Joan, Cerys and yours truly!
Posted on September 22, 2006
Filed Under culture, jazz, music, review, science, the future, weekend | Comments Off
Today was a good day and the night hasn’t even started yet! My server stats thingy is always a bit behind but, last night, it said I had 1,002 unique visitors so far in September. My technorati ranking is 425,000. Which doesn’t sound too good until you learn I started at 1,500,000!! Maybe it’s some sort of reverse Stockholm Syndrome whereby, instead of getting close to the kidknappers you’re forced to be with, people out there are searching for confirmation of their distorted/odd views. Come one, come y’all!
When I was a biology student, one of my friends was a computer geek who really, really adored Monty Python’s humour (he could quote entire sketches verbatim). It seemed like a good idea at the time so he wrote an science essay for one of my classmates. Instead of writing about fast/slow muscle fibres, ATP and muscle reaction times, and other physiological things, he wrote about pirates making bad muscles walk the plank and queried ‘what have ATP molecules ever done for us‘? He then proceeded to answer the question in a very Pythonesque way.
As I said, he was a big Python fan but, sadly, the lecturer wasn’t. An investigation was launched and he was encouraged to avail of the University’s psychological service. This was before Columbine etc. He was completely normal, except for his fondness for Pringle-style jumpers. Naturally, he was a bit concerned about how things were unfolding so he went home to his father for advice. I can’t remember exactly what his father said to him but he came back as good as new and with his humour intact.. (His father was a rate (tax) collector for the local council.) Wearing my white lab coat, I think his father told him that people’s behaviour was like a Poisson distribution curve (an upside-down U). Normal/boring people tend to congregate around the median (the middle, the average) and those who are interesting/eccentric are 1 or 2 standard deviations (S.D.’s) from that. He was +/- 1 or 2. ‘Mad’ people are 4/5/6 S.D’s from the median.
I’m too far from the ivory tower to even attempt to explain what standard deviation is but I think we should all try to be at least 1 or 2 +/- standard deviations from the norm. Life is sooo much fun at the edge!
What has all this got to do with my title. Absolutely nothing, I must confess. But, like I wrote already, today is a good day. My new cd’s arrived – Cerys Matthews’ Never Said Goodbye and Joan as Police Woman’s Real Life. Both are pretty good, even if I’ve only listened to them a little bit.
Joan As Police Woman is the better cd right now. She’s a new artist to me and it’s a nice mix of jazz, piano and classical. Best songs so far are I defy and Save Me. Antony from Antony and the Johnsons sings on ‘I defy’ so it’s bound to be good. ‘Save Me’ just sounds good. As I’ve written before, I listen for the mood and not the lyrics so don’t read too much into the titles of the songs!! I haven’t checked the lyrics yet but, considering Antony is involved, there’s bound to be a bit of naughty-ness involved.
Even better, Joan’s CD is a ‘limited edition includes hand numbered art card by Joan’ (sic). That’s the picture above.
Right now, I’m 1,559, 1,002, 425,000 — think I’ll just be myself!
Both of the artists have myspace identities – cerys and joan. Personally, I think it’s a bit juvenile to have 1,000+ internet stranger friends on your website. Quality, not quanity, is my motto (cough, cough).
click here if you want to participate in my online poll 
P.S. Both are visiting Dublin before Christmas. Cerys Matthews is visiting The Village on Oct 13 while Joan as Police Woman is playing the same venue on Dec 19. I think I’ll go to Joan (too lazy to type the rest) as I’m thinking of her as a sophisticated version of Maria McKee (isadub ducks as missiles are thrown!)
