Normally in these posts where I point to items that look or are named in a similar fashion, I make some critical remarks… not this time, though, as I can recommend both of these books for useful tips on the craft of writing (specifically writing novels).
Cripes! To paraphrase the story about Mike and Bernie Winters, “there’s three of them”! (Can’t vouch for this third one, mind).
I suspect it’s part of the would-be contrarian streak in me, the part that likes to think it’s pointing out the nudity when everyone else is admiring the cut of his majesty’s new threads, but I tend not to get into things as quickly as other folks.
And I couldn’t get to work… but it’s not all bad, as the accompanying pictures show (the better photo was taken by Mrs Wife).
Looks like we’ll be going to the park soon, so may have more to share later … oh lordy, this blog post is dangerously close to becoming a Facebook status update, now, isn’t it? Still, I comfort myself with the fact that, twice when I tried to type it, I accidentally typed ‘Faecebook’…
I’m probably showing both my age and my strange cultural exposure here, but what the heck…
Barry Mooncult of short-lived ‘baggy’ beat group Flowered Up, and a chap advertising Be Internet
Separated at birth? Or both customers of the same horticulturally-influenced tailor? You be the judge.
I live, as I’ve probably mentioned several million times before, in London. And I love it – the city’s endlessly fascinating, and it’s been kind to me, bringing me a number of opportunities and friends I doubt I would have encountered elsewhere (and yes, that includes my lovely wife).
So, it’s with an utterly ill-founded sense of pride (seeing as how I wasn’t actually born in London, as much as I consider it my home) that I provide you with the link to this page, where you can see a selection of frankly stunning aerial pictures of London taken at night by the ferociously talented photographer Jason Hawkes.
The picture reproduced here, I hope, gives you a hint of the delights that await you – and yes, I chose this one because it’s a view of my manor, East London. Other than that, and unusually for me, I have little else to add – save that to point out that the picture above is, of course, totally and utterly copyright Jason Hawkes, and the reproduction here is done out of respect and awe as opposed to any kind of attempt to infringe!
Anyway, stop reading my semi-disclaimer, and get thee to the pictures!
Available to pre-order now is this little beauty – well, actually it’s wildly inaccurate to call it ‘little’, as it’s 7’8″ tall, and comes with poseable arms.
So, you can set it up in the bathroom at night with outstretched arms to freak out your nearest and dearest. And the cost to do so? A mere $4999.95 (about £3500).
Y’know, I can’t decide if it’s one of the most preposterous or amusing items to purchase I’ve ever seen in my life. Maybe it’s both?
The pictures are rather contrary to the way the characters normally behave in their respective roles, but nonetheless, submitted for your comparison: Kane ‘Often Jason Vorhees’ Hodder as serial killer Dennis Rader in the film BTK, and Nick Frost as Mike Watt in cracking TV comedy Spaced.
(If you haven’t seen either of these items, in all conscience, I can only recommend you watch Spaced. Despite BTK being based on real-life events, Spaced is actually the more believable.)
The results were recently announced for the 2008 Art Vinyl prize for best record cover – here’s the BBC News link – and because I’m hip to the sound on the trip-hop streets, I thought I’d share two of the top three with you fine people.
The winner was the Fleet Foxes album, and in third place was Coldplay (both pictured here).
However, the reason I picked these two is because they don’t really strike me as particularly worthy of the prize – they are, after all, pre-existing pictures by Bruegel and Delacriox, with a few words added in white. I know there’s a debate to be had about the nature of art and creation and found objects and all that, but given that second place went to a wholly new image – and a pretty creepy one at that – on the recent Roots Manuva album (see it in glorious scare-icolour here), I think that it seems to be rewarding designer for cleverly choosing bits of old art as opposed to creating new images of their own.
Then again, looking at Art Vinyl’s own website, it seems to be more about the sale of frames in which to hang your vinyl albums on the wall as opposed to the sleeve art itself, so maybe I’ve just been duped into wasting braintime thinking about something which is little more than a thinly-veiled advertising ploy.
Darn it.
Then again, it appears that the news-gathering forces of the BBC were equally fooled, so I shan’t blame myself too much.
Besides, I never liked vinyl as a format very much when I was a youth in the 1980s, it was far from easy to play on my Walkman.
I’ve written before about my fondness for the TV show Twin Peaks, and I’ll no doubt do so again (perhaps, one day, even explaining why I like it so), and in case you haven’t guessed it by the start of this sentence… well, this is one of those posts. If you’re not interested in this subject, normal service (if that’s what it can be called) will be resumed as of the next post.
Anyway – for those of you who are still here – I was rather amused to hear that a Twin Peaks variant of a range of skateboarding trainers was being released; partly because it’s almost two decades since the show was last on TV, and also because I’m 37 years old, for goodness’ sake, and the idea of trainers featuring motifs from a TV show really shouldn’t elicit the question ‘Where can I get them?’ and have me reaching for the internet so quickly. Still, I think we’ve established I’m an overgrown infant, and so the pictures surrounding these words are pictures I’ve actually taken of my shoes, which I received yesterday.
The first picture gives you a general idea of the trainer – as you can see immediately, there’s an owl pictured on it, in line with one of TP’s signature phrases (or should that be warnings?) “The owls are not what they seem”. As well as the green stitching along the shoe, and the spare green laces supplied, there’s a hint of patterning on the ‘grey’ area which might be faintly fern-like or leafy, but that might be me looking for more of a bucolic motif than is actually present.
The second picture is perhaps not a usual angle to take a photo from, but people with perhaps even a passing familiarity with TP will probably understand why I did it; the red sides of the inside of the shoe, combined with the zig-zag pattern on the insole, combine to create an in-shoe replica of the ‘Red Room’, one of the series’ most memorable locations (if indeed it has a physical existence). Only certain people can enter the room, and in certain circumstances, but with these shoes any old clown (by which I mean me) can at least send their feet in. And, for what it’s worth it, they’re really rather comfy.
I’m no kind of trainer expert – though my father often maintains that I “should be trained by now, surely?” – but these seem well made, and comfy, with enough extras and doodads to keep Twin Peaks fans amused. How they work for skateboarding or other physical activities I couldn’t say, but there will probably be proper reviews elsewhere on the internet of that sort of thing. Oh, and one final touch I forgot to mention – the paper surrounding the shoes (in the box they arrived in) has a wood-style print on them, which seems to continue the generally ‘nature-based’ look of the whole package.
Overall, then, a nice job on a slightly odd choice of TP-tie in, and they’ve brought a smile to my face and a slightly increased bounce to my step. I got mine from Flatspot, and the service was very good, though of course other firms should be able to supply them.
Spotted yesterday on the side of a fairly tall London building; a window-cleaner who, in the absence of one of those lower-you-down cradle things, was abseiling down the side of the building, washing the windows as he went.
You can make out the bucket, which was suspended from his waistband.
Fair made me grin as I made my way into work, it did.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
