masque of the red death

The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine.

Or so I've been told.

I'll have to wait a few weeks to check this out, but I do seem to have managed to blag some tix for this rather interesting evening at BAC. First part is wandering around inside a building filled with a live performance of Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death and then its down a secret path to a private party at Prince Prospero's Palace.

tags technorati : rashbre red death battersea BAC theatre avant-garde arts london buzz party masque

smashing

The saga of the lounge sofa continues and the next version is being delivered later this week. This will be the third set, based upon the various colour (yellow instead of brown) and configuration (righthanded instead of left handed) erros of the last few months. The Autostrada from Italy now charges a discount to the trucks shipping furniture to England for rashbre central.

But to keep the story going I've had another spot of bad luck. The light fitting was ordered over the internet from a well know store with a spelling similar to d*b*nh*ms. It arrived in a big box, the delivery man zoomed away at warp factor five and before opening the box I noticed an unusual rattling sound. Yes, the glass was broken into quite a few small pieces. We called to have it collected and sure enough another van picked it up a few days later.

The cost of the delivery and return was deducted from the credit card used to pay - a d*b*nh*ms store card. However, the original item was neither replaced nor had the money refunded. Now after two months there is also interest to pay on the non existent product.

Phone calls don't help; the store card is really not connected to the store and the store can't resolve the interest. They are suggesting that letters are now required. I do use the internet for quite a few purchases. This particular retailer hasn't really cracked it (well other than the glass) and at the moment I seem to be paying for their poor systems. I'll admit the amount of interest charged is pretty small, assuming the refund comes through but it's still not right. It relies on people not having time to fix these things. I just won't shop online with them again.

Anyway, to be less gloomy, at least the mac mini can now pump the internet and iTunes Front Row onto the television for those moments when there's nothing else to watch.

tags technorati : rashbre retail internet purchases sofa settee mac mini television HDTV HDMI

a nice matter

Mnemosyne, the Greek goddess of memory has a lot to answer for, if in addition to her more obvious contribution, she also influenced the derivation of the living organism known as the meme. I was rewarded with a meme a few days ago by bob-kat, who cited rashbre central as a place where 'nice matters'. So I feel honoured and then honour bound to pass the award along.

I'm already in august company, with many who have already received the award. So I thought I'd head across to a few sites that consistently amuse and challenge me, but in most cases they are the sort to normally eschew memes and similar.

So I'll start with one of my sources of Web 3, social networking in the form of webby's world which provides an almost daily commentary on new bits and pieces of our ever more online existence.

Then onto a big site...that of the most maximum bob, someone with eclectic comment, swooping between idyllic holidays in France to the merits of the helvetica typeface, via excellent critiques of classy films. And now banned in Turkey along with all of wordpress....unless you use wordpressproxy.org, of course.

I felt I should include Doris Mash (Version 2) who doesn't post daily but has some amazingly thought provoking posts which really stay in the mind.

An enjoyable site from a long way away is WindBag and Thunder in Brisbane, Australia, with a mix of folklore, mythology and amazing Flying Star Toys. I'm still trying to figure out how to negotiate with Florence for the passage of 'sweet sixteen' from Australia to England but I think my email must be disapperaing down a spam filter somewhere.

Next is actually a flickr photo stream, but it can be approached via the occasional blog called nothing to write home about. Enjoy the posts and the sumptuous photographic experiments which are easier to find on the flickr part of Debra's world.

My last one is from Vancouver. The original Netchick. I know I'm in the current writing competiton over there but for me its just for fun(I scored around 3 and the winners scored about 1000). The slightly disorganised global competition is a piece of classic fun from this original and interesting site.

Thats about the right number of people; I could easily add more and its tough to know where to stop. Fortunately I know that there's a fair few people doing this and that the 'niceness' is spreading quite well through the efforts of others. There's two forms of badge for this...The original and one which I modified. The pink crochet knitted version clashed with the usual graffiti of rashbre central.

