. My planned work in a cafe is being interrupted by songs about leaving on jet planes and the like. I'm braced and ready for 'take me home, country roads' which blast the buses, the ring tones and my gym at all possible inopportune moments.

Anyway, I wanted to link to a few articles which have caught my eye today.

Firstly the fascinating news that the infamous researcher, Hwang Woo-suk, from South Korea whose claims of human cloning experiments turned out to be fraudulent may just have stumbled upon something even more important - Human parthenogenesis, the development of an embryo without using a sperm for fertilisation. The BBC news article can be found here and I'd love to learn more from those who know more about this subject.

Secondly an article about an interesting method of teaching physics from the US. This seems to have the emphasis shifted from remembering facts and formulae (not something which should be dismissed, but certainly not the most important aspect of learning the subject) to a deeper understanding of the laws of physics. In this method the student is lead to discover the rules by themselves. Sounds pretty sensible to me. Again, the actual details are sketchy and I'd be interested to learn more about this. (Original link from God Plays Dice).

Finally for now the news that a new clean energy bill has just been passed by the house of representatives in the US. One aspect of the bill is reduce subsidies for oil companies. The figures seem impressive, but I don't know what the percentages are. It also has a long way to go to become law but at least these issues are being raised in the US.

...And to the tones of Hotel California played in a pitiful saxophone cover I must get back to my topology.

(Photos to follow when my camera arrives back from a friend to whom it has briefly been lent)

Kubrick continues

Watching Dr Strangelove in a bar in Beijing last night was one of those very special evenings. The twists of satire and irony will stay with me for a long time.

Next week:
Wednesday - 2001 A Space Odyssey
Thursday - A Clockwork Orange

Some interesting looking music on over the next couple of days, too.

I saw Elliott Sharp at D22 a couple of months back and promised to write a review. It's been bugging me ever since because, to be honest, I still don't know what I thought. I enjoy experimental music on the whole, the creative electricity of it can be exciting and the dynamics of the musicians is always fascinating to watch. I spent most of the Elliott Sharp concert with a big grin on my face. I enjoyed it, without a doubt, but I don't know whether I was smiling because of the genius of it or the chaotic self-delusion.

It was noise, there's no other way to describe it. It was disharmonies on guitar caused by random bits of metal grating against strings. It was flutes straight out of Star Wars warbling in different rhythms and different keys (there were no keys) with tuba accompaniment. It was expressions of deepest concentration making music that clashed in ways unimaginable before the evening.

A few people walked out within the first minute. Many stayed and enjoyed it, but I'm not sure what they, or at least I enjoyed. It was, without a doubt fun, and perhaps that's enough. Maybe I just don't understand the depths of musicality which went into it. It took explanation from educated friends and a lot of listening to appreciate a live jazz concert, which I do now, hugely. I can see the dynamics of the musicians as the tune is juggled and manipulated and I love the journey you can be taken on if you follow where they're going. I don't know if I need to know more about where Elliott Sharp was taking us or if I just need some chemical additives to fully appreciate his music. I'd almost certainly see him again because, as I said, it was a lot of fun to listen to and watch.

If anyone else is an aficionado of this sort of experimental music then please tell me what I should be listening for. If you think this is absolutely emperor's new clothes played loud, then I'd like to know your opinion, too.

In a random aside I was highly amused to hear about the klezmer-metal fusion band: Black Shabbat. This I've gotta hear. (from Charmaine X, a creative, amusing Beijing blog I recently stumbled upon).

Kubrick at D22

This month is Kubrick month at D22 in Wudaokou. Come by on a Wednesday and Thursday to see the free screenings. On the site it says 7 pm start but don't be surprised if it's rather later than that.

This Wednesday is Killer's Kiss.
This Thursday is Paths of Glory.

I've seen neither of the above but enjoy most of Kubrick's work, and D22 is a great place to come for a relaxed evening with a glass of Spanish wine.

After the films there will be live punk on Wednesday and experimental music from Japan on Thursday.

A little of everything

Big nights out have been put on hold for a while, but the flood gates were opened again over the weekend with some fantastically impromptu 'not being home at a reasonable hour'.

Friday evening I was feeling tired from the week, but with slightly itchy feet. Bumping into one of the new, few expats in the campus I suggested we go for a quiet beer at a local bar. Being new to the area I thought I'd show him some of the more interesting places. There are plenty of expat hangouts in Wudaokou but most of them don't excite me much in terms of a decent night out. They tend to feel cliquey and though I'm happy to sit with a coffee in there on a Sunday afternoon reading or working, I often steer clear of them for big nights.

