More on Manufactured Landscapes

Though highly effective, I can see how the trailer for Manufactured Landscapes might give the false impression of the film looking only at China. This clip from CBC's The Hour is worth a watch if only because they put geographical captions to the pictures which helps clear that up - making the message all the more poignant for Western viewers.

All them fancy phones etc

Recently a newspost by Posterchild reminded me about the excellent documentary Manufactured Landscapes and in turn got me thinking more about e-waste.

This fifteen minute news clip is a pretty informative introduction to the concept, brought to you by the viewer submission driven televsion network Current TV.

If you want to learn more, I'd highly recommend Greener Computing.

Okay Vancouver had it before London...

...but London is doing it up double.

Sorry for the drips and drabs folks, I'm in a bit of a script fugure at the moment...

Though I will quickly mention that I found out today, much to my glee, that I am currently working very close to St. Paul's cathedral and still pretty close to the Thames. I'll be bringing my camera with me again on Monday and I just might share the results.

Conan the Barbican

As promised, pictures from the Barbican area.

The view from the office. Note the BT telecom tower in the middle, in the distance. It right in the area south of Kings Cross, just west of Tottenham Court road and north of Oxford Circus. Generally it is an A+ landmark for knowing where you are in the areas just outside of The City (North of the Thames).By and by, do let me know if pictures like this bore all of "y'all". It ocurred to me today that one of the reasons English sights (and England in general) appeal to me so is that there is a strong element of nostalgia from my childhood trips here. Not everybody went to England several times while still at the hyper-impressionable stage!
Meanwhile, this notice is up in most every tube and train station in London. I haven't entirely settled on how I feel about it. To see it in Canada I'd dismiss it as a terrible mixture of paranoia and an attempt to undermine the public's trust in each other. Like a lot of things in London, it brings me back to 1984 and the government's work to undermine bonds of friendship and family. But then I think of the more legitimate failed terrorist attacks and the one sucessful one (in London) in recent years and the matter becomes a lot more blurred.

***

A little bit of luck has swung my way, cash-wise. That interview in Barbican was for some well-paying, short-term office gruntery. This works well to help keep my head above water while I wait to hear back from the copywriters (I was literally the first interview and so I've been told not to expect results for about two weeks, leaving a little over a week and a half to go) and continue to apply elsewhere.

But this dramatically clamped down on my free-time, of course, so I decided to use it to head down to Kings Cross and hit the British Library as I'd meant to last weekend. I'm on the cusp of completing the first draft of the minimalist, post-apocalyptic short and I'm getting further ahead on First World Problems. I'd like to make the leap to two updates a week soon, if I can.

Wish I'd brought my camera with me as during a fifteen minute walk around Kings Cross, to take a little break, I stumbled across two beautiful parks where the first had the largest and strangest looking tree while the second seemed to be an outdoors mausoleum. There were at least two dozen gravesites/monuments and though a few had wrought iron fences protecting them, most were left to the public's tender mercies. They must be well maintained as I saw no graffiti or garbage but it was something else to look across and see a couple of guys sitting on the tomb of some 15th century fella while slurping back tall cans of Kronenburg. It didn't feel disrespectful so much as "just the way of things" or "part of the circle of life"(?).

I will be sure to bring my camera with me to use on my lunch hour tomorrow as Barbican has some great buildings to see. It's also noteworthy as one of the few parts of London that lay outside of The City Of London with several skyscrapers. Walking out of the interview I honestly felt like I was back in North America for a moment, seeing apartment buildings taller than five stories.

I kind of wish I'd headed down to the eco-village protest on the edge of Heathrow. At first I felt a little guilty since I was putting my own career interests ahead of helping to spread the good word (plus I'm sure it would have given some of the protesters a little boost to have someone taking an interest in them). But thinking that way will drive you crazy in the end. Plus, it's not really the same thing as choosing not to recycle because the depot is three feet further than I can be arsed to walk or leaving the fridge door open while I cook a meal because "it's easier".

I suppose if I didn't feel any other great passions than it would be a simple matter for me to throw my all into the cause, but I do and so it comes down to finding a balance, I guess.

Meanwhile, the CIA has been dicking around with Wikipedia entries. That they've been caught fiddling with the entry for the President of Iran only serves to make this old Penny Arcade comic juicier still. I'm just sayin', maybe it isn't a source you want to be citing in professional papers!

Let's look back thirteen years...

...to a short clip of Dick Cheney which made my head come within inches of exploding. I don't generally like to post things which reinforce what we've all known for years about Bush Jr. and the gang, as that particular dead horse has been flogged until it's atomic bonds have come loose, but this was a doooooozy.

P.S. This found it's way to me from Gavin, thanks!(?).

A possible adventure?

I gotta admit, I really do admire the people who have set up a village along Heathrow airport where a fifth terminal is planned to be built. In typical English fashion, the police are overeacting - though they have yet to get all "Thatcher" on their asses.

I have an interview in Barbican tomorrow but otherwise my week is pretty free, as tends to be the way of the unemployed. It's a bit of a journey down to Heathrow but I have to say I'm curious to see the workshops they are displaying and I'd like to do a bit of amateur journalism with my trusty camera. There may very well be more on this later in the week...

Not why I named him that, but fun anyways.

On this past Saturday I was heading through the tube to The British Library so as to write and draw in seclusion. But the more I thought about the incredible weather I saw while on my way to the station, the more it felt like a crime to stay indoors all day. So I switched lines and popped out at trusty Embankment and took a leisurely stroll through Whitehall Garden, The Mall (where I made a great discovery) and around the Big Ben area before settling along the stream which lay in St. James Parks southern half. Luckily I had my camera with me.A monument to Florence Nightingale, no less.
Along The Mall I found something a Network Rail co-worker had pointed me in the direction of a ways back, The Institute of Contemporary Arts. It's a little bit like the BFI in that it is a repository for great films and film-related books (Like this Amos Vogel number I grabbed while I was there). Unlike the BFI it branches out into art, photography and music as well. As soon as I find steady employment, I do believe I am going to sign up for membership - if only for the discount on books. Mainly, though, I think a club which would regularly get me out to see new things and swim about with people with similar interests would be a pretty good idea. One good side-effect of my being unemployed is that it's forced me to see how insular I've been for the past couple of months! Moving on...
Though I was certainly less productive than if I'd been at the library, I think the state of mind which the park put me in was easily worth the price of my eventually doing a bit of a rush job on Clive in the last panel...and speaking of "Clive"...

A hoy hoy

New comic!

More tomorrah...now it is time to sleep.