Archive for January, 2007

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Jan
31
2007

The first great album of 2007?

Thanks to a mail-order mix-up mentioned in a previous thread, Ninja Tune were kind enough to send me a promo copy of the new Amon Tobin album, Foley Room. For quite some time I’ve considered Tobin to be one of the best artists around who construct music completely out of samples, but on this album he’s taken a slightly different approach. He still samples, but rather than using records as his source as in the past this time he uses field recordings of all sorts of things. There are animals, from lions to ants, also there are various machines, ranging from industrial equipment to toys, and all sorts of other things. On top of this he also recorded samples from musicians including the Kronos Quartet. All of this is not exactly groundbreaking, and in the accompanying documentary he admits as much, but it presented all sorts of new challenges and inspirations for him. The results are superb, the album fits in with his great back catalogue, but the new approach also has brought something fresh. It will be out in early March, in the meantime there is a single available as a download only from Bleep.

Posted in Music | Comments Off

Jan
31
2007

Maths Degrees at Half Price

The Labor party propose to halve the cost of maths and science degrees. An excellent suggestion, though in my opinion it doesn’t really get to the heart of the current problems with the mathematical sciences in Australia as outlined in this recent study (see also commentary on this at Larvatus Prodeo), the real problem is the massive funding cuts to universities by the Howard government which have hit less industry-oriented faculties like maths and pure sciences (and also others such as the Arts) particularly hard as universities depend more on outside funding. Furthermore there is a change towards more vocational courses (and less demanding ones) as universities compete for the student dollar, leaving the fundamental disciplines struggling.
So what has Howard done for the mathematical sciences lately? Well, he asked Australia’s first Fields medalist Terence Tao what country he was from. Of course if Howard knew more about the state of the mathematical sciences he’d actually ask “what country did you go to?” (link to PDF).

UPDATE: The education minister disagrees with Labor’s plan, basically because it won’t fix the problems … the problems that her Government created that is. The universities on the other hand are rather keen on the plan. Of course what the minister says is not in total disagreement with what I said, I also don’t think it will fix everything, but I do think that something has to be done and this would achieve some good.

Posted in Maths, Politics | Comments Off

Jan
31
2007

[gigs] Mr Scruff, Mad Professor, The Evens (Ian MacKaye), Pivot

There’s a few new things worth mentioning – firstly Ian MacKaye formerly of Minor Threat, Embrace (the Washington DC proto-emo band, not the UK group) and Fugazi (who are on hiatus) has a new group called The Evens which is a duo with Amy Farina (formerly of the Warmers, with Ian’s brother Alec). They are playing on Saturday 17th February at somewhere called the urtext ballroom. I’ve never heard about it before, but a search turned up this blog where an address of level 2, 14 Grenfell St is given. Nice to see that someone else is spreading the word on Adelaide events (rather more comprehensively than I am), I’ll add a link to my sidebar.
Secondly the full WOMADelaide lineup has been announced and there is plenty more good stuff, in particular I’m very keen on Mr Scruff and The Mad Professor, both from the UK. Mr Scruff records for the always excellent Ninja Tune label (more about them below), and has contributed to their Solid Steel series, which are about the best DJ mixes around at the moment. Mad Professor is a dub producer ppossibly best known for his work with Massive Attack. I’ve also heard good things about Etran Finatawa from Niger.

Also in March, on the 3rd at the Rocket Bar, is a show by Sydney band Pivot. I saw them in Sydney once and can definitely recommend them, also I’ve been listening to their album Make Me Love You quite a bit and really enjoy it. They feature some mebers on Triosk who played a fantastic show at the Wheaty last year, but Pivot are less jazz than Triosk, they’ve got more of a post-rock vibe, Tortoise circa TNT. To be honest there are too many bands with that particular vibe (especially from Sydney, that ’98 tour seems to have had a particularly big effect there), Pivot are one that I can recommend seeing.
I won’t bother repeating the complete listing as I did in the emails, since it can easily be found here (by clicking on the gigs tag), instead I’ll just mention new items, and list anything in the immediate future as a reminder.

Finally, the what’s on the stereo bit. This week it’s a big pile of Ninja Tune promos that they sent me to compensate for an error in an order I got from them (except for the last item, and for the Hexstatic one which was in the original order)… I would say that they more than compensated for it, so thanks Ninja Tune!

Amon Tobin – Foley Room cd+dvd (Ninja Tune)
Mr Scruff – Mrs Cruff cd (Ninja Tune)
Hexstatic – Master View cd+dvd (Ninja Tune)
Daedelus – Denies the Day’s Demise cd (Ninja Tune)
Coldcut – Everything is Under Control cdep (Ninja Tune)
ZerodB – Bongos, Bleeps & Basslines cd (Ninja Tune)
Ammoncontact – With Voices cd (Ninja Tune)
Ollie Teeba – DJ Mix cd (Ninja Tune)
Steinski/Mr Scruff/Flexus – RolitoMix 3″ cd (Ninja Tune)
Four Tet vs Pole – Pole vs Four Tet EP 12″ (Leaf)

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Jan
31
2007

Desalination Plant for Adelaide

This week the South Australian opposition leader proposed a desalination plant for Adelaide, more detail here as well.

