The Strange Business of Living

Anyone who RSSs this blog

2011-05-14T16:39:00.001+01:00

I'm moving to Tumblr over at http://henrylloyd-hughes.com I'll probably delete this web page asap!

Euro Trip

2011-05-01T18:13:00.002+01:00

For any Americans wondering what life in Europe is like day to day this video (posted by Nickel Cobalt) is the best graphical representation of the reality of existence on "The Continent".

FabioX

PR Don't Need No PR

2011-04-28T10:14:00.001+01:00

(via Nickel Cobalt)

Soft Focus

2011-04-24T12:40:00.000+01:00

Old County

2011-03-24T17:01:00.000Z

Ah Well...

2011-03-21T04:01:00.000Z

Forgive Me

2011-03-20T22:47:00.001Z

This Moment Changed My Life

2011-03-20T20:15:00.002Z

If you know then you know...I can't explain.

DUKE

Stating The Obvious

2011-03-18T16:09:00.002Z

Movies removed of their magic.

Deep

2011-03-15T05:28:00.000Z

Lark - Rewaxing your Barbour. from CASTE on Vimeo.

Re post: When Polo Met Khan

2011-03-04T18:40:00.002Z

Just had to give a massive shout out to this bit of kit...ditto on loving it more than anything!

Here's the original link

vroom vroom

Feeling This

2011-02-28T16:30:00.001Z

Wut Wut

Late On This..

2011-02-27T19:11:00.002Z

..But it's a life-changer. Her ability to draw you in to her personal emotions, and the feelings of the song are unrivaled with that of her peers. Adele, I doff my cap, permanently.

Face First

2011-02-26T05:43:00.000Z

Time Splat

LaLaLanded

2011-02-26T04:17:00.003Z

When you're alone at night in a log cabin in the hills above Los Angeles in the middle of a rainstorm..the wind is rattling the panes..and the woods that surround the cabin are being whipped into a frenzy...AND then this comes on TV:

U...S....A....W....T....F

check out the weird Auntie character Hazel with her fake cigarette!?..

Though my least favourite bit is when chipper Mancunian nuclear homemaker "Mick" talks about how he loves to prepare homemade salsa before "..the big game..". Of course you do "Mick" of course you do.

Dread

Wow..this is lovely!

2011-01-31T16:33:00.000Z

Jubbly.

Cass McCombs - County Line by DominoRecordCo

Near Perfect

2011-01-20T00:05:00.001Z

There's so much amazing music oozing out of the ether at the moment..

And not a lot gets past the good people at Abeano

Here's another gem.

Rofl

2011-01-18T11:34:00.002Z

small but perfectly formed..click on it for lols

Saw Dreezy Last Night

2011-01-08T23:56:00.002Z

This sounds like all the slow jams off his album taken to the next level.

Thanks Abeano

Ashesssss

2011-01-03T00:27:00.002Z

Please listen at 2hrs 21 minutes... for my family's proudest moment!

Yup

2010-12-05T22:05:00.002Z

Anxious

2010-11-24T00:20:00.002Z

Don't want to see this diagram put to the test...

Thanks BBC

Two Abeanos In a Pod

2010-11-21T12:16:00.002Z

Smith Westerns - Weekend

Youth - Letter to Yesterday

Thanks Abeano

A Love Song Cooked Two Ways

2010-11-18T16:37:00.003Z

Band of Horses

Cee Lo Green

PS I know the sun-kissed hipster holiday witnessed in Cee Lo's video is exactly what you'd imagine my weekends looked like. Well you're right...guilty...there I said it...welcome to my life.

Pitchfork X

Jai Re-Rubs

2010-11-16T11:51:00.001Z

Tasty morsel..

Motown Spirit

2010-11-16T11:34:00.001Z

Loving the atmosphere...the backup singers on the track..feels like Adele just went 3D!

Call Me

2010-11-15T23:59:00.004Z

Thanks Sartorialist

Uttini

2010-11-15T23:39:00.001Z

Thanks When Polo Met Khan

It's My Boy

2010-11-14T20:12:00.007Z

My boy Devonte , multi-faceted musical luminary and co-author of my new favourite blog The Filmatic together with Theophilus London (a rapper I once drunkenly challenged to a battle-glad he refused!) and honey-voiced beauty Solange Knowles have dropped the first track of an ongoing musical 3-way collaboration project.

