Friday, 26 August 2016
alternative parallel parking techniques
This time we've been off to Jody Scheckter's farm at Laverstoke in Hampshire. The Carfest South event is like an open air festival, with music, tents, food and cars. Lots of them, with some fairly unusual ones zooming around a track.
Just like most modern festivals, there's also a good supply of street food and specialty drinks available from local traders as well as the increasingly sighted bigger players like Marks and Spencers and Waitrose. I'm guessing it won't be long before Amazon start to show up to these events. Order with Amazon Now and pick up at the event?
Actually M&S had a mix your own smoothie on a bicycle component, whilst Waitrose had a deconstructed Ploughman's Lunch on a cheeseboard served with Prosecco.
As well as the big stages and music, there was a notable array of fancy cars on show too. A chance to try out the latest Maserati or even one of those Jaguar SUVs, which can go up an almost vertical incline. In Scalextric fashion, I reckon they are really Range Rovers with a different shell.
Unlike my brochure illustration above, a notable trend among the new cars on display was to have the entire chrome work painted black, as well as blackened wheels. Whatever the reason, there were lines of people waiting to try out the new F-PACE and take it up and down the slopes.
They seemed to be doing better than some of the cars going along the straight bits, like this little blue number which managed to ride up the grass just in front of me. Difficult keeping some of these cars going in a straight line, although, come to think of it, other cars more or less defined straight lines and it was difficult imagining them turning in less than a field width.
Also a chance to catch a few new cars whizzing around, like this one, with its understated exhaust system and special smoking tyres.
And entertaining moments watching the antics of three bright yellow cars which seemed to be able to complete the equivalent of a parallel parking manoeuvre at about 50 mph.
Don't try this at home, as the announcer mentioned.
I'll remember that as I head over to the buffalo ice cream tent. Come to think of it, I'm not driving today, so maybe even a Pimms before listening to some music in a field.
whatsup? just a few more messages from randomised sponsors
My Facebook deliberations continue. Every day, it handles something like 10 billion messages, 4.5 billion hits on the ‘like’ button and 350 million new picture uploads.
I see they are now about to blend their sub-company WhatsApp's data with Facebook, so that they have ready access to phone numbers which can be used in marketing and *ahem* 'offer' messages from corporations.
Yep, it's all about the money.
I can't help thinking that the Facebook client looks like a badly engineered legacy environment. Things you'd want to do to arrange information as an end-user just aren't available or obvious. Most of the control is behind the scenes.
Some of that design will be deliberate, like obscuring the buttons to opt out of certain things, but the rest looks messy. I'm sure the millennial view is that it doesn't matter and a blast of Hadoop or Spark can make it all make sense.
Just splatter a few number crunchers over the top and sell the results to marketeers.
I'm not sure. Even with the post rationalist architectural drawings, I sense snake oil lubricants in the machine.
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Thursday Thirteen 100: a movie list
I see the BBC has recently polled a bunch of critics about the top films of the 21st Century.
It's an interesting list because it largely avoids mass market movies that may sell well at the box office but are largely derivatives of a franchise. There's also a few in the list that somehow 'feel' as if they have been around longer than the list implies - Lost in Translation is 2003, for example.
I estimate to have seen around only half of the ones listed, so there's an interesting project to look up a few more that have somehow slipped past.
The top spot goes to a movie which I have watched two or three times. David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. A displaced Hollywood dream. No wonder the critics enjoy it. I'm not sure if I'd put it top, although I'd have it in my upper quartile at least.
A low budget one that's made the list is David Glazer's haunting Under the Skin, which I've also seen several times and its good that the original Tomas Alfredson version of Let The Right One In is included instead of the re-make.
Much to consider, if you like movies. Feel free to scroll...
21st Century 100 Greatest Films - BBC Poll
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
poking around inside Facebook
My use of Facebook has always been limited.
I didn't much care for the face mash premise of the original site, found the whole 'throwing sheep' era bizarre and except for a period where I auto-copied blog posts across, my use has been mainly as a backup for occasional marketing.
Recently I took a look at Facebook's own automated marketing aimed back at me.
They are far from the mark, deriving preferences for Daily Mail, Hong Kong English pop, Michael Flatley and Indian sanskrit voluntary organisations.
Maybe that's my price of erratic usage, or possibly it's as share-price-destroyingly bad with everyone else?
Sunday, 21 August 2016
#FANS magic marker @thesixtwenty
A couple of extra cuts of the video. Tilted and Oh Well.
