Ernesto Update

Well, I thought I was going to be severely disappointed by Ernesto when I woke up this morning and it wasn't even raining. But the rain came eventually and now after about 5 hours, I have to say, there are some pretty impressive puddles. Mind you, it hasn't reached the levels of last thursday's thunderstorm. Here's a cool satellite image I found on the NOAA site:



It looks like we'll only get a glancing blow from Ernesto now. the current storm track prediction says it will make landfall somewhere just north of Myrtle Beach near the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

I went into work this morning but MUSC was deserted so I ended up coming back home after lunch, just in case the water got too high. So I'll leave you with some pictures from my walk home, around 2pm.





I'll update if anything amazing happens in the next few hours. Otherwise I'll just be on my neighour's porch, drinking beer and watching cars try to drive through the lake that was Ashley Avenue.

- Mr. Ed

Update to the update - 11:50pm
Nothing has happened. No, seriously, nothing at all has happened. Ernesto was crap. I mean a half day at work/school is all well and good, but it has to be justified with a least a semi-serious storm; not some pansy-esque, pretence at a proper weather like we had today. Well, it looks like there'll be clear skies tomorrow and that means only one thing, back to the grind.

Nah-night.

Dog loves cake

Steinbrenner spotted this the other day and told me about it. We passed one of the posters last night so I took this photo for the P Club.

As opposed to all those dogs that are just 'so-so' about cake?

'Ello Ernesto...

It seems Tropical Depression Ernesto is coming to town. Once Ernesto moves off Florida and over the Atlantic again it should strenghten to a minimal tropical storm again, but the way everyone is behaving around here you'd think it was a category 5 monster: Classes are cancelled tomorrow morning at MUSC, there's a voluntary evacuation of Charleston county, and shelters are opening up at 3pm today.


The map above is from the NOAA National Hurricane Center website. Hurricane central at weather.com is also pretty good for following storms but I prefer NOAA. And just for good measure, here is our local NOAA site.

Anyway it looks like tomorrow will be pretty wet and stormy - just like last thursday, really. Naturally, I'll keep the P club up to date on any exciting storm-related developments.

- Mr. Ed

My Goodness, my mantid!

I have to say, I had given up all hope of ever seeing Milton, Myrtle or any of their twiggy brethren again a long time ago. I assumed that they had moved on to fresh hunting grounds or been eaten by a bird or something. So it was quite a surprise to see a very large mantid clinging to the plametto by my porch on Saturday. I have to credit my new (and very nice) neighbour Alison for spotting it. Oddly enough we had just been chatting about my mantids, since she had seen one on my mint plant when she came to look at the flat next door a month or so ago. I had just finished lamenting their demise/departure when she looked over my shoulder and said, "Hey, isn't that one over there?"



And by golly was it ever a mantid! The fucker was huge - about 4 1/2 inches long and brown not green like they had been (the fully mature Carolina Mantid is brown). I don't know what sort of scuffle it had got into, but it seemed to be missing one of it's front claw-leg-type-things. Since the front legs are the business bit of a mantid I'm not sure how well a one-legged guy will fair in the long term. Anyway, it stayed on the palm frond all afternoon and evening but when I checked in the morning there was no sign of it. I can't be sure that it was one of mine but I'm going to assume that it hadn't travelled that far since it didn't have wings yet. Around this time of year Mantids shed their skin a final time and develop wings so they can fly off and find a mate. For the males mating is the end of things. In fact, sometimes they don't even get to finish that; often the females turn around and bite their heads off in the middle of copulation. Luckily (for the species not the individual) their bodies are able to finish the job with out the head - a trait that may not be unique to Mantids according to some of my female friends. Having devoured her mate, the female then lays eggs in a foamy substance that hardens into an egg case and shortly afterwards joins her mate in the hereafter. The next spring the little nymphs hatch and it all starts again. Oh, the circle of life! You'll pardon me if I don't break into a rendition of one of Elton John's most stomach-churning* efforts at this point. Instead, I think I'll take my sangria outside and see if I can find the blighter again.


-Mr. Ed

*Which is really saying something.

Soulful Saturday - VII

After a few weeks away I thought it was time to bring Souful Saturday back. So here's Otis Redding, on tour in Europe in 1967, singing "try a little tenderness."



