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Simon Wells
Simon Wells

Simon Wells is an academic researching Argumentation Theory, Automated Reasoning, Intelligent Agents (IA) and MultiAgent Systems (MAS) all approached through a ludic lens.

He is particularly interested in how these tools can be usefully applied to critical literacy, security, gamification, and complex systems.

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2012 (1)
2011 (12)
2010 (27)
2009 (3)
 

NYC Odyssey Day 4

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I spent the morning and early afternoon working on my notes before heading to Brooklyn College in the early evening to help celebrate the end of the first week of the Bridges to Computing school. I spent some time with Valerie and her lovely little pitbull whilst Simon was finishing up at the college.We then bought sushi and had an evening of pool playing and beer drinking which later devolved into pool playing and martini drinking. Eventually Valerie called it a night and Simon and I took the subway into Manhattan, Simon to head home and me to head to the Slipper Room for my last night of entertainment in NYC. All in all today was pretty good, I got a new gym bag, one of the bridges to computing schwag bags. Simon and Betsy used the same supplier as the NY AAMAS in 2004 which is the best bag that I have gotten from a conference yet and has travelled all round the world with me. I also discovered that Burlesque shows last longer in proportion to the number of tips dropped into the tip bucket and that Martinis in Manhattan are really quite expensive and strong.
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NYC Odyssey Day 3

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I spent all day today sat in Simon Parson's office at Brookyn College working up notes for possible collaboration based upon the last couple of days discussions. Simon was busy with the summer school so I managed to catch him every now and then. Basically the day was productive but essentially I travelled about 5000 miles to sit in a basement office in Brooklyn coming up with ideas that didn't necessarily depend upon the circumstances. That said, once I clocked off (which is a rare occurrence for people working in academia), I grabbed a shower before taking the Q to Coney Island. I had dinner at Nathans again and spent some time looking at the bikes of the biker club who appeared to have me there. I then sauntered along Surf Avenue to the sideshow where I had a few beers before heading into tonight's "Burleseque at the Beach" titled "Sealo's British Invasion" show which was hosted by Mat Fraser. I have seen Mat on British TV many times and was really pleased to meet him person and have the opportunity to shake his hand and chat to him for a while. The blurb for his show is as follows:
Mat Fraser presents: Sealo's British Invasion Salute the Queen and wear your Union Jack with pride, it time for the all British night of classy, brassy, and arsey girls and boys to reclaim the America’s, stiff upper tits, and tally hoe, what? Starring a bawdy bevvy of all British Burlesque Beauties, hosted by your favourite British Freak, the sealboy himself, Mr Mat Fraser!
Basically we had a show filled with lovelies enacting typical British stereotypes in the typical Burlesque form, which was funny and sexy and better than almost any other entertainment form. On one level I think that I like Burlesque for exactly the same reason that I read speculative fiction. This is because they break the rules. The shows are not as polished as something from Hollywood. The audience has the opportunity to interact with (and in this case get sprayed with liquid (which I hope was sparkling wine)) the artists. At the Coney Island Sideshow you get to see, and interact with,  the stars of the show at the bar, drinking the same beer as yourself, and in Mat's case, clearing his bar tab from earlier that night. Basically Burlesque doesn't obey the rules of "what is cool right now" but acknowledges that the classic shows actually had entertainment value and that sometimes a corny, or old, or even bad joke is still funny if delivered in the right way... ... with nipple tassles. I plan to head to the Slipper Room to see Julie Atlas Muz tomorrow night. She was in tonight"s show where her British accent made Dick Van Dyke sound like Olivier ;) More information once there is something to talk about. Either way she is one of the best Burlesque artists, or even just one of the best performance artists, to see.  So if you get the chance, see one of her shows.
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Julie Atlas Muz Photograph Source: http://www.leahmeyerhoff.com/

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