pootered

It would appear that even space has bugs.

And thanks, cartoonlife, for the suggestion about a bass-line for that synthy thing.

Here's a slightly buggy bass enabled space cathedral version.

phat space reason

affair

I see a part of the USA is really catering for all eventualities nowadays with the recent West Hollywood billboard advertisment for the dating service for people who are currently married.

And now there's the related advertising for the divorce lawyers. Don't they just think of everything?

everything except compromise

For part of yesterday I was with Johnny in the basement mixin' up the medicine.

And then Mark Ronson did this, which I happen to think is rather good.

reason

Minimalist music today.

I'll be honest, I don't really get on with the old school patch map based synthesizers when I mess around with music. All the wires and analogue instability which some people love, but it seems to leave a lot more to chance.

So although I have a copy of Reason, which I used to experiment with on a PC, it has never made it across to my macworld.

Until today.

It's an old copy, and I thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if I simply set up a few mournful arpeggiates on a couple of the synths included.

So it is not really a tune, more a few sweeps of sound. Perhaps it could use a bass-line.

no reason with two nn-xt

nuts

Crunching a couple of Grilled Steak and Theakston's Old Peculiar crisps, whilst I mused the derivation of Jack Straw's reference to "discombobulation" today, I noticed the disclaimer on the back of the crisp packet.

Recipe : No nuts.
Ingredients: Cannot guarantee nut free
Factory : No nuts.

What can it all mean? A disclaimer on a bag of potato crisps that havn't been anywhere near nuts, that there may still be some inside?

Are they embarrassed that they don't know whether they've included nuts by accident, or that they feel the need for an allergy disclaimer even when they don't need one?

Perhaps they couldn't make up their minds? Perhaps, like, Gordon Brown (according to Mr Straw) they were discombobulated.

If we are not going to have a General Election in the UK until 2009, despite Mr Brown's closest advisors telling the press it was 'game on', then maybe a certain confused embarrassment will now flicker over Gordon's face. A sort of discombobulation.

Recipe : Truth and trust
Ingredients : Cannot guarantee spin free
Factory : confused

tags technorati : rashbre election gordon brown jack straw discombobulation

why (fi)?

If, like me, you are busy roaming a major city this weekend, but still feel the need to go online, than this tee-shirt could be quite useful. Who needs keychain detectors when you can also operate as a public service with this black number?

The wi-fi detector tee-shirt displays glowing bars to indicate signal strength. A couple of minor problems though? It picks up peer network enabled PCs and the batteries are NOT included.

tags technorati : rashbre wi-fi t-shirt clothing street

snappy slurpy

Debra wrote a few days ago about photographing a street scene and then being semi accosted by a drunk who she had randomly captured on film. It all played out okay, but did also get me thinking.

In some places it quite easy to look like a tourist and take purposeful pictures with crowds of people in a fairly innocuous way. Other times its best to look like 'an artist' trying to take 'the perfect shot' without overtly paying attention to the folk around.

In reality, like a spy, its always good to be aware of the surroundings and the possibilty of attracting unexpected attention. Being out in a group can help and tiny digital cameras don't draw so much attention.

If I take pictures of single individuals, or small groups where they are really the focus, then I try to ask for permission. If its a 'busy street scene' or similar, then I think its fair game when the people are really an incidental part of the composition. It is like there is a line between 'street' and 'candid'. I suppose on average I'm more often waiting for people to get out of the frame when I take pictures rather than capturing them.

But I must confess my inner mad scientist is urging me to make an anonymous Starbucks coffee cup camera - because I can, if you know what I mean.

tags technorati : rashbre camera spy drink mad scientist

North West Frontier Art

Great to hear from friend Imran this week. He's been putting together a bit of a portfolio and I'm expecting great things in the future as he expands it into a gallery of some type. Imran is one of those people with a great eye for the scene and I'm looking forward to online galleries at the very least and hopefully a proper facility somewhere too!

tags technorati : rashbre art photography liverpool

travelling companion of the earth

Fifty years ago, on the 4th October, the first Russian Sputnik was launched and marked the start of the space race. Firing a silver beachball with four antenna into space led to America then galvanising the Apollo program to get Neil Armstrong and friends on the moon just 12 years later.

Sputnik Zemlyi helped give a name to the beatnik generation and heralded the Americans and Russians doing amazing things with relatively ancient high-technology - old space capsules are filled with relays and electro-mechanical componentry.

Of course, part of the agenda of sputnik was Russia's attempts to build ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and the sputnik was a first attempt to get a payload into orbit. The agenda of both superpowers continued to be around advanced weaponry and the Americans built the halls at Canaveral big enough so that rockets could be assembled ready to fly rather than having to be upturned and then fuelled (which could take more than a day).
So using today's custom Google, I checked the name of America's first satellite...Explorer 1, which orbited some four months after Russia's first success. And less than four years later the Russians put Yuri Gagarin into space in April 1961. Right now there's some 25,000 man made satellites orbiting earth with some 8,700 still in managed orbit and the remaining 16,000 or so in various stages of decay. Russia accounts for 10,000 of the broken units and the USA has around 4000 of the ones still active.

So, a few days ago, when I was looking at the International Space Station, there's some comfort to knowing it is at least a symbol of co-operation between the major countries involved, rather than owned by a single superpower with a big ray gun.

sputnik zemlyi beep beep (mp3)
fireball xl5 theme tune (mp3)

Oh, alright then, here's the Fireball XL5 tune with the credits

tags technorati : rashbre sputnik russia space race satellites

OTA : Wordless Wednesday

Every balloon a winner from Saturday's school reunion

Add a comment or trackback for Wordless Wednesday!

Tag: Wordless Wednesday trackback

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