TOTD: DJ Vadim - Theme from Conquest of the Irrational

With the hilarious news that the Australian Liberal Party has chosen the one and only Tony Abbott as their leader, "Theme from Conquest of the Irrational" seems an excellent choice for tune of the day. Delicious.

Welcome to the Battledrome

Further musings on Nick's ill-informed suggestion that Hauritz is anything other than the best spin bowler in Australia.

Gil Scott-Heron

Probably best known for quasi-spoken word type tracks like "The revolution will not be televised" and "Whitey on the moon", Gil Scott-Heron has been conspicuously absent for about 15 years, due in no small part to being in jail. Now he's back, doing interviews, and releasing a new album, I'm new here. It's getting some pretty good reviews too. In recognition, here's Esther Phillips' version of Scott-Heron's beautiful "Home is where the hatred is".

Ethio Jazz

With the recent release of Strut's Mulatu Astatke retrospective, and Oh No's Ethiopium on Stones Throw, Ethio Jazz is, if not So Hot Right Now, at least Moderately Warm at This Point in Time. So, in recognition of this slight increase in temperature, here's Mulatu Astatke's "Yegelle Tezeta":

TOTD: Mayer Hawthorne - The Ills

You know the ills of the world, they can get you down, but then you get back up!

Red Bantoo

I got an email from ITM HQ the other day asking if I'd mind slapping together an interview for Red Bantoo. This is how it turned out. They are awesome. That is all.

From the vaults

Brendon on Vitamin C, Sissy
Originally uploaded by duncanmacinnis

I ported across a bunch of pics that I had posted on 0friction.com into my flickr account (and hard drive). Find them here. I don't think anyone in that set climbs any more, except me. Oh and Stu. There's some reasonable pics in there though, taken on a mixture of film and crappy digital camera. Enjoy!

Some bouldering around Manly

Some bouldering around Manly
Originally uploaded by duncanmacinnis

A few crags in and around Manly that aren't in the guidebook. There's a bunch of stuff being discovered at the moment, and if you don't know the right people you just don't know about them. Hopefully people will stumble upon this head out somewhere other than Sissy or the Frontline.

Xtra Normal

I converted a gmail chat conversation with Nick into a video with Xtranormal:



In conclusion: eat a dick, Nick.

Havana Cultura

Gilles Peterson's latest project aims to showcase Cuban music beyond Buena Vista Social Club. Some jazz, some funk, some hip hop and a bunch of other stuff in the mix. Get a taster here.

Goals

Short-term goals (this year):

30 push-ups
30 v-ups
20 pull-ups
15 knees to elbows
3 minute plank
150 squats
Run this in less than 20 min.

I started the Plank Challenge (see how long you can hold a plank position) with Mitch and some of his friends. I thought I had reasonable core strength from climbing, but I was wrong, so wrong. I managed 2:04 and was dieing - Mitch's mate Pete busted out 4:04, and Mitch said he was aiming for 5 min plus. I dread to think what his brother Fran is going to do. Anyway, it's good to have something to aim for.

I tried to do a half-Chelsea the other night. A full Chelsea is:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats
on the minute for 30 minutes.

So my plan was to do that for 15 minutes - a total of 75 pull-ups, 150 push-ups and 225 squats. That was my aim, anyway. I made it to 7 minutes doing proper pull-ups, 8 minutes doing proper push-ups, and stopped after 10 minutes, thinking my delt's would explode. So yeah, that shit is hard. I'll get better though.

Mitch put together this fitness standards spreadsheet (kinda stolen from CrossFit Seattle), which I'm using as a guideline. I'm also running pretty well at the moment, and am happy with my climbing. I'm also going to start playing Ultimate Frisbee with Steve on Monday nights. Good times.

TOTD: El-p - Tasmanian Pain Coaster

This was the first track El-p played when I saw him play in February. Dope album, dope track. Word.

What they don't show on TV...

If you google "what they don't show on tv", the first hit is my flickr photo. Why the fuck anyone would be googling that, I don't know. Flickr stats, an endless source of entertainment.

Benchmark

I'm trying to add some stuff other than climbing and running into my weekly exercise stuff - mainly in a CrossFit kind of vein. So my new benchmark is:

250 m run followed by 3 times:
10 pullups (strict - no kipping)
250 m run
15 pushups
250 m run
25 situps
250 m run
50 squats
250 m run

Today it took me 28:36. Running after 150 squats hurts. I'll add more when I can be bothered.

Go and skate into an AIDS tree, you motherfucker.

Thanks to Mitch for passing this on.

