ok, we’re back to lego again. here is the 9th famous person i have sculpted from pure lego, zoe ball’s wife, norman cook, or fatboy slim. as it turns out, i also work with someone called norman cook, although he’s not as good a dj.
i have also been adding a few more pictures to my flickr, including this one (above) and some pictures of this year’s glastonbury.
for those of you that are interested (probably only family members at most), i’ve added a few more pictures to my flickr photostream. not too many of lego this time, but a few of our holiday to barcelona last year and some other odds and ends, like this picture of the sun setting behind battersea power station.
ok, so i’ve stolen this from boing boing, making me a useless blogger, but think yourself lucky - at least it’s not about lego. this collection of 18 tips from men’s health is pretty interesting, and i’d like to know how well they work. i think, though, that the aspect i liked most is the image in my mind of men blowing on their thumbs, or with their fingers in their ears trying to deal with minor ailments.
perhaps though, the most useless of the lot of these is:
“One too many drinks left you dizzy? Put your hand on something stable.”
erm, actually, i’d already thought of that.
even when drunk.
i will, at some point, write about something other than that little plastic toy from scandanavia, in the meantime, i’ve added some more lego minifigs and a few scenes, including one vignette, at my flickr account. so, have a look around and see arthur dent, morrissey, neil gaiman and you can see socrates pictured here.
i warned you that there would be more to come from the lego vignette front. nothing from me as yet, although i’m pretty keen to give it a go.
i’m really loving this collection from this year’s brickfest. it starts off with my favourite series i’ve seen so far of various superagent deaths by adrian drake. wonderful.
this one isn’t a vignette, rather a huge stage and minifig crowd and band. (i would like to point out that i gave the village people a go in lego prior to seeing this, that rather puts me to shame) it makes me want to give the pyramid stage at glastonbury a go, but i really don’t think that i’ve got enough bricks yet. maybe i’ll try it ready for the next festival in 2007. anyway, the picture is of the village people in full flow and was made by derjoe. broadly, though, my recommendation is to look through brickshelf - i just don’t know how i haven’t found it before. it think it might be something to do with its dated-clunkiness, but despite this, the content’s great. i just wish they’d all go and use flickr.
i know that’s it’s been around for a while now, but i like the fact that internet can still impress me. yesterday, being in a mood of self-aggrandizement, i was checking out sites that may be linking to me. rather unusually, there was one there by someone i didn’t know. it was for the wonderful vignettebricks where i’ve been listed amongst various lego-themed blogs. i can’t say i ever set out to be a lego-themed blog, but i can see why it looks that way. besides, i’m always grateful for someone thinking i’m worthy of recommending to others, and i think the lego area’s likely to grow, so i’m certainly not complaining.
still, as i looked through his site, my eyes were opened to a huge range of people that do very similar things with lego to me, although much, much better. take a look at the fantastic “evolution?!?” by Michael Jasper, or the collection of great scientists, including galileo on glencaer’s flickr photostream. i could go on and, over the next few weeks, probably will, but i just love the fact that internet shows you that there’s someone out there that does what you’re doing, but better.
famous album - check, made from a well-known child’s toy - check. dubious pun in title - check. i know this sort of thing has been done, and rather better with such works of genius as the legoly bible, but i’ve been meaning to give an album cover a go, and here’s my first attempt.
apologies for paul and ringo’s dodgy focus.
i’d been looking forward to this for a while. lipstick lickin’ by milburn is my current single of the year, and, as it turns out, the most played song on my ipod. milburn are ones to watch.
first on in the tiny tiny barfly were videofan and then action plan. they were both ok, maybe they’ll go far, maybe not. action plan got the better reception of the two, but i can’t say i was blown away by either.
milburn themselves played a wonderful gig to a great reception. the size of the venue really suited them, and although i’m not quite sure how well they’d come across in a larger place, this was brilliant. for a band that have released so little, everyone seemed to know everything. aah, the wonders of the interweb. still, they come very highly recommended. next year’s arctic monkeys.
tonight, we went to see neil gaiman interviewed by lenny henry. it was a great night and the pair bounced off each other really well. the new book anansi boys sounds wonderful and we discovered various interesting things in the world of gaiman. (lenny henry outlines most of them.)
afterwards, neil stuck around to sign 75% of london’s books. we were near the front, but he was still remarkably good tempered for a man that had the prospect of spending the rest of the evening smiling at fans and writing his name on more and more of his books. nice guy.
jack and meg, prior to jack’s chubby matador phase. all of these are available in my flickr set.
i have to thank j, t & k for their loan of some pieces for this one and the next.
ridicule is nothing to be scared of.
i’d forgotten quite how small the islington academy in angel really is. that said, when resist took to the stage, i’d never seen a small room look so empty. if anything it got emptier. with lyrics like “how can you love me when you don’t even love yourself” i’m not sure if they really deserve any more words. appalling.
next on was the much, much better john cooper-clarke. i haven’t seen him live in about 10 years, but not a lot seemed to have changed in his world since i last saw him. for me, it was always mr clarke that i’d gone to see and he didn’t disappoint.
last on, after a slightly dull video display, were the fall themselves. they put in a great performance between them, but by far the most entertaining aspect of the evening was watching mark e. smith trundling around the stage moving and stealing microphones, changing volume controls and generally fiddling with things. to the less initiated, you may think i mean this in a techy, perfectionist way. in fact, i mean it more in an inquisitive toddler way - a roadie’s nightmare. not being a huge fan of the band itself (more the idea of the band than anything else) the music did get a bit samey, but mark was more than enough entertainment by himself. tramp-rock at its very best. in tribute to him, above is the next minfig famous person.
i know i’m rather behind the times, but i came across this great magistrate’s blog today, and have spent most of the day, feeling full of cold, but having my mind taken off it by the fascinating posts. i really can’t recommend it enough.
the few foreign visitors i have may not know of the genius that is ray mears. basically, he’s a guy who’s never quite got on with the 21st century and spends a lot of his time making tools out of stone and starting fires with sticks.
i had a little trouble with this one choosing quite how to do justin’s jumpsuit - i’m reasonably happy with the result. i think the one that’s come out best is probably frankie (who, of course, has since left the band) but i’m pretty happy with it nevertheless. ebay’s currently helping me to stock up on a few more useful pieces, so there should be some more to come.
as usual, comments or suggestions for others are welcome. thanks to caliban for the a team suggestion, when i’ve got a few more pieces, they’ll be on their way in all of their miniature lego goodness.
