Man, I do believe that the comic is going to be postponed until tomorrow in the interest of quality. It's really my own fault, as I've once again tried to run before I can walk with this thing. But there is a pretty decent consolation prize, pictures of the superb sight I alluded to yesterday - The Prince Albert Memorial.Now I knew that Queen Victoria had grieved for the death of her husband rather thoroughly (what with her wearing all black every day of her life but one, from the funeral onward). I knew that as Queen of the British Empire at it's height, she'd have some serious resources to draw upon for a tribute. But still, I was absolutely stunned when I came across this while walking from Kensington Palace to the Serpentine Gallery. If you want to see some pictures underneath the monument and to learn more about how it was built, you can check out this here webpage.Each of the four outer corners is dedicated to one of the continents which the Empire held notable sway over. First we have Africa with it's camel.Then we have Asia with it's Elephant. Followed by a Bull for Europe. And finally, a Buffalo for North America. And finally the big man himself.As if all this wasn't enough, we have the more widely known Royal Albert Hall which lay right where Albert's statue can keep an eye on it. Tomorrow you all shall be treated to the loose photo's from Friday's bloody long walk and a new First World Problem strip. I'm going to try for another mid-week one as well, though I shall try to restrain myself and just do a simple, linear, three or four panel comic.
I'm not sure if it's the embeded google map or what, but now I can't seem to go back and edit/fix up the post I just made!
HUH.
Well I must say, yesterday gave me a few surprises and marvels I hadn't really planned on. After my interview in Hammersmith I decided I'd walk over to Tottenham court road, grab a drink and then eat my lunch in Soho square. This was a heck of a longer walk than I had imagined! Plus the initial stretch was so dull I figured I wouldn't be taking any pictures...and oh ho, I see that Google Maps now provides the html needed to embed any map you bring up - so let's give it a shot.
View Larger Map The route I took shot me up along Hammersmith road, which then becomes Kensington high street as you pass through that prestigious neighborhood, and I eventually turned left into the south side of Hyde Park. It was here that I found cause to take so many pictures I'll most likely break this up into a couple of days of posts.
The first item I came across was a short strip of embassies which included the Israeli embassy - with heavy, temporary barriers all around it as well as a handful of policemen with submachine guns. Curious, I came a bit closer only to catch a couple of large "no photography" signs. Between these and a couple of very distressed looking men in suits who kept walking back and forth between the front door of the embassy and the policemen...well I think there's a story in there to be sure. But in the end it was the "No Photography" signs which really perturbed me, so of course I tried to be cheeky and grab a surreptitious photo from around the corner of a parked van a little ways down the street.So okay, the picture is pretty shit but you can at least catch the barriers and one of the policemen. As I was taking this I noticed a policeman not to far to my left that I hadn't yet noticed and lost my steady shot thanks to a quick burst of worry. Ah well, I'll be keeping an eye on the news to see if anything comes of this. In stark contrast to the little "no media" zone I'd just left, I found myself along the south wall of Kensington Palace not thirty feet away where there were around three hundred people clamoring around the fences with their tributes etc. in acknowledgment of the tenth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.From here I'm going to leap ahead chronologically about an hour to show a related item which I finally decided I may as well a see - the Diana memorial fountain. Once again, I was surprised by what I saw. Not only was there a complete lack of home made posters and television media opportunists, there wasn't a statue of Diana or anything like that.Getting up close I didn't see any crazed individuals like I had over by Kensington Palace, just a peaceful few clusters of people relaxing, playing and walking around this interesting water feature.Anyways, just before I end today's post I think I'll show you a restaurant which is situated right by the Serpentine gallery - which in turn lay roughly equidistant between Kengsington Palace and the Diana memorial.Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures of what I found just before I came across this restaurant, something which made me utter without a hint of "irony", maliciousness or mischief...
"Jesus.
H.*
Christ."
*Hornswagglin'
Addendum: This spoof of Axe commercials made me laugh, maybe it will make you laugh too? I guess that depends on whether or not you're dead inside.
And for those, like me, who seriously cannot stand either the LolCats business or the proliferation of "Internet English", then you may very well enjoy Realisticats.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Yesterday's FWP update has now been cleaned up, though I wish I could figure out how to get it under the current size (286 kb). I don't really want to make the image any smaller, so it's a tricky thing.
