Author: dots and spaces
Ready Made
I picked up a copy of Ready Made Magazine when we were in Santa Barbara and its been a great source of fun DIY craft and art things – I’ve had a go at a few projects, with limited success, but mostly it just appeals to people who like things. There are articles about treehouses, furniture, DIY gadgets and time saving devices, all with thrift shop appeal. There are also interviews with musicians and artists, places to visit and people to meet. Give it a go, or if you want – I’ll lend you my copy.
New Orleans
Terrible what’s happening along the Southern Coast of Louisiana. When I visited Tennesse, we took a drive down south and I think of how awful it must be for everyone, across such a huge area. It looks again like the authorities are failing to act decisively and support the relief effort, that help is only just arriving, a week after the levees burst and the flood water rose. Again the people who really need help are the poor and disadvantaged, it just looks like no provision was made for senarios caused by hurricane Katrina.
If you wish to donate The American Red Cross and images here
California
Just put some images up on flickr for everyone to see, some of the good ones that remind me what we saw. Driving down on route 1 everything changed from day to day, from the rocky shorelines of San Francisco and Monterey to the white beaches around San Luis Obispo until we reached the fun and surf of L.A. I’m already wishing we took more pictures, there’s a Lomolito that you can pick up with a different coloured flash, I think we have a blue one.
Home again…
Just a quick note to say that we’re back from the honeymoon and still jet lagged – got up at 4.15am bright as anything and had to watch an episode of “Without a Trace” and have a bowl of cornflakes. Now its 9 and I’m sitting at my desk and feeling like its the middle of the night. I have some great photos from California, maybe a few other pics for friends and family and a list of stuff to post about. Just give me the chance to recover and we’ll get started. Elvis was great by the way, no Patelvis, but rockin’ none the less.
Early Sunflower
bits of news
I found out that there’s going to be a new Pixies record, but Black Francis doesn’t know how he’s going to put it out, he doesn’t like record companies. Waiting in eager anitipation of the new Super Furry Animals record that will be called Love Kraft – funny that live reviews have been a bit lukewarm, but I know they’ll deliver. I really liked Gruff’s solo album, you can get it here.
Lance looks like he’s going to make it lucky seven although there’s no luck involved, just hard graft, he had us thinking that he didn’t want it as much this year, and I’d started to believe him, what a fool.
Sorry things here are slow in the summer, I’m out on the bike and work’s been hectic and the big day is imminent. King Ken growls at me when I’m working on the computer and I notice you can get little Silas figures for him to eat.
There are strange things growing in the flower beds in Leicester Square, only Mr Armcurl has noticed In fact I’m hoping they’ll show Charlie on the flight to San Francisco. I don’t expect it to live up the first movie, and it won’t touch the book (in fact James and the giant peach was my favourite Roald Dahl story.
Ipod me
So I’ve had this ipod for a couple of years and you have to learn to balance your musical tastes, it can make you a little less sharp about the things you like. Maybe this loosening up is a good thing and it means you can be a little more schizo in your choices. I’ve tried a few fun experiences, listening to everything in alphabetical order for instance. And somedays you’re ipod seems to know instinctively what you want to hear and everything it gives you has the right flavour, just matches your mood.
Enjoyed this article in The Observer featuring Kitty Empire’s Ipod I really like some of her choices, but then again its just the selection you might feel like listening to that day.
Promised Flickr
Finally, as promised, here’s a link to my flickr page. I’ve been really impressed, and it may take over from the photo album I’m keeping here. I’m especially fond of the way the tags I hope that they’ll start to increase – I’ve only put a few photos up. A great thing is that I can put up photos just for certain groups of people to view, family, friends, enemies. There are loads of great bits, like being able to email photos directly – I have to work it all out. If anyone has any tips, let me know, oh and i’ll be sending out invites so that some of you can see some of the less public photos, it sounds dodgy, but its not.
You know, after last Thursday I kept up to date with the unfolding events via The Guardian’srolling new blog and they linked to flickr where photos appeared almost immediately. I have to say that my heart ached all day and it just felt strange and sad to be hearing the terrible news.
Le Tour de France 2005
Is this what July is all about? It feels strange to think this is the last time we’ll see the Texan Lance Armstrong racing his beloved Tour de France. I had a few doubts before the opening time trail, but as the big guy devoured Ullrich putting him already a minute behind in the GC so early on, well I don’t know how I thought it would be any different. There was a great weekend of cycling on TV, including the obligatory Discovery Channel documentary The Science of Lance Armstrong and documentaries on BBC Four about Paris-Roubaix and Tommy Simpson.
Tough luck for David Zabriskie who crashed out in the final few kilometres of the Team Time Trial. After holding the yellow jersey for a couple of days, and the first Team CSC rider to do so, an error caused him to his the barriers and was left behind by his team. Its a real shame, he seems a likeable guy, good sense of humour and a bit of a character, in any case, he’s a prospect for the future and it won’t be the last we’ve seen of him.
Check out TDF Blog and photos above always stunning and beautiful from Graham Watson
