I thought I knew superheroes

I knew nothing.

Regent's Park Before Dark: Part 1

To my great joy, I came across this while heading up from Baker street tube station towards Regent's park. To my slight disappointment, it turned out to be a real tourist trap. The teenagers in period costumes were kind of adorable in how they were still trying to posture and look cool while being dressed like Victorian shop keeps. I think every single one of them had been made to get the job by their parents - or maybe I'm enough of an old coot that all teenagers constantly look that way to me.

I also think they made the store two big by half, by accident maybe? The Sherlock Holmes books (in numerous versions and editions) along with some Sherlock specific merchandise only took up so much space - the rest was filled with the kind of stuff that only served to remind you that a nation's flag can be printed on just about anything you like. Ah well! I'd say something about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spinning in his grave, but I reckon he's too decomposed for that now. Dude's corpse ain't the spinner it used to be.All around the outer ring of the park are buildings of this nature. Money-palace's which are owned either by prestigious business colleges, companies or the royals. I figured one picture of them is enough since the architecture has surprisingly little variation. That being said, there were a couple of nice homes on the east side - I reckon they probably go for a couple of bucks and a coy wink.Eventually the birds all fluttered around this old woman in a big storm. The buffeting from their wings came with such force that I had to cover my face. When I was able to steal a peek from between my mighty forearms, all the was left of her was a bloodstained hat and a coupon for a free lapdance at Tesco.The south western corner of Regent's Park seems to have benefited the most from the kind of superior landscaping I've seen in St. James and other pockets of the city. The rough center of the park is circular and features a small cafe, as well as the outdoor theater I visited a few months ago to see Macbeth in.As you head on up into the upper west side of the park you run into more standard fare as well as plenty of football fields....and eventually the zoo, which can be spotted from afar thanks to some new mountain habitats they've constructed.We'll journey up and past those plastic peaks in the next installment. Until then, try rubbing that thing between your legs - I gather people enjoy that?

Dennis Kucinich's Opening During Global Warming Debate

I've been a fairly consistent Barack Obama man thus far...

But this fellow is starting to tickle my areas a whole lot more, particularly since this short speech.

Thames at Noight - Part 4: The last bits

Man oh man, I got you a first world problem right here.For the last couple of days I have been too sick to blog.Shocking, I know. It makes the potty run out of the body.But these germs which my immune system isn't so familiar with, seem to finally be getting beat back.More complex ideas than "Where are the tissues?" and "I want to live, yet even more I want to die" are starting to form in the imaginationscape.
So yeah, sorry for the quietude and promises which haven't been followed up as quickly as either you or I would like. This is what happens when you get tied to a chair and cock slapped by germs, I guess!

I - I guess!

Thames at Noight - Part 3: Saatchi invasion and Ben (Big)

What's sealed up tighter than a doomsday vault?

MY SINUSES.

BA
DUM
CHING
(?)

I swear I've gotten so worked up from the coughing, lack of sleep and general discomfort that I've nearly triggered my adrenal glands in my desire to destroy the enemy.

Until this horseshit passes - take a gander at what Norway has gotten up to. I honestly think it's fascinating.

Thames at Night - Part 2: London Eyeful

Words will come later when my skull drains enough to make room for them to appear.

Thames at Noight - Part...OH NO WAIT

So I think the Internet Gods don't want me posting photos. First, uploading through blogger stops working and now Photobucket (which I've been leaning on lately) doesn't want me to see my album due to their sloppy bucket-genitaled (I'd like to think neither gender wants their junk compared to a bucket) website master failing to do something he or she should have done.

What am I going to do? Write something of substance? Give some actual news you can use?

Well, okay.

The first thing to mention is that what I mentioned a little while ago, has yet to cease but by late next Friday I will be able to explain what's been "up". What I can say right now is that the doom quotient in the equation has been pretty much erased and that all* my genitals are still in a delightful, non-bucket form. Aside from the third cold I've caught in just under three months (what the HELL? I get sick maybe once a year, at least in before times), I'm feeling fine. I'm still going to be pretty busy, especially over this weekend, but I should be a bit better about correspondence.

I definitely feel that I am going to do up a list of things I have learned during my tenure in England thus far, since I finally feel that I have a sliver of authority on the matter. That being said, a lot of items on that list will probably be qualified as being London specific since in many ways this city is close to being a city-state. There is going to be a Negatives, or similarly named, component as well. The vast majority of this site has been a love letter to London specifically, England in general. After more than a year of this, I'm starting to feel somewhat disingenuous since I'm pretty sure I said this would be my record of experiences and observations - not a highly personal tourist pamphlet.