International Observer

Where do I start with this guy? Formerly signed to Richard Dorfmeister's (of Kruder and Dorfmeister fame) epic Different Drummer label, formerly of the Thompson Twins and formerly of New Zealand, Tom Bailey has a new album coming out. Rad. I first saw them (they were "them" back then) play all back in the day as support for Lee Scratch Perry, and their "We Know" popped up on the ever-awesome Kog Records (now apparently defunct) compilation, Dub Combintions 3. I then picked up their "All Played Out" album in a mess of other super stuff, on the cheap from Real Groovy Records in Auckland. His music is on a digi-dub kind of tip, and very, very good.

Where was I going with this? I can't remember... oh wait, I remember now - new album. Sweet.

9a Big Wall

Spaniards Iker and Eneko Pou have climbed a 13 pitch route in Picos de Europa, Spain, with the hardest pitch going at 8c+/9a. It's called "Orbayu" and is protected by "some original bolts, but most of the rest are wooden pitons, copperheads, micro-friends and nuts..."



Badass? Yeah, just a bit.

TOTD: .Hinge - Mea Culpa

I picked up this album second hand in a 3 for $10 special from Red Eye solely because it was on Creative Vibes (RIP). It's not the sort of thing I'd usually listen to, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

TOTD: Nickodemus - Sun Children

The lineup for Days Like This! has been released. Oh yes!



In honour of this epic collection of dopeness, here is Sun Children.

TOTD: Midnight Oil - Put Down That Weapon

For no other reason than that I really like it:



(Live version, because recorded versions have embedding disabled by request).

Battle cats

I found myself musing this evening that in the pantheon of great human ideas, putting a saddle on a lion, tiger or panther and sallying forth into battle rarely rates a mention. I was somewhat crushed to discover after roughly 136 seconds of googling various permutations of "battle cat", "battlecat", "tiger saddle" and "riding a tiger into battle", that it probably didn't ever happen. I guess that explains it.

TOTD: Mayer Hawthorne - Maybe so, maybe no

Mayer Hawthorne released his debut LP the other day. The TOTD is a live version of Maybe So, Maybe No, done in the studio for Radio KCRW. Just gorgeous.

TOTD: Quantic presents Flowering Inferno - Dub Del Pacifico

Quantic, aka Will Holland has made music as Quantic, The Quantic Soul Orchestra, Flowering Inferno and most recently as Quantic and his Combo Barbaro. This track is from his Flowering Inferno album, which has a distinctly dubby influence, but retains the soul, afrobeat and latin influences that pervade all his music.

Recovery runs

An interesting article on recovery runs.

TOTD: Lefties Soul Connection - Fais Do Do

Get yo' funk on, Dutch styles.

Englishmen don't dive.

After the brouhaha surrounding Eduardo's "dive" in the Champions League game between Arsenal and Celtic a few weeks back, John Terry, captain of England and Chelsea, has come out and said that English players are too honest to dive. He appears to be entirely serious too. Perhaps someone should tell him to do a search on "Gerrard dive", "Rooney dive" or even "Cole dive" on youtube. Yep, diving is definitely something that the English lads don't do...

This is also worth your time - Arseblog's response to Terry's ludicrous remarks:

I read this before going to bed last night and, being somewhat in my cups, subjected poor Mrs Blogs to a rather lengthy, and I'm sure tedious, rant about what a humungous, plague-carrying cuntmongrel John Terry is. I spelled out, using the most wicked men in the history of the world, how he soared above all of them, his iniquitous existence a blight on the human race, a stain on us all. I used hand gestures, pie charts, graphs, Powerpoint presentations, empirical research and much more to prove, once and for all, that John Terry is the biggest cunt in the world.

"But why?", said Mrs Blogs.

I sighed.

"Because he's a cunt", I said.

How can he say something like that with a straight face? He plays in various teams with the likes of Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole and he says English players are too honest to dive? He plays with Didier Drogba, has played with him for years and years, yet he still thinks it's ok to talk about diving?

That's like being a mafia henchman and castigating those who go around garotting people and stabbing folk in the throat before shooting them in the head, wrapping them up in plastic, weighing them down and dumping the body at sea.

England play Croatia on Wednesday and apologies to any patriotic Englishmen who want to see their national team do well but I hope Eduardo scores a hat-trick, nutmegging Terry for each goal (one of which will see him go around the keeper, stop the ball on the line, then kneel down and head it in off the ground), before an outrageous Terry dive to try and win a penalty for England explodes both his knees and brings about a grave, and hugely debilitating, case of sudden onset polio and a dose of consumption while he's at it.

I couldn't agree more. Come on Croatia!

TOTD: Nina Simone - Feeling Good

Because I am.

Risk

As a motorbike rider and climber, risk and risk management are a particular area of interest for me. On Monday my mate Seb, who got his L's at the same time as I did, had a bit of a bingle on his bike, and I'm currently reading the Boardman Tasker Omnibus. These two things have set me ruminating on risk (again). There's a long post about this lurking somewhere, probably on the other side of thesis submission though. Until then, stay safe y'all.