If you wanted to catch up and watch some of the Soulful Saturdays you may have missed, here are links to the the previous posts:

Soulful Saturday
Soulful Saturday - Encore un fois!
Soulful Saturday - le troisieme partie
Souful Saturday - #4
Soulful Saturday Five!
Soulful Saturday: The Sixth Serving


- Mr. Ed

Back to my southern stables

I got back to chucktown late last night. After 10 days of lovely weather at home it was a bit of a shock to walk through the sliding glass doors of the airport and into a wall of hot humidness outside. We woke up this morning to a rather impressive thunderstorm. I went out on the porch and watched the street fill with a foot or so of water in a about 10 minutes. Then Steinbrenner came running out of the shower - the shower! - when a flash-and-crash was so close it shook the whole house. I told her what I thought everyone in the whole world knows - that it isn't the best idea to stand in a column of water during an electrical storm. It's still coming down like stair rods right now, actually. Bugger me that was a big bolt close by.
Anyway, we had a really wonderful time back in blighty and now we're safely, but a little sadly, back in Charleston again. Bloody hell, there must be two feet of water in the street now. Lightning seems to be moving away a bit though.

Full details and pictures of the trip when I can get around to it. Steiners just brought me some coffee and I think we'll sit out on the porch watch the cars swim down the street for a while.


- Mr. Ed

Until further notice BA has halted all flights from the UK.

BA announced:
"I ain't getting on no plane, crazy fool"


Well thats super.


- Philip Via Matt

Well I'm really looking forward

to flying back home now.

- Mr. Ed

Synchrotron photos

Outside SER-CAT - the attractive walkway lighting.

another view of the outside of SER-CAT.

In the hutch on the BM station. The monitor in the background (it says "top camera" below the monitor) shows a zoom in on a crystal, which is held in a loop with a droplet of cryo-protectant. The big metal cylinder at the bottom of the picture is the liquid nitrogen reservoir for the robotics set-up. We haven't used it yet but it should really speed things up when it's up and runnning.

The goniometer (blocky thing on the right that says "270") is where we mount our crystals. At the end (on the left) of it you can see a thin copper pin and at the end of that very thin hair-like thing. that's the loop where the crystal is held (which you can't see because it's microscopic). The cold head (the thing pointing diagonally down from the top left towards the pin and loop) bathes the crystal in a stream of dry nitrogen cooled to 100K (around -180C). The x-ray collumator (or source) is obscured form view by the cold head, but it would be shooting just to the right of you if you were standing where the picture is taken from. The thin metal thing that comes from the bottom left and ends in front of the loop and pin is the direct beam stop and it is lined up with the crystal and the x-ray collimator.

Wires. They look important don't they - buggered if I know what they do.

The work station. Three monitors of non-stop gek action. On the left is the latest diffraction image collected (smeary blck ring-like thing - you can see the white shadow of the beam stop on the image) in the middle is the control panel where we enter our data collection parameters and the right is the archiving window. You can also see our lab book, where we write down everything we do, becuase even - sorry especially - in this computer age, nothing beats a good old-fashioned pen and paper for keeping records. That red cylinder is a water cup.

The view down the corridor that goes all the way around the accelerator ring at the back of the experiment hall. Those are the tricycles that provide endless fun at 3 in the morning and you can just about see the curve of the corridor. It takes about 10 minutes to go all the way around the ring at a leisurely cycling pace.

Cryst-to-the izzle oh-graphizzle! Too much coffee and the discovery of fingerless gloves led to this nonsense in the ID station hutch. The gloves (actually cotton gloveliners) are very useful for keeping our fingers warm when we dip them in liquid nitrogen to manipulate our crystals, so why some genius thought they'd order fingerless gloves is beyond me. When we turned up though there was a bag of 200 of the fingerless ones and only four very nasty used pairs with fingers. We'd left our own at home, naturally. I probably have some finger-related disease as a result.

More silliness.

And yet more silliness when Swanny arrived around 11ish. I think Neil still had the tape on his back at this point.

Thunderstorms out of the window on the way home!

