Man's jewel in the crown

Blogging has been light of late- not only have I been dipping into Second Life, but also had my head buried in a book.

Not just any book, mind you. This is a coffee table book Par Excellence about my favourite topic- old theatres. It is called Saving the Gaiety and is all about the delightful little gem on the Isle of Man, the Gaiety Theatre on the sea front in Douglas. It is written by Mervyn Stokes, the most enthusiastic man on the planet for the Theatre.

The piece de resistance of the theatre is the auditorium ceiling which also includes a central stained glass rose light, shown above. The photo below (from the site of the decorative plasterers) puts it into context and a more sumptuous interior would be hard to find outside of a Royal Palace.

There is more to a Theatre, however, than just the interior fantasy world of rococo fibrous plaster. It is also a dream factory and has a full set of Victorian theatre equipment, much of it salvaged and restored by Dr. David Wilmore from other theatres contemporary to the Gaiety (opened in 1900) or even earlier.

It also has the only working Corsican Trap in the world, (click here to read about it and see a video.)

In 2000, I attended a Frank Matcham Conference organised by the Matcham Society in Douglas, arranged to tie in with the Gaiety Centenary. David was only a toddler then, so he spent most of the time with Karen on the beach at port Erin, whilst I attended fascinating presentations about life in an architectural practice, the skills of decorative plasterwork and how to conserve the past. It culminated an a fascinating tour of the Gaiety where John Earl, former Director of the Theatres Trust, was given the opportunity to try out the Corsican Trap. (Although it never happened, as it would have been against elfensafety, wink wink.) Mervyn also proudly showed us his most recent acquisition, the original 1911 Vanity Fair Matcham cartoon, immediately recognisable to Matcham lovers everywhere. I believe that it belongs to Mervyn but is on loan to the theatre.

Anyway, we hope to return to the Island next summer, we have found a great holiday cottage (that even features wireless broadband!) and I owe Mervyn a Pint. I just hope they have some decent shows on next year, the programme for this summer looks a little thin.

(If you want to see more of the Gaiety, there are great 360 degree views here.)

Bum fluff

Two weeks since I shaved my head for charity and it is rapidly growing back, at least in the places where I still had hair! It is a lot finer at the temples and top, a Number 1 everywhere else, "a typical Copper" according to BloggerWife.

Going bald certainly draws your attention to everyone else's haircut, I never quite noticed how many blokes have a similar cut & a bit of a beard to distract from the shame of early/late/any onset MPB*.

It was interesting how the smoothness rapidly became the feel of velcro, then fuzzy felt, then satin velvet. Even with two weeks growth I can still feel the heat of the giant plasma screens at work, or the cold air in a draught.

I raised £402.77 by the way and did a bit of Diabetes Awareness in the process. I'm just waiting for a Company Cheque to send it off.

*Male Pattern Baldness.

Recommended Album

Blogger Havering On has a great puff for Dan Fogelberg that got me thinking about my own select list of classic albums. My own recommendation for June is No more fear of flying by Gary Brooker.

Released back in 1979, GB is the immediately recognisable voice of Procul Harum and this was his first (& arguably best) solo album. It is a great mix of styles and I love it as a car CD. It isn't too easy to categorise but the Amazon reviewers paint a good picture (and all rated it five stars). My favourite track is "Old Manhattan melodies", the sort of song you have to listen to all the way through as a complete whole from opening note to closing chord. Close second is "Pilot" and "Angelina" was covered by others being a mellow version of Mambo number 5 in its sentiment. Honorable mention must also go to "Say it ain't so Joe."

Buy it! You know you want to...

Spectator Freebie

As there is a possible postal strike, the Spectator have decided to make this week's issue free to view online.

They said I could tell my friends about it, so have a look here. No logins or registrations.

I liked the cartoon on page 35.

Wemberley! Wemberley! Wemberley!

I'm told of an umusing cock-up in the design of the new Wembley Stadium. George Michael was the first non-sport stadium gig recently, but when the big trucks turned up, they found that the opening was three inches too low to be able to drive though onto the pitch, resulting in the need to unload and decant the gear.

Apparently it would have been high enough but there was a slope and they ran foul of trigonometry.

Red faces all around...

On the internet, no-one knows you are a dog...

Anonymity is a curious thing. Many of us want to be famous, but on our own terms. Some seek the life of a recluse whilst the rest of us are somewhere in between.

Back in the 1940s, The American psychologist Abraham Maslow put forward the theory known as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, often referred to as Maslow's triangle or Pyramid. At the base of the pyramid are our primal requirements to survive- eating, sleeping, breathing and so on. The next layer is the safety layer- the security of having somewhere to live, employment, good health and such. Above that is the need for belonging, satisfied by friendship, family and intimacy. The fourth level is labelled esteem and relates to self esteem and respect. We want to be accepted by others, to be recognised as good at what we do and to mix with others of equal calibre. There is the shallow version of this that goes under the title of "Celebrity" where people are accorded fame, respect and glory, often for extremely fatuous reasons (think big brother!) many people can't cope with this if they have low self esteem and end up on a self-destructive spiral.

(There is an apex to the triangle known as self-actualization but whilst worth a look that isn't particularly pertinent to this post).

Now, in order to be famous, it was always necessary to be well known. There used to be one notable exception to that- the non-de-plume of an anonymous author. However, with the advent of the Internet, the ability to be an unknown is much more available, but it is far too easy to compromise the cloak of secrecy. Two examples spring to mind, one of them funny.

Here in Morley, a couple of years back, someone set up a website and forum known as the LS27 group. (LS27 is the postcode area of Morley within Leeds). The unknown person did it chiefly for the purposes of winding people up. It became apparent, however, that this person was the same individual who had been impersonating others on a mailing list, by creating various hotmail accounts in the names of others and then posting inflammatory remarks. He gave himself away by his writing style and a consistent quirky use of punctuation. (He also gave himself away by registering the domain in his own name and address!). Events took a sinister turn when someone who had been fixated on somewhat in postings got attacked on the way to work one morning and the police took an interest. I have no idea if there was any connection but the site was quickly pulled. There was a bit of a repeat performance earlier this year on the Town Council mailing list and that was pulled too.

The other (and funnier) example was on a now mostly defunct mailing list known as Tabslist, a backstage UK Theatre list with several hundred techies on it. Every list is obliged to have at least one eccentric, and ours was an Am Dram man known as Frank. He often had controversial views and could generate huge quantities of frustrated angry argument over topics like whether you actually needed ultra violet light to cause fluorescence. Anyway, another list member, exasperated by Frank's entrenched opinions, did a bit of online digging on him and was bemused to find that he had posted (once) to a Sado-Masochism Usenet newsgroup. It further transpired that he was a regular there under a pseudonym (and alternative email) but had inadvertently posted from his normal address.

His unusal activities laid painfully bare (ooh err!), he gradually went quiet on the Tabslist scene, especially whenever he was dismissively referred to as "Spanky" in replies.

And the moral of the story is? It is much harder to live a lie, as you have to be on your guard at all times and inconsistencies or simple errors will eventually catch you out.

Now blogging has many people in the shadows. Some do it because they have to or they would probably lose their job (David Copperfield, Walking the streets), some do it because they can be much more offensive and rude than would be otherwise possible without the cloak (Devils Kitchen, Mutley). Others do it to adopt a persona they would much rather be. (Chip dale? discuss!) I imagine a few do it because they don't want their mates or immediate family to know it is them, for whatever reason.

I have personally dabbled with anonymity previously mainly for the purposes of lurking in things that I am vaguely interested in but don't necessarily want to get roped into (or sometimes, roped into again after previous involvement). I have never felt a particular urge to set up a furtive hate site but there again perhaps I've never quite felt strongly enough!

