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Monday, January 31, 2005

cushions

But then a Rumpled cushion catches Betsy's eye

I meant to post this with the Comics.
From Lovelorn How to make a Man Miserable.
The moral is don't count your cushions.
"Don't be Overneat!"


Comments: cushions

"Don't be Overneat!"

For no reason in particular, that jumped out at me. For no reason.
Posted by Tony.T at January 31, 2005 10:09 PM

Something that I don't have to really worry about.

Cushions don't jump rumpled out at me.
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2005 10:48 PM

A quote by Rita Rudner.

"Men who don't live with women are like bears with furniture."
Posted by Nabakov at January 31, 2005 10:59 PM

New show?
A fair eye for the Bear Guy?
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2005 11:35 PM

- or maybe that show already exists, I dunno...
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2005 11:50 PM

"I'm messy, therefore I am"
Posted by cs at February 1, 2005 10:04 AM

Yes and those Cartesians are a killer to clean.

Not to mention the co-ordinates.
Posted by boynton at February 1, 2005 10:57 AM

Are you that good slightly tipsy?
Posted by Ajax Bucky at February 1, 2005 08:16 PM

I drink a little, therefore I am?

(In January the beverages and furnishings have been soft. Rumpled nonetheless)
Posted by boynton at February 2, 2005 12:02 PM

Rumpled? Stilskin or of The Bailey?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at February 2, 2005 09:17 PM

Rum, cleanskin or a baileys?

pity I'm on the wagon ;)
Posted by boynton at February 2, 2005 11:09 PM

collages

Imagine a mania: that you cannot stop collecting little scraps of letter-encrusted detritus off the street; that you accumulate these cards and papers and coins and labels at home; and—and here is where the story changes—that you create a collage every day out of these little discoveries of yours and you rubberstamp the date of creation right atop of or into the structure of that collage. That was the life of artist John Evans from 1964 until the end of 2000... Words on the Street


(via Topher Tune's Times)


Comments: collages

Cool. Never heard of this guy until now.

Kinda like a tabloid Cornell.
Posted by Nabakov at January 31, 2005 10:34 PM

Yeah. I love that "West Coast" one.
"Keep this Coupon"
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2005 11:02 PM

glam

Although I had learned to do water stunts, I longed for a normal life.


from Lady in a Jam Glamorous Romances no. 57

The Golden Age Romance Comics Archive (via grow a brain)

Sunday, January 30, 2005

smooth

Sabadabada

A webpage devoted to Brazilian Bossa Nova, Balanco & Samba records of the 1960's

(via wood s lot)


Comments: smooth

Cool as. You must go and see Doug de Vries and Diana Clark. Blame it on the Bossa Nova. The Dance of Love.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at January 30, 2005 08:51 PM

I meant to say I used to live in the Otways, near The Girl from Weeaproinah.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_090083.shtml.

Where it rains 9 months of the year and drips off the trees the other 3.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at January 30, 2005 08:57 PM

I like Doug, so I'll try to, FX.

Weeaproinah sounds like my sort of place.
Except drips from leaves recalls

"Except when soft rains fall
And drip from leaves, then I recall..."

And The Otways would have to be one of The places to live. Or The Bay?
One day...
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2005 12:13 AM

Saturday, January 29, 2005

high jump

High jump at the men's athletics at the Sports Ground


Comments: high jump

How high can a man jump?
Posted by at January 28, 2005 07:30 PM

Don't know if the officials could tell you either.
They look like recreational Detectives.
Posted by boynton at January 28, 2005 08:23 PM

They might be defective?
Posted by at January 28, 2005 09:12 PM

They seem rather distracted - or the group in the distance do. The high jump is merely a back-drop, an alibi.
Posted by boynton at January 28, 2005 09:20 PM

Friday, January 28, 2005

art action

Bosch action figures (via bifurcated rivets)

See also : figures based on artists including Bruegel, Dali, Degas, Modigliani.