The model for the proposal is the recently constructed desalination plant in Perth. This plant has some excellent features, it uses reverses osmosis which is the most energy efficient method that we currently have for desalination, and it is powered by renewable energy (a wind farm). So why don’t I agree with the proposal?

The motivation seems to largely be political point scoring – trying to be populist by saying that they can get rid of the water restrictions. The overall goal has to be sustainability in our use of water resources. Our supply of fresh water is limited, so it is very tempting to make some more from the vast expanse of salt water nearby, but we have to realise that there is an energy cost involved in this. Often evaluations of whether a desalination plant is worthwhile compare the monetary cost of water from different options, but this fails to take into account that the cost of the energy used in desalination may increase. Really it is a matter of shifting from one resource (water) to another (energy), and while there may be instances where this is a sensible move (perhaps in Perth, but I don’t know enough about the situation there. The small scale plant at Rottnest Island certainly sounds reasonable). The opposition’s motivation here ignores the need for sustainability, rather they want everyone to continue with our current water usage – in particular they mention keeping our gardens green – but we have to think about whether sustaining gardens consisting of plants unsuitable for our environment is a sensible use of our energy resources.

If a desal plant was to be powered by renewable energy then why would this be a problem? We have to consider our overall energy usage. To deal with global warming we need to greatly restrict our CO2 emissions, and realistic models on how to do this involve a combination of the use of renewable energy, and a decrease in energy use via increased efficiency. Is it efficient using desalination to provide water? At the moment we are very wasteful in our use of water resources – and this is exactly a problem that water restrictions address. Rather than desalinating seawater to water our gardens we should reconsider what sort of gardens we should have. We should use rainwater tanks, and recycling of grey water, recycling of stormwater using wetlands (as is done by the City of Salisbury) and so on. We should make the most of the water that comes naturally first. Essentially I think that the task ahead of us in dealing with our energy usage is difficult enough as it is, without compounding it by using it to solve our water problems.
It may appear that some water recycling methods / tanks etc are more expensive, but these are long term solutions for achieving sustainability, rather than the band-aid solutions of desal which relies on our uncertain energy future, and if used to enable continued inneficient usage of water will eventually lead us back to the same point anyway – so why not look at reducing usage now, rather than getting more water. As we are forced to cut emissions energy will be more expensive, and any economic advantages of desal may be eroded. We can’t just keep getting more water by using more energy – this is not sustainable!
I should point out that in the News Ltd article linked above, it is mentioned that the Liberals’ policy also includes recycling of grey water and rain water tanks – this is commendable.

It has also been suggested that this plan would help the Murray River, however the impact of taking 45 GL per year from seawater, while a large amount compared with the 119 GL per year we take from the Murray, is very small compared with the 12903 GL taken in total from the Murray-Darling system (source, pdf). This is not to say that reducing our usage from the river is not a good thing, but I don’t think that Adelaide has a large enough impact to use it as justification for a desal plant, rather we should efficiently use the rain that falls in the Mount Lofty ranges and Adelaide plains.

There is one other aspect that I would like to consider briefly – is there a significant detrimental environmental impact from a desal plant? At least one Adelaide marine biologist thinks so. It is easy to think that the sea is so huge that we can’t do that much damage, but I imagine that when people started building smokestacks they didn’t imagine that we would have a significant impact on the atmosphere. The problem here is that there could be some rather large local effects. As anyone who has been to an Adelaide beach would know, the Gulf St Vincent isn’t exactly the open ocean, so the salt removed might stay in the area. This could affect local ecosystems and the long term operation of the plant if its intake was increasingly saline. These problems aren’t necessarily insurmountable but could present some extra hurdles.

Posted in Adelaide, Politics | 4 Comments »

Jan
25
2007

[gigs] I am Damo Suzuki

Actually I’m not, but then again, neither was Mark E. Smith when he sang that. The real Damo Suzuki, former singer with CAN on such classic albums as Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi (I can say that Future Days may well be is a classic too, but I haven’t now that I’ve heard it), is coming to Adelaide! It should be a great show, while his stint in CAN was a long time ago (over 30 years), I can vouch for his recent form after his brilliant collaboration with Sixtoo a couple of years ago.
February is, in fact, shaping up very nicely. The other major new one would be Jurassic 5, though that’s looking a bit pricey for me. I am still rather keen on both The Handsome Family and Camera Obscura, not that I know much about either but I have heard good things.