TOTD: NoFX - Don't call me white

I'm in a punk kind of mood today. Even back when I wasn't a massive fan of Punk in Drublic, I loved this track. Now I've seen the error of my ways and realised that this is NoFX's best album, but this is still the best track on it. Word.

Peanut Butter Wolf's 45 Live

I own a ridiculous amount of cd's. True, there are many people who own more than me - my brother for example - but seriously, there's a shitload of them. Basically what I'm trying to say is that it's pointless for me to try and switch to collecting vinyl. I have way too much music on CD, and if I was going to collect vinyl it would only be so that I could play it out. It's not going to happen.

So when things like Peanut Butter Wolf's 45 Live are released, it makes me sad.

TOTD: Menahan Street Band - Make the road by walking

Announced today; the Menahan Street Band are touring in September! In tribute, here is their "Make the road by walking":



From their Myspace:

The Menahan Street Band is a collaboration of musicians from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (Dave Guy, Homer Steinweiss, Fernando Velez, Bosco Mann), El Michels Affair (Leon Michels, Toby Pazner), Antibalas (Nick Movshon, Aaron Johnson) and The Budos Band (Mike Deller, Daniel Fodder), brought together by musician/producer Thomas Brenneck (Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, Amy Winehouse) to record hits in the bedroom of his Menahan St. apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. With influences reaching beyond the funk/soul/afrobeat architecture of their other projects into the more ethereal realms of Curtis Mayfield and Mulatu Astatke, the Menahan Street Band creates a unique new instrumental soul sound that is as raw as it is lush. Their debut album, Make the Road by Walking will be released on Dunham Records, Brenneck’s new imprint of Daptone Records, a joint venture devoted to bringing the Menahan Street sound from Brenneck’s bedroom out into the world. The album is marked by eerily quirky arrangements, featuring vibes, horns, piano, organ, percussion and even a strange bling sound that Brenneck creates by tuning and plucking the strings of his guitar on the wrong side of the bridge. However, it is not the textures themselves that make the new sound of Menahan Street so exciting, but rather the way the sounds are incorporated into the heavy rhythms and bold melodies of the compositions.

Support by Dojo Cuts. I'm excited.

Camera toss

Too Much Beer, Not Enough Talent
Originally uploaded by Eric A James

This is an excellent flickr group I stumbled across some time ago. The premise is simple - chuck your camera in the air with a long exposure, but some of the images produced are just beautiful. I don't think I'll be chucking my dslr any time soon though.

Tune of the day

I've decided to start adding a few tunes of the day. Today's tune is Amon Tobin's "Lighthouse", from the Splinter Cell soundtrack:



Have a read about the soundtrack in Cyclic Defrost here.

More football

Well. Mere hours after I voiced my concerns about the strength of Arsenal's title challenge this year, they put Everton to the sword 6-1. Not a bad way to start the season, it has to be said, with a brace to Fabregas and one for debutant Vermaelen. I'm hoping for a similar scoreline when Sydney play Adelaide this afternoon.

Highlights:

Football.

Just in case you missed this:



and on the eve of the mighty Sydney FC's first home game, wonder kid Kofi Danning's goal against the Fury from last week:



The EPL kicks off this weekend too. Arsenal play Everton. I'm not feeling particularly optimistic about the Gunner's chances this season, what with Wenger selling Adebayor and Toure, and only buying Vermaelen. Add to that injuries to Rosicky and Nasri, and the lack of depth of the Arsenal squad becomes all too apparent. Celtic are first up in the Champions League too...

Dump Bachman

You may have been worried that after Sarah Palin quit that Anne Coulter would have to carry the flag for hateful, conservative nutjob females in America. It's ok though, because crazy Republicans are thick on the ground over there, and some of them don't have penises! My favourite is Michelle Bachman of Minnesota. Check out the Dump Bachman blog for more insanity than you could fire an automatic weapon at.

It warms my heart to see the Republicans with a leadership void that makes the NSW Liberal Party's choice of Peter Debnam at the last state election look like an inspired decision.

Car and a job.

I picked up 14 cd's for NZ$50 from Real Groovy when I was in Auckland a few weeks back for a conference. One of them was Surreal and DJ Balance's Future Classics, which cost me the princely sum of NZ$1. "Car and a job" is my favourite track, which is ironic given that I have neither a car nor a proper job - but "Motorbike and some casual teaching" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyway, check it out:



Dope? Why yes, I think you're right.

Peats Ridge

The first release of artists for this years Peats Ridge Festival has me excited. Here's some thoughts/links what have you about some of the artists:

Astronomy Class: Ozi Batla's (of The Herd) side-project. While I haven't heard much of the new album, their album Exit Strategy is a breezy blend of reggae and hip hop. Ozi Batla's stage presence is always amazing, and he'll no doubt be joined on stage by fellow Elefant Traks artist The Tongue. Good times assured.

