The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

It's years since this came out but I wanted to post it as it is the summer holiday season and this video reminds me intensely of teen-aged family holiday rail trips across nothern Italy to Milan and Brescia.

Beautiful/Ugly

This photo from the Guardian of the current spate of forest fires in the Mediterranean says so many things that I can't truely put into words.

Messin' with Ross Kemp's Face

Ross Kemp - bit of a fool. A man who has made a career for himself after Eastenders (actually kudos for that, most people don't manage it and disappear or come crawling back (see: Patsy Palmer, Daniella Westbrook et al)) by basically apeing the characteristics of his character Grant in the aforementioned televisual production. He expects us to believe that because he's bald and a bit chunky he's defacto 'tough' and not a well spoken actor type.

The blog 'Kemp Folds' has taken him to task and with just a few simple folds of paper totally subverted everything he stands for. It's simple, it's clever and most importantly it's funny.

Matt Le Tissier

I'm not sure anyone really understands why a player of such exceptional talent failed to have a more successful career. There are suggestions of a collapsed transfer to Tottenham and Le Tissier claimed to have turned down a move to AC Milan, one of the world's greatest teams in what at the time was probably the world's best league.

He retired after 16 years at perennial relegation battlers Southampton having won nothing and with just 8 England caps to his name. Whether he never left because he prefered to remain the big fish in the small pond or because of his genuine deep love for the club can be debated, however, his reputation as the scorer of spectacular goals is unquestionable.

Momentos

The past we never knew

A world we never even knew existed, frozen memories abandoned for us to discover later.

In Anticipation

Two weeks today and my summer will truly be at it's height. It's a moment I have been looking forward to for weeks and I intend to savour it, despite knowing full well that it will pass by far too speedily before I know it I will be deposited at it's tail end... back in the office. What else could I be talking about other than that great institution, the summer holiday.

This year things will be a little different to usual. I won't be going anywhere exotic, in fact I won't be going anywhere at all. That's because I am going to spend one glorious week at home relaxing and enjoying the things that I like to do best in my own company, things which unfortunately I usually do not have nearly enough time for. In part I suppose it is prompted by a nostolgic yearn for those long 3-month breaks I enjoyed as a student that I loved so dearly but sadly have had to leave behind in what is now the increasingly distant past. Basically, I am going to be a very, very idle man.

I suppose I could jet off to Bilbao or Ljubljana for a week of exploration and culture but frankly I'm looking forward to something a little simpler. There is nowhere I'd less like to be after the daily commute than a busy airport and work would probably be more relaxing than trying to ask directions to the nearest cash-machine in pigeon-Slavic. A rug in the garden, some beers, a few bottles of wine, a pile of books and a tower of DVDs will suit me just fine.

Lessons in life

If you like showing off to camera it's probably best not to ruin it with something so utterly, utterly stupid.

Cool Parkour Triple Wall Spin - Watch more Funny Videos

I have to look away at the moment of impact, but only with one eye, there's something wonderfully, cruelly delightful about it. Let's watch it just one more time...

Darius Vassell and Cristiano Ronaldo... in the same breath

I thought that the unveiling ceremony for Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid was a little overblown what with 80,000 fans packed into the stadium, a catwalk and speeches. It looked more like LiveAid than the press conference and photos of a player holding up the shirt of his new club that usually suffice.

However, overblown is a relative term and having seen the welcome Darius Vassell (really) recieved when arriving at his new Turkish club perhaps I was mistaken.

Ronaldo positively loves the attention (watch him coyly soak up the crowd's chants) whereas Vassell look positively frightened. He's probably realised that he's got quite a lot to live up to once he gets out onto the pitch, or thousand of fans are going are going to be bitterly disappointed.

Self-improvement #1

If you've thinking about brushing up on your dancing skills before hitting the clubs this weekend then check this out...

What's this article about exactly?

The internet is a double-edged sword at the best of times. For journalists and writers there are now far more opportunities to have their work published and find an appreciative audience. While it must be rewarding to recieve positive feedback from readers the flip side is that sometimes journalists are faced with very direct, uncomplimentary thoughts on their 'abilities'.

Usually the odd negative comment amongst a field of positive or indifferent comments is par for the course and something I imagine most would be able to brush off without a second thought. Sometimes however, the response to an article is unequivically (and often hilariously) derogatory. Such is the case with this article proportedly about how to spot 'Dodgy' lodgers from the Guardian's Money section.

You have to be doing something wrong when more than one person states that they registered as a member of the website just so they could slate the article!

Here's a sample:

"...this is just incredibly bad. No coherence whatsoever - it starts as an anecdote, segues clumsily into what could charitably be described as decorating advice, or uncharitably as a tedious description of the contents of the author's home, descends into a morass of poor-little-rich-girl-me and some useless information, and ends abruptly with a homily of breathtaking banality in place of a conclusion."

"This must have been written during the current hot spell."

"The piece outlines the kind of middle class existence and chatter that would make suicide seem a noble alternative if I came to close to it."

It's savage and sadistically amusing - read, read, read.

The 'King' is dead

'The King' is dead, 'The 'King's' public image has risen, 'The King's' records will be re-issued again.

Michael Jackson was one of the 20th Century's true cultural icons, his untimely and tragic passing deserves to be mourned, and a week to the day the lurid details are still headline news. I have to say that I have never been truely comfortable with over-long, over-dramatic, over-sentimental outpourings of public grief (see Diana, Jade Goody etc.).

By and large, not only do they have a tinge of the ridiculous, they also has a significant whiff of insincerity. The commotion surrounding Jackson's death is no different. I find it hard to reconcile the love and respect that is proclaimed for the man when those same people pouring their hearts forth are also proposing to send his corpse on a tour or selling and publishing photos of his final living moments.

Jackson's live was wrecked by the excesses of those who said they loved him, those who used him as a route to riches. Sadly, even in death it looks like Jackson still has yet to find peace.