Down To A Tee

Another one for Andy:

Nerdy Shirts :: The Most Awesome Shirts in the World

Look - it's MacGyver, the most handsome man in the world!

Awesome.

MetalRex*

Billy Corgan has taken the latest incarnation of The Smashing Pumpkins on the road again for the first time since December 2000, ahead of the July release of the new album, Zeitgeist:

And ThePumpkins.net has some bootlegged recordings of the Paris gig:

Smashing Pumpkins; The Grand Rex, Paris

* long story...

More Smoke On Camera Six

I've only recently discovered Pickard Of The Pops, a weekly column on the Guardian website in which promotional music videos of the popular genre are dissected and analysed like an unsuspecting frog in an O-level Biology practical. Laid bare, scene by scene, they really are exposed as either (a) pompous heap of overblown pretentious tosh, (b) feeble excuse for pre-watershed semi-nudity or (c) shoe-string budget gibberish made by orang-utangs on uppers. My choices, in the aforementioned categories, are:

(a) I Don't Love You
(b) Umbrella
(c) Nuff Buzzin

Enjoy (or something)...

Overheard #13

An absolute classic - in my office, lunchtime today:

"Ah, I know what it is, I've just bought a field"

Can I Kick It? No.

This is a very beautifully designed football by the acclaimed Japanese Poku artist, Takashi Murakami. However at $400 a pop, I think you'd have to team it with cashmere jumpers for goalposts and a platinum whistle to do it justice. And then stand around dissecting its relevance to Otaku culture in the context of disenfranchised Tokyo youth and their obsession with the unattainable goal of perfection. But whatever you do, don't get it muddy :)

[via Boing Boing]

EC peasy

I must be a middle-aged Dad. Whilst perusing the excellent Strange Maps blog just now, I found this very interesting Postcode Map of Great Britain.

In the comments is an explanation of how they got numbered in London which was initially based on the alphabetical order of the area names (except W1, N1, E1, etc which were the areas closest to the City). So, for example, SE2 = Abbey Wood; SE3 = Blackheath; SE4 = Brockley; SE5 = Camberwell, etc.

However, once they needed to create some more postcode areas beyond SE20 it all went a bit wonky, which is why our home in SE23 (Honor Oak Park) is squeezed in between SE4 and SE6. Fascinating (but YMMV, obviously...)

Alderaandy & Darth Paul

Leaping aboard the current bandwagon of blogging for your mates, how about a double-whammy - the top ten Star Wars T-shirts?

I really like the Dark Side Of The Garden one (from, predictably, Threadless)

Woof Woof

So it's splashed all over the papers that José Mourinho has been cautioned by the authorities for trying to get rid of a dog. Well I'm no Chelsea apologist, but even I think that's a bit harsh - Michael Ballack has had at least a few decent games this season...

Overheard #12

This just in, actually uttered by that-guy-on-the-Crystal-Palace-train:

"I can't have an animal in the place. It's bad enough having a smoker, I can't add a ferret."

Overheard #11

A double-whammy today, both on the same day from the same person:

"I was going to watch my Pink Panther box set - but then I remembered it had been stolen."

"It's still the most eloquent book written on the Seven Years War - except for my thesis."

Nice.

Fourth Again

I was hopeful, but it was not to be. Arsenal couldn't quite do enough to nick third place from the (Red) Scousers, who were even helpfully losing 2-1 at home to Charlton until a last minute penalty. A (dire, by all accounts) 0-0 draw at Portsmouth means that for the second year in a row we finish in fourth and will have to play [insert random Eastern European side here] to get into the group stage of the Champions League proper. Oh well.

My predictions for the summer are pretty much as they were before with the most handsome man in the world MacGyver Franck Ribery coming in (fingers crossed) and I hear we've just bought a Polish keeper with New Rave hair. We need Henry and van Persie back to full fitness, Baptista can go back to Madrid (and if Reyes won't come to London we can pack him straight back off to Sevilla for £12m or swap him for their up-and-coming winger whose name eludes me at the moment - oh yes, Puerta) and although some of the blogs have been urging Arsene to ditch Hleb, I reckon Freddie will move on and we'll need him and those other midfield options on the bench. If we can keep Clichy and Eboué fit, Gallas can partner Touré in the middle. Sorted.

