Scrumpox: fully sick sport

It's well known that sport can leave you a cripple due to physical injuries, but how about illness? Apparently there are a range of bugs that afflict athletes. My "favourite" is scrumpox, a potentially deadly herpes virus that afflicts rugby players, sumo wrestlers and gladiators.

Another great attractor?

I wonder if this is related to the Great Attractor that is also in the direction of Centaurus and pulling us along for the ride.

How can something so small take up so much space?

We visited the Mazda dealer yesterday to get a trade-in valuation of our Mazda 3. B was just curious, but the salesperson, the same guy who sold us our Mazda 3, suggested that we should look at the larger Mazda 6 model. A fairly new father himself he warned us that we could find ourselves rather squished inside our existing car once the baby capsule was installed.

Today we tested his assertion and, by Jove, he was right! With our Safe'n'Sound Meridian AHR seat in rearward facing newborn mode my knees were almost touching the glovebox and my head the ceiling. Even B was not particularly comfortable.

Thankfully our stroller is reasonably small and fit in our hatchback's boot with room to spare. Still, we would be moderately restricted with boot space should we take it along with us.

The Mazda 3 interior is quite large for its external size class and we had envisaged it as being suitable for our future needs. Now we are troubled. We don't really want to spend big bucks upgrading our car's size. I guess that one of us could sit in the back next to the baby. Kids really do change everything!

Ikea

When we walk around Ikea, I always stop to admire the little display rooms, those mocked up apartments, kitchens, bedrooms. So perfect. Everything has its place and nothing out of place.

They are fictions from a magazine, not real rooms. Despite the thousands of people that pass through each room, where is the detritus of living? Where are the projects-in-progress, the scattered papers, the book left off the shelf? Where are the snacks left on the kitchen bench, the notes by the telephone, the random photos of life? They are hotel rooms before the arrival of their guest.

Yet I find myself wanting those tiny rooms, where the furnishings are complete and not a neverending quest for the perfect item. Rooms without clutter, despite the fact that I am a source of that clutter. Miniature houses with a minimum of space to look after. Is a simpler life a happier life?

Crime Time Concert

Tonight I attended the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Symphony at the Movies: Crime Time concert at the Sydney Opera House. The theme was obviously movies about crime, although I thought that including music from The Matrix and The Sixth Sense was stretching the definition a bit.

Hitchcock's works were a major focus with Franz Waxman's music to Rebecca and Rear Window was included, along with a suite from Dial M for Murder by Dimitri Tiomkin. I must confess that I am not a big fan of films from Hollywood's supposed Golden Age and I find their music, like the movies themselves, to be rather too melodramatic.

I am an avowed fan of John Williams' compositions and I was not disappointed by the inclusion of music from JFK. The main title music was played followed by The Motorcade. This is not one of my favourite tracks on the CD soundtrack, but hearing it played live was a revelation, enveloping the listener in the drama and confusion of the shooting, which still offering hints of the main theme.


I was looking forward to hearing Jerry Goldsmith's compositions for Basic Instinct and Chinatown as I am not familiar with the soundtracks. The former was okay, but Chinatown was an excellent listen, evoking the sultry underbelly of LA along with some interesting orchestration and use of instruments.

Don Davis' suite from The Matrix had a lot of energy and excitement, but it lacked the melodic skills of Williams and Goldsmith. James Newton Howard's score to The Sixth Sense was far more restrained, if not a little boring at times compared to some of his other works.

The end of the program took a trip back to the 60's with Ron Goodwin's swinging Miss Marple theme, which I didn't really enjoy. The program ended with a James Bond medley, familiar and fun, though I'm not really a fan of the music. Likewise, the encore of Nino Rota's famous music for The Godfather is not my thing and I thought it was a fairly meloncholy way to end the night.

As I commented back in 2006 when I attended a previous Symphony at the Movies concert I felt there was too much emphasis on older music and not enough on the new. Thankfully the Sydney Symphony redeemed itself last year with the brilliant concert: The Music of John Williams. They should do the same for a few other composers, like Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner.

Finally, it was a shock to see how much Clive James appears to have aged. He wasn't in good form tonight, stumbling over his words at times and appearing quite tired. He only truly came alive for political quips.

I'm happy to see film music getting more recognition in Sydney, but I do think that the concerts could further improve. Sydney Symphony: if you want a good film music program, I'll help pick the pieces!

The full program (pdf)

What's the real message?

Sometimes you have wonder what message the automated keyword linking system is trying to give...


Science Daily: Boss’ Gender Impacts Employee Stress Levels

Review of the National Innovation System

The government's Review of the National Innovation System has been released. Haven't had a chance to read much of it yet, but I do see that it calls for more funding for research and educational institutions, which is good. The report is called venturousaustralia which is just plain stupid.

I can't believe Venturous isn't a made up word. How long until it is used across government agencies?

At least they have an Innovation Review Cartoon Gallery!