Hmm
"The Register is looking for speakers who are as fascinating and knowledgeable as our audience and as good at story-telling as our writers."
Gosh, you do set the bar low.
The Register is looking for speakers who are as fascinating and knowledgeable as our audience and as good at story-telling as our writers. Our first series of Register Lectures were a great success, with speakers covering Big Data, Interplanetary Exploration and the chequered history of GCHQ. All washed down with craft beers …
Depends on the writer. For some, all you'd have to do is spend half an hour pointing out times that Stephen Fry has made errors (rich pickings, but gets old after a while guys) and use up any remaining time bashing Wikipedia, perhaps finishing-up with some nasty personal remarks about Julian Assange.
If they're doing it at the same place as last year, there will be lots of beer. Stupid amounts in fact. I asked if they had a Christmas ale of some description on draught. And they said, "Yes. We've got three." I went through lots of different pints, of which they were all very nice. Except the Christmas milk stout, which was too sweet and chocolatey for my taste. But then I only tried it because I'd never had one before. They had some nice Belgian stuff in bottles as well.
On the other hand, the beer isn't the best bit. The pork pies are. Mountains of piggy goodness. Pork and black pudding was my favourite, though the one with stilton was a close second. There was also a pickle one, a plain one - and a turkey one, for the vegetarians...
I've just watched the last Christmas lecture by Prof. Mark Whitehorn, on databases and 'big data'. It was actually interesting and the application he discussed was unexpected and fascinating (to me anyway). The audience really were eating pies and drinking beer, in a quiet and sober way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkJ4xcXzpRk
See my post above about the pies. I was ashamed of myself for the number I ate. But they delivered so many, and they were so nice. And I had a beer in the other hand. What was I supposed to do?
Sadly there's no big, fat piggy icon available.
It was the Craft Beer Co in Clerkenwell last year.
Well, if there are enough commentards in Oz, how about a sister event in Sydney? We have the Lord Nelson, with its unique beers served in pints, and I can give you about 4 hours on the Safety at Work Act 1982, if I cut it down a bit (or perhaps not!)
How about it Simon?
Either it's REAL ALE or pretend pasteurised plastic. It doesn't matter if it's made by twee twats or good old brewsters if it's real. Even the mass producers of Suffolk Swill out of hop oil in Bury St. Edmunds claim their beer is made by 'craftsmen' so the term means nothing. If it's real then why not use the proper, well understood and accurate term. OTOH when someone uses 'craft' we all know that's nothing more than a fig-leaf for overpriced fizzy foam with a name invented by a marketing wanker.
The gratuitous show off in me is just itching to stand up even though I suspect I'd appear about as clever as Ms Hilton.
If you fancy "Thomas Pynchon - a feminist in wonderland" give me an upvote and I'll come down to the big smoke in my finest party frock.
If not, just keep quite. Silence is the worst kind of censure.
I was thinking of offering myself up for a talk along the lines of 'Ethel the Aadvark teaches troubleshooting across multiple suppliers and stakeholders, most of whom only want to blame someone else and not actually fix the fucking problem' but I wasn't sure it would go down very well, so thought better of it ;)
If you fancy "Thomas Pynchon - a feminist in wonderland"
Damn it, I do. I'm not much of a Pynchon fan (but I've only read Gravity's Rainbow and a couple of his short stories; maybe I'd like his other novels better), but it's been a few years since my last MLA (and - good lord - nearly twenty since my last proper litcrit seminar) and I'm jonesing for a fix.
Since I'm in the US, though, I'm not likely to pop round for a Reg speaker series.
Fit the thin drawer? Not giving a sliding scale hoot about your requirements, my requirements are as follows:
1. Spectators be conversant in Joycean glossalogian discourse.
2. A wholesome mania for mirth and irrectitude are a must.
3. My salary would be astronomical if not astrophysical or asymmetrical or just plain Assyrian.
4. I've just stopped having fun with this. That's mercurial for you.