I’ve taken up saxophone practise again after a break of six or seven months. Giving up was precipitated by getting a new mouthpiece that turned out to be very hard to play. I could only play for a few minutes before my lip collapsed, my tone became uneven in the upper register, and my intonation went all over the place. I knew it was a good mouthpiece, not because the brand had a great reputation, and not because I’d read somewhere that it was good, and not because it was expensive; I knew it was good because it just sounded amazing, made playing across the break easy, and sounded evenly throughout the registers. For the first few minutes, that is. … read on »
Archive for July, 2010…
Irritation in Waterstone’s
I have to say to begin with that despite initial appearances this is not a grumpy old man piece. At least, it’s not exactly my intention to voice petty gripes just for the sake of voicing them.
I was in the basement of Waterstone’s at the west end of Princes Street. Three young members of staff, one female and two male, were talking loudly. The males were teasing the woman in a deliberately petty, repetitive fashion. I was quite distracted by this incessant stupid chatter, and although I was in a public place and we can’t expect the silence of a library in a high street shop, I was irritated. I think I was justified:
1. Different standards and conventions – loose … read on »
An Epic Search For an Epic Search For Truth
Logicomix, An Epic Search For Truth
By Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna
I have enjoyed comics since I was a child, when, fascinated and entranced by Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin, I argued heatedly with my friends, who all preferred Asterix.
I still read Tintin occasionally, and I enjoy more consciously grown-up graphic novels, but I never thought I’d be treated to a comic-book account of Bertrand Russell’s quest to establish the foundations of mathematics. The idea of such a book is incredible, yet here it is, a story told passionately and illustrated beautifully, which does justice to the men and their ideas. And they’re all in here: Frege, Hilbert, Cantor, Gödel and Wittgenstein….
Read the rest on my philsophy … read on »
©2010 Alistair Robinson