Mike Leavitt's Art Army (see the gallery)
one of a kind Art Army action figures based on famous and infamous artists


Comments: art action

Well, I'll be! I though you meant Bosch. You know, power tools. Drills, saws and things that rout, smooth and edge.
Posted by Tony.T at January 30, 2005 06:20 PM

Actually a couple of the Bosch look like Bosch numbers.

And perhaps Post-Bosch. When Tools go wrong.
Posted by boynton at January 30, 2005 07:06 PM

Meanwhile in Africa where they take a less polarised and more empirical view of the next life.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4215923.stm

Incidentally, I've seen the actual heavenly Bosch triptych at the Prado and it is truly transcendental when you actually stand in front of the mind-fucking thing.

It's much smaller than you'd think (about the size of a big fire screen. About 4' high by 6' long) but the colour and detail still glows and bites like demon jewels - even after centuries.

I reckon Bosch baby was like Bill Blake – he had a freakish metabolism that produced its own internal LSD.
Posted by Nabakov at January 31, 2005 10:54 PM

Amazing... I hope that link gets clicked. The text is pretty good too.

The gynaecologist's model is bold, but the hammer is art. What would an undertaker choose?


"What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?"
Posted by boynton at January 31, 2005 11:22 PM

WOW! thank you for finding me out of the darkness and bringing me into the strange light of your blog! what a sweet little glowing gem i've found digging through the google rubble this morning! the link to the gallery has changed, it's now-

www.roqlarue.com/showpages/newton-leavitt/gallery/gallery.html

and there's more pictures of older (and not quite as cool) figures on my website-

www.artcardmike.com

thank you. i love you whoever you are!
mr.mike
Posted by mike leavitt at February 9, 2005 07:03 AM

oh! and there's no picture of the Bosch figure at the gallery website- boynton send me your email address so i can email a bosch pic to you directly- my outlook express don't work so i can't get your email address off the blog page
Posted by mike leavitt at February 9, 2005 07:08 AM

Thanks for dropping by. mr.mike.
your figures are fab.

This will go directly to that gallery
http://www.roqlarue.com/showpages/newton-leavitt/gallery/gallery.html
Posted by boynton at February 9, 2005 04:32 PM

Thursday, January 27, 2005

jumpers

On this sweaty day in Melbourne I followed up that found combo of orchestra and sweaters and found advice on correct Melbourne cultural attire...

What should I wear to an MSO concert?
Wear whatever makes you comfortable. Contrary to what many people think, formal attire - such as tuxedos and evening gowns - is not required at MSO concerts. You'll see concertgoers in suits, sweaters, skirts, jeans, dresses - everything


This is also word for word and head to toe what you should wear to a concert in Detroit, Atlanta, Knoxville and the orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes...

The MSO advice is misleading of course. It should read suits, jumpers, skirts, jeans, dresses - everything


Comments: jumpers

On such a hot and sweaty day in Melbourne , we should all go naked to a MSO concert.
Posted by at January 27, 2005 09:40 PM

Or we should go fully clothed in everything to the Bowl.
Posted by boynton at January 27, 2005 10:22 PM

For me, Wolfy Amadeus's Haffner Symphony would be a perfect piece on a day such as this - for indeed I haffner thing to wear.

(See John run. See Betty run. See Terry run ever so much faster.)
Posted by Sedgwick at January 27, 2005 10:32 PM

I'm haydn from this thread.
Too hot to handel.
Posted by boynton at January 27, 2005 10:53 PM

No cutting and running Ms B.

According to the good oil from Mr Schubert this symphony is far from finished.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 27, 2005 11:24 PM

Mr Schubert may remove his shoes.