So, we ended up in Club 13, a very small local music venue where I've seen everything from punk to bluegrass and from ska-metal to electronica (a Korean/Japanese duo who made music with their Mac and children's squeaky toys - A Chinese friend of mine left in a state of panic after a few minutes mumbling something about noises from hell, a fair comment to be honest).

Anyway, the line up for Friday night was metal and though I wouldn't listen to this at home the few concerts I've been to have always had a lot of energy, a fun crowd and lots of amusing hair. The bands on offer were no exception and the hair quota was both through the roof and, on occasion, in the lights.

Between sets we went outside to talk 'the trouble with Chinese' and the history of string theory - always a pleasure.

By a little after midnight we were rocked out and the local area tour continued to the nearby hip-hop club. Another place which, though it may not play my favourite music, is always a good venue to have a good time and people watch - many people taking themselves extremely seriously on the podiums with most others simply enjoying the party. Hip-hop is big in China in both it's home and away forms and the locals really buy into the clothes, the dance moves and even the walk. Well worth going to a Chinese hip-hop club some time to see what it's all about.

2.30 came around and I found myself in a taxi going in unknown directions and ending up with friends in a karaoke club. Another Chinese experience which isn't to be missed. For non-Chinese speakers there's always a range of classic copy-write violating Western songs to be chosen and the ability to sing is not a prerequisite - believe me. In a room with just a few friends, the atmosphere is completely different from the painful full bar of strangers feel in the Western take on karaoke.

Saturday morning take II never really happened but I struggled to get some work done in the afternoon back in the expat bar I'd shunned the previous evening. A few coffees later and I was ready for some real research. Research in fact for my next postdoc position which will be in Santiago de Compostela. A French friend, currently learning Spanish before heading to South America, had told me about a party organised by the Instituto Cervantes which is the hub of Spanish culture in Beijing, and indeed in many other places around the world. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to meet some Spaniards and find out more about where I'd be heading later in the year I made my way by bus (not a trivial task in Beijing) to the East side of the city. This is the side where most expats live and heading over there which I do every couple of weeks always feels like stepping into another world. People are no longer spitting on the floor in the restaurants, the beers cost 3 quid a piece, the music is loud and frequently sung by Filipino duos and the neon is dazzling. Though there is a lot more going on in the East and there are some great events taking place, I wouldn't trade where I live for the 'more civilised' side of the city.

Anyway, the party was enjoyable and the Spaniards and South American's like to party. With free sangria flowing, Latino hips did their thing on the dance floor and popular songs were sung with knowing glances. We spent part of the evening with members of the Venezuelan consulate who, when they weren't salsaing everyone else into obscurity, were a lot of fun to chat with. It was also great to hear people rave about Santiago, though the rain was mentioned frequently.

The party started to die down a little before 2 as people made their way to other nightspots, so we headed to China Doll, one of the most fashionable clubs in the city. One of the lovely things about Beijing is that though there are some pretty decent clubs, I've never seen a dress code at any of them. That may mean that I haven't been to the right clubs, but the staff at China Doll, frequented by local models and businessmen with too much to spend, didn't blink as I walked in wearing my most casual out-on-the-town clothes. The music is laid back, slightly loungy house but on Saturday night it didn't hold our attention for long enough, so we departed for fish and chips, sat outside on a bench in the only authentic chippie in the city. I rarely pang for any food from back home but the occasional indulgence doesn't go amiss.

Yesterday was a little more work, some time at the gym, a fine meal in a local Sichuan restaurant with 6 others in the evening and a very slow after dinner pint in the beer garden, with the smells of street food mingling with the petrol.

Anyway, I thought I'd indulge as I haven't been talking much about social aspects out here recently. This week is going to be busy, my Couchsurfer will be heading off tomorrow, only to be replaced by another in a week or so, English corner should be back on, Chinese lessons continue, student supervision in string theory is on-going and my research leaps about in fun and unexpected directions.

Pandora restricted

A sad day indeed when a site has become restricted for us, not because of the Great Firewall of China but because of new licensing laws implemented in the US. Pandora is down for all of us outside the States, as I found today when trying to access the site:

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

(Thanks to Piskokid whose site I just came across and found the above information)

Midi take two

The Midi festival is one of China's greatest music events, pulling in local and International talent alike. For four days Beijing's Haidian park is filled with tens of thousands of music fans excited as the scene explodes in so many directions. Punks, goths, rockers, emo fans, hip-hop junkies and techno heads get together to dance and jump to their rythm of choice. I hadn't expected to see either heavy metal or contemporary art as big things here before I got to China but in all their rebelliousness they are, at least from the outside, thriving - I'm not enough 'in the scene' to know what is and isn't allowed.