When I was in LA...as Derulo would say "..flying solo.." Dev and Solange took me under their musical wings..and I loved every minute of being a fly on the wall for their musical jamboree sessions. Destined for greatness.

Enjoy some of the first fruit of this harvest.

I'm So Sorry

2010-11-11T11:16:00.004Z

Feminists...I'm so sorry. Genuinely. But there's nothing I can really do..

When I couldn't stop thinking about a Pendleton Opening Ceremony Jacket 2 years after I tried it on. I knew I had to buy it.

So using the same logic, seeing that I watched this video clip in February, and it's played over in my mind again and again ever since. I thought I had to share it.

Indefensible..but what can I say..it's what I want for Christmas....

...squash lessons

Mia Culpa

Incredible Suit

2010-11-07T23:56:00.002Z

Great Blog here

Late - Never

Crucial

2010-10-16T11:42:00.001+01:00

Everyone needs this groove to infiltrate their lives..

Crucial

2010-10-16T11:42:00.000+01:00

Everyone needs this groove to infiltrate their lives..

Perfect Sandwich

2010-10-15T22:59:00.002+01:00

Prince+Vampire Weekend+Hall and Oates+The Mighty Boosh

Met some strangers at a bus stop 2 months ago..being a soldier of fortune-kind-of-a chap I followed them home for a night cap...

They played me this video...I was so blown away by it...I woke up the next day and wondered whether it was all some fantastic dream..

Thankfully not..

Lest We Forget

2010-09-12T12:31:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Naomi Shimada

Mister Mort

2010-09-11T12:02:00.004+01:00

Funny when a photo-blogger takes your picture by asking with a certain amount of charm and grace, and then the minute he posts the picture of you (which you never asked for in the first place!) takes pride in belittling the same look he sycophantically complimented to your face.

I reserve everyone's right to scribe whatever they want on the internet. You'd struggle to find someone more pro-freedom of speech, or anti-censorship.

But on a personal note Mort, your moves lack a certain...class.

Shame

Got That Face On

2010-08-29T13:00:00.000+01:00

No Baggage

2010-08-17T22:28:00.002+01:00

Mine's a GaGa

Strapped To My Chest

2010-07-14T13:57:00.001+01:00

Walk of Life

X
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One Of My 5 A Day

2010-07-14T11:55:00.001+01:00

The Walkmen - Stranded

Iced Sensation

2010-07-12T23:37:00.009+01:00

So when I was in LA last month..my car got towed..then I almost got pulled up by the cops for trying to break into a house where a script that I was waiting on, was wrongly delivered..

I was at a low ebb...

I stopped in here for a slice of restorative pizza:

Who should be in front of me in the queue but Alex, who was in the year above me in my tutor group at school. Turns out Alex had gone to college in the states, and since set about working in movies, go figure.

He was kind enough to let me crash at his pad in Venice Beach for a few nights during which we caught up and he schooled me in a few of the finer things in American culture he'd learned over the last 7 years.

He told me how some of the highlights of his previous working weeks had involved "Icing" his bros.

"Icing?" I enquired.

It turns out "Icing" was the name given to new form of popular prank that involved the recipient having to get down on one knee and down a Smirnoff Ice. "Bros Icing Bros" was a new centre of the zeitgeist, a new wave. Some kind of male bonding movement.

"It's a big deal over here, I can't believe it hasn't reached England yet"

The "deal" is as follows: Surprise a chum with a Smirnoff Ice hidden in their personal property, or a package, the more imaginative the better. Whereupon they discover said syrupy beverage they MUST, (I was told to renege was a cardinal sin) get down on bended knee and down it in one.

"It breeds a lot of creativity"

He told me stories of film editors Iced by getting the lead actors to insert a Smirnoff into the day's rushes, and having bottles FedExed to pals offices at 11am with the now familiar message "You Got Iced"

Naturally I was skeptical, but the facts speak for themselves:

YOU GOT ICED

And so it was with full pleasure and amazement that (with no prompting from me) I felt the waves of this movement lap against my native shores yesterday. When at midday GMT my cousin Fred got iced by his bandmate Chris.

A warm welcome to you "Bros Icing Bros"..may the United Kingdom prove a fruitful battleground for your brand of booze-fueled horseplay.

Timothy Bleary

Creativity

2010-07-05T10:51:00.003+01:00

Comes from a place in my head that looks and feels a lot like this one.

