A Visit With the Uber Geek

Last week my academic travels took me south of the border to Baltimore, and the lair of the Uber Geek Miles Ready.  I always enjoy my trips south of the 49th parallel safety line, America would be a fine country if it wasn't for all of the Republicans (maybe the administration can build a wall of something to keep them out).

Highlights of my trip included

• Meeting Miles and his lovely wife Marybeth (no pictures, they move to fast to be recorded on camera)
• Eating Marybeth's wonderful food (including the crab above and others that Miles didn't want to eat) 
• Meeting Mile's friend Ed from York and his wife Theresa, and eating the crab that Ed didn't want to eat
• Staying at their Bond Villain lair in St Michael's MD

  

  Miles Fig tree.  I'll be interested in the AAR reports of Miles vs the local rodents and Raccoons

  
  
• A visit to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  A great museum complex with charming gate staff, blow hard tour guides and a fine collection of traditional wooden boats.  The young lady at the ticket booth won Miles heart over by asking "perhaps you could check the board to see if you qualify for any of our discounts"  instead of "are you old enough to be a senior?". No pictures because it was raining.
• A game in Miles game room in his "closer to town" house, AAR with lots of pictures in a post to follow.
• A visit to the Radio control yacht racing shop close to Annapolis MD where Miles' banker friend Bob tempted him with a new form of crack.  It looked great fun, but I am already at full capacity on geek projects with my budget fully allocated.  Besides I couldn't fit a ten foot replica J class sloop in my luggage.
• Watching high finance unfold as Miles and his friend took conference calls in the front seat of Miles Tesla.  I quite enjoyed watching them as they essentially played buzzword bingo put the with the on mute.

Apparently this was a test weekend as Ed and I were the first gamers to stay overnight while MaryBeth was on site - always a stressful event.  We seemed to have passed the test, being judged as "not nearly as creepy as I expected".  I guess I'll have to try to be more creepy next time.  Of course, if Miles gamer friends are so sketchy that I was considered a safe bet, that's his look out.

Silent on the Blog but Not Inactive!

Forgive me father it has been six weeks since my last posting.....

It's funny how one can blog in great spurts and then completely get off the habit for a while.  I had a big flurry of posts over the Winter tracking my activity in the Painting Challenge along with a few game reports.  The last one was dated March 31, as I posted the last of my Painting Challenge entries.
And then April hit...

April brought end of term, a series of term papers to mark, a business trip to Toronto and final exams.    And then my daughter returned home for the summer from University leading to another flurry of activity. Oh I am trying to get our garden in...

So while I've been battling an acute case of REAL LIFE, what else I have been up to?

• A reasonable amount of painting - some Great Italian Wars and more Seven Years War.
• Several game nights with our regular group, though not at it's top of form weekly rate due to my schedule.  IIRC there were two games of Zombicide, one of Zombicide Black Plague, a lost game of Black Powder Peninsula War battle and a game of the Eldritch Horror.
• Planning for a new project, more to follow.
• Lots of looking at rules, scenario books and uniforms guides

Holiday Greetings

A belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year!

It has been a busy time at the Admiralty, with business travel (3 days to Florida to mark actuarial exams), final exams for the Fall Semester and Christmas.  Now with that all out of the way, I have picked up paint brushes and reference books for Curt's annual painting challenge.

Yesterday we took my mother in law to the airport for a 6am flight and then my wife, daughter and I saw the Star Wars film in IMAX.  Our local Science Centre has the only IMAX copy of the film in Canada, which was to our good fortune.  I am not a Star Wars geek loud some, but it was a very entertaining afternoon at the pictures.  Space Opera with great action scenes and pretty good characters, what more could you ask for?

Henry V's Warship

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-34503044

I found this cool story on the Beeb website today, about archeologists finding one of Henry V's great car racks.  The wreck is in the a River Hamble, a spot that I know about as well as any in the UK.  My dad lives along the Hamble and keeps his boat moored n the river, although down river from the site.  From the looks of it, she lies upriver of the Bursledon Bridge towards the a Queen Elizabeth Country Park.

I'm Not Dead Yet

According to blogger, I have done diddly squat since July 19th (2 1/2 months ago).  This is not strictly accurate, although family members might challenge my position...

Anyway when we last left the blog story, I had lost the Waterloo campaign shortly afterwords lost my supper.  Having put up a flurry of "Blucher -100 Days" related posts I was pretty much blogged out and never really got back on the horse.

