Post # 50

I spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with my new old computer, fixing my real-time PCR graphs on SigmaPlot. I also fix my old amino acid sequence alignments and feel kind of in control. Thursday I make a Powerpoint presentation (30 slides, a new record!) and watch Pourquoi pas moi? again and wonder the same thing. Crazy by Patsy Cline fills the air. As the credits roll a calmness overtakes me. I start thinking that things are going to be pretty okay from now on. Change is in the air, maybe even for me. Pressure drops. I go and stand outside in the rain.

I give my final talk in the Genetics Department today, as part of our annual postgraduate symposium. I kind of enjoy giving everyone a comprehensive overview of my research. It does look like there was a point to all of the suffering after all. Apparently the Fulbright people are negotiating my tuition fees with the people at Colorado State, so that looks like it's becoming a reality. Lunch is served outside, in the FABI courtyard by the koi pond. Lasagne and a fresh garden salad. Prepared by the same people who normally do the yucky food for the residences. Who knew they had it in them?

I am indescribably tired, but you know what? It's been a good week.

It never rains

I think the universe likes me. Why else would it have such a friggin' interest in me? Monday morning when I switched my PC on, the fan went on as usual... and that was it. Nothing else. No hard drive noises, no booting, no Windows. Nada. After taking it to several computer shops (I do not trust a single opinion) the consensus was that my motherboard was fried. However, (ah, lucky-lucky-lucky me) this specific motherboard is no longer manufactured (I bought the thing in 2003) and therefore I had to purchase a new CPU as well. And apparently nobody uses a measly 256MB of RAM, so I had to buy 512MB of that as well. Five days, two grand, two hard drive formattings and two operating installation procedures later, I have a PC that more or less resembles the one I had last week. What a waste of time, especially now when I cannot afford it. Now what I'd like to know is: why?

An update, of sorts

I think I've forgotten how to do this properly, but here goes. The controls on Blogger seem quite alien, like a new kind of software I've not seen before. On Halloween I finally finished all of the laboratory work for my MSc in Genetics. No more Schott bottles filled with 3 molar sodium acetate, no more 22 micron filters, no more polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. All that is left to do is to write up my What We Did During Our Master's Degree style thesis and I can be out of here. Easier said than done, I know. After three years of samey labwork, you get quite bored with it. It becomes difficult to write it all down and keep it fresh and exciting.

I apologize for the lack of activity on this blog, but every once and again, life happens to the author and other things do take preference over Eclectic Epiphytes, I'm afraid. I planned a big, final In The Greenhouse post for October to celebrate a full year of orchids, but this has been delayed. As I'm not at varsity much these days (it's where I upload the photographs), you fans of horticultural things will just have to bear with me that bit longer.

Last weekend was, erm... interesting, to say the least. As you know, I've been jumping through the hoops for the Fulbright people, in order to have some sort of career, eventually. One of the pieces of admin is passing something called the GRE Subject Test in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology. For reasons that escape me, I somehow failed to be registered for the 4 November test in time. This meant going onto something called "standby registration", which means popping over to the test centre on the morning of the test and asking the benevolent administrators to literally "squeeze you in". So on the morning of 4 November 2006, after having studied the components of the Krebs cycle and the intricacies of the lac operon for two days straight, I drive all the way to Wits, or as Wendy likes to call it, the Alcatraz of South African universities. After going through several rounds of close scrutiny by security guards and scary receptionists behind bullet proof glass, I'm led to the basement level of a building called the Senate House. (To my ears the security personnel kept calling it the Sears Tower, which I'm convinced is in Chicago.) Upon descending the wooden staircase to the basement level, I find several nervous persons fidgeting on a little bench. I had - literally - descended into madness. The two test administrator's were probably retired schoolteachers or something (I seem to recall them carrying the exam papers in a little cloth covered basket). In my mind however, they turn into the two psycho old people who crawled out of the brown paper bag at the end of Mulholland Drive and have now come to antagonize me. I go up to the woman and tell her that I'm there on standby to write the Biochem Subject Test. She makes it clear that it all depends on whether somebody else actually registered for this specific test and leads me into the examination hall. Now, I've written countless exams in all sorts of places, but none as exotic as this. Picture, if you will, a gigantic disused storage space under a school carpentry workshop, lit by twenty thousand fluorescent tube lights and containing probably, ooh, I don't know... a hundred thousand grey injection-moulded exam benches. Seriously, these things are packed into this airless underground cavern all the way to the horizon. She whips out some official looking forms from her basket and says: "Aah, you see, they sent us some tests for English Literature, Computer Science and Psychology, but none for Biochemistry." I mutter something along the lines of "I'm so screwed" under my breath, to which she responds: "That's the chance you take when you're on standby. The next test date is 14 April 2007, but you probably need to take it this year. And there aren't any extra dates, I'm afraid. They used to do it in December, but that wasn't very popular, so they stopped it. I could let you take an SAT, but I don't suppose that would help you? What you can do is take a plane to Durban and see if you can get in there. The Subject Tests are only this afternoon, so if somebody who scheduled a Biochemistry test there doesn't arrive, you might have a chance..." The old man with the scary thyroidy eyes interrupts her then: "Look, we've got a lot to do. You've tried your best, you can see what it's like. Please leave." So I drove all the way back home, astounded by the idea that she actually suggested that I take a plane to Durban, find my way to another test centre, and pray to all that is unholy that the single person who was supposed to write the test there developed a case of Delhi Belly.

