GG

 

So... you make a tube thing, look through it at the sky and think ‘Wow, this may be able to further improve us as a species.’ Then the church gets involved...

Christian biblical references Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 include statements to the tune of: "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." Similarly, Psalm 104:5 says, "the Lord set the Earth on its foundations; it can never be moved."

400 years ago today, On 25 August 1609, Galileo demonstrated his first telescope. He was found "vehemently suspect of heresy," i.e: of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, that the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to “abjure, curse and detest" those opinions.

He was ordered imprisoned; a sentence later reduced to house arrest. His ‘offending’ Dialogue was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial, publication of any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.

Yay.

what are we looking for again..?

How many planets exists which might support life? Indeed, what is required for life to exist? How does life start? How does it evolve, and what fabulous creatures can evolution produce? How often do intelligent creatures appear in the giant tapestry of life? It is exactly these questions, and all of them, which are being addressed by the scientists of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe.

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New album artwork by Tom Tomorrow (pen name of editorial cartoonist Dan Perkins)

This wasn't on the DVD

You now what I used for eat for breakfast?

''You now what I used for eat for breakfast? Cocaine. You know what I used to eat for lunch..? Cocaine''

Watched this last night - far funnier than expected, and these 4 guys are the main reason.

1 Year ago...

...at about 2.25 a.m, this happened:

Happy Birthday Isaac!

On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar

 "On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to shame, and went down in the daytime...''

This quote is one of the earliest written records of an eclipse of the Sun, on 3 May 1375 BC, found in the city of Ugarit in Mesopotamia.

So, here's where my confusion lies; There's press coverage of the solar eclipse from India yesterday, wherein people are bathing and praying in the Ganges BECAUSE OF the eclipse. So, you're praying to a planetary phenomena? The polar opposite of anything even vaguely religious happening? Meh?



Aaaanyway - there are quite a few 'standard' photos of the Asian eclipse on the net, but I prefer this one - taken from a plane - to the usual shots. Also, there seems to be a little Channel 4 logo to the lower left. See it? Spooky.

''We choose to go to the Moon...

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.''

40 years ago, on July 14th, 3 guys went for a ride. They landed on July 20th. This photo was taken by Frank Borman.



40 years on from Earth Rise, we are now able to see images like this:



'In October 2008, Hubble aimed its Wide Field Planetary Camera, at a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147, that lies in the constellation Cetus, and is more than 400 million light-years away from Earth. (for reference - the moon is about 384,400km away.)

The image demonstrated that the camera is working exactly as it was before going offline, thereby scoring a "perfect 10" both for performance and beauty.

The two galaxies happen to be oriented so that they appear to mark the number 10. The left-most galaxy, or the "one" in this image, is relatively undisturbed apart from a smooth ring of starlight. It appears nearly on edge to our line of sight. The right-most galaxy, resembling a zero, exhibits a clumpy, blue ring of intense star formation.'

Not to go all preachy - but imagine looking down from up there, at all the monkeys on Earth fighting over little bits of land, 'our precious turf' to quote Cyrus.

Silly, silly humans.

Best to remember the good times I suppose...

pressure. warmth

Dry eyes itching
It is summer
Come round again to burn us all

More cars
More citizens
Walking in circles under the leaves of trees,
The petals of flowers
Arctic daylight overstaying its welcome
Teenagers cry out into the 5am darkness
Drunk and high
As old men try to sleep
Dry eyes closed for a few hours
In the cool grey shade

Where the ghosts of old ladies still hide
Nowhere else to go
Nothing else to
Do.

which witch?

This is a witch bottle, and was found 15 minutes from my house... I knew there was something up with this bloody area...
 
From New Scientist:
The salt-glazed jar was discovered 1.5 metres below ground by archaeologists from The Maritime Trust, a Greenwich-based charity that preserves historic sailing vessels. When it was shaken, the bottle splashed and rattled, and an X-ray showed pins and nails stuck in the neck, suggesting that it had been buried upside down. Further computed tomography scans showed it to be half-filled with liquid, which later analysis showed to be human urine. The bottle also contained bent nails and pins, a nail-pierced leather "heart", fingernail clippings, navel fluff and hair. The presence of iron sulphide in the mixture also suggests that sulphur or brimstone had been added.

Witch bottles were commonly buried to ward off spells during the late 16th and 17th centuries, but it is very rare to find one still sealed. During the 17th century, British people often blamed witches for any ill health or misfortune they suffered, says Massey. "The idea of the witch bottle was to throw the spell back on the witch," he says. "The urine and the bulb of the bottle represented the waterworks of the witch, and the theory was that the nails and the bent pins would aggravate the witch when she passed water and torment her so badly that she would take the spell back off you."