-Mr. Ed

Synchrotron Sunday

Update 2:35am: So I thought I'd go ahead and start a new post for the 'new day,' not that I've noticed much of a change mind you. On the plus side, I'm collecting data set number two though - a substrate soak no less! In other news, Ailsa has just made a fresh pot of coffee, Neil is fast asleep on the sofa (driver's privilege) and I'm taking the spare moments my data collection has afforded me to 'get my blog on.'

We haven't had an update on the scores in a while. Well, it looks like Ailsa's streets ahead - must be 6 or 7 now - where as Neil and I are level-pegging on a rather paltry two.

Just before Neil fell asleep I finally told him that for the last 4 hours or so he'd had piece of tape on his back that said "I eat cock, 'cause I love cock, give me cock," at which point he pulled a piece of tape off my back that said "kick me" that he'd put there about an hour before. Oh the japery! Yes it truly is a laugh a minute an hour around here. And blimey - just eleven more of our earth-hours to go!

Update 5:22am: Not enjoying this at all. Not at all. More coffee.

Update 6:09am: The sun is up. I feel quite odd. Situation summary -we're running on empty and rapidly out of time. More coffee? I couldn't - I'm spent.

Update 7:27am: I just went outside a minute ago - it's a lovely morning. There's a dewy freshness to the air which is a welcome change to the humidity we're used to in Charleston. It reminds me of early mornings camping in France, when I was little. And it looks a bit like Northern France around here actually; open, ever-so-slightly rolling countryside that's vaguely industrial and pretty dull. There's cow parsley and cornflowers and it even smells earthy and a bit like France. Perhaps Illinois is approriately named after all. Or maybe my exhaustion is getting the bette of me.

Update 8:45am My eyes keep closing involuntarily and I think I'm going to lose my mind any minute. We're doing everything we can to finish early. We have just over two hours left on the ID beamline and just over 5 hours left on the BM beamline - though we won't use it all. Hopefully we can get out of here by 12:30 or 1pm and then get to the airport and have a (well deserved) drink or seven. Just over 12 hours until we get back to chucktown and therefore around 13or so until bed time. That's assuming there are no delays with the TWO MOTHER-FUCKING FLIGHTS we have between us and our beds. I swear, if there are any delays then some people will be very very sorry. I'm not in the mood to be effed around.

I want to sleep, to lie down and close my eys, that's all I want to do. It's not much to ask is it?

Oh yeah, if you were wondering about the names of the beamlines... ID stands for "insertion device" (heh heh). I don't know how it works, but I do know that there is an important part called a "wiggler." Seriously. The BM stands for "bending magnet" (snicker). Presumably it's got some magnets somewhere and they bend things. It might be a bit more complicated than that, I'm not sure - not sure I care right now, anyway.

Update 11:05am Well, we've stopped work on the ID beamline and handed it over to some geks from UGA. Just one or two more crystals to shoot on the BM beamline and it'll be time to head to the airport - not a moment too soon, I might add. We're quiting a little early, but what's an hour or two when you haven't slept in 27 hours? Quite. Bring on the over-priced airport booze says I.

So this is the last post from SER-CAT. If I don't instantly fall into a coma-like sleep when I get home this evening I might post a few photos of some of the highlights of our trip. You know...

"lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip its been.
Truckin, I'm a goin home. whoa whoa baby, back where I belong,
Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin on.
Hey now get back truckin home."


-Mr. Ed

Synchrotron Saturday

So we're here at SERCAT and we've started to collect data. So far the results are less than impressive. First, Neil mounted a loop with no crystal. Then I mounted what looked like a nice crystal but it turned out to be rather iced-up. Despite attempts at annealing (read putting my ID card in front of the cryo-stream for a second) we decided to ditch it and add another crystal to the rapidly growing "wall of shame."

So, we're off to a flying start and there's just 26 hours to go!

Update 12:15pm: Neil decided to throw his second crystal on the ground. Oh this is going to be a long (dare I say hard?) day and night (and then day).

Update 2:37pm: The current data set score is: Me - 0, Neil - 0, Ailsa - 0.5. We're about to get the second beamline up and running and thus double our chances of not getting any decent data. Super!

Update 4:01pm: Still no good data for me. Neil got lucky on the the other beamline. We're going for a little ride around on the tricylces now.

Update 7:27pm: Things took a turn for the better as I finally had a crystal that diffracted reasonably well. Collected a nicely redundant data set - redundancy being a good thing in this instance.

