Hey..

.. I’d just like to say a big thankyou to everyone who’s tuned in here and participated, visibly or otherwise,.. Anyway, I’m taking a break, for the summer at least. Feels like there’s getting to be a little too much typing and not quite enough living, so I’m taking steps to reverse that trend for a little while – all the best to you and yours..

Time to relocate, perhaps..

For those who don’t follow the beautiful game, Turkey play Germany tomorrow evening in the semi-finals of the European Championship..

(thanks to Monica for the photo)

Tilt/shift Sunday..

One for Neetu – the Old City Hall, Toronto..

(photo by Sam Javanrouh)

Recently viewed items..

Just arrived back in the capital and messing around with my new 50mm lens… here he is now, hiding behind the macbook pro..

Anyway, here’s a shot of the alcove next to the TV, taken with the little 50mm fella. Hmm.. doesn’t look like The Seventh Seal has been getting many screenings recently..

Scenes from a sound-check..

Blackburn, King George’s Hall..

Now that’s what I call a well-maintained bob…

The mighty Mr. Wilson..

..and finally, because no sound-check would be complete without a little bit of Butterfly..

done

(All photos by Gersende Giorgio)

3 beauties from the quote widget today..

There’s a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.
- PJ O’Rourke

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.
- Alice Kahn

I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.
- Charles M. Schulz

One for Cheech..

.. as requested, here’s Jimmy Smits, as Presidential hopeful Matt Santos, road-testing Obama’s er,..’inspirational’ Hope speech back in the summer of 2004..

“We live in cynical times… I know that..”

Music, metaphor and manipulation..

Two clips saying strangely similar things in strangely different ways..

“…It was that damned sonata..”

“…name the unnameable…”

Quote of the day..

“Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.”
- Robertson Davies

Meanwhile, in other news, I have recently been drinking far too much of this stuff..

..oh, don’t get me wrong – as acque minerali goes, it’s one of the best.. but I can’t help but be reminded of Leo McGarry in the West Wing.. “Ah, that tastes like… nothing at all. It has no tastes or properties of any kind.”

Fuel crisis?.. What fuel crisis?..

Yeah, fill her up – why not? We just don’t care!..

But wait! – Here’e what it says on the display behind Corinne’s head..

£63.05p??? For a tank of gas?.. Eminently reasonable, I’d say.

Grauniad in inadvertent nail-on-head shocker..

From an otherwise unremarkable puff piece in today’s edition..

.. Oh well, at least he likes his grandmother..

Tilt/shift Sunday..

Clemson Stadium