Just saying, that's all
28 January 2004. Inspired by .
Insert caption here
28 January 2004. Inspired by .
Perhaps the best presidential photo ever.
And somehow, oddly familiar.
In print, no-one can hear you scream
27 January 2004. Inspired by .
"How do you spell defeat?" asked the New York Times on Thursday.
"Did Howard Dean's guttural roar in front of supporters after his third-place finish in Iowa begin with a 'y' or an 'r' ... or maybe an 'a'?"
It's a good question. I personally don't think that Dean's speech after the defeat in Iowa says anything at all about whether he's a good candidate or not - but what it has raised is an interesting point about transcription in print. How do you convey a yell to your readers, who don't have the benefit of clicking to hear it? (mp3).
It's all about the balls
26 January 2004. Inspired by .
The great thing about having a blog is that it gets things off your subconscious and lets you carry on with the rest of your life. The itch is scratched and that uneasy sense of something you wanted to remember (if only you could remember what it was) is happily sated.
Here's a tale that's been buzzing around my brain since I saw "The Kid Stays in the Picture" yesterday, a fascinating (one-sided) documentary about the life of Robert Evans, through his own eyes.
Tak tak tak boom
23 January 2004. Inspired by .
Fun piece from Tom Fordyce on BBC Online where he takes to the ring with a world champ. The video is worth a watch too, if only for those Raging Bull moments.
Helps you work rest and find life on other planets
22 January 2004. Inspired by .
In 2003, a crack commando Mars unit was claimed missing and blamed for a waste of money that it actually wasn't. It promptly escaped from a maximum security radar beam to the Martian underground. Today, still wanted by the government, it survives as a soldier of fortune, mugging innocent rovers and stripping it of parts. If you have a space program, if no-one else can help, and if you can find it, maybe you can hire the Beagle 2.
Air with a g-string
21 January 2004. Inspired by .
"Basically, I have two audiences. I have audiences of people I very much respect, which are people who embrace pornography as any other form of expression." The others, I suppose, just sit and shake their fists at him.
Definitely not safe for work, but the latest Air video was made by distinctly-unaverage porn film director Kris Kramski.
The video tells the sad story of a girl's descent into desperation and pornography - like much of his work, it subverts the genre and actually questions what it is that people find erotic, while still providing the money shot for those who need it. As this article and this biog suggest, there's a lot more to him than hits the eye. Though I don't really want to think what the phrase "harking back to the golden age" actually means.
(via Fleshbot, via Boing Boing)
Send in your quack troops
21 January 2004. Inspired by .
Neil Gaiman's excellent blog brings us the recording of The March of the Sinister Ducks by Translucia Babboon (otherwise known as a certain pagan comic book writer with a big beard).
Which can lead to only one conclusion. Drag brit-director Paul Anderson off Alien vs Predator and begin Ducks vs Badger immediately. May the most sinister creature win.
In word and deed poll
20 January 2004. Inspired by .
Another great story from the ever-fascinating IWPR.
On a related topic, anyone in the UK who has internet access at home and is in the habit of sending drunken emails without remembering in the morning had probably better not click on this link or notice its new online service. No really, you'd better not, as this FAQ quote confirms:
"We have issued Deed Polls for fun names such as Hong Kong Phooey, Father Christmas, Ed Kase, Ting A Ling, Huggy Bear, Donald Duck, Save Barnsley FC and James Bond."
I bet Mrs Ling was thrilled when her hungover husband told her the good news.
Still, on the upside, "If you have purchased a Deed Poll from us in the past, you are eligible for a £10 discount."
Stamp and deliver
16 January 2004. Inspired by .
"The system, called SmartStamp, allows users to print stamps straight onto envelopes from their computers. It means they can ditch the traditional stamp for an image of their choice, such as a company logo."
Or something cooler and more experimental. Welcome back, humble post box. Your raison d'etre has finally returned.
By hook or by crook
15 January 2004. Inspired by .
If you hadn't sussed already, Trevor-the-Baldie's blog is a remarkable mix of spurious trivia and really really odd historical facts, as well as a mix of English, Catalan and Dutch (it's ok, each has its own RSS feed).
Today's gem: Shepherd's pie really might be exactly as it sounds.
TV special
15 January 2004. Inspired by .
I've just translated the remarkable story of Violeta la Burra, star performer of Barcelona's transvestite bars in the 1950s, for the Barcelona magazine lecool. It's quite a read, if you have a moment.
La la la I'm not listening
14 January 2004. Inspired by .
Pretty high on my list of 'things I don't want to think about ever': bankrupt magazine sues freelance contributor to get their fees back.
Iron, Lion, Prion
12 January 2004. Inspired by .
It was only a matter of time, once mad cow disease hit the States, before this headline appeared. Fox News, I hope you can sleep at night, because no-one else can.
The pitch
12 January 2004. Inspired by .
I'm still not sure what this is, but I want to write for it anyway.