So I'd be honoured for my nominees to accept their awards, and ask them to 'pass it forward' to hopefully make some else smile.

tags technorati : rashbre maximum bob windbag and thunder photography nice matters vancouver netchick webby's world debra niceness nice matters

arcs

I normally refer to the fun of going forward, but the last few days triggered thoughts from the past.

One moment related to childhood summer, when it was possible to lay on grass in the garden looking towards the sky at distant silvery passing planes. So when I fly back into London at this time of year, it is still light enough in early evening to pick out landmarks. If I spot the route traverses the area of my childhood, then I look for landmarks of the river, certain roads and the area of that garden, so I can look back from the plane to the spot where I used to gaze upwards. My return from Amsterdam this week gave a perfect moment.

And then, today, I was propelled into another situation evoking the past, an improbable amalgam of people, illustrating possibilities and paths. Yes, it was a school re-union.

tags technorati : rashbre childhood sky planes stars school renunion west hatch london

burma

Calling Burma by its other name is what the junta wants. The military rulers of the country have been systematically quelling the pro-democracy protesters, of whom a large proportion appear to be Burmese monks. China is a major trading partner to Burma and has been supplying arms to support the junta, whilst resisting the efforts of the United Nations to exercise sanctions. China has also developed ports, factories and power plants in the country as a way to further its own economy.

Here is another corner of the world where major state imposed tyranny pushes the population back with brutal suppression. Neighboring China's agenda is supposed to be one of stability in the region, although its own record illustrates that its not too picky if that is achieved using guns and tanks as a form of suppression. China's eyes are also on its upcoming Communist Party politburo reshuffle and the 2008 Olympics as a global stage.

So now we have a United Nations envoy visiting Rangoon and the United States in discussions with China about the situation. The new global dependencies on China as a manufacturing base as well as a still largely untapped market, yet alone the host to the global games create interesting dilemmas for the economies of the west, where olden day threats of sanctions now get balanced against unintended consequences to global economies.

So will appeal to either Burma or China make a difference? The world watches.

tags technorati : rashbre burma china injustice sanctions rangoon monks

touching

Slight hiccup today when it emerged that a photo of an MP (the Secretary of State) was slightly 'retouched' because he hadn't actually been present when the picture was taken. Some other MPs turned up on time, but the final picture seems to have accidentally merged them with the separate picture of the missing person. A terrible mix-up, even the hospital trust where the photo was taken and the MP's press office appeared confused.

In this new era of spin free politics, exemplified by the recent original speeches from Gordon Brown we must guard against accidentally being misled by this kind of thing.

In another news item, Gordon has just published a new book about everyday heroes, which he claims to have written himself after talking to the people featured. I see its being serialised in the Daily Mail at the moment. Interesting that several of the people featured in the extensive chapters had only (allegedly) had brief 3-4 minute phone calls with the man until they met him at the book launch. We should be under no illusion about the power of his words.

generally speaking

I was expecting an announcement about a general election for the UK today. By my reckoning, if there was to be an election before the end of the year, it would need to be in October at the latest. I don't know quite how many weeks notice one has to give, but I'm guessing 4 weeks or a calendar month. Elections are usually on a Thursday, so that limits the number of dates left.

I can't imagine we'd have an election too close to Christmas; that rules out December. November starts to see grotty weather and coldness, so that could put off voters visiting their polling stations. The week of Guy Fawkes Night would be a strange time to vote for a new Parliament (after all, Guy Fawkes was the fellah that tried to blow up Parliament), so my bet would have been for the last Thursday in October. Thats the 25th October. Or at a pinch the 1st of November.

But as we are past the calendar month point and we have a weekend in front of us, I'd have thought now would have been the time to announce it. The Conservative conference probably throws a spanner in the works. If it was announced this weekend then the half of the Conservative MPs that make the trip to Blackpool could have a field day chatting about it. That means it could be as late as next Thursday before an announcement, with a view to also running a spoiler on the Conservative conference output.

