and quit sending her pianos!

Ach, unlucky Glen...



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warped perspectives

Here's a mental mindbomb for you:


Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Known as tilt-shift photography, this 'optical trickery' will mess with your eyes. Lovely genius.

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F1 preview

A while ago I lost all interest in Formula 1. I've just worked out that it was seven years ago, it would seem: the last season I really followed closely (I shall define this as, 'purposely sitting down weekly to watch the races') was in 2002. Ironically, that season I was pulling for the upstarts that were the bright yellow-and-blue liveried Renault team, fronted by Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli, if memory served. They were exciting but ultimately failed; Schumacher did the business for the title, Button was replaced by Alonso (who would go on to win the Championship in 2005, and develop an ego the size of his house), and I got bored in 2003 and mentally left.

But then a few weeks ago, I heard something very exciting. Former Ferrari guru and motorsporting demi-god, Ross Brawn, announced that he'd bought loveable - but rubbish - Honda Racing, and was entering them this year. I turned to someone at work and said, "He's going to win the lot, you know," and was completely shot down.

Brawn GP came first and second in qualifying yesterday. Jenson Button (he's back, lovely hair and all) is favourite to win the Australian GP. I think I may have to stay away from radio and internet until 1pm tomorrow (Sunday) whenever the race is repeated on d'Telly. In the meantime, check out the BBC's excellent new site for their immersive coverage.

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buy this boxset

Have just read Empire's Helen O'Hara eulogising on the 'The Ineffable Appeal Of Nathan Fillion' and as a result, I have been reminded of something. And so, I feel the need to make a demand.

Fillion is excellent: having first encountered him as that demented priest in Buffy (remember that guilty pleasure, boys? Good grief, that makes me OLD - I can remember when Sarah Michelle Gellar had a career) I continue to be wonderfully unsurprised as he continues to appear in many of the top TV shows, and the occasional great film, across American television. But the greatest, and most tragic, of all of these, is surely Firefly, a short-lived piece of small-screen magic that anyone who has any kind of soul should indulge in. It's hard to describe what the Joss Whedon's ill-fated labour of love, and arguable work of genius, is really about (it's Sci-Fi, but - I'm told - in a similar way to BattleStar absolutely nothing to do with Sci-Fi, you dig?) But if I had to sum it up, it is in one of the most brilliant phrases any man can hear: cowboys in space.

And it really is; it's basically a western TV series, but they ride quads and drive space ships rather than use horses (although they even do, as part of a storyline involving transporting cattle!) BUY THIS BOXSET. Get it in Blu-Ray if you can - it was one of the first series to be broadcast in complete 1080i HD. Check out the critical appraisal in its wiki entry. If you are disappointed, I'd almost say that heck, I'LL give you you're money back.

But I'm not an ATM, so I won't.

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mediatree version 1.5 and the mystery of the fighting monkeys

Welcome to mediatree.ie!. Sort of. Not really yet, but the domain's bagged at least. My wee side project for the next while will be trying to batter out an adult, sensible, grown-up website and online portfolio. So watch this space.

Anyway, in the meantime let's ROCK OUT to the glorious Fight Like Apes!


FIGHT LIKE APES - Tie Me Up With Jackets.

[Heavy brownie points for anyone who can untangle the slightly obscure title this time - I know they're usually puntastic, but still...]

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'i don't have a book down my trousers'

Dylan Moran in Notting Hill - I think the last time I saw this I must've been too young to recognise who he was! Says it all really. Anyway, it's clearly the funniest bit in the whole show so there you go.



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express/dunblane petition

It doesn't take long for me to tell anyone about my own derogatory opinion of The Daily Express. [But basically, at least The Sunday Sport is only insulting in a one-dimensional way.] However, as this considered bit of writing by Graham Linehan (of Ted, Black Books, I.T. Crowd and so forth) lays out, they have, as he said, 'won the race to the bottom'. Linehan is supporting and expanding on a campaign to protect survivors of the horrific Dunblane atrocity from being apparent press fodder for the rest of their lives - something an Express journalist appears to disagree with as she manipulated and stalked former pupils to write this particular piece of sub-literary dreck. I heavily recommend reading his piece and then seriously considering the wider implications of his argument. A murderous lunatic shot at these young people whenever they were too young to even understand what was going on: this does not make them open to scrutiny for the rest of their lives.

If you are not convinced, consider this updated comment which Linehan has recognised here:

This campaign has to succeed. If not, the road ahead for these kids just got a lot darker. The Sunday Express has served notice that the downmarket stalker press considers them fair game for the rest of their lives. Whatever successes they enjoy will be trumped up as being down to their hardy survivor spirit, and whatever failures they endure will be chalked up to the psychological damage of the shooting. Their sadnesses will be exploited as “heartbreak for tragic Dunblane victim”. You can just see the headlines now, and for decades to come. If the media gets the message right here right now that these kids are not fair game for lifelong exploitation because they happened to be in one room for one hour aged five, they can continue to live normal lives. Who knows, some of the papers might even have to go dig up real stories, not manufacture the problem.”

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obama on leno

In the middle of this, the guy answers questions and explains economic issues in plain English, and it's still absolutely enthralling. I wish sometimes I was American, just so that being so deeply respectful of this man would be meaningful.



[Then I remember the many, many reasons why such a foolish wish should be shot down at all costs...]

peteswayuk

Just did a wee task I've been meaning to do for a while: archiving and cleaning up the PetesWayUK webpages.

For anyone who didn't know me at school - lucky folks - PetesWayUK (named, in a long and roundabout way, after a Limp Bizkit track) consumed an awful lot of my time. Built on the suitably horrendous Geocities Pagebuilder system, it was my creative outlet prior to, and some way into, music and girls. Mostly, it revolved around the somewhat legendary Woogie tales, which - although complete tripe - will provide fond memories for the few who heard Alice do the lot out loud, from start to finish, once-upon-a-Cavan AYW team. There were even tee-shirts - still available here!

Anyway, every now and again I browse through it and get a big misty-eyed...

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i will be watching the watchmen

La la la bad review i can't hear you la la la la la... *covering ears*

Seriously though - who wants to come with? Cinematic event of the year, people...

In the meantime, check out this - Saturday Morning Watchmen, stolen shamelessly from @Wossy. Genius.

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created locally

What makes this story from BBC NI, entitled "NI Tops Creationist Belief Study" is not this bit of honest quotation from the questioned Angican...

Church of Ireland lay preacher Graham Nevin said Christianity in Northern Ireland "tended to be quite conservative".

...but rather, what he said next!

"What does surprise me is that 25% of people in Northern Ireland had given any thought to where the world came from," he said.

He calls it like he sees it, that man...

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