The BBC has a charming story about Birmingham city council cocking up and using a photo of Birmingham, Alabama in a leaflet sent to residents. Oh, those silly councils, etc.
But, this was to thank the residents for the city meeting its recycling targets.
Because nothing says ‘environmentally conscious’ like posting a leaflet through 720,000 people’s door. (It’s fine, it’ll have been printer on recycled paper)
Leave the first comment ▶Guy Ritchie has made several films about crime in the UK. It so happens, that I have not seen the second of these, so I thought I’d add it to my LoveFilm rental list. Naturally, I searched for the title of said film.
I hate the Internet.
3 comments so far, add yours ▶Mouse, spotted running merrily around Bristo Square / beside the Udderbelly. Apparently either oblivious to, or totally unfazed by, humans, including humans shoving a a 30mm lens at it. Wish I’d had a macro on me, the f1.4 won’t focus down that close.
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The last second of the Falcon 3 launch video is just about the most expensive ‘fail’ footage ever shot, I suppose. But it’s still awesome – a beautiful launch, wonderful climb out and pitch over, with the atoll vanishing below, all looking very smooth. There’s a visible plume change at MECO, followed by, the, uh, failure event. Brilliant. Fingers crossed the fourth launch it all comes together for them.
3 comments so far, add yours ▶Ed Byrne is great, especially for a fiver. Playing to the huge main space at Assembly on the Mound, packed out with people. All new material compared to what I’ve heard before, and showing excellent observational skills – he doesn’t need to head off into the elaborate or fantastic to find humour, but seems to snatch it from the most mundane of situations.
Leave the first comment ▶(at Pleasance Upstairs, on the very first night of previews)
A short, ginger man who rants very well. Some good material, some excellent topical commentary (many followed by “is it too soon for that”?) and a few places where the pace dropped or some hesitation. Rather heavy on the self-deprecating ginger jokes, I suppose most stand-up comics have self-esteem issues, but this one seemed like he might be a bit closer to overdosing than most. Equally, he’s got a very rich vocabulary of expression and knowledge, rarely playing the fool, in contrast to many other comics I’ve seen in the past few years.
The space is outrageously hot, incidentally. Apparently it’s above the kitchens.
Ed Byrne on Friday and Jim Jeffries on Sunday. Bring on the rape jokes.
Leave the first comment ▶Add that retro 80s gaming touch to the kitchen. Kind of pricey though, even with the magic US dollar exchange rate.
Leave the first comment ▶Have finally bitten the bullet and purchased a printer-scanner-copier thingy. Apparently you’re supposed to refer to them as ‘multi-function devices’, but that sounds disturbingly medical, to my ears at least. I’ve resisted buying one for a long time, due to my extremely low print rate and dislike of even more equipment to clutter up the place, but I’ve need a scanner several times recently, and the local internet cafe I’ve previously used for printing decided to start charging a minimum usage time.
The clincher was finding a device that doesn’t resemble a beige-coloured accident in a stationary cupboard, and a laser-based one no less. This was a slightly high-risk proposition, since I don’t know anyone else with a Samsung printer, let alone anyone using one with a Mac. Some searching online confirmed that Samsung has a patchy track-record in supporting the Mac, but also that, in the US at least, they have signed some partnership / rebate deal with Apple to sell this particular model through the store – this led me to hope they’d ensured the drivers were of decent quality.
The UK price varies considerably – I finally opted for a site called Printerbase, who shipped the machine via overnight courier (impressive) but sadly shipped the USB cable via Royal Mail Signed-For, which didn’t arrive till the following day ((Why can’t they just stick the cable inside the box? For that matter, why can’t Samsung?!)). Ooops. Setup was trivial, and the software is pretty unobtrusive – a printer driver (integrates well, printer was automatically added), image-capture plugin and a mostly-useless ‘panel’ that lives in the menu bar and provides quick access to a few functions. Fortunately the panel seems to be completely optional and I’ve now switched it off. Compared to the vast battery of software installed by the HP all-in-one devices, this was a pleasant relief.
I’d forgotten quite how rapid laser printers are compared to inkjets, and the quality is excellent of course, no smudging to worry about. Scanning isn’t the fastest in the world, and there’s no sheet feeder, but for my needs it’s perfect – and unobtrusive the rest of the time.
All such considerations are of course secondary to the most important feature of the device, though – it’s black, glossy ((Samsung don’t supply a USB cable, but do supply a special lint-free cleaning cloth!)), all the readouts are blue LEDs, and the buttons are touch-sensitive. It’s also nice to see a small laser printer in the ‘flat’ format rather than the ‘tall’ format – for years I considered buying an old LaserWriter 4/600 (or the HP equivalent, the LaserJet 4L), simply because the physical format is so elegant.
… is not a good recommendation of Stephen Fry’s many talents. I was unsure if he’s simply in unfamiliar territory writing semi-serious semi-science-fiction, but I have been assured his other written works are actually quite good – I picked the most mediocre by bad luck, it seems. It’s a book that aims pretty high, taking on some moderately tough, although eminently fashionable, subjects and the basic premise is pretty interesting, but it’s let down by characters I struggled to empathise with whatsoever, and some extremely ropey science (relating to time-travel, so much can be forgiven, I admit).
Part of the problem for me is that this is ground covered extremely well by Connie Willis in Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, both of which are gripping, well-researched and with a far more convincing scientific foundation. The other nagging feeling I have is that Fry was really writing a sceenplay, which he then novelised. I had that impression early on, but in a few places the writing style actually switches to a pseudo-script format – this is used as a device to show the rapid passage of time, but really made me wonder if that’s the explanation for the lack of character background and the magic-wand science. The plot is also about the right length and pacing to fit into a two-hour format. Hmmm.
Of course nothing can actually reduce the great man in my estimation – but I’ll be choosing the next title of his to read with some caution.
One comment so far, add another ▶Finally watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and am left wondering if I missed something fundamental, or if time has simply diluted the original strength of the concept. Most people seem to agree it’s an absolutely classic piece of cinema – it’s ranked number seven on the IMDB, won five academy awards and is ranked eighteenth on Lovefilm ((Though to be fair the Lovefilm rankings are ever so slightly skewed towards the young and male demographic, the top twenty including all three Lord of the Rings films, and season one of 24.)). It’s certainly beautifully acted, starkly designed and shot to convey the bleakness of the setting, and with a solid premise, but I found most scenes frustrating rather than engaging. I suppose most people establish some emotional connection with the cast, either Jack Nicholson’s character or some of the other patients, but I completely failed to make that link.
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