Manhattan Transfer

Last night I missed the Steven Pinker lecture on the controversial article "The Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence" by Jason Hardy, Henry Harpending and (occassional MT commenter) Greg Cochran. This was doubly disappointing because it meant I missed a chance to meet one of my favorite new bloggers, Lying Eyes.

I spent a good part of last Saturday's brunch discussing the "Natural History" paper with a friend of mine who is an instructor in the Department of Radiology at Harvard and one of the leading lights in using those fancy magnetic resonance machines to study how the brain works. He was impressed with the paper and told me he was going to think about some ways to test some of its ideas using the big magnet machines they've got over in Massachusetts General Hospital.

I did manage to make the tail-end of Essexy at 12" , which is like No Data but with girls like Funlap and Youngna DJing. What does it mean to be like "No Data"? Take two parts tiny bar, one part the usual crowd of miscreants, two parts music and stir with plenty of alcohol.

Younga was weilding a polaroid camera. Still no replacement for the one stolen in Barcelona. Come on people, break open those paypal accounts and help a pretty girl out!

British Jess (pictured above) made a special guest appearance on the turntables (err, well, the CD disk changers). Afterwards we cut-out of 12" to check out thekthnxbye at Sapphire Lounge. What's that? Think No Data but populated by Cornbelt Ex-Pats like Red Chardonnay. Unforts, it was dead by the time we rolled in there. Next week I'm going by early.

This was suppossed to be a quiet weekend, especially after the debauchery of the five day Thanksgiving weekend. Not shaping up that way. Christmas party season looks set to launch. Here's the tentative agenda:

Friday.
--Fairwell Ice-Skating Party for British Jess.
--Welcome Back whiskey session for Sully, who has been holed up in San Francisco for way too long.
--Crash random corporate holiday party. (Any suggestions? Leave a comment.)
--Another invasion of the Bulgarian Bar?

Saturday.
--College sports starting at noon with Soutern Gent.
--Cocktail party at Double J's apartment.
--Cocktail party down the street from Double J's with Blondie's coworkers (Invite: "This is not the party of the year. It's the party you go to before the party of the year.")
--No Data returns to Loreley. (Is this a weekly event now?)
--Crunked in the Cellar. Might as well admit I'll end up here marinated in Jamesons while the youngsters dance to the musical selections of DJ Matt Eller. Isn't that what Saturdays are for?

Sunday.
--Sleep past noon and swear I'll never touch whiskey again.