Right, then, cricket...

Spiderman Of The Rings

Perusing some random music blogs this afternoon, I stumbled across a reference to someone called Dan Deacon and a link to an MP3 of a track called Snake Mistakes. Cool title, I think, wonder what this sounds like. Four minutes and twenty-two seconds of kids toy bleeps, slide bass, playground hand-claps and catchy-as-hell pitchshifted* chorus later, I am on the hunt for his album:

Hails from Baltimore, part of the Wham City art collective and composer of unpretentious, engagingly garish electronica who did his last tour by Greyhound bus. Utter lunacy - carry on...

* thinking about it, after that Battles track, is pitchshifting the new Provence? :)

Le Stumping

The Corridor, esteemed cricket-type blog, sent me off in the direction of this - a poster explaining the rules of cricket in French (not French cricket which is an entirely different animal). I am obviously very keen for our Gallic chums to discover the delights of the noble game so we can go on a GRACC tour to the Lot region, stay in the house in Cahors, drink excellent wine and if we can find the time to fit in a match, utterly thrash them.*

* yeah, right!

Overheard #10

Sat behind two nylon-clad baboons on the 43 bus to London Bridge, I chanced upon this gem.

Number #10:

"Twenty minutes every day? But that's like *thinks* an hour a week..."

Run Forrest (Hill) Run

In a weak moment, I managed to somehow agree to sign up for the Arbuthnot Securities team to enter the 5km (3.5 mile) JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge. So, eight weeks to get up to optimum fitness (although more pressing might be to purchase some suitable running shoes...) Anyway, one of my team members pointed me at Gmaps Pedometer, a Google Maps mashup which allows you to put in a route with various marker points and it calculates the distance run/walked/staggered. And this is my training route:

Gmaps Pedometer :: SE23 :: 3.7 miles

Wish me luck...

Do Not Pass Go(dalming)

The makers of Monopoly, Hasbro, are bringing out a Here & Now UK Edition. You can vote for which locations are included and the leaderboard currently shows St Albans & Sheffield taking the Mayfair & Park Lane positions with Cambridge third (Bond Street). York is just sneaking into the list (Whitechapel) ahead of St Andrews (Old Kent Road).

Monopoly: Vote For Your City

All jolly good fun but I will not be buying one, whatever the final outcome, as I have my fantastic Arsenal Monopoly set (although they missed a trick by not putting Tony Adams on the Go To Jail square :)

Just William

Via kottke.org , check out this animated version of the Bayeux Tapestry, with Gilliam-esque animation (it even has the comet :)

Proper Noun (Possessive) Superlative Plural Noun

Channel 5 commissioning executive? Short of midweek ideas for the 8.30pm slot? Try Televisual Gold, Guaranteed. Yes, it's that simple. So far, personal highlights include:

Stoke Newington's Youngest Hamsters

Greenland's Prettiest Grannies

Soap's Most Patronising Vegetarians

Oh yes.

Keep Off The Grass/Clay/Grass/Clay/Grass/Clay (etc)

So the two top world tennis players, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, are playing an exhibition match on a half-clay, half-grass court in Spain*.

Interesting. I wonder if the Premiership might like to look into this idea. Arsenal could play Bolton on a pitch that is half perfectly-manicured bowling green, half sloping Sunday-league war-zone covered in molehills and dog turds with only one net and assorted WAGs lighting up the regulation B&H for half-time :)

* It doesn't say if they will be swapping ends within each set in the usual way; I am assuming not but feel free to prove me wrong?

Battles - 'Atlas' (Warp)

I meant to post this after stumbling across it a while ago. Still not sure I can make up my mind as to whether it is genius or just plain weird, but I keep coming back to listen to it. Throw half a pint of glam rock stomp into a juicer with four early Casio synths. Stir in some essence of Chip 'n' Dale and mix until frothy. Serve with an intense garnish.



More on Battles at MySpace and bttls.com. Yes, I think I like it...

It's A Shoe In

In response to Andy's post about trainers:

I can talk, I'm still looking for the original limited-edition adidas ZX-500 in slate grey and sky blue with the red heel guard trim...