Eurovision 2012

Last year, I watched Eurovision, the annual European song contest, and became completely enamored- pure camp, at its finest!  This year's competition did not disappoint- aside from all of the ballads (BO-ring), performances ranged from dancy Europop, heavy metal, and the downright bizarre, and the costumes ranged from slightly ridiculous to completely ridiculous-  sparkly blindfolds and Native American headdresses are just the tip of the iceberg.  I'd say a solid half of the acts looked like they were dressed as space aliens from 1960s television.  Now that I've discovered Eurovision, I'm a bit sad that the US is excluded from participation.  Hopefully they'll start broadcasting Eurovision on US television so Americans will at least have the opportunity to witness the spectacle.  An evening spent with friends, drinking wine and watching Eurovision, is just about the best entertainment around.

Some highlights:

Jedward, the hyperactive twins, were back representing Ireland, and their new dance move inspired my housemate Susan and I to try our own.

Sweden's winning entry was actually pretty good, a catchy pop song by Loreen, who had angered authorities from host country Azerbaijan by meeting with political activists.  Turkey had the most creative costumes- caped male dances who turned into a sailboat. Too bad their song was rubbish.  England trotted out Engelbert Humperdinck but his performance was far too snoozy to win many votes.

However, Russia's entry brought down the house- six elderly Russian ladies singing "Party For Everybody" and dancing around a revolving oven. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Book reviews

So in all that time I wasn't blogging I was doing a lot of traveling, and long flight = lots of reading time.  So here are some very brief summaries of what I've read lately:

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett. One of my favorite authors writes a book about a female scientist who travels to the Amazon to investigate the mysterious death of a colleague. Could a plot line be any more up my alley? Unlikley.

The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. Apparently it takes two authors to write a thriller that's like a low calorie version of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  Confusing at first but got more enjoyable when I got used to the Danish names and figured out who was who.

The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay. An excellent novel about a young boy growing up in South Africa during World War II that chronicles his difficult childhood and the people he met who have a long-lasting impact on his life. So much better than the movie! Highly recommended!  Even though it was a long book, I was sad to come to the end, as I don't think I could ever get tired of Peekay.
The Book of the Night Women, by Marlon James.  The story of Lilith, a slave girl growing up on a sugar plantation in Jamaica in the 18th century. Heartbreaking and brutal as hell. I'll be happy if I never have to read another whipping scene ever again.
The Opposite of Me, by Sarah Pekkanen. After finishing with the night women, I needed some lighter fare to brighten my mood, and this somewhat formulaic chic lit did the trick.  Twin sisters who are opposite in looks and personalities!! 
Straight Man, by Richard Russo.  With this novel about a middle-aged English professor undergoing something of a mid-life crisis, Richard Russo succeeds where Michael Chabon fails, creating a protagonist who is likeable despite his flaws.  Also, serves as a warning to anyone hoping for a career in academia. Recommended!

So I'm currently reading the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey for my book club...let's just say it's terribly written and super porny, but somehow addictive at the same time.  I can't even read it on the train because I'm ashamed to be seen reading it in public.  Although I must admit it will certainly make excellent book club discussion fodder.

Links!

This one's been making the rounds but is definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it yet- artist Nina Katchadourian has come up with a novel way to keep herself entertained on long flights- by taking self-portraits of herself in airplane bathrooms, dressed in the style of Flemish paintings. 

And on the theme of head shots, over on Kristy's blog I spotted a link with information that would have come in handy for, oh, my entire adult life.  How to avoid having a double chin in photos.  The video's a bit long, but if you watch the first minute or so and then skip to the example photos at the end, you'll get the gist.

Back on the Blog?

So I've been neglecting this poor little old blog for a while, for a variety of reasons- mostly because I'm busy, and my workday gets so full of data analysis, writing, meetings, and lab work that it leaves me brain tired at the end of the day, and therefore uninclined to spend more time in front of a computer.  The other reason is somewhat less easy to describe- in a way I've become a little more discreet, hesitant to share my goings on with the internet.  Not because I'm doing anything all that exciting or clandestine, but rather, the opposite.  When I was a bored and depressed grad student it was a relief to sound that trumpet, but now that I'm happy, it feels almost like tempting fate.  Happy people make boring bloggers.
However, I do like keeping a blog, and since I'm so far away, it is a great way to keep in touch.  So I've decided to put a little more effort into DCoE for the next month or so- not anything like the blogging heyday of 2006, but I'll aim for two or three posts a week.  Stay tuned!

Time to Boogie

So Australians are really into music festivals- those multiday outdoor events that involve camping and listening to a lot of bands.  Being from Boston, which is not at all near any of the big music festivals in the US (Cochella, SXSW, etc) means I've never been to one before- Great Woods doesn't count because no one actually spends the night, at least not deliberately.  Part of me thinks I'm getting too old for these sort of events, as porta potties and intoxicated teenagers tend to be things I avoid.  However, one of my friends from the lab invited me to Boogie, a music festival on a farm an hour or so north of Melbourne.  It's small (around 1000 people) and has a reputation for being very fun and chilled out, so I decided to go.  The lineup was pretty good- featuring Justin Townes Earle, Jim James (from My Morning Jacket), Eilen Jewell, and a whole bunch of Australian acts.  Drinks were cheap and tasty, and the food was to my liking- I ate from the Melbourne Taco Truck for three straight days.  Luckily, the weather was just about perfect- cool and sunny.  My favorite thing about the festival was the special effects guy: they had a screen behind the stage showing images that looked like a kaleidoscope, and when I got closer, I realized that they were created by a guy with an overhead projector- he would put a drawing on the screen and wiggle it around in time to the music.  Fantastic! I tried to snap a photo but I don't think it captures the genius.