Anyway, I have to admit that though I enjoy the local music scene here I don't go to Midi for the music, but for the atmosphere and the diversity of people there. Yesterday was a perfectly sunny day with temperatures around 30 and necks and backs crisping up nicely. I was caked in enough sun block to keep me going completely pink.

So, we sat around, saw a few bands, wondered the parks watching people sat reading in the sun. A few snaps from the day:

My personal favourite, as the sun was setting:

Skateboarders doing what skateboarders seem to do best - falling over:

Rockers rocking:

Punks punking:

Another silhouette:

and all manner of crazy hair on display:

Post festival we celebrated the holiday with a night of Korean soju, rather like sake and far too easy to drink! Some didn't relish the bright sunshine the next day but I seem to have escaped lightly.

Tomorrow I have to get back to work though it will be relaxed, in a cafe which is certainly my favourite way of working.

Noodly fun

The one week May Day holiday starts today here in China though many people will be firmly seated in the department. I'll have to spend some time there this week getting my talk ready for the upcoming workshop at Beijing university.

Yesterday I went with a few friends to one of the best Sichuan hotpot restaurants in the area and had a fine feast of all the usual suspects one finds in the ma-la (numbing and spicy) sauce. It's always rather disconcerting to have the huang na ding fish, which is so freshly killed that it has to be held under the boiling oil for a few seconds to prevent the thrashing around from splashing the diners.

This particular restaurant has hand-made noodles, pulled to entertain the crowds. Take a peek at the video I took yesterday evening.

A Sichuan hotpot restaurant is traditionally loud and crowded with a frenetic atmosphere, waiters speeding about balancing trays piled high with ingredients to boil in the soup in front of you and a steady stream of baijiu (white spirits) flowing to keep the guests relaxed. Downstairs diners waited while playing mahjong and poker, relaxing with cups of tea before they were rushed to their tables.

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Today is the (sixth) return of the Midi festival which was a lot of fun last year and a great place to take some snaps. The four day event is brining all the local talent out as well as around 20 international bands. Along with Goldie making an appearance in Beijing next week and my first real experience of Chinese theatre on the 11th it's looking like a fun start to the month.

Temperatures are now climbing to the low thirties having only just risen above freezing a month or so ago. We seem to have escaped the sandstorms which plagued much of North Eastern China last year though my flat still picks up a good heap of dirt if I keep the windows open for any length of time.

If you're worried about traveling for the May day holiday where you are, just remember that there will be almost 100 million Chinese travelling around the country here over the next week. The lines outside all travel agents are monstrous and, until they all get out of the city the roads are in gridlock. Happy May Day, everyone!

Time warp

My job, and that of those around me is, in theory, to tackle some of the deepest questions about the universe around us, both on the largest and the smallest scales, to gain a true understanding of the nature of reality and to discover what are the underlying structures of the amazing phenomena we see in nature. Whoever, as far as I know nobody has tried to solve the strangest puzzle of them all: how on Earth did it get to Friday already? Yet again I'm at a loss to know where the middle days of the week vanished to. I've checked my Mathematica files and my LaTeX scripts and some of them are indeed date stamped with the intervening time period, but like an ancient mathematical riddle Monday+Friday seems to equal a full five days. I'm at a loss.

Anyway, however we got here, Friday arrived although the weekend is not upon us, at least here in Beijing. The 1st of May marks the start of a one week holiday and, as always, we must work the preceding weekend to earn our rest. The holiday starts on Tuesday so we still have a bit of a slog until we're given our respite.

This morning I spent interviewing nine candidates for various positions at the KITPC, from management to computer administration. My job was simply to spend time with the candidates before the official interviews (a 15 minute presentation in front of 20 or so members of staff) to chat informally and gauge their English level. It doesn't seem appropriate to make any comments on the results, but it was another interesting insight into life here and an enjoyable morning spent talking with the prospective employees.

I still need to give full reviews of the concerts last week but before I talk about the music I wanted to mention the strange phenomenon of Chinese crowds I encountered. ...