Moving on to second life, anonymity rises to another level. You get to choose your name (freeform first name, a large list of last names). Many bloggers have chosen the name "Writer". I personally chose "Furse" as W.J. Furse and Co. of Nottingham built the original post-war Delicolor systems, an on-line badge that I adopted for quirky reasons a decade ago. You get to choose what you look like, which can closely resemble real life, or can be wildly different. You get to choose how much information you reveal about yourself, from nothing to everything.

So, when you talk to somebody, how do you know they are what they say they are? When you are flirting with that real stunner, could she really be a spotty teenage boy with bad breath in his back bedroom in Luton?

The simple answer is you don't, but as ever, it is harder to consistently lie than to just be yourself (which comes easy!) so you have to use your hunches. As the punchline of the famous joke goes, "You shag one sheep..."

Blogpower Awards approaching

I'll be at the Blogpower Awards at 2pm Morley time on Sunday. Note to would-be burglars- I'll be at home as well, because it is happening in a make-believe place.

I've been dipping in and out of the place and chilling with some other bloggers. Here is Ozzie Jocko doing a Mick Jagger impression. Nice Clobber, Mate!

Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances...

Well, our PresidentPrime Minister has stood down, to be replaced by someone different, but just as damaging. I've had a lot in my inbox about this, but two particularly caught my eye...

The first is a rather uncomplimentary. What could Tony have done to deserve this? Oh, hang on...

Tony Blair: The Traitor Departs
by Sean Gabb

As I write, Tony Blair is about to stop being Prime Minister. I have waited ten years to see this day. I will celebrate later today by opening a bottle of champagne. In the meantime, I will make the briefest possible farewell to the man.

I am told Mr Blair has a heart condition. I hope this kills him within five years, and that no day between now and then will be other than filled with pain. I hope that fears of being arrested as a war criminal will keep him from seeing anywhere nice in Europe again. I hope that his lecture tours of America will be ruined by popular demonstrations against him and by the tort lawyers. I hope his new job as an envoy in the Levant will end in bitter disappointment. I hope his business ventures will all end in disaster. I hope that death, when it comes, will find a man broken in body and soul.

Of course, he could not have completed the transformation of England into a panopticon police state without the collaboration of an entire political class, and the indifference of the human sheep in the street. Nor could he have taken us so disgracefully to war but for the greed and stupidity of all around him, and for the moral cowardice of the chiefs of staff. But for ten years, he was in charge of things, and he did more than anyone else to drive them forward. It is only fitting that he should receive the greater part of the moral blame.

I have done with the man. I wish him dead, but only after much suffering. Better still, I wish he had never been born.


The second is a warning from the Adam Smith Institute that westminster isn't quite the desirable area it sounds:

By the way, it may be Gordon Brown's dream home, but Downing Street is in a seedier area than folk imagine. In a council house just over the back fence lives an extended family run by a grumpy old woman who keeps a pack of fierce dogs. Her husband makes racist comments and a local shopkeeper says he murdered his son's girlfriend – but the police do nothing. Most of their kids have broken marriages, and their grandchildren are always out clubbing. They all live off the state, and every day the papers are full of their excesses. Who'd want to live near Buckingham Palace?

Exclusive footage...

The blogpower awards ceremony rehearsal. It could have gone a bit better, but it'll be alright on the night, we hope...



Hat tip the Splund, as mentioned by Tom Paine.

An expected visitor

I'm typing this with very foggy vision after having had a retinal screening this morning. (It is routine for diabetics). The process uses eye drops that dilate the iris for ease of taking images but everything is now blurry and dazzling. I'm not allowed to drive for the rest of the day and I recall as a child how such eyedrops were standard peocedure at the clinic or opticians.

Last night, I dipped into Second Life and noticed that Welshcakes Limoncello was online, somewhere. She joined us up on the Lastditch Airship (named after her) but by some quirk of the teleporting, found herself above us in amongst the gasbags. I eventually tracked her down (by flying up) and coaxed her down into the bar area, falling out myself in the process.
Here is a snapshot of us chatting. I expected her to have fairer hair than that but I imagine she will be fine-tuning her appearance until the awards ceremony on Sunday. (I'm the one with the Penguin). On seeing the snapshot, Mrs. Grey questioned why we both had breasts. My pointing out that mine were Pecs hidn't cut the mustard...

...and just to keep David happy, here is Ben the dog.

A blast from the past...

I have been contacted via Friendsreunited by someone called Bruce. I am not certain, but it might be the legendary "Toota" who I blogged about recently in a post called Idiot-Head. Scott Adams frequently talks about affirmations, where if you think about something hard enough, it often happens. Maybe the power of TootaVision is strong in me.

In the meantime, here is the latest Eepybird world record Coke & Mentos video.

On the road again, naturally

In the Sunday papers, there are numerous adverts for all sorts of turns, some big, some trying to make a comeback.

Last week, a minor tour by 70s oddball Gilbert O' Sullivan appeared.

I first recall him being on the telly dressed in schoolboy shorts, pudding basin haircut and flat cap, generally playing slightly maudlin songs vamped on an upright piano. His voice was nothing special and he always sang with the use of a Copicat, a simple multi-head unit that used a tape loop to give a simple harmony effect. (I knew all about them because my mate Stew's mum had one for club singing).

I didn't find the music particularly good at the time, but warmed to him during my year in Saudi, when one of his songs featured on one of my favourite so-called "Heavy Slow" compilation cassettes. I would never have described him as "Heavy" but to the Arabs who pirated the tapes, they probably neither knew or cared.

Gilbert re-launched himself after a couple of years, changing to woolly jumpers and a more sensible haircut. Howeevr, he never quite reached the heady heights of the early 70s.

He is still going with a loyal fanbase and will be touring in the Autumn. I don't think I'll be dragging myself up to York though.

This is my favourite song of his, sans cloth cap I'm afraid.

Two "Gays" and a "Sex"

Mingle² - Online Dating

(Well spotted Jocko).

Update: It seems to randomly find different words it doesn't like- Punch & Hell are now on the list.

Another Meme- five things

I've been tagged by Cheeky Chip, who is promising us a new improved site shorty.

What were you doing ten years ago?

Commuting to Galway on a doomed software development project.

What were you doing one year ago?

Getting very cross with BT over a big network project.

Five snacks you enjoy

Samosas, Pork Scratchings, Kettle Chips (Balsamic Vinegar), Twiglets (original), Twiglets (spicy)

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics

Angie (Rolling Stones), When (s)he shines (Sheena Easton), Company (Dean Friedman), Still you linger on (Andrew Gold), Every day hurts (Sad Cafe)

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

Buy & restore the Newcastle Paramount
Visit Tokyo Disneyland
Become a space tourist
Take up flying
Buy a Hot Air Balloon

Five bad habits

Prevarication, hubris, eating too much, not exercising enough, being absent minded

Five things you like doing

Live shows, stagecraft, reading, blogging, theme parks

Five things you would never wear again

Kipper ties, Purple shirts with round collars, Hawaiian shirts, Platform Shoes, School uniform

Five favourite toys

My former lighting rig, The Hi-Fi, the Radio Station, the PC, the camera

and I tag... Jocko, NotSassure, LastDitch, Bag and Imah Gynoid- because I keep bumping into them in Second Life.

Cheeky Monkeys

I received a packet at work today, from a well known IT Power system manufacturer.

The address label said-

Extra Large Ian Grey

Harumph.

It did have a free T shirt in though.

