Out Of Africa

During September and October 2006 German photographer Michael Poliza and his friend Stefan Breuer travelled from Hamburg to Cape Town on an 8 week helicopter expedition across Africa.

The photographs taken on this trip are stunning and the Daily Diary entries give a fascinating background.

Link : Heli Africa site

Link : Michael Poliza's site

I Was Lost...

...but now I'm found.

A note meant for someone else, left on a car windscreen...

This was the catalyst that led to the formation of Found Magazine and their website.

They now have an amazing online collection of weird and wonderful things that people have found in various places.

A different find is featured every day. Some of these are funny, some are desperately sad, and some are weirder than a box full of weird things acting all weird on you.

Link : Found Magazine

Grafreetti

One of the things that I find a vague irritation in life is the mindless scrawls or tags that appear all too often in our urban landscape, this is graffitti with no redeeming features, serving only to feed the egos of its creators.

This said, I cannot help but admire the work of Banksy the self styled art terrorist who keeps his true identity secret. His work is clever, in some cases challenging, and has an inate sense of the absurd. (Still not sure about the rights of the whole "elephant in the room" thing though...)

Banksy's site features a hidden shop where everything is free - downloadable images which can be printed or used as desktop wallpaper. I like the suggestion that "Prints look best when done on gloss paper using the company printer ink when everyone else is at lunch."

Check out the shop then browse the rest of the site.

Link : Banksy's online shop

Toontown Trouble

This post on unintentionally inappropriate language and behaviours in old comic book strips had me chuckling out loud.

My childish sense of humour I guess...

Link : Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels

Champs Again?

Tomorrow is a big day for Scottish football.

Not only does the match against Georgia provide an opportunity to gain further points in the quest for qualification for the 2008 European Championships, it also gives Scotland a chance to be crowned Unofficial World Champions once more.

According to the records kept by the chaps over at UFWC, Georgia are the current Unofficial World Champions, having gained the honour by defeating Uruguay back in November 2006.

Scotland meanwhile are the top of the UFWC All-Time rankings, eleven points clear of England.

Should Scotland win tomorrow, in Alex McLeish's first game in charge, and regain the title they then face the prospect of playing the official World Champions, Italy, in a 'unification' match on Wednesday.

What is the UFWC? "The UFWC is an exciting international football competition contested in a simple boxing-style title system. Winners of title matches become title holders, and move up the rankings. UFWC history dates back to 1872, 58 years before the World Cup."

Link : UFWC

Who Needs Telly?

Google Video has almost four thousand documentaries available for your viewing pleasure.

What with this and YouTube you may never have to watch Coronation Street ever again...

Link : Documentaries on Google Video

Everything But The Kitchen Sink

I imagine that out there on the Interweb there are plenty of lists of OTT music videos. I also imagine that "November Rain" by Guns'N'Roses is on most of them and it may even top many of the lists.

Musically and visually this has everything: orchestra, backing singers, guitar solos on top of grand piano; beautiful bride, helicopter shot of guitar solo outside a desert chapel, rock'n'roll wedding reception... Everything but the kitchen sink, and I'm pretty sure that if you searched hard enough you might even find that.

What I liked about GNR, before they vanished in a cloud of pharmaceuticals and oversized egos, was their mastery of the dynamic of the great rock song. November Rain is a classic example of the "start slow and build to a driving climax" structure, in the vein of Stairway To Heaven.

Yes the song, especially in combination with the visuals, is pompous and overblown but you cannot help but enjoy it.

Yes Slash looks like a refugee from the Hair Bear Bunch but he is a cool dude and he sure can play that Les Paul.

Embrace its OTT magnificence and enjoy!

Not On The Curriculum

Had to laugh at the story in today's Daily Record about the students whose post tutorial fumblings were broadcast to other university locations over the video conferencing system.

Another source confirmed: "The class had finished and the room was empty. But I gather that the amorous pair returned.
They thought it would be private. Unfortunately for them, the VC link was still on.
The VC link technician would have been aware. I believe other people witnessed the impromptu show but don't know how many."
College chiefs have a recording of the extra-curricular activities and have launched an inquiry.

I wonder if this activity will be subject to assessment??

Link : Daily Record

The Only Game In Town

Prepare to be bamboozled and frustrated in equal amounts.

An addictive flash based Peg Solitaire game that will keep you amused for hours.

Link : Peg Solitaire

Apollo Memories

Took a look over at the fine Apollomemories site today.

I remember going to loads of concerts at the Glasgow Apollo in my youth. The tatty old playhouse was a fantastic rock venue with its 'mile high' stage, sticky carpets, and bouncers that were just the wrong side of psychopathic...

The sight gathers together memorabilia and memories from the Apollo's heyday and is a great place to visit even if you never managed to see a gig there.

The power of coincidence? One thing I did notice today, the site features a widget on its home page telling you who played on this day in various years. Today in 1975 10cc played. Except, I seem to remember, they didn't. When you click through to the 10cc page there is a concert ticket with 16th March 1975 on it. This is the correct ticket [I can verify this because it is mine] but I remember that the original concert was cut short and cancelled because various band members were ill and could not sing. The concert was rescheduled for the end of the tour when the band returned to play a storming set livened up by the various booby traps that the roadies had set to liven up the atmosphere on this final date; porn pics on Eric Stewart's wah wah pedal, a flash bomb in the piano, etc etc.

The best concert I ever saw at the Apollo? I just have to give this honour to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band Christmas Show, one of three nights in December 1975. An absolutely fantastic show from start to finish saw Alex and the band at the height of their powers playing in front of a home town audience who loved them. It is amazing to think that it was over 30 years ago now.