I watched this film 100s and 100s of times as a kid. I can remember every inch of celluloid from the film. And an original poster is the first thing you see when you enter my house.

This weekend I watched the following clip on YouTube and was instantly transported back 20 years.

It's amazing how once something is fused into you at an early age it will stay there. Pure joy on tap.

Yawning Man

LAters

2010-06-17T00:26:00.000+01:00

On the road..in LA..

Packed up my spare dreams into a Globetrotter trunk

Rented the wrong car

Then the right one

Black Mustang no roof

Nothing to lose

No friends

No enemies

Handshake, smile on credit

Perfect timing

Found the guy

Lost my sight

Up winding roads

American Spirit

20 pack

Sparks - This Town Aint Big Enough For The Both Of Us

Herculean effort to stay sane

And plugged in

Made it

Back

One

Piece

Ding Ding

2010-06-03T01:25:00.002+01:00

Round One!!!

I know y'all be thinkin I'm just some big politics nerd right about now...

But maybe I am....aha...didnt think about that did ya?

Expect a few more years of tag team coalition cross-party badinage.

I for one am excited.

Heady days

Dizzraylee

Real Talk

2010-05-19T00:15:00.003+01:00

Reggie Yates is a smart man, I did a read-through for a script he worked on once, he's got heaps of game, but down to earth. Real talk.

He's got a massive mainstream appeal, but a lot of interesting things happening under the surface.

Same goes for 50 Cent I suppose. Mainstream but more interesting than at first glance.

Here's what happened when Reggie met chart topping, computer game creating, vitamin water syphoning, Curtis.

The calm behind the storm is always worth listening to. It's a surprisingly in-depth look at the thought behind becoming a mogul.

Curtis, Reggie, I feel ya....I'm takin notes.

DMX

Cross Section of Society

2010-05-14T01:31:00.000+01:00

My thanks to Completely Adorable

Old Gill

Tickets Please

2010-05-06T10:15:00.006+01:00

No matter what your politics, turning up is the one thing that should be compulsory today.

Globally this country has a comparatively tiny voter turn out, and that frankly embarrasses all of us.

If you're intelligent go and vote. If you take pride in your ignorance and lack of, then feel free to stay at home.

Already on Twitter this morning I've been reading the ham-fisted class based petty politicking of another age. We should've grown out of this kind of thing a long time ago. Politics will never progress if parties are dragged back or reduced to red vs.blue or the toffs vs. unions guff of a different generation. A generation of politics that has and will become increasingly irrelevant.

I believe we all owe it to ourselves, to leave our social, or familial bias at the door of the polling booth today. Vote for the party that speaks to you through it's policies and it's intentions for the future.

Exercise your right to vote, your right to make a thoughtful choice, free from bias or expectation.

For the rest of your life, whether you like it or not, part of your pay packet goes to the running of this country and the politicians who orchestrate that. Why not use today to take charge deciding how that happens?

HLH

(P.S I'm Hackney South And Shoreditch)

Conflict

2010-03-21T12:46:00.003Z

I'm conflicted about John Lennon. I've always found him a bit, intolerably earnest, and a bit unsavoury. But in a spirit of reconciliation I've decided to post this animation, which whether fact or fiction is moving I think. Aspiring to a something better is stupidly simple, but when explained calmly can be quite magnificent. Here it is.

I Bought A New Bag

2010-02-24T20:02:00.002Z

Faconable

Pardon Me

2010-01-27T01:13:00.001Z

1000 pardons for being absent from my blogging...I've let my silly little acting career steer me away (temporarily) from drivelling on about trivial nonsense. I promise that any brief stint of employment is purely accidental and won't last long. Here is my apology in video form:

Namasgay

A Ross Cause?

2010-01-11T11:36:00.006Z

Feeling pretty disappointed that the BBC and JR have fallen out.

It says a great deal about the political wranglings that go on behind the scenes at the Big British Castle.

Regardless of the specific reasons for his leaving I maintain, the BBC is a weaker institution for having lost a genuinely entertaining, and eccentric individual.

What is unique about this man and this situation is best summed up by Caitlin Moran in The Times. For the first time on this blog, I'm posting the whole article in full. Why?

Well, because I feel like it.

He's going to be a tough man to replace..I hope someone at the Beeb knows what they're doing?!