Keys to the Kingdom

Several years ago, whilst on a holiday to florida, I took my mum on a backstage visit to Walt Disney World. It was shockingly expensive (although not so bad now at $60), but for me it was worth every penny to see behind the mirror.

Along the way, we were allowed to pick up cards called "7 Guest service Guidelines" I reproduce them here.

-Be Happy...make eye contact and smile!

-Be like Sneezy...greet and welcome each and every guest.Spread the spirit of hospitality...It's contagious!

-Don't be Bashful...seek out Guest contact!

-Be like Doc...provide immediate service recovery!

-Don't be Grumpy...always display appropriate body language at all times!

-Be like Sleepy...create DREAMS and preserve the "MAGICAL" Guest experience!

-Don't be Dopey...think each and every Guest!

Little Chef take note.

It isn't a castle!

We went to Castle Howard for the first time on Sunday. The interior was screaming out for some photos, but it was not permitted, alas. The Great Hall was absolutely stunning and this picture doesn't do it justice. I did get a few unusual snaps, though.


A nice cameo of Karen and David

A tiny little frog on the path.

An unexpected statue of Pumbaa, the Disney Warthog

A Faberge' egg on the roof...

...and an egghead, reflected in the Temple window.

Here was a Brass Band performing in the Stable courtyard. Theyr'e looking for Cornet players, apparently.

The Gordon Brown Meme

Daily referendum is pushing his luck...

2 things Gordon Brown should be proud of:

- getting way with it
- see above

2 things he should apologise for:

- Introducing IR35 (Turnover Tax)
- Scowling at IR35 protestors

2 things he should do immediately when he becomes PM:

- Sort out the East Lothian Question
- Fall on his sword

2 things he should do while he is PM:

- See above.

I tag the same lot as the post below, because I can't be arsed to type it all in again, or think of some other ones.

Eight random facts

I've been tagged by Daily Referendum.

I'm supposed to post these rules: one, each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. Two, people who are tagged need to write their own blog entry about their eight things and post these rules. Three, at the end of your entry, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names/pseudonyms/blogs. Four, don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

OK, here goes, they are pretty random...

1) I once filled the Lower VI Form Tea Urn with Dry Ice during a school break (Dry Ice is solidified frozen Carbon Dioxide). It was three feet deep and poured out of the door down the staircase like a waterfall.

2) I once joined a conga across the stage whilst Chas & Dave were playing. I dropped a lump of dry ice in Chas's Pint Glass on the way past.

3) When we were married, we hired a double-decker bus to take us and the guests to and from the Register Office.

4) I was given a Sinclair Black Watch for my Eighteenth birthday.

5) I once got drunk with the Manager of the Birmingham Odeon.

6) Julian Clary told me ll about Fanny, the Wonder Dog.

7) I watched Live Aid in Bahrain.

8) I once went for a Cowboy Breakfast- my horse was called "Rebel".

I tag the following: Last Ditch,Lizbet,Visions of Bradford, Mediocracy, Andrew Allison, Scottish Ozzie, Curmudgeon and Kev. Sorry folks.

In the virtual doghouse

I'm in the doghouse again, as I managed to scrape Karen's car this morning. (Call that a Scrape? It is more like a bloody gouge! now Grovel!) Anyway, I went to a virtual doghouse in second life, as there wasn't anyone around Blogpower hall. The dogs are sweet, but $1,500 each. (LastDitch has a cat). You could get dinky dogs in a bag for $300, but I gather they are for Celebrity WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends).
I did nip over to Brighton Pier to have a look.

Whilst I was there, I got buzzed by a Seagull. Nothing changes!

If the Blogpower awards are a big success, this will make a good venue for next year- The Hollywood Bowl.

In the doghouse again...

My senior moments reach new heights (or is that depths...)

This morning, I managed to come to work carrying two packed lunch bags- mine AND Karen's.

"You've excelled yourself this time..."

Short term memory loss is becoming a bit of a problem! It might be blood sugar related, I hope so.

Meanwhile, I was perusing the Guido Fawkes blog of political rumour & scandal- and the banner advert cought me eye...

Deja Vu

I was composing a post about what happens on father's day in Chez Grey, then I noticed I had essentially blogged about it last year- the same routine as Mother's Day.

As well as my breakfast pancake (with bananas, raisins and a strawberry slice for the nose) I also got a Homer Simpson card (which said Woo Hoo! inside) - and the Borat DVD. I'm not certain if I'm looking forward to watching it or not...

More from second life

Second Life is a bit loopy. You can change your appearance to look like anything you like. Here I am relaxing in LastDitch's Beach House, looking rather Foxy.
Newbies land on Orientation Island. Here are a lot of new folks trying to work out what the hell to do. I had to wait for a German flasher to clear off before the snapshot, he was exposing an unfeasibly large todger.

I also checked out a few random places. This was an indoor theme park, great name for a ride!

Virtual slaphead.

Last weekend, for my work charity publicity poster, I sent off a picture to baldyguy to get an idea what I'd look like.

This is what I got back:

A favourite photograph

David as an older chubby baby...

In another galaxy far, far, away...

I've been spending a bit of time in Second Life getting used to the controls and tweaking my Avatar for the Blogpower Awards. Tom Paine has been very helpful to a number of us, showing us around and tolerating our newbie incompetence.

This afternoon, we went on a virtual Gondola ride round Venice and crashed a Mercedes.

He mentioned a while back that he has a Tardis in his garden- he certainly does. You have to be a Time Lord to fly it though!

He also showed us his party piece- arriving in an additional Tardis (or two).

No sign of the Chipster yet. I'll make a deal- I'll grow a rug for the awards- if he wears a Tuxedo.

"I question the educational value of this assembly"

The NED show came to David's school last week and now the whole place is Yo-Yo crazy.

There is a serious message behind it:


There were three types of Yo-yos available- a £5 standard one, a £7 Boomerang (it winds itself back up) and a £10 de-luxe with ball bearings. DVDs and accessories were also available, at what looked like $1 = £1. David asked for a Boomerang one which involved a pocket money advance.

NED appears to be big business in America.

You know you are a success when you get parodied by The Simpsons...

Saturday flashback

Every now and then, a cracking song comes along that is just a smidge away from being a real classic.

When the Look performed this in 1981, I gave it 8/10 for the playout spiral on the Single.


When Men without Hats did this in 1983, I gave it 8/10 for oddity.


When Nick Kershaw this song back in 1984, I gave it an 9/10 for catchiness.

Temporary slaphead

I did my charity stunt today, a full depilation.

This is me just before the start.

The first cut is the deepest...

Flag of St. George...

Dr. Steve the Physicist removes the quadrants

...and Graham does the actual shave.

Come on Anthia, give us a twirl...

How much?

David being a Traffic Warden?

We found the dressing up corner in the Servant's Quarters in Harewood House, a room with dozens and dozens of call bells at soffit level. This was the only bit of the house where you were allowed to take photographs.

David also tried on a Top Hat...

...and we played Old Maid.

What is that?

It is a space tower at the Yorkshire Planetarium.

Outside the star theatre is our giant rocket tower climbing frame. Sharing the same dimensions as a Shuttle rocket booster, this frame, brought over from the United States, has been a great success for all ages. The challenge is to reach the top by climbing through layers of elasticated bands. It sounds easy …. but it isn’t

The bottom inflates (for safety) and you climb through the straps to the top where you slide down the slide- except that it is still in the Docks at Hull.

Punch the air!

The Blogpower Awards have now closed. There have been some shenanigans and unpleasantries (see Crushed by Ingsoc's post here for a bit of an overview) but I am delighted to have come first in the best blog name category and to have come second to Dead as a Dodo in the best Blogpower Blog. (the truth is that I came third, but James Higham has decided to withdraw in order to defuse any (wrongful) accusations of impropriety as the awards organiser).