Link : Apollomemories

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Another clip from YouTube. This really has turned into a goldmine for music fans.

I can't say I am a massive fan of the band Kansas. I am however extremely fond of this song.

The video is fantastic. Who would have thought that you could possibly cram so much hair onto such a small screen!!

The Return Of The Kid

Phew.

Back safe and sound after my travels.

Still feeling a little jet lagged but "normal" service should now be resumed.

Plane Sailing

I have to admit I am not a huge fan of air travel. The bit in the middle where you are up in the air is ok but the arsing about at either end is a real pain. You know, the having to be at the airport ages before the flight because it now takes two days to get through security, just about having to strip down to your undies as part of the clearance process, only to then sit about in departures forever. At the destination end there is the mad panic as everyone tries to get off the plane first (why?) followed by the usual chaos at the baggage reclaim.

You can probably tell by the tone of this posting that I did not enjoy my last flight. The five and a half hour flight from Amsterdam to Kuwait was would have been fairly comfortable were it not for the following factors:

a) my dodgy knee (see previous posting)
b) the flight time - leaving mid afternoon, arriving around midnight Kuwait time
and finally
c) the man on the opposite side of the plane with the loud voice who did not appear to even stop talking in order to take a breath all the way from takeoff to landing and who was boring all and sundry with his views on life, the universe, and everything.........aaaargh.

Anyway, on the positive side, got here safe but tired and after a couple of days am starting to feel almost normal again.

Just a shame I have to go through the return journey in a couple of days time. Let's hope motor mouth is staying a bit longer!

Ouch!

I am convinced that Mrs TK jinxed me this morning. When told of my plans for this evening she said "You shouldn't be playing football tonight, not if you are going away on Friday".

So here I sit, in pain, with an icepack strapped to my knee, swallowing ibuprofen in the vain hope that everything will be alright in the morning...

Not quite sure what I did to myself - I remember my right foot slipping as I ran with the ball, next thing I know I was lying on the ground with a very sore left knee. My guess is that I twisted or jarred it as I fell. I hope it is nothing more serious than that.

As usual Mrs TK is right. I didn't really want to be hurting myself tonight as I have a week long trip to the Middle East to get through, starting on Friday. I really, really don't want to be sitting on a plane for about 6 hours with a throbbing knee...but I guess that is now what I am going to be doing.

Bugger.

Wrong Bikini Bottom

The Wee Fella seems to have an endless capacity for watching cartoons. Seems like some of it may be rubbing off on me, sadly.

Why don't you test your Spongebob IQ and see how you get on?

Good Rockin' Tonite

Ever heard of The Tielman Brothers?

No, neither had I until someone pointed me towards this video.

One of the leading lights of the Dutch "Indo-Rock" scene in the late 50's - early 60's, the brothers were emigre Dutch-Indonesians who came to The Netherlands in 1957.

These guys certainly knew how to rock and were also superb showmen, check out the guitar acrobatics and the "walkabout" drum solo.

The story of Indo-Rock is told on Piet Muys excellent site.

Link : The Story Of Indo-Rock

The Vinyl Countdown #1

Good evening pop pickers and welcome to the first blog entry in an occasional series about records that brought me great joy at various times in my life.


Doing some research on this record led me to find something useful on MySpace (hard to believe I know, but true nonetheless).


Today's record is The Shapes EP, released on Sofa Records in 1979. This was 7" of vinyl delight featuring four tracks, my favourite tracks being "Wots For Lunch Mum (Not Beans Again)" and "Batman In The Launderette". Delightfully daft, with crappy vocals over shambolic accompaniment, I heard it on the John Peel Show and loved it immediately.

I used to drive my friends mad playing this record. They couldn't see the attraction, poor misguided fools...

The band were fronted by the man with one of the best ever punk names, Seymour Bybuss and also featured Brian Helicopter on bass. Due in large part to Peel's patronage the EP make it to number two in the indie singles chart, however the group were unable to follow up this 'success' and folded soon after. The manner of their passing has been described hilariously as "The group ended their career on-stage soon after as ridiculously as they began. At the start of their gig at London's Marquee, Bybuss attempted to make a grand entrance by leaping onto the stage. Unfortunately, he misjudged his jump and landed smack in the middle of a stunned audience, who immediately crowd-surfed him out of the band room and onto Wardour Street. From there, he just kept on going and that was the end of the show, and the Shapes themselves, or so the story goes."

Thanks to Mr Helicopter's, rather sparse, MySpace site today's web surfers can once again frug along to the pure pop noise that is "Batman In The Launderette". Go on, treat yourself.

Link : The Shapes on MySpace

Honesty Policy

Found this great post over at execupundit.com.

I don't believe for one minute that the "Note from boss to employees" is based on a real life example but, having worked both sides, I find the open, honest approach refreshing.

The "Note from employees to boss" as suggested by Jim in the comments section is also worthy.

Wouldn't worklife be easy if we could employ a few of these principles; have clear goals, common targets, straightforward communication, and mutual respect and support.

The idealist in me things this would be great, the cynic doesn't think there is a hope in hell that it would happen.

Link : Execupundit.com: Note From Boss To Employees

Do You Want Fries With That?

Despite being someone who is never likely to be featured in the "size zero" debate I must admit that even I found some of the fast food creations featured in this Mental Floss post a bit gross.

The ongoing tendency of sections of society to consume processed food in greater and greater amounts whilst taking less and less exercise is a horror story in the making. How long before someone literally explodes at the dinner table, a la Mr Creosote?

Without going all Bob Geldof on you this is surely wrong when you have people in the world starving to death. No?

Link : Mental Floss - Best of the worst foods ever