October 31st, 2006
Today I bought 4 discs: A movie (“Coffee and Cigarettes” by Jim Jarmusch) and three Cannonball Adderley albums that I didn’t know existed.
Coffee and Cigarettes is a bunch of short segments in which we see various people (often familiar faces, including Tom Waits, Bill Murray, The White Stripes, Iggy Pop, Steve Coogan, and many more) shooting the shit over coffee and cigarettes. Each segment usually offers an (at least) interesting or funny observation on social interaction amongst different types of people.
Great character acting, and pretty sharp writing too. And the scenes change before you get bored of any particular couple.
I found it very watchable and highly entertaining. Partly because it’s amusing to see some of the known actors playing a somewhat-askew version of themselves. My favourite scene is with Steve Coogan and Albert – no – Alfred Molina.
As for these Cannonball albums… I’ve only listened to one so far, but it’s a cracker – it’s fantastic. Cannonball never lets me down. It’s “Why Am I treated So Bad!”. The other two are “Cannonball Adderley – At The Lighthouse” and “Cannonball Adderley – Money in the Pocket”.
October 29th, 2006
Rob drew an awesome Robot in five hours of boredom-inspired doodling. Go and have a closer look!
October 26th, 2006
Here are a couple videos which should leave you in awe! If they don’t, I don’t like you!
Behold, the sun! And a catastrophic landslide (or more specifically the collapse of an entire mountain side) in Japan.
October 24th, 2006
Here are some pictures of the photobook i designed and ordered with photobox.com.
The colours are actually really good, but in these pictures they appear washed out because of the low lighting in my bedroom.
The last page.
October 23rd, 2006
Richard Dawkins released a book recently called “The God Delusion”. It’s already a best seller in England and America. It’s very good. I recommend it.
Dawkins is known in the UK for his other popular books, and for recently doing a tv programme on channel 4 on the topic of man’s universal belief in Gods (and why it’s all a load of cock).
Read an excerpt from the book, and learn more about Richard Dawkins here at BoingBoing.
October 22nd, 2006
It’s interesting to take a step back and notice our close relationship with our computers, these days.
“.. people offer more accurate and complete information about themselves when filling out questionnaires using a computer than when completing the same form on paper or through a face-to-face interview. The differences were especially marked when the information at issue was personally sensitive.”
A quote from Alphabet to E-mail: How Written English Evolved and Where It’s Heading – a book by linguist Dr. Naomi Baron, a professor of Linguistics at American University, Washington, D.C. In it, Baron explores the history of the English language in written form, and considers how it has evolved through its history, ending with an evaluation of the state of the English language today, and how the Internet and the use of email and text messaging has affected it.
October 22nd, 2006
VCRclock brought it to my attention a while ago that archive.org not only archives webpages, but also many types of short films. Educational films from decades ago, documentaries, and lots more.
Only now have I realised that they also preserve full length movie classics such as Nosferatu (1922) – which I happen to have studied last week in my first Film class, by the way! – as well as Night of The Living Dead (1968), and Dressed To Kill.
There’s loads more too. Check it out. I wish I had another hard drive, so that I could save more of these videos. I have only a couple of gigabytes left!
October 22nd, 2006
This is a fun game (if you put it to the back of your mind that it is just an novel advertisement designed to be sent around on blogs and chatrooms by tools like me).
http://www.stationerymovies.com/
The idea is that you must guess the movie title, based upon clues given by the arrangement of office supplies.
It’s quite amazing how these movies are so familiar, and that the imagery in them is such a part of our visual vocabulary, that we can guess the film based on some specially arranged stationary items.
October 17th, 2006
Today, I was in the library at college and I had an epiphany!
I was reading through some fascinating books – the subjects of which are not on my actual curriculum – when it hit me: If i were to find books relative to my actual study, I might learn something relative to my course, and, I might even pass the onslaught of exams in June!
Well, i’m pretty sure no one has ever thought of this before! That one would use the library to aid one’s study.
I’m going to give it a try from now on.
October 13th, 2006
I hate that blindness that seems to overwhelm you upon completion of some creative project. You know, when you’ve been working on something – like a screenplay, or a picture; anything – and you’re not even sure if it’s any good. Then, maybe, you’ll take a break, come back, and think “Yeah, with hindsight, that’s actually pretty good”.
But then, a few months later, you will look back once more and see that you must have been completey blinded by your pride or tiredness or both.
Well, with this dreary introduction, I announce the new Link Catagory on the sidebar: Various Writings. The reason why my “Various Writings” is a collection containing only one (unfinished draft) entry, is that i looked through everything else I’ve ever done and deemed it to be tripe.
So, soon I’d like to expand on this catagory, with pieces that I won’t want to scrap the month afterwards!
October 12th, 2006
Well, now that i’m a Swedish language student (see previous post), I need to stay on top of all the big news in Sweden.
The Swedish government has started a competition to design a red Swedish cottage, which they intend to fly to the moon, in order to mark them as the potential third country to have occupied the lunar surface.
“If we manage to do this Sweden will be the third country to occupy the moon”, said SSC’s Fredrik von Schéele.
A competition has been arranged for students to construct a little red house that is suitably sized for placement by a moon landing device. The construction may not exceed eight square metres and can weigh a maximum of four kilos.
Original Link
October 11th, 2006
I began Swedish today.
That brings the Useless Language Count (lets call it ULC) to a steady 2. I’ve been learning Dutch for a year already. I’m also learning German - but apparently “usefulness” is gauged (by most people) on how widely the language is used, and German is spoken by many more millions than these other languages - so that’s why it’s not part of my ULC.
Fortunately I’m not too concerned with the usefulness of a language. There are still millions of people who speak Swedish and Dutch, and that’s plenty. Another factor in my apathy towards “usefulness” is that I like these few million people more than the many million German people (but that’s speaking generally and relatively - there are plenty of great Germans. don’t quote me out of context).
Contrary to their seeming insignificance, I am enjoying these languages more. They are both, not only simpler to learn but, also, they sound much nicer to my ear. In fact, today I also did my first Medieval German class(es), and found that medieval German is actually much more beautiful sounding than the present day German. It is less severe and more flowy. It has almost a celtic vibe to it.
Unfortunately, with taking on this new course, Swedish, I now have a lot on my plate. They wouldn’t let me take Swedish in place of German Sociolinguistics. So now I am doing both, on top of everything else. My brain sags, just thinking about it.
A successful day would be having also wangled my way out of Sociolinguistics. And an awesome day would be also having received the portfolio of my own photography that I ordered to be made.
October 8th, 2006
Hello, welcome to my new blog.
I have never particularly liked my name, so it has surprised some that I have chosen it as the domain name for my new website. Truth is, I tried to change my name but no one would play along. I wanted to be, at least, Bill Beaton. It wouldn’t have been a big stretch, since my middle name is William.
However, my family and friends won’t call me Bill. I’ve been told adamantly by people whose judgement I respect, that it is a terrible name. A name unbefitting of my greatness – thanks Kristen! Ok, she didn’t say it in those words, but this was clearly what she meant.
Anyway, the point is that I have decided to give my real name another chance to attach itself. I still liked Bill though. RIP.
