Never mind the TV show.There is not, never has been and never will be anything relevant or important about sitting on your couch talking bollocks with your mates about the strangers sitting on a different couch, also talking bollocks, that you can see on your telly.Never was the idiot box a more appropriate phrase than in relation to that nonsense.But of course, like all entertainments permitted to us poor plebs, it serves as a distraction from the fact that in Britain more than anywhere else worldwide, the government really is watching you.That's the real Big Brother in action. But thankfully it has for once been stymied in its tracks by the most unlikely of opposition - the European Court of Human Rights.So immunised to the constant sight of human rights abuses are we today that the...
Darren Farley doing impressions of the various Liverpool guys past and present. Awesome !!...
I am taking a short break away from the blog for the next two weeks or so in order to work on various other projects as well as planning various aspects of 2009 which is quickly creeping up on us. I look forward to getting back to it again when I hopefully get a lot of stuff out of the way, updated and tidied up.
The other photoblog will still be updated daily as always over at iced-coffee.com. One photo per day.
Any photo questions or queries drop me a line at phil at philokanephotography.com....
Ladytron sit firmly in the tradition of those few bands that are best characterised by a string of glittering and perfect pop singles. It’s therefore a shame that none of their songs have so far been able to make any significant impact on the pop charts, as Ladytron is exactly the kind of band you would have expected to have seen on Top of the Pops back in the 1980s, and fallen in love with.Looking as if they had been styled by a Teutonic Mary Quant, Mira Aroyo and Helen Marnie appeared like parallel universe versions of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The hausfrau image sat perfectly alongside the bubbling electronics and fuzz guitar. The on-stage roving spotlight that settled on one band member before gliding away to gaze on another cemented the Nuremberg-chic.We were...
I'm way too angry about the Fas expenses and all sorts of nose-in-the-trough nonsense going on among the ruling elite in Ireland this week to even write about it.There are things that need to be said, but they'll have to wait until I calm down sufficiently first.In the meantime, let me pose a question that kept me thinking much of this past week.Recently, a good friend of mine celebrated his birthday by hiring a cinema for his friends for the evening. He got to choose which films to show, and picked two of his favourites. Now, this is actually more fraught than it may seem.For example, that Seventies blaxploitation movie that you find hilarious might not go down so well among all your mates. Equally, your penchant for obscure early sci-fi horrors, or ponderous foreign...
Recently I suggested 'Workout of the Month' to Men's Health where I would stick up a different workout each month and guys could have a bash at it. The goal is to have your own structured and progressive routine but the odd time just have a go at something different. Last months Workout of the Month was chin to dip ladders. Starting at just single repetitions you work your way up in this sort of...
For the next time I get asked a stupid question.
Enda is doubting his future as a blogger. He needs help.
Some of the Belfast entries/alleyways are nice. I think I walked through one I hadn’t been through before, or at least not in a long time.
Takeaway menus for belfast.
Real art on zebra crossings.
A big move for Starbucks; all coffee to be Fairtrade in the UK & IRE.
I remember doing this survey myself a few months(?) ago. Here are the results.
Donncha explains how he backs up his photographs.
Seriously, some of these laptops are beautiful.
Via Ice Cream Ire, It seems that there is a new study on coffee every six months. This time it’s not good for you. It won’t stop me.
He escaped!
Grandad’s forthcoming book cover revealed.
Plastic curbstones to stop paint....
One of the Men's health forum regulars has set up a website to track his weight loss between now and his wedding in 17 weeks time.
Check it out
He has invited a few of the forum regulars along on his weight loss journey and now we have a total of 7 guys who will look like Brad fit in fight club by this time next year :-)
All the guys
Challenges like this are great for a...
Tommy is the youngest blogger that I know of, at 14. An Intelligent, articulate blogger, student and great drummer! I have my own badge now. I think some others have some too....
Why the Ghostbusters of course!
This is the conversation that took place on Twitter just a short while ago.
Most fun use of Twitter....
No longer will I wake up on a Saturday morning/afternoon hungover only to proceed to waste the entire day. Yes it will probably fail at some point soon enough but after last Saturday I want to attempt it at least.
You see on Saturday I got up at 9.30am, having gone to bed at 12am and it felt great. A short while later I went to St. Georges Market.
The market which dates back to 1890-1896, is always full of life on a Friday for the fish market and Saturday for general market; such variety of stalls; food, drink, art and a great atmosphere - this is what everyone else does at the weekend.