Congratulations to everyone else who deserved it, I'm looking forward to the forthcoming awards ceremony. They kept the idea a big secret but it is up now on pageflakes.

In a word- inspired...

(Punch the air! is a John Shuttleworth Catchphrase)

I can't go back to savoury now...

John Shuttleworth laments the ethical dilemmas of the dinner table.

(Now downloadable (for wonga) HERE.

(Hat tip: Ken Worthington)

Google moves the mapping goalposts

Google have mapped five American cities right down to street level. The five are downtown New York, San francisco, Denver, Las Vegas and Miami.

You ran read about it at The First Post, my refreshing daily online read.

I may never make it to Denver, but at least I can take a virtual walk outside.. (Click on street view and drag the little yellow man over to the red A splodge.)

It is very similar to the Newcastle Paramount, hence the fascination.


(Image from the Rocky Mountain chapter of the American theatre Organ Society).

Road pricing chaos?

Peter Cochrane is a futurologist that I have a lot of time for. Whilst we've never actually met, we have exchanged emails on various topics over recent years and I follow his writings with interest.

he has a sort of Blog (although it is more of a column) on Silicon.com and whilst his busy schedule makes his posts sporadic, they are always worth a read, including the convoluted route the column took to get back to the office.

Today's column is on the subject of road pricing. he thinks that technically it could work, but that a sustained campaign of technical civil disobedience will eventually blow it out of the water. You can read it here. (Also check out his commenters).

Having had a large part of my career dealing with Telcos and their monstrously complex (& not particularly accurate) billing systems, my own view is that the charging will be the achilles heel- it will cost more in managing the huge number of justifiable complaints about wrongly charged journeys. Of course, as it will be run by a state monopoly, that won't bother them seeing as how the taxpayer pays, until the whole edifice topples over with the weight of all the administrative baggage and the politicians get massively trounced at the next election (if we are still holding elections by then).

Imagine the London Oyster Card scheme, then raise the complexity level by about a thousand. I don't even think the national grid has the power capacity to run all of the Data Centres required.

Meanwhile, us law abiding folk should look into updating our vehicles...

James Higham dealing with troublemakers

(James Higham is here.)

(In case you are wondering about the tag, the rest of the family went round the other side and advised me that he was much more sculptured than David's Michelangelo...)

A room full of stars

This amazing contraption is a Zeiss ZKP4, the latest type of planetarium projector. The first one in Europe is at Harewood House. Yesterday we were treated to a public showing, even though the complex is far from complete. Don't be fooled by the picture- the dumbell bit is only anout 5' long.

I was reminiscing with my Mum about when we went to the London Planetarium at Madame Tussauds in the late 60s. She had recollections about the presenter's smooth silky voice and being rather disappointed to see this small wizened old man behind the controls at the end of the show. My recollections are of the show starting and the presenter saying "Oh dear, we seem to have lost the Southern Hemisphere" and bringing the lights up. Then, a few minutes later, someone in overalls turned up with a large box and changed the largest lamp I had ever seen (and him getting a round of applause for his efforts).

Visiting again over the years and sinking into those soft, tilted seats, the show became more and more sophisticated with lasers, visual effects & thumping rock tracks. Last year, the planet bit was finally abandoned.

Yorkshire Planetarium is something of a contrast. The entrance is decking in a gravel car park. You get given a mat in the star chamber and lie on the floor. It takes a while to get acclimatised so the presentation works through twilight and light polluted city sky until finally the lights are all out and you can see the Galaxy in all its glory.

This is a snap of the Yorkshire Zeiss.

The London Projector was much, much bigger than the Yorkshire one and I tracked down a picture of the astronomer who wrote the final show standing next to it.

(Those cone shaped things are the milky way projectors).

What inspired the Yorkshire Proprietor to set one up? From walking the dog. You see a lot of the galaxy that way.

Update: Ian ridpath has graciously rescanned the image above to make the picture much better. He pointed out that he was the show writer, not presenter, as it was essentially on autopilot.

Make your own caption

Number 1 ........................................................

Number 2 ........................................................

Number 3 ........................................................

Number 4 ........................................................

Number 5 ........................................................

All shall have prizes...

I couldn't resist snapping this yesterday at Beeston Mela.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Visions of Bradford blog is doing a grand job at raising his ranting level, "arguing" with a Tim nice but dim.

He is only in equal 7th place in the rant awards though.

At the time of writing, I'm currently 4th in the Blogpower Blogpowerer stakes and surprisingly I've overtaken Devils Kitchen to lead the Best Blogname poll.

Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to vote for me. If you haven't and want to, the links are top right. Remember, you can vote every day and you can vote for more than one nominee in each of the twenty polls.

Putting Hay to bed...

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

I saw Rory McGrath in the bookshop at Hay... I'm not certain why, Pen ready- no books, camera crew lurking. (He told me they had ran out...)


I've uploaded another couple of Geldof & Harry Hill video snippets, you can find them in amongst my uploads here.

On the subject of videos, those of us who follow Welshcakes Limoncello probably assume, as I do, that Sicily must be lovely. It came as a shock, therefore, when I saw this Video from Sean Gabb, the well known outspoken Libertarian.

A Skoda? Give over!

Last week, a near-diplomatic incident occurred with the Czech republic.

It started when the Norfolk Blogger praised his new car. Uber-Blogger Iain Dale immediately retaliated by accusing him of being middle aged. It was then pointed out that he was rather out of touch, Kids of today thought they were cool and his expensive new Audi was from the same Company!

Anyway, let me set the record straight- I'm on my fourth Skoda and Karen on her First.
We have had two Felicias, two Octavias and a Fabia. I've been happy with all of them and don't regret the choice.

Having said that, they let me have a Favorit as a loan car once and it was Cak.

They were all called Betsy, as indeed have been all of my cars since 1980, apart from a Renault 5 that was renamed "Twat", inspired by the "what's yours called?" slogan and a particularly big bill for a steering rack that would have been 20% of the price if I'd bought something from the Dagenham Dustbin instead).


(Blog title from Austin Ambassador "Y" Reg, by John Huttleworth)

The Angels have my phone box

Great quote from tonight's Doctor Who!

It isn't true, the Welsh have it in Cardiff Red Dragon Centre.


Post show update: Blink was a really tense psychological thriller. The statues really spooked David at the time and Karen says that in the Forums, children all over the place have spent the night in their Parent's beds!

Small change, big difference

Tomorrow is the first day of Diabetes awareness week.

It affects two million people in the UK and a further three quarters of a million don't even know that they have it. I recently transitioned from the second group into the first group and whilst I knew it was inevitable (as my Dad and his brother were/are Type 2 diabetics) having it confirmed that I have a chronic condition was still devastating.

You can find out if you are at risk by taking the two minute test HERE.

As to the campaign, I'm going to do a charity stunt to raise money at work on Friday.

More about that during the week, it is still a big secret at the moment.

Sir Bob of Geldof

Karen asked me to put this up. It is Sir Bob & Band playing at Hay on Wye literary festival, including the first half of Rat Trap, the legendary Boomtown Rats hit now nearly thirty years old.

Remarkably at Hay, there were no notices, announcements or ticket conditions forbidding recording or photography. It is taken on my trusty V705 which makes a rather lousy camcorder but the poor focus, AGC and zoom control is outweighed by the convenience, portability and immediacy.

(Plus, having a large plastic growth on my shoulder might have brought me to the attention of the men in black with earpieces.)


Update: More of Bob HERE.

RESULT!

I imagine it will disappear all too soon though- check here.

