pootling

Original link here.

This is the last chance that I think I’m likely to get to blog before Christmas, since our family are going to some god-forsaken country (Wales) to celebrate the festive period. So let me take this chance to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a great new year. From my point of view, I don’t think this Christmas, or 2007, could be any worse than last Christmas, or 2006!

Have a good one. And thanks for reading.

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You’re a kid. One night, you decide, against your parents wishes, to stay up late and watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In the morning, your parents find you in your room, in the same bed as your brother, with all the lights on.

So they decide to wake you up as Kottke says, creatively:

Julie Kennedy was shocked by her 10-year old son’s confession that his teacher at B.C. Haynie Elementary School in Morrow “tied him up like an animal” on an Oct. 26 field trip to the Atlanta History Center.

Her son’s fourth grade class was warned by their teacher before the trip that she would tie the children up with a jump rope if they misbehaved.

The children didn’t take her seriously, but she made good on her threat, according to Kennedy, when Kennedy’s son walked over to another boy in his class at the beginning of the tour and struck up a conversation.

Kennedy’s son was one of five children in the class, who had the jump rope tied around their wrists and were led around the museum by the teacher.

When I was training to be a teacher, I was always told to follow through with any threats made to the class. Otherwise the children will never respect you. Another year doing that job, and I’d probably have been doing this too.

Eddie Campbell’s blog is proving to be one of the best comic-related blogs around. Today there’s a few of Alan Moore’s photos of London and the drawings that Eddie turned them into. I bought From Hell today, after an enormous wait (well, it felt like it) for it to come back into print. I can’t wait to read it over Christmas, so I hope my family weren’t expecting any sparkling conversation from me.

Frankly, they probably weren’t.

This is a drawing that Eddie used for the frontispiece of the Collected Alan Moore Scripts Volume 1.

Update: Eddie has continued with the series and here are Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and a postscript. They make for a fascinating read. In other news, I did start and finish reading From Hell over Christmas, and it didn’t disappoint. My family coped without the conversation.

Here’s Michel Gondry, the fantastic film director, solving a Rubik Cube with his feet:

And for those of you who like their magic explained, here’s how he did it:

(via Kottke)

Please can people stop calling racist fuckwit holocaust-denier David Irving a historian? He’s not a historian, he’s a twat.

Stop sniggering at the back. I mean this:

Impressive. Youtube link. (via Neatorama)

I always love it when there’s a new section added to the wonderful Brick Testament - this time it’s the story of David and Goliath, amongst a few other things.

Google provide another interesting addition to their catalogue with a patent search engine. Check if your great idea has been done before. Laugh at what people think is worth patenting. Check when something was first patented (this toupee-strengthening device is from 1926). (via Lifehacker)

Song Of The Week seems to be getting later and later as time goes on. I used to write it on Saturdays or Sundays, then it became Mondays and now it seems to have found its way to a Wednesday. Sooner or later you fine people are going to miss out on one whole SOTW. My apologies for short-changing you.

Anywho, lots of people in 2006 have been enjoying Gnarls Barkley’s wonderful St Elsewhere. I was rather surprised to find out, therefore, that Cee-Lo’s solo work seems, if anything better. This might be because the time that St Elsewhere was released, it was a pretty shitty time, and it kind of gives me mixed pleasure.

The album is modestly entitled Cee-lo Green Is The Soul Machine is so good that I’m surprised no-one had told me about it before. I need to get out more. It starts with the very cutesy, but surprisingly endearing sound of Cee-lo talking to his son before ploughing into this song. It could have been made in the 70s were it not for odd snatch of music that shouldn’t quite work. A little hip-hop here, some gangster rap there and you realise you’re listening to something new.

Soul Machine probably isn’t the best track on the album (All Day Love Affair is, for one, better) but I think that I’ve been listening to this track more because I love the way that it just shows you what the whole album is about - funky, soulful, pompous and absolutely wonderful.

I’m pretty sure that these are almost all photoshops, but quite an intriguing collection nonetheless.

I suppose Russia’s a pretty huge county, but I’ve been amazed recently at the quality of the weird things found on the site English Russia. This collection of Russian playgrounds is just downright freaky.

As you might have noticed, the links have moved from being a daily blog post, which never quite worked properly, and frankly, looked a little untidy. So, I’ve moved them to the sidebar instead.

Don’t all crush at once, there’s enough room for everyone to see.

It’s weird the way that music seems to have to need the right moment to get into your head. Months and months ago, I downloaded this song by Iron and Wine, thinking that it didn’t sound bad. Then, last weekend, I listened to it again, and it was like a revelation.

I think one of the reasons that I missed it last time around is that it’s a very understated song. It’s tender, and sweet, and quiet. It doesn’t slap you round the face in the way that a song like last week’s can, but instead it just creeps up on you.

I also like people like Sam Beam, who are really solo performers, but don’t want to miss out on the making up of a band name like Iron and Wine.

Oh yeah, and sorry SOTW’s a little late this week, but things have been rather busy of late.