Masters of war - Bob Dylan

Couldn't find the live version which is even better, but this will do.

It keeps on surprising me how much hate Dylan was able to put in this song.

TEDxLondon

So I got the chance to go to TEDxLondon!

And so I went, got there Just in time, pouring rain and extended diner times almost interfered.(not my photo)
Very nice organisation, very nice venue.
An inspirational talk by Ben Keene. He started his own 'tribe' on an island without anything to start with but the idea itself.
Chris Williams talked about the use of computers in engineering, and why they aren't always positive for creative thinking.
Rachel Wingfield spoke about how growing food in city environment can be a positive experience.
Michael McGrath talked about micro-loans that help poor women start up there own little businesses in Africa. Not the most sexy talk, but probably about the project with the most practical results.

I could go into depth about there talks, but that probably wouldn't be much fun to read. Here you can find more info if interested.

Anyhow, I felt privileged to be able to attend the evening as it had the whole TED atmosphere going on. That and the fact that the whole TEDx-movement will only keep on growing. Tickets where very hard to get (sold out minutes afte being available), hope I will be able to get hold of some again in the future.



On another topic,
As a lot of people probably have heard of by now, I've recently had the unpleasant experience of been robbed (cell phone, mp3-player, some money). I was somehow able to talk the robbing duo into returning my wallet as my ID (and other cards) where in there. I normally never carry my ID but I needed it the day before.
Anyway, no real harm done. It did leave me a bit shaky though, you don't expect knives to show up, especially as it happened just outside my college-pub. But I do think I'll be alright, it makes you more suspicious about others in public places though. In a strange way I actually feel kind of sorry for the duo. Cheers to all the people who got my mind of things.

I was going to post the whole story on how the pub owner got in touch with the police afterwards and on how it took me several trips down-town to get hold of somebody from the robbery-squad. But that's not really the point so I left it out.
The real point being the fact they (very likely) arrested the robbers (because of the fact robbing girl-boy-duos are very rare). So, thumbs up to the Islington Robbery squad. It doesn't really solve problems, but it surely ain't a bad thing either.


On another note,
I made pizza, there's no such thing as too much cheeze.

On yet another note,
It feels like it's freezing cold these days, walking around London.

On another note,
I'm of for another practical session night-shift.

Feltham

-this post has been delayed for quite a while due to too much stuff going on, but here it is at last-




(feltham church)

After an anonymous tip from somebody from HQ of Heikant's own Queen-base I decided to go on a trip to Feltham (it's not particularly close to South-Tottenham). Feltham is the birth-town of Brian May and the english home-town of Freddie Mercury.

The first permanent english memorial to Freddie was going to be revealed.
Offcourse, I had to be there (second row !).

Honoured guests: Freddie's mother, family and Brain May.
Also, Mercury, world's most renowned Queen tribute-band, played a free gig (only saw one song because I wanted to get a nice spot at the unveiling)

Funny thing: The security people told everybody to go to the parking lot where Mercury was playing, there was a large video screen set up, so everybody could follow the ceremony from there. Spots at the unveiling-site itself where scarce.
But then again, if I wanted to see the event on a screen, I could just as well have stayed at home and watched on my laptop.. So I stood my ground and waited, with some very pleasing results.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

(Mercury)
(Freddie's mother giving a speech)

(Freddie's memorial star)

(Brian M, crowd close-ups don't get much better than this)

(Yes, it was kind of a upheaval)

(What it was all about. Freddie Mercury, "Lover of live, singer of songs")

Freshly restocked fridge, I'm calling mtv cribs.

Were just passing by

Actually went to mc donalds today. Time crunch, fast and easy.
Wasn't bad either.
Cheese burger, fries and ketchup for £ 1.98. I can't even buy meat at tesco's for that.

Makes you think



Also went to see "Enemy Planet", nice show.
http://www.myspace.com/enemyplanetmusic

Swine Flu

(and that's without general poverty) via

Crazy Korea

now that's just sad. (period)




via


yes, I know, angry feelings huh?

TEDx

You are invited to register for the next TEDx London.

If you would like to attend, please register for your ticket by clicking "Respond here" below and fill in your details in the registration form.

I just got an email from TEDxLondon! I couldn't be more happy. Fingers crossed I won't be having anything else to do.

If you got 20 minutes to spare, this might be interesting:

Tourist

So I've been wondering arroud a little bit more down-town.

Went to Trafalgar square (you know, the famous square with the pilon and the lions), spent an afternoon in the national gallery (saw paintings of Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeers, Van Gogh, Monet, Seurat, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, ..) Actually, I think a saw too many painings in one day. But I don't complain, the admission was completely free.
















http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Afterwards I passed by Oxford street, one of the best known and biggest shopping streets in the world, with stores like selfridges etc. Not that I had anything to spend there, but still nice to pass by. They just reopened Oxford circus, and made it the first diagonally-passable circus in london. I walked it, diagonally offcourse, it was funny because people weren't used to it and kept bumping into eachother.
http://oxford-circus-diagonal-crossing-opens
Ofxord street ends into west end, where all the big theatres are, including the dominion where queen's "we will rock you" has been playing for 8 years. Hope to go and see it one day.


On a school related note,
I had a practical session on Sunday morning at 6am (I must say I like late-night sessions a lot more), had some time to spare, set up some mics, recorded some guitars and vocals. Lots of fun.

For the more tech-geeky people, the vocal mic is a Neumann TLM 103 (which costs a small grand! But I didn't knew that at the time), the guitar mics are a Calrec cc01, a Neuman km84 and something from dpa. Yes I know, you'd be scared just to pick them up.

Indoors

I had been indoors for quite some time, due to two cancelled lectures.
So I got out to see some more london.

Direction: westminster

(cliche)

Also went to the movieum housed in londen county hall (the blue lit building), bit of a confusing place with identical corridors in all directions, but a lot of interesting stuff there. Plus a temporary Beatles exposition.

(original flash gordon script)

(original nimbus 2000)

(the original used spongebob background)

All good fun, then, offcourse, typical london weather set in..