By the way, The Don suggested keeping the “[gigs]” bit in the header (as in the old emails) so that those checking the RSS feed for gig guide stuff can quickly identify it.

Now for the gigs:
Tonight Neko Case at the Gov, I was initially keen, but now I’ll give it a miss. If you were going then you’d already be there!
Tomorrow night is Melvofest at the Prince Albert

February

  • 9th – Jurassic 5 at Thebby Theatre. About $70.
  • 16th – Damo Suzuki at the Rocket Bar
  • 17th – Spindickle support Dirtbird at the Grace Emily.
  • 17th – Macromantics at Rocket Bar
  • 21st – The Handsome Family at the Grace Emily ($35)
  • 28th – Camera Obscura at the Rocket Bar

March

  • 8th – Yo La Tengo at Fowlers with Clue to Kalo. $40
  • 9-11th – WOMADelaide which I’ve written about elsewhere.

April

  • 27th-28th – Herbie Hancock with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at the Festival Centre. Costs over $100, or about $80 concession. I guess orchestras don’t come cheap.

finally, by request (from Scares), the return of On the Stereo:

  • Various – Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Box Set 4cd (Flying Nun)
  • Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92 cd (R&S)
  • Tiger Trap – Tiger Trap cd (K)
  • Jane’s Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual cd (Warner Bros)
  • The Red Krayola – Singles 1968-2002 cd (Drag City)
  • Flanger - Templates 2LP (Ninja Tune)
  • DJ Food – Kaleidoscope 2LP (Ninja Tune)
  • The Fall – The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 6cd (Castle)
  • The Fall – Grotesque (After the Gramme) LP (Rough Trade)
  • Low – Secret Name cd (Kranky)

Posted in Gigs | 6 Comments »

Jan
25
2007

I condemn those who disrespect the flag, and I condemn the Big Day Out

I seemed to have missed out on a lot of this business about the flag while I was busy sleeping to get over my cold. Oh well, better late than never.
The protocols on flying the Australian flag can be found here. Some excerpts:

The Australian National Flag should be displayed only in a manner befitting the national emblem. It should not be subjected to indignity or displayed in a position inferior to any other flag or ensign. The Flag normally takes precedence over all other national flags when flown in Australia. It should always be flown aloft and free and should not be allowed to fall or lie upon the ground.

The Australian National Flag should not be used as a covering of a statue, monument or plaque for an unveiling ceremony (a plain cover should be used); as a table or seat cover, or as a masking for boxes, barriers or intervening space between floor and ground level on a dias or platform.

When the Australian National Flag is raised or lowered, or when it is carried past in a parade or review, all present should face the Flag, men should remove their hats and all should remain silent. Those in uniform should salute.

There’s lots more at the site, but I’ve had a pretty good read, and while it doesn’t specifically rule out wearing it as a cape, I’m pretty sure that would be against the protocols, particularly since, unless you happened to be rather tall it would probably drag along the ground. The spilling of beer on the flag would also, I suspect be frowned upon. I don’t think it takes too much stretch of the imagination to suppose that threatening to punch someone for not kissing the flag brings it into disrepute and so is also against the protocols. We’ve heard statements from various politicians (excluding Andrew Bartlett who was a rare voice of reason on the matter – and who brought up the flag protocols – and also Sharon Bird) and the RSL this week but none to condemn this sort of treatment of the flag, despite their professed concern that the flag be respected.

On the other hand the organisers of the Big Day Out actively discouraged this sort of activity – so why do I condemn them? That’s because this year’s lineup looks pretty bloody ordinary to me. Now, I shouldn’t be too hard on Ken West since he got into the business by putting on tours by the greatest Australian band ever (no correspondence will be entered into), and I thought last year’s in Adelaide was fantastic (and as far as I saw, free of obnoxious nationalism) so maybe this is just an off year.

Coincidentally, Big Star Records have a competition on their mailing list where they ask you to give your dream BDO lineup (including bands from any era). I decided to stick to current bands who I haven’t seen to narrow the field a bit, here’s what I put:

A Silver Mt Zion
Dälek
Hood
The Fall
Larsen
Mouse on Mars
Joanna Newsom
Silver Jews
Sufjan Stevens
Subtle
You may notice that there are no Australian bands (if Peter Debnam ever gets into power he’ll have the patriotism police waiting for me at the NSW border), I assume that there’d be a load of locals as well & they restricted it to 10 so I just put in the
tourists.

For some excellent comments on the ban that never was and also the general state of the BDO, read Clem from the Age

If you didn’t get enough crazy knee jerk reactions from the politicians then you can check out the comments at Blogocracy. (note that I said crazy comments, not Tim Dunlop’s post)

I’ll throw in an acknowledgment to MGK for some of the ideas behind this post too.

There is other good commentary out there too, just follow the links from the links I’ve provided if you’re up for more.

