After today’s session on the farm cleaning out the duck pond and gripping a goat between my knees while someone cleaned its teeth (I know, I know), I scootered into town for a bit of a mooch.
I collected the wife’s 10K t-shirt from Nike Town so she can have a souvenir of the day she sat on her ass instead of running 10K, then headed toward Carnaby Street. Bought some smelly stuff for my feet from Lush, then on the tail of some foxy foreign tourists ended up in Kingly Court where I was seduced by a new pair of trousers and a t-shirt.
Wandering back toward my scoot, I was distracted by a beatboxer just about to start his act, it looked like the same guy I saw in Brick Lane last Sunday so I hung around. And he was awesome. Did about seven tracks including a great version of ‘Seven Nation Army’ and some drum and bass numbers. Some of his companions were selling CDs, but unfortunately I didn’t have any cash on me, other people were dropping cash in his hat (fivers and tenners, no less), and at one point a random break dancer appeared from the crowd and joined the act. Turns out the guy is called MC Xander - have a listen to the ‘music’ section of his website and prepare to be blow away. He’s playing Brick Lane again tomorrow, at 4pm if you’re reading this and in the area…
September 30, 2006
Streetboxer
links for 2006-09-29
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Upload photo, choose settings, create asci art
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London Classifieds - aggregated
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Flickr screen saver
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Lyrics
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a unique, lightweight teardrop trailer designed specifically for fun
September 29, 2006
links for 2006-09-28
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Cute and very functional music player widget that you can embed on your web site to share your own MP3 music with the world.
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Sun Jar, which collects, stores and then emits (real) sunshine (sorta) after the lights go down
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Like a Real Cat, but Evil…Like a Real Cat
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Lots of great photos of London. All freely available to use under licence.
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when you receive a call on your cellphone it vibrates and flashes the caller’s ID. Press a button on the side of the watch to send the caller straight to voicemail
September 28, 2006
New Shirt: New Time
I went on my fourth training run for the Nike 10K yesterday evening. In my new Run London shirt, it was my second best time yet:
Distance: 5K
Time: 00:25:03
Average pace: 11.62kph
Predicted 10K time: 52mins
Download: ‘A Good year For The Roses‘ - George Jones
links for 2006-09-27
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Small box which sits atop your digital (or film) camera hotshoe and records the precise location and direction of every photograph you take
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mix, record, listen and chat music with your friends
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Illin’ - The Official PS2 UK B-Boy Championships Website!
September 27, 2006
links for 2006-09-26
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From Del.icio.us to WordPress: How to automatically post daily links
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The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users
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Use Skype on your mobile phone - for free!
September 25, 2006
Bent
I just got back from watching ‘Bent‘ (with the appropriately named Alan Cumming) at the Whitehall Studios in London. I wasn’t really sure what to expect; my rather more homophobic fellow staff at work seemed to think my attendance was some sort of confession, and no doubt some will make crass comments about my walk tomorrow morning when I remind them where I was tonight. Surprisingly, the play wasn’t (as I had been led to believe) about homosexuality, but rather about ‘love’. Since the play was set in late 1930’s Berlin, and later a concentration camp, it became clear how the tale would never be possible in a heterosexual context. The play starts light heartedly, and was about five minutes in before Cummings was dropping his underwear to show his (bruised) arsecheeks. Ten minutes later, the gay and (het) females in the audience were treated to a 6′6″ naked man and his cock-ring wandering around the stage. Five minutes later the play turned very dark. And there, in the darkness, it remained - the story changing from one of raucous promiscuity to one of love in adversity. A very powerful play, and one I strongly recommend, regardless of your sexual inclination.
I would also like to apologise to the single girl I sat beside for the duration of the play; it’s probably all in my fevered mind, but I’m sure she kept waiting for me to catch up on the stairs on the way out. Once I caught up I just walked alongside her until we reached the outside; what a dork.
September 24, 2006
Running London
I picked up my Run London shirt today from Nike Town, it’s a rather fetching shade of green with ‘Three’ on the front (I’m assuming that’s the wave I’m running in), ‘We North’ on the back and my number (05150) down one sleeve. Does that mean I have to start training then ?
The wife, bless her running socks and lycra reinforced two-piece, appears to have given up on the run and will be at her mothers on the day of the run, recovering from a week of binge drinking and chasing blokes in Cyprus.
September 23, 2006
City Harvest Festival
I just got back from a day at London’s City Harvest Festival. Held at Capel Manor, Enfield, the festival brings together many of London’s 17 community farms and gardens to celebrate the enjoyable and educational work they carry out in their local areas. I was there as part of the group representing Freightliners City Farm, although to be fair, I didn’t really do any work. I was originally supposed to travel up yesterday, but since the wife has the car now, and my tent is a humungous 6-manner - it was never going to happen on my Vespa… so I whizzed the 10 mile ride this morning once eveyone had finished putting up the marquees and stuff.
I was very impessed by the grounds of Capel Manor, a bit like the Chelsea Garden Show, but permanent, and more experimental. There was also a large garden run/sponsored by ‘Gardening Which?‘, a maze, some great koi ponds, olde worlde stables, and a 17th Century Garden. All very lovely, and beautiful weather for it too, in stark contrast to yesterday’s pissing it down all day. I spent the bulk of the day watching the sheep dog shows (herding geese), the various animal competitions, the tug-of-war, taking photos and keeping my eyes open for any available eco-chicks (none available). I also stumbled upon a guy running a small drumming workshop, and, after watching for a while grabbed a drum myself and joined in. All very basic stuff I’m sure - but great fun. I wasn’t great at it, but certainly no worse than any one else there, and one person even said I was a natural - which was very kind. Turns out the guy runs a weekly drum workshop in Hammersmith, so I think I might have to drop by.
September 21, 2006
Moo Cards
Worth a quick mention is this new product from Moo. Essentially jazzy ‘business’cards generated from your flickr photos, and they’re based in London! Who’d a thunk it?
Anyway, they’re currently running a special offer of 10 free cards to flickr pro users so make the most of it - I have.
…I’m tired now.
Mood: The Kinks - ‘Tired Of Waiting‘
