Routemasters of the Universe

London's public transport has been progressively removing the most iconic of London buses - the two person double decker Routemaster and replacing it with single operative double deckers and European style bendy buses. The last Routemaster will be de-commissioned by the end of December. Another route (the 38) finished yesterday and was commented upon by diamond geezer. He has also ridden their bendy Mercedes replacement and noteworthy is that the new post also includes 38 tributes to the 38.

The Routemaster double deckers with the open rear platform, grab rails and twisty stairs are probably considered less safe than the shooshing doors of a more modern bus, but much more fun to ride.

The loading platform and separate conductor meant these buses could get around quite fast with passengers optimising their exits at traffic lights and when the bus was caught in traffic. Some conductors could choose a form of performance art on their routes - Duke Baysee (38 conductor) as an example. The lower deck somehow 'connects' the passengers with the street so inside and outside merge in a very different way from a closed in bus. The top deck (once the smoking deck) gives some great 'above it all' views of the bustle of London. The 73 bus project gives 73 73-word essays about the route 73. "Any more fares, please?"


Tag: London, Routemaster, bus, London Transport, No38

its warhol actually

Tin foil is a great way to start to recreate the Factory of Andy Warhol. Then add a Velvet Underground band in the corner of the room and film everything in black and white.

The blocking out of the action hasnt started yet, but there's enough film in the can to begin editing a trailer (watch this space). In this version everyone may only be famous for 15 seconds, but its immensely good fun.

And if you'd like to see some Warhol influenced performance art, check out Fischerspooner who emerge with some sweetness

Tag: music, art, warhol, film, culture

lateen

A couple of late evenings, with Thursday being so late that Ray was texting from starting his Friday morning before we'd finished the night before's revelry. Friday was mere 2 am although I think Julie's malt whisky tasting went on until around 6am. So, not much blogging in amongst John's guitar solos, the Halloween Party, the Warhol tin foil event and the mini birthday celebration. Chilled balance is just being restored. More of the tin foil later.

blogarama

When I started this blog a few months ago, as an experiment, there were reportedly 13 million blogs worldwide (a number I doubted at the time).

The latest Technorati count is saying there are now over 20 million blogs in existence. My link to this story is via empulse. I've tried to leave a comment on their site (it won't let me!).

My comment is that I am puzzled because Technorati seem to count blogs up to around 750,000 in their rankings and then to stop. This blog is currently ranked 104,660 on Technorati, although I find it hard to believe that in roughly six months I'd move from number 13 million to around the top 100k. Something doesn't seem to add up?

Anyone got any suggestions?

Tag: blog, technorati, 20000000

Thames Valley Day

Today I had to visit the Thames Valley. The river that cuts through the middle of London upstream meanders through a pretty part of the English countryside. The cottage is scene of a worrying short story from the Thames Valley writers' circle.


And this introduces National Novel Writers' Month NaNoWriMo, which runs from 1st to 30th of November. Just write 50,000 words and you have a complete novel in a month!

So here is another autumnal scene from the Thames Valley, painted by Thomas Richardson.

Can you use these scenes in a NaNoWriMo novel?

any questions?

Here is a script useful as a countermeasure against telemarketers. It can be handily left next to the telephone for those awkward moments when a friendly person calls on an overseas line to ask you some 'market research questions' which may permit you to win a cruise, mountain bike or gift voucher. Here, below, is an extract from the script...

Developed in Amsterdam by egbg and spotted by accordian guy, there is still an important decision to make at the start of the call about whether to:

a)end it fast to let the poor impoverished student making the call move to the next prospect
or
b)have some fun working through the counterscript.

Obtain a downloadable pdf of the full script by clicking here.

So - do you answer the questions from a telemarketer? hang up quickly? or what?

a new week, a new fad

Thought I'd try this breakfast coke thing. Nah. I still prefer tea or coffee.
What about you?

i predict a pumpkin

This week will be a riot of pumpkin posts, as we head towards Halloween. The best site I've seen is Lorianne's post which features a full on pumpkin fest.
And here's Mark's Jack O'Lanterns!
If you want to be scared try the all halloween blog, which also has some pretty scary pumpkins though maybe extreme pumpkins (you'll have to find your own link for that) has some that are even worse.

Have you seen/ got a good pumpkin post?