Shoeless is fine in such non-sweater weather.
Posted by boynton at January 28, 2005 11:06 AM

jumper, sweater, windcheater, jersey, cardigan, twin set
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at January 28, 2005 01:20 PM

Pull Over, FX.
Posted by boynton at January 28, 2005 01:22 PM

(Not that I'm taking "twin set" personally , of course.)
Posted by boynton at January 28, 2005 01:36 PM

Point taken. fair (isle) enough.
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at January 28, 2005 09:00 PM

I suppose at this point I should declare my vested interest.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 28, 2005 09:22 PM

I knew you were ribbing.
Or was I ribbing?

I just wanted that old joke about Pullovers (and that old word itself) to get a guernsey.
Posted by boynton at January 28, 2005 09:27 PM

Oh - missed your comment there, Sedge - in the 'cross-thread.'
But it actually ties in quite nicely with my next question to FX, which was to be in regard to his declared In Vestments. (And his ties, for that matter.)

I'm interested in your vice-regal declarations, of course.
Posted by boynton at January 28, 2005 09:33 PM

Ms B drops a stitch in the cross-thread but recovers and knits two together.

Casts off.

Thank you ball boys.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 28, 2005 10:49 PM

sweaters

I was searching for Bruch and found this review:

What's not to like? These two concertos were recorded during Mutter and Karajan's "sweater period", when all of their album covers, whether for DG or EMI, had them wearing some sort of knitwear that they'd mix 'n match depending on whether the picture was on the front or back cover. Somehow it seems less of a fashion statement than it once did, if it ever did. Oh yeah, the music. Like I said, "What's not to like?"


I hadn't heard of the "sweater period" before - but found some violinists discussing the sweater recordings here.

I grew up as a student listening to her "sweater" recordings and I like them as much as any interpretation I have ever heard.

OK her post Karajan (sweater) days may not live up to her younger recordings but she's still very individual...

...I think I'll stick to her sweater day recordings...

I treasure my Mozart CD and will probably get a few other of the sweater recordings now.


I rushed out to check the household's two sweaters four seasons and luckily it bore the stamp of matching knitwear (Karajan posing with sweater in forest on the back cover). I will try to team it with the Beethoven blue and definitely the Bruch red and tan ensemble.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

port o rotary

Portable Rotary Cellular Phone

Another mobile I could be tempted by.

The Pokia handset model was pretty good, but the Port-O-Rotary is quite beautiful. And it's good to view the anatomy of a Rotary phone, five of which live quietly in one of my cupboards.

(via sarcasmo)

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

cuation



Create your own error message via the Presurfer


Comments: caution

Brilliant. Hours of witless fun to be had when you really ought to be doing something else. That's my free hour tomorrow sorted out...
Posted by Dick at January 27, 2005 09:08 AM

Caution: witless fun. ;)

Yes I frittered away some time yesterday very witlessly.
Posted by boynton at January 27, 2005 11:05 AM

As I did today. I've got hundreds of the bastards now!
Posted by Dick at January 28, 2005 10:19 AM

Caution: there may be wit where some others can't find it
Posted by Andy F at January 29, 2005 11:48 PM

I composed dozens, Dick, around the theme of "warning: defrag brain."

And, Andy-
Caution, what some (that is, I) call wit others may see as something you might step in unwittingly ;)

btw - Just as I thought - weather rules as a rainy day blog topic.
Posted by boynton at January 30, 2005 06:52 PM

unusual

From her recordings, it is apparent that Jenkins had little sense of pitch and rhythm, quite a limited range, and was barely capable of sustaining a note. Her accompanist can be heard making adjustments to compensate for her tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes. Nonetheless, she became tremendously popular in her unconventional way...
Despite her patent lack of ability, Jenkins was firmly convinced of her greatness.


Florence Foster Jenkins at a List of people widely considered eccentric

From Wikipedia:Unusual articles (via Waxy)


The Timeline of fictional historical events is interesting, as is
The Discussion on Timeline of fictional historical events - Votes for Deletion


# Delete...The ability to cross-correlate fictional historical events from multiple different timelines is of no encyclopedic value that I can fathom...