However, I have been active with gaming related activities such as:

• Painting more Italian wars related Perry 28mm figures, mostly plastics with some metals thrown in.
• Dusted off my collection of Armada era galleons and tried them out with Galleons and Galleys.
• Read a bunch of books on 15-16th century voyages of discovery.  Most appropriately, my biography of Columbus got lost at one point but reappeared on the wrong continent (OK sofa).
• Played several board games and actually won some of them.
• Played a Blucher era game hosted by Curt using his 3mm (yikes!) figures for the 1809 Danube campaign.
• And likely other stuff, but I am having an academic memory fade....

More on these topics to follow...

Grog, the Civilized Version

We are having the hottest weekend so far this summer, with temps at 30C with the humidex at 36C and now a Tornado watch.  For those of you still measuring distances in medieval Kings' body parts and temps based on sick Germans, I don't know the translation to Farenheit.

So we went for the modern reboot of18th Century Naval Grog -Mojitos.  Actually the recipe is not that different: rum, sugar, soda water, lime, mint.  Very refreshing, and the mint camefrom the garden.

Shameless Pimiping and Plugging

The sanbaggin', budgie smuggler himself, Ray Roussell is having a 500th post giveaway.  Check out Ray's blog over atDon't Roll a One.  You will find great games and figures from one of the hobby's more affable ambassadors.

The Waterloo Cartoon

One of our gaming group forwarded the link below, which I thought I would share.  As well as providing first class photos, Sean is a local artist who has done very well for himself with exhibits and sales at the national and international level.  Hence the link to the Royal Academy.

The Waterloo Cartoon

Remembrance Day 2014

Most years I think about my grandfather who served on the Western Front in the Great War, my great uncles who served in WW2 or my father who served in the RN in Korea.  However, this year it feels appropriate to remember those closer to home.

Europe in The Dark Ages

Not politically correct, but neither were the vikings.

Not Dead Yet

It's been a while since I've posted mostly because of a severe case of real life that came up unexpectedly.  August was a blur that saw us dealing first with a kid who came had to give up her summer job on the Atlantic Coast having come down with mono, and then dealing with her toxic roommate situation for the fall college term.  In the end SHMBO and Iflew out to Halifax, backed up one flat, moved  the contents into storage,found a new flat and moved the stuff in.  I had to fly back in the 3rd so that I could teach at 8:30 am on the 4th!  My wife stayed on a week and a half to sort out legal (seriously) issues from the ex-roomie.

Any way all seems settled now and we all seem to have survived.  My daughter's uni term seems to be going well and my students haven't murdered me yet.  

I have had a chance to play a couple of games in September.  Given the wack jobs and stress I dealt in with in August a pleasant evening with sane company would be just the ticket.  Since that wasn't available I opted for gaming with Curt, Sylvain et al.  Curt ran an excellent Chainof Command SCW game featuring a downed Stuka and then it was board game night is week. Next week I'm aiming for doing El Cid.

Not much shaking on the hill

Wow it's my first post in a month - talk about he dog days of summer!  Not much to report, and I think the only gaming has been Clint's plays by email/blog nappy naval game.http://clint-anythingbutaone.blogspot.ca

 I or my gaming group have travelling lately and it's  Regina Folk Festival this weekend.  Hopefully we play next weekend!

Cold War Music Box From the Other Side of the Iron Curtain

OK so I figured I ought to find a video that took a harder look at the "good guys" in the Cold War and thought immediately about one Billy Bragg, punk/socialist/folk singer.

Mr Bragg lets the US have it with both barrels and truth be told he scores a lot of hits with his shot gun splatter.   I figure a little introspection and self criticism never hurt anybody, but lets face it  I'd have taken the West over the East any day.  A lot of the points made in the 80s still hold true in 2014 - for instance with in the last 2 years PBS had a special on efforts to replace Evolution with Creationism in school biology texts.  So yes it may be land of opportunity but there's still a monkey trail on TV!

This video was filmed in the USSR in 1987 (well before the USSR ceased to exist)!  There's cool shots of Billy in neat looking hats and T-shirts, interacting with regular Ruskies and a steam train with a genuine Commie Red Star on it (how cool is that).  And my god Billy looks young and innocent.

And for all those young kids who wanna be rock'n'rollers:

1. Forget about overproducing and never underestimate the impact of one guy on a rhythm guitar.
2. Passionate singing trumps auto tune every time.

Now here's the song


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTneVU-E7Jo

There's a great interview with Billy on Q here.  He ranks on the list of rockers that I would like to chat with over tea in this case!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa_LLnZ_qcA

Cold War Music Box Canada Day Edition

This week's Cold War Music Box selection is a Canadian classic (at least in Canada) and has been moved up a day to Tuesday July 1 for Canada Day.  More on the track later but first few words from our sponsors.