Plus I definitely feel like I've been mincing my words on the few posts where I have mentioned anything negative about England. This is mostly because I have friends and family who live in that country - gasp - that sometimes read this site. But since when did a similar dynamic stop me from criticizing anything Canadian? Let's push things forward then, shall we?

So I'm going to have a good think, maybe even write a draft and then slap it up in the next day or two. I will do my best to avoid hyperbolic exaggeration or watering anything down with one of the more popular bullshit milkshakes on sale in the intellectual emporiums.

*ALL OF THEM.

Thames at Noight - Part 1

I am in the mood to swear or otherwise be crude.
But will I?You may just get lucky.But then, you may also become unlucky!Really unlucky.Tune in next time to find out!

Addendum: I thought that my plurality of nerve-endings had been deadened enough by now that I was immune to whatever Google Image Search could render deep within it's lower intestine.

I was wrong.

*blurp*

Just a quick note - I'm headed down to Broadstairs now and I won't be back until late Tuesday. If you send me an email or whatever, I shan't see it until then. When I get back, I shall attend to the serious business of posting pictures from the Thames at night, Regent's park and other areas.

This is not a blog

The last little while I have taken approx. one (1) metric fuck-tonne (phoque-tunn) of photographs! Maybe you will get to see some of them?

It occurred to me the other day that though I have gone into the city to see Hyde or St. James park...I hadn't walked the twenty minutes it takes for me to get to what is my larger local park - Finsbury Park. I'd also had Finsbury on the brain a little bit since watching Cronenburg's new film, Eastern Promises.

The above was almost certainly a political satire sketch being shot since, two seconds after I took this, the flasher opened his jacket to reveal his being nude but for a large cardboard cartoon of Gordon Brown's face over his crotch.

I'd read in more than one source about how the film was supposed to show a different London than what the tourists see, than what generally gets shown in films set in London - particularly ones made by American film makers. Thinking back to Woody Allen's portrayal of London in Match Point, this made pretty curious - especially since I live adjacent to areas where filming took place, such as Hackney and Finsbury (and had spent my first month here living in the former).It was a Cronenburg film about the Russian mafia, so understandably everything was pretty dark. But I would say the film did follow through, with only one or two shots of the Thames and the Gherkin, while the majority of the film felt very authentic. I'd get into the story etc, but you can find plenty about that elsewhere. Suffice to say, for those give a hoot, I thought it was a fairly impressive film that delivered what it promised and succeeded in surprising me where it wanted to. Can't ask for much more than that!
Meanwhile, I'd go on but I'm rather tired from a night on the towne. One thing I don't mind sharing from it was that the first stop for my pals and I was an establishment that had decided to try and work around the anti-smoking bill which was passed several months ago. Why, it wasn't a bar...it was an art gallery that served drinks! Really, it was a hilariously decorated squat with a great bit of graffiti on it's front. I'm glad I got to see it, since disapproving folk have noticed and made some legal noises that will result in it's closure some time not too far down the road. The two spirited folk behind the place plan to just keep having fun while dragging their heels, then moving on to other fun ventures when the law eventually clamps down. I gotta say, I admire their spirit!

Tune in later when I post NOT A VIDEO

But for now....I've been told this game reviewer is just like me. Well, he made me laugh so I suppose I'll slap this up here and let you make up your own mind on that matter.

"Well he has a van..."

Two videos in one day! I know, I know...but this just made me laugh my ass off while nodding my head. It's not really a secret with anyone who knows me why I'd appreciate older guys who date teenagers to be a ripe target.

Plus this is a pretty cool sex-ed series. It's just a podcast now, but I think it would be a very interesting development to see it shown in schools.

The WGA's reasons for striking - explained

I just thought I'd do my part to help spread the good woid.

Progress or appropriation?

Or gentrification?

Global Warming Hearing on Youth Leadership

I found this pretty moving.

If you want to see other videos and read a lengthy article on the hearing, then head on over here.

South Bank Tour Part 3

People from Ottawa will find this character familiar (and maybe Toronto, has one of these shown up there?).If you want to just walk into the Thames, this is an option.

Addendum: It's Guy Fawkes day to day, but the fireworks have been filling the sky over Islington in the evening since Friday night. It was an odd moment on Friday when I first heard them, since local kids usually screw around with fireworks every once in a while anyways. "Man those kids are getting organized" I thought...