Nothing fancy to report today folks! Sorry, it's been a quiet week of work, then job hunting, with writing and drawing sprinkled throughout. That being said, I'm off to a part of London (Hammersmith) I haven't seen before for a job interview tomorrow - pictures may happen. Plus I am going to try and plan some kind of, also picture worthy, adventure into the city for Saturday if only for the sake of sanity. La dee dah!
MEANWHILE - If those of you in Canada were looking for a more specific environmental cause to get involved with, may I wholeheartedly suggest how most of Alberta is being turned into Mordor?
And David Sazuki has also done an excellent episode of "The Nature of Things" on the matter. I haven't been able to find it online, myself, but a hundred *INTERNET POINTS* for whoever does!
Nonetheless, I thought I'd post a link to this interesting editorial about the difficulty of getting people to pull their heads out of the entertainment sand and get more environmentally active.
If you like churches, then Barbican is the neighborhood for you. I've already counted seven within short walking distance of my work and that isn't including the monolith that is St. Paul's Cathedral. Regardless of one's thoughts on religion, anyone can appreciate the added colour and greenspace which these churches bring. In the garden of a church by the Museum of London I found this fountain, for example.You know you're further into the city because it's considered safe to have these fish where anyone could reach in and grab them. If these were closer out to Finsbury park or my neck of the woods then they'd all be speared on the end of coathangers by "the youth of today".Eventually I found myself in a raised area which encircles the museum, my pictures of which turned out to be a lot more crap than I thought at the time so we'll hold off on those, and was further driven to notice how downright futuristic this area seems in contrast to the rest of London. Just about everywhere was completely coated in glass so you could see what everyone else was doing (and yes, I did catch a guy picking his nose around the twentieth floor of one office building. Sadly I wasn't quick enough with the camera) and the upper area I entered at the Museum extended along quite a few buildings with many of it's own stores and restaurants. I really enjoyed this kind of mini, uber-city...even if it could lead to unintended consequences.As if to accentuate the futurism of the upper stories, there were several small ruins dotted around the base of these skyscrapers. Anyways, I wish I had a quick witted and/or pithy way to finish this post...but I don't!
True story. ------------------- Addendum: In case there was any doubt as to the Englishness of The Good, The Bad and the Queen...scroll down their merchandise page and you'll see what I mean, just after the badges.
Now I'm going to get some Canadiana in me by watching the "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" DVD which Cathy kindly sent over to me. To think, I've gone almost eleven months only hearing Parisian French.
The world of music reviews is pretty well covered by about a million other guys with sites like this. But since "London" specifically and "England" in general is the underlying theme of my lil' page here I think it is worth bringing up one group and one album. The name of both is The Good, The Bad and The Queen.
These guys qualify as a supergroup thanks to an astounding roster led by a man who continues to impress me more and more as the years go by, Damon Albarn. Most folk will recognize him from his front lining Blur and, later, the Gorillaz (under the cartoon alias of 2D). He's also been involved in a hostofsideprojects. In the case of this group he has spearheaded it organizationally but it is hard to imagine him dominating the recording studio given the weight of musical input and talent from the other members of the band.
The next most recognizable member of the line-up is Paul Simonon who played bass for The Clash. Even if you don't think you're familiar with their work, odds are that if there is blood in your veins and a working pair of ears on your head that you've heard their classic tune "London's Calling" either on the radio or in one of any number of film soundtracks such as the one for The Royal Tenenbaums. Aside from his raw skill and years of experience, what makes Paul stand out as an interesting band member is his great interest in reggae and how that merges with Albarn's britpop roots. Not to mention the drummer...
Now I know it's sort of a running gag in the music world that the bass player is the least important or least recognized member of your average band, but for me it's always been the drummer. Though I appreciate what drums do for a song, I find that I'll generally pay the least attention to them and as a result give the least of a shit (this is a real phrase, honest!) about who the drummer is.
Tony Allen is seventy years old and has been drumming for basically his entire adult life, having first picked up a drum kit at eighteen. I was completely unaware of this man until I picked up this album but I'm glad it made me aware of him because now, for the first time in my life, I am wanting to dig into the back catalogue of a drummer. I've got my work cut out for me as this man has been frequently dubbed one of the fathers of Afrobeat and what he himself dubbed Afrofunk. The lion's share of his work would be the thirty albums he cut in the sixties and seventies as a part of the group Africa '70. Point is, this man comes from a very different musical background than the either Simonon or Albarn and is not only incredibly skilled but highly inventive. He steals the show on at least a couple of tracks on the album and I'm sure he had plenty to add during the recording session.
