supporting bobkat's six from six meme

I was tagged by Bob-kat for this post and decided I'd give it a go. The instructions were to dip into the sixth photo folder and find the sixth picture. I use Aperture for stashing my pictures so this was pretty straightforward, although the pictures are from way back in 2001 on a Sony Cybershot 1.3 Megapixel camera.

Number six happens to be of the Hollywood sign, because I was around Los Angeles at the time, staying in a rather nice suite at Merv Griffith's Beverly Hills Hotel.

L.A. can be a fun place and in between Santa Monica beach, Mulholland Drive and Hollywood Boulevard, we also meandered along Rodeo Drive and had swished around using the free limo services between the "Pretty Woman" Wilshire and some of the other hotels.

We managed to see one of those hand-print ceremonies too, right outside the Graumann's Chinese Theatre, where Nick Cage was being 'printed', accompanied by Jim Carrey and with Jay Leno doing the speeches.

I've some video footage of some of this somewhere; maybe I should look it out for a whimsical post over the next few weeks. And because the area is close to Naomi's home, I've added a couple of other views, from the Griffith Park Observatory towards Vermont and Downtown.

I won't tag anyone else for this, although it is kinda fun. feel free to play along...

Vermont Ave, thanks Naomi. My guess at La Brea was a bit mis-placed!

Los Angeles Downtown

"Hooray for Hollywood"

UPDATE Just for fun, I found a picture I'd taken of Century City in 2001...and then one from Naomi's blog a few days ago!

mine above

Naomi's with the stunning sunset

jam busting hints needed for west london sundays

I was on the trail of missing identity cards yesterday. Not mine, but things needed early on Monday for a visit to a Notary related to some US-based matters. The administration of identity requires increasingly more documentation and some papers were in the wrong place.

I used the car but became stuck in Sunday's west London traffic between six and seven pm. My sat-nav gave a hint of the reason, because the little red traffic jam cars were flashing on most of the roads around Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush and heading back towards the central area. I have not checked what time the mega-mall Westfields closes on a Sunday, but assume there is some connection. I shall need to pay more attention in future.

Similarly, I noticed an abnormally large and steady flow of shoppers with 'out of area' carrier bags coming from Gloucester Road tube, so I'm wondering if the new mall is beginning to pick up some trade, even in these challenged economic times?

hotel moments

Its not fair for me to tell you the events I've been party to in the last little while. They wove separately around the distinct Valentine's fun but have an altogether different outlook.

Let's just say there were some macabre twists and if anything it is ratcheting up to be even more perverse.

I'm assuming that John will be checking up on Julia later and that maybe the old man and the noisy ones from the ad agency have gone away.

I'll be briefly flitting into craziequeen's blog party, which has a far more uplifting tone!

valentine heart

Feb 14th, eh? Saint Valentine's Day with its suitably dispatched and received tokens.

Of course, many use it as an excuse to bemoan commercialism and twee-ness although any half romantic should embrace the moment.

Strange, then, to see that the Guardian's special site for Valentine pictures only has seven snaps, of which at least three are from the newspaper itself and another one is of some red edible underwear.

Even the mainstay of flickr has somewhat limited photographic moments, so I'll assume that most people want to keep their loved ones close.

Our plans are to be on the above corner at eight and then get out of this place. We'll kiss the first of a million kisses and let the past fall away. Just like the song.

mind the gap

I've been mostly away from blog-world this week and the resultant posts of the last few days are quite terse and opportunistic.

In general I don't like putting several youtube-esque posts next to one another; I suppose it is better to regard the last week as something of a 'Gap' from normal posts, although I suspect I'm the only one that will notice.

Bizarrely, some of the quirky offcuts like the preceding Cadbury's post received more hits than I might have expected, although I personally dislike the original advertisement to the point of wishing to channel hop if I see it on television.

In other news, I received back an electronic 'proof' copy of 'the book', which I shall try to proof read myself at some point over the weekend. I'm not so familiar with the publishing process but assume that this is my last chance to get it right or hit the eject button.

