BOOJUM!: Of Music And Science And Muse

"Muse" In The Sense Of Terpsichore
- the Muse of er - poetry? Music? Channel 4 sitcoms? but definitely not the band.
     Although it could have been, given that Conrad intends to lecture you on two other bands. This came about from listening to the tannoyed music in Oxfam.
     'What's that music playing now?' asked Conrad.
     "The Drums," replied the young lady behind the counter.
     'The Drums?' replied Conrad, realising he had a CD of theirs, and that he'd somehow confabulated* in his head "The Music", whom he also had and didn't like that much, with The Drums - after all, to make rock music you need drums, right?
     Cutting a tediously long story short, Conrad listened to The Drums on the bus, and decided that yes, he likes them.    Not that they've been very busy of late, their second CD coming out three years ago. Come on, chaps, do get a move on!

A bit of a let down as a live act ...

When Is A Band Not A Band?
Scrolling through a wheelbarrow's worth of music on his I-pod, Conrad noticed "The Earlies" and their second CD - "The Enemy Chorus".
'I'll play that,' he thought, and it lasted the whole bus journey into work. Conrad's cat-like curiosity got the better of him and, since he was early early early**, he did a bit of Google-fu on them.

Some quite burly Earlies surely

     Well, "The Enemy Chorus" came out in 2007, and they've done nothing since. Conrad has not noticed them bothering the listings in any festivals this year Anno Domini MMXIV. Are they still going? I guess not; if you have a seven-year gap in your discography then it's stretching it a bit to say it's all down to "refining the production".

The Dead Pile
     Conrad is still stubbornly tapping away on the keyboard, transcribing his idiosyncratic longhand into Times New Roman 10, and wondering how much the estate of John Wyndham would charge for the rights to "The Kraken Wakes". Perhaps - o frabjous day!*** - it's in the public domain - but that would be entirely too much a coincidence.
     Meanwhile rest your glazzies on the latest casualties of the typing drive:

Over 26,000 words in, London has flooded, the Bathies are returning to scavenge with their sea-tanks, Our Narrator and his wife are trying to flee to Cornwall - you'll have to wait at least two years until the Beeb make it into a TV series ...

Lemony Olive Oil Banana Bread
It's a cake, really, not bread of any description, and you could put a good case for it supplying two of your five-a-day - perhaps three if you count the olives.

Conrad baked it tonight since tomorrow is Pub Quiz night and he'd not have much time. Baking tonight allows it to cool, so either a glaze or a lemon syrup can be applied tomorrow. Maybe the syrup - I've tried the glaze and it can be a bit gritty.

What?
Conrad, parkouring his way into the office this morning, noticed what has to be the politest bus service announcement he's seen:

"I am sorry I am not in service"

This public service vehicle franchise must surely be run by Americans. Normally we get the admission:

"Sorry not in service"

- which really means "Not sorry at all (chumps!)":and back in the 80's you simply got:

"Not in service"

- which was painted on canvas, none of your fancy 21st century LED's. Back in the 1950's, by extrapolation, the bus signs probably read:

F*** ***!!! what do you think this is, a poxy public service?

Not only run by Americans, but American hippies!

Rosie And Phil
     No! Not my pub quiz partners. The European Space Agency probe "Rosetta" (and landing unit "Philae"). Go back and read previous blog entries dating back to April, gentle reader.
     This is more exciting than twenty-two men kicking a pigskin across some turf!
     After years of preparation, Rosetta has now closed the distance to the comet 67P/Churymov/Gerasimenko to 43,000 kilometres, and pictures of the comet are now well beyond the original single pixel. 43K kilometres sounds like a lot, but in astronomical terms that's like your next-door neighbour. It's close enough for sensors on Rosetta to begin picking up data about the comet's composition and outgassing and water vapour loss. The next series of controlled burns will allow Rosie to begin to actually orbit 67P and send back very detailed data indeed.

67P: an artist's impression

Gale Crater
     No! Not a minor character in a Northern-set soap opera!
     Gale Crater is on Mars.
     NO! Not a minor character in a Martian-set soap opera!
     Gale Crater is a geographical feature on the Martian surface, where the NASA rover Curiosity has landed and is beetling about, looking at things. Conrad mentions this because the images from Rosetta are going to be released only after scientists have had a chance to analyse their data first; with the images from Curiosity, everyone got equal access instantly.