Peter found a lucrative business making damn good wine in SA…
Category: learning curve
OMD – they’ve still got it.
Propped up by Corenza C and Red Bull, I made it out to Grand West last night for the first OMD concert in SA since 1994.
This isn’t likely to be the most impartial review you’ve ever read. It was never going to be, because I could listen to 80’s synthpop forever and a day and still enjoy every single second of it. And when it comes to 80’s synthpop, OMD were.. are… it.
No pretence from Andy McClusky that his dancing style is bizarre at best, nor that he’s getting on a bit.
On the the crowd’s reluctance to get involved:
Don’t be scared. I’m 53 and I’m still dancing like an idiot.
And then after a particularly energetic effort to Maid of Orleans:
It wasn’t dignified 25 years ago and it’s not got any better.
But at least I can still do it!
And he could. An admittedly generally sycophantic crowd were transported back to earlier times as they knocked out hit after hit, Paul Humphreys repeating those electronic riffs which kept us entertained on cassette all those years ago.
Considering this was “soulless” electronic music, there was passion and, strangely, almost a spiritual element to the performance.
Oh – and the new stuff isn’t bad either. This was a very pleasant surprise.
OMD wrote Electricity when they were 16 – a fact that a quick glance at the lyrics will confirm. But as we’ve mentioned before with these 80s bands, those lyrics worked back then. And, as Kraftwerk showed, the singing was rather incidental to the electronic beats and the keyboard themes.
Thankfully, OMD have moved on lyrically since then. But their recent stuff still holds true to their musical roots – and for me, that’s just great.
Robot Apocalypse
I’m full of snot and I want to go home and sleep so that I can attempt to enjoy OMD this evening.
Herewith then, via a link from @JacquesR, important information from XKCD on how the forthcoming robot apocalypse could affect us:
Here are a few snapshots of what an actual robot apocalypse might look like:
In labs everywhere, experimental robots would leap up from lab benches in a murderous rage, locate the door, and—with a tremendous crash—plow into it and fall over.
It’s very informative and very amusing. Go there and come back here tomorrow for a concert review (possibly).
Ugandan Discussions
I haven’t been there and hey, I’m a married man, so Uganda not a regular topic for discussion*.
I’ve heard many good things from friends and colleagues who have worked, lived and/or visited Uganda, but given the flu-like symptoms I am currently experiencing (and by flu-like, I mean flu-like and not influenza) (yet), I’m quite glad I haven’t been there.
Flu-like symptoms is how a cold starts. It’s also how influenza starts. And of course, it’s how Ebola infection first manifests itself. And that’s what is killing Ugandans left, right, but mainly centre right now.
Obviously, you guys will be the first to know when I start leaking blood from every orifice.
Baltic Belly
Yay! Microbiology makes the headlines again. For all the right reasons. Sort of.
Numerous reports across the media this morning on this paper which appears to indicate that Vibrio spp. gastrointestinal infections are on the rise in the Baltic states due to climate change and the rising temperature of that sea.
Vibrio is the genus that causes cholera and other nasty bowel disturbances. It’s nothing new, even in temperate climes, but it’s generally more associated with warmer areas, especially – as I recall from my days in the Oxford lab – the entirety of South East Asia. Holidaymakers generally brought more than just memories and a ceramic elephant back from Thailand.
Some Vibrio yesterday (they’re not actually this big though)
It seems that for every degree that the Baltic sea temperature increases, the number of Vibrio cases rises by almost 200%. Not much of an issue there to be honest, because we’re starting from a very low baseline, but since the Baltic “represents, to our knowledge, the fastest warming marine ecosystem examined so far anywhere on Earth” and appears to be getting about 6-7 degrees warmer each century, it may serve as a decent model for other infections and geographical locations.
Changing patterns of infection due to the local environment is nothing new. Malaria was once present across Europe and North America, yet we only see imported cases these days. (That said, I once contracted malaria in London, but that was in a lab at Imperial College.) (Don’t try this at home.)
Anyway, even if you are travelling to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia or Latvia, don’t panic too much. The likelihood of you getting cholera is very, very small. Although, if the photo above is anything to go by, you may want to avoid the local sausages just to make sure.