So now I can only write the damn test next year April. When will this mad world of bureaucracy ever end? Later that afternoon, I drove 265km to a game farm near Thabazimbi, where I spent our annual lab "workshop" in a drunken state of ennui.

And you?

PS: I apologize for my excessive use of quotation marks, but it's the mood I'm in, you see.

Degrees of Separation

This is my week of Northern Blotting. I have exactly 51 minutes, 08 seconds before I have to take my membranes out of the anti-fluoresceine alkaline phosphatase-conjugated antibody and submit them to several rounds of wash steps. Hopefully, something will develop by the end of the evening. On to the topic of tonight's post.

Each piece of music is connected to every other piece of music, just as all actor's are connected to one another in the Kevin Bacon Game. All music is connected, and not just through shared influences, shared recording studios and such. I like knowing that all of the music in my collection is made by this network of musicians and technicians, this family of artists. My family, somehow. Just for fun, let me list some connections, off the top of my head. No sleeve notes, no Googling.

Let's start with Goldfrapp. Alison Goldfrapp performed vocals on Tricky's debut album, Maxinquaye. Tricky used to be a member of Massive Attack. Massive Attack did the arrangements for I Want You on Madonna's collection of ballads, Something To Remember. Justify My Love was written for Madonna by Lenny Kravitz. Bedtime Stories was written for Madonna by Björk. Björk used to go out with Tricky. Tricky is from the Bristol trip-hop scene, same as Portishead. Tricky's Hell Is Around The Corner is built around a sample from Portishead's single Glory Box. Portishead made some really good remixes of Walking In My Shoes for Depeche Mode. Vince Clarke used to be a member of Depeche Mode, but is now half of Erasure with Andy Bell. Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters performed a duet with Andy Bell on his solo album Electric Blue. Blondie's Parallel Lines is Andy Bell's favourite record - both Blondie and Talking Heads used to perform at the punk night club CBGB in New York. Scissor Sisters are also from New York. Deborah Harry from Blondie performed a memorable duet with Iggy Pop (Well, Did You Evah!). Depeche Mode covered the Iggy Pop and the Stooges song Dirt as the b-side to their single I Feel Loved. Erasure's 1992 ep Abba-esque was a collection of covers of this most successful Swedish band. The Cardigans are widely regarded as the second-most successful Swedish act of all time. The Cardigans performed Burning Down The House with Tom Jones, a song originally done by Talking Heads. The only song Depeche Mode ever recorded for a soundtrack was Death's Door, for the Wim Wender's movie Until The End Of The World. This soundtrack also featured original material by Talking Heads (Sax and Violins) and Until The End Of The World by U2. This song originally featured on their album Achtung Baby. The cover of this record was designed by Anton Corbijn, who also did music videos, record sleeves and stage design for Depeche Mode. Andrew Fletcher from Depeche Mode manages an independent record label called Toast Hawaii. The only act currently on Toast Hawaii is Client. The vocalist from Client is Sarah Blackwood, who used to be in a band called Dubstar. Dubstar mention Morrisey in their song The Day I See You Again. Morrisey was the vocalist for The Smiths. Death Cab For Cutie did a cover of This Charming Man by The Smiths on their album You Can Play These Songs With Chords. Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie is also part of The Postal Service, whose song We Will Become Silhouettes was covered by The Shins. Two songs from The Shins feature on the soundtrack for the movie Garden State, along with a song called Such Great Heights, performed by Iron and Wine, but originally written by The Postal Service. The Garden State soundtrack features a track by Zero 7, often called the British Air. Air has produced two remixes for Depeche Mode. Rex the Dog has produced dance remixes for Depeche Mode and also for Client. Which brings us back to Dubstar. Dubstar site Portishead, Cocteau Twins and Durutti Column as influences. Martin Gore from Depeche Mode performed a cover of a Durutti Column track on his Counterfeit ep in 1989. Martin Gore performed a guitar solo for a track on Gwen Stefani's solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. The track was never used. Gwen's band No Doubt intended to record A Question Of Lust by Depeche Mode for their singles collection, but decided on It's My Life by Talk Talk instead. Gwen Stefani added her vocals to the single version of Moby's Southside, from his album Play. Moby's use of blues samples on this record is influenced by his experience recording Bloodline with Alan Wilder's project Recoil. Alan Wilder used to be a member of Depeche Mode. Mute Records is the label for Moby, and also Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, Erasure and Nick Cave. Nick Cave performed a duet with Kylie Minogue, called Where The Wild Roses Grow. Kylie sang songs written for her by Scissor Sisters and Emiliana Torrini. Emiliana Torrini is from Iceland and is often confused with Björk. Nellee Hooper has produced albums for Björk and Madonna. Shep Pettibone produced Madonna's Erotica album, and did a remix of Depeche Mode's Behind The Wheel. The Cure did an exceptional cover of Depeche Mode's World In My Eyes. Katie Melua did an exceptional cover of The Cure's Just Like Heaven. World In My Eyes was produced by flood, who also did prodution on U2's Pop, together with Nellee Hooper. Pop's cover art was designed by Anton Corbijn, who designed the cover for R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People. R.E.M.'s Fretless also featured on Until The End Of The World, as did a song by Nick Cave: (I'll Love You) Till The End Of The World. Anton Corbijn has taken photographs of Annie Lennox, who is part of Eurythmics. Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics was covered by Marilyn Manson. He also did covers of Soft Cell's Tainted Love and Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus. Personal Jesus has also been covered by Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash did the vocals for The Wanderer, the final track on U2's Zooropa (1993). The stage design for the ZooTV tour was done by, you guessed it... Anton Corbijn. Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn has shot promotional material for BMW. Madonna was featured in online ads for BMW. The music video for Madonna's single Fever was directed by Stéphane Sednaoui. Stéphane Sednaoui also directed many videos for Björk and tricky and also the music video for Dream On by Depeche Mode. The sleeve and promotional material for Depeche Mode's The Singles 86>98 was produced by the London design company Intro. Intro shot the cover of Exterminator for Primal Scream, who supported Depeche Mode during their 1993 Devotional world tour. Intro also created the cover of Life Thru A Lens for Robbie Williams. Robbie Williams performed Kids with Kylie Minogue, who also did that duet with Nick Cave, remember? Kylie had a thing for Michael Hutchence from INXS. The promotional material for the last INXS album, Elegantly Wasted, was also handled by Intro. I could go on and tie Fatboy Slim, Queen, Groove Armada, Moloko, Franz Ferdinand, Pearl Jam, Enya, Pet Shop Boys, Ladytron, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos, The Doors, Prince, Thievery Corporation, Beck, Grace Jones and Stan Getz into the equation, but I'm kind of tired now so I guess I'll stop. Play this game with me. Maybe you can figure out what the links are?

0 minutes, 20 seconds. Gotta go.