Whilst waiting for the data collection to run we started drinking coffee. A lot of coffee. Then we found the fingerless gloves. The gloves (and the cafeine buzz) inspired the manufacture of a trucker hat from spare paper and tape. Crys-to-the-izzle-ography bi-atches!

Lord only knows what awaits us in the sleep-deprived/stimulant-loaded hours to come.

Update 9:54pm: Things were getting bad around 8:30ish, so we had a little break and went to pick-up pizza. It was most yummers. Now we're re-fueled and ready for the night's work - no sleep 'til Brooklyn, or some such nonsense.


Update 12:34am: A little while ago we had a visit from our chum Swanny. He used to work in our lab, now he's a post-doc at Mount Sinai in NYC. Coincidentally he (and most of his lab) was here at the APS this weekend too. They were working at the beamline in Sector 17 - IMCA CAT - run by a load of big Pharma companies. Anyway, he popped by and we had a little breaky and a chat - which was nice. His lab has finished for the evening and he was on his way back to the guesthouse and a comfy bed - lucky bastard. We, on the other hand, are only half way through - I don't mind telling you, it's getting pretty old now...

Time for a slice of cold pizza, I fancy.

- Mr. Ed

Oh the acronyms!

In a few hours Neil and Ailsa (two work chums) and I are off for a weekend of fun at the APS, part of the ANL (run by the DoE) where we'll be using the SER-CAT beamline.

What does all this mean? Well I know you don't really care, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

The Argonne National Laboratory, is a U.S. Department of Energy facility located just outside of Chicago. We're going to collect data at the world's second brightest X-ray source, the Advanced Photon Source and here are some quick facts about the APS. Here's a schematic of the beamlines at the APS. We're going to be at ID-22/BM-22 since MUSC is a member of the South East Regional Collaborative Access Team or SER-CAT .

We'll get up there tonight and go to bed early and get lots of rest. Then we'll get up early saturday, work for 27 hours straight - collecting reams of stonking data we hope - and fly home, dazed and confused, on sunday evening. I'm planning to blog through the night on saturday, worky-work permitting of course, so stay tuned to the P club for updates on the gekkery!

- Mr. Ed

Soulful Saturday: The sixth serving.

Hello there, welcome, and hello again. This week I came across several rather fabulous clips on Youtube from a 1973 concert called Wattstax. I didn't know much about it so I did a little research and it turns out, it was quite a big deal. The 1972 Watts Festival commemorated the 1965 Watts riots, seen by many as a turning point in the African-American civil rights struggle. The culmination of the festival was a concert, hosted by Stax Records, dubbed Wattstax. The concert has been likened to a 'Black Woodstock' and the line-up featured a veritable who's who of Stax recording artists at the time. A documentary of Wattstax was made and has recently been re-released on DVD with previously unseen footage. You can watch the trailer here. It looks like one for the netfix queue, if you ask me.

Here are two of my favourite clips:

The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
With an intro from Jesse Jackson.


Rufus Thomas - the Breakdown


I highly recommend having a hunt around youtube for more if you likey.

-Mr. Ed

Liverpool Trip with Beatles legacy link

I recently went on a trip to Liverpool. The meeting I had there was largely a waste of time but it meant I could actually have a good look around the city of culture 2008. I also wanted to see the cavern club.

On the train on the way up I found my seat on an extremely busy Virgin train. I found myself sitting next to a woman who was friendly and chatty. I had work to do but she didn't hesitate to keep the chat coming and after the 5th time my phone cut off (Rubbish Sony Erricsson work phone shite) I thought I would chat letty away to pass the time.

Now please read the following:


July 9, 1968

Oobledee [Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da] goes well and Eric Clapton plays a visit... Off to the pub for toasted cheese sarnies, later Paul went to the pub, with George, Neil and Pete for a pint. John and George guitars — Ringo drums for new version of "Revolution". Put up slide for kids and filmed Julie on it

So, I was on the way to Liverpool for my first visit and I mentioned to the woman that I wanted to see the Cavern club. I then asked her why she was going. Her grand mother was very old and she was visiting her before the inevitable happened. She had been putting this off but realised she should get on with it before it was too late etc etc. She then went to say that her dad worked at the Cavern, in fact he worked for the beatles, their whole career as a band. The above extract is taken from the diary of Mal Evans, Road manager and general best man of the beatles. I was talking to Julie.