# Keep. I see no problem with Wikipedia having such lists.
# Keep. It keeps them from crayoning on the walls.



Comments: unusual

A Melba disciple who took the challenge "to sing 'em muck" to a new level - and all on the highwire without a safety note.

(Though she did ignore her mother's advice about not running with C sharps.)
Posted by Sedgwick at January 25, 2005 04:23 PM

was that when she was A Minor?
Posted by boynton at January 25, 2005 04:31 PM

... and when she was soubreto in residence at the "Treble Clef" coffee lounge.

http://www.eqcafebar.com.au/history/history.html
Posted by Sedgwick at January 25, 2005 05:54 PM

And did the Scales ever fall from the eyes?
Posted by boynton at January 25, 2005 07:39 PM

... only tears, when she filled in for La Stupenda as Glaucoma in "Lucia de Lacrima" and slayed them in the aisles with her performance of the ironically titled aria, "Regnava ne silenzio" ("Enveloped in silence").
Posted by Sedgwick at January 25, 2005 08:15 PM

."..Despite her patent lack of ability.."

How does one patent one's lack of ability?
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at January 26, 2005 01:05 AM

I should be so lucky.
Posted by boynton at January 26, 2005 10:26 AM

Sunday, January 23, 2005

something

from the top 100 words used in popular blog titles - what do you call your blog

87. site
88. days
89. dream
90. john
91. thinking
92. have
93. left
94. road
95. something
96. lost
97. project
98. into
99. media
100. where

via J walk


Comments: something

Now that's a very thought-provoking piece of online gestalt hunting and gathering.

Striking how many of the terms nod towards travel, the temporal or the transcendental.

But why is Rex Hunt assembling this list?
Posted by Nabakov at January 24, 2005 08:48 PM

Yes, and the 3 t's are reminiscent of the name of an absent blog.

And the 3 T's are also the medium defined?

Rex Hunt? Harvests and tails - or am I dumb?
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2005 11:21 PM

J-Walk's piccie is wot I was referrin' to Huntwise.

Get optical baby!
Posted by Nabakov at January 24, 2005 11:49 PM

Well I can't see Rex in the other piccie at all.
Where are the bin-ocolars (as Jack Dyer might have said)
Posted by boynton at January 25, 2005 12:00 AM

- at the football, that is.
Posted by boynton at January 25, 2005 12:03 AM

love for sale

I'd been feeling essentially unhip associating with certain nursing home songs and was looking for things about associative memory. I found a link that explained in webspeak the neuroscience, and then lost it. But today I landed at this site about memory and branding:

The core concept of branding is rooted in behavioral psychology and neuroscience. In short, the actual process of branding is the result of using echoic memory recall (the memory of things heard) to implant an associative memory (a new memory you create with your specially created branding message), that has become linked to a positive memory already anchored in the individuals mind, and then recalling that anchored memory on demand (and thus the desired response), with a recall cue or stimulus (your branding ad which is the associative memory now linked to the anchored memory...

A desirable anchored memory can be that of a very pleasant feeling (love, security, social acceptance, extreme joy, high accomplishment, etc). An associative memory must be created through consistency and massive repetition (at least 3 times per week, 52 weeks per year, over at least a one year period) using powerful, emotional words, sometimes unusual words in unusual combinations, that break through the competitive advertising clutter to stimulate the mind in such a way that the words are tied into, or linked to the anchored memory.


Like the beat beat beat of the tom-tom. Anchors aweigh, eh.

associative

why then Over the Rainbow?

for me the associative memory
is of my sister playing Dorothy
in a local Wizard of Oz
singing those plaintive words
with bluebirds around the house
when I was about five
and under the spell
of lime, pantomime
home


Comments: associative

Is bluebirds in Oz? You have written this?
If we was in a pub and you did that I'd buy yiz a schooner.
Posted by bucky vernaculo at January 23, 2005 05:51 PM

'Cheers' ;)
Posted by boynton at January 23, 2005 07:15 PM

So you done the "Dark Side of the Moon" thing yet with "The Wizard of Oz"?