Footnote: I didn't even have to include the word "telescope" in this particular post, Google picked it up on my Barry Island entry. It presumably extends the longevity of the googlewhack though. (Until someone else jumps on the meme.)

New years resolutions

1) Shrink my blogposting sidebar labels list down from >400 to <20.

2) Migrate all embedded images from various free and paid for websites into the Picasa 1 Gig free space.

3) Check each of the blogposts (currently 600+) for typos, dead links, refreshes/updates.

4) Design that proper top banner with the Shades theme on

5) Work out how to backup Shades seperately to Blogger and look into hosting it on my own domain

6) Sort out that huge box of floppy disks

7) Archive all of those DDS2 DAT tapes onto a storage medium I'll still be able to access in five years time

8) Throw away all of those computer bits & bobs I'm hoarding that are now worth less than the P & P on ebay

9) Digitise all of my vinyl collection

10) Start planning my half century celebration for April.

I know I'm early (or maybe I'm late!) So much to do, so little time...

Can I have my bits back please?

Reading Blogpowerer Imagined Community's post about child beating and what inspired it, I came across the word "Infiburation" that I hadn't heard before. (It refers to the dark ages practise of doing cruel and unnecessary things to small girls based on cultural &/or religious tradition).

I regard imposed genital mutilation as barbaric, even male circumcision. I'm all for freedom of choice for people to do things to their own body that make no real sense to me, like having tattoos, nose rings and the like, (the Hitch has some bizarre photos on his shockblog) but it is not for Parents to choose on such things.

You don't own your children, you just lease them. When you leave a flat you have to make good or make reparation, however a victim of mutilation can never have the missing bits of her fanny back.

On a lighter note, I'm hoping to score a (brief) Googlewhack with this post by including the word Telescope. You can check HERE.

Blogpower nominees-

You are welcome to use these logos until something better comes along.



A virtual Pint (or a glass of wine) for the first person to recognise the original image elsewhere on my Blog!

UPDATE- Yikes! I just noticed our trusty metalhead faces to the right. Metal Henry here did as well originally and I reversed him.

I feel a bit of a plonker now...

(At least it doesn't look like Lisa Simpson!) ;->

Flavours of the month

I need to get some stuff off the blog front page, loading is just too slow at the moment.

Here are all of the past flavours. I will decant them into this post and have a link to here. I've also moved the post date to move it down the blog.

In all the excitement...

..I forgot to post the May Batley Round Table 2003 naked Calendar man of the month and it is now June!

So here we go with a double helping of Yorkshire Hunk.
Gone, but not forgotten, David was by no means a dummy (he was a retail Manager). Back in 2004 he was a Speaker Finder, he is now living in Australia.

Stuart works in distribution and was a Batley honorary Member back in 2003. Is that a worm he is hiding? After all, his nickname is wriggler...

Bandana Day

Today was a chance for all of the children to wear a bandana to school (for 50p).

It is in empathy with a girl who has Leukaemia and is undergoing Chemotherapy. This way, she didn't feel different by having to wear a headscarf.

Here is David with Grandma Pat, (my Mum,) up for the weekend. David was delighted that Karen found him a pirate one!

The Blogpower Awards (and a bit of trivia)

Regulars have probably wised up now that there is some sort of quirky online awards ceremony going on and I have made the shortlist on a couple of categories.

I am delighted by this, and just getting into the top ten is indeed an honour. (A big thanks to whoever nominated me, I'll buy you a virtual Pint...)

The first one is for Best Blogpower Blog or Column. There are others in the list that are superior in various ways, whether topic depth, consistent style or intellectual superiority. I like to think, though, that I'm a well rounded blogger (especially in person, but that's another matter). My topics are many and varied but I don't generally post on topics I don't have a thought-through opinion on. (Some people who do qualify for the unintentional hilarious posting category!) I also like to inject a bit of humour along the way, whether anecdote, irrelevance or parody.

I also steer away from work related matters as there be dragons. (I have checked if the Company has a staff blogging policy and surprisingly the answer is no; however the employment Ts & Cs cover it appropriately enough). I think I will start to talk a bit more about work stories, but from at least a decade ago to protect the guilty!

The second one is for Best Blog name. I have to say that to me, Shades of Grey is over-familiar. The original idea wasn't even mine- it was suggested to me from someone in Coventry 18+ in the late 70's as a good alternative name for my Mobile Disco. (It was called "Fantasy Disco", as you asked).

If you think I'm worthy of these awards, I'd be delighted if you would vote for me Here (Blogpower) and/or HERE (Name).

Even if you don't rate me enough to do that, it is well worth checking out the other blogs, you may be pleasantly surprised and decide to vote for someone.

You can also see how it is going at the same places, click on VIEW RESULTS under the vote button.

You can vote at least once a day and can vote for multiple candidates each time.

SNEAKY HINTS: If someone you don't think deserves to win is doing very well, you could vote tactically, e.g. each alternate vote, choose all but the ones you don't want. You could also vote from work and home as the polling system keeps track of your IP address.

VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN...

Some English welshcakes

From Hereford, in fact. The top ones are from the Catherdral Cafe, the bottom two at the Cattle Market Bank Holiday Market. You got sugar sprinkled on there...

They were good, but not fabulous.

Mybloglog snapshots

Too much of a distraction in the sidebar! I'm still curious as to how many it will hold though. A big one here and small one at the side.

82 Myblogloggers so far...



(It'll eventually scroll off the home page.)

Swearing Kinghts and Fruitloop designers

I've currently got comment verification on, which is a pain but a necessary evil after a spate of comment spam. (I often have to make two attempts at verfication when commenting myself).

I'm going to switch over to moderation instead for a day or two, to see if I'm still getting spammed. I'll approve the comments as fast as I can.

We attended one of the free Hay on Sky recordings last week, though we had to queue in the standby line. Karen wanted to go as Sir Bob was on it.

We were sat in the back row, just in front of the techies. Here is a view of the Studio tent.

David told us afterwards that the techies were counting how many times Sir Bob swore!

Here is a photo of Mariella Frostrup (the listening Man's crumpet), being attended to by a make-up girl.

The celebs are on the couch in the front row. The guy with the grey hair in front of the bloke in red is Sir Bob of Geldof. The Ginger head to the left is Vivienne Westwood, who I have decided is bonkers.

Why is she off with the Pixies?

Read her to propaganda active resistance to propaganda manifesto, shown below. Totally, utterly and delightfully barking.

I make the great claim for my manifesto, that it penetrates to the root of the human predicament and offers the underlying solution. We have a choice: to become more cultivated, and therefore more human;- or by not choosing, to be the destructive and self-destroying animal, the victim of our own cleverness (To be or not to be).



ACTIVE RESISTANCE TO PROPAGANDA



We shall begin with a search for art, show that art gives culture and that culture is the antidote to propaganda.





– Dear Friends, We all love art and some of you claim to be artists. Without judges there is no art. She only exists when we know her. Does she exist? The answer to this question is of vital importance because if Art is alive the world will change. No art, no progress.

We must find out; go in search of her. – But wait! Who is this with fire-cracking smouldering pigtails, gold teeth and a brace of flintlocks in his belt? He is a pirate. – And what does his t-shirt say? – I love crap. (Pirate hands Vivienne Westwood an Hawaiian garland of plastic flowers.)

Pirate: ‘Leave everything to me. I plunder for you. Stick with me and you might get a share of the bounty. My name is Progress.’

– But you have stolen imagination. There is hardly anyone left now who believes in a better world. What is the future of unlimited profit in a finite world?

Pirate Progress: ‘I like you artistic lot. But, trust me or not, – I’ll take you with me if I go down. We’ll all burn together.’ (Film clip, close up: the pigtails burst into flames and with a “Ha-haagh!” the pirate disappears in a pall of smoke followed by black night).