I had heard of him but had no idea of the extent of the involvement he had. The last hour of the journey went very quickly, Julie enjoyed talking about him and the experiences she had growing up. She has photos of her as a little girl with all four beatles. She also told of his tragic death in the 70s, shot by the LAPD.

From time to time they find a box of his stuff - sketches, lyrics, photos etc and this gives them a couple of hundred grand here and there. But, as well as the diary he also wrote a book, which has remained unpublished. His mother would not allow it to be published in her lifetime as she felt he was hard done by the beatles.

At Liverpool lime street I gave Julie my card and said let me know about the book. I forgot my mobile number was on my card but I got a text the next day saying it was good to talk on the train and that she had got to see her gran who died while she was there a 7.40 pm. Which is the same time I was stood outside the Cavern.

So I think there will be a book coming out at some point by Mal Evans. For more on Mal see below:

By Scout (Tonto's Stead)

Mal Evans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malcolm Evans (May 27, 1935 – January 5, 1976) is best known as the roadie, assistant, and friend to the hugely popular rock band The Beatles.
Evans was working as a communications technician for the Post Office in 1962 when he first heard The Beatles perform at Liverpool's Cavern Club. He eventually became friends with the band, and was soon hired as roadie.
Evans drove the van for the band on tour, set up and tested their equipment, and then packed it all up again.
When The Beatles quit touring in 1966, Evans continued to be friends with the band and to work with them in the studio. Evans even contributed to many Beatles recordings, including lending his voice to "Yellow Submarine", playing the Hammond organ on "You Won't See Me", harmonica on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", tambourine on "Dear Prudence", trumpet on "Helter Skelter", contributing background vocals to "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" and the White Album outtake "What's The New Mary Jane" and counting off the measures in the breaks of the song "A Day in the Life" (Evans was also one of the five piano players simultaneously hitting the last chord of the song). Evans co-wrote the song "Fixing A Hole", from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, with Paul McCartney but agreed to be paid a one-off fee instead of receiving writing credit.
In the Let It Be film, Evans can also be seen playing the anvil during early versions of Paul McCartney's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", although he did not play it on the actual recording.
In 1968, Evans discovered the band Badfinger (then known as The Iveys) and introduced them to The Beatles, who eventually signed them to Apple Records. Although not trained as a studio technician, Evans produced several songs recorded by The Iveys and Badfinger in 1969 and 1970. The most notable of these tracks is the song "No Matter What" by Badfinger, which charted on Billboard's Top 10 in December 1970.
Evans enjoyed an executive position at Apple until The Beatles hired Allen Klein in 1969 to reorganize the company. Evans became a casualty during housecleaning the following year. Evans subsequently moved from the U.K. to Los Angeles, enabling him to maintain a relationship with John Lennon who had also moved there[1].
Evans was shot and killed by the Los Angeles police on January 5, 1976, when officers mistakenly believed that the air pistol Evans was holding was an actual revolver.
A suitcase that Evans was carrying at the time, containing unreleased recordings, photos, and other memorabilia, was lost by the police during the investigation, and became known as the lost "Mal Evans Archive". It was reported in June 2004 that an English tourist, Frasier Claughton, bought the suitcase for around $36 at a flea market just outside of Melbourne, Australia, unaware of its contents. By August 2004, however, experts had determined that the documents within the suitcase were in fact photocopies made in the 1990s and declared the "archive" a fake.

I don't think... um

That's all you hear Tony blair say as he gets cut off at the end of this video. Try as I might, I don't think I can sum up what Bush had just said as succinctly. Well, not without resorting to some ghastly cliché* like 'train wreck' that is.



For some analysis here is the eternally spot-on Josh Marshall, with his take on it:

...we're here listening to the Bush-Blair press conference. And a few minutes ago a reporter (I think David Gregory, but will check on that) asked the president in so many words: You said Iraq was going to bring about new Middle East but now the Middle East is a complete disaster.

Certainly, this would be a challenging question on more levels than one. But the president's answer, quite a lengthy one actually, showed in a really frightening detail how President Bush seems to be basically brain dead on this issue
-snip-
We know the president isn't very articulate in news conference settings. But national leaders don't have to be articulate to be good leaders. In fact there have been a number very good ones who could scarcely speak coherently for thirty seconds.

