No More Cotton Wool

I love the idea of this book:

Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)

Full of stuff that we and our parents maybe used to try with a healthy disregard for health & safety and/or social services (licking batteries, playing in hailstorms, supergluing two fingers together...) plus the rejuvenation of the seemingly long-lost idea that the best way to find out whether you should be doing something is to try it, once.

And it's got whittling in it...

I Came, I Saw, IKEA

Some things in life leave you flabbergasted. Spurs sticking nine past Wigan, the continued popularity of I'm A Celebrity, the existence of a massive Waitrose in Bromley, that kind of thing. However, today my flabber has been gasted in the very best of ways, at that bastion of Saturday-morning male despair known as...

...IKEA.

We went (early) to look at some options for a wardrobe; as I'm sure you are aware, at IKEA these are legion. However, they had the one we liked, on display, with the doors we wanted, in a colour we didn't know existed but preferred, with the shelf/drawer/hanging options we wanted, in stock and for no apparent reason, at a discounted price.

When we spoke to the assistant (who had magically appeared as we started writing things on our tiny piece of paper with our tiny pencil) he shook his head with a wry smile, beckoned us over to a computer and helpfully printed the whole picking list out for us, with the correct internal codes for the warehouse guys. The warehouse guys were all at their post, waiting to take orders; they took ours, and went to get the doors and heavy stuff. Within 3 minutes they were back, with it all on a trolley and we were paying. We went to Home Delivery (these are 2.5m glass doors, no way I'm getting them in the Scenic...) who helpfully said we could have it all delivered*. Tomorrow. Sunday. SUNDAY! We left it with them before they could change their minds and drove home, speechless.

I am flabbergasted :)

* Obviously, my innate sense of Britishness is still nagging away, telling me that they'll actually turn up on Tuesday afternoon when no-one is home with a 7ft pot plant, three stuffed crocodiles and a gross of energy-efficient lightbulbs, but for now, big up IKEA.

Raven Mad

One of the ravens at the Tower of London is called 'Thor'. That's pretty damned cool.

kottke: the most famous unkindness

However, another is called Colin. Not so much.

Start The Card

Fascinating article about Ricky Jay, the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist alive, probably.

Profiles: Secrets of Magus : The New Yorker

Watch 13 examples here: Master Magician

When we were out in Dubai last Christmas, some friends organised a party at which there was a brilliant close-up magician, an young English guy who had moved out there to do just that for a living. As there were a fair few of us, he split everyone into two groups, one inside the house and one in the garden. He then moved swiftly between the two, barely repeating a trick (unless pressed!) and keeping both groups entertained and baffled for over an hour with cards, rope, rings and other props he found lying about. Thoroughly enjoyable; I still have the folded-up Jack of Clubs, with Solveig's name on it in marker pen, which he produced from his top pocket when it was supposed to be tightly clenched in her hand. Awesome. :)

SuperStarkey

New hairs-on-back-of-neck dubstep tune for you. The VIP remix of Gutter Music by Philly-based producer Starkey has the most amazing chord sequence. Mad arpeggiated synths and a healthy dose of clattering electro drums probably mean it's not for the faint hearted but I can't get enough of it. Check it, buy it:

Back A Bit, Left A Bit

Everyone else has blogged this, so I am going to as well:

Awkward Family Photos

Which reminded me of Antonia, Ian and Esme's brilliant Wild West one, here.

Overheard #71

(Not technically 'overheard' as it was addressed to me personally, but too good not to share...)

Meeting my family off the plane from Dubai after their 10-day break; a period in which I took it upon myself to attempt to grow a beard, as one might. Out of the baggage reclaim area they come, blinking in the uber-bright all-glass Heathrow Terminal 5 sunlight. Freyja sees me and runs over to give me a hug with the following greeting:

"Hello, Daddy! Have you had your face painted?"

Classic.

Go For The Juggler

OK, so Eduardo's cheeky volley was good, but this lot are incredible:

Pros: The opposition would never get the ball off them.
Cons: They'd spend the entire match in the centre circle.

(via the quite interesting qikipedia)

Kill (Slight Return)

OK, so I don't know what to do now; this Foamo* bootleg of the La Roux remix is even better!



La Roux - In For The Kill (Foamo Skream Remix Bootleg)
Atmospherics from Burial, beats from Underworld, bassline chopped out of the Skream mix and Elly's soaring voice floating above it all. That's like someone (Sylar?) lifted off the top of my head, peered in and wrote down all the things that do 'the neck hair thing'. A win of epic proportions.

* straight outta High Wycombe, he did that 'Everything Cool' thing that was all over the place last summer...

Skream In For The Kill

I recently heard this on Mad Decent radio and Sinden's podcast, gave it props on blip.fm, which instantly Twittered it and now I'm embedding the YouTube on my blog. How ridiculously Web2.0 is that?


(I also just discovered the improvements to YouTube embedding: customised playback area, choice of sizes and optional 'related videos' strip. Much better :)

Sing Us A Songsmith

Good old Microsoft have apparently been working on a fantastic application that takes any vocal sung into it and provides 'suitable' backing tracks. Sounds like good clean family fun, yes?

Quite apart from the jaw-droppingly Stepford-esque promo video, the good burghers of the internet have since decided to play it some acappellas of famous tracks, with astonishing results.

Microsoft Songsmith Remixes [Videos] @ Pitchfork

Clear winner has to be Radiohead's 'Creep'. They should do their whole next album like this. Utter awesomeness.

Of course, it has to be a massive spoof ... er ... doesn't it? Anyone?