I know this to be the case as I have become ridiculously addicted to following said national treasure on twitter http://twitter.com/stephenfry. Twitter has not really taken off amongst my friends and family so although I do have a twitter account (http://twitter.com/jimzwall) I don't update very often. In fact the sad reality of it all is that only one person really reads my updates, and I see them at least twice a day anyway. So you should all join twitter so I can stalk you and sell my telescope and nightgoggles on eBay. I want to know about the rude service you recieved in Starbucks this morning when you ordered your skinny-decaf-chino; what you had on your sandwich/bagel/ryvita/communion wafer at lunch; what they said at the GUM clinic about the herpes.
Please help me. Make me feel normal...
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Ugly Mug
So I have spent the last few days mainly twiddling my thumbs waiting for some work to come along, sleeping and spilling scolding hot coffee on myself. The lecture courses I'm taking this term are Algebraic Topology, Set Theory and Representation Theory which are all as thrilling as they sound. I actually rather enjoy Representation Theory (the area in which I was thinking I would do a DPhil) and the bonus is that the lectures are given by my personal tutor; Set Theory had potential until I turned up and the lecturer began by writing line after line of predicate calculus on the blackboard (history shows that the study of mathematical logic is v. bad for your mental health); and Algebraic Topology clearly has the capacity to ruin my life for the next 8 weeks.
In other news, I watched the inauguration, and thought that Obama's speech was very accomplished and lucidly set out a new ethos with regard to American foreign policy. But most importantly - did you see Aretha Franklin's enormous hat?!
Monday 19 January 2009
This Land Is Your Land
I was delighted to see Pete Seeger leading the crowd in song at the end of the Obama concert yesterday. Now there is a true American hero: almost 90 his voice is fading, but the same cannot be said of his enthusiasm - he looked so happy!
Characteristically he insisted that they sing the full 'unsanitised' version of 'This Land is Your Land', and rightly so. Woody Guthrie's song is patriotic in a unromantic and unfashionable way - expressing the notion that ultimately the story of a nation is the story of her people, not of her leaders. It is not a song celebrating the hope and freedom of America but decrying its absence for those exploited and left in extreme poverty by the actions of an unchecked Capitalist hierarchy. It is in essence a protest song. I'm sure the potency of the lyrics in these times of multi-billion dollar bailouts, fraudsters and deindustrialisation were not lost on Seeger, or for that matter Barack Obama.
Characteristically he insisted that they sing the full 'unsanitised' version of 'This Land is Your Land', and rightly so. Woody Guthrie's song is patriotic in a unromantic and unfashionable way - expressing the notion that ultimately the story of a nation is the story of her people, not of her leaders. It is not a song celebrating the hope and freedom of America but decrying its absence for those exploited and left in extreme poverty by the actions of an unchecked Capitalist hierarchy. It is in essence a protest song. I'm sure the potency of the lyrics in these times of multi-billion dollar bailouts, fraudsters and deindustrialisation were not lost on Seeger, or for that matter Barack Obama.
Sunday 18 January 2009
Bric-a-brac
So now I am finally back in Oxford staring into an algebraic topology textbook with a horror I will fortunately only know for 6 more months now.
Had a delightful day with my parents yesterday - they came to bring all my stuff down from home. After a quite delicious, although not altogether nutritious, breakfast at Maison Blanc we drove to Witney in West Oxfordshire. The aforementioned town is actually the constituency of the Leader of HM Opposition - but don't let that put you off, it is actually rather a charming place apparently once know for its thriving blanket industry but now dominated by charity shops.
Charity shops positively thrill my parents which is perhaps not unusual now that they are both around sixty. The sad truth is, however, that from as early as I can remember I have been dragged to these temples of tat, and I blame television. Wall-to-wall screenings of antiques shows like Bargain Hunt, Cash In the Attic and the rather shocking Car Booty seem to have convinced my parents that if you look long and hard enough you will eventually find a Titian behind a copy of a 1989 Jason Donovan Annual in a Sue Ryder Shop in rural Worcestershire. Consequently I have developed a distaste for charity shops; this is not to demean the excellent work they do for worthy causes and the feeling of purpose they give to the pensioners who work in them, I just can't handle them. Bric-a-brac especially disturbs me: in its presence my heart race increases and my breathing quickens - a porcelain cockerel here, a golden jubilee commemorative place there, an egg slicer...
"Ooooo, look at this barometer!" my mother cooed. Feeling I was about to hyperventilate I sat down.
"What do you think?" said my Dad, sporting a grey tweed jacket with those buttons that look like footballs circa 1974. I nodded and smiled sympathetically and waited for my mother to correct him.
20 minutes and a VHS of Jesus Christ Superstar later we headed for a much needed cup of tea.
Had a delightful day with my parents yesterday - they came to bring all my stuff down from home. After a quite delicious, although not altogether nutritious, breakfast at Maison Blanc we drove to Witney in West Oxfordshire. The aforementioned town is actually the constituency of the Leader of HM Opposition - but don't let that put you off, it is actually rather a charming place apparently once know for its thriving blanket industry but now dominated by charity shops.
