pogoism

1. Florence and the Machine’s album. I heard it at a friend’s house a few weeks ago. Go listen to it on Spotify. I dare you not to fall in love with the track “Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)”.

2. The Thick of It on BBC Two. I’ve never watched this show before. It’s Armando Iannucci’s satirical political comedy. Sort of like The Office, only less difficult to watch, and funnier. It follows the Department for Social Affairs and Citizenship, and it’s head Nicola Murray. Currently trying to get my hand on the first 2 series…

3. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. Great biography of Abraham Lincoln. Wanted to find out more about him, as Obama has styled himself as a modern day Lincoln. Still plowing through it (it’s long), but it’s a great and easy read.

And what I didn’t like…

Voter’s repealing the gay marriage law in Maine. One day, hopefully, the bigots will disappear and realise that to deny happiness and equality to people is, frankly, sickening.

The World’s Wife, Elmwood Hall, Belfast, Wednesday 21st October

This week, as part of volunteering as a FOH person for the Belfast Festival, I got the opportunity to see a performance called The World’s Wife. I’ll be honest, when I signed up to help out, I wasn’t too sure what it was about. It was a one woman show, the fantastic Linda Marlowe, performing poems from Carol Ann Duffy’s collection The World’s Wife. The “wifes” featured range from The Kray Sisters, Mrs Faust, Frau Freud to Salome. I’m not a great fan of poetry, but this performance was gripping and very entertaining.

Things for Mac

I’ve been awful at planning my time for the last few weeks and I’ve been relying heavily on iCal to help me organise my todos and lectures, meetings, lab time etc. It’s calendaring capabilities are marvellous – it’s clean, simple and works. And it syncs with my iPhone and Google Calendar. However, when it comes to todos, it lacks. I searched around online to find a suitable app that had a nice interface, worked well and fast on Snow Leopard, and had the ability to sync with my iPhone. Having discovered that there is a genre of apps available called GTD (for Getting Things Done), I stumbled on Things for Mac. It’s $50 for a licence (about £30), so it’s quite steep. I’d recommend downloading the trial and see how you get along with it.

It’s a neat little app. When your fire it up you’re presented with an inbox, where you can put todos that you are going to file later, and then there’s the “Focus” section. Here you can view all the todos that you want to focus on today (complete with dock badge counter), next, scheduled, someday and projects. For me, projects is probably one of the most useful functions, as you can break a project down into individual tasks and work through them. Another great feature is the ability to add tags to your todos, to make them easier to sort through quickly.

If you’re unsatisfied with iCal’s abilities to sort todos, Things is definitely worth a try. There’s also an iPhone app available, which I may download and review at a later date. As it is my laptop is with me all the time anyway…

Reno is great for 2 things – eating out and drinking. There’s not a whole lot else to do, other than snowboarding in the winter and kayaking in the summer, so in the last few months I’ve been to a lot of restaurants. But in my 9 months here, I haven’t found anywhere that has totally satisfied me, until yesterday.

I (foolishly) walked home from work yesterday, all the way up McCarran, on the hottest day of the year, so by the time I got home, I didn’t really fancy cooking. After looking up Bavarian World, and discovering they had very little in the way of non-carnivore food, I remembered Naan and Kabab. It advertises itself as a Mediterranean restaurant, but the name and the font on their signs is a give away that it isn’t.

It’s Middle Eastern food. I can see why they wouldn’t want to market themselves in this way, this is America, after all. But don’t let that put you off, this place is delicious. Alonso and I started with the veggie combo, which was dolmades (rice stuffed vine leaf), falafel, hummus and baba ganoush (mashed eggplant). For main course, I had the prawn kabab, and Alonso had the salmon kabab. The prawn was delicious, perfectly cooked and flavoured. The salmon one… not so much. We finished all that off with baklava. Amazing food, and all for less than the price of sushi too! The service here is fantastic, even for American standards – at one point the chef (Chef “Maurice” – not his real name…) came round, and asked us how our meal was. “Good enough to tell your friends?” before thrusting some business cards in our hands!

Go try this place if you haven’t already. You won’t be disappointed.

