// March 30th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // art, street art
Here’s some amazingly creative street art from Joshua Allen Harris. He makes shapes out of plastic bags and ties them to air vents above the subway. Watch what happens to this plastic dog when a train goes by underneath. (There is no sound)
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Via the wonderful Wooster Collective.
// March 28th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // blogging, google reader
Did you know, you can add a next button to your browser and it will open the next unread item in your Google reader list? But it opens the pages on the actual web sites they come from. This adds a bit of colour to your reading, and you get to see comments etc straight away. I also use Google reader to keep up with lots of sites that aren’t blogs, such as creative ireland. So it’s very handy for feeds like that, as I jump to the whole thread rather than just the first post, which is all you get in google reader.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to bother writing about this or not but here’s the clincher. When you’re at the last item, and you click next, this is what you get:
You guys!
*wags finger at those whacky google guys*
Here’s how: In Google Reader go to Settings then Goodies, and just drag the Nextbutton onto your toolbar
Bonus tip: Open (Windows) Accessibility Options / Mouse and turn on Mousekeys. The when you press 5 on your numerical keypad, it will open the next post, (after you’ve clicked the next button once).
// March 28th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // photoshop
There’s a Chinese restaurant out in Bray called Fatso.
Ok. Not really. But it’s not far from the original name.
// March 26th, 2008 // No Comments » // web
Boston dynamics have created this amazing robot dog.
And while the dog’s ears are hardly wet, there’s already a hilarious parody by David Fine, and Beau Lewis, the guys who did the Mac or PC rap.
// March 24th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // photos, stuff
Ice skating is one of the rare physical activities I find myself enjoying but was restricted to doing once a year, and while listening to Jingle Bell Rock. I considered roller blades for about 1/2 a second but even thinking about it made me feel like a nipple. So we were looking for something to do at the weekend and came across the Dundalk Ice Dome. Took a motorway hour to get there but it’s something else (for an ice rink). It’s a full-on ice hockey stadium with a huge rink and there weren’t that many people there at all.
Irish Wolfhound
Mini me Zoolander
// March 21st, 2008 // No Comments » // music
Quick plug for a friend with a new record out. Dave Anderson – Stronghold. This his is debut release as a solo artist on the legendary techno label Ferox , four great tracks with that Classic Detroit flavour.
That reminds me. I wonder who these chancers are trying to cash in on my own debut release. Legal my arse.
// March 20th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // photoshop
Update: Yuck: I don’t like it. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but its pig ugly to look at. This post will self will self destruct in 5…4…3…
// March 19th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // photos, web
Here’s a great plug-in for your browser. It’s called Piclens, installs in the blink of an eye and works great. It’s a photo browser for sites like flickr, Picasa, and facebook. Searching through Google images is no longer a chore. Jesus I sound like I’m straight out of an Ad – it’s just really handy. Below is a video of me looking around Gingerpixel’s Flickr photos, although the crap quality doesn’t really show off how good it looks, you can kind of see how easy it is to use.
There’s a better post at davidbehan.com, and here’s the actual plug-in page.
// March 16th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // atheism
I’ve decided to release a list of seven mortal sins.
Watch this space for the 10 Commandments.
p.s. Have you seen Catholic.ie yet?
// March 13th, 2008 // 5 Comments » // films, music
Morvern Callar is an offbeat supermarket girl who takes a devastating event and spins it to her advantage. Its fairly original in style; quietly haunting and with little dialog. Random unimportant events come and go with the one big event still looming in the background. I’ve not seen anything else by Lynne Ramsay but she knows exactly what she’s doing. She completely nails a late night house party scene, hypnotic, and enchantingly authentic. A great soundtrack heard through a walkman glues the film together and acts as the conscience Morvern lacks.
// March 12th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // films
I’m a big Shane Meadows fan. Even though he’s only made six films and I’ve only seen four. I’ve mentioned him once or twice before. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is doing the rounds on Film4 so I got to see it last night. Surprisingly good considering a I heard it wasn’t as good as A Room for Romeo Brass. It’s a simple low budget brit flick. You know the type, an urban drama with a funny bits. It’s not really a comedy but I laughed out loud at this more times than at Will Ferrel’s entire back catalogue. Seems like Meadow’s signature joke is cramming big beefy gangsters into tiny ridicilous cars. We had a white stretched mini and a pink Reliant Robin last night. And if you’re paying attention at the back, you’ll find the Spaghetti Western references pretty funny too.
It’s got a great cast: Ricky Tomlinson married to Kathy Burke? Mint! and Rhys Ifans is hilarious as a wimpering boyfriend hiding from the hardman ex-husband, Robert Carlyle. Think Begbie, 10 years and 101bs later. It’s a classic tale pitching an exciting but troublesome wildboy against Tim, nice but dim. Not only as lover but as father too. And it was refreshing to see the daughter played by a normal little girl. Hollywood is awash with overly cutesy girls or too-grown-up-for-their-own-good type brats on a one way road to rehab.
