We're needed...

Icon Derelicts

2012-02-08T00:10:00.000Z

The Derelicts a short film by eGarage from eGarage on Vimeo.

From Above

2012-02-04T05:15:00.001Z

Wes Anderson // FROM ABOVE from kogonada on Vimeo.

Museum Without Walls, Gallery Without Roof

2012-01-23T11:50:00.001Z

The great Jonathan Meades is publishing his new book through Unbound, it will be the first time that scripts from his documentaries have been put into print and will bring many of his articles and other writings together as well. Here's the pitch:

It’s an astonishment, maybe even an outrage, that Jonathan Meades’ writing and thinking about the hundreds of places he’s visited have never been edited into a book before.
Over the coming months you will watch it come together as he sifts through the scripts to sixty films, and the hundreds of pieces and he has written and delivered over the past twenty years. The plan is to produce a handsome volume (heavy on the handfeel) containing five full scripts of his most important TV films (illustrated with stills) and about forty pieces, including ten longer essays. Very little of this material will have been read by a general audience; the scripts, in particular, have never appeared in print before and offer an extraordinary insight into Meades meticulous working methods and his subversive visual style.

Head to Unbound to put yourself down for a copy, whether an ebook, a hardback or one of the more personalised options.

Miscellaneous

2012-01-18T13:07:00.000Z

Soda Pop

2012-01-18T12:54:00.000Z

Life In A Day

2012-01-17T22:17:00.002Z

Cinema 2011

2012-01-04T12:25:00.002Z

Born to Die

2012-01-03T02:16:00.002Z

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die from Yoann Lemoine on Vimeo.

Miscellaneous

2011-12-29T13:27:00.000Z

Haywire

2011-12-27T03:10:00.005Z

Joining a healthy strand of action films following lone 'Black Ops' operators betrayed by their former employers and on the run/out for revenge/rescuing a girl (The American and Spartan being two of the best, and most stylish in different ways; Taken is a guilty pleasure on the other hand...), Steven Soderbergh directs the screen debut of women's MMA fighter Gina Carano leading a stellar cast in Haywire. In this film the girl can look after herself, but let's hope her acting lives up to that of fellow MMA retiree (and The Expendables cast member) Randy Couture.

Prometheus

2011-12-24T21:55:00.000Z

Ridley Scott returns to Science Fiction, and to Horror, with his prequel (sequel?) to his own seminal, genre-defining classic, Alien, apparently dispensing with the claustrophobia of the original in the process and turning to a much larger canvas. It sports a fantastic cast as well.

The Hitch

2011-12-18T23:51:00.002Z

Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011

An impassioned opponent of totalitarianism of all kinds, defender of Jeffersonian democracy and a true bon vivant, the world is a better place for his having lived, and his legacy and writings will outlast his all too short life.

Filmography 2011

2011-12-13T17:08:00.000Z

No One's Gonna Love You

2011-11-24T17:37:00.001Z

Shake

2011-11-16T14:19:00.001Z

Cavalier Noir

2011-11-15T18:41:00.001Z

Flight of the Frenchies

2011-11-09T15:07:00.000Z

I Believe I can Fly ( flight of the frenchies). Trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo (h/t David Thompson).

Miscellaneous

2011-11-09T14:34:00.002Z

No Country for Old Men

2011-11-08T03:06:00.001Z

Masdar City

2011-11-08T02:27:00.000Z

Green done right: innovation, not taxation. The video below is from Human Planet, an exceptional BBC wildlife documentary strand.

Safe House

2011-11-08T01:36:00.000Z

It's the Stupid Economy

2011-11-03T17:00:00.000Z

Machine.

2011-10-30T12:46:00.000Z

MACHINE from matt machine on Vimeo.

Miscellaneous

2011-10-26T02:08:00.002+01:00

Custom Art Deco Motorcycle, 1936

2011-10-22T02:56:00.000+01:00

A 1930 K.J. Henderson motorcycle transformed into a work of art like nothing else (h/t KnuckleBuster).

Roman & Williams

2011-10-07T16:55:00.002+01:00

Roman & Williams from The Scout on Vimeo.