Blue King Brown: at times I find their political message a touch over-bearing, but Blue King Brown certainly make good music. Equal parts reggae, afro-beat and funk, with just a hint of hip hop, they've always got me dancing in the past.

Circle of Rhythm: when it comes to whacking stuff, these guys are without peers. Bobby Singh and Ben Walsh also play together in The Bird.

Declan Kelly and The Rising Sun: reggae with a little bit of afro-beat. Last years festival saw Kelly joined onstage by Afro Moses - a highlight of the festival for mine.

Deep Street Soul: last years discovery of the festival. Signed to Freestyle Records, they play deep funk in the New Mastersounds/Meters vein. Seriously, unbelievably, utterly dope.

Deepchild: while he's moved away from the beepy-bleepy dub styles that originally attracted me to his music, the deephouse/minimal/techno that he makes now is equally good. One of Australia's least recognised producers. My review of his latest album "Departure" is here.

Harmonic 313: Mark Pritchard has about a million different aliases that span just about all genres of EDM. Harmonic 313 is his dubstep persona, and it's proper heavy business. Steve Spacek lends his voice to the project too - what's not to like?

The Bird: electronic music propelled by the outstanding percussive talents of Ben Walsh. Pure and utter radness hovering somewhere between d'n'b, dub and indian bhangra. Re-Inventions review.

The Nomad: downbeat electronica heavily informed by dub styles. Originally from NZ, now based in Melbourne (I believe). Choice eh, bro? Selected Works review.

Tiajuana Cartel: another band discovered at last years festival. Bits and pieces of world music and good times.

No doubt there'll be more artists to come, but the line-up is already looking pretty damn tasty. Here's hoping the organisers can improve the sound on the main-stage this year...

Deadline

I received an email from my higher education institution informing me that if I didn't hand in my thesis by December 31st, I will be un-enrolled. This means I have a deadline imposed by someone other than me! Hurrah!

So, I'll do you a deal: don't ask me about my thesis, and I won't hit you with a mace. Deal?

Socceroos!

Stu's insightful piece on the countdown to the World Cup in South Africa next year got me thinking. And then I found this, and didn't need to think anymore, because someone else did the thinking for me:

When I sit at the brekkie table, in the post-shiraz fog which has characterized my (happy) life, I thank Divine Providence for three things. I am grateful for Vegemite which restores the delicate balance of an athlete’s physiology; I marvel at the effect of black Aspirin (Coca-Cola from the can); and I am just so pleased that God didn’t confer on me the gift of yelling, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: Oi, Oi, Oi.”

Now I feel a deep relationship with the land on which I walk, and its people, and its culture. I know that because I feel it. At home, and away. In my travels around the globe, even when the excitement of new places and people has me on a high, I have a strong sense that Australia remains home.

But I don’t feel any need to express that by wearing a big sombrero and a yellow T-shirt and chanting, “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi.”

However I will admit this: although I find jingoism mindless, and the national chest-thumping which accompanies the Commonwealth Games and other folk festivals ridiculous, there are occasions when the jumper leads of an international sporting fixture will jolt me into Frankensteinian life.

And it sometimes surprises me when it happens. (And when it doesn’t.)

My Offsiders' (Barrie Cassidy’s sports show which follows the must-see Inside Business) colleague, Gerard Whateley and I have been musing over the question onto which Australian sporting side are Australians most projecting their nationalist feelings.

It’s not an insignificant question culturally, and certainly not insignificant commercially. This is about national identity and there are rivers of gold for the sporting administration which can garner support by presenting itself as the embodiment of national aspirations.

For a long time it was the cricket team. From the late nineteenth century until that moment – and we can try to pinpoint the time – when cricket became another product in the sports market. A survey of the national news services will show that cricket is buried three-deep in the sports reports behind the football codes and the barney outside the local night club. And we’re mid-Ashes. (If we’re talking about the trend of the graph, S.C.G. MacGill is not doing much to send it north.)

In Queensland and New South Wales it has been the rugby side (if you drink pinot) and the rugby league side (if you drink Jim Beam). I’d argue that people south of the Barassi Line feel a greater connection to the rugby side, and will watch a test match when it is conveniently scheduled for TV viewing, although given the choice between an early-Saturday-afternoon Bledisloe Cup match from Christchurch, and walking the dog to the TAB to put on a Flemington quaddie, the quaddie would start favourite.

This year the industrial dispute that is Australian rugby (not quite as bad as the industrial dispute that is Caribbean cricket – yet) and the fact that Australia is the outsider in Tri-nations betting ($3.55 on Betfair) haven’t served the cause.

Forget about the national rugby league side.

It’s not only teams. Sometimes individuals carry with them a groundswell of nationalist support. There will be some enthusiasm for Adam Scott in the British Open (but that’s not so much nationalist sentiment as it is the best wishes to a bloke who’s found a decent spot for his slippers) as there was for Sam Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon.