From The Times

January 10, 2010

Letting Jonathan Ross go leaves the Beeb weak and dull

That a chaotic popinjay became a lightning rod for the Corporation was unfortunate for them — and for him

Let’s get Jonathan Ross’s faults out of the way first:

1) He had Ricky Gervais on his show too much.

2) The constant banging on about sex to his female guests stopped being “cheeky” in 2006, and was borderline “bad uncle” by 2009.

3) Whenever there was an awkward pause in the conversation, he would lean on his desk and say: “You know, you’re really a very attractive fellow.” It was only really one up from suddenly screaming, “Look over there!” or sighing, “So — this weather, then”.

4) He really did have Ricky Gervais on his show too much.

5) He had that thing that so many precocious autodidacts have, of presuming that because you’ve got so far on chutzpah and busking it, that you can simply carry on indefinitely on chutzpah and busking it. Let’s face it — the lack of research he did on his guests was, towards the end, embarrassing. “What’s the name of the film?” “So — you live in New York, then?” A 20-minute interview consists of, at most,15 questions. “What’s the name of the film?” shouldn’t be one of them.

For the past two years, Friday Night With Jonathan Ross often looked like a show that should have been prefaced by the continuity announcer saying: “And now Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, where the dog has eaten Jonathan’s homework.”

6) Seriously, Ricky Gervais. I mean, seriously. They might as well have just put a sleeping bag and a Thermos of tea under Ross’s desk and have him sleep there. It would have saved on taxis.

But all this aside, Ross’s departure from the BBC is ultimately a terribly depressing thing. While no formal explanation has been given for his exit, the rumour inside the BBC was that Ross was willing to re-sign his contract but that the Director-General, Mark Thompson, refused to sign it off at the last minute. The theory is that the BBC Trust had decided he was too much of a liability after the Sachsgate affair (when Ross and Russell Brand placed a poor-taste prank call to the actor Andrew Sachs), and had wanted rid of him ever since.

There’s a Cameron government on the horizon — thought to have some pretty radical ideas about the future of the BBC — and the trust clearly didn’t want one of the Daily Mail’s primo hate-figures around, to be used as a stick to beat it with every time he made a duff nob gag.

The sad thing is that letting Ross go instantly makes the BBC look weaker and duller. For years, that the BBC’s highest-paid star was a quick, edgy, silly nerd-dandy, into Japanese anime and rackety new guitar bands, was a cheering thing: you can judge the strength of any organisation by its ability to take on board and utilise eccentrics. A corporation with more imagination and direction would have been able to correct Ross’s bad points, as listed above — half of them nixed simply by deleting Gervais’s number from Ross’s mobile phone — kept him on board, and continued to look like a confident and forward-thinking broadcaster. Instead, it seemed to let Ross indulgently flounder into his own weaknesses, and then washed its hands of him when the whole Sachsgate thing blew up.

Of course, the problem Ross faced as soon as he became the highest-paid person at the BBC was the childish belief in some parts of the media that he now “represented” the BBC — and that, furthermore, the BBC represents all of Britain.

While obviously a not-inconsiderable burden for any light entertainment presenter, this was a particularly unfortunate assumption to lump on to Ross, whose entire broadcasting motivation is to push things, subvert things and bring a bit of chaos.

This was why — in its pomp — Friday Night With Jonathan Rosswas such a brilliant hour of TV: celebrities who were used to a numbingly sanitised publicity carousel were suddenly plunged into a ridiculous world, run by some gobby macaroni with no real boundaries on topic or tactic.

What they said was less important than their reaction to the whole scenario. Some — George Clooney, Will Smith, Christopher Walken, Tom Hanks, Helen Mirren — seemed delighted at being able to come out and play. Those who didn’t want to play along — Nicole Kidman in particular — revealed themselves, in their shock and disdain, equally. I even know where Ross was coming from in the early days of his perving over the female guests: if you have some of the world’s greatest sex symbols on your show, it is instructive to see how they respond when some ludicrous, ultimately self-deprecating, man starts slobbering all over them.

He’s simply acting out the common man’s thoughts. Come on, Ross wasn’t trying to pull them. He’s not David Letterman. He was trying to startle them. He was trying to see their bottom-line — not their bottoms.

While the fortunes of Friday Night ... may have waxed and waned,Film 2009 was the work of a passionate geek, and his Saturday morning Radio 2 show was always, always a thing of light-hearted, slightly minxy magic.

