on the internetz.
Abandoned Building near LaChine Canal
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
Last night we had a good 15cm of snow – very pretty indeed and in perfect timing for tonight’s Nuit Blanche celebrations. So since it was almost tropically warm compared to the last few days I decided to venture out with my camera – and here are my fave pics from the day.
Last night we finally got around to putting the old, character laden (and spring free) couch out on the sidewalk ready for the lovely, heavily unionized Montreal garbage collection folks to deal with. As we live in the middle of a tourist zone, this all has to be done in a ‘tasteful’ manner and without blocking any walkways – pretty tricky after 15cm of snow with sidewalks that are pretty thin to start with. Still, after much heavy lifting, and some furtive glances (what is it about putting old furniture and junk out on the street that seems so wrong, even when you’ve phoned the council to ask?) the couch sat around the corner from us – loaded with old bits of wood and the like that were too trashed to be reused in any meaningful way.
So at 2am this morning the dulcet tones of a trash cart reversing woke us up (again) and we imagined that our dear old friend was safely on his way to a new home. Turns out we were wrong – this morning at 9am he was still there, same place, with nothing moved. I guess he must have been really trashed for noone to come pick it up! But then after wandering to the bread shop, picking up some more blank DVDs for backups and a few other bits and bobs – the couch was gone. Nothing other than a couch shaped indentation in the snow to mark his passing.
Farewell old friend. We’ll miss losing entire body parts into your failing springs, and worrying about more deep gouges in the new flooring from where your wires break loose. We’ll miss the clouds of dust you gave off when we sat down, and your particular odour of many years of smoking, sitting and possibly other things that shouldn’t be mentioned on a family blog (not by me I hasten to add – I value certain body parts too much to lose them in a freak sofa accident). Every time we sit on our new, cheap but comfortable, bland IKEA sofa we’ll miss your almost trendy stripes and faded glory. Only for a moment mind, there’s probably something good on the telly that we can now watch without fear of being swallowed alive. Lovely.
Last night at 1am GMT, so actually yesterday evening at 8pm EST for me, Britain had its biggest earthquake in 25 years. The earthquake was only 5.1 on the richter scale, yet was felt over most of the country from its epicentre in Lincolnshire – even down to my mum’s near Norfolk. Thankfully noone was killed and there seems to only be one injury. Still, it’s yet another earthquake I’ve managed to miss – in fact I don’t recall ever actually being in one! Maybe one of these days.. just nothing too exciting.
When you train a puppy, part of the training is to get them used to you not being around. When you go out, you might put them in a room where if they pee it doesn’t matter so much, and when you come back and let them out you should avoid giving them attention right away. The goal is to get them less dependent on your attention and hence calmer, more balanced and a better all round member of dog society. And maybe also less likely to pee on your nice new couch out of excitement.
Moving on, there’s a great article in Rolling Stone about Britney’s life and the ongoing tradegy of what’s happening now. Obviously this is another in a long series of articles about Britney, and the amazing paparazzi circus that follows her and that she helps create, but the Rolling Stone at leasts gives a vague attempt at taking an impartial view – plus it’s not unreasonable for a music magazine to write about a musician, surely? Anyways, go read it – and then never, ever read anything about Britney in the gossip rags ever again. Ever. Actually, just don’t read gossip mags. Full stop. Period. Then little puppy Britney might just have a chance, and so might the rest of us.
My pal Alex has released a new limited edition range of cool Album Catalogue Number T-shirts over at Bathroom Wall. They’re pretty spiffing, and with only 200 of each get ’em while they’re hot.
Super Furry Daft Punk : Super Furry Animals @ Montreal
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
Another great gig last night – this time the Super Furry Animals at the Just for Laughs hall. After an interesting couple o’ support bands – the monotonal stories of Jeffrey Lewis complete with hand drawn comics, and the wonderful pop punk intensity of Times New Viking – the Super Furries came on with Gruff wearing some kind of space helmet and singing through the eye plate with some great, dark dance beats. It seems they want to be Daft Punk.. but that only lasted for a song before it was helmet off and back to some smashing melodic indie rock. The Furries are on tour right now in the US – so go see them if you can.
Yes, it’s true. Lego bends both space and time.. Coming soon, Lego Dune. [via John Nack]
Lunar Eclipse 20th February 2008
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
Last night was the last lunar eclipse for a few years, so we were pretty happy that a) it was a beautifully clear night and b) we could see the moon from our balcony – so we didn’t have to stay outside in the -17.9c freezing cold to watch it. I was too lazy to put my tripod out for the full sequence, but here’s a pic from when the moon was pretty much totally eclipsed.
Today has an interesting cross-section of news coming up, all from BBC News as I have a bias {;).
First up, Fidel Castro is stepping down as Cuba’s leader. Obviously this will lead to some upheaval in Cuba, and everyone is hoping that a new democratic leader will come in – but life is never that simple. The US will likely secretly fund a candidate they like, because that’s what they do, and Guantanamo will go on abusing human rights ‘outside’ of US soil in the name of freedom. Fingers crossed that isn’t the case, and a new, democratically elected leader pushes for the removal of that abyss of moral corruption from their country. Either way, we can only hope that Cuba’s people benefit from increased freedom, prosperity and other good things.
Secondly, what is up with Dubai? Recently they jailed a man for cannabis they found on the sole of his shoe, they arrested a London man for having melatonin (a US legal sleep/jet lag aid) and now they’ve jailed the BBC DJ Grooverider for four years, their minimum sentence, for having a small amount of cannabis in his bag! Now in all fairness it would seem that Grooverider is the only person though who might actually be guilty, as the drugs were found in a trouser pocket in his bag that he had forgotten about – but then how easy is it for anyone travelling around, especially an international DJ, to be in Amsterdam one day then Dubai the next? A risky combination.
According to statistics Dubai’s draconian drug laws have led to 59 Brits being charged last year alone. This is nothing new, with the UAE having more apparently nonsensical drug arrests than anywhere else. Still want to go to Dubai? Well the sensible thing it would seem is to not carry any drugs, in fact don’t take anything – and make sure you brush off everything you wear carefully, otherwise you could end up like the Swiss man arrested for having poppy seeds on his clothes after eating a poppy roll at Heathrow Airport. In fact just buy new clothes at the airport – and just before you get off the plane change and throw away your old clothes – having put plastic bags down over the seat just in case. A sane solution for a sane world.
Following on from Heath Ledger’s unfortunate, accidental death the filming of Terry Gilliam’s latest epic was put on hold. With one of his lead actors dead, Gilliam and the rest of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus team were faced with an awkward and probably uncomfortable decision – stop the film entirely, or find some other way to do it without Ledger, perhaps using computer animation or a new actor.
Well, according to the BBC they’ve decided to push on with a typically Gilliamesque solution. Ledger’s character will be played by not one, but three of the most outstanding actors in film today – Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law! Depp comes as no surprise, as he and Gilliam work together regularly, but the other two are somewhat from left field. As a Gilliam fan I’ll be waiting to see how he pulls this together, and as a fan of Heath Ledger’s work it’s great to know that his final legacy will make it to the screen with such a ‘supporting’ cast paying tribute to him along the way.