time drifts by like a neon snake

Updates have been sparse this week. This is due to a current experiment in my daytime world of our team. It is the increased workload, decrease headcount experiment. Time series data shows this experiment trends towards failure, but if it works offers great rewards to the implementer.

Anyway, this means I am hectic busy, silly hours busy. That, and outside of times I am spending as much in the company of Ms Soliloquous as possible – mostly because I am away for a week visiting A, 2, and Z. Not just that, but then a week after I return she is away for a fortnight over easter on Maid-of-honour and family visiting duties.

This can be summarised to mean two things:

If I find interweb access, you may get some posts while I am in the US. If instead I am absorbing culture whilst listening to HNAS and Nu-Creative Sounds and other stuff then sorry. Everyone needs a holiday (of sorts).

From my return, we will pick up more on the GMAT stuff. I have elements noted down and constructed but they aren’t ready. Folks, I know that GMAT is a topic of great value to some, and just plain huge bad-mind discussion to others. Every word is likely to be assessed, so I have to make sure it reads as intended. I want to get it right, and the two weeks that Ms S is away are a good opportunity for this. Though there may be some Champions League football around then, and pubs open. So, don’t put your house on it being every day.

But, for the meantime, let’s have a roll call on the schools.

A – Interviewed. Visit arranged.

2 – Interview arranged. Visit arranged as well.

Z – Visit arranged. Radio silence phase one persists, and could for about another month before serious concerns begin. Softly, softly, catchy monkey.

Any other business

So that is the schools bit. In other things, I was indulging in a happy pastime of fatty TV™ (read ITV2, ITV3, BBC3, BBC4) last night. Modern programming seems to have moved a focus onto kids who only eat chips (applause when they eat a sausage) and only eat beans. Then there was the 27 stone teenager, who needed a leg-pressure gauge on her arm to take her blood pressure. Well, last night was the fattest kid on earth, the 17 stone seven year old from Russia. Chubby delight. The Stanley Cup of Fatty TV, he was. As ever, they send a doctor along from A-Developed-CountryLand to check him out, and conclude that he is fat. Not only that, but concluding that being seven years old and weighing more than an overweight 6ft man isn’t healthy. Fall off your chair stuff it was, really. ADCL Doctor reckoned that his mom was feeding him ‘roids to get him into being a mythical beast (he was praised as a reincarnation of some mythical heavy, honest) and to become a pro sumo wrestler. He has the bone structure of a 13 year old, they say. Well, considering he is one-and-a-half times my late-twenties bone structure carries, it is just as well. It was FAF to watch 17-stone fatty take on a normal size kid his age at sumo. Unsurprisingly, he won. Sumo coach was impressed with his skills. Beyond the humanitarian and health mask to the programme, they fit in the “look at the fatty!” moments with style. Small carriage of big wheel (legs dangling)? Check. Swimming? Check. “Exercising”? Check. In a bumper car, trashing smaller peoples cars? Check. Filling a front seat in a car? Of course.

There is new theme music on hollyoaks. It has been given the thumbs down by the jury.

I made a sock monkey at the weekend when the rugby was on (I didn’t watch the rugby). It was a nice day in the pub with friend photographer and his lovely lady. Her sock monkey was the better of the four, but it appears to have lost its ears in transit on the way back to Nottingham. Photos of the dwarf, mentally impared-looking sock monkey I made may arrive later in the week.

The Saints have won the league. After all the concerns in the recent post, schedule means I will play the final game, make the ball, and get to the US. We won at the weekend 5-2 in a somewhat impressive performance. I apologise (for about the umpteenth time) to the player I hit in the head with the ball, and needed length medical attention to stop the bleeding. Unintentional, as he understands. Getting their forward sent-off was a bit more planned. Anyway, third and second played at the weekend, and the result all but gave us the title, barring some very suspicious score-lines (and also us having to lose badly against second place this weekend). That means champagne and all on Saturday. Hoorah.

World MBA Tour (except not really much of the world)

I have been running with song titles as blog headlines for quite a length of time now (in such an infant page, this claim can be dealt with the disregard it deserves). But last night was one of those things that fill rare qualities on here. “Relevance”, being the main one of those qualities that is so rare, we best dwell on it.

The World MBA tour thing hit town. It was in Holborn, and I was interested in going along for a variety of reasons. First, I have the big dinner thing coming up at the same venue in a fortnight, so I could scout for pubs. Second, I have done very little of the “conventional” MBA research stuff. I did GMAT from a whim in a NYC bookstore (well, a bit more considered than that, but lets sell it as “self-started” and move on), I selected MBA schools without them trying to select themselves onto me, and I have only really talked about what and where with people [i]once[/i] I had applied. Third, there were some schools there where meeting them might be a good idea.

So, I trekked across town (WC sucks), the Central line in rush hour being the typical bandit-fare as ever. There was a lengthy queue outside the venue. This was the first bad sign. A queue to get to see some tables. I got flyered for courses in the queue. This was fun – the last time I got fliers in a queue I found out that Ariel Pink was doing another show in town (outside the Boredoms gig, it actually gave me the url for upset the rhythm so I knew of their shows). These were not so fun. Do people really spend £1000 on a training course on GMAT? If so, I have dead-straight got myself a sideline earner when I get into school. I would guarantee one-on-one tuition to get someone up to their required GMAT for $1500. Reasonable cap meaning I don’t get people saying 800 and all. That will safely cover the bills.

