Thursday, Saturday, Sunday
Oct. 25th, 2011 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
millionreasonsThursday: To Camden for Spacetacular, a - ahem - science-based comedy evening run by the nominatively determined Helen Keen
who runs around enthusiastically throwing out packets of Space Raider crisps and complaining wittily that Nasa sent more animals than women into space (indeed, in the quiz, we are asked to name the first woman in space which I cannot answer, although of course I know the name of the first dog. We got 5/10 in the quiz; my contribution was 0/10).
Helen introduces the next act, Layla, who talks about why the Imperial forces were actually the good guys in Star Wars and why and where the Death Star III should be built. She shows the Empire's inventions, although a nerdy someone in the audience shouts "Actually, the X fighter planes were a Rebel invention." Dave whispers that they were originally invented by the Empire but the idea was stolen by the Rebel forces (the nerdy someone goes on to win the quiz 6.5/10).
Next up is a man who is (aptly) a lecturer at Imperial college who talks about taking photos of the atmosphere. There are robots that
can take pics of the troposphere but the lecturer still has to keep closing down a dialogue box asking him to join BT Open Hub. Ditto in the next
act, a man talking about the space animals, especially Ham the Chimp whose skeleton and soft tissue are buried in two different "graves",
the laptop battery dies. We can send a man (not a woman) to the moon, but a laptop battery lasts no longer than 2 hours. I imagine the
peasants in the far flung corners of the Soviet Empire felt much the same way when Yuri Gagarin went up into the atmosphere. Except replace
"laptop battery" with "food".
The last act is Space Dog, a trio with theramin, bells, talking robot head, spooky baby, Germanic folk tales and a soundtrack for astronaut training courses.
Saturday, into town to meet Robert and various others for the First Inaugural Record Shopping Day whereby we buy a record from a Soho record store then take it to the pub to talk about it. I wasn't aware that record shops still sold records, but I am wrong, Sister Ray has quite a few of them. I cheat and buy a CD, an Otis Redding collection. The grumpy man on the desk calls me "madam" when I buy it. Not as embarrassing as the time my mother requested a Dire Straits album for Xmas and I had to purchase it from an actual shop, but almost. Still, I am old, it's been an awful long time since my Saturday morning was spent record shopping. The last physical album I bought was in 2007. Friday, I was listening to Girls Aloud on youtube.
Sunday was Tanya's birthday wander over Hampstead Heath in lovely sunshine. Global warming hey? Not just there for the nasty things in life like polar ice caps melting. Later, we went to the Spaniards Inn which seems to be the new pub au choix in Hampstead rather than the Flask or Hollybush. Unfortunately, most other people who took an autumnal constitutional were there as well but the bar staff let us go upstairs where Ian Watkins had had his 30th birthday, but was long gone. Slightly odd to be sitting in the middle of the debris of a do - glitter, wrapping paper and empty pinot grigio bottles. Dan tells us about his entry for a competition to design a new pylon - he was one of the runners up. He wanted pylons made of monkeys holding electric orbs or to create electricity by draining the love out of people. Dan's designs for the widowmaker razor, the chococheese bar and the future watch are now online. Not featured are his Speedophile swimming trunks.
who runs around enthusiastically throwing out packets of Space Raider crisps and complaining wittily that Nasa sent more animals than women into space (indeed, in the quiz, we are asked to name the first woman in space which I cannot answer, although of course I know the name of the first dog. We got 5/10 in the quiz; my contribution was 0/10).
Helen introduces the next act, Layla, who talks about why the Imperial forces were actually the good guys in Star Wars and why and where the Death Star III should be built. She shows the Empire's inventions, although a nerdy someone in the audience shouts "Actually, the X fighter planes were a Rebel invention." Dave whispers that they were originally invented by the Empire but the idea was stolen by the Rebel forces (the nerdy someone goes on to win the quiz 6.5/10).
Next up is a man who is (aptly) a lecturer at Imperial college who talks about taking photos of the atmosphere. There are robots that
can take pics of the troposphere but the lecturer still has to keep closing down a dialogue box asking him to join BT Open Hub. Ditto in the next
act, a man talking about the space animals, especially Ham the Chimp whose skeleton and soft tissue are buried in two different "graves",
the laptop battery dies. We can send a man (not a woman) to the moon, but a laptop battery lasts no longer than 2 hours. I imagine the
peasants in the far flung corners of the Soviet Empire felt much the same way when Yuri Gagarin went up into the atmosphere. Except replace
"laptop battery" with "food".
The last act is Space Dog, a trio with theramin, bells, talking robot head, spooky baby, Germanic folk tales and a soundtrack for astronaut training courses.
Saturday, into town to meet Robert and various others for the First Inaugural Record Shopping Day whereby we buy a record from a Soho record store then take it to the pub to talk about it. I wasn't aware that record shops still sold records, but I am wrong, Sister Ray has quite a few of them. I cheat and buy a CD, an Otis Redding collection. The grumpy man on the desk calls me "madam" when I buy it. Not as embarrassing as the time my mother requested a Dire Straits album for Xmas and I had to purchase it from an actual shop, but almost. Still, I am old, it's been an awful long time since my Saturday morning was spent record shopping. The last physical album I bought was in 2007. Friday, I was listening to Girls Aloud on youtube.
Sunday was Tanya's birthday wander over Hampstead Heath in lovely sunshine. Global warming hey? Not just there for the nasty things in life like polar ice caps melting. Later, we went to the Spaniards Inn which seems to be the new pub au choix in Hampstead rather than the Flask or Hollybush. Unfortunately, most other people who took an autumnal constitutional were there as well but the bar staff let us go upstairs where Ian Watkins had had his 30th birthday, but was long gone. Slightly odd to be sitting in the middle of the debris of a do - glitter, wrapping paper and empty pinot grigio bottles. Dan tells us about his entry for a competition to design a new pylon - he was one of the runners up. He wanted pylons made of monkeys holding electric orbs or to create electricity by draining the love out of people. Dan's designs for the widowmaker razor, the chococheese bar and the future watch are now online. Not featured are his Speedophile swimming trunks.