Ultimately, Jonathan Ross makes things fun. His instinct is to amuse and, personally, I don’t care if he occasionally says inappropriate things or pushes things too far — there still aren’t half enough people in the world who wake up in the morning with the sole intent of making as many people as possible lean on the kitchen table, weak with laughter.

That a slightly chaotic, witty popinjay came to be a lightning rod for a whole tranche of issues about the BBC was unfortunate for the Corporation — and for him. After his £18 million contract, endless fretting pieces were written, asking whether the BBC should ever try to compete with ITV1’s salaries.

The real question, however, is “what would happen to the BBC if it didn’t?” If the only people who work for the BBC are those in it for the sheer love of it — those who would piously turn down double the wages from ITV — the BBC would rapidly become the middle-class liberal pinko panty-waist institution of the Daily Mail’s nightmares, and, I suspect, fold within five years.

Still, it’s not a question people will be asking any more — no one at the BBC will ever be paid what Jonathan Ross was, because no one at ITV will ever be paid the amount Jonathan Ross was. The bottom’s fallen out of the whole market. He was the last of an era, financially and, it seems, creatively.

The glaring lack of any equally starry successor to any of his shows — let alone someone who could do all three — reveals just how ahead of, and unique within, his peer group Ross still is. In the wake of his departure, it feels a new order is settling on the BBC — quiet, safe, bland presenters on modest wages with no predilection for manga, Bowie, flamboyant tailoring and telling the joke that no one else dared tell.

The long, dark, Narnian winter of Vernon Kaye’s supremacy now looms.

Jenny

2009-12-20T12:28:00.004Z

Well exposed, but no less potent. I love these guys, and was sad to hear this week they've opted out of a third series. In my opinion still the greatest missed opportunity the BBC ever had (..they passed on the option of the TV series, after a great Radio 4 show, and the rest is slightly botched HBO history...)..sob..sob

Tinsel

Go Figure

2009-12-19T14:59:00.008Z

The numbers speak for themselves this year...

Global Cinema takings: 28bn$

Global Video Game takings: Over...40bn$!!!

Don't it just put things in perspective!

I'm strangely proud to have been watching from the wings as my generation has acted as the gatekeepers of this transition from 2D blips to life-altering, mind-expanding, total immersion, 3D wizardry. I don't need to write a single word about Modern Warfare 2, it's all been said. But I happened to be passing through Leicester Square on the day that they were erecting barriers for the "premier" of the game. Yeah that's right, a big budget, full contact premier. That was the watershed moment, when I realised just how far we'd come since Woody Pop.

With that in mind, I've been thinking forward to how the "classic games" of our times will be viewed in the future. Enter Olly Moss with his paperback re-rub of some of the finest electronic gems..

Pretty As A Picture

2009-12-19T11:26:00.003Z

Christmas List:

I'd quite like an oil painting like this one by Kris Lewis

Blessed=King

2009-12-14T11:42:00.006Z

For a "boomer" like me, Brian Blessed is a signpost on the road to a life where I could be as loud as I wanted.

Due to the sensitive disposition of "quiet people" or "shy people" barely a week goes by when I'm not reminded to pipe down, in order to let the slightly more insecure members of the human race feel comfortable.

I consider this nothing short of discrimination, character assassination, or put simply a hate crime.

One day I'll compile a list of everyone who has found my personality "overwhelming" or "too ebullient" and well, let's just say, you really really don't want to be on that list...

N.B. Brian won't be on the list

P.S I heard a rumour he once attempted to climb Mount Everest solo and without oxygen, losing his mind in the process!...when was the last time a "quiet person" did that??

WTF To The Power of A Milli

2009-11-29T21:01:00.005Z

This is Number 1. This week. Something this weird and disturbing is Number 1 in this country, and had been in the chart for two weeks!!!

I'm not the dissing the v.v.noble cause, but I'm just stunned at how bizarre things have got in the world of charity/pop/chartmusic.

The Arrival of Richard Cowie

2009-11-23T01:27:00.009Z

It's always exciting in music when someone delivers exactly what you know they've always been capable of, to the syllable.

Wiley sir, Step Up!

My cousin Fred reliably informs me that "Wearing My Rolex" only made number 2, we all know that's a rinse. This new joint "Take That" is hyper-catchy, hyper-dancey, hyper-anthemic, and in my opinion is on a par with Dizzee's recent bangers, and far superior to Tinchy's Number 1s.

