25 November 2008 – 9:39 pm
“Here’s how to be a photographer: If you follow these steps, you CANNOT fail at getting an art show at a shitty gallery in the city somewhere, and unless you have terrible breath you WILL get laid. If you can’t follow these steps, you will be a BAD PHOTOGRAPHER which is like being bad at using a microwave oven and you should then literally go play penuckle with my grandfather at The Home. You will be in great company, as he too is a BAD MICROWAVER.”
STREET BONERS and TV CARNAGE » PHOTOGRAPHY IS FOR JERKOFFS
24 November 2008 – 11:09 pm
I spent eleven hours on the 11C bus on the 11/11/08. This is a psychogeographical report, it’s not a tale of the trip nor an attempt to map or really delve into areas along the eleven route. I’ll get to that later, I think. I’m not interested in mapping this, only in the most general sense of how places connect together and it doesn’t mention the bus itself much. Other than a method of transport its main function was to provide both the structure and lack of control for the journey. Despite the three circuits, thoughts about the places are combined into one loop.
The stops in King’s Heath are bad, squashed together 11 and 35 on a pavement not wide enough to support a queue, it forces that particularly British type of hanging away from each other. Holding back, as you would have to make the decision to interact, even if only to be polite. Even squeezing onto a packed bus gives you a feeling of space, how can humans together give off that aura of dampness when it hasn’t been raining?
Birmingham is really green and lush in places, the mature trees either side of the road can fool you into thinking nothing happens, that people wash cars clean of that tree gloop and have special machines for either sucking or blowing leaves subject to preference. Riding on the top deck you feel the need for those heavy suburban curtains, the drives where the parked monster truck acts as a barrier.
Where shops appear they don’t seem to be planned, the ‘party shop’ in Stirchley on the Pershore Road seems to whimper “celebration” rather than shout. It’s falling into itself, does it open? I don’t know. It has competition, the area thrives on the vibe of balloons and peculiarly dull glitter. Even the charity shops, the copy shops, the functional shops hide a stash of party poppers beneath the counter. In the pubs it’s perpetually New Year.
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22 November 2008 – 2:25 pm
“Duncan Norvelle “Chase me Chase me” fame, has joined with John Lowe, Eric Bristow and the King of Bling, Bobby George, to provide a format that had the audience laughing and clapping with delight.”
Legends of Darts
22 November 2008 – 11:38 am
Including Zoo keeper drowned in elephant shit: Darwin Awards 2008
20 November 2008 – 10:26 pm
But if they tried to “set fires” and flood the place at the same time I’m not surprised that it didn’t work.
16 November 2008 – 11:12 pm
Religion,’ Marx wrote, ‘is indeed the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself or has already lost himself again … It is the fantastic realisation of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality.
‘The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.”
The parallels with Second Life are plentiful. Sure, at one level, this virtual reality world is harmless fun, no different in principle from any other form of the escapism in which all of us sometimes indulge.
Unlike religion, Second Life isn’t even accompanied a more or less intellectually rigorous belief system with the ability to inspire both the better and the baser human instincts. These days, it looks like even alienation has to be dumbed down for mass consumption. [link]
16 November 2008 – 12:02 am
Signing up for the 17
Originally uploaded by H4NUM4N
I normally hate photos of me, but this is a really good one by hanuman, and the other half — Jules — looks great.
5 November 2008 – 10:39 am
There was a great plan this year to publish George Orwell’s diaries, 50 years after the event, as a blog. We don’t learn a lot about the inner thoughts of the great man, but we do know just how well his chickens were getting on:
3 November 2008 – 3:09 pm
Rory rightly dismisses a press release that uses an ‘survey’ and twists the results so as to appear newsworthy. “So, while I’ll admit that I’ve occasionally fallen for this kind of stunt in the past, I’m going to resist it this time. But don’t be surprised if you pick up a paper this week and read “Secrets of the Granny Gamers.”” [link]
Got their number
What’s shocking about watching the “live feed” of questions and answers from 118 118’s “ask anything you like service”, isn’t the illiteracy and stupidity of the questions — that’s a given — but the illiteracy, stupidity and plain ignorance of the answers:
Is it a or b? No.
Top line from second hit on google.
No Mr Band, I expect you to be good in singing.
“Jobs for a 15 year old? selling tablet and macaroon”
Second google hit, after one telling you what the fern effect is.