A visit to Downe

You want to see a few more of my travel pictures, don’t you? Yesterday, we got on the Seven Oaks line leaving Victoria Station, and ended up at Bromley South, where we were met by our faithful native guide, Robin Levett. He drove us through narrow, winding country roads to the tiny town of Downe. Downe is very picturesque and old country English, but we left it (after refreshing ourselves at the pub, which seems to be a mandatory tradition here, and after meeting Louis, another gentleman who joined us on our journey) to walk a mile or so down another narrow, tree- and hedge-lined road to end up at a certain country squire’s fine old home.

Here, Larry Moran and I stopped at the entrance, to pose with a picture of the prior owner.

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London Howlerfest

We had a big crowd yesterday—20 or more people showed up at the Natural History Museum for our London Howlerfest. We spent a few hours strolling through the museum, a few more hours at a nearby pub (I don’t recall the name of the pub, but I do remember London Pride, Wildcat, and Wicked Witch), and few hours at a nearby restaurant. I don’t recall the names of all the people that I met there (which makes the fact that I only remember what I was drinking even more embarrassing), but I did take pictures. Browse the collection below the fold, and do me a favor—if you were there, name the people, and ‘fess up if you were one of them. I apologize if you aren’t in any of these, and should be; Larry Moran also took pictures, so I’m hoping that between us we’ll have everyone.

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Oh, yeah, the party…

Where were you guys? You missed it. I kept looking for you, but only the usual locals showed up. It was a great evening, but you disappointed me.

If you’re still on your way, OK…there’s still plenty of beer left, and a couple of bottles of wine, and even some food. And, of course, you can help with cleaning up the aftermath.

Party. My house. 5:30.

Y’all come on down—we’re having a party at my place tonight. Everyone bring something to eat or drink, hang about, talk, listen to some music…

All you need is hate The Delgados
Black Cadillacs Modest Mouse
Viktorin Hedningarna
Lullaby The Cure
Thunder Road Bruce Springsteen
Skinfakse (Delivering The Light) Hege Rimestad
Porcelain Moby
El Prado Tom Griesgraber
Sugar Magnolia Grateful Dead
Excitable Boy Warren Zevon
Consequence Of Sounds Regina Spektor

I’m going to be so lonely tonight, aren’t I?

If it’s Tuesday, it must be NY

Wheee, I’m going to zip into New York again next week. I’m flying in on Monday to talk at the Inspiration Festival on Tuesday. I’m on the Seed slate with:

Chris Mooney – Washington Correspondent, Seed Magazine
Lisa Randall – Professor of Physics, Harvard University
Natalie Jeremijenko – Design Engineer / Technoartist, Yale University
PZ Myers – Associate Professor of Biology, University of Minnesota
Randy Olson – Lecturer
Jonah Lehrer – Editor-at-Large, Seed magazine
Pardis Sabeti – Researcher, Broad Institute / Lead Singer, Thousand Days

And here’s my job, in one very short talk:

From Galileo to da Vinci, and, from Einstein to Lichtenstein, such paradoxical contemporaries of their respective ages defy opposition in principal by the very existence of their creative nature. When modern Science and Culture collide, what can we learn about ourselves and the way we see the world? A look at 10 trends set to reveal the future of the future.

I’ll have to leave before the session is over to catch my flight home, but it looks like a good line-up and I wish I could hear it all. I’ll be talking about developmental biology and what it says about us, and I don’t think any of the others will be competing with me on that subject, at least.