Overheard #81

Awesome #BGT overheard just now:

"Come on, Susan Boyle's on next..."
"...I've just got to watch these potatoes."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, sums up the state of Saturday night television.

Overheard #80

This just in from one of our ever-vigilant field operatives:

"One woman's potato sack is another man's goddess…"

Women And Children First

Just moments ago, Arsenal added the 2009 FA Youth Cup to the trophy cabinet with a 6-2 aggregate victory over Liverpool. In a remarkable coincidence, tonight was the 20th anniversary of the astonishing last-gasp title-clinching goal* from Michael Thomas - also at Anfield and a game in which Steve Bould, tonight's coach, was a key member of the back four. Funny how these things work out.

Huge congratulations to them and also to Arsenal Ladies who this year won the FA Women's Premier League (again), FA Cup (again) and League Cup (again).

Now if some of that sweet smell of victory could work its way into the First Team dressing room before next season, I shall be a very happy man.

* the goal comes about 7'25" into the video and brings tears to my eyes to this day (and how odd does it look when the goalkeeper picks it up from a backpass)

Overheard #79

Regarding shoes:

"I can't wear those; I'd look like a middle-aged goth at a barbecue"

Never Win Anything With Kids

Some names to watch for the future here (and Little Jack of course)

Arsenal’s kids hit four past Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup final

And there were 33,000 people at The Emirates to see it (helped by the fact that it was £5 for kids £5 for adults, £2 for kids) including Goodplaya, whose report is here. Second leg is at Anfield next week; hopefully the three goal cushion should be enough, but best of luck to the youngsters - and perhaps some of our first team could take finishing lessons from them...

Tooled Up

This is amazing; a free online browser-based Flash audio composing and recording tool:

Hobnox:Audiotool

Yeah, yeah, seen them before, I hear you say? No, you haven't:

(click to enlarge)

Need another gate, compressor, delay, parametric EQ, splitter, sequencer, etc? Sure, just drag it on and cable it up. Just like being on stage (apart from knocking lager all over the laptop mid-set...). Have fun.

(via the b3ta newsletter)

Overheard #78

This is funny to exactly three people:

"Oh no, it's Buemi!"

Getting Shirty

I see that my football team has a new away kit. Didn't we have one last year (and the year before that, and the year before that)? For the benefit of readers who do not scour the blogoverse for Arsenal-related news, here is our super Spaniard modelling said items:

So it's blue. The blue is OK. It’s a nice dark blue. As a colour, I quite like it. As a kit? It’s fine. It’s OK. No, really. I mean, I look at it and I think mid-table. I see Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan*, Portsmouth & Spurs but it's OK, I guess. Sort of. OK.

But is that how much the kit means to the club - it just has to be ‘OK’?

With all the history we have with our club colours - the cup finals, the last gasp championships, the European away wins - what I find galling is that clearly, despite all the experiments (white, blue, horizontal stripes, redcurrant, green) the fans’ favourite shirts are red with white sleeves (home) and yellow with blue sleeves (away). So why not stick with that? If we need a third kit (and actually, why would we ever, with those colour combinations) then swap the shorts over. Voila. Done. Sorted. And anyway, can you see Chelsea or Spurs having a red/white away kit? You can stop laughing now.

I know, I know, I'm being deliberately obtuse - it's all about the money. Nike sponsors the shirt; Nike gets to release a new slightly different replica kit each year and thousands will buy it, out of loyalty. I even nearly bought that one-off redcurrant one to celebrate the club's anniversary. But basically, it stinks.

Hey, I’ve an idea - why not be the first big club NOT to actively fleece the fans who put you where you are, eh? Buck the trend, challenge consensus. Arsene does it with his youth project; why not front up and try it at the *spit* 'brand' level? Pick a kit (you could maybe get the fans to choose...) and then that's it for, say, three years.

And you know what?

Everyone would buy it. I would. Everyone. Because they know that it would be worth the investment to stand alongside similarly-attired fellow supporters and not feel cheated. Part of what attracts about football is belonging to a gang; throughout history, gangs have worn clothing that identifies your lot from their lot (makes it easier in a scrap). It would look better on the terraces too; a chanting sea of red/yellow (home/away) rather than the patchwork quilt of random shirts from years gone by we currently display. At the moment, our 'look' is changing every 'season' - remind you of anything?

Proud of that much? No, didn’t think so. Think on.

* by the way, 'Wigan' was not in the embedded spell checker; I think that speaks volumes :)

Too Hard Enough

This is hilarious: Tweeting Too Hard

Although #6 is Peter Serafinowicz so I'd imagine not entirely serious :)

(via qwghlm)

Manic Moan Day

Supermarkets cover up Manics CD

A Sainsbury's music buyer said:

"We felt that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate if it were prominently displayed on the shelf."

I smell a massive cover-up (yes, pun intended).

The real reason they are going to display it in a plain cover is because the Manics have been utter crap since 'Everything Must Go' in 1996 and they don't want to have to deal with a flood of irate customer returns.

Hope that clears it up.

