Gil Scott-Heron – I Think I’ll Call It Morning:

Now I am not really a comic fan. That is one realm of geekdom which I haven’t much fallen into. (Although I do have some old copies of 2000 AD up in the loft that someone gave me once.) However, Lovelace and Babbage is different and I have been eagerly pouncing on new editions whenever (rather erratically) they appear.

Why? Well how could you resist stories that combine history, greek myth, steam punk, epic engineering, jokes about mathematics and literature, and extensive footnotes? Or a cast of characters that include, amongst others, Queen Victoria, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Darwin, a whole host of romantic poets, and some flying monkeys? Not least the eponymous heroes, those early founders of the science of computing (and dynamic crime fighters), Charles Babbage and Lady Ada Lovelace?

Oh, did I mention the extensive footnotes?¹

If you have no idea what I am going on about, or if you haven’t even heard of Ada Lovelace or the Difference Engine, I suggest you begin your education here.

The pocket universe in which our two heroes fight crime was created, apparently by accident, by Sydney Padua for the 2009 Ada Lovelace Day. For this year, the really good news is that the web comic has been turned into an iPad app. I’ve downloaded and played with it today and my early verdict is that it is fabulous. It is this sort of thing that the iPad was invented for.

You can get the app here.

¹ Can you tell that I really love this stuff?

The late Sir Clement Freud famously won the Isle of Ely by-election in 1973 and went on to represent that part of North East Cambridgeshire until 1987.

Under these new proposals it turns out that the City of Ely is to be combined with the Suffolk town of Newmarket to create the new Newmarket and Ely seat. A seat that would therefore contain the whole of Newmarket Racecourse.

Given that Sir Clement was a passionate follower of horse racing and an enthusiastic gambler I suspect that this new seat would have suited him down to the ground. I reckon he would be smiling at the prospect. Well, maybe not smiling. Possibly raising a lugubrious eyebrow above a dead pan face, but nevertheless, he’d be pleased.

If you haven’t already seen it I do urge you to go watch the BBC4 documentary about the Icelandic sagas on iPlayer.

This one hour programme packs a lot in. You get a brief history of Iceland and its culture, social commentary, lessons in the importance of story telling, fascinating insights into the cultural legacy of the sagas for us, how the language of the sagas influenced English, beautiful scenery, lots of rugged Icelandic chaps for those that way inclined, and a cracking yarn on top of that.

Plus in Dr Janina Ramirez a really engaging presenter. I hope we see more of her.

• The Viking Sagas

It says that the programme is available until 12:34AM Tue, 24 May 2011 so you haven’t got that long to catch it.

The first was from Wesley Keir of Albion Archaeology who described the discoveries made on the site of the University’s new Campus Centre. As part of the building work archaeological investigations were carried out on the western edge of the site of the medieval castle next to St Mary’s Church. What was uncovered included part of the medieval moat, the post holes of a timber framed building in the castle grounds, and part of a later children’s cemetery.

When I think about Luton’s history I tend to think of industrial development and growth in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, so it was good to be reminded that the town has a much older history. In particular, I enjoyed learning a little about the career of the Anglo-Norman soldier and adventurer Falkes de Breaute and his connections with the town and the rest of Bedfordshire.

The second talk was from Mark Horton, who is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Bristol, but is better known as one of the team of presenters on the BBC’s programme Coast. His very engaging presentation focussed on how archaeology can be relevant to the modern world.

I’ve always been an advocate of the importance of history. The argument that through understanding the past we can better understand the present and plan for the future is one I strongly believe in. Yet all those who seek to tell histories are influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the culture they inhabit and the preoccupations of the time. What archaeology can do, as many of the examples that Mark Horton used in his talk showed, is provide physical evidence that can confirm or challenge those histories.

In effect one of the things that archaeology does is to keep historians honest.

However, last week I finished my 2010 version. To add a bit of variety to the blog I thought I would select some of the best and post them here.

If Rap Gets Jealous – K’naan

This is my most played track of 2010. Great for air guitar.

Drunk Girls – LCD Soundsystem

“Drunk girls know that love is an astronaut / It comes back but it’s never the same”

Ready To Start – Arcade Fire

I know Arcade Fire are supposed to be one of the biggest bands of the last few years, but I am only just discovering them myself. This is the song that has stayed in my head.

Paradise Circus – Massive Attack

I spotted this one when it was used as the theme for the BBC’s crime drama Luther.

Angel Echoes – Four Tet

La Gloria – Gotan Project

This track features the voice of legendary football commentator Víctor Hugo Morales who is famous for his passionate commentary on the second goal against England by Maradona in the 1986 World Cup.

On Melancholy Hill – Gorillaz

My favourite track off my favourite album of 2010.

Panic – David Ford

Sadie, someone who I was working with for a part of last year, introduced me to the album by this artist. This is the track on the album I really like. There is wonderful angry energy at the heart of this song.

I Am Not A Robot – Marina & The Diamonds

F**k You – Cee Lo Green

Great sweary fun. “I guess he’s an X-Box and I’m more Atari”

Hard Times – John Legend & The Roots

How do you survive a recession? You release the funk.