VJ Day, 1945

2011-10-07T16:05:00.000+01:00

VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo.

The Crazy One

2011-10-06T11:22:00.001+01:00

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Siri is the Future, Now

2011-10-04T23:28:00.000+01:00

U.S. Debt

2011-10-04T01:52:00.001+01:00

Created by: MBA Online

Jaguar E-Type

2011-10-04T00:44:00.000+01:00

The finest car ever produced; beautiful in every aspect, from every angle. Timeless.

Ellen Von Unwerth

2011-09-29T14:08:00.001+01:00

Miscellaneous

2011-09-29T13:02:00.000+01:00

Flotsam & Jetsam

2011-09-26T14:56:00.001+01:00

Flotsam & Jetsam from Flotsam and Jetsam on Vimeo.

America

2011-08-17T17:33:00.001+01:00

By way of ACL, an advert that centres on selling America's virtues (one of many at the linked post). Inspiring. And on the same theme:

Part of Levi's Go Forth campaign:

And finally, a pitch for Made Right Here about USA made clothes.

Burning Bridges

2011-06-28T18:37:00.003+01:00

"We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered."

- Tom Stoppard

Beat Of My Drum

2011-06-21T16:06:00.000+01:00

Dazzle Camouflage

2011-06-18T21:05:00.003+01:00

Previously linked to here; more here and here.

Marian Bantjes' Wallpaper* Laser

Miscellaneous

2011-06-18T20:58:00.003+01:00

Bugatti 16C Galibier

2011-04-19T17:52:00.004+01:00

Citizen Attesa

2011-03-18T23:45:00.000Z

Citizen Attesa ATD53-3002 from DJMM on Vimeo.

Gorgeous watch: simple, masculine, stylish. Wish I could get it in the UK.

Max Bill Junghans Kitchen Clock, 1953

2011-02-19T19:25:00.001Z

This one's at Mid Mod Design. A design classic.

Bear Grills

2011-02-09T20:14:00.000Z

To return to an earlier theme...

Libraries

2011-02-08T19:55:00.000Z

A house in Pozuelo, Madrid, by A-Cero

Ingmar Bergman's library

Karl Lagerfeld in his library

A concept design for Stockholm's new public library

Gant Rugger S/S 2011

2011-02-07T01:56:00.001Z

"cool kids living like the good times never end"

Gant Rugger, Gangs of New Haven, as stylish as you'd expect.

King of Cool

2011-02-04T18:11:00.001Z

John Dominis's three week shoot with Steve McQueen epitomised his effortless cool and ACL have a bunch of unseen photos from it up; go take a look.

Ralph Lauren Sporting Watch with Elm Burl Wood Dial

2011-02-04T03:11:00.001Z

From Ralph Lauren Watches 2011 Collection, price set at $11,900; read about it at Hodinkee.

Restrepo

2011-02-03T01:30:00.003Z

"First friend I lost was Restrepo..."

Restrepo, nominated for 2011's Academy Award for Best Documentary, is currently film of the week on iTunes and can be rented for 99p. Made by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger (who turned the story into his book, War), it grew out of frontline reports for Vanity Fair in January and October of 2008.

Egypt & its Military

2011-02-03T00:58:00.000Z

"... they will be the deciders here, not the street."

Turkey & Europe

2011-02-02T23:58:00.000Z

"It's not a bridge; it's a tunnel"

The Sunset Limited

2011-01-26T00:44:00.000Z

Filmography 2010

2010-12-21T17:01:00.000Z

Runaway

2010-10-25T00:54:00.003+01:00

"First rule in this world, baby: don't pay attention to anything you see in the news..."

Groove Armada Live

2010-10-17T19:22:00.002+01:00

I saw Groove Armada at the Brixton Academy on Friday; they were incredible and SaintSaviour (who is fronting the group's current live tour and performed on some tracks from their last album Black Light) was particularly impressive.

Space Seed

2010-07-19T02:55:00.001+01:00

I missed this poster by Martin Ansin for Mondo Tees and I'm pretty bummed about only stumbling across it now. Such a perfect piece.