Although I did have a good time at the festival, by day three I was most certainly tired of disgusting bathrooms and sleeping in a tent, so unless the Arcade Fire make a festival appearance down under, Boogie may have been my first and last.

Updated to include one more photo: my coworker Jayne and I with Beaker!

A Brazilian (vacation)

Hello there blog! I'll come off of unscheduled hiatus with a post about my recent trip to Brazil.  So, there's a big pneumococcal research conference every two years, and the most recent one was held in Iguazu Falls, a huge waterfall park/nature preserve on the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Not a bad spot!  All of the conference attendees from Australia were on the same flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires (aka the Pneumococcal Party Plane), and after a night in Buenos Aires, we flew to Iguazu Falls, and due to a slight planning mishap, landed on the Argentinian side and had to cross the border into Brazil in a taxi to get to the conference, when went a lot more smoothly than one would suspect.  The conference itself was very good but the schedule was jam packed, and between talks and meetings and dinners, I didn't see get to see the falls until after it ended.  We did visit both the Brazillian and Argentinian side, and they were both very beautiful- in Brazil you're at the base of the falls looking up at them, and in Argentina you're at the top, looking down. 

After that, back to Buenos Aires for a night, I flew to Rio de Janerio to meet Ern for a week's vacation.  Guess what? It was awesome!  First off, way less dodgy that anticipated- I figured we'd get constantly harassed as foreign tourists, but to our pleasant surprise, everyone pretty much left us alone.  Granted, we didn't go try to buy drugs in a favela or anything (hey, I've seen City of God, too) but everyone makes such a big deal about how dangerous Rio is, and it didn't seem like that bad at all to me.  Rio is an absolutely amazing city, mountains that give way to beautiful beaches with an enormous city somehow perched within the landscape.  We spent the first couple of days in Rio, doing the typical touristy things- checking out the views from Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf, walking the beach at Copacabana, drinking a thousand caipirinhas, and people watching- let's just say that Ern and I had double the amount of fabric on our persons as the average Brazilian.

 After that, we took a bus about three hours down to coast to Paraty, a small colonial town with a relaxed vibe, which as we soon found out is a popular destination for Brazilian honeymooners.  We took a boat ride and swam at some nearby islands, took a cooking class, and walked around Old Town. It was great, and even though I loved Rio it was nice to see another part of Brazil. After that, back to Rio for one last night of caipirinhas and samba music, and the sadly, vacation was over.  I had a fantastic time and would love to go back and see more of Brazil.  It's hard to sum it all up in one blog post, so I'll just throw in a few photos.

Adventures in Sydney

Last weekend I went to Sydney with my flatmate Susan and our friend Nicole for a touristy fun summer weekend.  We caught up with Kris and Rodd for dinner on Friday night for some delicious tapas and they brought us to a shady nightclub for after dinner drinks.
On Saturday it was time for the primary purpose of the trip: the harbo(u)r bridge climb.  There's a company that leads guided climbs up the top of the big bridge in Sydney harbor, and I had heard from friends that it's a lot of fun and not scary, even if you're not overly fond of heights.  You're not allowed to bring anything up with you (they don't want you to drop your camera onto the passing traffic below), which was actually kind of nice because I didn't have to carry anything extra and wasn't distracted by my camera and iPhone.  Everyone wears grey jumpsuits - I think the idea is to blend in with the bridge, and it was a warm, sunny day so the guide recommended we only wear underwear under the jumpsuits.  Thank goodness, because I would have been roasting if I had kept my jeans on.  I wouldn't say I'm afraid of heights, but I am afraid of falling, and it didn't feel scary.  You have to climb up and down a few ladders, but you're clipped on by a safety wire the entire time, and one you get on top of the actual bridge it feels like you're walking on a rampway- you're not ever right along the edge.  We lucked out and got perfect sunny, clear, and breezy weather, and the views were amazing.  There are a lot of stairs, but they aren't steep, so I didn't really notice at the time...but my calves felt like they were on fire for the next two days.  The bridge climb is fairly pricey but I'd say it's definitely worth the money- highly recommended by DCoE!

After the climb, which takes around 3 hours in total, we went to a German restaurant and drank enormous (1 liter) beers and ate pretzels.  After that, a scenic walk around the Sydney opera house that included a homeless nap in a park.



Sunday we spent the day at Bondi Beach, and it definitely felt like an Australian summer, much more so than in Melbourne.  All in all, it was a great weekend trip- best of all, we flew on Tiger Airlines (which is essentially the Fung Wah of air travel for your Bostonians) and made it there and back without any dramas!