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 How To Make Your Own Scratchpad
http://www.metacafe.com

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Fantastic remix of youtube music vids, featuring Jen's old pal,
Bernard Purdie kicking off on the kit.
 

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Unbelievable. Three days after being wiped out in the Keirin final in Copenhagen, here is our man off to do a long-standing gig in London for BA. Full story.
 
[Lower pic from The High Life]
 (thanks Jen!)

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What's got into the French that they've got so clumsy all of a sudden?
 
Today there is news that one of their nuclear subs bumped into a British nuclear sub out in the Atlantic.
 
On Saturday we witnessed the nephew being taken out by a French 'bump' in the Keirin final of the UCI World Cup meeting in Copenhagen. Share the horror in the video below. Maybe it was the 'pastry' jibes that got to them.

Interviewed the day after in the Guardian, he came out with yet another great quote:

" I was impressed with the track though as sometimes in a crash like that you end up with so many splinters; these are all clean burns."

 

 
To bring back happier times, and to understand why the French team might be tempted to use such tactics, here is another Keirin final from last summer.
 

 
And in case it doesn't sound like it, I love France and the French- just not les coups de coude.

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[pic from Knittups.se]
 
yarn bombing
n. The surreptitious or unauthorized placement of knitted objects on statues, posts, and other public structures.
—yarn bomb v.
—yarn bomber n.
 
Example Citations:
The street-knitting scene has gotten so knotty that Ms. Moore and Ms. Prain are writing a tell-all book about their hobby. Published by Arsenal Pulp Press, Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit Graffiti is set for release this fall.
 
The duo, who met four years ago at a stitch 'n' bitch, say yarn bombing has gone viral on the Internet.
 
After "tagging" a park bench or street lamp, guerrilla knitters document their exploits on blogs and websites such as Knittups.se and Knittaplease.com.
—Adriana Barton, "Yarn bombers cozy up to the urban landscape," The Globe and Mail, January 30, 2009
 
from: http://www.wordspy.com/words/yarnbombing.asp

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hugh macleod @ gapingvoid.com

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It's Burns' Night tonight, and if you live in Scotland, you must have been under a stone for the last few months if you didn't know that. That's not the case most years, but this is special- it's the 250th anniversary of his birth.
 
But that's not all. The Scottish Government declared 2009 to be the year of the Homecoming, when the Scottish diaspora would come home and fill their sporrans with shortbread and enjoy a dram after a round of golf. You'll forgive the cynicism I hope. Unless you stand to make some money out of this, that reaction hasn't been unusual since the event was launched last year.
 
I'm actively involved in an organisation  which has made a sizeable contribution to the healthy continuation of more traditional aspects of Scots culture. But it has had its funding cut this year, and an approach to the Homecoming organisation last year was dismissed because promoting Scottish music in the community was not relevant.
 
It's changed a bit since then, maybe because there has not been much warmth for this thing from the Scots that stayed behind to keep the country going. It's now being presented as a cultural event, as well as a commercial one. (And we have a commercial, with Shir Shean (he used to deliver our milk) telling us how much he loves us and thinks about us all the time, and the Nephew singing).
 
Anyway, back to Rabbie/Robert/Robin/Rob Burns. There has never been so much spoken, written, sung or played out about Burns, ever. In our house, it's not that unusual to hear Burns sung or see haggis eaten, any time of year (we don't go in for recitation so much.) That may not be typical of a modern day Scottish household, but it's not that unusual either.
 
The BBC has had endless people on declaring the genius of the man and how much he means to them. That's great, but their enthusiasm is proportional to the bare-faced cheek of BBC Scotland in going so big on Burns this special year, when in recent years, it barely registered a flicker of interest in their schedules. A quick look at the schedule for 25 January 2008 shows... one 30 min programme on TV, two 30 min programmes on Radio Scotland (one after midnight).
 
Even better than this wall-to-wall Burns now would be if they would give a fraction of this time to recognition of other writers, poets and musicians, living and dead, and live up to what many would expect of their public service broadcaster role in Scotland.
 
A poet's not just for Burns' night, and shouldn't have to wait till their 250th birthday for a decent party. Cherish what we have now, and maybe more folk will come home and part with their bawbees.

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A personal music project just got a nice feature in the Scotsman.
 
[http://www.raretunes.org]
 

A few samples:

Glasgow Highlanders / Stirling Castle by Will Starr Listen on Posterous

Baba Mo Leanabh by Ian Hardie, Derek Hoy, Jock T Listen on Posterous

An Eriskay Love Lillt by Polish Army Choir Listen on Posterous

Sanctus by Limbe Choir, The Whistlebinki Listen on Posterous

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Obama will be inaugurated later today. The change in administration has prompted much discussion, and some of it doesn't augur well. In particular, there seem to be some moves to rehabilitate George W Bush. There is a view that this isn't just coming from the right, but it will be easier for the Obama administration to be less radical if current policy is shown to be not so bad after all.
 
In the last few days, I've twice heard discussions on the BBC where Bush's achievements are said to include there being no terrorist attacks in the US after 9/11. Given the tidal wave of violence and murder that has swept the world since then, with its epicentre in the Middle East, this sounds very hollow. The UK has experienced death and destruction due to terrrorism, and even Scotland has had the first such attack that I'm aware of. And all this following the invasion of Iraq.
 
This is the kind of myopia that has made people outside the US welcome Obama as the next president- let's hope he can live up to even a fraction of the expectations of him.

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http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com

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From SUPERUSELESS SUPERPOWERS: In-flight flight.

Being able to soar through the air still won't save you from recycled oxygen and endless stories from complete strangers. Known as the "Cabin Sparrow," this so-called power lets you fly, but only within the confines of an airplane. At least you can leapfrog the beverage cart when explosive diarrhea strikes at 30,000 feet.

Others include:

• Complimentary chameleon
• Left-side levitation or "Left-itation"

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Microsoft's Songsmith is getting a lot of attention, and there is now
a growing body of work featuring recordings, classic or otherwise,
given the Songsmith Treatment (tm).
 
"Roxanne" by The Police

 
"Wonderwall" by Oasis

 
Intergalactic Songsmith

 
... and this, not quite a classic, yet.

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