Balkanology (the 3rd one) was the best party I’ve been to since Dieselboy in 2005.
I missed the last one (earlier this month) – rats. Apparently it was fantastic.

The one I was at involved caravans, insane brass bands and a raffle for a live goat.
What more could you want from a nite out?!

Balkanology

I never cease to be amazed at the radical music that the world is capable of producing when you least expect it.

And now they’ve released a CD! It’s flippin’ fantastic – brass, violins, walking bass lines and a rhythm that can only be described as… reggae[1].
Can you say Bosnia-Herzegovia?!

Here’s a little taste – Dunkelbunt, please don’t be mad balkan dudes/Dunkelbunt – I just want people to buy the CD.
Go out, buy it!

Dunkelbunt

[1] Though, let’s be clear here, this music is pure Eastern European insanity.

Time flies when you’re having fun.
Or just when the world is swallowing you whole.

I’m fascinated by the brain[1]; its origin, its work and its deterioration.
More than anything I’m fascinated by its ability[2] to observe itself.
Right now I’m observing a phenomenon related to the plasticity of time in the brain; I’m madly accelerating towards each year’s end.
It’s almost May, soon it will be July and then it will be October – each year accelerates.

July will be October -

It turns out that this sense of acceleration that overwhelms me is very real.

The brain has two distinct time keeping modes: a Circadian rhythm (aka the body clock) and a momentary perception of time passing.
From what I’ve read, these are intertwined and are both controlled by the Suprachiasmatic nucleus. However, they function separately.
The body’s circadian rhythm is relatively fixed[3], but it seems that our perception of time and the real time in which our senses operate is changeable.
The Suprachiasmatic nucleus controls these independently, separating our body’s concept of time, from that of our conscious mind.

Research is showing that a variety of factors influence the functioning of this tiny instrument to the extent where time really, physically, perceptually speeds up.The most common such influence is age[4].
My grandparents have many times mentioned that the days pass really quickly, even though they are retired and spend all of them sitting in different chairs humming to themselves.
Remember how long a school term was in primary school? A week took fucking forever to pass, never mind an entire term!
Your Suprachiasmatic nucleus is accelerating. The world really is moving faster.

Acceleration -

Here’s a fascinating experiment that shows the real plasticity of not only our perception of time, but of the rate of our brains’ internal clocks.

Psychologist Dr David Eagleman, [...] asked volunteer Jesse Kallus to perform a terrifying backwards free-fall of 33 metres.
If the [theory was] correct, Jesse’s perception of time would be slowed by the terrifying experience.[...]
Dr Eagleman came up with a cunning device: the “perceptual chronometer”, a wristwatch-like device which flicked blindingly fast between two LED screens.
Normally the flicker would be so fast Jesse could only see a blur. But if time slowed down for him, he might be able to discern the two different screens and read a random number on one of them.
All Jesse had to do was jump, and read. As he ascended the 33ft metal cage no-one seemed to believe this curious experiment might work.
When Jesse landed, he noted he had seen “98″. [...] In fact the number was 96. Not quite spot-on, but the two numbers look very similar on a digital screen.
Further jumps got similar results – all suggesting that time did seem to slow down for Jesse during the jump.

Whether or not the science of this experiment is sound, we cannot deny the evolutionary imperitive for this in the brain.
When we are not under threat and simply need to operate efficiently under rote conditions (performing a repetitive piece of work, walking far etc.) the brain can safely speed up time, thereby reducing the energy that it consumes in processing events in real time.
But when reaction time is crucial (e.g. in dangerous situations) the brain’s clock speeds up, processing more information, consuming more energy, slowing down time.

Of course, none of this helps me to catch a hold of the days that zoom past the foot of our bed.