Not to forget motor-racing and its appeal to our inner (national) bogan (as Catherine Deveny would say). I was surprised the tabloids didn’t print a lift-out when Mark Weber won pole-position on the weekend. I’d love to know what went on in the editor’s office when he crossed the line first at Nurburgring.

Then there is the slightly different form of attachment precipitated by the national game. Indigenous in nature, it captures something of what it means to live on this continent – for those who find it meaningful. And many at the MCG and sitting in front of TVs from Yelarbon to Yallourn to Yuendumu felt whatever that connection might be during Liam Jurrah’s first half yesterday.

But I think over the next 12 months it will be the Socceroos (as Gerard Whateley suggests) who find themselves the principal national team. Partly because of the respect for the depth of world football. Partly because it is fresh and growing. Partly because the team is on the rise.

But also because the mainstream commercial media have turned: they can no longer ignore the advertising dollars that their coverage of soccer will bring.

While this love of soccer has always existed in sections of the Australian community the mainstream media have worked to protect the minor empires that have been the local skippy codes. That has changed.

Which brings me to the other reason. Enough of us now imagine ourselves to be citizens of a genuinely multicultural nation, and soccer is profoundly symbolic of that.

Sorry Ricky Ponting and Cricket Australia, as important as you are in the national culture, your spot is being challenged.

While it does ignore the fact that our national squad is aging, and their don't appear to be any new Harry Kewell's on the horizon, there's no doubt that The World Game has more support in Australia than ever. Let's hope FFA have the future of Australian football in hand...

Clifford Stoll

I've found that my data analysis goes much faster if I listen to talks or podcasts while I work. Yesterday I came across Clifford Stoll's TED talk. Clifford Stoll wrote a brilliant book called The Cuckoo's Egg back in 1989 or so about his experiences tracking a hacker. I think I read it in primary school, and remember dad yelling at me because I bent the front cover. Oops. Anyway, he's also an astronomer and an absolute lunatic, but an interesting lunatic. So watch the video, and if you have any suggestions about podcasts etc., hit me back.

More money and football

According to The Daily Mail, Spanish club Getaffe have struck a deal with Burger King whereby the club strip features a large Burger King logo on the front. All good, if somewhat tacky looking, so far. What's not good is "Burger King" mask on the inside of the shirt, intended to be displayed in the event of a goal being scored. The Daily Mail finish their article with:

If ever there was a celebration that deserved a yellow card, it will be this.

Pretty much.

Map My Run

Two thingshave resulted in me running more lately. First, I've been spending absurd amounts of time sitting in front of this computer processing data. Not climbing or running would just be unthinkable, plus I'd get fat. I do not wish to get fat. Second, Brendon has moved a) back to Australia, and b) just down the road. That guy brings the psyche. Wait - three things. The dick-snap residents who live near the North Sydney Anzac Club complained about the noise from futsal, so it got cancelled. We're moving to a new venue in August, but no futsal for 4 weeks. Lame.
So I've started using MapMyRun, which, believe it or not, allows you to map and track your runs. It has a godawful user interface, probably designed by a 12 year old kid with ADHD, that makes Windows Vista look like the most intuitive piece of design ever, but hell, it's free. Anyway, my Goal (note big G) for the month when I'm not playing futsal is to run 50 miles. 20km a week ain't really no thang, but it'll help keep the inexorable decline into middle-aged portliness at bay. Brendon still wants to do adventure races, but seeing as neither of us have mountain bikes (and I have no decent stream of income with which to purchase one), that could be a while off. I still have doing a marathon on my list of things to do before I die, but my plans to do the Sydney marathon this year have been abandoned.
Anyway, even if I'm not anywhere near as fit as I was at 18, I still haul arse. It is kinda hard to believe I could do a sub 9 minute 3000m at 16 though. My aim is to find a good balance between stick man 16 year old Duncan, and slightly muscley climber Duncan. I'll let you know how it goes.

Splashing the cash

I've been paying much more attention to the football transfer market this season. In particular, the ridiculous amounts of money being thrown around by Real Madrid and Manchester City. I hate the "throw around heaps of money and success will follow" mentality of these clubs, and I dislike the fact that players like Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor would go to a club that isn't even playing in the Europa Cup next season. These sentiments are summed up excellently by this fine comic (from the Arsenal FC blog, via somewhere else).

Anyway, I hope Arsenal use the 25 million odd pounds that they're getting for Adebayor to get a decent new striker. Real Madrid's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is after a new home... I also hope that Real Madrid and Manchester City fail abjectly this season.

New rock

I went out with Brendon this morning in search of some new blocs that were found in Clontarf. We found them, and they're dope. We didn't get to do any climbing due to the fact that they were still wet from yesterdays rain (and I forgot my chalkbag), but we'll be back for sure. We also went and checked out another area I found a few years ago, and it's better than I remembered.