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I got my list of possible final year projects this week. Out of a list of 90, I have to somehow whittle them down to 10, and rank them in order of preference. That’s going to be a long task, as I have do at least a little bit of background reading for each project I’m interested in. I’ve got until August 10th to do it though, so it’s not so bad.

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As I’m sure didn’t pass you by (unless you’re in America), Eurovision was today. I love Eurovision. It’s camp, it’s ridiculous, it’s trashy, and it’s over the top. Yet, bizarrely, it makes me proud to be European. My national identity is something that I’ve been thinking about for the past few weeks. I’m thinking about coming back to the US to do a PhD program, and after that probably settle here, but in order to do that, at some point I’d have to become a US citizen, and possibly surrender my UK citizenship. After some though, I decided I didn’t really want to do that. I’m proud to be from the UK. Yep, it certainly has it’s faults, but being a UK citizen also makes me a citizen of Europe. Being from Europe is something I’m extremely proud of – it’s such a vast place, full of different cultures, people, languages and opportunities, something America will never be, no matter how hard it tries.

Oh, and by the way, how did Germany do so badly in Eurovision? They had Dita von Teese for heaven’s sake! And why did the UK give Turkey 12 points?! Am I missing something? Those water things from the roof were amazing too.

I don’t normally need a lot of convincing that religion is a load of baloney, but this “documentary” annoyed me.

I use speech marks, as Bill Maher did a *really* bad job. For one, he’s not that funny. He might have been in the 80s, possibly the 90s, but he’s not anymore. Rather than it being a serious, well thought-out piece about religion, it became more of an attack on anyone who dares hold any belief about anything. He interviews a whole list of people, but almost every time, before he showed the interviews, he set them up as comedy characters. For instance, he would show footage of them pre-interview saying “testing testing” into their microphones and so on.

He chose some poor subjects for interview, clearly just for comedy purposes. I don’t want to sound like a boring git, but if you’re going to try and do a documentary about a contentious subject like religion, you should at least try to show some balance and give your participants a fair chance to express their views. In one scene with Mohamed Junas Gaffar, of the Taiban Mosque in Amsterdam, he showed him receiving a text message. On the screen appeared some mock captions, which show the imam plotting to kill Bill after the interview. A pretty cheap shot, and a total stereotype.

In another, he interviewed Rev. Ferre van Beveren, of the First Universal Church of Cantheism – a religion based on the inherent goodness of the cannabis plant. When Maher got bored of the conversation, he pretended that the Reverend’s hair was on fire. Hilarious.

He showed the extremes of religion (such as anti-Zionists, people claiming to be Jesus Christ, and ex-gay ministers), and never showed us the more moderate sides, constantly bombarding us with images of war. He clearly hadn’t done his research well either, because at one point he showed images from the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which, if he’d looked into it a little more, isn’t to do with religion.

Finally, and probably the biggest thing that bugged me about this movie, is that he doesn’t have the balls to actually confront the people he interviews directly. He attacks religion through smarmy captions or during his monologues. The one saving grace of this film is his genius reaction when, after interviewing the Democratic Senator from Arkansas Mark Pryor about his creationist beliefs, he says “you don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though”. Comedy gold.

For the third time in just under 2 weeks, I found myself in San Francisco.

I love this city, I really do. It’s the first city I’ve been to that I can imagine myself living in for a long time. It has everything – no matter who you are, no matter what you’re into, San Francisco has something for you. It’s a place where no-one cares what you do or how you act, you can just be yourself – and I can’t think of any other city I’ve been to that has that same ethos.

After a fairly horrendous drive from Reno, thanks to some completely pointless roadworks, we arrived in the city, and checked into our hostel. Originally, I wanted to stay in the hostel I’d stayed at with Sean, despite it being a bit dirty and uncomfortable, it had a great location near Union Square. However, that was all booked up, with it being New Year’s, so we opted for the other HI hostel, City Center. It tuned out that just off Union Square is a touch ghetto-like, but the hostel itself was fantastic – much more comfortable than the other one. The only downside were the 2 people staying in our dorm that insisted on getting up early and rummaging around the room chatting to each other, while the rest of us were trying to sleep after the late New Years Eve.

