Econlinks

• The top 100 global thinkers, according to Foreign Policy. With the usual caveats: some should clearly not be there, others are missing (even from the first 5 positions, say...) etc. Highly subjective, but well, a top...

• Terry Tao makes a nice and concise exposition of some of the most beautiful parts at the intersection of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (oh, nostalgia...), including quick reviews of classical and quantum mechanics.

• Some super nice games/quizzes via Steve Landsburg. Indeed be careful, some are highly addictive. For instance, The Paradoxion Express.

• Probably London's very first Indian restaurant (related, earlier- 2nd bullet point). With thanks to Daniel!

• The way forward for art: private funding with the right incentives for donors/funders. I think this ought to work also for universities, including public European ones... which are notoriously bad at this task, as we all know (with the important caveat that, especially in these European universities, the persons in charge of alumni networks and the like should really be the brains and not the (sub)mediocrities-- which seems to be the default in a lot of such places, even beyond the obvious fact that these are typically people with more /a lot more spare time; perhaps they/we should understand/decide that this is too important a job to leave to those with time to "spare" on it...-- only the brains can attract other brains and...their money).

30

Yes, I've been all Id today: hope my Egos will catch up with me tomorrow :-)

Otherwise, here's the musical journey I experienced within the last two months of my 20s. It does sound dramatic, doesn't it?...

• 1st of Feb, Amsterdam: a delicious Schubert+Piazzolla+Schubert sandwich prepared by the Artemis Quartet- in detail

• 4th of Feb, Amsterdam: the one and only Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, under the excellent and lately omnipresent (at least simultaneously in Amsterdam and Munich...) Mariss Jansons, with a fabulous Tannhäuser Overture, followed by 'Siegfried's Rhein Journey' and 'Sigfried's Death and Funeral Music' from the "Twilight of Gods". Wagner's bits were followed by my favourite Shostakovich piece, his Tenth Symphony. The program reminded me once again that the acoustics in the Concertgebouw's Grote Zaal is close to perfection.

• 20th of Feb, London: Rachmaninov's "Isle of the Dead", Mozart's Piano Concerto 23 - with a flawless Leon Fleisher as pianist, and an unforgettable Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra", with London Philarmonic Orchestra at its best, under a very energetic Vladimir Jurowski conducting, all in a futuristic-looking, newly renovated Royal Festival Hall (Space Odyssey indeed!); see also earlier.

• 25th of Feb, Amsterdam: Vadim Repin and Nikolai Lugansky at the Concertgebouw, with one the best performance I've seen in years. The program consisted of Debussy's Sonata in G, Prokofiev's 1st Sonata in F, and Beethoven's Sonata Nr 9 in A - aka the (in)famous 'Kreutzer', apparently one of their usual treats, this time as well ending up (can it ever be otherwise with these two?) with the public applauding frenetically and calling them back to stage three times. Vive la grande musique!

• 1st of March, Amsterdam: "Gipsy Jazz" at the Bimhuis, with Florin Niculescu (have the sound on when entering his website) and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw (with a superlative pianist, in particular). Monsieur Niculescu is a true maestro: the only other Romanian violinist that I've seen/listened to playing with so much passion is Alex Balanescu. My favourite pieces: a splendid jazz variant of "Ochi chernye" in D minor, and the Ira+George Gershwin bits.

• 6th of March, Amsterdam: Incognito concert at Paradiso. Initially not my idea, the concert was ultimately quite nice; nonetheless I confess that I did have higher expectations: they 'moved' too much towards soul and even pop... rather than keeping mostly to what I think is (was? should be?) their trademark: acid jazz and jazz funk... Maybe/hopefully next time (or else no next time for me...)?

• 10th of March, Amsterdam: Mozart and Da Ponte's "Cosi Fan Tutte", at the MuziekTheater (really the best place to see this opera), in an impressive, very modern rendition (in particular: fantastic stage direction by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito, outstanding cast!), which Milos Forman's Amadeus (remember that?) would have adored. I surely did!

At least one more crucial musical event to come before I leave Amsterdam, so stay tuned! :-)

London my love

My whereabouts: overlooking the Thames from the Royal Festival Hall. Rachmaninov, Mozart and Strauss tonight. Presented a paper a couple of hours ago, here. Very interesting workshop.

What is better than being in the academe? :-).

The new RAE UK is out

...and for Economics and Econometrics, the quality profiles can be consulted here.

By strictly ranking percentages of research in the highest and respectively second highest research categories, the first 10 Econ Departments in UK RAE 2008 (not very unexpected) are the following:

1. LSE
2. UCL
3. Essex, Oxford, Warwick
4. Bristol, Nottingham, Queen Mary
5. Cambridge
6. Manchester

My whereabouts in the next few days

Time for tea, research & more...

Song of the day: Goldfrapp's "Utopia"

Alison Goldfrapp, from the British band Goldfrapp (the other member of the duo is Will Gregory), could be the perfect woman. I just said it. Skeptical? Judge for yourself: looks, personality (sorry, PERSONALITY), style, voice- and you might sense part of these from Goldfrapp's hits, among them "Black Cherry" or "Strict Machine" or "Number 1", the latter from their very succesful most recent album, Supernature. One of the other songs from them, not really considered a hit by the critics, "Lovely Head", is the soundtrack of a very interesting and intriguing movie, "My summer of love". One point about Goldfrapp's creations is that they really follow the 'scientific' approach: they start by using a very few leitmotives and they just know where to change/add that bit to obtain almost every time a new chef-d'oeuvre. The result is really an alternative reality, their own world, characterized, inter alia, by, to cite one of their critical appraisals, "pioneering electronics, crystalline vocals, visual theatrics and glam-sex decadence". But, to come back to Alison Goldfrapp and her own supernature: she might not be the greatest cook, but she's surely got a great touch and taste for good humor. Moreover, she clearly knows what she wants and- crucial!- she's not at all shy asking for it: Twist (one of my favourite pieces from Goldfrapp!). How can you not adore this woman? I have been in love with her ever since I saw her performing in Amsterdam's Paradiso, quite some years ago :-).

But today's song is a piece from their early album, Felt Mountain, song which I personally consider one of their masterpieces. Enjoy Utopia (clip recording a great live performance)!

Update, 14th of March '07: this becomes really annoying: most of the clips I linked above were removed by the YouTube administration because of copyright violations. Fortunately, I also found again all of them, in YouTube versions uploaded by other users, at least for the moment "looking safe & good", ie. not violating any copyrights. So, here they are: Utopia (rare live version), Black Cherry, Strict Machine, Number 1, Lovely Head (live in London), Twist.