[1] Not just the human brain. Sure, it is the most complex we know of, but even the common house fly’s brain is radical. The house fly’s optimised neural wiring gives it a reaction time of one 50th of a second, twelve times faster than a human’s.
[2] At least in humans
[3] Michel Siffre spent 2 months in a cave in 1962 foregoing any means of telling time – his circadian rhythm remained relatively in tact, but his ability to measure the passing of time (guessing what time it was) was totally lost.
[4] There are numerous scholarly articles on this topic – but they don’t make for good reading so I won’t cite any.

a previously unknown poem by Tennessee Williams.

Blue Song
I am tired.
I am tired of speech and of action.
If you should meet me upon the
street do not question me for
I can tell you only my name
and the name of the town I was
born in–but that is enough.
It does not matter whether tomorrow
arrives anymore. If there is
only this night and after it is
morning it will not matter now.
I am tired. I am tired of speech
and of action. In the heart of me
you will find a tiny handful of
dust. Take it and blow it out
upon the wind. Let the wind have
it and it will find its way home.
Tennessee Williams

The Viking Terror
Fierce is the wind tonight.
It ploughs up the white hair of the sea
I have no fear that the Viking hosts
Will come over the water to me.
Written in the margin of The St Gall Priscian – Irish, 9th century

Anita finds American Idol entertaining. I find it mostly painful. We PVR record it, FFWD through the performances and then watch the comments from the judges[1].

This season something is happening which threatens to spin the whole thing out of control[2] – the absolutely worst contestant ever is surviving week by week because people are actually voting for him.

Meet Sanjaya Malakar. He can’t sing for fuck, but girls luurve him and he has _great_ hair – fantastic hair.

Sanjaya in Curls

He’s so bad that the judges have just about given up on saying anything real about his performances. Last nite Simon Cowell’s comment was (pointing to a crying, sobbing 12 year-old girl in the audience) ‘I think that little girl’s face says it all’.
Don’t believe me? Watch his performance on youtube.

Sanjaya does the British Invasion

And it’s not people like VoteForTheWorst.com that are keeping him there. Sure, they might think they are; but the reality is that it is Sanjaya’s real fans – real fans, that are voting for him in their millions.
Why? Here’s why.

Sanjaya makes em Cry

One of the reasons I dislike American Idol is that it has always had a conceited attitude towards the pop aesthetic and I am convinced that Simon Cowell is to blame for this.
Sure, he does understand what it takes to be a pop success, but he just cannot help himself in pushing his vision of what a great pop singer should be; soaring vocals, diva emoting and power balad performances.
In short, he’s a sucker for soul diva power performances[3].
Something Sanjaya is not.

Sanjaya does Lounge

In all the seasons up until now Simon and co. have gotten their wish. They’ve been able to steer America’s votes towards the power balad heavies and away from the power pop rubbish hotties.
But no more; Sanjaya is rubbish and the kids love it!

Sanjaya does Gwen Stefani – seriously

If he wins[4] it will be a disaster for AI’s high standards. But even if he doesn’t it still poses a serious problem for the show.
Sure, he’s popular and generates millions of votes[5] – but he’s shit to watch.
It makes for really bad television.

Of course there have been some fun that has come out of this whole thing.
Sanjaya was recently named Maxim’s Girl of the Day – yeah!

Update: Sanjaya was finally voted off last nite – Simon Cowell survives another year.

When the result was announced, Malakar wiped away tears and got a big hug from LaKisha Jones, the next lowest vote-getter.
“I’m fine,” he told Ryan Seacrest. “It was an amazing experience.”
“I can promise you: We won’t soon forget you,” Seacrest replied.

[1] which is about half of what I find painful – I absolutely _hate_ Paula Abdul; not her person, of course, but her comments, so smooshy. yuck.
[2] and if I had to guess I would say that the only thing Simon Cowell fears more than Ryan Seacrest leaving would be for him to lose control of who wins the thing.
[3] Avril Lavigne wouldn’t get past the auditions in AI, but who’s number 1 on Billboard? exactly.
[4] which is possible seeing as he has made it to the top seven.
[5] and votes = loyalty = advertising gold