But if you watch this passage I think you see something different. Namely, that pretty much everything that's happened over the last three years, and certainly over the last three months has just gone in one presidential ear and out the other. He is, in both the deepest and most superficial sense, out of it.

Two more years? Oh christ.


-Mr. Ed

*In honour of CEW.

Kitlers

Here's a site dedicated to cats that look like Hitler. Unfortunately my search for Mussolions didn't turn anything up.

Phish Taco Phenomenon

Right, let's get one thing straight, this has nothing to do with the band Phish.

I had my first try at making fish tacos last night and it went really well. I also took this opportunity to try out another hot culinary trend - plank grilling - because, well, because I'm just so hip it hurts.

Yeah anyway, plank grilling is a technique that apparently orginated with native American tribes in the Pacific northwest. It's a gentle way to cook fish on the grill and it also imparts a rich smoky flavour. The flavour and degree of "smokiness" depends on the type of wood used. I went for alder which has a mild, slightly sweet flavour; other choices include cedar, hickory and maple. I used an untreated, pre-cut plank about 18" long 6" wide and 1/4" thick that I got at whole foods. It's best to soak the plank in water (for at least and hour) before you put it on the grill. Once the grill is hot you put the plank on the grill and let it warm up for three minutes before flipping it and warming it on the other side. You then turn it back over again, pop your fish on the plank and close the lid of the grill. The old rule of five minutes per inch of fish should be roughly doubled when using a plank (though you don't have to flip the fish) unless you like your fish on the rare side.

I've eaten fish tacos several places but by far my favourites were at Poe's Tavern on Sullivan's Island, so I stole the basic format from them.

The Fish

I took a 3/4lb sashimi-grade tuna steak and marinated it in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of one lime, one crushed clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of finely chopped crushed chipotle pepper, 1 teaspoon of cumin, a splash of beer (I used Modelo) and salt and pepper to taste. I mixed all the marinade ingredients together well, adding the beer last, and then poured it into a re-sealable plastic bag with the fish and left it all in the fridge for an hour.

Garlic Chipotle Sour Cream
I remembered that there was a creamy chipotle something-or-other on Poe's fish tacos but the details were murky, so I just winged it. Chipotle is a mature (ie. brown or red) jalepeno pepper that has been smoked. It has a really delicous and unique flavour. They may be hard to come by in the UK, a lot of tex-mex stuff used to be anyway. Unortunately, I'm not sure what you could use to replace them, since they really make this dish. I combined half a cup of sour cream, one clove of garlic and one teaspoon of crushed chipotle peppers (finely chopped), mixed it all well and then let it sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to let the flavours mingle. While that was chilling I started on the pico de gallo.

Pico de Gallo
This ubiquitous mexican condiment is one of those things that everyone makes slightly differently. For my version I chopped up four large spring onions (or scallions if you're a yank) one and a half medium tomatoes (cubed) and a good handful of finely chopped corriander leaves, mixed them all together then added the juice of half a lime and a little salt and pepper.

The last two ingredients for the fish tacos were finely chopped red cabbage and grated Monterey Jack cheese. White cabbage works just as well and mild cheddar would proably do as a substitute for Monterey Jack.

So, once you've got all the ingredients together it's just a matter of heating up the grill and getting on with it. Take a warm 8" flour totilla, smear a little sour cream in the middle, add the cabbage, pico and some chunks of tuna and top with the cheese. Honestly, I think this might have been one of the best meals I've ever made. It was frikkin' - ney fucking - delicious.

Yum!


-Mr. Ed

Soulful Saturday Five!

A souful Saturday double header!

In concert with the recent weather both here and in the UK, here is Martha Reeves and the Vandellas with "(Your love is like a) Heatwave" from all the way back in 1963. This isn't live, which is a shame, but it's still well worth a watch. Oh, shimmy shimmy!



I also found this clip of "No where to run" from 1965 where they are singing live and so I thought I'd go ahead and post both. And speaking of running, I think we're going to do just that, it's time for the beach.



-Mr. Ed

PS
I made fish tacos last night. I'm not sure, but I think they might have been the most fabulously delicious things I've ever-ever made. Full details including photos, recipes and more coming soon.

