This animation (5 mins) amused me.
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
Cyber sickoes
How do visitors find your site? Often it's via a search engine. And proper grown-up bloggers and webmasters seem to have a way of finding out exactly which search requests lured their punters in.
Do you envy them, or would you rather not know? Make up your mind at Disturbing Search Requests.
No sooner had I linked to this site than it disappeared. There's an archived version here which should give you an idea of it, though I note this ominous message from the webmaster threatening to shut down the site "about four months from now" unless traffic improves, which could easily have been written in July. Don't tell me I'm the last person ever to link to it…
And I should have mentioned that Betty and Geoff have their own personal version, Search Me.
Love Put Me Out Of My Head
A star at thirteen, dead at twenty-five, Frankie Lymon possessed a fine voice and barrels of impudent charm, exemplified in his close-ups here:
Monday, 26 November 2007
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Good news indeed
Heartfelt congratulations to Peter of Naked Blog on learning this week that he doesn't have colorectal cancer.
Peter is one of the blogosphere's grizzled veterans, repeatedly shortlisted for a lifetime achievement award.
For more than ten years he's been writing an online journal in reverse chronological order, mixing details of his day-to-day life with reminiscence, opinion and humour.
In other words, he was blogging before blogging was invented.
He goes back even further than John Bailey of Journal of a Writing Man, which started in 1998.
Gawd bless yer, Yer Royal Peter-ness!
Peter is one of the blogosphere's grizzled veterans, repeatedly shortlisted for a lifetime achievement award.
For more than ten years he's been writing an online journal in reverse chronological order, mixing details of his day-to-day life with reminiscence, opinion and humour.
In other words, he was blogging before blogging was invented.
He goes back even further than John Bailey of Journal of a Writing Man, which started in 1998.
men who look like old lesbians
They've come for you.
_________________________
And they have the same problem with their template that I have with mine: the "Older Posts" link doesn't do its job correctly. Use the month-by-month links on the sidebar if you don't want to miss anything.
And they have the same problem with their template that I have with mine: the "Older Posts" link doesn't do its job correctly. Use the month-by-month links on the sidebar if you don't want to miss anything.
Lindsay Anderson's last splutter
He made This Sporting Life, If…, O Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital, The Whales of August, and finally, in 1993, this curious self-portrait, Is That All There Is?. It's presented here in six instalments of about nine minutes each (apart from the sixth, a mere six minutes):
If Anderson himself leaves you cold, you may still be interested in the final part, which shows a gathering on a Thames riverboat, scattering the ashes of Jill Bennett and Rachel Roberts.
If Anderson himself leaves you cold, you may still be interested in the final part, which shows a gathering on a Thames riverboat, scattering the ashes of Jill Bennett and Rachel Roberts.
Our Man in Tashkent
Craig Murray is the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan whose preoccupation with human rights proved inconvenient to the War on Terror, and who was duly hung out to dry by the Foreign Office.
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Best and worst Eighties videos
A contest Andrew Sullivan's running this week.
There are three categories, with ten candidates apiece. You can vote for the best pop video of the decade, and for the worst, and also - a fine twist - for the best/worst.
"You get to vote for one in each category, but you can vote an indefinite number of times. We've provided links for every video up for voting."So go for it, my pretties. Re-live those glorious heady years when the whole universe seemed composed of cheese - but what fabulous cheese!
There are three categories, with ten candidates apiece. You can vote for the best pop video of the decade, and for the worst, and also - a fine twist - for the best/worst.
"You get to vote for one in each category, but you can vote an indefinite number of times. We've provided links for every video up for voting."So go for it, my pretties. Re-live those glorious heady years when the whole universe seemed composed of cheese - but what fabulous cheese!
Who's the painter?
This brooding townscape with oppressive sky above is the work of Victor Hugo, creator of Les Miserables, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc., etc.
It comes from a revelatory exhibition of visual art by ninety-seven famous authors - Yeats, Huxley, D H Lawrence, Hesse, Lorca, Sylvia Plath, Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Derek Walcott, Hunter S Thompson, Douglas Coupland, all the lads.
This write-up catches the flavour. The show's over but you can still buy the book (UK price £25).
It comes from a revelatory exhibition of visual art by ninety-seven famous authors - Yeats, Huxley, D H Lawrence, Hesse, Lorca, Sylvia Plath, Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Derek Walcott, Hunter S Thompson, Douglas Coupland, all the lads.
This write-up catches the flavour. The show's over but you can still buy the book (UK price £25).
Laughing at silence
I recommend Paul Merton's Silent Clowns, currently being shown on BBC2.
The first hour-long programme was about Buster Keaton and left me agog for more of him.
This week it's Chaplin (never been a fan, but perhaps Merton can convert me) and next week specifically the silent work of Laurel and Hardy.
The series concludes with Harold Lloyd (above).
A troubling fact thrown up by the show: there are no known copies of nearly 80% of the silent films ever made. But Merton draws heavily on the work of present-day restorers who're bringing nearly-lost movies back from the brink.
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Irritating footnote: here in Scotland the series began last week and is shown on Wednesdays, but I get the impression that in England it's screened on Saturdays, four days ahead of us. If so, readers in England have already missed the Chaplin programme. Sorry, chaps.Paul Merton's Silent Clowns, BBC2 Scotland, early Wednesday evenings.
The first hour-long programme was about Buster Keaton and left me agog for more of him.
This week it's Chaplin (never been a fan, but perhaps Merton can convert me) and next week specifically the silent work of Laurel and Hardy.
The series concludes with Harold Lloyd (above).
A troubling fact thrown up by the show: there are no known copies of nearly 80% of the silent films ever made. But Merton draws heavily on the work of present-day restorers who're bringing nearly-lost movies back from the brink.
Irritating footnote: here in Scotland the series began last week and is shown on Wednesdays, but I get the impression that in England it's screened on Saturdays, four days ahead of us. If so, readers in England have already missed the Chaplin programme. Sorry, chaps.Paul Merton's Silent Clowns, BBC2 Scotland, early Wednesday evenings.
Friday, 16 November 2007
All for your benefit
The newly published Telegraph obit of Churchill's secretary has more and better anecdotes than the Times one, so I've altered the link for Nose, meet grindstone.
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