The House of Lords

It turns out that one of the alumni from my college (somewhere in the 50s) is a lord, and also a member of the house of lords, which is sort of like the US house of representatives in that it's the half of parliament (congress) that doesn't matter too much, but the lords is more prestigious with less power.  This particular lord decided to host a dinner at the houses of parliament for the Merton alumni association, and so on Friday night, Reba and I went and had dinner with a lot of mertonians and a few lords, ladies, sirs and at least one dame.

We showed up late and missed the tour, but made it in time to hang out on the lords' deck overlooking the river Thames.  Predictably, right next door is the house of commons' (like our senate) deck, and they were having some kind of an event as well.  Security was pretty tight, so we got scanned a lot, and had to wear badges, etc.  The dinner was a pretty typical Oxford event: lots of wine while you mingle with OSPs (over smart people) that you don't know, followed by a 3 course meal with lots more wine and more conversation with OSPs you don't know (they sat Reba and I apart from one another), followed by a couple of speeches.  And then more drinks.  Rinse, repeat, and you have British society.

Are you wondering what lords, ladies, sirs and dames are like?  I only know a few, but in general they seem to be nice old people who are super super old school British: dry humor, cufflinks, odd accents, and the whole deal.  They never seem mention their titles, but are usually announced before speeches or during thank you's, etc. with the title.  They also seem to have no problem wearing nametags that include the titles.  So, perhaps for this reason, they also seem to me to have a certain smugness to their demeanor... they know they are lords and higher class than you, you know they are lords and higher class than you, everybody else in the room knows that they are lords and higher class than you, and all parties know that you are NOT a lord, but the lords aren't going to say anything because that wouldn't be classy, would it?  They are pointedly nonchalant about the whole thing, which in a way makes it all that much more obvious.  As far as English oddities go, the whole title thing has got to be one of the strangest. 

The main speaker was pretty interesting, he'd spent time all over the world, wrote a bunch of famous stuff, had received all sorts of accolades for doing brave stuff, and was pushing his cause a bit, which is basically reviewing old prison sentences and trying to get innocent people free.  Also speaking was Jessica Rawson, the warden of Merton, and also a dame.  I think that's funny, because where I'm from, "dame" is what tough guys in campy old gangster movies called women back before they started calling them "chicks", but here it's some sort of honorific title.  What she did to deserve it, I don't know, but I'm sure it was academic.  Basically the warden is the head of the college, sort of the ruler of it, and I don't think she really reports to anyone.  This warden is pretty popular with the alums, but to be honest, a lot of the students didn't like her when I was there.  She and I always got along fine even though she never tried to learn my name and just called me "one of her MBAs", but the feedback I heard from the people who lived in college (I lived in my own apartment) generally ranged from fearful to just negative.  In any case, she announced that she's leaving after 15 years, and the fellows of the college are looking for a replacement.  I'm sure that's caused a bunch of chatter in the MCR.

Reba was tired after the speeches, so we split early, though we did chat with a few folks on the way out.  Kaysa wanted to meet up for drinks in Shoreditch, but I wanted to play Spore because my empire, the Wangcopter Empire, is doing pretty well and I wanted to invade some alien solar systems with the new mega-laser I bought.

What do you read?

I was reading an article on MSNBC about Sarah Palin today that pointed out how Katie Couric had a minor comeback off the back of her Sarah Palin interview in which the candidate couldn't name the newspapers she reads.  The implication was that she actually didn't read newspapers.  I thought about this a while and thought to myself: man, that's pretty lame.  I read a lot of newspapers and magazines, and I'm not even running for public office... how does she expect to learn about what's going on in the world?  So, since I'm getting back to blogging, I thought I'd list off my current crop of regular reading. 

The funny part is that I almost never read actual newspapers!  They're messy and get my hands inky and unless I've got a leisurely solitary breakfast lined up, I just don't take the time to buy a physical paper.

Regular Reading

In addition to various books, I read a lot of periodicals in a sometimes futile attempt to keep up with the pace of business, technology and politics.

Magazines

Here is where I get my more deeply considered opinions about the world. I subscribe to these in print form and read them at home or on the tube on the way to work. I give links to their web sites anyway.

• Foreign Affairs - Well argued academic style papers from high end bureaucrats and academics. Political orientations are all over the map, but still credible. These guys are great at polished analysis, but not as good at giving suggestions for the future. Still, I love love love this mag.
• The Economist - Founded in 1843, this is a great balance of news, politics, economics and business. Written anonymously for some odd reason.
• Harvard Business Review - Gold standard for general business subjects. Organizational design, leadership, IT, strategy, marketing etc.
• Sloan Management Review - MIT's attempt at having it's own Harvard Business Review. Lots of good stuff that the HBR doesn't get to, and a bit more of a techie focus.
• Guitarist - Because at the back of it all, I'm still a guitar geek and I love reading about all the latest models.

Journals

I like reading academic journals, I got a taste for it in business school and now I'm hooked. I've found that the difficult part about reading specific journals is that much of the time you're flipping through stuff that you don't care about. Plus, subscribing to individual journals only gets you data once in a while. This is where searchable aggregators are handy.

• The Association for Computing Machinery - Lots and lots of papers by academics around the world. Much of it concerns technology that I'm not interested in, but there's more than enough that's pertinent or interesting to me. Some of the journals I follow more closely include:
  • ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems (JETC)
  • Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH)
  • ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO)
  • ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS)
  • ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS)
  • ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
  • ACM Transactions on the Web (TWEB)
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Similar to the ACM, just different articles. The most shockingly confusing and poorly designed web site in computing history, but that's fairly predictable give academic focused web sites in general. In here, the journals I like are:
  • IT Professional
  • Digital Information Management
  • Internet Computing
  • IEEE Software
  • IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
• The National Bureau of Economic Research - If you want to read really detailed papers about finance or economics subjects ranging from the relationship between sub prime mortgage structures and the current financial crisis, to the effects of migration on 16th century European economies, this is your Disneyland. I love this stuff.
• Oxford Economic Papers - More economics, if a bit esoteric. I probably read this one because it comes out of my school more than anything else.
• Oxford Review of Economic Policy - Ditto.