Charity shops positively thrill my parents which is perhaps not unusual now that they are both around sixty. The sad truth is, however, that from as early as I can remember I have been dragged to these temples of tat, and I blame television. Wall-to-wall screenings of antiques shows like Bargain Hunt, Cash In the Attic and the rather shocking Car Booty seem to have convinced my parents that if you look long and hard enough you will eventually find a Titian behind a copy of a 1989 Jason Donovan Annual in a Sue Ryder Shop in rural Worcestershire. Consequently I have developed a distaste for charity shops; this is not to demean the excellent work they do for worthy causes and the feeling of purpose they give to the pensioners who work in them, I just can't handle them. Bric-a-brac especially disturbs me: in its presence my heart race increases and my breathing quickens - a porcelain cockerel here, a golden jubilee commemorative place there, an egg slicer...
"Ooooo, look at this barometer!" my mother cooed. Feeling I was about to hyperventilate I sat down.
"What do you think?" said my Dad, sporting a grey tweed jacket with those buttons that look like footballs circa 1974. I nodded and smiled sympathetically and waited for my mother to correct him.
20 minutes and a VHS of Jesus Christ Superstar later we headed for a much needed cup of tea.
Friday 16 January 2009
100 Things To Do In 2009
Think of 100 things to fill this list- Go to
Learn to like real ale[Actually doing quite well at this]- Stop biting fingernails
- Cut down on money spent in Delis and Patisseries
Appreciate[Definitely did during Hilary, not so much during finals, but I think that is both understandableand permissable]- Get own apartment
- Go on a ‘proper’ holiday with sun and all the trimmings
- Tell them
- See Stornoway again
- Be an amazing uncle to first born niece/nephew
- Go on a pub crawl in
- Get a first in finals
- Start a blog to keep in touch with people
- Get a hairstyle that I actually like
Watch Le Château de ma mère with Catherine- Be on Radio 4 or the BBC World Service [this one may be tricky without becoming some kind of terrorist]
- Catch-up with old school friends
- Vote in a general election [too much shit has happened in 4 years to delay any longer]
- Start buying the Big Issue again [haven’t bought one since the guy who recited Robert Burns on
- Recite Chaucer/Shakespeare/Ted Hughes to a field of cows
- Keep my head when all about me are losing theirs
- Read more poetry [In light of 20, 21, 22]
- Visit Tate Modern
- Think more about the person you could be and less about the person you used to be
- Take pictures to document time left in
- Take up running again
Develop a daily routine to normalize days and reduce stress by more effective time management[This involved seeing more of the inside of the godless RSL]Get a new mobile[the only speaker that works on the current one is the loud speaker, hence all calls are conducted in manner of Apprentice contestants]- Visit Katherine in
- Meet someone famous
- Read Van Gogh’s letters [I bought a book of them almost 3 years ago that is just gathering dust]
- Go on YouTube less [who am I kidding?]
- Dance like no-one’s watching
- Visit
- Write a letter to and have it published in the Guardian
- Watch the entire series of Flight of the Concords with Liz/Owen
- Kiss in the pouring rain
- Go to an Ashes match
Go fruit picking[An idyllic Oxford day post-exams, picking strawberries at Binsey Lane and having a BBQ on Port Meadow]- Have the time and patience to have wet shaves
- Watch a sunrise
- Do something outrageously spontaneous
Get a stranger to wave at me[I didn't so much get him to wave at me he did it of his own accord, he was just a crazy man in the park]- Do something that results in someone asking “Jimmy, what the fuck are you doing?”
- Learn all the constellations
- Play truth or dare
- Whiten my teeth
- Get a new tweed jacket
- Forget my troubles and (come on) get happy!
- Express my app/dep-reciation of someone’s choice of curtains to them
- Lick the underside of an ice-cube
- Drink orange juice from the wrong end of the carton
- Buy an original piece of art
- Make my own pesto
- Hammer in the morning
- Hammer in the evening
- Join Amnesty International
- Go to evensong at a Cathedral (or St Mary’s the Virgin)
Get drunk on cocktailsWin the Gardener’s pub quiz- Climb a mountain (or at least a large hill)
- Start writing more ‘stuff’ down
- Find 5 artists on MySpace with less than 50,000 hits who I think are cool.
- Bake a cake for someone
- Ride in a open-top bus
Have a heated debate[I was drunk and no-one else was - it was heated in mymind but no-one elses I imagine]- Plant a time capsule
- Cry with laughter
- Cry with sadness
Visit Kathy in- Budget using an Excel spreadsheet
- Buy something from Ikea
- Read Marx
- Get a new set of spectacles
- Try wearing contact lenses
- See Jeffrey Lewis
Sit in a meadow on a summer’s day- Complement and give money to a busker
- Make the effort to recycle my rubbish
- Write letters to 3 people
- Remember people’s birthdays
- Have a shower fully clothed
Get an Oyster card- Cook something out of Nigella or Hugh FW’s Guardian column
- Have a moment which reminds me how good it feels to be alive
- Read for pleasure during term time
- Ride on a narrow boat
- See Rufus’s opera Prima Donna
- Go for High Tea at a posh café/restaurant
- Tell someone exactly what I think of them
- Dance and sing with some Hare Krishnas
- Pretend to be foreign tourist for a day
- Be caught in a compromising situation
- Scream at the top of my voice
Do a tarot reading[so vague that it was not worth doing]Go to watch either the Boat Race or Varsity Rugby matchStart using fabric softener- Buy a scratch card
- Say something so profound that I impress myself
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