Anyway, that isn’t the point. I am waiting outside what is little more than a recruitment fair, at 6pm in a street in London. Because the registration is taking too long (this being after online registration – registration appeared to be checking your name on a bundled list, taking some money off you and giving you a sticker). I waited about fifteen minutes, mostly with the aim to see one school and then float around.

Once I got in, it was like societies fair at university. Tables, little presentation screens, gimmicks to try and draw you in. It seems very odd to me that Schools are so keen to make an effort to recruit – it almost points to the fact they are struggling for numbers or quality applicants I find. Sure, this is not a factually based thought, but it is the impression that you get – a desperate desire to increase numbers, quality or whatever. I think this is actually partly based upon the fact that I hate this type of event.

Anyway, World MBA tour was somewhat a misnomer. Several of the schools advertised on the site earlier in the week had pulled their stands, most significantly including the one that I wanted to see. International scoring on the stands was three Australian, one Windies, one Singaporean, and seven US. The rest were European. Not wanting to go to a European school, this kind of killed the night off for me. Sure, before I get told I should research these things, I was there for one school, that I found out was pulled as I went in. Having queued and paid, I had a look around (and picked up a monster.com ugly toy thing.) As for the popularity, the LBS and INSEAD stands were rocked off their feet, and every other stand was trying to lure people in. Not much surprising there, then.

The crowd was very representative of every business school trend I have seen reported. Sure I had read that there was the huge surge in Indian applications, but I was taken aback when I was in the fair. I had lazily assumed that this would be a localised effect on global applications, whereas it became rapidly apparent that the MBA is a big thing to Indians, full stop. It was very fun to be in a space where there as such a demographic mix – sadly, there was little reason to be there. There were lots of really quite serious looking people there too. I suppose I should have expected this, but it left me feeling quite distressed. I hoped for lots of work hard, but look like they would be fun in the pub folks. I got people who would probably order crème de menthe. Not good.

I looked into the presentation rooms, but it was a talked-to powerpoint on preparation. Given I have applied to three schools, interviews with two, it was all a little late for me. Given that I hate powerpoints even when they are even relevant (unless the presenter is actually captivating, which is sadly rare). Lots of people were there, and I hope some got a lot out of it. It was disappointing for me that none of the major schools were there, but I suppose this sits so badly in their schedule of stuff to do, it is hardly surprising. As I alluded to earlier – having your admissions staff here would suggest you are low on applicants to review, or – maybe – you are in town interviewing around the date.

Whether I get in or not, I will not be heading back to one of these events. Interaction with the desks for the schools didn’t look as though it would be particularly beneficial to any applicant’s case. It was more having someone to speak to about things, formulate their first ideas about MBAs, GMAT, in a place where you know they will try and sell whatever you want to hear to you. If you want that, these things are great. If you don’t, then you will probably feel the internet has superseded the necessity for such road-show events, as you can find the information yourself. I am firmly in the latter category.

It did look like a good party venue though, and at least when I return to the venue, there will be alcohol.

Industrial Organisation

Ms Soliloquous (aka the gf) is having a little of a hard time with the upcoming schedule of bands I am looking to go and see. It’s an intricate negotiation at best, and we have already established an unwritten agreement that if she has no interest in the band, then I have no interest in forcing her to accompany me. This has coincided with one of the strangest periods of bands playing in town, and I am now up to three gigs that were she to attend, we would have a fight. Unfortunately for me, she only knows about one of these so far, so will only know about all three when she reads this. Most of these would be classified by her as “death music” or some-such. Happily, I still introduce her to the likes of Jim Moir, alongside a whole load of Post Punk madness, and that keeps her happy in the most part.

Nurse With Wound are playing one of their rare live performances since they formed, which was around the point in time I was born. NWW has been a big music thing for me over the past four or five years, from the point when Mr. 515 kindly provided me with a burn of the Funeral Music for Perez Prez Prado. Yes, that is the same guy who did that music that was on the Guinness advert. No, that doesn’t mean that NWW is jaunty and pleasant in a similar way. Anything but. NWW are part of the England’s Hidden Reverse progression of Industrial bands that continued onward from the early 1980s point of the movement (see also Coil
and Current 93, who’s David Tibet is performing as part of NWW at this show), with each band progressing to a thoroughly unique sound and style. From buying Salt Marie Celeste (think one track of haunted ship music) on release, I have ended up with a shelf full on NWW and a whole load more of material from the infamous list. This, in turn, led to drone’s being one of my great loves in music, with La Monte Young becoming a (very expensive) interest for a while. In events that resulted in Ms Soliloquous insisting on putting a stop to “this type of thing”, my Buddha Machine was met by incongruous interrogation by the American Airlines bomb inspection squad during the summer. Apparently, a green Japanese loop-drone box does not make any sense to them and apparently looks a little along the lines of an exploding thing. Dear reader, my relationship nearly ended on the eve of a holiday staying with her parents, and all due to the drone. On a similar tip, Nurse With Wound have been the root cause of the largest number of my DJing confrontations with clubbers. For a good while I played Salt Marie Celeste at near full whack for the first hour in the back room of an indie club I played at with a like minded cohort. It was sonic experimentation with the set up (other weeks it was Can, Neu!, Funkadelic and others), but the indie kids most definitely hated on the Wound. Beyond all expectations, teenage libertine fan-boys and girls can pull a rude face when confronted with some sounds they cannot comprehend.

In other news (the other two gigs), Throbbing Gristle are playing the Tate Modern Turbine Hall! This is going to be crazy. I missed the aborted ATP / transferred to Astoria reformation show, so this – plus the fact they are going back into the studio – is compensation. I can’t reason to go to the recording sessions (tickets are available), but a Turbine hall gig fits so well with the whole TG history that it will be special. Assuming many of you have little experience of the Tate Modern, it is the old Bankside Power Station, and is a typical post war architectural design of a purely industrial building, a kind that has developed a strange beauty in modern times that it certainly was never seen in years ago. Not as splendid in beauty as its river neighbour, Battersea (also designed by Gilbert Scott), Bankside was purchased by one of Britain’s largest art collections to house its modern art collection, with the more traditional Tate Britain (read – looks like an art gallery) down river finally being freed to host its more traditional displays. Sat on the South Bank of the Thames, the power station was bought for a song when the Southbank was an area of incredible dilapidation, London’s infamous cardboard city. Over the past ten years the southbank has improved incredibly, with the regeneration of the Oxo tower, reconstruction of the Globe Theatre and the millennium bridge providing access to the City on the North side of the river.

With derelict and dilapidated industrial buildings quite common in major cities, turning a power station into a modern art gallery was a move of great vision and beautiful imagery. One can only hope that the future development of Battersea can treat the building to such a magnificent, respectful afterlife. The industrial setting for the band is perfect, though you do have to wonder how a 100ft ceiling and concrete walls is going to affect the sound. Bruce Nauman’s sound exhibition there (another part of the Unilever series) was really underwhelming, and I couldn’t help but think it was partly the acoustics. The Turbine Hall has been used for some great successes in the Unilever series –Carsten Höller's current display of slides
using the height, Rachel Whiteread filling the cavernous space with numerous towers of white boxes
(still undecided as whether this was a play on Tate). By far the most successful was the Weather Project (below) by Olafur Eliasson - truly magnificent, something to be seen to be believed. I, as did many, spent lengths of time sat in there, just reading papers in the strange captivating light and warmth created. What is certain is that, given the artistic history of the foundations of Throbbing Gristle, the location has proven an opportunity impossible for them to refuse to play.



The third gig - Einstürzende Neubauten is playing in April, which is exciting news in this themed resurrection of all things Industrial. I celebrated by listening to Drawing of Patients and some of kollaps on the way to the office. I can’t help but wonder if anyone else on my train was doing similar, though I find it extremely doubtful. More London commuters should engage in this – I hear far too much dire music sneaking out of crappy ipod headphones on trains. I used to enjoy the journey as a live field recording experiment, but the leaking sound has now resulted in me joining the pack of i-pod heads. For a person of my disposition of record buying this is hardly a revelatory move, I suppose. And before you ask reader, of course I use sound deadening and isolating headphones. I am a music snob, after all.

Oh, in music with Ms Soliloquous, LCD Soundsystem is only a fortnight or so away. As far as I know, it hasn’t sold out yet, which can only go to prove that the album leak hasn’t gone as far as some feared at first. LCD’s forthcoming album will be one of the albums of the year, without a doubt. It certainly seems to getting frequent plays around our way. I am interested to see them live again now they have, like, enough material to play a fun live set where they can mix it up a bit. A few years ago there were only x songs, and they were going to have to play them all, give or take. Now, hopefully they can enjoy it all a whole lot more.

For readers wanting to read about A, 2, and Z schools – this will be one brief foray (for this week at least) into Industrial music, I promise. Maybe see these as the easiest way you can identify me in future. Unless business schools are rammed full of music freaks, this should not prove difficult at all.

As I am clearly flying off theme, it was brought to my attention that Big Fat Jan Ullrich has retired from professional cycling. Whether this is because he is fearful that next time there is a drug bust they will catch him proper, whether he believes his worth is somewhat greater than what teams are prepared to pay for him. All the same, I will miss him. With Landis already looking out of le Tour, it opens up the scene for Basso to come back in some spectacular fashion and try and disprove his own drug cheat tale. I will have to try and get better focus on this, considering the Tour comes to London
this year. If I am anywhere near fit enough, I might have a go at getting a place on the stage 1 preview ride. Considering I got a stitch in Richmond Park this weekend, it is unlikely.

Oh, and Nigel Slater had a calamari recipe in this Observer Food Monthly this month. Not exactly something I can do at home when I get my hands on a colossal squid, but at least keeping the squid theme rolling. I feel a name change for this blog in the water.