(Still dark) – He is not Progress. He must have stolen the name. (The defiant face of Pirate Progress appears and disappears like the Cheshire Cat. Light returns). True progress, as the Greeks thought of it is without limit. How can things get better and better if there is a limit?

Beautiful Slavegirl: ‘Everything must have an end. And to progress or advance in any way you must know where you are going. An end cannot be something you choose for the sake of something else. For example, money is not an end but a means to an end. And for this reason, I shall be set free.

I am so happy! I am the famous Rhodopis (Rosycheeks). My master made a fortune from selling my body but now my lover will pay a vast ransom, – even more than my future earnings could be. Oh, Liberty! I thought you were my end, but now, I see you are just a beginning. Can I be happy when the other slaves don’t have a beginning? The only true End must be Happiness – but not just for one person. I see now that progress can be an end without limit for there is always a better way of living. And though we may progress towards greater happiness, as an end it will always escape us, and a good thing too, because if we ever reach Paradise we’ll all be dead’.

Child Slaveboy: ‘A slave is not a person but a thing. – A thing can be something like a car, or a hammer, as well as a slave. – Soul-destroying, to put it in a nutshell. But my mother told me how to survive. – I must try to understand the world and that way I don’t lose my soul, I know who I am. When she said, goodbye, she said, ‘Love Liberty, but forget the key, for the key turns only once. I love you.’

Alice: She was your mirror. Her love showed you Yourself. She believed in you.

– A work of art may show us ourself – who we are and our place in the world. It is a mirror which imitates life.

Alice: ‘Those round convex mirrors are very good; – you see a lot, but concentrated down; – you see big and small at the same time: – you need to fit all the things into a microcosm but it has to reflect as well’, and turning to the Art Lovers, ‘I was just explaining this to Pinocchio’.

Pinocchio: ‘Now that I have become a boy, I want to be a freedom-fighter.’

– Action! Nothing is possible without art. Come with us. – To find if Art is alive, we must first know who she is. To the Lyceum!

Alice – to Pinocchio: ‘We are going to see Aristotle .His analysis of Greek tragedy is such an objective break-down that it serves to define art in general and in all its forms – what it is and what it isn’t,’ then finding themselves alone, ‘We must go back and find the others’.

Pinocchio: ‘There’s a bloke here who lives in a barrel.’

Diogenes: ‘I shit and wank in front of people in the street like a dog: I am the Cynic. The Great Alexander made a point of coming to see me and asked if he could do me a favour. Nobody’s better than me. – I told him to step out of my light. I am famous because I’ve got the balls to do what I want. And I don’t want much.’

Pinocchio: ‘Cool, I’ve found art! I could be Diogenes II. I’ll call myself a piss artist and make lots of money.’

– Come on children. Alice we’re waiting for you to introduce us to Aristotle. And Pinocchio, you’re just being silly. Though Diogenes is obsessed by himself he doesn’t believe in anything, let alone himself. That’s why he’s a cynic. This self-promotion, and doing what you want is a sham philosophy of life. No, no, it’s not self-indulgence but self-discipline that makes the individual. And you, especially, need self-discipline if you’re going to be a freedom-fighter.’

Pinocchio: ‘You are right. Diogenes seemed kind of happy, but he’s a poser. –Too boring, I couldn’t keep it up. Ha, ha, keep it up! I could sell canned sperm. Great marketing opportunities.

Alice (sarcastic): ‘Oh how lewd!’

Aristotle, a Greek gentleman, impeccably dressed, – in contrast to Diogenes – stands centre stage. Alice moves to his side.

Alice: ‘Aristotle refers to the writer of tragedy as “the poet”. Greek tragedy was expressed in verse but this is not the important thing. What defines the poet is that he is an imitator – just like a painter or any other maker of images. If a historian were to write up his whole history in verse this would not make him a poet; for he tells of things that have happened in real life and this is not imitation. Imitation is the work of the imagination. The poet’s role is to tell of things that might happen, things that are possible. Aristotle adds that the poet may imitate life not as it is, but as it ought to be.

The way Aristotle describes tragedy is very much the idea of taking the microcosm and fitting things into it: – ’

Aristotle: ‘For tragedy is not an imitation of individual men but of actions and of life. It is in action that happiness and unhappiness are found, and the end we aim at is a kind of activity, not a quality; in accordance with their characters men are of such and such a quality, in accordance with their actions they are fortunate or the reverse. Consequently, it is not for the purpose of presenting their characters that the agents engage in action, but rather it is for the sake of their actions that they take on the characters they have. Thus, what happens – that is, the plot – is the end for which a tragedy exists, and the end or purpose is the most important thing of all.’

Alice: ‘“Dear Aristotle thank you for stating the links between character, action and fortune. I remember you once said that character is a person’s habit of moral choice. But please now tell us what you mean when you describe a work of imitation – in this case tragedy – as “the Whole”’.

Aristotle: ‘The events which are the parts of the plot must be so organized that if any of them is displaced or taken away, the whole will be shaken and put out of joint; for if the presence or absence of a thing makes no discernable difference, that thing is not part of the whole.’ (Aristotle retires)

Alice: ‘That’s how I feel about Velasquez. That exhibition was the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen; yet his work is so minimal and reduced. The people in the paintings were so real that I sometime thought they weren’t there, especially in the split second before you turned to look again. – The paint was so thin! I was so stunned, I just wanted to melt into a pool on the floor.’

– One can begin to grasp something of the obsession people have had with the idea of the circle as a perfect form. A work of art then, is an imitation reduced to its essentials, thereby forming a whole – as in a microcosm.

Thus art gives objectivity – a perspective, an overview. We define objectivity as seeing things as they are.

Real life is not objective – we can never get the complete picture. It is chaotic and continuous – a jumble of particulars in which events are engulfed in the flux of circumstance. How can the artist be objective when he, himself is part of the change? He needs a fixed fact to stand on – a standard, a measure, a model.

Alice: ‘Tell me all about it! If there is nothing fixed in the world then you find yourself in Wonderland where everything changes – including yourself. – And you try to play a game of croquet with a flamingo for a mallet and the ball is a hedgehog who runs away.’

– A hedgehog must understand the world from a hedgehog point of view, and we must understand it from a human point of view.

We do have a fixed standard – timeless, universal, recognizable. We refer to it as Representative Human Nature (RHN). It is the key to this manifesto: –

You or I – as individuals – we change. But there is something typical about us which does not change. When we say, “Man is the measure of all things”, we mean the unchanging part: Man, both in his general nature and according to his various types: this is RHN.

Aristotle takes this for granted when he says, “In accordance with their character men are of such and such a quality……… it is for the sake of their actions that the actors take on the characters they have.” He also says that the best characters in a play are people with whom we can empathise – “someone like ourselves”.

For example, Chaucer’s characters are as alive to us today as when he first invented them: Timeless – outside of time, they speak to us of the human genius, –what it is to be human. Each detail illuminates the type and is what we call the universal in the particular – “someone like ourselves”.

We are not saying that art has to be confined to the direct portrayal of human beings: – We do say that art must be representational – for it is in imitation that objectivity lies. In practice, through his medium of RHN the artist gains direct imaginative insight into the general nature of things; his view extends from the model.

Consider the Chinese master, the painter of bamboo: – we have a shared object – the non-ego, RHN. And he reaches out beyond the model and grasps the very cypher and nature of bamboo. And we see through his eyes, his own particular poem of life.

Consider the divine music of Bach: Bach is pure objectivity, the most representative of men because the least egotistical in front of his talent.

