i get no respect

Extract from my 7 year old niece's latest missive:


She speaks the truth, though. My bum does indeed crack.

JUST KILL YOURSELF ALREADY

Was bored bored bored at this. Utterly stupefied. The Albert Hall has a real water garden! Nearly threw myself in.

Happy 2011 - fantastic data visualization shows things are getting better

Not for everyone, and not all the time, but *overall*. This fantastic data visualization from Hans Rosling (thanks for sending Steve!) shows how:



Let us not rest, but find more and better ways to increase equality without losing the gains we've already made.

Happy New Year.

Amongst the Beatles on iTunes anti-climactic hoo-ha, there is something really worth checking out

Everyone agrees Apple's announcement today (2,613 articles...really!? Who needs to pay for publicity, eh?) was a bit of an anti-climax. (Not to mention the other big story of the day...3,827 articles, REALLY!?) In the unlikely event you care and don't already have the songs, you can get the The Beatles 1967-1970 set on Amazon for 7.99, a saving of TEN POUNDS on the iTunes price. And you can rip it at a better bitrate, give a copy to your friends, etc, etc.

But let's thank Apple for one thing: a full length video of their first ever US concert. It's wonderful. Inexplicably, Apple are touting this as an extra in their Beatles box set even though they're offering it free to everyone. Maybe that means it will be pulled - watch it while you can.

I'm not an obsessive, but I would certainly count myself as a fairly zealous Beatles fan, and I've never seen a whole early concert. Fasincating stuff: a band who just two days earlier set the highest ratings ever on American television have to set up their own equipment and shift it around the stage. When Ringo takes lead vocals on I Wanna Be Your Man, you can hardly hear him as he sings across the top of the mike hastily set up by Paul, and no roadie appears to fix it. It's rock's age of innocence.

This is before they became complacent about live gigs, unable to even hear themselves amongst the screaming. (Though I wonder what people actually at this concert would have heard - I'm sure the boffins have done a nice job making the music audible above the crowd.) Here, their famous charm and raw musicality shine through clearly. Watch it.

Rear Window: CITY EDITION

Jason B Standing shared a great link today: an 80 gigapixel (GREAT SCOTT!) panoramic image of London:

http://www.360cities.net/london

Absolutely fascinating.

More explanation here at Londonist.

There's an intriguing tidbit in the comments page there rather relevant to my recent post.

P.S. I also apologise to Australia for breaking their internet with this link. That's not my inflated idea of how many people are reading this, just that internet in Australia is pants. Sort it out Aussies.

I know touring is the only way to make money now, but this is ridiculous

From my inbox this morning:



Did Bruce Wayne have a lot of money in Lehmann Brothers?

What's next, Green Lantern on a regional tour of RSL Clubs? The Silver Surfer at Sorrento charging $5 a go for pics on the ocean beach? Spiderman the Musical....oh, wait.

London Open House: Post Office Tower

Several weeks ago we again took part in the fantastic London Open House weekend. When I say taking part, I mean wandering around and gawking shamelessly at buildings we'd normally be thrown out of. It's architectural voyeurism, and I love it.

Hannah and I were very lucky to win places to go up the Post Office Tower, an iconic London landmark that has been closed to the public for 3 decades. We didn't realise just quite how lucky until we got there and they revealed 30,000 people had applied and only 470 were successful. This, of course, enhances my deserved reputation as a jammy fucking bastard. Hunting around youtube I see that in fact many sundry nerds and charitable celebs have got to go up it but it was still better than definitively not winning 133 million pounds, one of my less jammy recent moments.

My first exposure to the Tower was the fabulously silly Goodies episode 'Kitten Kong', in which it is destroyed by the titular feline. Other than this admittedly memorable image, I hadn't seen anything about the tower before moving to London. In fact, despite being a skyline icon (skylicon?) and navigational aid for Londoners, it seems relatively unknown outside the city, at least when compared to such universally recognised buildings as Tower Bridge, 'Big Ben' and the London Eye. Not sure why this is. I'd love to say it's because it was covered by the Official Secrets Act and thus not officially acknowledged to exist. It actually was, but the fact nearly 5 million people had visited it by 1971 seems to indicate it was a fairly poorly kept secret. In 1993, MP Kate Hoey tongue-in-cheekily revealed in parliament that the nation's capital had been hiding a 621 foot tower since the sixties.

The tower was conceived in the 1950s when broadband microwave technology seemed the best way serve the growing communication needs of the nation. It was designed to exchange microwave radio signals with other similar towers in locations such as Birmingham, Bristol and Portsmouth. Built in a yard off an existing telephone exchange, it was quite a neat engineering feat. A borehole survey revealed the hard chalk suitable for supporting foundations was 53 metres down, too far to be practically used. Instead a 27 metre square concrete 'raft' was placed some 8 metres below street level, supporting a seven metre tall flat topped concrete pyramid, which in turn supported a hollow concrete shaft that forms the core of the tower. Even in 160 km/h winds it will not sway more than 19cm. Swaying ain't good for microwave transmission.

The completed tower was promoted as a symbol of Britain's bright techno-future and featured a wonderfully naff revolving restaurant, run by none other than Butlins! There's some spectacular sub-Mad-Men promo pics floating around the internet. It was meant to be the height of sophistication in the swinging sixties, but one gets a feeling it's not the kind of place John would have met Yoko.