Put simply: This exactly what Wiley's been waiting to deliver..

Let's hope like a fictional mailman he delivers right on time.

GB public, slot this in at number 1.

I beg you.

Dead Out

P.S follow Wiley's (slightly) incognito Twitter here

Gotta Do It

2009-11-19T14:14:00.002Z

When stuff this creative stops me in my tracks, I gotta holla

No Doubt

Barrel Scraped

2009-11-14T10:59:00.001Z

I know this is the darkest, shittiest picture that has ever been posted online.

But bare with me..there's a fifth rate pun to be revealed!

When I was in Manchester, in my friends flat they said there was a dark secret hidden in the lift..it took me two turns up and down again to work out what it was..

The brand of the lift: Schindler

SCHINDLER'S LIFTS!!!

Who does that? Who goes there?

In a confined space...

Low..sooooo low

True Blood

2009-11-09T17:07:00.002Z

When some rappers or musicians talk about how real they are in their music, their art. They say it flows from them..that realness..it's in their blood.

When I had a wisdom tooth removed last week I woke to find this image daubed on my pillow in blood.

Let them write this on the sleeve notes of my future albums:

"Henry Lloyd-Hughes bleeds music. He bleeds the actual notes. If you cut him, bloodied musical notes spill forth and cover his sheets."

Real Talk

I Checked

2009-11-09T09:46:00.001Z

Not a portion of spinach in sight!

X-Tractor (Fan)

2009-10-18T21:43:00.010+01:00

Sometimes the world of entertainment throws you bones...

...little bones of glee.

As I sit in the warm glow of another episode of mocked-up, schlocked-up, Z-Factor farce. I'm reminded of what bizarre tosh this pop merry-go-round has become. The thin veneer of respectability has fallen away, the strings are visible, I can see cogs turning people!

The last two weeks has seen the return of two "legends" Robbie and Whitney. Who've both attempted to come back to the pop fold but both seem terrified and bewildered to be back amongst the merry throng. "Blimey it's a bit weird in here innit" they seemed to say through coked-up boggle eyes. I love Robbie and I love Whitney, FACT, but X-Factor has got too downright strange, it's not fair to invite the coked up dinosaurs to come round for tea. You'll only scare them!

Fictional pop and the real deal are no longer easy bed fellows. The transfer used to be seamless, but now it appears that we haven't just seen behind the wizards curtain...we live behind it!

FACT VS. FICTION

Lady Gaga - Love Games

VS.

The Mighty Boosh - Love Games

Boy Better Know - Too Many Man

VS.

Flight of The Conchords - Too Many Dicks

Which of these acts will be singing for survival tonight?

The voting lines have now closed...your call may not be counted, but you may still be charged.

The truth is officially stranger than fiction.

Donna Sumner

Mi Casa

2009-10-17T12:29:00.001+01:00

E crude joke casa.

A Trainset That Kills Cops

2009-10-16T13:26:00.001+01:00

I know what all those Gangsta-rap loving Train-hedz want for Christmas

Busted

2009-10-15T00:34:00.001+01:00

Drunk in Manchester pubs..suddenly the urge takes me..luckily this sign reminds me that NO means NO

Dances With Wolves

2009-10-10T15:55:00.002+01:00

We trash our dressing room before every matinee..today is no exception..VERY sad but VERY true.

And On The Inside..

2009-10-08T22:08:00.002+01:00

Writer and Director hard at work..ready for notes after the first preview.
They just cut one of my favourite lines..it's for the best..I hope!

Welcome

2009-09-28T13:33:00.001+01:00

To my new world!

Full Bloom

2009-09-27T17:20:00.001+01:00

The first thing I've ever grown from seed came to bloom today...shame I'm leaving to Manc for a month. Goodbye by darling.

Titsmarch

Don't Say It

2009-09-25T14:25:00.003+01:00

Ouch..

Justin Blyth from LA makes amazing photo collages here

Thanks to the Tribe

Next Level

2009-09-25T12:42:00.001+01:00

Tube posing.

I love it when a dude brings a bit of Calcutta street squatting to the Central Line.

Jai Ho

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I'm So Boring

2009-09-25T12:37:00.000+01:00

I notice when they install a new clock at Bethnal Green. Isn't it beautiful.