Simon Tong is probably the least remarkable member, having played lead guitar with The Verve during the last few years of the band's existence. That being said, when the least impressive member of a band was part of a seminal album like Urban Hymns - which featured the incredibly popular single, Bittersweet Symphony - then I think that is itself a powerful statement. His connection to this group came through Albarn who recruited him for a brief replacement stint in Blur as well as The Gorillaz.
So alright, this group has an epic lineup of mostly British talent. That's nice. But what makes it all worth mentioning here is that their first and only album so far (another is apparently due in September, these guys move quick given that the first came out earlier this same year) is a concept album about living in England in general and London specifically. It's more than just neighborhood name dropping (and what there is of that tends to be lesser known areas which I myself only recognized thanks to my time at Network Rail) and the subject matter manages to be more substantial than The Streets tunes about late night kebab runs and paying off your weed dealer, while remaining just as accessible - more so, really.
Obviously you don't have to have ever set within a hundred kilometers of London or England in order to enjoy the music. Their website is pretty generous with free video and song clips for all the sample. My personal favorite from the selection offered is "Herculean". May I suggest you check it out?
By and by, I wasn't going to include any band member pictures but Paul Simonon just looked too damn awesome not to include. I hope I can look not only that great but that interesting at fifty-five!
It's a very interesting watch with far, far more to it than the "look at how those Japanese people do things which may not happen in your daily life!" angle. Mostly I found myself enthralled by listening to the way the people describe their interactions, social and financial, then seeing how the film editor contrasted them with what happens and what those on the other end of the transactions had to say.
Warning: It's also a good way to get very cynical about both genders! Just sayin'!
...live in Manila's one and only garbage dump. This five part series really helped me get in the post-apocalyptic "mood" for my script I just finished. As with the best documentaries, this one weaves a narrative through it's information and if only for that I highly suggest viewing all five parts (part one below).
As promised, I did a camera strafing run on St. Paul's Cathedral today. Odds are I'll come back to it as I certainly didn't cover everything in my limited lunch hour. This is the front of the church......and here is the main front door. To give a sense of scale I swiveled left and grabbed a picture of this fella.Here we have the monument to Queen Anne which lay out front, along Cannon St. Eventually I walked over to the Thames and sat down to eat. There I saw one of these things again...something about the exclamation mark in it's claim makes me want it to grow Thomas the Tank Engine style eyes and start nattering.Across from me was (and still is, I imagine) the Tate Modern. It's a great, free gallery - currently featuring a wealth of Salvador Dali - and arguably the first gallery which comes to most people's minds if asked. That's all for today, but when we get another sunny day this week (as you can see, today was pretty grey) I'll bust out the camera and grab some more shots.
Hey hey, it's a new comic at a reasonable time of the day! Fancy that.
After carefully consulting with MENSA, Al Gore, Stephan Hawking and several men in labcoats...I came to the conlusion that a smaller comic might result in a smaller file size. I am a University educated man!
Between finishing this comic, getting a good start on the next and finishing my short post-apocalyptic script, I cannot help but feel productive! But do I feel like going on to write some corporate sponsored erotica? A little!
Meanwhile, Giles Peterson is in week two of his "Best of the year so far" series and the songs are just magnificent. If you want to try out some new music, I can't recommend this enough*. *I probably could.
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.
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.
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.
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.
...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!(?).
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...
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 thisAmos 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"...
Now I knew that Queen Victoria had grieved for the death of her husband rather thoroughly (what with her wearing all black every day of her life but one, from the funeral onward). I knew that as Queen of the British Empire at it's height, she'd have some serious resources to draw upon for a tribute. But still, I was absolutely stunned when I came across this while walking from Kensington Palace to the Serpentine Gallery.
If you want to see some pictures underneath the monument and to learn more about how it was built, you can check out this here webpage.
Each of the four outer corners is dedicated to one of the continents which the Empire held notable sway over. First we have Africa with it's camel.
Then we have Asia with it's Elephant.
Followed by a Bull for Europe.
And finally, a Buffalo for North America.
And finally the big man himself.
As if all this wasn't enough, we have the more widely known Royal Albert Hall which lay right where Albert's statue can keep an eye on it.
Tomorrow you all shall be treated to the loose photo's from Friday's bloody long walk and a new First World Problem strip. I'm going to try for another mid-week one as well, though I shall try to restrain myself and just do a simple, linear, three or four panel comic.
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