Technology Blogs

I read a ton of stuff via Google reader, which is a very nice RSS aggregator. Some of this stuff is questionably accurate or researched, and at times is little more than opinion. At the same time, a lot of cutting edge thinking is going on in these forums, so I like to follow it. The web sites for some of these blogs are listed below.

• Ajaxian
• Bokardo
• Communities Dominate Brands
• Web 2.0 Blog
• Software Only
• Jonathan Zittrain
• Mobile Crunch
• Programmable Web
• Tech Crunch
• Tech Meme
• The Long Tail

Online Newspapers
This is where I get my day to day updates or take brain cool-down breaks at work.

MSNBC - Meat and potatoes, basic reporting. This is where I go for the quick "what's up" in the world or if I want 10 minutes of light reading.
The Financial Times - I go here for business and economics stuff, again if I'm looking for a quick update. This is the UK gold standard business newspaper. I particularly enjoy their economist's forum.
The Wall Street Journal - The US version of the FT. My father in law once commented that the best thing about the WSJ was the editorials, and I must admit somewhat guiltily that I don't use the journal for much else. I love to see how the well informed part of the right wing think, and these editorials are a good source for that.
Le Monde - The big French national newspaper. If I'm going to France anytime soon and trying to brush up on my French, I'll read this for a few days. I also read this to try and understand what it is that French people actually think. I've had limited success here.
El Pais - This is the Spanish version of Le Monde for my purposes, but probably also for a lot of other people as well. Spanish politics has never really interested me enough to follow it closely, but I do like being able to talk to my Spanish friends about it.
The Seattle Times - Not much global substance, but this paper keeps me up on the minor goings on back home.

So... what's new with Ean and Reba these days?

oh shit.

Slayer!

Just like the Jesus and Mary Chain, we saw Slayer this week.  Unlike the Jesus and Mary Chain, they ruled.  That is to say, they did not suck, which is exactly what the Jesus and Mary Chain did (suck).  Slayer are on of the big four thrash metal bands, and from my point of view is really the only one with any credibility at this point.  Based on Reba's initial feedback, Metallica may be able to redeem itself with their new record, but I'm reserving judgement, especially after that last terrible album they did. 

The show was just what one would hope: a knucklehead festival.  Where these people come from, I have no idea, but somehow Slayer brings out the dumbest, trashiest, most ADD riff raff wherever they go in the world.  How was I to know that the frizzy long combed out hair, dirty little moustache, and jeans jacket look adopted by suburban American white trash everywhere in the 1980s (but maybe a bit more in the south, Julie?) was alive and well at the London Hammersmith Apollo?  There were skinheads, crazed-eye brawlers, slutty dumb looking "goth" chicks, bikers, and my favorite: headbangers.  What's a headbanger?  As you might suspect, there is an over analytical wikipedia article that prattles on about the subject, but in the simplest sense, it is someone with long hair that is banging their head back and forth, to and fro, (or even in a figure 8 configuration, ala Tom Araya, bassist and lead singer for Slayer) with the effect of their long hair flipping all over the place.  You used to see lots of people doing this in the 80s, but it's a bit rare now.  Except at slayer concerts.  I remember watching a bunch of these guys from afar at the show, and then getting a waft of hair conditioner smell.  Turning around, I discovered that I had my very own headbanger!  I gave the little guy enough room to do his thing, and returned to watching the band.  In my view, this miscreant suffers all forms of indignity, job discrimination, female repulsion, rejection at posh restaurants, parental disapproval, etc., just so he can have his moment of glory at the Friday night metal show.  Who am I to rob him of this?  Hell, if I could grow any hair on my head, I might be inclined to grow it long myself!

Also out in force were the old people.  That is to say, people like me.  Reba and I found a relaxed corner of the club in which many people our age and older were stood slightly apart from one another, enjoying minor-level rock outs of their own.  Reba calls this the "nerdsection".  These people had naturally bald heads (i.e. non skinhead), polo shirts, glasses, paunches, and the rest.  The mayhem in the slam-pit at center stage was not anything I wanted to sample.

As for slayer, they too are old, fat, and even one of them, Kerry King, is bald.  For Mr. King this must have been a real crisis.  Against all odds, he became an internationally famous, grammy-winning rock star, and then lost his hair!  He has compensated by tattooing his head and growing a slender but absurdly long beard, which he headbangs in a fashion by shaking his head back and forth in a very aggressive "no" configuration.  Frankly, he looks for all the world like a World of Warcraft dwarf, stout, tattooed, bald, goofy beard, and wearing some crazy medieval S/M-ish clothing.  All he needs to do is trade in his axe (metal-speak for guitar) for a real one, and he'll be off to storm the gates of Mordor or whatever.

But the music!  At the end of the day, you can make all the fun in the world of Slayer's fans, their hair, and their anachronistic subculture, ad nauseam, but they still kick ass!  Their music is as fast, brutal, and emotive as ever.  They are tight and precise live, and have all the anger on stage that comes across so effectively in their studio albums.  Their songs are frankly scary, and a couple on numbers from 1986's "Reign in Blood" (voted "heaviest album of all time" by Kerrang! magazine) stand the hairs up on the back of my neck.  These boys did not disappoint.

 

dwarven warrior or rock star?