Dieter Rams, Braun & Apple Design

2010-07-19T02:30:00.001+01:00

MB&F HM4 "Thunderbolt"

2010-07-08T13:31:00.007+01:00

Speaking of unattainable goals, the MB&F HM4 is coming out later this year; Hodinkee describes it:

The watch consists of two dials that sit side-by-side. One displays the hours and minutes (read as a plane's speedometer), and the other displays the engine's power reserve (aka the plane's fuel levels). Both dials are displayed at the end of a turbine like pod, opposite individual crowns. This means one crown is for setting the time, the other is for winding the engine.
There are five unique pieces of sapphire glass on the HM4, and the main sapphire plate actually costs more than the entire engine of the HM2. Think about that. The engine itself is a marvel, taking over 3 years to develop, consisting of 311 parts, and converting power from a horizontal dual mainspring barrel to two vertically oriented gear trains to display on the dials. No easy feat.
The HM4 will cost $158,000 when available later this year.

Porsche 356 Speedster

2010-07-07T18:44:00.000+01:00

I want one. In black, with a red leather interior.

Art Deco Pegasus Bookends, by G.H. Laurent

2010-06-27T14:13:00.001+01:00

I want these; I want them badly.

Paparazzi

2010-05-31T00:21:00.005+01:00

A very talented kid singing Paparazzi by Lady Gaga. Very impressive.

The Adjustment Bureau

2010-05-13T00:26:00.001+01:00

The Dark, Dark Hours

2010-04-23T16:49:00.002+01:00

An opportunity to watch Ronald Reagan starring opposite James Dean was unexpected to say the least. Enjoy. (h/t Ann Althouse).

Four Lions

2010-03-18T18:07:00.003Z

Niall Ferguson on the Descent of Finance

2009-11-30T13:31:00.006Z

I'm Not Your Toy

2009-09-08T01:29:00.012+01:00

La Roux's videos are exceptionally cool; I'm glad she's ditched the pink eye shadow though.

Remedy

2009-07-27T23:12:00.005+01:00

Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer)

2009-05-21T12:03:00.008+01:00

It is somewhat depressing that the knock-on effect of the demise of Top of the Pops means pushing a single entails a visit to the dystopian fantasy that is 'National Lottery HQ'.

Overconfidence and the crunch

2009-05-13T02:29:00.005+01:00

Malcolm Gladwell presents a fascinating narrative of the role overconfidence amongst experts played in our current financial woes, and in the collapse of Bear Stearns in particular.

2009 Gullwing-America 300SL Panamericana

2009-05-12T01:37:00.010+01:00

By way of Kanye West's blog, Arturo Alonso's update of the iconic gull-wing doored Mercedes-Benz 300SL. Simply gorgeous.

"I told you so..."

2009-03-20T01:56:00.004Z

Mr. Michael Howard (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con): "It seems to me that we cannot arrive at the right prescription for the future of our economy unless we gain a clear view of why we are where we are. We cannot expect to be led out of our current crisis by a Prime Minister who puts his head in the sand. Before prescription, however, there must be diagnosis, and it is in that spirit that I offer my remarks this afternoon.

Of course it is true—we can all agree on this—that we are in the throes of an international recession, or something worse. Of course it is true that almost every other country is affected in one way or another, to a greater or lesser extent, but we are almost uniquely vulnerable. We are almost uniquely ill equipped to deal with the calamity that has befallen the world, and we need to consider the reasons for that. They are not too difficult to identify.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron), the Leader of the Opposition, was quite right, last Friday, to accept responsibility for the things that we got wrong. We certainly failed to anticipate that the crisis we now face was anything like as serious as it has proved to be, but there are two main reasons for our present plight. Both of them were directly the responsibility of the Prime Minister, and, in respect of both of them, we certainly warned of the consequences. I have looked at the record, and I am in a position to answer the question posed from a sedentary position by the Exchequer Secretary earlier, when she asked, “Where were you?” I shall do my best to answer that question during the course of my observations.