Tag: halloween, pumpkin, scary

Crude Oils

100 Westbourne Grove is showing an exhibition of banksy's art for a few days. A lot of the art (c) banksy is spread around London, on walls and in alleyways and some occasionally pops up unannounced in famous galleries both at home and abroad...

Banksy's work often has a strong societal commentary and some of the more hard edged material is on the website. I recently posted about congestion charges and surveillance in London, here is the natural extension, in one of the works.

And the chase towards finding the work is truly on!

As the sign on the way into the exhibition says, "Please do not call environmental health, they are already fully aware of the situation". Go find.

Tag: london, art, tag

in the interests of science

Listening to We Are Scientists after discussing with Melanie whilst she was dj-ing Caffeine Rush at Bailrigg. The guitar/bass/drum pop rock bar band sound have properties to become a next big thing in the UK with nerdish quirkiness appealing to the British indie scene.

The scientists are quoted as really being scientists, but starting a band was good way to kill some time until the economy picked up. With song choruses like "Human Technology Will Render You Obsolete" and album "Love and Squalor" they make interesting sounds and dreadful videos.

flock on

A really pleasant surprise is the new release of the flock social browser which integrates browsing, blogging and news rss. It links all kinds of disparate elements of my blog, my delicious, my flickr, and my favourites together.

I normally use Safari and NetNewsWire for my social web on my Mac and in PC-land I use IE and Firefox with feeddemon, so some hesitancy to flip to another environment, but flock is stable and clean looking without excess buttonage but some funkadelic features.

I only have it running on my Powerbook at the moment; next stop Windows!


By the way, there is also a parody site at flocq. Didn't take long, did it? Yes and the logo is reproduced accurately!

Tag: flock, blog, flockbuzz, geeky

advanced biscuitry

My thanks to Doris for provoking me to make this post. In the words of the Hitch-Hikers Guide - the chocolate bourbon cream is the single most perfect object known to man. For the benefit of those outside the bourbon distribution area, a bourbon cream is two rectangular chocolate biscuits roughly 3cm x 6cm, and 5mm in depth, on either side of an oval of chocolate goo which never spills out from the sides of the biscuit.



Traditional Eating Method
The Traditional Method of eating these would be to gorge in the same way you would eat, say, a digestive, though some bourbers would argue this demotes the bourbon to mere 'everyday biscuit' status and labels it fit only for basic dunking purposes. Not recommended.

Scrape Method
The more advanced Scrape Method requires that first, the top biscuit is removed and eaten whole. The body thinks, 'Okay, a chocolate bourbon biscuit without goo.' The body therefore releases its own sugar rush to compensate.

Imagine a few moments later the body's surprise when the bourber scrapes the goo with his/her bottom teeth. This double rush of chocolate renders the scrape-style bourbon eater in chocolate heaven. Once this rush is achieved the scraper will never go back to the traditional way of bourbatious mastication.


The Double Whammy
An altogether more serious delivery method is the Double Whammy. The bourber extracts the top biscuit layer with their teeth and consumes it, leaving the central cream layer as intact as possible.

Now nibble off the bottom layer of biscuit that protrudes around the cream, leaving an irregular oval of cream-on-base-biscuit.

The eater carefully snaps this remainder in half. Licking one cream half gently, the bourber (or bourbonette) places this on top of other half, pressing lightly to adhere.

The bourber carefully bites off what has now become the top layer of biscuit base. Slowly consuming the remaining piece of base, topped as it is with a luxurious double layer of cream, it is time to...

Sigh deeply.

The Super Rush
This technique is so advanced, that it was not allowed to be published in the Hitch-Hiker's Guide. Anyone attempting this does so at their own risk. Take an ENTIRE Bourbon for this. The bourber must ensure a cup of tea is already to hand and is not too hot.

Bite off a very small sliver each end of the biscuit so that there are clear rough ends. Now take one end of the bourbon in the mouth (frankly teeth are best used for this manouvre).

Now dip the other end lightly into the tea. Now DEEP DUNK and SUCK. The bourbon rush explodes in the mouth, mixed with the tea. This is a way to get the maximum hit from a single biscuit, but needs some practice.

There are some further techniques involving hairdryers, but I think you'd best make your own enquiries or email me separately for that information.

Tag: biscuit, bourbon, pleasure