Its interesting, because the latest the UK has had an election in any year since 1945 was 25 October in 1951. Never November, December or January and the earliest date in February is 23rd. So if it isn't by 25th October/1st November, then I wonder if we will wait until next February/March? Strictly, of course, we don't need to have an election until 2009, but I can't see Gordon waiting that long. Presumably some of the monetary gremlins will start to go munching if its left too long.

The chart below shows my 'look back into history' view of the last 50 or so years of votes. Nearest (biggest) are the most recent ones...


And here it is as a table:

So will UK get an election? I suppose its still anybody's guess?

Thursday Thirteen (V46)

1) Today, I awoke to start the day in darkness
2) Today, I left the house to start work in darkness
3) Early today, When I looked into the sky, I could see a bright moon as well as some space hardware.
4) The brightest item appeared to be what I guess was the space station.
5) Today, when I arrived at the airport, it was still dark.
6) Today, I watched the sun rising like a big red ball from the window of the plane parked on the tarmac.
7) Today, when I arrived at my destination, there was a big rather menacing looking black car which swooped in to pick me up. Several people looked around becuase it was one of those funny sunglasses and dark clothing moments.
8) My driver was on the cellphone for the whole journey, speaking Dutch and trying to sell a camper van for €11,000.
9 Today, at lunchtime, I completely randomly bumped into a friend who I havn't seen for a while and we had a brief chat

10) Today, in the late afternoon, I requested a car back to the airport and on the way the driver diverted to pickup the same friend I'd met at lunchtme, who was working in a nearby office block
11) We chatted together in the airport lounge before going our separate ways on different planes
12) Today, I arrived back over London just as it was getting dark.
13) Today, it was dark when I got home; the moon was shining again but I couldn't see the space station.
Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday

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View from my hotel, Zaventem, Belgium

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Thanks mar

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a nice matter

My thanks to bob-kat for the flattering nomination for the 'nice matters' award.

Correctly, bob-kat and mar surmised that the standard form of the award might not look comfortable on rashbre central, so the art department had a very quick go at a makeover. The original main components are a white low heeled shoe, some pink ribbon and a lot of pink flowers.

This, perhaps slightly edgier, variation uses a red soled, black high-heeled louboutin, some red ribbon and some co-ordinated black-fronted red-backed nail varnish instead of flowers. I think it does the trick. Anyway, the real award picture is here if you want to compare.

I'll do nominations when my brain is working again. And a big thank you to bob-kat.

reserved reversal

Yesterday, after playing with bicycles, I was working in London and then tucked away in a hotel for the evening.

Earlier in the day I'd listened to some of the new KT Tunstall album in my car and was slightly taken aback. The album starts with a track that could easily have been on a Sheryl Crow recording and uses some similar production values too. Nothing against Sheryl, but the point with KT Tunstall was that she sounded like, well, KT Tunstall. The next track continued with a shimmered studio production and for me this hides some of the 'gaps between the sounds' that make the earlier Tunstall albums interesting. The 'eye to the telescope' sold several million, so I guess the record company know what they are doing, but I also suppose that's part of the point. Its not good if all artists get produced in a way that tends to make them bland or derivative.

I'll be in a minority on this, I'm sure, and other people have already said how 'drastic' and 'fantastic' the new album is. But then a strange thing happened...

...In my hotel, I discovered a way to listen to the album that somehow changes my initial impression.

Earlier, I'd copied the CD into iTunes and then dropped it into my iPod.

The hotel had a little plug on the clock radio (as they do nowadays) so that I could play my iPod and I casually selected 'recently added'.

The result was to listen to the same album, but with all of the tracks played in the reverse sequence (ahem on a lo-fi radio system). And you know something? It somehow sounds better! Old vinyls were often put together with care for the sequencing, but I'm not so sure nowadays. Certainly the reverse sequence sets a different initial tone and guides the listener towards some of the more heavily produced material. So when I get a few spare moments, I shall re-cut the album, in reverse track order, back to CD for my car and listen again.

So concluding, what with my PJ Harvey post a couple of days ago, I thought the PJ image from Slane 2003 and the KT 2007 album cover could do with some comparison.