The first of the main reasons for our present plight that I, at least, have identified was the ill-advised decision, taken by the Prime Minister in 1997, to transfer supervision of the banking sector from the Bank of England to the Financial Services Authority. The Bank of England had hundreds of years of experience and expertise in supervising the banking sector of our economy. The Financial Services Authority was new. It had none of that experience and none of that expertise, and, as we know, it has since admitted that it fell down on the job.

It has been suggested that the Conservatives criticised the transfer to the Financial Services Authority only with the benefit of hindsight, but that is simply not the case. When that catastrophic decision was taken, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) was shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the debate on the Second Reading of the Bank of England Bill on 11 November 1997, he said:

“With the removal of banking control to the Financial Services Authority...it is difficult to see how and whether the Bank remains, as it surely must, responsible for ensuring the liquidity of the banking system and preventing systemic collapse.”

He went on to say:

“The coverage of the FSA will be huge; its objectives will be many, and potentially in conflict with one another. The range of its activities will be so diverse that no one person in it will understand them all.”

That, at least, is one of the answers to the question posed by the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) a few moments ago. My right hon. Friend also said that he feared

“that the Government may, almost casually, have bitten off more than they can chew. The process of setting up the FSA may cause regulators to take their eye off the ball, while spivs and crooks have a field day.”—[ Official Report, 11 November 1997; Vol. 300, c. 731-32.]

That was what my right hon. Friend said in 1997. The warning was there; it was clear; it was on the record; and it has, alas, proved to be absolutely prescient.

The second main reason for our current plight is the level of indebtedness that we as a country, collectively through our Government and as individuals, have incurred. Here, too, there were warnings, and they, too, are on the record; I am afraid that some of them came from me. I drew attention on 9 July 2002 when I was shadow Chancellor to the savings ratio, which was then at an all-time low; it has hit many more all-time lows since. On 30 July 2003, I warned that savings had halved under Labour, that the Government were borrowing more and that families were getting deeper in debt. On 17 March 2004, replying to the Budget, I said that it was

“a credit-card Budget from a credit-card Chancellor”—[ Official Report, 17 March 2004; Vol. 419, c. 337.]

When I proposed at the 2005 election that a Conservative Government would make £12 billion of savings, I said that £8 billion of them would go not to cut taxes but to reduce Government borrowing, which was far too high.

Of course, I was not always thanked—I suppose I did not expect to be—for my pains. Anatole Kaletsky in The Times, for example, complained that throughout my tenure as shadow Chancellor, I had been issuing dire warnings about the economic and financial outlook. I had said, he complained, that Labour economic policies were doomed to failure, that overtaxed consumers were living in a fool’s paradise of unsustainable borrowing and that the British economy and the Government’s popularity were kept afloat artificially by a bubble of house prices and mortgage debt. He said that if the Tories started thinking along those lines, we would be making a big mistake. Well, of course, in terms of the outcome of the 2005 election, he was absolutely right, but was he right in the wider sweep of history? I simply set what I said on the record and leave others to decide who it was that was making the big mistake.

Throughout all this time, of course, the Prime Minister was proclaiming that he had put an end to boom and bust—and you know, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I do not think he was trying to deceive us; I think he genuinely believed it. Perhaps the worst thing he did was deceive himself. It was because he was genuinely convinced that he had ended the economic cycle that he did not fix the roof while the sun was shining. After all, if we think that the sun is never going to stop shining, why on earth would we bother to fix the roof? As we know, the Prime Minister is still in a state of denial. That is not the least of the reasons why he is incapable of leading the country out of the mess we are undoubtedly in. It is, I am afraid, a very big mess indeed.

A good deal of the comment on the current crisis seems to revolve around the question: how long will it last? It seems to me that another question is at least as important: what will come after it? The suggestion that is often implicit in the first of those two questions is that next year or the year after, we shall return to the world that we knew two or three years ago. That notion seems to me to be completely misplaced. We will be in a new world, a different world, with challenges every bit as formidable as those we face at the moment. We will be able to overcome those challenges only if we have leadership that is prepared, in the words of the excellent speech made the week before last by my hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor,

“to confront some uncomfortable truths and tell people what they may not want to hear.”