Free and worthwhile press
12 January 2004. Inspired by .
Here's something literarily great. The University of California Press has put various academic and wonderful tomes online for public consumption. Though they make things a little harder for non-students by not printing a definitive list of volumes only available to us swarming masses, the easiest way to obtain one is to click here (not including books that don't use the word 'the').
Here's some things that caught my eye:
The art of spiral writing in Yemen, Palestinian Arab folk tales, Soviet Perceptions of the United States, Jewish Memories, Vampires as a metaphor for capitalism in colonial Africa, The travel letters of Anthony Trollope (to the Liverpool Mercury), the unexpectedly literary When a Doctor Hates a Patient, Spanish-speaking readers might enjoy Judo-Spanish ballads from New York, while elsewhere is Chuck Jones' life story, including various of his drawings such as one above showing the difference between Wile E Cayote and a real cayote, and a fascinating (if not remarkably written) short book on the psychology of the individual by the metropolitan editor of the New York Times, about a murder case where 38 people stood by and watched a girl get butchered in the street.
You'll probably find other ones that interest you more; I'm just making that list for my own reference.
Official: internet exists
12 January 2004. Inspired by .
As Trevor reports, Spain is about to recognise the existence of the word 'internet'. At the cutting edge, here.
Media smokescreen
10 January 2004. Inspired by .
"Most of Hamlet's success is in getting people young." Laertes would agree.
The House of Commons select committee report on the tobacco industry's advertising methods in 2000 succeeded in getting thousands of internal memos from the industry that reveal the ways and means of how to advertise when the government bans it all. "Make the minister appear like she's the minister for bans" is one solution of getting the public on their side. All of the memos have just appeared online as well as their report.
All the news that's bandwidth to print
09 January 2004. Inspired by .
In fearless cub reporter fashion, two more Prandial dispatches:
La via es bella (.mov, 3.9mb, sound)
and
Revolutionary spin (.mov, 2.9mb, slightly shaky sound).
Feedback sought...
The day we caught the trainers
08 January 2004. Inspired by .
Is counter-branding also branding? Is subvertisement just another form of advertisement? And should Adbusters be making its own brand of 'sneakers' (sic) in the first place? Can you only win by playing their game or is it the game itself that Adbusters once stood against?
Answers to come in a bestselling book, free with every pair of sneakers.
Name, space
07 January 2004. Inspired by .
Fiona's pointing to The Times' editorial on safe baby names, and Danny's subsequent ruminations have brought me back to an entry I made a while back on the weird names that children had chosen for themselves in Hong Kong.
A swift dig around my hard drive later and I found the complete list of names I had written down at the time, typed onto a long-dead laptop and somehow surviving the drip-down of files passing through various subsequent machines.
You'll need to open the window up big enough for the lists to be readable I'm afraid, I'm short on free time right now so have just asked Word to write the ugly code for me.
Where Rommell and Nicam go hand in hand.
UPDATE: Just found an article that proves my point.
Garage bind
07 January 2004. Inspired by .
Craftsman of the week: Richard Minsky. Artist, writer... bookbinder.
Whether using salted pheasant skin, or perhaps trade binding with hypodermic needle, crack caps, condom, acrylic and phosphorescent paint, and even (my personal favourite) lizard-grained cowhide, hologram foil stamped title, LCD monitor embedded in cover with miniature black and white video camera hidden behind leather with 1/8" hole for lens, his bindings, at their best, just make me want to weep. And become a bookbinder.
His works aren't cheap - thousands of dollars usually - so appreciate them online (don't miss his collection based around The Bill of Rights). You'll just have to imagine the rich smell of musty leather for yourselves.
Your starter for 3
06 January 2004. Inspired by .
Finally, at long last, as promised:
It's Drivetime! (.mov, 3mb, Quicktime required)
More to come...
The drive of your life-saver
05 January 2004. Inspired by .
Benefits of being an ambulance driver include:
• Working outside in the fresh air, I don't know how office workers put up with air conditioning.
• Driving on the wrong side of the road with blue lights and sirens going, it's not the speed its the power
• Being able to poke around people houses and feel superior even though you haven't done the washing up for two days.
• No matter how annoying the patient is, knowing that within twenty minutes it'll be the hospitals problem.
• Meeting lots of lovely nurses, and knowing that I get paid more than them.
• And on the rare occasion being able to help people who are scared or in pain.
(via Rogue Semiotics)
Happy new year and welcome back. After a festive season stuffed with tranquility and overflowing with relaxation gravy, I'm back in Barcelona and back to whatever approximation this is to real life.
Some of the things I brought back from Cuba are nearly ready, and just as soon as I've sorted out a slight server space problem they'll be online for your delectation.
Also nearly done: the corrected first edition of Barçabook (now with fewer spelling mistakes!) and the latest edition of shiny free-internationally-if-you-order-online design magazine M-real (Launch) should be out around now too.
I also implore Americans to speak softly and carry an almanac.
In the meantime, there's just time to do what I do every week.
Try to take over the world.