Ulysees 31

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Guilty

2009-09-24T16:59:00.000+01:00

Clearing out a few old boxes at my mum's house I find evidence of my far from glamorous past.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Chasing (Secret) Pavements

2009-09-23T17:20:00.001+01:00

Spanish Metal hombre here was sitting opposite me today on the tube. He whipped out an Iron Maiden cd, stans I thought. But after a cheeky peek I spotted it actually had Adele "19" hidden inside. Busted buddy!!

Watergate

Whereas

2009-09-17T11:32:00.004+01:00

These are both clearly genius

Yup

Flawless Victory

MK Dons

This Is Either

2009-09-17T11:06:00.002+01:00

Very interesting or fucking pretentious piffle.

Can't wait

Brown Bunny

WTF

2009-09-16T01:10:00.001+01:00

Even in my wildest dreams/nightmares...

True Dat

2009-09-15T12:55:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Style Bubble

Classic

2009-09-15T11:25:00.001+01:00

"Rough Trade at the BBC" Doc on BBC4

Ranners

2009-09-12T13:32:00.001+01:00

Don't really know what this is, but I find it rather beguiling:

The Temper Trap 'Sweet Disposition' @ Yahoo! Video

JK Bowling

Really?

2009-09-10T09:16:00.001+01:00

Tethering goats? Who needs this?

Wanksy

2009-09-03T18:33:00.001+01:00

The graff version of myself just went up!

Is It Just Smeeeee?

2009-09-03T09:31:00.003+01:00

For me and my fam, this film is pretty important, looky-looky I got Hooky..dya get me?

I find a surprising number people have no experience of this piece of glossy Spielberg froth, this remix is a little taster of what they're missing out on. The film is sickly sweet and endlessly schmaltzy, and even though this remix is a different beast, in some strange way it captures a little bit of that.

Thanks to Kitsune Noir

Jamie Olivier

Living In A..

2009-08-31T23:04:00.002+01:00

The fact that they are $1 and 69 cents..speaks volumes

Either that or I'm a moron

Massive In The Game

2009-08-29T14:11:00.001+01:00

Like Donkey Kong

2009-08-27T09:39:00.001+01:00

My Life In Clothes

2009-08-20T22:15:00.001+01:00

Softly Softly

2009-08-20T08:34:00.002+01:00

BLOWERS VS. BOLT

Henry Blofeld takes on the 100 metres.

Check it

One Day...

2009-08-19T23:16:00.002+01:00

I will make music like this

Thug

2009-08-16T23:33:00.001+01:00

Laters NY

2009-08-16T22:26:00.001+01:00

Oh Go On Then

2009-08-10T20:35:00.003+01:00

Just below this is said "Feel free to choose from the a la carte menu"

I shit you not!

So Sorry

2009-08-08T10:33:00.013+01:00

I've been going all introspective, and private, and not blathering about my life. I've started this great play and went on holiday to France. I forgot how beautiful France is. Especially when I get to play arcade games as horrifically brutal as this one:

It played like one big monstrous Nam flashback where you kill your own colleagues, children, goats, whatever. Then in exchange for killing, killing and more killing get to experience euphoric powerups like the one pictured below: MAXIMUM RAGE, MAXIMUM RAGE!!

My lovely cousin Fred, recently did a retrospective of his life on his excellent blog. I'm not going to do that, frankly my life is too loose around the edges, to condense it to one blog entry. But I can give a little personal injection of random stuff I just found on my phone:

Nothing sums up an English barbecue, and the promise of good weather like this scene from Jess' house a month ago. You'll be pleased to hear, through (soggy) gritted teeth, the meat was delicious.

This was the last night of the Mean Fiddler. Yup...very, very, relevant.

And this is the weirdest album cover I've ever found. Rock Your Body by John Sex. First name "John", second name "Sex". Legend.

So that's everything explained. I hope you know exactly what's been going on in my life. There will be a test next week. Thirty questions, massive prize money.

All my love.

Harmy Army.

Le Swoosh

2009-08-03T10:36:00.000+01:00

C'est Chic...

Of course my moped has a Nike tick.

What do you think I am? Fass?

Bunning Gauloise Keeping It Gallic

2009-07-25T14:05:00.002+01:00

Pleasure for One

2009-07-21T15:49:00.000+01:00

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

(Perfect) Piss Part 2

2009-07-19T22:58:00.002+01:00

I told you I wouldn't shut up about it.