The mess that my right hon. Friends will have to clear up after the next election will present them with a very difficult task, but I am sure that they will not be daunted. They will, after all, simply be discharging the age-old and historical responsibility of the Conservative party to clear up the mess that Labour has left behind. That is something that we have done before, time after time. It is, in essence, what the Conservative party is for. It is what we exist to do: to clear up the mess that Labour always leaves behind.

The sooner we have that election, and the sooner my right hon. Friends can get on with discharging that historical responsibility, the better it will be for everyone in our country."

It's depressing to look back at just how much of this disaster could have been averted. (h/t ConservativeHome).

Foreign Policy Fail

2009-03-12T00:33:00.011Z

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Brown in the USA

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

For all of Brown's sins - and his rather jarring insistence on referring to President Obama as 'Barack' - he came out of his little transatlantic sojourn rather better than his counterpart. Let's hope the Obama administration's future foreign policy efforts are an improvement on this fiasco.

Trailer Tuesday: Moon

2009-03-10T00:17:00.003Z

I thought I'd start putting more trailers and clips from upcoming films that I'm excited about on the blog; I'm going to try to keep this up once a week, so if I've got nothing new to put up I might dig out something old that's worth a look.

Below is a clip from Moon, Duncan Jones' directorial debut, which stars the ever-reliable Sam Rockwell and fits into one of my favourite niches in the genre, that of a near-deserted space-station or ship concealing some dark secret.

Tuff-Writer Pens

2009-03-04T20:29:00.007Z

I enjoy objects that are really built to last, especially when something is essentially overbuilt from the outset; so these pens from Tuff-Writer appeal to me. Constructed from aerospace-grade Aluminium and using the same cartridges that give the enfuriatingly fiddly Fisher Space Pens their pull, these pens are about as practical as they get. Fisher have built military versions of their Space Pens in the past, but they can't match the rugged appeal of the Tuff-Writer efforts; indeed, the size of these pieces alone gives them a macho allure. (h/t Mil-Spec Monkey).

Orwell/Wells

2009-02-27T13:33:00.003Z

"It's not quite War of the Worlds but some say there's something Orwellian about..."

Who says the BBC is dumbing down?

Mr. Benn

2009-02-24T01:07:00.002Z

Iain Dale links to an interview of Hilary Benn by Joshua Chambers, a student reporter at the University of York's radio station; they are discussing the release, and alleged torture, of Binyam Mohamed, it is definitely worth a listen. Hilary Benn - the son of one of the finest Parliamentarians, most deluded ideologues and incompetent ministers of the Twentieth Century, Tony Benn - is repeatedly made to look an uncaring prat by a student radio reporter; Benn clings to a useless script, a brief he appears not to have taken the trouble to research beyond the sophistic soundbite he clings to throughout.

The fact that Mohamed is not a British subject, but is instead a man who resided here from 1994 until he decided to travel to Afghanistan in June 2001 to attend an Al-Qaeda training camp, and that his much-discussed "torture" falls into the same blurred debate as the treatment of all the Guantanamo detainees is never mentioned by Benn. Chambers is able to run rings around him precisely because Benn's script is so short and so limited; it is painfully obvious that he has been instructed not to mention George W Bush's tenure in office, and consequently any interviewer worth his salt is able to jab a well-placed knife into Benn's nethers and twist, while the less that is said of Benn's confused defence of a "long-established principle" regarding intelligence gathered from torture the better.

In truth, this embarrassing display is just another symptom of a government in terminal decline; Benn went forward to be interviewed without really knowing what he was talking about and not caring enough to find out. However, crucially, as a politician nurtured by New Labour's culture of spin and control-freakery, he lacked the imagination or the self-reliance to give even an excuse of an answer without falling back on endless repetition of the same pathetic dictum. These rats don't have the guts to swim; they're going to cling to the sinking ship.