Pysched!

An update

I've decided to update this thing a bit more often. It's been going since February 2008, and I'm up to like 103 inane and uninteresting posts, cluttering up the tubes. Since I started, Twitter has gained popularity (*shakes fist). In my first ever donutsandyoyos post I said:

I've always thought it rather conceited that bloggers think they have anything worth saying, and hell, I probably don't.

103 odd posts have shown that I certainly do not have anything remarkable to say, but I'm going to continue. If blogging is conceited, however, I don't know what twittering is. Does anyone really give a shit about the everyday minutiae of your existence? Not me, that's for sure. Still, I'm going to use this bad boy to share my ill-informed and poorly written ramblings, as well as cool stuff I find on the intertubes. Just because. Which is the kind of mentality that makes people start twittering (I assume), but at least this thing's only read by like 3 people, and they already know I'm an asshat.

So, in the absence of anything useful to say at this point, I'll direct your attention to totallylookslike instead.

Let's blow this fascist popsicle stand!

I often use this phrase, but wasn't aware of it's origins, and noone I asked ever did either. So, it's with great pride that I can reveal I googled it, and it's from The Simpsons. That blogger that found the under-aged Chinese gymnast ain't got shit on my internet detective skills, yo. In my interweb travels I also found this. Worth a read, I reckon.

On a completely unrelated topic, I've been loving me some Mayer Hawthorne lately. "Maybe So, Maybe No" and "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out" are some kind of super-rad. Hear bits of the upcoming album here. There's also a dope podcast on the Stones Throw channel. Find it.

Uncommon

I'm sure this has been said before, and almost certainly by someone more eloquent than I, but it's amazing just how uncommon common sense is. Having done a lot of teaching this session, it amazes me just how stupid otherwise intelligent people can be when it comes to practical matters. Don't get me started on common courtesy either...

Conservative nutjobs

The ever-enlightening Huffington Post brought my attention to the creation of a fund to help Sarah Palin pay her legal fees in the Troppergate probe. Named "Sarah Palin's War Chest", it was set up by the nutjobs at FreeAmericanCitizens.org, at the instigation of Bill O'Reilly. Ha! Anyway, this quote from the HuPo article piqued my interest:

I think she has been abused," he said. "I think she has been abused by the news media. And here is the thing, a lot of people may not like the idea of a woman being a leader. But who is the best protector of the children? A woman on the playground will protect a child in harm and then they say they can't be leaders? But they are the best protectors.... People don't look at that, people don't see it, but mothers are nurturers.

[Clayton Paslay, of FreeAmericanCitizens.org, on Palin]

So I checked out their website. Under the heading "Our Reasons" can be found the delightfully disparate policies of opposing compulsory wearing of seatbelts (no shit), legalising the hiring of illegal immigrants and the promotion of abstinence in sex education. I'm not really going to try and add anything other than pointing and laughing. I'm especially amused that a group supporting Palin is all for illegal workers, and also find it pretty amusing that despite Bristol Palin's baby, these people still support abstinence. Stupid people - they're everywhere.

I have a lot of crap

Every time I move I become aware of just how much crap I have. Three helmets (bicycle, climbing and now motorbike), nine pairs of climbing shoes, four climbing ropes (two singles and a pair of doubles), some 700 odd CD's, seven camera lenses, five backpacks of various sizes - the list goes on. So I'm rationalising the amount of shit that I have. There's a big bag of clothes going to St. Vinnies and at least three pairs of climbing shoes are being donated to UNSW Outdoors Club. In the unlikely event that someone reading this wants a kit lens from a Canon 350D or Canon 3000 film camera, let me know. I'm keeping all my CD's though.

I am a rolling stone.

Having lived in about 6 different places in the last 18 months, I thought I'd found a place where I could settle for a while. Wrong. Our douche bag real estate agent has decided that we are a bunch of sketch bags and so sent us an eviction notice. Rami talked to him, and sorted it out, but we've decided to pull the pin anyway, so it's back to Fairlight for me. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as my scholarship runs out at the end of April, but I really like living in Surry Hills. Anyway, here are the pros and cons of moving out:

Pro's
-no rent
-I don't have to pay for food
-I get to ride my motorbike to uni
-living close to the boys from school

Con's
-not being in Surry Hills
-moving back in with Mum and Dad (sorry Mum and Dad, but once you move out it's hard to go back - I'm sure you understand)
-being miles away from radness
-not being able to walk everywhere

Ugh. Anyway, no doubt it will be ok, I'm pretty fucking over moving though.

Woah.

I felt it was necessary to share this slice of radness: The Enduring Legacy of Point Break. Awesome.

Runnin'

This dispatch is nothing to do with the awesome Pharcyde track - although I am super disappointed to have missed Pharcyde last week. All four of them, plus Supernatural! Unfortunately they were playing at Good Vibes Festival, and I'd rather slam my dick in a car door than hang out with a Sydney festival crowd these days. Yes, I'm old and jaded and cynical. Fuck you.