The tower was bombed by the IRA on 31st October 1971 (just 11 days before Kitten Kong aired for the first time, if Wikipedia is to be believed!). It was eventually closed completely to the public in 1981 after the restaurant lease ran out in 1980, and has remained closed ever since. Rumours emerged last year that the restaurant may reopen but nothing has happened yet - one wonders if this opening was part of a trial run.

Our visit was graciously hosted by BT, who clearly viewed the whole exercise as good PR. They appear to have a dedicated team for their events in the tower, and after a full airport-style security checked we were whisked to the 34th floor and given the full treatment with tea and cakes. Most exciting for me was that we happened to arrive just as a Spitfire and a Hurricane flew across the skyline as part of 70th anniversary commemorations of the Blitz. Jammy. Fucking. Bastard.



Oh, and the view? Pretty bloody fantastic.

Haight Ashbury

Saw the Vaselines at Scala last week. Great fun.

They were supported by a Glasgow band called Haight Ashbury, who, as the name implies, play a kind of psychedelic folk rock. However, it's delivered with an interesting combination of White Stripes style instrumentation - big, full guitar and sparse percussion - combined with almost abba-esque dual female vocals.

They were, alas, a slightly underwhelming stage presence, but they do manage to nail those tight, gorgeous harmonies live.

They've only got two 3-song releases out but are one to watch.

Wave goodbye

The beginning of the end for Google Wave...

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/its-a-wipeout-for-google-wave-20100805-11igi.html

Prop 8 overturned

I wrote about proposition 8 a few times. The last time I did I said it might go to the Supreme court and today's ruling shows it's on the way: both sides admit it probably go all the way. Stay tuned.

rock 'n' roll wild man fail

Tambourine throwing does not a rock legend make:

"Ashcroft kicked over his mic stand and threw a tambourine at the drum kit before walking out on an audience of several thousand"

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/ashcroft-not-so-splendid-at-splendour-20100802-1130w.html

Today I took a picture I really liked

Don't sell out, Nick.

Extraordinary few days here in pommyland. We had an election, in case you missed it. Nobody won. It's what the Brits call a "hung parliament" and several other countries call "normal".

Won't go into detail about it here - the british press is rife with explanations, theories and speculations. As I write this, we're all waiting to see the outcome of the discussions between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Opinions on the strength of the Lib Dem negotiating position vary, but there's no doubt it's a wonderful opportunity to push the case for proportional representation.

To that end, I went to only my second ever political rally yesterday. Takebackparliament.com had organised one in Trafalgar Square. At first there was a bit of half-arsed chanting, a non-working megaphone and general disorganisation. It looked like going really wrong when some Morris dancers showed up with a better sound system (well done @JasonBStanding!). But then the wonderful Billy Bragg showed up and gave a great speech. Shortly after, he invited us all down to Smith Square, where the Liberal Democrats were meeting to discuss their options.

The journey down there was rather surreal, with outside broadcasts, tourists and morris dancers mingling freely. We passed Downing Street where Brown was holed up. We passed the 'democracy village' where we cheerily debated our demand for fair votes with the anarchists' demand for no votes. Finally, we took up position in Smith Square and demanded to see Nick. To his great credit - he is after all, in the middle of the busiest weekend of his life - he came out and gave a short speech to the assembled throng. He didn't say anything of real substance but he did mention (not captured in most of the videos) how pleased he was to see 1000 people out calling for proportional representation.

Things don't look great if you believe the rumour mill today. Don't sell out, Nick.

In honour of the latest episode of Glee

Think Glee's struggling a little to match the glossy, pacey, perfection of the first 12 episodes; but it's still a hell of fun.

May the 4th be with you

(Not sure who to credit for that one, but well done, random internet person)

Tiny Tim portrait wins Archibald prize

Portrait of the fantastic Tim Minchin wins Archibald prize in Oz.

er yeah, I'm supposed to use this. sorry about that.

iSnack 2.0: All Publicity Is Good Publicity

It really is*. Would love to see the Kraft spreadsheet that shows how much sales have increased since they announced the name.

*Unless a batch of iSnack 2.0 was found to have, say, live fire ants wielding razor blades and discarded syringes. Brand awareness isn't everything.

The Fix Is In

This American Life is a radio program. Wikipedia will give you the facts, but I can offer the opinion: it's consistently excellent. If you're a fan of radio journalism, listen. Every week is a masterclass. In fact, ArtBabe Jessica Abel did a comic about TAL that is a masterclass.

Last week, they replayed a show from 2000 entitled The Fix Is In. Eschewing their usual format of telling several stories around a central theme, they focus on the one told by Kurt Eichenwald in his book The Informant, which describes an FBI investigation of a price-fixing scandal. They interview all the principal subjects, including the enigmatic Mark Whitacre. It's an absolutely fascinating dissection of white collar crime, with some surprising twists. It's made me want to see the film adaptation which comes out later this year. Apparently they're playing it as a black comedy, which, after you hear this documentary, sounds like it could be an inspired decision.

How much are you paying for milk?

R.I.P. Les Paul

Questionable Content sums it up well.