Mac Daddy

I want to do a multimedia course - it says you need experience of Apple Macs - do I need to pay £100 for the Beginner's Guide to Macs course first, or can I just wing it? They can't be that different to PCs - can they?

Hot links

I know you all keep an eye religiously on my Delicious links, (they're down there, just there, on the right, see?) but worth posting these amazing discoveries up here, I feel:

Pretty Dumb Things - Chelsea G Summers - she has been blogging a good old while but I've only just come across her. Very, very interesting and articulate writing on relationships. I especially liked the 'Girl Walks Into A Bar...' post.

The Flickr stream of Tom Stone, street photographer based in San Francisco. Breath-taking portraits in the grand tradition of Dorothea Lange, Brassai, W. Eugene Smith... I'm not jealous at all, oh no.

From the creative genius of darling RoMo , the Mother of all things Rock, comes From the Basement - if you like the White Stripes, Thom Yorke, Beck, Sonic Youth, Eels, Architecture in Helsinki etc etc, her music series offers a smorgasbord of straight-up, live & beautifully filmed musical goodness. Enough to make me subscribe to Sky...

In other news, our Universal Soldier is back from Iraq - huzzah! Do go and say hello. If enough of us visit, he might spill the beans...

This is not my beautiful house

Breaking blog silence for a brief update.

Lost flat.

Fuck.

But, bought bra to make up for it:

Bra

Where would we be without retail therapy?




PS: Thanks for all good wishes...

My tether

I have found the end of it.

Well my friends, this blog will be taking a break until 2008. Happy holidays! See you on the other side...

Toxic

Everyone I work with is amazing. In a peripatetic career, I've come across only a few workplaces where there is no politics, everyone just gets on with their job, and speaks to each other with respect, and respects what everyone does.

Except (of course) for one person. One highly toxic person.

How do you deal with a toxic colleague?

Ho ho ho

It's that time of year again when the mood comes upon me to give gifts (of electronic linkery) to my regulars. Last year it was virtual presents, but this year it is all music. (Was going to do actual mp3s but the thought of uploading them all onto YouSendIt was a bit too much, so they're only YouTube clips. Soz. I still thought long and hard about what you'd like.)

Happy holidays!

Rockmother gets some Belle Stars action
(I met Miranda, the saxophonist with the big hat, now working as a makeup artist, and she told me that she NEVER KNEW HOW TO PLAY THE SAXOPHONE - ooh, the perfidy of the pop world!)

No idea of Wyndham's musical preferences - so he get this rather beautiful and moving tribute to Sergio Leone - in lego

Annie - gets some Protection (I don't know if you like Massive Attack but saw this video on holiday in a hotel room in Saigon and was absolutely riveted, so thought a budding cinematographer might like it too)

Arabella gets vintage Sly with his Family Stone - as a woman of style and sophistication I know you'll appreciate his fashion forwardness - check out his HAT!

Betty gets another version of Quannum's I Changed My Mind, which she liked on a podcast.

For Ben, a fan of the elegantly dressed, it's Rita Hayworth doing Put the Blame On Mame. You don't get much more elegant than that. Yes I've posted it before, but worth posting again, I feel.

For BiB, Gin Soaked Boy by the Divine Comedy. I never heard this before, just was browsing and it made me think of you, for some reason.

I was racking my brains for Geoff, til I saw that he's a fan of lady reggae stars - voila! He gets Althea and Donna. I aspire to a 'fro like Donna's (or is it Althea's?) All together now: Love is all I bring, inna me khaki suit an ting...

Tim gets vintage Elvis Costelloe. Can't stop listening to this song, it's like an addiction...

Dan gets What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend - it is a fabulously strange song and a strange video, like Dan's fabulously strange blog.

DJ Del has quite enough music. He gets this Snoopy t-shirt instead.

Rad gets Kelis, lucky him. Mamma mia, she is hot!

for GSE, the slinky tango-influenced Gotan Project

I seem to recall that Alda went to see jazz in New York. I know nada about jazz, but you probably can't go wrong with John Coltrane...

For Greavsie, a baby Stevie Wonder singing one of my favourite tunes.

LC - what else, but the original Monkey Man?

Llewtrah - gets some Killer Queen. I've no idea why. It's worth checking out just for Freddie's fur coat.

Matt - some of the glorious Mala Rodriguez, the only one I could think of who'd possibly like flamenco-flavoured hip hop in Spanish

Marsha gets Screamin Jay Hawkins I Put A Spell On You - what showmanship! And some supreme arsing around at the beginning. Old Screamin' Jay was claustrophobic and used to have panic attacks when they shut him in the coffin at the beginning of his act.

Billy gets some So-Called because he has eclectic, not to say odd, taste in music

Patroclus - Bullets - Tunng - not so impressed with the song, but crazy about the odd home-made looking video, which is like Space Oddity crossed with a 70s children's programme

Taiga has We Are Scientists cover of Sigur Ros' Hoppipolla - I like the video of the old people acting like delinquents.

The Curve gets my old favourite, Geno. This was the last time pop stars could get away with beanie hats like Benny off Crossroads.

Istvanski gets Jimi (playing Hear My Train A Comin)

Emma gets a little bit of bluegrass. And George Clooney.

Bad Sarah gets our heroine Deborah with an unexpected backing band

Phew, I'm exhausted. I may take to my bed now, with a flagon of egg-nog.

Teh Early Years

Inspired by Betty & Geoff's magnificent early 'show me the child at 7' photo history, I thought I would share this with you. I think we should make it a meme, what do you think?

Here - unlike Betty and Geoff I am dead happy, because I have possession of the biscuit tin. Not only did it contain biscuits, but was flowery and had a useful handle that meant you could carry it around like a handbag.

Clearly something happened to this cheery soul - regard this photo, taken some time later.




G'wan, you know you want to.

Too much blogging

I had a dream about a blogmeet. In it, I was distressed because I'd only found out afterwards that someone sitting in the corner was Greavsie, only I didn't realise it was him, so I didn't get to talk to him. Also, he was holding a stone in his hand - everyone had these little objects and artefacts on them. Maybe they were a real life replacement for online avatars... I have no idea of the significance of Greavsie's stone.

Anyway, I was thinking, half-awake as I was waking up, (possibly not the best time for bright ideas) that we should have a blogmeet where everyone came in fancy dress. It would be hi-lar-ious, don't you think? What would you come as?

In other news, Taiga's Superlon Mystery Advent Calender is back! Hurrah!