Anyway, I digress. I've been seriously lacking psych for climbing for a couple of months, and the lack of physical activity has led to a noticeable increase in body fat. I'm not fat, don't get me wrong, but I've NEVER experienced this before. So, I've started running again. I've always wanted to do a marathon, but I know I can do this, so my goal is more than just to finish. I'd like to do a sub 2 hour half marathon in May, then a sub 4 hour marathon in September, both in Sydney. I'm currently doing about 25km per week, which will need to be up around 50-60km per week in the lead up to the half, and more than 90km per week for the marathon. I'll provide updates over the coming months. Now, I'm off for a run.

Throwing my hat in the ring

A friend brought my attention to the Richard Casement internship offered annually by The Economist. Their aim is to find scientists who can write rather than writers who can science, so I figure I may as well throw my hat into the ring. Whether or not I will have finished my thesis or will have the money to support myself for 3 months in London is something I'm choosing not to think about at the moment...

Genes and beer

For your reading enjoyment, the nerdier bit of my thesis intro. Mmm, genes...

Genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae important in flavour production

There are a number of genes in yeast that play a pivotal role in yeast metabolism and the associated production of flavour compounds (Verstrepen et al. 2003b; Swiegers et al. 2006; Saerens, S. et al. 2008b). Different strains of yeast have been shown to produce different levels of metabolites under identical growth conditions, and it is genetic variation that is thought to account for these differences (Swiegers et al. 2006). While it is very difficult to source identical raw materials for each brew or wine fermentation, it is thought that a better understanding of how variation in amounts of amino acid content, metal ion levels and so on affect gene expression may lead to the ability to make a more consistent product (Bromberg et al. 1997; Younis and Stewart 1999; Pretorius and Bauer 2002; Verstrepen et al. 2003c; Swiegers et al. 2006).

Genes involved in the Ehrlich Pathway

There are multiple genes able to catalyse each step of the pathway, and the major enzyme responsible for each step depends on the amino acid being degraded (Hazelwood et al. 2008). The initial reversible transamination step is catalysed by BAT1 and BAT2 (branched-chain amino acids), or ARO8 and ARO9 (aromatic amino acids) (Eden et al. 2001; Vuralhan, Z et al. 2005), although both ARO8 and ARO9 both appear to have a broader substrate specificity than originally reported. ARO9 in particular is up-regulated in glucose-limited chemostats with phenylalanine, methionine and leucine as the sole nitrogen source (compared to yeast grown with a nitrogen source not involved in the Ehrlich pathway) (Godard et al. 2007).

The decarboxylation step is irreversible and commits the 2-oxo acid product of transamination to the Ehrlich pathway. There are four genes thought to play a role in the decarboxylation step: the pyruvate decarboxylases encoded by PDC1, PDC5 and PDC6, and ARO10 (Ter Schure et al. 1998; Vuralhan, Z et al. 2005). Previously it was thought that THI3 encoded an enzyme with decarboxylase activity, but recently it has been suggested that it plays a regulatory role instead (Vuralhan, Z. et al. 2003; Vuralhan, Z et al. 2005).

The fate of the resulting aldehyde is thought to depend on the redox state of the cell. While the oxidation of the aldehyde consumes NAD(P)⁺ and produces NAD(P)H, the reduction consumes NADH, yielding NAD⁺. It has been demonstrated that any one of Adh1p, Adh2p, Adh3p, Adh4p, Adh5p or Sfa1p can catalyse the formation of fusel alcohols, and Ypr1p and Gre2p have been shown to have activity towards 2-methylbutyralaldehyde and isovaleraldehyde respectively (Dickinson et al. 2003; Hazelwood et al. 2008). S. cerevisiae also harbours seven putative aryl alcohol dehydrogenases, but these do not appear to play a role in the pathway (Dickinson et al. 2003). It is thought that the aldehyde dehydrogenases, Ald4p, Ald5p and Ald6p are responsible for the synthesis of fusel acids, with Ald6p playing the major role (Saint-Prix et al. 2004; Hazelwood et al. 2008).