Lately (Sunship Remix) – Macy Gray

Lost Where I Belong – Andreya Triana

Mystic Voyage – Buddy Sativa

My most played jazz track of 2010.

Little Wing – Corinne Bailey Rae (iTunes)

A cover of a Jimi Hendrix song.

Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) – Laura Marling

Moving and evocative. This is simply beautiful.

Note that the song links go through to Amazon. I am experimenting with using their affiliate programme.

I am not altogether surprised. Last years concerts were limited to only three, admittedly big name, acts. So I did wonder whether the writing was on the wall. Still over the last few years this mix of big name and new acts and surprising collaborations has been one of my musical highlights. So I am disappointed that they will be ending for what seems to be budgetary reasons.

Here are a few highlights:

This revelation comes from private letters recently given to the University of East Anglia.

My sister and my father both spoke. My sister read a poem, ‘The Rose Still Grows Beyond The Wall‘ by A L Frink, which appears to be a popular poem to be read at funerals. My father talked a little of his memories of my Nan and of things she’d seen and done during her long life. The vicar also spoke. I thought she judged what she said very well. In fact they all did. It was well done, moving and very appropriate.

I was asked if I wanted to say something but I chose not to. One of the reasons for that was that I couldn’t really find the words for what I wanted to say. That may be thought odd as if there is anyone in my family who is practised in public speaking it is me. But speaking at someones funeral is a very different kind of thing to that which I usually do.

As a result I have been thinking a little over last few days about the art of speaking at funerals. How do you use words to sum up the life of an individual? Well of course you don’t, you can only give a flavour or an impression of the person. But you can tell stories about what they meant to you. Confronted with the hard finality of someones mortality you can look for words to tell the story of what their life meant to you, to their family, or to the wider world.

In truth I think funerals are mostly for the living. So speeches and readings at funerals are an attempt to give meaning to the sadness and grief of those present. In the case of a funeral or memorial held because of a tragic event this is even more important.

Aside from my recent personal experience the other reason why I’ve been thinking about the nature of speeches at funerals was watching President Obama’s speech at the memorial to the victims of the Arizona shooting. It is one of the most extraordinary pieces of oratory that I have ever heard.

The event was a personal tragedy, but one that had achieved national significance, and then become an issue of political controversy. What Obama managed to do in his memorial speech was to bring together each of those three elements and then go further. He told simple stories about the victims. Talking about who they were, what their lives had been about, what they meant to their families, and then he looked for and found wider meaning in their stories. In doing so, and then asking his audience to learn lessons from that wider meaning, he managed to transcend the situation and give the Arizona tragedy a place within the story of his nation. But he was not neutral in doing this. His words had a purpose. He wanted to appeal to the better nature of the American people and challenge them to change the way they approach political discourse.

Key to this was Obama’s telling of the story of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green who died in the shooting;

“Imagine — imagine for a moment, here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that some day she, too, might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council. She saw public service as something exciting and hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted. I want to live up to her expectations.

I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us — we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.”

As an example of political rhetoric, in the best sense, it is superb. I was impressed and moved.

If you haven’t seen it I would recommend you watch it in full:

More on Obama’s memorial speech here:

• Max Atkinson: ‘Obama’s memorial masterpiece in Arizona’
• Neil Stockley: ‘Obama at Tucson’
• Mark Mardell: ‘Obama finds fitting words for Arizona tragedy’

For a while now I’ve been thinking wouldn’t it be cool if Jamie Cullum did a cover of Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’. It is such a beautiful song and would fit so well with Cullum’s style.

Well by pure accident on Saturday I caught the end of his performance of that very song at the Royal Variety Show. At the same time I thought wow they’ve done it and damn I’ve missed it. But through the wonders of YouTube I’ve managed to catch up with the whole performance. And here it is:

Also here is a bonus version of the song in rehearsal.

Tomorrow I will be joining the massed ranks of the Liberal Democrats in Liverpool for our Autumn Federal Conference. What has been billed as our largest conference ever.

I had wanted to have completed a number of projects and have had some things prepared before conference began. The theory being that I could then make the most of the opportunities of the week and get more out of it. Of course I have finished none of these things. I haven’t even properly gone through the conference agenda.

I don’t know why this happens. Every year I tell myself that I will prepare well in advance, and then every year things turn out to be rushed. Physicists tell us that time is constant.* Physicists lie. It isn’t. It bends and contracts according to what is most inconvenient.

So, today I am preparing for conference.

* I know they don’t actually say that. They say that time bends with gravity. At least I think they do. But I thought it was a good line.

Shame today’s weather hasn’t lived up to that promise.

While the reported homophobia is of course appalling, and it is good to see another example of new media being used as a weapon to fight bigotry, my main reaction to this story was to start reminiscing about my time working for the Commission for Social Care Inspection in 2008.

The Commission had its headquarters just round the corner from the Greencoat Boy so the pub became a regular after work haunt for a time. As it is for hundreds of office workers who work in that corner of Westminster. I always thought it was a funny sort of pub. It was obviously reliant on that office trade and had no real particular qualities of its own. I remember the service was often slow.

After a while we gave up on the Greencoat Boy and relocated to another regular venue. If you are in that part of London and fancy a drink can I recommend The Speaker. A friendly pub, with a good atmosphere, and proper beer.