Thankfully I dont have any allergies - that I know of yet - and will not understand how it is to have to carefully disect everything I ear to ensure there are no ingredients that would cause me harm....
Thabo Mbeki is a genocidal criminal who ought to be facing the International Court of Justice for the unnecessary death of 300,000 South Africans.He also shares responsibility for the death of innumerable Zimbabweans who perished solely because Mbeki has provided the only support that syphilitic scum Robert Mugabe has.Those in the West who continue to cheer the 'rainbow nation' because they did well at rugby and Uncle Nelson has a nice friendly smile need to start paying attention.Mbeki has caused the death of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Africans. His single-party state continues to defy genuine democratic principles. And worst of all, he has sustained the evil of the Mugabe regime a full generation after it should have ended.Not that I expect the apologists for Mugabe's despotism...
Taken a long the Stranmillis towpath in Belfast in November 2005. Every so often I wold take a walk along this path by the River Lagan, which goes for quite a few miles, and always has other walkers/runners/cyclysts. Possibly one of the best places to go for a bit of nature within the city.
The photograph is of a swan taking flight after a little swim in the water....
Are economic times so tough that it's finally time to free the weed and tax it?That's the question posed by this article from the United States, which makes a series of excellent points in relation to both President-elect Obama's former dope proclivity and the economic stimulus that legalising cannabis could potentially provide.It's a fascinating idea for a number of reasons. Clearly prohibition has not prevented people from taking drugs identified under legislation as illegal. People who want to get wasted will get wasted whether it's against the law or not.But it's not my intention to re-hash old arguments about whether cannabis is a 'gateway drug' (it isn't - that would be tobacco) or whether the current prohibition policy criminalises otherwise law-abiding people (obviously it does)...
Meet-ups and festivals and fund raising; helping each other out - people coming together to support the music.
The mentality will soon move away from that of “Oh us in Northern Ireland, rejected by all those around us *cries again*” as we begin to realise that we need to just start spreading the word about the great music being created here. Nobody is one day going to decide to look at N.I. separately from anywhere else out of sympathy.
If you are not in a band, why not check out some of the music being made - maybe start with my list from a few weeks ago, take a listen to tracks tagged “Northern Ireland” on LastFM, blog about it, go to gigs, buy merch. Repeat.
If you are even further interested in local music then there are a variety of events to attend: two...
As a continuation of my Mac evaluation I’ve broken down each of my favourite Mac specific applications that I’ve come to love since the switch.
1. smcFanControl
The Mac gets pretty hot at times. By default the fan speed fluctuates depending on the temperature (I think), but often it won’t cool it down enough. smcFanControl app allows the user to create profiles set to particular fan speeds so that when it gets super hot you simply speed up the fan.
2. Exposé
There are a few things I feel really make the Mac stand out compared with other operating systems; the dock, Spaces, the ability to find and open applications and files/folders with such ease, install and uninstall applications with little effort - but to me the most appealing to new users is Exposé. It looks...
The Advertising Standards Authority has this week ruled that The Belfast News Letter was in breach of The Committee of Advertising Practice Code Clause 5.1 in publishing a full-page advertisement from Sandown Free Presbyterian Church.The advertisement, published on 1st August 2008 and headlined 'The Word of God Against Sodomy' was timed to coincide with Belfast's annual gay pride festival and parade. It voiced its disapproval of homosexuality in typical Biblical vitriol.Seven people complained to the ASA, who initially recommended that the complaints should not be upheld, although noted that a final decision would be taken by its Council.The Council this week ruled out any consideration that the News Letter or Sandown Free Presbyterian Church acted to incite hatred but instead upheld...
Congrats again to Damien for his Golden Spider for best blog. Doesn’t he look so happy:
I’ve shown this comic to everyone lately. Just so apt.
Excellent composition.
Seriously, woman, are you completely stupid? I agree with Alex in this week’s Diggnation, anyone who buys from spam should have their internet shut down.
Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell, seems to be getting a bit of promotion lately. It sounds great and I might have to make a little purchase.
This is modern life.
The 11-plus exam, which determined whether children get into a secondary or grammar school in Northern Ireland, has been scrapped. But still no plans for how the decision will be made for entering the next level of education.
I’ve been enjoying the Life Magazine photo archive courtesy of Google....
Supplements are simply that . . . supplements. They are not meant to replace food or give you big guns in a week. They are simply a nice add on when everything in your diet is already spot on. Some people believe a 2 pound tub of weight gain will help them add two stone . . . it won't. Think a few fat burners will strip the belly off ? nope - that won't happen either.