Some great news: Meadows and Considine have got back together again for a film called Le Donk which is currently being edited. Wotcha!
// March 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Blogging directly from Flickr out of curiosity. I took this on Sunday.
// March 7th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // art, films, waffle
I found myself with a day off midweek that I didn’t really need in the end, but I took it anyway. It just seemed too complicated to unbook it! So I got to potter around town. I can never decide what to do with precious moments like that (if you don’t have children, you won’t be able to relish just how precious they are – those moments, not the rug rats).
I remembered an announcement that the Dublin Improv Movement were looking for secret agents to turn up with some travel money and that sounded like a great adventure. But when I checked it was Thursday morning (anyone know what happened there?). Very dissapointed I resumed my pottering. Walking along Grafton street, I tried to figure out why people gave money to a woman who did nothing but paint herself gold. But at least the Spanish Goatboy with the wooden mouth wasn’t around, that thing gives me the creep. I don’t know if it’s rooted in some Spanish folklore or what – but it should never have been allowed off the Ramblas. Please don’t feed it silver. He might just go away forever.
The sun was shining, so a I bought a book and went to Stephen’s Green. That’s what has me halfway through a gazullion different books and to the end of none. A woman and her mother sat on the bench beside me to feed a Twix to the pigeons. One of them surprised me by perching on my shoe! I asked her to get off…and stop creating diabetic monster-pigeons.
I had a hankering to see some Art but Kilmainham was too far without car. I pottered around the Original Print gallery and then onto the Temple Bar Gallery. Niamh O’Malley’s a situation, a situation, and a story was on show. I tripped over the first A situation, didn’t know what to make of the Second but liked A Story. The first piece (A situation) doesn’t work in the sunlight, it’s a clouded image with coloured slides projected onto it. I’m sure it was great on the opening night but they need to black out the windows or move it into one of the back rooms. A story is a simple but elegantly executed allegory of butterflies and time.
From one butterfly to another, I went to see The diving bell and the Butterfly (Butterflies have to be the most common metaphors in art). It’s a wonderful film, but unlike some reviews would have you believe, I did not leap from the IFI imbibed with the zest for life. I just fancied some soup. (Cafe Café Irie spoiled the run of things by not having any butterfly soup but their replacement was still yum). I found the camerawork in The Diving Bell as fascinating as the story though. They seemed to use the same kind of tilt-shift method that can be used to make fake-model photos. Like the ones I did here. In the The Diving Bell, the effect you get is a realisticly claustrophobic first-person view.
I accidentally typed castrophobic there at first. I think Freud is trying to tell me something. The family jewels will be well-guarded this weekend.
// March 6th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // photoshop, random
I saw a Kangaroo Dog in the Metro today. I couldn’t find a photo on the interweb though. So I made my own. The one I saw was born with back legs only and hopped about like Skippy. Turns out there is actually a type of dog called a Kangaroo Dog. According to kangaroodog.org it’s the first Australian breed ever created. As you were…
// March 3rd, 2008 // 3 Comments » // music, rave
Just because it’s been 20 years since the big 88, here’s 20 Rave Classics I found on Youtube:
I was planning to embed a lot more but the browser just can’t handle the hardcore! Here’s the rest (not all of them are videos mind):
// March 2nd, 2008 // 11 Comments » // blogging
I was shocked and stunned to win best newcomer at the Irish blog Awards last night… for this frivolous little thing. Really. I personally thought K8 the Great or Roy were going to win. Or any of the other great new blogs on the list.
I also had a personal triumph in saying a few words in front of 400 or so people. I’m delighted to see my absolute dread of public speaking diminishing with age! This deed would have been impossible for me a few years ago. The thought of it had my heart pounding so hard I thought it was about to explode but I was assuring myself with the fact that they’d call someone else’s name out. Which they didn’t!
Like I managed to blurt out on the night, the blog awards is such a good-natured event and with such a friendly atmosphere that last year’s event got me blogging in the first place. Well, it was the icing on the cake anyway. This year’s event was great fun too. And it was great to meet lots more of you lovely people again. Special shout out to the girl who ran up to me and asked what blog I was from, then before I had a chance to answer said “look I’ve got a black tongue” before skipping off to someone else. And when I say girl I mean woman.
Thanks to whatever judges seemed to find the same stuff wotsits and thingies as interesting as I do. Fair play to Moviestar for giving out free DVD players to every winner too! I’m happy to give them a shout out, as I experienced some great customer service off them just last week. And also to Edelman for sponsoring best newcomer. And to Damien and all the organisers of course. Booyakasha!
Irish KC has links to all the blog awards posts here.
http://irishkc.com/index.php/review-irish-blog-awards-2008.htm
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