Why equivocate?

This is very, very amusing.

Via my mate Ashley, here's a real treat from the good people at McSweeny's internet tendency (which is well worth a perusal, by the way).


JOHN MOE'S POP-SONG
CORRESPONDENCES,
VOLUME XIII.

BY JOHN MOE
- - - -
Notes on
"Sweet Child O' Mine,"
as Delivered to Axl Rose
by His Editor.

- - - -

Hi, Axl,

Just got your manuscript and demo for the song "Sweet Child O' (sic) Mine." I think we need to talk. As your editor, I am responsible for making your songs as cogent as possible, for helping them reach the high editorial standards your public has come to expect. With this one, I am certainly earning my keep. After several attempts to reach you by phone, I am sending along my notes. Please make appropriate fixes as soon as possible, at which point I can send them to copyediting and proofreading in time for your upcoming studio session.

She's got a smile that, it seems to me? Why equivocate? You weaken your point by framing this as a mere personal observation instead of a fact.

Reminds me of childhood memories? Redundant. You either have a memory or you're reminded of something. You're not reminded of a memory. Heavy-metal fans won't stand for such writing, my friend.

Where everything was as fresh as a bright blue sky? I asked around the office and no one is sure a blue sky is "fresh." You could have a blue sky at the end of a long, sweaty day and there would be nothing fresh about it. And she reminds you of a time when things were fresh? Fond reminiscences of freshness are no foundation for love. Fix.

Now and then when I see her face it takes me away to that special place? Again, you're weakening your own argument. Why does the sight of her face transport you only periodically? And is it just her smile or her entire face that does this to you? Because you've already said both. Consistency, Axl!

And if I stared too long, I'd probably break down and cry?Why would you do that? Because you miss the freshness you described earlier? I think the whole "fresh" thing is really tripping you up. Also, crying? Wimpy.

OK, on to the second verse.

She's got eyes of the bluest skies?See, this is just getting worse. Now her eyes are made of sky? Nice imagery, but you just got done saying her smile reminded you of memories of sky. Is this verse actually supposed to a second draft of the first verse? Am I just confused on formatting? Help!

As if they thought of rain? Axl, eyes can't think of rain. And even if they could, which they can't, why would bluest skies think of rain? Perhaps less imagery of thinking eyes made of sky and more direct exploration of your feelings?

I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain? Well, hell. I guess in your special Axl World anything is possible. Eyes can be made of sky, ponder the weather, and exhibit pain in amounts that can be weighed.

Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place where as a child I'd hide? Delete. Fix. Do something. You'd hide in a place that reminded you of hair? Never show me such phrases again.

And pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by? Whew. OK, listen to me now: Thunder can't quietly do anything. It's thunder. And, more importantly, do you really want to come across as a wuss who's constantly on the verge of weeping and skittering into hair caves to escape from rain? Is this a song about love or climatic anxiety? You need to work these things out.

Finally, Axl, I think we might have had a misunderstanding regarding my previous notes. When I wrote in colored pencil "Where do we go now?" I wasn't offering that as a lyric. I was simply observing that, in narrative terms, the song needed to progress in some way. You love the girl, she's helping you work through some issues, whatever. So where do we go now? But instead of providing a satisfactory conclusion, you simply took my note and repeated it over and over again before ultimately just stating the title of the song. This is unacceptable. Don't ask us, the listeners, where we go. That's up to you as the writer! Tell us where we go now!

Again, let's try to fix these things soon and get "Sweet Child of Mine" ("My Sweet Child"?) into your fans' hands as quickly as possible. Because, frankly, if it should ever hit the street in its current form, the song would be a colossal failure.

Talk soon!

Your Editor

The orginal can be found here.

-Mr. Ed

Zoo view

Recently someone in the lab discovered this penguin webcam at the Columbia Zoo which is active between 7am and 7pm EDT (12pm-12am BST). We've become a little obsessive with it - for the last few days we've had one computer screen dedicated solely to the penguins ( right click/ctrl click to get a full screen view). It's actually rather cool to have them on in the background just doing their thing.

- Mr. Ed

Update:
They have a webcam on their aligator enclosure too - featuring a rare white aligator that was found near Hilton Head Island.