It's no secret that the Chinese are not known for their queueing skills. As a Brit I spend a good amount of my time in queues and think that it's a jolly good way to wile away my hours. Here in China any queue which forms through random, chaotic processes tends to disintegrate within a few seconds. I find it frustrating that when I'm trying to buy a ticket, get my lunch or wait for the train, the only way I've found to get what I want is to stand my ground very firmly, which is sometimes a strain for the blood pressure levels. I haven't found myself pushing people yet, but it's been close on occasion.

Before the Sonic Youth gig we were supposed to have a show from one of Beijing's top rock bands - Carsick Cars, who I haven't seen before, though the guitarist had been accompanying Elliott Sharp the previous week. All 1000+ of us piled into the venue a little after 7 on Monday evening waiting for the 7.30 start of the support band. But we waited and waited, with the occasional blur of a guitarist or roadie seen through the door at the back, but nothing more than that...for two and a half hours. Standing in a concert venue for two and a half hours with nothing to see isn't my idea of fun (no orderly line, you understand). What amazed me, however, was that had this been in England, land of patient, needless queuing, there would probably have been a riot within half an hour of the band's absence and a painful chorus of 'why are we waiting' would have kept people going until blood was spilt. However, here in China, where my toes are constantly stepped on when waiting for my baozi for breakfast by an overly eager security guard or impatient school kid, there was an eery calm and complete acceptance of the situation. Some of the Westerners in the crowd attempted to start a round of calls for the band, but they just sounded a bit out of place.

I wonder how much longer the crowd would have stayed patient. The way things were going I couldn't see the calm breaking for some considerable time to come. Lesson learnt: Queuing is a no-go here but patience is a true Chinese virtue!

Weekend snaps

Truly no time for blogging at the moment but a few pictures for now from this weekend, which included:

• Elliott Sharp at D22
• Artwalk Beijing at Dashanzi
• Sonic Youth at Tango

amongst other things.

Flash Slideshow

All of them are worth writing about and I'll do so when I have a spare moment.

Odds and ends

I continue to make excuses of being too snowed under with work to blog extensively at the moment, and this excuse holds for the time being. The projects are moving in the right direction, and there's plenty else going on besides. I'll be writing my talk 'Three paths from AdS to QCD' over the next week or so which I'll be presenting at a workshop in May.

I'll be working until late this evening before going to a concert by Elliott Sharp, at D22, which should be a lot of fun. If anyone picks up on this and enjoys experimental electronica/jazz then come along to see a classic, if not strictly classical, composer.

On an aside-aside, I have The Amon Tobin mix of the Chris Morris 'Bad Sex' track whirling around in my head, which is as intense as it is strange. Amon Tobin is one of my favourite artists and together with the tangential world view of Chris Morris, this is bound to produce something warped and fascinating. Again, if you like your music slightly rough and a little experimental then look out for this track.

Sonic Youth tickets have been booked for Monday which should also be superb and tomorrow the artWALK Beijing event starts at Dashanzi at 5.30.

A random cooking challenge for anyone interested in the new science of flavour pairings: Take a look at this molecular gastronomy blog to find out more.

Flip Tomato continues to give well written accounts of his journey into particle physics, this week discussing chirality, soon to be followed by a posting on orbifolds.

From a 2003 talk by Weinberg comes four golden lessons for theoretical physicists. This article deserves more discussion but, time, etc...the review at the bottom of the linked page is depressing (particularly in relation to points 3 and 4) and, in my opinion not a healthy way to go into theoretical physics. If you're going in with these sort of thoughts, you're probably not in the right game, IMHO.

If you're a fan of internet radio, for instance Pandora, then take a look at this petition which is attempting to stop the possible change in licensing fees which will cripple many of these sites.

Finally, a call for advice. My camera is on its last legs, which is a slightly better state than my ipod now finds itself. I'm seriously considering investing in a digital SLR and the Canon 400D (also known as the Digital Rebel XTi) seems my best bet. If anyone has any invaluable advice on this I'd appreciate the extra input, all reviews I've seen have been pretty good.

With seconds to spare

A few random links...

• First to a site which I mentioned, perhaps a year ago, but is always worthy of a plug. There's big news in the Beijing music scene this month as Sonic Youth are due out here. The tickets are very expensive but I would love to go and see them, so will attempt to pick some up tomorrow. Pandora is one of the best resources I've found to discover great new music. By selecting a band or song to begin with, this online radio player choses songs based on the style of music from your original choice. By telling the station whether you like a particular track or not it will evolve to give you more and more of the type of music you really like. Listening to a station today seeded with Sonic Youth I've found a host of new bands I'd never previously heard of.

