The Palm of the Left Hand

"A great portion of semen cometh from the brain". So wrote Ambrose Pare, De hominis generatione, 1573.

I have realised that last night's post was a pretty haphazard, slapdash affair and I should try and make amends. To that end I'm throwing up a post tonight, which will be equally slovenly and ill-considered in the hope that two wrongs can make a right.

First, a few new additions to the 2009 Word of the Year Lexicon.

Pixel Peeping - (verb) A tiresome habit amongst photographers who are poor at their chosen hobby of photography. They scrutinise every picture at extreme magnification, both their own work, and more importantly other photographers' work, for misbehaving pixels. Never mind the picture and it's composition, the subject, or the merit, because you can't see the whole at those magnifications, it's the pixels that count. Pixels that are part of noise, chroma, chromatic inaccuracy are all villians, and the taker of the picture is a bad photographer because the lens wasn't being used at f8.0, or whatever is the sharpest aperture. Or worse the camera is the wrong brand, the sensor isn't FF, APSC, Four Thirds, or whatever other strange idea enters the cranium of the pixel peeper. For these guys the best photos are technically perfect, but bland like junket.
A similar condition exists in audiophiles, where they care more about reproduction, staging and space than the performance. A little bit of "Let's listen to the definitive performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring tonal test disc!"
This also applies to cyclists, but lets not get me started. That would make your eyes roll up and glaze over. Just ride the right bike for you and enjoy it.

Sorry -(adjective) This has to be the most overused word of the year, and it still keeps coming. The list of those who've used it is staggering, and sometimes it's for some eye-watering conduct. It seems the nice thing is just say "Sorry" and all will be forgiven. It's a magic reputation restorer.

Splodge - (noun and verb) A great bit of onomatopoeia, superb for describing various accidents that can occur when you get older and parts of your body's sealing system start to fail.

And now a few other cover versions of songs that I should have had in the first list a week or so ago.

Nick Cave - Helpless Neil Young, as bleak and dark as he can be, never sounded so despairing

The Mars Volta - Candy and a currant bun A bit of a perverse take on the Pink Floyd classic

Bauhaus - Telegram Sam You know the one, a super sped up angry version of the glam rock trip out by T-Rex

Whiskeytown - A song for you Gram Parsons wrote some absolute rippers of plaintive remorse and this one of them

Linda Ronstandt - Tumbling Dice Why shouldn't I love this? A voice like honey, album cover work to make you think and a bit of teenage fantasy from me.


Lastly, start reading more, it's good for you.