photos from manchester

I’ve uploaded the pix from my trip to Manchester, England. There are not so many of them, once you take out the cows: about 60 in all. Particularly interesting, I think, are the photos of two exhibits from the Museum of Science and Industry:

  1. the Jacquard loom, a 200-year-old precursor to the modern computer. (I contributed my photos to the relevant Wikipedia entry.)
  2. the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (aka “the Baby”), “[t]he world’s first stored-program electronic digital computer[, which] successfully executed its first program on 21st June 1948.” (Source.)

sonic youth at the blue note

Sonic Youth were great last night. It’s impressive that a band known for such aural chaos can achieve such a clear sound live. A set list of the 2004 tour is being updated online, but here is what I remember from last night:

  • Unmade Bed
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Handcream
  • Dude Ranch Nurse
  • Schizophrenia
  • Mote
  • Rain on Tin
  • Paper Cup Exit
  • Sugar Kane
  • Kool Thing

I’ve created an iTune iMix of these songs, if you want to sample or purchase any of them. I know they played a few more than this, but I can’t remember them. “Schizophrenia,” “Mote,” and “Kool Thing” were the big crowd pleasers. Surprisingly, they did not play anything off of Daydream Nation. However, I left at midnight after only one encore in order to start my two-hour drive home, so it’s possible they came back on for more.

costume party

costume.party.jpg

London, England: Near Waterloo station. They were confused as to why I wanted to take a picture, but they were both just dead sexy in their costumes. He just looks a bit puzzled, perhaps, but she’s working that costume: look at what she’s doing with her left leg.

huggy bear

London, England: That’s me on the left, my friend and colleague Laurie Ellinghausen on the right, and an unidentified literary scholar in the middle. The three of us met at the British Library and then went out for coffee (and honey).

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