• Discovery sites (Digg, Pandora, Stumbleupon, del.ici.ous Plime, and presumably many more) are becoming big business and allow the user to find web content based on what other people with similar tastes have liked in the past, rather than based on a specific web search. It's a powerful tool but also an easy way to fritter away time jumping from one interesting site to another, not taking anything of any real content in. It's definitely one of the many new branches of web technology which will be interesting to keep an eye on.

• On a side note I wonder if anyone has tried to develop a community del.ici.ous site where papers from the ArXiv can be tagged for searching more appropriately than the current search functions available online. At the very least I would like my pdf files to be tagged with the basic information about each paper and not have to type it all into an unweildy title name.

• While we're on the topic of the ArXiv I'll point to both the papers by Jacob Bourjaily (here and here )and the subsequent positive analysis by Lubos Motl. The papers are geometric engineering of F-theory (a 12 dimensional theory where the complex dilaton-axion of IIB string theory take on a geometric interpretation as the complex structure of a two-torus). The geometry of the compactified dimensions determines the symmetries and matter content of the low energy theory and so in these papers the standard model gauge groups and matter content are constructed via this process of geometric engineering, 'unfolding' from larger gauge groups.
• Jacob shows that not only is a three flavour standard model a generic feature of a particular (and perhaps natural, from the string theory perspective) orbifold singularity but that smaller gauge groups are more natural from this construction than grand unified theories with large gauge groups. He points out however that the fact that the standard model symmetries aren't completely 'unfolded' is not obvious from this model.
• Lubos gives a more thorough explanation although the general idea of the papers isn't too difficult to understand, even without knowing the background in great detail.

• There was lots of news a couple of weeks ago about a huge calculation of the structure of an immense but important symmetry group. I'll just leave this as a series of links, if you want to read the maths there's some fascinating discussion at John Baez's site and if you just want to look at the pictures, well, they're pretty too. The American Institute of Mathematics has some details here, too.

• The subsequent edition of This Week's Finds also contains a wealth of interesting material on solar flares plus more information about groupoids.

Apart from that I've been rather too busy calculating to read any new science over the last week or so.

• From the BBC comes the news that the new wing of the Tate Modern has been given the go ahead. Without a doubt it's an exciting piece of art but it has a lot of critics who are not impressed. I like the look from the artist's impressions and the claim that London is becoming riddled with different styles of architecture is a century or so too late. The architects, Herzog and de Meuron, are also the designers behind the Beijing Olympic stadium - The Bird's Nest. I go past this whenever I go to the airport and would love to get there some time to take some photographs myself.

• My parents recently came back from a trip to Paris where they took this rather fun picture:

This is an original image.

• From Kevin at the Weifang Radish came some useful hints for internet use in China, definitely good if you want to keep up with blogs and news but don't want the lag of proxies.
  

Right, the weekend beckons and I have another few hours to work before I start running around the city again. Happy Easter to all...

Taking it easy

I have discovered to my cost the extreme generosity of Japanese businessmen. This post will be a somewhat labour intensive task for my now slightly dazed brain cells.

After going for a meal with the department on Friday evening, post-talk I made my way to my Couchsurfing host's flat. Couchsurfing is a fantastic scheme and is built in large part on trust. I met up with Chi on Thursday evening for a bite to eat and a trip to a Gifu bar where we chatted and she made sure that I was a reasonably trustworthy sort. Having passed the test I futonsurfed for Friday and Saturday night. Not only is CS a great way to get free accommodation all around the world (almost 200,000 members now) but it's the perfect source for useful local information.

Gifu snacks of Natto and egg:

Last time I visited Tokyo I spent most of my time looking at traditional Tokyo, the temples, and the Kabuki-za amongst many other things, so this time I've decided to see some more of the modern city. On Saturday we headed to the West, to Shibuya, Harakuju and Shinjuku, to see the famed fashionable areas which have a good mix of both big name brands plastered all over the buildings in neon and very alternative, counterculture shops if you get off the main streets.

Shopping is big here and some of the shops (mostly the 'underground' shops) are so popular that there are queues just to enter. People wait in line outside sipping on McDonald's milkshakes waiting to get into their favourite place to buy the weird and wonderful.