Is that all rap is about..?

I found this blog which is a listing of samples used in hip hop records. It's pretty definitive but still ongoing, mad interesting for B-boy geek outs.

More sketchy...

 

Gonz

I never bought a Gonz board before. Shiny. It came with the Krooked glasses, I thought Isaac would like 'em...

He didn't.

Horses, Horses, Horses

Not your usual documentary flick, and all the better for it. Shot over 10 years, it's a very personal and involving look at the life and work of Patti Smith. Keep your eyes open for Flea, Michael Stipe and Thom Yorke popping up too.

Nothing ruins the taste of a peanut butter sandwich, like unrequited love

That's a Charlie Brown quote. Pretty sure he didn't look like this when he said it though:




Should've posted this a week back, but went to the Ron English show, and it was amazing. That painting is about 2M by 2M and is yours for a mere £47 grand. As it stands, I'm going to try and get one of these instead - if it's not too late already:

 

Set the mood...

You know that early morning walk, the one where you're on the way to the train station, pre-9am
going to work, college, whatever. Listening to music and struggling to find that right song / album for the time and the journey. It's early so you don't want anything too hyped - but you don't want anything too quiet either, as you do need to wake up after all...

Well, sometimes you hit on something and it puts you in the right mood, a great mood in fact - but not the right mood for sitting at work all day. So follows, in no particular order, a (not THE) top 10 of records to avoid listening to on the way into work:


LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad - Progession Sessions UK Live 03.

At the Drive In - Relationship of Command.

The Black Keys - Thickfreakness

The Stooges - Gimme Danger

Black Flag - TV Party

EL-P and Ghostface - Hideyaface, EL-P remix

Iron and Wine - Woman King EP

TV on the Radio - Love Dog

Elliot Smith - Angeles

Pretty much anything by RATM.


You're welcome.

Dom DeLuise 1933-2009

Certain films were engrained in my memory as a kid, and Cannonball Run was one of them. One reason was that I would watch the intro with the black Lamborgini - police chase - over and over and OVER thinking, that's the best thing ever. And the other was Burt Reynolds and Dom Deluise making me almost piss myself with laughter throughout the film. RIP Captain Chaos.

 

Not to keep on about skateboarding

 

I’m writing this on a warm sunny friday in London – a perfect Stockwell or Cantelowes day. However I’m sitting at a desk overlooking the Thames (could be worse) at a temp job in a Government office. I'm 36 in May. I started skateboarding at 14 and stopped a few times. Never succesfully.

I decided a while back, that that even though my knee is shot, my wrists are pretty bad, and I now have a son that needs me in one piece for when he’s growing up – I can’t and don’t want to stop skateboarding. I will one day, when I have to, but am selfishly willing to push it as far as my body will go.

For some reason the pic above, from Transworld just reminded me of all the things I love about it – and even though I’m basically just carving around popping the odd trick nowadays – and trying to learn mini ramps again, it’s basically been the most consistent thing in my life. And look at that roll-in up top

Scary as hell – and the caption says ‘no you wouldn’t’ but damn doesn’t that look crazy fun? I think the reason it stirs feelings in me is that back in the day Roskopp face boards and bright green Slimeballs - when we were all learning and everything was new, Transworld was one of the mags that gave you a glimpse of a side of skating you didn’t have in Grey London. We even nicknamed those perfect summer skate days as ‘Transworld blue’ due to the cloudless skies that appeared so often in the mag photos.

My point is (I think) that sometimes you go in phases with things that you love - when they frustrate you to the point of wanting to stop, or other people don’t understand what you’re doing and why and it effects your thought process ‘why AM I doing this?’ But whatever. Really – whatever. Even if it lasts only a couple months, I am still skating this summer, and hopefully for a lot more to come.

Click the title to link to more photo's of Bob Burnquist's 'open day' at his home/ramp/complex thing. Enjoy the sunshine.

'If you were to talk...'

...directly to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?'

'I wouldn't say a single word to them, I would listen to what they have to say - and that's what no one did.'   Marilyn Manson.

Yeah, probably the most succinct comment in the whole of Bowling For Columbine.
and not to make light of what happened - but to quote CR: 'Whatever happened ta CRAZY?'

 

Sketchy

Unpacking / digging... came up with the ol' Graphics scrapbook - general doodles / collected crap, like this (bought the jacket ... went to gig wearing the jacket.)








And this randomness...