Boards of Canada-Dayvan Cowboy

As if the song is not incredible in itself (It's a heartbreaking piece of beauty) but this video is pretty amazing too. We have two outstanding figures, or pioneers here. Joseph Kittinger, the true first man in space. He takes a balloon to the edge of earth's atmosphere, then jumps. Trivia, the video is exactly the same length as Kittinger's freefall. And the surfer is Laird Hamilton, a serious legend of big wave riding. Enough said. Whatever, inspiring people.

High rise

Ok, some more initial attempts at spontaneous image capture. The sort of thing that most people walk past but fail to actually see. The first image has been played with a little, giving it a kind of semi-lomo type thing. I need a better camera, that said a 3mp camera phone does give them a grainy quality i like. It'll do until i get a lomo camera.

"I'm 'avin' that!!!!"

Mmmmm, the last thing i want to watch before i die??????

Fake Lomo

Until i finally get around to getting a real lomo camera, this is my alternative. It's a little more composed than i like but sometimes the image requires this. As long as i remain completely untrained, it's going to look real maybe. A criteria for this, it's images people see every day, but don't really see as such. Anyway....... (Anyway being a catch all phrase for make your own mind up).

Initial image experiments

I've been wanting to have some fun with capturing some images for a while now, so why i wasted time not doing so is way beyond me. Anyway, i have a criteria. 1-The sharp lines of post-war architecture, especially high rise and aesthetically sparse structures. 2-Set against a particularly beautiful sky, seems to stir some weird and very early memory i can't quite grasp. 3-I take these images with absolutely no photography training, or indeed any idea whatsoever of the technical aspects of photography. This can only lead to authenticity, what i see is what i see, in fact using unprofessional equipment (camera phone, cheap digital camera) has allusions to the only truly artistically valid form of photography (Lomography, google it, you'll be impressed). Anyway, here's one of the results of my first attempt. I like it anyway. Click on the picture for full size.

The Brain Jonestown Massacre, too good for this world.

The english language just isn't sufficient to describe quite how much i love this band. Much criticism is aimed at Anton Newcombe but he's a serious genius. And i'm right in this, i will not be persuaded. Anybody who tries to disagree is wrong. This is an objective statement, and a couple of pieces of evidence to support...........






Now my problem here is that it's one of a few BJM songs being set free by Anton, yet no real recordings as yet, though rumours of 2 more new albums are still going around. Never enough Anton in my record collection. Here's another beautiful one.

Finally i find out what it actually is

Agar jelly. It's been really bugging me, when i've been nowhere near an internet connection or anyone who knew what i was talking about. Thankyou, now go about your business.........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar

Dandy Warhols....Rule ok

So, just another quick break from this assignment, it's around 11.30pm and i've just got back from seeing Elbow (Incredible, unsurprisingly) but i've been feeling the need for some dandys lately, a band i totally fell in love with several years ago and that love has only intensified, like a perfect romance, like those old couples you see who are still totally into each other. Anyway, until i find out how to post music here (i get tremendous joy from introducing people to bands that have made my own world better) it'll be youtube stuff etc. Here's a real nice jam from my favourite frontman and his boho rockers etc, get startled!

MAXIMUM!!!!!!!!!

The max raddest sick ebay listing ever

"This is a max wicked sick BMX. It's a Reliance Boomerang and it's done heaps of maximum extreme stunts. I have mostly done stunts on this bike since forever. Once I did a boom gnarly stunt trick on it and a girl got pregnant just by watching my extremeness to the maxxxx. Some details about sickmax BMX: Comes with everything you see including: TOPS AS SUSPENSION REAR FORKS!! 2 x wheels 1 x seat I will even thrown my sick BMXing name for FREE - Wicked Styx. Has minor surface rust on handlebars and front forks (easily removed). More rust on rear forks (as shown in pics). Tyres hold air but are pretty old. Basically, it's an old BMX, but it's radness is still 100% in tact. Tricks I have done on this BMX: Endos - 234. Sick Wheelies - 687. Skids - 143,000. Bunny Hops - 2 (Bunny Hops are gay and my brother dared me to do them, which I did because I'm Rad to the power of Sick). Flipouts - 28. Basically if you buy this bike you will instantly become a member to every club that was ever invented, worldwide, because you will be awesome. Pick up from Richmond in Melbourne. Throw your hands in the air like you just don't mind."

Here's the bmx. How rad is that?

Misanthropy is so passe

So i'm sat in the control room of the mothership (my house) with the chief (mr jake) and my eyes happen upon a copy of heat magazine sitting on the control panel (desk). Anyway, out of boredom i look through it, at the recent events in the land of the elite thinking it may be a welcome relief from reading about how millions of neurons are communicating with each other in our brains. How wrong was I? There is simply nothing that will bring out the brooker in me more than this kind of idiocy. So i'm feeling optimistic, having some faith in things when i read about celeb diets or whatever (i'll save the boredom and banality of another rant against celeb culture, we all know) and you just can't help but realise it's all over for us, as a species etc etc. Thing is, i'm kind of bored with misanthropy, other people do it so much better. Now luck would have it, i come across something like this
http://www.chrisjordan.com/
and all faith is restored. I'll still enjoy the rage filled rantings of our favourite misanthropes though, we still need them.

Here's someone who says it so eloquently.

New obsessions with old music

I have a tendency to get deeply and seriously in love with and obsessed by seminal bands and musicians which i should have been listening to years ago instead of gangsta rap and bad metal. My last one was with Joy Division (probably somethong to do with my ceaseless and intense love of Interpol). Anyway that faded and i was recently wondering who would take it's place. And along come Talking Heads from out of nowhere. Now this band are not actually new to me, during a period of intense fear and darkness i embarked on a rigorous banister renovation therapy session where Speaking in Tongues became the soundtrack, it was on constant repeat. I loved that album but most Talking heads passed me by, i actually found some of it a bit annoying, but as with most omnipresent things they may eventually become a thing of comfort. I now love the heads for two main reasons, the first, well, come on they are alternative music heritage, it would be a crime to not love them. And secondly, i heard this music as a kid, before i even knew what post punk/alt rock/indie/whatever whatever was, and hence nostalgia fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa faaaaa

And it's not all about comedy

But for now, it is. Some years ago i was sitting at home, sofa bound and desperate for something to come and erase a chronic case of catatonic boredom. Now it's quite dangerous to simply bombard your brain in this state with heroic amounts of stimuli, it will turn you into a replica of an acid casualty for a while. Far better to inject the good stuff gradually, let it sink in. Which is where the more sublime type of comedy can work wonders. Sean Lock is a genius, nobody can argue this. Yes he does have a tendency to repeat old material in his standup routines however i don't think anyone quite reflects the absurdity of modern english life quite how he can. Nobody can encapsulate the lunacy of something as mundanely english as queueing as hilariously as he often does. Anyway, Mr Lock created a sitcom which tapped directly into my brain gradually releasing chemicals which effectively cured a moment of terrifying boredom, 15 stroeys high, one of the most underrated shows ever made. Here's a clip





It was developed from a radio show which you can get here, it's well worth a listen and you can hear some of the material for the tv show developing. Enjoy.

Sean Lock. 15 Minutes of misery
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MDGA8H9C

Comedy will ruin my career

Ok, so i'm in the middle of a particularly boring degree, and i'm supposed to be applying some kind of work ethic here. The thing is, i once saw a tv show way back in the early 90s that has through a process of osmosis been slowly destroying my work ethic that has been lovingly passed down to me through generations of working class heroes. Here's where the lineage ends folks, and here's one of a myriad reasons why.....