So What is This Cold War Music Box Thing You've Been Annoying Us With?
It started with my game of Funny Cold Wars with Tim Gow of Megablitz fame back in the first week of May.  In particular Tim made references to Top of The Ops circa 1979.  Coincidentally, I spent much time  both during and after my trip to the UK on airplanes with my iPod ear buds in and of course being a child of the 60s, a teenager of the 70s and a university student of the 80s, a lot of my play list came from the cold war era.  The game plus the music plus sleep deprivation led to Cold War Music Box.  Basically I come up with tunes from the Cold War Era and with Cold War related themes and load up videos onto the blog to torture my few readers.  This is likely a violation of the Geneva Convention, but heck the US got away with playing the theme from Barney 24-7 at Gitmo?

So Other Than Torturing Us With Your Taste in Music, What Else Have You Been Up To.
Travel mostly, and most of it work related.  Five days in Boston, five more in Portland Maine and three in Vancouver.   It was supposed to be three days in Portland but United Airlines decided to keep me there for two more due to thunder storms.   When you are flying from one regional airport (Portland) to another (Regina), it takes 2-3 legs and any delays mess your connections up.  I eventually took at 5am bus from Portland to Boston to get home.  When not traveling I have been either recovering from travel or catching up on stuff that got added to my list while travelling.

And yes when you're stuck in Portland Maine and it's piling rain you can do things like cue up several weeks post with annoying music videos.  On the plus side the seafood was excellent!


So Not Much Game Related Stuff Recently?
Reading yes, and a bit of reorg and a couple of board games here and there.  When I've been home often my gamer circle hasn't been.  Early July looks good for a couple of games and I'm due to do an El Cid game.

Ok Enoght BLather What is This Weeks Tune
Burce Cockburn's If I Had a Rocket Launcher a song that had the most ardent lefties (due to content) and the most ardent right wingers(due to wanting to use a rocket launcher) singing along.  During the Cold War era, the US and USSR didn't fight each other directly but rather through proxies in dirty little wars all over the world.  And if anyone can tell me which side's "Freedom Fighters" were worth supporting I'm a Dutchman (Sadam being the most obvious example).  Social activist super-hero Cockburn was in Central America doing aid work and saw the effects up close and wrote this decidedly non-peaceable anthem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7vCww3j2-w

Wet Weekend = Engineering Win

Regina is drying out after a very wet weekend - 91 mm of rain over two days following about 10 days of on and off rain.  Photos below.

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/regina/Photos+Regina+mopping+after+deluge/9986688/story.html?__federated=1

While neighbours were spotted lugging pumps and hoses about and pumping out their basements, ours stayed dry thanks to the work we had done a couple of years back.

We have a strange yellow orb in the skies (it burns the eyes) and it's scheduled to last 10 days.  Hopefully our very wet garden dries out before then.

Oh yes and Happy Canada Day!

Cold War Music Box "Oliver's Army"

Lot's of Cold War references here.  Elvis Costello was the alpha geek before being a nerd was cool (I was born too early to catch that wave).  I'll confess that I didn't catch that Oliver's Army can be a reference to the British Army (as in Oliver Cromwell) until my wife mentioned it to me much later on.  At the time it was released I thought that this song referenced mercenaries not the British Army.  Apparently Costello meant it to refer to any poor young man given a gun and sent into ugly situations, which could cover either interpretation.  It was written after his first visit to Belfast.

The video is from there "Top of the Pops" or Top of the Flops as my dad called it.  They are lip-syncing but such is the case with most videos and both the picture quality the syncing here is pretty good compared to some.  Plus he's playing a cool hollow body guitar!.

Oliver's Army

Cold War Music Box - "Radio Free Europe"

How to best describe the state of the world in 1983…hmmmm…

Yeah this about covers it.

Yep - the early 80s a happy free wheeling partying time was had by all.  The USA initiated the Star Wars missile system, launched the Space Shuttle to get it there, invaded Grenada and has its Beirut embassy blown up. The USSR was under the Andropov leadership (Gorby was just a gleam in Yuri's eye), shot down a Korean civilian airliner and nearly launched a nuclear war by accident (Oooops!).  The UK had a relatively quiet year following the Falklands War in 1982 and given the upcoming Coal Strike and IRA campaigns in 1984.  But in 1983 even Canada felt scary given the global politics.

Just in case we weren't getting the point, US Network TV had not one but two made-for-TV movies featuring fake newscasts of nuclear events - Special Bulletin based on homegrown American nuclear terrorism and The Day After based on the good old fashioned WWIII scenario.  I remember watching Special Bulletin and thinking it was well done.

Music from this era was often either boppy no braincell required stuff or edgy and tense.  From the edgy and tense school we have REM's first album featuring the single "Radio Free Europe".  The song's title is a definite Cold War reference but don't try to get much from the lyrics, Michael Stipe meant them to be "complete babbling" and one critic commented that the album's was aptly titled "Murmer".  However, if it had jangling guitars, a punchy beat and indecipherable lyrics I was all over it in 1983.  This is essentially ground zero for indy rock and college radio.