ça ne tient pas debout
Le ciel coule sur mes mains
ça ne tiens pas debout
Sous mes pieds le ciel revient
Under my feet the sky comes back
Friday, 19 August 2016
#FANS @thesixtwenty promo video - 180g vinyl edition
FANS
Theatre meets gig.
A show for anyone who’s ever loved music.
Should be enjoyed at Maximum Volume
Based on people’s love affair with music, FANS is an eclectic mix of stories told through raucous live music, scripted drama and verbatim theatre.
Full of emotion, humour and musical pulse, featuring real fan confessions from North East England music fans.
Part gig. Part Musical. FANS includes well known hits, original music and a cast of top local musicians and performers. It’s a loud, fun and heart-warming tribute to music lovers.
@thesixtwenty #FANS
Book online : thesixtwenty.com 6 September to 1 October North East
CAST : Meghan Doyle, Andrew Bleakley, Chris Foley and Charlotte Raine
Conceived and Directed by Melanie Rashbrooke.
Written by Nina Berry. Designed by Luke W. Robson
Technical Manager Craig Spence, Musical Director Chris Foley
Created through Bridging the Gap, an ARC initiative with Arts Centre Washington, Alnwick Playhouse & Northern Stage.
Supported by public funding by Arts Council England and The Sunday for Sammy Trust.
#FANS @thesixtwenty @arcstockton @AlnPlayhouse @ArtsCtrWton @northernstage @altweet_pet @welovencl @whatsonne
Thursday, 18 August 2016
#FANS @thesixtwenty @arcstockton @AlnPlayhouse @ArtsCtrWton @northernstage @altweet_pet @welovencl @whatsonne
Time to meet a few FANS.
FANS
Theatre meets gig.
A show for anyone who’s ever loved music.
Should be enjoyed at Maximum Volume
Based on people’s love affair with music, FANS is an eclectic mix of stories told through raucous live music, scripted drama and verbatim theatre.
Full of emotion , humour and musical pulse. featuring real fan confessions from North East England music fans.
Part gig. Part Musical. FANS includes well known hits, original music and a cast of top local musicians and performers.
It’s a loud, fun and heart-warming tribute to music lovers.
@thesixtwenty #FANS
Book online : http://thesixtwenty.com
FANS
Theatre meets gig.
A show for anyone who’s ever loved music.
Should be enjoyed at Maximum Volume
Based on people’s love affair with music, FANS is an eclectic mix of stories told through raucous live music, scripted drama and verbatim theatre.
Full of emotion , humour and musical pulse. featuring real fan confessions from North East England music fans.
Part gig. Part Musical. FANS includes well known hits, original music and a cast of top local musicians and performers.
It’s a loud, fun and heart-warming tribute to music lovers.
@thesixtwenty #FANS
Book online : http://thesixtwenty.com
Wednesday, 17 August 2016
Lightroom to eleven for #FANS
We are starting to assemble a press pack and some promo pictures for FANS now.
There's the requirement for headshots, group shots, exteriors and promo shots with the logo included. I'm sure some will appear on twitter too, so there's a need for some with that very wide format.
Time to turn Lightroom up to 11.
*no walls damaged during the making of this picture
And, of course, that 'eleven' moment.
Tuesday, 16 August 2016
a day on the island
Maybe time for a little boat trip.
Across to the island.
Be there in time for breakfast at the train station that doesn't run any trains.
Although it does have a passing trade in cyclists and walkers.
Then find a spot of beach that nobody else uses to spend some hours counting the waves.
Okay, a few people might use it.
And perhaps visit somewhere with more of a seaside postcard look.
Before thinking about something else to eat, perhaps brought in across the jetty.
Then evening in the busy town.
Aware that the sun is going down.
Then to head back for the harbour.
Wait for the crossing back.
And check out the moon.
Monday, 15 August 2016
bikes designed to be cycled anti-clockwise
I noticed that some of the USA Olympic cycling team have been riding around on a left-sided bike. By that, I mean that the bike chain is on the other side.
To start with I wondered if I was mistaken, but it's a definite thing this time around as part of the engineering. The design has been optimised for the direction that bikes go around the track in a velodrome.
I'm all for finding marginal gains, improving aerodynamics and so on, but I can't help wondering if this apparently yaw reducing optimisation is a little unbalanced compared with everyone else?
I assume there's no rules about this type of thing, although I seem to recollect that lightweight carbon frames and the use of disk brakes have previously caused issues when the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has taken a look.
Maybe it's all different for the Olympics?
Sunday, 14 August 2016
#FANS start guitar practice @thesixtwenty
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