set up like a deck of cards

Mad Capsule Markets - Pulse Maybe five years ago, I was flicking...

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:20:49 +0100

Maybe five years ago, I was flicking through music channels late at night, playing my ‘game’ where I can only go to bed when I haven’t seen anything I like for a complete cycle, and I came across this video around a third of the way in.

I didn’t know who it was, who they were, what the hell they were singing about, but I loved it. I stayed to the end and have loved Mad Capsule Markets ever since.

(via chimp-shitbitch-kittenscrazy : lessonsinloneliness)

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:09:31 +0100

(via chimp-shitbitch-kittenscrazy : lessonsinloneliness)

Tumblr MP3 Player

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:47:37 +0100

Tumblr MP3 Player:

One of the most frequently mentioned gripes with Tumblr’s audio post functionality is the lack of a continuous playlist of audio posts. Various people have attempted to hack workarounds (myself included, with limited success), but none come close to what Dan Kantor has managed.

In his post he introduces the Streampad-powered Tumblr MP3 player, and it couldn’t be easier to get up and running. You can also see it in action, stuck to the bottom of your browser, when you’re on his site. If that isn’t a perfect solution to a problem (in lieu of an official solution, one would presume), I don’t know what is.

I exchanged a few e-mails with Dan, and he made sure to mention that this is new stuff, and if you spot any bugs, or have any feedback at all, let him know in the comment field of the above-linked blog entry.

This probably goes without saying, but expect to see this on Tuneage soon.

(Via nostrich)

Okay, this looks pretty sweet!

Gordon Banks’ famous save from Pele’s header in the...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:09:05 +0100

Gordon Banks’ famous save from Pele’s header in the England v Brazil match during the 1970 World Cup.

This is probably stil the greatest televised save there has ever been. It’s written about in more detail on Gordon Banks’ Wikipedia page, but the basic points are the distance he covered across the goal, how fast he managed to get down to the ball and the fact that stopping the ball when it’s bouncing upwards is the hardest thing for a keeper to do. Any three of those aspects make a good save. All three within two seconds make it the moment of magic it is.

Here are a couple of photos to go alongside it. This classic photo shows Banks throwing himself to the ground, from the opposite angle to the TV footage, and this photo shows the action from the other end of the pitch. You can hardly see Banks, on the ground behind No. 4 (Tommy Wright), but look at Pele’s raised arms, he was so sure that he’d just scored, and look at the ball bouncing away over the crossbar.

Every time I see this, it reminds me why I like sport so much. Those little moments of magic.

He feints one way, dives another...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:08:58 +0100

A few months ago, I went to an external seminar for work, with maybe 150 people there. During the morning session, I passed out in my chair. Apparently, I made a weird grunting sound, kicked back in my chair and then fell to the floor, bringing the whole thing to a halt while people tried to revive me. Even though I came round after a couple of minutes (pale as a sheet and sweating bullets) and managed to walk outside, the hotel manager had already called an ambulance and insisted that I go to the hospital to be checked out.

So, feeling fine but kind of freaked out, I got strapped down in the gurney, taken to hospital in the ambulance (with no lights or sirens, sadly) and hooked up to all kinds of monitors for a couple of hours, only for the grumpiest doctor in the world to look at the charts, glare at me when I said that I’d skipped breakfast and tell me that it was from a combination of low blood-sugar, fatigue and hunger. And then he ordered the qualified nurse that had been looking after me and others for a couple of hours to go and make me a cup of tea and some toast. I felt like a tosser.

Tomorrow, I have another seminar, run by the same people, about the same stuff and in the same hotel. I’m actually pretty nervous. I don’t think I’ll pass out again, but most of the people who are going to be there will have been there last time. I’ll walk in with my head held high, but I think there might be a few empty seats around me in the room and there will definitely be a few sideways looks.

Some friends at work have tried to make me feel better by reminding me that tomorrow’s seminar is only a half-day, from 9-12. But then I’ve reminded them that, last time, I didn’t even make it until 10am.

The Pharcyde - Drop One of my favourite music...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:25:00 +0100

The Pharcyde - Drop

One of my favourite music videos…ever! I don’t know why I thought about this over the weekend, but I did. I haven’t seen it or heard the song for a few years.

Directed by Spike Jonze, cameos and a sample from the Beastie Boys, filmed in reverse, and they actually learned the song backwards! What’s not to love?

There’s a sweet link on this YouTube page with more information, including a scan of Spike Jonze’s original treatment for the video. Definitely worth a read.

Favtape.com

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:59:00 +0100

Favtape.com:

A Muxtape inspired site that automatically creates a playlist of your favorite songs from Last.fm or Pandora without the need to upload MP3’s. Here are my latest Last.fm favorites. Interestingly, this site is not only easier to update than Muxtape, but it’s also less likely to come under legal scrutiny since they don’t host music files.

(Via joelaz)

It’s a nice idea, but I’d recommend checking your songs before you publish them. Of my 10 tracks, three were wrong. One embarrasingly so.

Saves The Day - Sell My Old Clothes, I’m Off To Heaven is an acoustic version. (Okay, not wrong, but it’s not the version I know and love).