This area is famed for the huge crossroads where the people flow like ants across the street in a huge wave of bodies and then, just as suddenly it stops and the traffic resumes. It's a strange sight to see so many people synchronised like this. Interspersed between the shops are many little galleries for art, hand-made jewelery and clothes. My host makes bags made form vintage kimono fabric (I'm quite happy to advertise these as they are really very good indeed, they would make superb presents. The prices look high but many of the fabrics used are over 100 years old). We popped into a few places selling whole kimonos and pieces of old fabric, some of which are hugely expensive, just for a small patch of design. A paradise for anyone wanting to make their own clothes.
The Omotesando shopping complex:

The design Festa art space:

contrasting with the Audi building:

The main attraction of coming to this area (if you're not much of a shopper, like myself) is to simply people watch. Dressing up is big here, and I don't mean simply taking care of your appearance. There are several very distinct styles readily apparent as you walk around the streets here. This is most visible with the women, but some of the men fit into distinct categories of counterculture.

The shopping area is mostly noted for the gyarus. Girls with a dark artificial tan, towering heels and bleached or coloured hair. On the way to Yoyoji park we passed a group of gyarus practicing their dance moves in the street, possibly ready for a competition. You can't see here but usually they have white makeup around their eyes giving them a startled panda look.

Regular gyarus are perhaps the most un-extreme of all the subcultures, though the ganguros are more to the panda end of the spectrum.

A lot of the styles are derived from Manga and the Harajuku bridge is mostly populated with cosplayers who dress in clothes to look like Manga characters. Unfortunately it seems that they take the day off on Saturday, so I didn't see so many of them and got fewer photos. However, Flickr has lots of images of some of the interesting costumes and makeup which go on display on the bridge. Some of the most startling cosplayers I've seen are: The blue bride, Tatsurou, Ninja, and these girls in black.

It seems that some of the locals are not cosplayers but simply like to come and dress up in their own style. Also available on the bridge are free hugs, though there didn't seem to be many takers.

Near Harajuku is Yoyogi park where there was some Samba going on which we sat and watched having been on our feet for a few hours. I'm told that the woman on the right is a famous actress, but I haven't pinned down a name yet.


After dinner (number 1) in a conveyor belt sushi restaurant we headed to the East side of the city where Chi works in a bar. I wandered off and had a look around the local temples, which were closed by that time but the grounds were open and wonderfully quiet after the hectic crowds in the West.

I headed back to the bar, expecting to have a quick drink before going back to the flat and at this point the trouble started. It was a small bar and there were a few businessmen in, each with a bottle of shochu in front of them, gradually being consumed with green tea. It didn't take long to start talking with them. First there was a test of my Chinese character skills to see if I could read their names in Kanji, then there was the explanation of what I'm doing in Japan which resulted in a short explanation of electrons in metals and the electrician in the group literally jumping up and down with excitement as his job suddenly, apparently became clear (this has more to do with shochu than my skills at explaining atomic bonds). I was sitting happily chatting with, um, everyone in the bar, nursing my one pint that I felt I could afford and trying to keep four conversations going at once when the first drink arrived in front of me from the ship salesman to my side.

Unfortunately it seemed that if one of them was going to buy me a drink, the others would look bad if they didn't join in and so, inevitably I got through a fair number of the consumables in the bar, including several plates of the not inconsiderably portioned snack-food - mostly of the raw meat variety.

At one point I was being asked about my thoughts on Japanese life and culture and I mentioned mono no aware, which I know of only from reading about Japanese cinema. The bar became hushed, everyone looked at each other, rather confused and then shouts and cheers as I realised I'd pushed just the right button. I guess that the knowledge of this concept was enough to get me into 'the club' and the generosity only increased from this point on.

Somehow 1 o'clock rolled around, I was still relatively stable and had acquired a rather nice leather passport holder at some point. I was asked if I liked Korean food , I confirmed and we headed to dinner (number 2) a little way down the street. Dish after dish piled up as we got through a huge Korean barbecue. I'm pretty sure that conversation, though still extremely enthusiastic, had diminished in its fluency and for some reason French and Chinese dominated linguistically on and off.

Leaving the restaurant there were five of us, though we quickly lost one who fell asleep on the pavement. The fact that one of them had just bought me a very nice dinner left the other one looking bad, so a Japanese dinner was then offered. In another favourite restaurant of theirs, dinner number 3 arrived in the form of a large plate of sushi. I was truly stuffed but to turn this down would have been very insulting. It was great sushi but I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I should have!

Anyway, by 4 am after three dinners the others seemed to have forgotten how to get home if not which way was up. The group dispersed and I have to presume that the others made it back intact.

Sunday was not a lot of fun. Taking my luggage on the Tokyo underground with a stonking hangover and a belly fit to burst was not a pleasant experience. After a good sleep and a bite to eat I was a good 30% on my way to recovery and today (this post has taken a day to write) I'm 95% back to 'normal'.