Music has not yet been conceptualised by the art mafia, though they are trying. We do not accept a symphony composed on the remaining three keys of a broken piano, accompanied by the random throwing of marbles at a urinal. Yet its equivalent is the latest thing in the visual arts. (Aren’tya OD’d on the latest thing?) Items selected from real life and set up as art do not represent a view of life. The famous urinal is still a urinal whatever you do with it. (Ok! visual semantics and presentation skills – not art, not a musical instrument.) It is imitation that reveals the whole view.

And abstract art? – an abstract that represents no object! And revels in subjectivity – Academic. It’s all in the mind, – the painter’s mind. – Unfortunately we are not all mind readers, and the work gives us no clue. He may think he’s discovered the secret of the universe! – He will take it to his grave. There is no common ground on which artist and art lover can come together, – because there is no objectivity – no control of the imagination.

Alice: “Oh hello, Mr. White Rabbit! Please stop a moment! The artist has just produced a giant hole in the wall. Perhaps he thought it was a “Whole”. I’m sure you have an interesting observation on holes”.

White Rabbit: ‘Negative,’ (rushing off).

Artist’s Agent: ‘Superb intellectual irony. – Right on!’

Mad Hatter: ‘What do you mean, we’re not mind readers? We’ve all got a hole in the head and we can fill it with whatever “Whole” we want’ (changes price-tag on hat from 10/6d to £10m)

Pinocchio: ‘I’m going to be a real painter and a freedom fighter. I’ve been drawing in secret. To see the world as it ought to be – that can’t be bad for a freedom-fighter. – hard work though.’

Talking Cricket: ‘Pinocchio, you know that there are two sides to people, the donkey and the boy, – the self who wants to live in Toyland versus the self who wants to grow up. It is the inner struggle between doing what you want and being true to your Best Self, that humanize a puppet.’

Pinocchio: ‘Dear little Cricket, I still get around, – have a laugh! But, yeah this inner voice is always having a go, “Pinocchio, don’t be an arsehole! I am your human genius. Listen to me!”’

– Pinocchio, the whole future of art is at stake and depends on you and others controlling your imagination and listening to your best self, – your human genius.

Imagination is the driving force in human nature. But it is likely to run wild and escape into the chaos of endless desire, unfulfilled longing and alienation.

Pinocchio: ‘Alienation! Hell! Those donkey’s ears. – What a terrible price to pay. – Poor Candlewick!’ (– Pinocchio’s friend in Toyland, who became a donkey and was worked to death by a cruel master.)

– The way we control the imagination is through the imagination itself – or rather, through its “best self” – the ethical part.

The Ethical Imagination is an inner check, which prefers to see things as they are. It questions art: is it probable? possible? – could it be otherwise?

– The classicists of the seventeenth century objected to Corneille’s play, “Le Cid”, that it was not possible – because not normal or “natural”, that the heroine might be allowed to marry her father’s murderer, – that this was bizarre, extreme and therefore unethical. This would seem a clear example for criticism to decide, yet it provoked a battle of opinion. -

There are no rules – each person must decide. (Yet we are not completely at sea, we have a reference in RHN).

To the great artist the ethical imagination is absolute, he never ceases to explore and cultivate it. – To the art lover, we possess it in differing degrees, all may cultivate it. It is intuitive, you get at the truth through insight and you get better at it with practice, through comparison – between works of art and with real life. You need the stamina of a life time.

In general: the true artist is always true to his art; the impostor is self-conscious, demonstrating his idea, projecting his theory, his ego, and e.g. the figures of the painter are not borrowed ideas who demonstrate themselves talking, dying, dreaming – they do it. They are of themselves and they LIVE! – and the flowers are not showing us how pretty they are, or how weird – they are what they are – Etc.! No invention for the sake of invention! Invention must serve the purpose of art.

Art is alive to the extent that we control our imagination; we miss everything if we let it run wild. The aim of art is objectivity – she comes to life when we are objective – when we see her as she is. – Without judges there is no art.

Neither is there culture, – for art gives culture. – Because objectivity in art is a centralizing and unifying experience: –

1. The artist, taking RHN as his model presents an imitation of life. We aspire to the image. The image may be beautiful or ugly. We see our human face and we ask, – could it be otherwise.

2. Thus RHN is the authority on which culture rests. Culture must rest on something abiding, an authority, a belief. But our authority is not the dogma of outer authority (no need for God to supply social cement or fill the spiritual vacuum) but the authority of a consensus, – of shared experience.

3. Through culture we are moving towards a centre which is infinite. It is more human, and alive and open to improvement, because it is dependent on the private judgement of every one of us, - which is our third factor, the inner check – the ethical imagination.

We define culture as: The exploration and cultivation of humanity through art.



Points still to be made.

1) Whistler: The artist has no responsibility but to his work. There is no

Progress in Art.

2) Symposium on Culture – Nobody knows what it is

3) Culture will overcome Propaganda, the nature of Propaganda.

4) We discover Progress. End of the journey.

More on blogpower awards...

You have until 9pm Tuesday 5th to help hone the nomination list.

I'm delighted to have currently been nominated for three of the categories, only one of which was from my own fair hand! I'm unlikely to get shortlisted though, the competition is much too good.

If nothing else, following the list links will take you on a wonderful journey to parts of bloggerdom you may have not known about. Follow some of them, you can find out how to get there by clicking on the dummies book cover top right. If you vote to nominate some, you may well influence them moving to the next stage. But be quick though, at the time of writing there are only 22 hours left.

Vote early and vote often!

That new Olympics logo

Everyone is banging on about how bad the logo is. Before you make up your mind, watch the official flash video. UPDATE: Film now changed as the original was too flickery!

Only then, can you comfortably come to the conclusion that it is a load of old wank...

Seth Godin has them bang to rights...

An Englishman's home...

Goodrich Castle near Ross on Wye in Herefordshire is a worthy visit. Run by English Heritage, an imaginative audio guide takes you round and paints a rich verbal history of what it was (probably) like. Although somewhat ruined (ironically by Roaring Meg, the Cannon that now stands in the courtyard) enough remains to grasp how it evolved and was used.

As ever, the postcards and web turn up better images, but here are a few I took.


The approach to the Barbican. It was originally guarded by a drawbridge, two Portcullises and barricated doors, as well as arrow slits and murder holes.

The Courtyard, facing the Keep (which is a much older vintage than the towers.

The ramparts from the moat.

Ancient Monument advice.

A contemporary (1992) window in the Chapel, celebrating an RAF Radar unit.

The other window, for the Millennium, the one that can be seen to the left of the barbican entrance. I particularly like the colours cast onto the stone by the bright sunlight.

Unmistakably Welsh

(Note: I have deliberately uploaded smaller image views as I am conscious of blog loading times for those web connection doesn't run at the speed of Pooh through a Goose. I'm also conscious that the blogger image sizing & wraparound code is pants so sorry for the quirky layout. As ever, click on a photo for a more detailed image).

David and I went on a backstage tour of the Cardiff Millennium Centre, home to Welsh National Opera and a bucket load of other theatre companies. The theatre is less than three years old. The signature aspect of the design is the huge bilingual calligraphy writing on the angled facade. The english bit says "In these stones horizons sing" and the Welsh bit says "Creu Gwir fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen" and is a different phrase to the English one. I hoped that it translated to "My Hovercraft is full of Eels", but disappointingly, it actually means "Creating truth like glass from inspiration's furnace".