Melissa and I had come to San Francisco to see The Slackers at Slim’s, so we went in search of 11th Street. That turned out more difficult than we had anticipated, but after re-fuelling on some delicious pizza, we found it eventually. They had a bizarre system for determining who was under 21… if you’re over 21, you get a stamp on one hand, and if you’re under 21, you get a stamp on both hands. Which meant it was incredibly easy to wash one stamp off, to be left with one, and all of a sudden you’re 21. Support came from The Struts (who were okay, but a bit samey), and local band The Impalers (who were fantastic, and in my opinion better than The Slackers). It was a great gig, there was a good vibe, with it being New Years Eve, and a nice mix of people. Anyways, it was a different way to see in the New Year, and we had a fantastic time.

New Years Day, and feeling a bit groggy we headed to the Castro in search of somewhere to eat. Ihad my first Mexican breakfast, and it was delicious - scrambled egg, with onions and peppers. Then we went to the Chocolate shop on Castro for a hot chocolate. Still feeling somewhat sleepy, we caught the streetcar to Fisherman’s Wharf and walked along the ocean front. We ended up looking in some art gallerys, and saw some work by Dr. Seuss, which was cool. Feeling in need of some warming up, we had an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe, supposedly the first bar in the US to serve the drink. For dinner, we decided to go exploring, and ended up in North Beach. North Beach is essentially Little Italy, jam-packed with Italian restaurants and gelato stores. We ate at Ristorante Ideale, which was amazing, especially the pumpkin ravioli. Highly recommended! Walking back to downtown, we stopped off at the cinema and saw Doubt, which wasn’t as good as I’d hoped…

Friday, our last day in San Francisco, began with walking to the Financial District to go up the Bank of America building, but, as last time, it was shut, and didn’t open until 3pm. I wanted ti go to the Moscone Center, where Macworld will be held in a few days, to see if I could see anything through the windows, but all I could get was the IDG banners on the street, which said “Even the small talk will be big” – perhaps hinting at the long-rumoured iPhone nano? Maybe… but these were IDG banners, and not Apple ones, so I guess we’ll have to wait a few days to find out… Instead, we found ourselves in Chinatown, and did some tea-tasting for a few hours, thenbought some very cheap mugs/tea/therapy balls from a store. Fairly tired, we went back to North Beach, ate, had coffee at Caffe Trieste (the home of the Beat generation) and went back to the car. Our final stop was at Haight Ashbury, which seems a lot like the lanes in Brighton. We didn’t stay long, as it was busy, and we wanted to head home.

Overall, a fantastic few days in San Francisco! I really do love this city, and I feel like I know my way round it well now. Can’t wait to go back, I really can’t get enough of it.

Christmas in Reno was certainly interesting. It was strange not being surrounded by family and doing all the usual things. 

I met Sean at San Francisco Int’l last Thursday, not really being sure what to expect. I’d dated, and was dating other guys, but I promised myself and him that it wouldn’t be awkward. Turned out, that problem got solved fairly quickly, which in a way I’m glad about, because it meant that the next week or so was a lot of fun.

I wrote about what we got up to San Francisco and snowboarding in my previous posts, so I guess I’ll just fill this post with the other stuff we got up to…

One of the things I absolutely love Reno for is it’s eating out. It’s pubs, bars and clubs may be dire, but Reno does dining well. One of my favourite places to eat in Reno is Pneumatic Diner, on 1st and Ralston. It’s fairly difficult to find, it located upstairs in what seems to be a standard apartment block. It’s worth the effort though. Everything on the menu is organic, and the main reason I like it, everything is also vegetarian – a hard thing to find in Reno. The staff are usually very friendly and helpful, and the menu is varied. The food is freshly cooked, and is generally healthy. I had the super burrito, or whatever it’s called. It was lovely, though not really a burrito… Anyway, if you fancy a change, go try Pneumatic Diner. Oh, and I forgot the mention, the decor is really funky.