Posted in Music, Politics | 4 Comments »

Jan
25
2007

The Liberals foot the bill for the Exclusive Brethren?

There have been a lot of questions asked about the anti-green ads placed in newspapers by members of the Exclusive Brethren.
Now this from Blogocracy: some of these ads were billed to the Liberal Party.

I think that the electorate deserves to know the full extent of the collaboration between the government and these religious extremists.

UPDATE: More on this from Bob Brown

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

Jan
25
2007

What are you doing for Australia Day?

Or so the TV ads ask. I guess the government have changed agencies or it would have been “what the bloody hell are you doing?”. I’m really not too sure why they feel the need to advertise it anyway, so people don’t accidentally go to work tomorrow? I think everyone will notice a public holiday, and will probably work out what it’s for. If they need to advertise a public holiday I think it’s the October long weekend, no-one ever seems to know what that’s about. I suppose it might be Labour Day, which would mean the coalition wouldn’t be so keen on advertising it.

Anyway, since the ads have posed the question I’ll answer it, ANTaR SA are holding a community picnic on the lawns beside Tandanya, here is their flyer for the event. It starts from 5pm and will include food, music and guest speakers from the new Aboriginal Alliance Coalition Movement.

Afterwards I’ll be going to Melvofest as previously mentioned.

Almost forgot – throughout the day and into the evening remember that 3d radio will have their top 100+1 for 2006

Posted in Adelaide, TV | Comments Off

Jan
24
2007

Je suis malade

Quelquefois j’écrirai en français pour pratiquer, si nécessaire vous pouvez aller ici pour traduire.

Parce que j’ai été malade pour quelque jours j’ai été occupé avec beaucoup de sommeil et les films d’Eric Rohmer. La sommeil parce que j’ai été très fatigué, et les films parce qu’ils me rendent la sensation meilleure. Aujourd’hui et hier j’ai regardé Conte d’hiver , La Femme de l’aviateur , L’Amour l’après-midi , et bien sûr, Le Rayon vert.

Corrections dans les commentaires s’il vous plaît!

Posted in Cinema, Français | Comments Off

Jan
21
2007

Tour Down Under: Stage 5

Today it all comes to what should be an exciting conclusion with Elmiger just 1 second ahead of Menzies, and a number of other riders within seconds of the lead as well.

There is more wind & rain in Adelaide today, and I left my bike on the other side of town, so it looks like I’ll be reporting back from in front of the TV rather than from the race. Well done to 10 for showing the final stage live, next time a nightly highlights package would be great as well though.

UPDATE 13:45 CST – The race is underway, looks like plenty of people weren’t put off by the weather and have gone out to see it. On the TV coverage Phil Liggett was commenting on the uncharacteristic Adelaide weather and suggested, as the riders went alongside the Torrens, that in normal conditions here everyone would be wanting to jump in for a swim! He obviously hasn’t seen it up close then.

UPDATE 14:12 CST – Getting close to the first sprint, just over a lap. The UniSA team are all up front and aren’t letting anyone get away, so they can get their man Karl Menzies a time bonus to put him back in front of the GC. Current GC leader Elmiger isn’t far off the front.

14:23 CST – Elmiger won the sprint! His AG2R team attacked the UniSA riders on Montifiore hill and from there Elmiger sat on Menzies’ back wheel down to the sprint, while there was a bit of confusion at the UniSA riders tried to ensure that Menzies would get the points, Elmiger made a move up the outside around McEwen who was also in there. Unfortunately for Menzies his teammate Allan Davis looks to have crossed second (despite a desperate last minute attempt to pull his bike back), so Elmiger should have extended his lead by a couple of seconds. The next sprint will be on lap 12, the UniSA boys are going to need a big effort to keep Menzies in it.

14:46 CST – Brochard won the second sprint to give him a good lead in the points classification (which appears to be a blue, rather than green, jersey). He was part of a 12 man breakaway which didn’t include anyone from the head of the GC. There was also a KOM but it wasn’t really contested and didn’t involve anyone who could threaten current KOM leader Dumoulin .

Now the field are all back together.

15:22 CST – McEwen won the final sprint but there is a chance of a protest, so it’s not official yet. There is no doubt, however, that Martin Elmiger is the overall winner with a lead of 3 seconds over Karl Menzies, thanks to his fantastic sprint on the eighth lap, and also his third place finish yesterday.

FINAL RESULTS (almost) – it’s official, Robbie McEwen is the stage 5 winner. Laurent Brochard was the best sprinter, Simon Clarke the best you rider, and SouthAustralia.com/AIS were the best team. I’m not sure whether Serge Pauwels or Samuel Dumoulin is the King of the Mountains – it is all a bit confusing because there was a sprint for it on the wrong lap.

UPDATE: I can confirm that Pauwels did win KOM.

Posted in Adelaide, Cycling | 2 Comments »

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