Boom Boom

Haringey council has just rejected plans for the proposed new Spurs stadium on a local park. A spokesperson for the council said "It’s one thing having a funfair there twice a year, but a circus every fortnight is simply not acceptable”

I thang hew.

Turning In His Chip Shop

This is finally here:

Elvis by Bono

"U2's singer Bono reads his own poem, Elvis, and weaves it into an atmospheric sound-scape. The poem, which sounds like the beat poetry of Adrian Henri, contains images from Elvis' life and his legacy, American history, and popular culture of the last 50 years from crooning to rap via rock and roll, from Valentino to television via Nixon and Lisa Marie. It is blended with archive material and recorded, specially-composed music."

John 11:35

Enough said.

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:

PhotoPhonoPhoto

I just found a load of photos on my phone I had completely forgotten about. So, in no particular order (click to enlarge, if you fancy):

Lady Penelope on the school run at St Dunstans College

Four quid for a box of twigs? That's Dulwich for you

Big owl problem in Kensington, is there?

Most men still couldn't hit the target...

Enough said!

Overheard #77

Hitting you up with multiple Overheards today, from a small gathering in SE London last night:

"Yeah, we had to bin off all the girls..."

"I had pizza for breakfast and everything tasted sour for three days."

"Oh god, it's the Christopher Reeve of websites."

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.

Trust The Remix

That nice Mr Skinner has decided to allow the great unwashed to remix his excellent track "Trust Me". I shall be having a go shortly, but for now here are the first attempts (quite liking the autotuned jungle one from Rumblejazz)

bln.kr | remix skinnermike

Overheard #76

One of our analysts got a bit chippy this morning:

It's not 'wind', it's Value Added Comment

The Pen Is Mightier

Not much to offer on our 3-1 loss to Man Utd; more erudite bloggers than me have already said all there is to say.

However, the Fletcher incident WAS a penalty and WAS a sending off. It was. Watch it again.

His intention was clearly to stop the player first, and divert the ball second. If you look at the incident, he poked his left leg in the vague direction of the ball whilst simultaneously (and most importantly) wrapping his other leg around Cesc's knees and ankles, bringing him down. Yes, he did get the faintest of touches on the ball (which I don't deny) but that was not enough to alter its course so much that if Cesc had continued his run, he would clearly have had a chance to score. He was blatantly prevented from continuing this run by Fletcher; thus he was denied a goalscoring opportunity. Under the rules, that is a penalty and a red card.

The referee got it right.

We can feel sorry for Darren Fletcher - and even as a disappointed, lifelong Arsenal fan, believe me when I say I do feel some sympathy - but bleating that he got the faintest end of one of his studs onto the ball and that means he didn't commit a foul is totally, utterly, completely wrong.

Thanks. If anyone wants me, I'll be over there trying to flog Adebayor to AC Milan.

UPDATE: Graham Poll agrees with me. I'm not sure if that's a good thing :)

You Do The Moth

Burial and Four Tet have collaborated on a 12″ release, each apparently having had a hand in the production of each others tracks; a fantastic 'style-meld' from two of my favourite producers.

‘Moth’ is the most immediate with huge deep kicks and detuned synths and vocal shards - Burial house anyone?

‘Wolf Cub’ definitely has more of a Four Tet feel to the instrumentation but with those South London late-night atmospherics lending an uneasy air to proceedings.

Anyway, I suggest you buy it. Now. Go on!

(via nialler9)

Bono-etry In Motion

The Daily Mash is truly fantastic:

BONO TO CREATE BLACK HOLE OF AWFULNESS

Broadcasting regulator Ofcom said Radio Four's decision to air it in full was 'as reckless as using a threshing machine to brush your teeth'.

I Am Really Excited About Tonight

and Twitter is not functioning for me at work so this is me shouting "Come On You Gunners!" at you lot on the twitosphere (via twitterfeed) and wishing it was 7.45 already. Shouting at televisions to come.

Full Chrome

The dev channel of Google Chrome now has F11 fullscreen support, with a neat 'floating' bookmarks bar when you open a new tab. I'd still like to see top-of-screen mouseover pull down all the menu bars, not just the fullscreen toggle tab, but it's much improved:

Oh look, they've also fixed the Blogger picture posting issue (Chrome wasn't sending the BlogID correctly) - bonus!

Sugar Spun Sister

So 'The Stone Roses' was released 20 years ago this weekend.

As a debut album, it was astonishing - anthemic, delicate, emotional, witty, powerful and enigmatic - with hand-crafted lyrics from Ian Brown, intricate guitar work from John Squire floating above the rolling bass sounds of Gary Mountfield and Alan Wren's chugging drums keeping your feet moving, for me it was the sound of the beginning of the 1990s.

Regrettably, I don't seem to have any photos to hand of my baggy jeans, flowery hoodie and shaggy (whisper it, undercut) hair but you can get some idea of my image of the time from this:

Yes, in a totally unrelated coincidence, Freyja appeared for breakfast today dressed ready for Spike Island.

I'm so very proud (and ever so slightly wistful).