There's also some fun associated with cover design, where I have a few basic requirements, like the need for orange and a statutory triangle somewhere. I've tried not to be a 'book-bore' about this, but as the real threat of publication starts to loom, I suppose I'd better start thinking about the Hollywood film rights. 2010, maybe?

shocking cadburys advert

Cadbury's Eyebrow advert, the unseen truth from HappyToast on Vimeo.

I used to think Cadbury made good advertisements for their chocolates, but I do find the current one rather shocking.

liquidity easement

woke up this morning,
with no money in my shoes,
woke up this morning, yeah;
the rooster was already loose.

he'd woken up them bankers early;
they'd been at their chairman's meet.
got themselves re-mun-er-a-tion,
got themselves a money feast.

its li-li-quidity easement,
liquidity easement blues.
yeah, li-li-quidity easement,
money grabbin' blues.

my girl she has a left me,
my hound dog he did too.
the bourbon bottle's empty,
an' I can't afford no food.

they taken all my fur-ni-ture;
I'm eatin' shoe shine wax.
and all around they're tellin' me
that the moneys gone down the fax.

I got liquidity easement,
liquidity easement blues.
li-li-quidity easy meant
quick fire bonus blues.

So if you work near Wall Street
or in a big Si-tay:
then take the bonus quickly
before the money goes away.

i got liquidity easement
money printing blues.
I'm seeing all new money made,
those cats have nothin' to lose.

li-li-quidity easement,
money printing blues.
li-li-quidity easement,
snow ball bonus blues.

Written at 137 bus-stop. Use E, D and maybe an occasional A. Add table salt to taste.

n.b. I know I moved this post. It was to break up having two videos next to one another.

secret cinema has rock gods this weekend

This Sunday you'll need messy hair for the rock gods. Bring a flag. Info on the secret venue is here, but tell no-one

refuelled with geranium sorbet

Not much time for blogging because I seem to have early starts and rather late finishes to the day. The food is excellent and the geranium sorbet cleared the palate wonderfully.

It's snowing, so I feel quite at home.

expresso post

Limited time; having to drink small coffees and talk fast.

blue flashing lights are affecting my listening choices

I want to be listening to music that brings the cops around at the moment. High clock speed. Not necessarily loud, but with something to say.

So somehow Andrew Bird's new CD isn't quite doing it for me, despite my high hopes. Noble Beast. It's all pleasant enough, highly accomplished and sonically beautiful. I think it will work well as dinner party background music, but I'm not sure that I'd listen to it as a direct choice. The reviewers appear to be giving it excellent scores, and I'm sure its just me that's out of step.

Take "Not a Robot, but a ghost", which is supposed to be a stand-out track and has some clever ticky-tocky mechanicals in it, gypsy mandolin and sentient machines. I'm still finding it passing me by as a sort of swishy sweep.

Its just a passing phase I know. I shall have to keep listening to songs with titles like "Incident in a Medical Clinic" and "Burn your life down" until I come out the other side. Reprieved until a retinue of moons have passed.

snowballs from rashbre to a few blogs

A round-up of some of the UK snow posts from a few visitors to rashbre central. I don't have time to visit everyone's actual gardens, but I hope these few decently packed snowballs from here will suffice.

Take a look around!

sleepypete's snowman may not be the biggest, but certainly has character.

amanda palmer has imported snow from Boston, and is now carrying it to Paris and Barcelona.

bob-kat is demonstrating a variation on 'leave no trace'.

laquet waited ages to get this picture with not a school child or teacher in sight.

craziequeen observes Narnia variations from the palace.

niall constructs a highly impressive snowman. Check out the full version.

daily fortnight notes that the News agrees to stop so that BBC can show more pictures of snow.

debra shows another (Grrr) utterly scenic idyll. Jealous? ....

warriorgrrl Yes she makes snow (with bouncy dog).

clarissa continues as international businesswoman of mystery.

lady banana is deep in thought snow.

maximum bob is burning some form of smoky substance and may be a while.

nikki-ann creates another perfect photo with specially trained stunt robin.

pat arranges the garden to look spectacular for snow scene.

electric goose seeks an edgy urban snowman from the vast neighbourhood collection.

three leggged cat shows us how its done in Sheffield.

Its nearly all gone around here now.