The alcohol acetyl transferases

There are two enzymes responsible for acetate ester synthesis in S. cerevisiae; the alcohol acetyl transferases, Atf1p and Atf2p (Mason and Dufour 2000). Acetate esters may be formed by a spontaneous chemical reaction, but their rate of accumulation is too high for this to account for their levels in wine and beer. In 1964 Nordstrom demonstrated that they are formed by the action of an “ester synthase” (Nordstrom 1964), but it wasn’t until 1994 that ATF1 was identified (Fujii et al. 1994), while ATF2 was isolated in 1998 (Nagasawa et al. 1998). Atf1p plays the major role in acetate ester synthesis, accounting for 80% of isoamyl acetate synthesis. Atf2p accounts for the majority of the remaining isoamyl acetate, however the ATF1/ATF2 double mutant still retains some AATase activity (Verstrepen et al. 2003c). At the deduced amino acid level, the two genes are 36.9% identical and both contain a heptapeptide sequence, WRLICLP, which is unique to these proteins in the S. cerevisiae genome (Mason and Dufour 2000; Van Laere et al. 2008). Both also contain the HXXXD motif present in the enzyme superfamily that includes the plant alcohol acyltranferases. However, neither contains the DFGWG motif that is highly conserved in the BAHD enzyme family of plant enzymes (D'Auria 2006).

ATF1

Construction of an ATF1::GFP fusion construct by Verstrepen and co-workers led them to conclude that Atf1p localises to the lipid particles, along with many other proteins, most of which are involved in lipid metabolism (Athenstaedt et al. 1999; Verstrepen et al. 2004). ATF1 expression is profoundly affected by environmental conditions. The presence of oxygen directly represses ATF1 expression, as does the presence of unsaturated fatty acids (both properties shared by the D9 fatty acid desaturase gene, OLE1) (Fujiwara et al. 1998; Mason and Dufour 2000; Verstrepen et al. 2003a). Interestingly, the lower the melting temperature of the fatty acid, the stronger their repressive effect on the transcription of ATF1 (Fujiwara et al. 1999). ATF1 transcription can also be effected by factors as diverse as carbon and nitrogen availability, temperature and zinc availability (Mason and Dufour 2000; Verstrepen et al. 2003a; Verstrepen et al. 2003b). Given that it is the expression of the alcohol acetyl transferase genes, rather than substrate availability, that plays the major role in acetate ester synthesis, any factor that effects transcription also effects final ester concentrations (Verstrepen et al. 2003c).

ATF2

It was recently found that ATF2 plays a role in sterol acetylation, a process necessary for the export of sterols and steroids from the yeast cell. Briefly, ATF2 was found to be responsible for the non-specific acetylation of sterols and steroids. These acetylated compounds are then deacetylated according to the substrate specificity of the deacetylase Say1p, with the acetylated compounds then being exported out of the cell in what is presumed to be a vesicle mediated process (Tiwari et al. 2007). This is in accordance with the earlier findings of Cauet and co-workers, who found that a strain of S. cerevisiae lacking ATF2 was unable to acetylate pregnenolone, and that this led to an observable toxic effect (Cauet et al. 1999). Atf2p is an integral membrane protein of the ER that contains at least two transmembrane domains with both termini oriented towards the lumenal compartment (Tiwari et al. 2007). A mean hydrophobicity index of –0.36 and sub-cellular fractionation data suggests that Atf2p is a mainly soluble protein (Mason and Dufour 2000).

Physiological role of Atf1p and Atf2p

A bioinformatic analysis of AATases from various yeast species found that while Saccharomyces sensu stricto yeasts have two genes encoding AATases, more distantly related yeasts have only one orthologue. In those yeasts with just one AATase gene, the protein sequence was found to be most similar to ATF2. It is thought that the presence of two AATase genes may be due to a whole genome duplication (WGD) event thought to have occurred during the evolution of ascomycetous fungi (Wolfe 2004; Van Laere et al. 2008). Van Laere et al. suggest that in S. cerevisiae, ATF2 retained the initial function of AATase’s pre WGD, while ATF1 developed a new, specific function, most likely involved in anaerobic lipid metabolism (Van Laere et al. 2008). While these authors do not mention the work of Tiwari and co-workers, it seems likely that function of ATF2 type AATases is to acetylate sterols and steroids for detoxification (Tiwari et al. 2007). The precise physiological role of ATF1, and indeed acetate ester synthesis remains unclear. However, the findings of Delneri et al., that the heterozygous diploid ATF1 mutant is haploinsufficent in glucose limited, ammonium limited and phosphate limited conditions (Delneri et al. 2008), suggest that ATF1 has a physiological role beyond the synthesis of acetate esters.

IAH1

IAH1 is an esterase that breaks down acetate esters (Fukuda et al. 1996). Originally named EST2, the protein was found to lack the GSXSG consensus motif of serine type esterases and lipases. However, it was assumed that the similar AXSXG pentapeptide sequence was the active site (Fukuda et al. 1996). This observation, as well as the fact that the enzyme was completely inhibited by diisopropyl fluorophosphate and partly inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, led to the conclusion that Iah1p was a serine type carboxylesterase (Fukuda et al. 2000). Using various overexpression constructs and the DIAH1 and DATF1 strains, it was found that isoamyl acetate production in a sake brew was a result of the balance of expression of these two genes. The authors found that overexpression of ATF1 was more significant in isoamyl acetate ester production than IAH1 levels, however (Fukuda et al. 1998).