The guidebooks make a feature of the curved bulk of the roof but don't mention the view from the rear which is considerably less inspiring, consisting of utilitarian windows with air ducts above. This is very much the business end of the stage house with dressing rooms and offices (& presumably air handling plant above judging from the air ducts).The main cladding of the central building is a burnished steel but the flanking wings (known as the anchorage and the waterside to use nautical metaphors) are clad with slate and glass in a stratified manner.Internally, various (sustainable) hardwoods are used for the balcony & stairwell facias, whilst the supporting columns are a very dark material in a diamond pattern that is very tactile. The columns are vaying heights and are capped with a functional light fitting described as industrial.The calligraphy is also echoed internally and subtle tints of glass give a banding effect. Here is a billion monkeys self portrait of myself reflected in the bar mirror at the lowest of the three levels.
Sadly, this area is not open to the public outside of performances which is a real pain if toilets are closed as the two ends are not otherwise linked.

(We'd been in the building a couple of days previously and snapped this appearance of a Tardis & a Dalek!)

Photography wasn't allowed backstage or in the auditoria, so I had to make do with a snap of the advert banner for the tours. The main auditorium has a variable acoustic by the lowering of quilted sound absorbing panels to the sides. When raised, thousands of different sized mylar panels reflect sound in multiple directions (each one hand fitted to a complex plan from the acoustic consultants).
Here are a smattering of other images:





Checking up a few facts afterwards, I found out the tour that would have been the ideal one for me- the Access all areas Techie tour.

(Image from the Cardiff Millennium Centre website).

Why is the building unmistakably Welsh? Because the design brief said so.

"Vote early and vote often"

I've been merrily nominating all sorts of sites for all sorts of categories (even my own! after all, if I don't, no-one else probably will...)

Feel free to do the same, you have until Tuesday 9pm, after which it moves into the voting phase.

(Hat tip to Liz for the cartoon creator link)

(It was Al Capone, who said Vote Early, Vote Often, as well as alluded to by some Leeds Labour Councillors...)

Deja Vu

Deja Vu, "as any fule nose", is the feeling you get when you've been somewhere before. Sometimes you don't actually have to have been there and sometimes the feeling is associative through evocative memory rather than actuality.

I experienced it at Penarth, a small seaside town south west of Cardiff when I saw the Pier Pavilion building. I quickly made the connection- the 1999 arts film House! used it as the exterior of a former theatre turned cinema turned bingo hall. (The interiors used a Miners welfare Hall elsewhere). House! is set in South Wales and is a rather sentimental (to me) story about the decline and unexpected resurgence of a building after an unfortunate series of events. It is rather funny, tastefully made and well worth getting. (It is tricky to find on Amazon, so here is a link).

It hadn't been obvious to me that it had been a pier pavilion building in the film, but on rewatching key scenes, it is obvious in hindsight, particularly the two wings.

The exterior gives no clues at at to its current use. The Directors' commentary on the DVD referred to it being in use as a gym, which I took to mean a health club.

Peering through a fire escape window, the reality is even more surprising- it is full of artistic gymnastics equipment like parallel bars, balance bars, high bars and lots & lots of blue mats.


The hall is rather squalid internally, although it does have a gallery at land end, but surprisingly, not a stage at the sea end. A curved glazed lounge complements the entrance area on the opposite end of the building and the turrets are matched.

This was a steamer pier rather than a pleasure one and has been damaged a couple of times over the decades, as is often the fate of most seaside piers. It does, however, seem to be fairly popular and not specifically threatened. (There are even plans to restore the interior, pdf here
The beach is a bit of a letdown though- shale even coarser than Brighton. Throwing rocks into the sea is a Junior's idea of heaven though!


Five miles further round the coastline lies Barry Island, renowned for its golden sands and Fun Fair.

The beach is really nice and the Prom spacious. (The strange tubular object bottom right is the top of the telescope that I used the housing for as a panorama tripod).

I imagine that Barry island is to a Cardiffian (?) what Whitley Bay is to a Geordie- full of happy memories but now past its best.
The entrances to the Fun Fair promise a lot, but the delights within are something of a let-down.



The Fun fair was a big disappointment, half the rides were closed or not even there. The Log Flume looked attractive, running over a (closed) river caves type ride next door...

But the rest of the park gave way to spartan touring rides and scattered sideshows.


David loved the beach though!

Deja Vu at barry- for the Spanish City in Whitley.
Girl you look so pretty to me,
just like you always did,
Like the Spanish City to me,
when we were kids...

(Tunnel of Love, by Dire Straits, decrepid image of the crumbling Spanish City found on Google Images from Radio Paradise)

Eco-Balls

Being sponsored by the Guardian, you'd expect a bit of planet saving at Hay on Wye.

Here is a bit- Sky's minimum carbon footprint house (& they don't mean live in a tent!)

The writing is on the wall, or ratrher, the mirror. The message is- take a look at yourself.

Lots of handy hints & tips from nanny.

A combined mulcher and worm colony!

A kettle that only boils as much water as you need- you pump a cupful to the element.

These balls go in your dryer & help the process. (Of course, a washing line and airer are much better approaches)

There they are- the eco-balls. Own up; you thought the article title was an opinion, not a product! (Well, it turns out to be both!)

This will amuse the Welsh Blogpowerers

(Seen in Cardiff Bay)

Blogpower awards

I joined the informal Blogpower collective back in January. Within the social sphere that it creates, forty or so minor league bloggers (like me) support each other so that we are not voices in the wilderness. (This is where a lot of my comments come from).

Whilst I've been away on holiday, Nourishing Obscurity has, in a rebellious act of counter-anarchism, persuaded the others to support our very own set of awards. There are twenty categories, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The big difference with the Blogpower awards is that they are considerably more transparent than the dead paper variety and have evolved via discussion within the community rather than be contrived in smoke filled rooms.

You can find them appearing HERE, summary below.

1 Best Britblog or Column
2 Best North American Blog or Column
3 Best Blog or Column outside North America and the U.K.
4 Best Fisker
5 Best Ranter
6 Best Political Blog or Column
7 Best Blogpower Blog or Column
8 Best Layout and Style
9 Best Post of All Time
10 Best Little Blogger [i.e. under 100 uniques a day]
11 Most Articulate Wordsmith
12 Most Under-rated Blog or Column
13 Most Over-rated Blog or Column
14 Most Politically Incorrect Blog or Column
15 Most Sadly Missed or Whom We Feel Sorry For
16 Most Unintentionally Humorous post
17 Most Consistently Entertaining Blog or Column
18 Prettiest or Tastiest Blog or Column [refers to food or domestic bloggers]
19 Award for Shameless Self-Promotion
20 Award for Services to Blogging

Hopefully, he will put up some clear guidelines for people so they don't have to go looking for them, in the meantime, look here.

(Cut & paste:)
How to nominate someone

1] Copy and paste the number of the category and its name directly from the appropriate post header into your e-mail message.

2] There are no restrictions on how many categories you nominate for, how many people you nominate and how often. The only restriction is that once you have nominated someone for a particular category, you may not nominate that person again within that category.

3] Nominate the person by name [if possible] then by blog name or column.

4] Please don't include extraneous words in the e-mail as I have to wade through this to get to your nomination. It's not necessary that you justify your nomination - just nominate!

5] Send this e-mail to: jameshighamatmaildotcom .(note for the thick- change "at" to "@" and "dot" to "."! Ian)

6] If you have no e-mail or wish to not reveal it, then create an e-mail just for this time at some freehost like MSN or Maildotcom or Googlemail.Nominations close tuesday 9pm and I'll post when it is possible to vote.

"Greengrocer Grammer..."

Zaftig has a post about irritating punctuation, something that I concur on, especially by intelligent people who you would expect to know better.

As seen at the Newcastle Eldon Square Shopping Centre...

(It was next to the new temporary Green Market bit so the old adage holds true)