Taking The (Perfect) Piss

2009-07-19T20:10:00.013+01:00

This was the view, from the urinal, when I had lunch at Lord's today...

Not only "The Home of Cricket", but also home to one of the best pisses of my life.

Spending a penny after lunch in the Tavern Stand, I discovered each urinal had a porthole allowing each pisser (pissee?) a perfect uninterrupted view of the pitch. Such is the majesty of Lord's.

Cricket is soaking deeper into my brain with every year that passes. I feel like I'm being progressively brainwashed, as it now occupies a space in my head that doesn't feel appropriate for a sport. I wouldn't say it's a religious feeling, but certainly spiritual, philosophical. It feels like deep thought, a contemplative state of mind, a higher plane of consciousness. Calm, deep brooding satisfaction. Wickets, turf, slow building momentum, the scope of high theatre, run outs, misfields, Ricky Ponting's face, all punctuated by the chuckling tones of Jonathan Agnew:

One of the more consistent strains running through my blog posts is my ongoing love affair with the radio.

I'm glued to my laptop or one of the two digital Roberts (bedside+kitchen, natch). I'm passionate about it as a medium that has pioneered, persevered and lived to tell the tale.

And in Test Match Special I have found my radio zenith. Engaging, intimate, irreverent and endlessly charming, and all the while (supposedly) commentating on a spectator sport, that most people (in this day and age) prefer to watch. Like you know, with their eyes and stuff.

And yet TMS is superlative to any other activity I could ever think of, and even if I am watching cricket on TV or say in the flesh at Lord's I still have Aggers and the boys on. RESPECT

Yesterday they had this funny chap on:

And the day before this really rather un-funny chap:

Yes I know 23 is too young to be a crashing bore. But when I rule the world TMS will be blared out of loudspeakers in every town centre from here to Daventry. In this country we have a plethora of phenomenal radio stations/presenters/producers that broadcast late into the night, under-appreciated, underestimated. TMS is just one example. What these guys do (ever tried to be funny/interesting for 8 hours solid?) is unbelievable, but there is a world of shows out there to discover. So discover.

Jonners RIP

Unforgettable

2009-07-11T20:45:00.011+01:00

So just for the record I don't go out of my way to watch obscure films. I don't scour far flung satellite channels hoping to find some inspired, beardy, gem that I can be all cinephile and superior about, that's not my style. I hate all that film-oneupmanship I find it all a little, err babyish.

BUT here is a film that is worth seeing, and were it not for the persistance of my pal Joe I wouldn't have a clue it existed. It's not a classic (far from it) but is unmissable for it's sheer bare faced weirdness.

I've always found Oliver Reed films immensely watchable. This being chiefly because Olly is the doppelganger of my father. By which I mean he is his absolute twin. So no matter how dreadful the vehicle I always garner some entertainment from watching an alternate version of my dad slur his way through some old Michael Winner schtick...and guess whose behind the wheel again here?!

The plot when written down, just about makes sense: Successful ad man in very swinging 60's London, attempts to turn over new leaves. But Winners madcap, surrealist style, involving psychedelic flash backs every couple of minutes, shakes the whole thing up something rotten.

Olly is smouldering and stylish, playing his 60's Patrick Bateman as gentle and macho at the same time. Orson Welles is having an absolute shocker and looks half-cut in every single frame, (a scene where he puts a cereal box on his own head just looks like a drunk fumbling on camera). There's an endless procession of pointy breasted 60's "fillies" who are pretty ropey with the exception of Carol White, who's ok. But it's not really about the acting, or the shoddy script, or the diabolical sound dubbing...

It's about the swagger of Oliver Reed in his shawl collar, and sharp suit driving his soft-top Alpha round sunny west London in 67. It's about his weird flashbacks, to an arcane public school, and then his equally disturbing "college years" at Cambridge (naturally). It's morbid, it's silly, it's English, it's kind of shit. If that isn't enough of a reason to see a film, you shouldn't be reading this blog.

So there

I'll Never Forget What's'is'name - 6/10

Best Thing Vs Worst Thing

2009-07-10T20:57:00.004+01:00

Eternal Moonwalk

A website where (mainly South American people*) moonwalk into infinity...

It's always going to be one of those heaven or hell experiences isn't?

Make your own mind up

ChandlerX

(* South Americans love Jacko, cos he ended his life looking a bit like a sort of South American shaman, discuss?)