Ok, now that...
A colleague found this in the Daily Mirror on Wednesday.
It reads:
“Change one letter at a time (but not the position of any letter) to make a new word - and move from the word at the top of the box to the word at the bottom of the box using the exact number of rungs provided.”...
One of the first photographs I took that I really loved. This is my brother, Chris, while on a family holiday in 2004. This was taken with a compact camera that had pretty much no manual settings, though I did manage to judge exactly how long the lag was between pressing the shutter and the picture actually being taken.
This was actually the last time I was on holiday with my family. I don’t miss it at all. Whereas they have gone to Italy, Spain and Florida, I have seen their photos and look forward to seeing these places in my own time....
Sinead has a good write-up on intelligent robots.
The Escape Act CD is now available in various forms with much merch included.
Just like every other televised celebrity, Palin may be getting a book deal. She will probably have a ghost writer anyway.
The latest episode of South Park is coming true; Obama and McCain are teaming up!
Sometimes I feel this way about designers… Take heed!
Via le craic - Today is World Toilet Day…
Have you heard?
An interesting new blog by a Belfast party animal.
Via Alexia - Air lines. I want one in black.
Google is all over the NY Subway - über sweet.
Some really stupid shit gets Dugg [most of the time]. Imagine cocaine users have preference to drug-related images compared with non-cocaine users.
Grandad explains how to start a blog for those...
Someone's got their hands on a year old members' list for the British National Party and published it on the internet.Not just a list of their professions or their locations, but actual names and addresses. Their leader rightly fingered the Labour establishment as seeking to intimidate his members.This is not the first time that members of this legitimate political party have been targetted by the establishment. I blogged before about how morons interrupted a ballet because the ballerina was a BNP supporter to call her a racist, even though she was dating a Cuban-Chinese dancer at the time.At the opposite end of the political spectrum, members of Sinn Fein will find these tactics of intimidation to be familiar. Until they were brought into the mainstream (when the British and Irish...
Tonight I was in Belfast city centre for the Christmas lights switch-on and opening evening of the Continental Market. A few thousand people gathered outside the City Hall as some aweful “celebrities” entertained the crowd with their awful singing. Once the Lord Mayor had said a few words the lights around the city hall and on the tree went on and the gates to the market, on the City Hall grounds, were opened (after about 15mins waiting).
But this is what I was here for, the lights the atmosphere, the people. With everything in the same layout as previous years, it somehow adds to the potential Christmas feel, or at least what I have come to think of as Christmas in Belfast. It smells good and tastes good. Especially the mulled wine!
Here are a few photos from the grounds of...
Sorry for all the videos in one go but this has to be a favourite....
This actually looks like fun as you are trying to power the thing along and steer at the same...
Kitty and the Can Openers are a band for those who appreciates the sounds of folk/pop with a lot of acoustic; female vocals, guitar plucking, brilliant bass and rolling drums. The sounds of Fleetwood Mac and Nick Drake, Ani DiFranco and Elliot Smith quickly come to mind.
The band officially released their first, self-titled, EP on Thursday 13th November in McHughs Bar, Belfast and is available through the band’s website, as a cd or free download.
They were interviewed in the latest issue of AU magazine. The full interview is available below.
There is a graceful, understated charm to the indie-folk of Kitty and the Can Openers. The endearing melodies of their eponymous debut EP are sun-dimples but hint at rain clouds on the horizon. It’s sweetness tempered by the realisation...
Seriously, ‘links and things’? still working on a better name…
Alexia has a great writeup on good presentations. Maybe this will come in handy for my best man speech in a few months time…
Mulley.ie has been launched. Another blog? Does he have a time-stopping device??
Timing is everything. An obedient and patient dog helps.
Northern Irish Accent is sexy??
Awesome photographs from the 1930s-40s in colour.
Paddy has created Origami Web2.0 logos. Super new take on these.
I loved dot-dots as a kid.
Hmm Fetus.
Cool new commemorative Dutch €5 coin, and how it was made.
Cheeky dog. Hot dog.
Seriously, I’m really into typography right now:
No communion for Obama supporters. Seriously church, WTF?
Oh look, I don’t have to worry about this stuff any more with...
Remember, what happened in the US happened here too. This is a cautionary tale from leading economist, Dr Wile E. Coyote....
As part of the JD Set, a music showcase tour throughout the UK, ex lead singer of The Strangers, Hugh Cornwell, played a song with each of the two bands on the night. His sound is a bit different from the days of Golden Brown. But what a song....