Chicks - Let Me Go seems to be a (I assume) Dixie Chicks live song (seriously).

Hundred Reasons - My Sympathy is some weird dance song sampling the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil.

Like I said, it’s a nice idea but it seems far from perfect.

Maps - So Low, So High The opening track off We Can Create, it...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:04:00 +0100

Maps - So Low, So High

The opening track off We Can Create, it just grabs me from the start and demands that I keep listening. I love it.

I was lucky enough to meet James Chapman after a group of us happened to see the band (it’s just one guy recording, but he has a band for live shows) play in a small club in Manchester in late 2006, just when they were starting to make waves. It was small enough that we got to chat with them for a bit afterwards and apparently we were the first people to ever ask them to sign stuff after we ripped a couple of flyers off the wall. Ten months later and they nearly won the Mercury Music Prize.

They were great live and really sound guys as well. One of them (the bassist, I think) still owes me a drink.

A wordle of my most listened to bands. Easily done with this...

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:39:58 +0100

A wordle of my most listened to bands. Easily done with this and this.

My only gripe is that it doesn’t seem to like punctuation (‘Against Me’ should be ‘Against Me!’ and ‘The Go’ should be ‘The Go! Team’). Other than that, it’s pretty sweet.

(Thanks Travors)

Last.fm has had a redesign

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:14:00 +0100

Last.fm has had a redesign:

Whoa! I just logged in to last.fm and they’ve redesigned everything.

My first impression is that I like it.

that’s how I roll (Via gina)

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:08:47 +0100

that’s how I roll

(Via gina)

johnbrissenden: (via hereharehere) The best thing about Peep...

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:29:36 +0100

johnbrissenden:

(via hereharehere)

The best thing about Peep Show.

“The secret ingredient is ‘crime’”

"Every time you sniff and say somebody has “too much free time,” the part of you that used to love..."

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:26:14 +0100

“Every time you sniff and say somebody has “too much free time,” the part of you that used to love making things for pure joy dies a little.”

-
Twitter / Merlin Mann

This is an old one, and was appropriately reblogged throughout the Tumblr universe back then, but it’s especially meaningful to me today in light of some things.

(via topherchris)

I don’t care how old it is. It’s true.

"I realised I was drunk when I put my arms out and made a ‘Wwrraagghh’ [a plane banking]..."

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:23:59 +0100

“I realised I was drunk when I put my arms out and made a ‘Wwrraagghh’ [a plane banking] sound when I walked around to the back door.”

- A friend after coming home from the pub.

Ozma - Korobeiniki (Traditional Russian Folk Song) aka The...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:50:27 +0100

Ozma - Korobeiniki (Traditional Russian Folk Song)

aka The Tetris tune

Ozma were one of my favourite bands in the early 2000s, and I still have a soft spot for them. They broke up in 2004, but reformed (minus the original drummer) in 2006, and have released one album since then.

They’ve played with Nada Surf, Weezer and The Wrens. That says a lot.

This song is from their second album - The Doubble Donkey Disc (2001) - and even though it’s not my favourite track of theirs, or even my favourite song on the album, (FYI, my favourite Ozma song is ‘Baseball’, from their first album), it’s definitely the most fun one.

Why did something I post have to show up on the tumblr radar this week. Why couldn’t this have...

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:49:00 +0100

Why did something I post have to show up on the tumblr radar this week. Why couldn’t this have happened 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I’m pretty sure that I was so much funnier. Remember that awesome Hot Asian/Pokemon joke I made, guys? Oh man. I do. That was my peak. My zenith.

I have no news except that today when I went to the dermatologist, on 1 hour of sleep, he told me that I had a normal chest. I know he was talking acne/sun-cancer freckles wise, but it made me realize that that’s the kind of man I’m looking for. Compliments make me uncomfortable, so having someone tell me that I had a normal rack and average eyes would be ideal.

“Your hair is typical.”

HOT.

(Via caragh)

I don’t want to sound like a cliche, but this made me LOL.

(via doodlepipski) Ahhhhhhhhhhhh… (Via butterflyeffect) See...

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:41:34 +0100

(via doodlepipski)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh… (Via butterflyeffect)

See you tomorrow!

Muse - Shrinking Universe A largely-unknown Muse B-side from...

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:10:00 +0100

Muse - Shrinking Universe

A largely-unknown Muse B-side from their New Born single from 2001, and also available on their Hullabaloo CD, this song will, in my mind, forever be linked to the 28 Weeks Later trailer.

Noticed Today...

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:51:00 +0100

It’s a shame the number 5 takes so much longer to write (relatively) to the other single digit numbers. No shortcuts to be taken or it looks like a messy backwards 2, and that’s not cool with me.
(Via lfarm)

I have never been able to write ‘8’ decently. As a kid, I used to write it almost sideways, like the infinity sign, which was fine with me. But then my teachers slowly started making me write it upright and it was difficult for me to do. Even now, I can’t write it properly. It starts off okay but then ends with an ugly straight line from bottom-left to top-right, occasionally followed by an ugly sharp turn at the top if I feel like trying to complete the loop.

So lay off the ‘5’, yeah? Join me in hating the ‘8’ instead.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-7-13)

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:53:16 +0100

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2008-7-13):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz