sleepinginmyhead

webwatch 130

a really simple and well executed advert for jeep, but i can't help thinking they need more examples and the 'venn' crossover portion could have been a bit larger.

Finally, a snowglobe which actually reflects the city it represents

I saw this a while ago, it's quite poorly executed but a sweet idea. A sneaker with a built in wi-fi sensor for your networking pleasure

Numark finally cut out the computer from their vinyl to MP3 setup...

No matter how bad your body image is, you can take pride that you're not on this site.

Cut chemist makes the first video with a double fisheye, sweet and mindbending.

Old school gaming coming to an iphone near you soon.

clever firefox plugin which filters out badly spelled or idiotic comments from youtube videos.

etymology wednesday 19

Husband

This word originates from two Germanic words: 'Hus' meaning 'house' and 'bunda', meaning 'to own'. The word husband originally had no marital meaning, but probably comes from the fact that house owners made for desirable partners.

berlin

Just got back from a heavy weekend in Berlin. Oh boy that's a fun city. Photos on flickr.

Tussauds

My lady had a new head fitted by Madame Tussauds last weekend

webwatch 129

Quite an interesting map showing how far the astronauts ventured when they landed on the moon... not far really.

Ipod vending machine at JFK. The high street really is dead now.

The pizza hut double roll. Cardiacs all round

Sometimes gear ratios are a pain, not often, but sometimes. This looks way too complicated for bicycle use, but it's an interesting concept.

Puma have created a sweet 'lichtenstein' looking sneaker: Pic 1, Pic 2

M C Hammer has a blog. Now it's always hammer time.

Womens wrestling. I don't know the rules, but this has to be an illegal move.

Eloise Calandre at Light Divided

My friend Eloise showed some of her (superb) work at a show in West London Last night. Here's a couple of images of the ensuing merriment, and there's more over at flickr. I Highly recommend you check her site, as her prints are impossible to photograph.

holy ravers

OK, this has been on a fair few blogs already, but i can't help myself. Adding a new soundtrack can be a very powerful way of changing the feel of a piece of film. Plus it takes the piss out of religion, so it's OK by me.

the watchmen are coming

Another vacation activity was re-reading Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons epic Watchmen graphic novel. It's a long and sometimes tortuous read, but it's truly incredible. Whilst i think everyone should try to read Watchmen, i wouldn't necessarily recommend it to novice graphic novel readers as it's fairly hard going. I was prompted into a re-read with the news of the forthcoming movie, directed by Zack Snyder (300), and i'm super keen to see what he does with the story. In my opinion, it's un-filmable in it's current state, as it has so many plot strands and back stories, jumping across four decades. His work on 300 was lauded by the fanboys for not using big-name actors and his faithful approach to the original work, but Watchmen is something completely different. The story is less about visual storytelling (as with 300), and more about relationships, politics and human nature. As with all big film launches, there is a blog, releasing clips and promos week by week, until the release in 2009. The current clip, showing the development of the owl-ship, is particularly exciting. The trailer is here.

olympics

Whilst in Greece i watched a fair bit of the Olympics (mostly the women's beach volleyball, understandably), and whilst i still think it's an obscenely costly event for show-offs, it's still good TV, and I can appreciate the dedication and training of some of the participants. One example is the British cycling gold medallist Chris Hoy. I saw the following photo of his legs recently, and it made me double take. It's like someone has strapped a loaf of bread to each of his thighs.

 

etymology wednesday 18

Ballot

It's a very simple one this week. The word originates from the Italian term for "small ball or pebble." Italian citizens once voted by casting a small pebble or ball into one of several boxes in order to denote their choice.