Fred Thompson on the Economy

2008-12-22T20:26:00.010Z

I've always had a soft spot for Fred Thompson; from his portrayal of a sympathetic, yet hard-nosed, District Attorney on Law & Order, to his self-deprecating humour during his short-lived election campaign, he always comes across as good-humoured and sincere. He is rightly generating some positive comment now with his judgement of the political response to the current economic turmoil, and his interpretation is equally relevant in the UK. (h/t Guido Fawkes).

People Are Strange

2008-12-22T12:11:00.005Z

People are strange from Denis Fongue on Vimeo. I wish I had the patience to do this kind of thing. Very impressive. (h/t Ministry of Type).

The Loving Kind

2008-12-05T12:20:00.013Z

While we're on the subject of music videos, have a look at the result of Girls Aloud's collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys. It's the second single taken from their excellent 5th album, Out of Control.

The Fear

2008-12-05T01:36:00.008Z

I love Lily Allen's videos*; in fact, I enjoy all her marketing: her branding is quite successful and consistent in conveying a kind of quirky, fun, humanity.

Also, make sure you download Alright Steal, music like dirt's compilation of her first album's samples. (Plus Lord Kitchener's fantastic calypso ode to the capital, London Is the Place for Me).

*I should note that I'm excluding 'Smile', a song whose video I found uncharitable and deeply sinister.

Fine Books

2008-11-19T10:49:00.011Z

I love books and for me nothing compares to the reading experience of settling down with a good-looking, pleasingly weighty, hardbacked tome. This new collection from Penguin is maybe a little too busy in places but they are bold and are definitely worth a look, if only for that great Crime and Punishment cover design. Available exclusively from Waterstones, if you're interested.

Al Awad, Iraq

2008-11-08T18:32:00.002Z

www.army.mil
Originally uploaded by Army.mil

A fantastic photograph I've been meaning to blog for a while. The greys of the Army Combat Uniform make a beautiful contrast in some of these shots from the hot places; perhaps that's not the point of it, but it looks rather nice.

Political Advertising of the Past

2008-11-07T10:30:00.004Z

Matches37.jpg
Originally uploaded by gitganben

Now Obama's branding might have been remarkably handsome, self-assured and consistent, but it wasn't on the back of matchbooks was it?

Take a look at the other matchbooks in the set.

Time to go.

2008-09-25T01:11:00.005+01:00

What I like most is how he corrects Boulton with exactly the same quotation that Boulton just read out; essentially he agrees that he misquoted Osbourne but says that what he said was right all the same.

Then he says he wanted a market solution over Northern Rock; a market solution he knocked back twice when it was presented to him. At least he learnt his lesson when it came to HBOS, but should HM Government really be run by trial and error?

Uncommon Knowledge - Revisionism

2008-09-16T00:37:00.012+01:00

The discussion about opposing Fascist methods with comparably ruthless tactics reminded me of Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff's contemporary arguments in Powell and Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

Ayo Technology

2008-09-15T03:05:00.007+01:00

When 50 Cent wrote his definitive lament on the perils of pornography addiction back in 2007, he could hardly have expected this Belgian cover to come just a year later; a truly genre-bending work. (h/t Kanye West).

The Archive

2008-09-14T20:33:00.009+01:00

Paul Mawhinney owns the largest private record collection in the world: 3 million records and 300,000 CDs totalling more than 6 million song titles dating back to the first flat record from 1881. Since his health has deteriorated, he's closed down his shop and has been trying to sell the collection and pass on the torch to someone else. However he's yet to find someone who “gives a damn“ or at least enough of a damn to pay $3,000,000 for it. (h/t music like dirt).

All it needs is a better title.

2008-09-12T00:18:00.009+01:00

I've been a huge fan of Martin Campbell's work from (the original) Edge of Darkness through to Casino Royale - and, of course, Goldeneye - but I think this next instalment of Daniel Craig's Bond may well surpass the last (if only visually...). All credit to Marc Forster if he manages to pull it off.

I want one.

2008-09-11T00:10:00.001+01:00

I really bloody want one.

Auto Skooter - Lakeside Park, Denver

2008-09-08T11:39:00.004+01:00

Auto Skooter - Lakeside Park - Denver, Colorado
Originally uploaded by Roberto41144

I love Art Deco; the lettering above the shop is so bold and has such beautiful proportions.