I also introduced Sean to one of the wonders of Reno – all-you-can-eat sushi. I’ve tried a few places in the past few months – Sushi Plus, Sushi Pier, but for me, Sushi Lover on W 5th is by far the best. For $25 (the standard price around Reno it seems), you can have all you can eat sushi. The service in the place is excellent, and if you go, make sure you get the renee chips and the peanut roll – they’re amazing. I’m still a little unsure of why Reno is so big on sushi though…

I took Sean on a tour of downtown. It’s interesting taking people around Reno, I don’t think visitors are sure what to make of it. You take them along Virginia to the casinos and the arch, and they don’t say anything, probably because it’s so tacky. Certainly for visitors from the UK, it’s likely they’ve never actually been anywhere quite as horrid as downtown Reno. But then you go along 1st, to the newly developed area, and it’s like a totally different city – with coffee shops like Dreamer’s and Java Jungle and shops like La Bussola and Dharma Books, all against the backdrop of the Truckee River, it feels like an entirely different world. And, let’s not forget the Bruka Theater, and the Pioneer Events Center for a bit of culture…

Other than this, Christmas was generally chilled. I needed that, just to hang out with someone from back home – I was going crazy knowing that there wasn’t anyone physically near me that I could trust, so it was nice to have that, if only for 10 days.

Having seen Baz Lurhmann’s previous films, Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet, I had high hopes for his latest offering “Australia”. Australia doesn’t have the same whirlwind editing that his previous films had, but it does keep the melodramatic emotion.

It doesn’t disappoint. You’ll no doubt hear that it’s long. And at 2 hours and 45 minutes, it is. But it’s never boring. Yes, it’s true that it could have been cut down dramatically – the first 2 hours of the movie are poorly paced, but the visuals and story more than make up for this – it’s enthralling.

Nicole Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, who arrives in Australia to discover that her husband has been murdered, and inherits his cattle farm. She meets The Drover (Hugh Jackman), who helps her to run the farm. A competition between her and the rival cattle farm ensues to secure a contract with the Army.

This film isn’t just a melodrama though, it has a bit of everything – war saga, love story, Western, social-conscious drama, all making it very watchable. And, as usual, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman give stellar performances.

If you get a chance to see this, you should. Having said that, I wouldn’t make a massive effort to if you’re not a fan of Baz Lurhmann’s previous work. It is, after all, fluff.

After the jump, the trailer for Australia.

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To quote my friend, “where the hell did this chick come from?”. And, to be honest, I have no idea.

I had heard bits about her, though never bothered to look up any of her stuff. Then, I saw an ad on Facebook for her, and I was bored… so I YouTubed her. I first found the video for the track “Just Dance” with it’s infectious baseline and catchy “oh oh oh oh”‘s. Then I found “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich”, and I was hooked.

Over the last few months, since the release of “Just Dance” in the US, she’s gained quite a cult following – particularly with the gays. This record combines futuristic electronica with catching drumbeats and captivating lyrics that’ll leave you humming tracks for days.

On the surface, her album “The Fame” seems like another dull club-anthem filled record, but it’s so much more than that. Unlike Britney Spears and others, she can actually write music (she wrote the entire album), and from what I’ve seen on YouTube, she can sing live too. She’ll no doubt get comparisons to Gwen Stefani, but Lady GaGa’s offering is much more developed than Stefani’s solo attempts.

The album is ladened with innuendo, with the most obvious one in “LoveGame” – “Lets have some fun / This beat is sick / I wanna take a ride / On your disco stick”. However, this doesn’t mean this is a tacky album – quite the opposite. She takes the usual lyrics about money, boys, celebrity and body image, and makes them into what is a very original album.

If you haven’t already, Lady GaGa is worth checking out.

After the jump, the video for “Just Dance” and a live version of “Beautiful, Dirty, Rich”

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Heck, it’s been long enough!

Here’s her new song, Don’t Believe in Love, and it’s pretty good.

Dido’s new album, Safe Trip Home is out November 17th.

After the jump, my favourite Dido song, Take My Hand, live at Brixton Academy.

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I’ll admit it. I thought Paris Hilton’s first attempt at music making was pretty good.

But her new song, Paris for President is dreadful.

Ugh. Have a listen. And if you make it all the way through, I’ll send you a prize. Maybe.