Pythagoras & Zeppelins

-


I've just finished reading "The Oxford Murders" by Guillermo Martínez, an Argentinian writer, who won the Planeta Prize for the book. An enjoyable read, weaving its plot around an apparent serial killer's machinations, woven into a mathematical underpinning based on logical series: specifically the Pythagorean Numbers.

The fourth in the series is the tetrad or τετρακτύς (Tetractys in Greek). This is an equilateral triangle, consisting of four rows of vertices or points: one, two, three and four, which from the four numbers 0 (unity; a point: zero dimensions), 1 (one dimension - a line between two points), 2 (two dimensions - a triangular plane) and 3 (three dimensions - represented by a tetrahedron consisting of four points).

The reason I mention any of this is a tad random. Whilst finishing the book this afternoon, I idly Googled the Tetrad for more background. Apparently a sacred (to some) series, it represented (amongst other things) the Four Elements of the ancient world: Earth, Air, Fire & Water: which resonated with me, because the reason I bought my copy of Led Zeppelin II rather late in the day (about a year after its release) was that I had originally bought an eponymous double album by The Third Ear Band, based on liking the fourth track (and there were only four - one per side of the two albums) which I'd heard on a sampler album (ask your Grandad) entitled "Picnic - A Breath of Fresh Air".

I got the album home and promptly decided I hated the other three tracks: only an album and a half's worth! Fortunately, I found a defect in the pressing on one of the sides and so took it back to Smiths in Birmingham, where serendipitously I was informed that it had been the last copy they had. Trying not look too ecstatic, I suggested swapping it for LZII and a refund on the difference! That record subsequently saw an awful lot of playing time, surviving skating tonearms and even a potential conflagration at my mate Jeff's house during the great school strike of 1970, when four of us were listening to it by candlelight - well a plateful of bloody candles that took it upon themselves to mutate into rather intimidating blaze: right in the middle of Jeff's bedroom floor. 

All would have been OK had calm prevailed, but one of our number had the bright idea of extinguishing the thing with a snorkel-mask full of water. In one of those slo-mo oh-no moments, the flames hit the ceiling as the water hit the pool of molten wax and the plate shattered, leaving a lava-like  encrustation on the lino floor, and a rather spectacular soot stain on the ceiling paper. And Jeff's parents were due back within the hour. We survived, Jeff survived, and so did Led Zeppelin II, which I still have, and still play occasionally to this day, whenever the fancy takes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des...
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [...
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more