Faber Finds

2008-08-25T20:48:00.005+01:00

The Ministry of Type has a post up about a new imprint from Faber & Faber called Faber Finds which brings out of print books back from oblivion. This is only possible with Print on Demand so books are only published once they've been ordered, but more intriguingly, this allows each Faber Finds book to sport a unique computer-generated cover design; PostSpectacular details the process of creating a “design machine” capable of generating the infinite "number of unique designs, one for each single book ever printed in this range." Everything about this venture is fascinating and the way Marian Bantjes' border designs are assembled is remarkable.

Society & Its Outcasts

2008-08-19T01:24:00.002+01:00

"Prisons, mental hospitals, and other institutions are a thermometer that measures the sickness of the larger society. The treatment society affords its outcasts reveals the way in which its members view one another - and themselves." Thomas O. Murton in Accomplices to the Crime (1969)

"Against Racism"

2008-06-17T23:09:00.004+01:00

Pascal Bruckner has written a good article about the obscene spectacle that was the Durban conference and about what our reaction should be to its repeat next year:

Europe must take a firm stand against this buffoonery: boycott it, plain and simple. Just as Canada has done. Perhaps we should also think about dissolving the Human Rights Commission or only letting truly democratic countries in. It is intolerable that in the year 2008 - like in the thirties - nations which recognise justice, the multi-party state and freedom of expression are being brought before the tribunal of history by the lobbies of fanatics and tyrants.

Treehouses

2008-06-15T19:19:00.004+01:00

From David Thompson's Friday roundup comes a collection of German Treehouses. They are incredibly impressive and put the rickety dollhouses seen on these shores to shame.

Testing Tanks

2008-06-14T14:05:00.003+01:00

Does exactly what it says on the tin (except they're not tanks).

Litterers "are like the Wests"

2008-06-02T10:17:00.004+01:00

People who drop sweet wrappers are acting like a Gloucester couple who tortured, raped and murdered at least 12 young women, an Anglican bishop has said.

In a letter featured in parish magazines in the Diocese of Lichfield, the Bishop of Stafford, Gordon Mursell, wrote: "Fred and Rosemary West represent merely the most extreme form of a very common philosophy of life: I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck."

"In fact you could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about litter, we are as guilty as they were - we are in effect kidnapping young women and submitting them to a brutal ordeal of torture and rape before murdering them and burying them in the garden."

He said people were "right to be disgusted at these crimes" but that "mere disgust is too convenient".

"There are lessons for all of us to learn," he added.

Battlestar Operatica

2008-05-31T13:48:00.006+01:00

I've made no secret of my love for the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and one of the features that makes it so unique is its soundtrack;
Bear McCreary's compositions are astounding in their originality, their influences, and in the sheer quantity he is able to score for what is a weekly television series.

Best. Video. Ever.

2008-05-11T23:56:00.004+01:00

If you don't agree: you're wrong.

Going On

2008-05-11T04:58:00.005+01:00

I failed to pick up on quite how amazing this song was when the second Gnarls Barkley album was released, but I now agree with Kanye West, this is the best song on it.

A Popular Choice

2008-05-03T18:26:00.003+01:00

David Thompson has a post up about the horror of Guardianistas at Boris Johnson's election. The 'racist' and 'snob' epithets continue to be popular - all that hard-hitting research by Compass must have really swayed opinions - but the comment that really underlines the left's problem with Boris is Vivienne Westwood's:

"Boris as mayor? Unthinkable. It just exposes democracy as a sham, especially if people don’t vote for Ken."

Johnson won a bigger mandate on a bigger turnout; democracy hasn't been exposed as a sham, it has been demonstrated in action.

An Unfortunate Choice

2008-05-02T22:07:00.003+01:00

The LibDems probably ought to regret their choice for London Mayoral candidate; from Iain Dale:

"Unbelievable. Brian Paddick just admitted on BBC London that he had given his second preference to Lindsey German, the Left List Candidate! Words almost fail me."