I love this video taken from Letterman - his original late night show following Johnny Carson's show when Dave was young and edgy himself.  Note that REM are unheard of and that Stipe actually has hair (and a lot of it too)!

Radio Free Europe

On the Road…and Eventually Back Again

Just back from a weather extended work related-trip to Portland Maine.  I was supposed to return on Thursday night but flights got cancelled two days running.  So I got to know the hotel shuttle driver in Portland very well and ate an awful lot of extremely good sea food.  However, by the fifth day of a three day trip one just wants to get home.

Part of the problem was that Portland is a very small regional airport and the rest was afternoon thunder storms along the eastern seaboard.  So I took a 5am bus to Boston airport to catch a 9am flight west and thus avoid both issues.  Home at 3pm Saturday finally, very happy to see my wife and eat hoofed critters.

Cold War Music Box "Heroes"

I should apologize for inflicting my music on you.  However, I will take the adult way out and blame Tim Gow and his Funny Cold Wars project, specifically his references to 1979 era Top of the Pops.

The music of one's youth is supposed to bring you back to the good times, but I'm never sure the good old times were ever so good.  This spring while in the UK I had a number of people ask why I had not moved back to the UK at some point.  My stock answer is the most likely time to do so would have been my early 20s, but the UK didn't look like a place anyone would want to go at that time.  I got to know Britain during regular (annual or semiannual) visits with my dad between ages 16 and 24.  This was between 1978 and 1986 probably the one of the worst periods to view the UK.  My first visit came during Christmas of the Winter of Discontent and from them I got the full gamut of IRA terror campaigns, the Miner's Strike the Falkland's War and Thatcherism in its full glory.  To an impressionable liberal minded Canuck, Trudeau's Canada looked a hell of a lot better than Thatcher's Britain.

Anyway for me the music of my youth reminds me of what a scary time the Cold War was both politically and economically.  And if I were to pick a single thing to represent the Cold War it would be the Berlin Wall (wikipedia it you youngsters).  And the song that comes to mind is of course David Bowie's Heroes.  To my generation it's song about young lovers trapped on the wrong side of a wall by  nasty global politics.  To a younger generation it's a love song from a bad Godzilla movie!   Or it's part of an actually pretty good medley sung by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman in "Moulin Rouge".

I first heard this on the 1977 Bing Crosby Christmas Special, the odd pop culture mash up that gave us the much loved "Little Drummer Boy" duet.  Incidently the video of the equally desiccated octogenarian crooner and the heroin addicted glam rocker was judged severely creepy by my daughter on first encounter as a preteen.

There are of course more versions of Heroes than can be easily counted, so I give you three You Tube videos to choose from.

1.  The official video from 1977 (so predating MTV)

2. The Live Aid Performance with Thomas Dolby on Keyboards.  Some say this is the best.

3.  The performance on Der Bingle's Christmas Special, which is actually pretty darn creepy!

I Have Been to the British Museum

During my trip to the UK last month I spent a day in London and as usual hit the British Museum.  I have visited the BM many, many times and have had my family drag me out into daylight on occasion.   Once I nearly got locked into a room featuring early Italian artifacts by a security guard on autopilot (there was a really cool looking Attic-Thracian helmet on the far side of the room).  Fortunately his co-worker spotted me in time.

Anyway this year they have a Vikings exhibit featuring lots of cool stuff.   Cool stuff in this case includes weapons, armour, house hold articles and A VIKING SHIP (or what's left of it).  I especially liked the hands on exhibits that allowed you to touch Viking era artifacts like coins, a sword and an axe head.  Now where's a Irish monk so that I can try this out?   Well worth the visit if you're in London this summer.

While the Vikings were the main attraction, I also visited some old friends along the way.

The Isle of Lewes Chessmen

Assyrian Lion Hunt

The Nereid Monument

The Sutton Hoo King

The really cool thing about the BM is that where ever you go you see something that catches your eye, often something that appears as a picture in a book on ancient or medieval warfare.  It's like the world's largest and most active squirrel.  Look it's the Rosetta stone!  Cool it's the Standard of Ur!  Squirrell!

On the way out I of course hit the gift shop.  Both my credit card limit and KLM's baggage rules  limited what I could take home - but I really want the replica stone carvings from the Parthenon and a Franck's Casket.  I had to make do with smaller stuff including

This great book

Oh yes and I brought my wife back a set of earrings and necklace featuring the Lewes Chessmen.  I have Lewes Chessmen cuff links and she has long since coveted them.  I described them as being among the geekiest things I had ever got for her and she loved them.  I guess I married the right gal.