A bunch of us did once and, yes, it's fucking uncanny and seriously spooky how they sync together, once you get the initial cue right.

We need more weirdness in our lives like that.
Posted by Nabakov at January 24, 2005 09:16 PM

Not yet.

Will it buy me any cred?
(Now I'm so much in the cred red.)
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2005 11:30 PM

While I don't really agree with the theories/backstories advanced here...

http://www.ingsoc.com/waters/info/oz.html

...their cues are spot on and, if followed properly, will deliver some uncanny home entertainent.

The need for weed will enhance yer experience if yer that way inclined - but it is pretty damn freaky anyway without psychoactive enhancement.

Trust me, I was rusticated from art college.
Posted by Nabakov at January 24, 2005 11:58 PM

Thanks - must do it.

So many DSOTM synch links, darks side/s of Yellow Sub and Dr Strangelove appeal -
but what pictures can I synch to say Andy Williams, or TJB?

Or What soundtrack might synch pleasantly with "The Enchanted Cottage?" or "Now Voyager?"
Posted by boynton at January 25, 2005 03:03 PM

Friday, January 21, 2005

my music

Watching Walk On By last night and shedding the odd tear over Over the Rainbow confirms I am well over the hill or still overly sentimental.

Today searching for a good midi among the many bad I found this collection at Heart and Soul Music Providing Quality Music For Nursing Homes which has samples of Piano Accompaniment, and a few featured songs like Danny Boy where you can find your key. I worked backwards until I found I was in fact Female Unaccompanied G
(well - Female without melody - but that's not for me to say)


and of course we're always up for a Pianola Party


Comments: my music

Music For Nursing Homes?

Are you that far gone, Boynton?


Posted by Norabone at January 21, 2005 07:10 PM

Hey - don't knock the rock, Nora.

You should check out "I've got you Under My Skin"
A nice version for karaoke.

(As featured in The Singing Detective ;) )
Posted by boynton at January 21, 2005 07:25 PM

Norabone and Boynton: The Singing Defectives.

Scurries ....... off.
Posted by Tony.T at January 21, 2005 08:20 PM

Sadly Dem Bones dem bones - they refuse to sing with Boynton now.

I'm Always Chasing Marlows, myself.

Actually I only like about a dozen of those to sing, and Danny Boy. But that's enough for a Party.
I think my next party will have a singing directive.
Posted by boynton at January 21, 2005 09:23 PM

A trip down memory lane,what about Moonriver
(breakfast at Tiffany's)always brings a tear to my eye.
Posted by at January 22, 2005 11:13 AM

"Moonlight Serenade" seems to be the closest there.
Posted by boynton at January 22, 2005 01:06 PM

I choose to leave the room. It's my Singing Elective.
Posted by Tony.T at January 23, 2005 07:10 PM

You make me sing and I'll become the Singing Dejective.
Posted by Tony.T at January 23, 2005 07:11 PM

as long as there's no singing invective.
Posted by boynton at January 23, 2005 07:17 PM

One of the cartoons festooning the walls of my day job den shows a chustle of vintage ladies at an old folks home, gathered round the piano for a good old singalong.

The sheet music in front of the distingushed old ivory tickler preparing to bash the keys, clearly reads ""Closer" by 'Nine Inch Nails'" and the speech bubble has one old dear saying to another: "You'll like this one Agnes. It's about animals."
Posted by Nabakov at January 24, 2005 09:03 PM

Tittering Into My Hankie.

I'm inching closer to that old dear scenario every day.
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2005 11:26 PM

Well right now I'm listening to Paul Mauriat's "Love Is Blue" - Pan Am's main take-off sedation muzak when they were flying 707s across the cocktail green Pacific.

Could I get any cooler? I don't think so.
Posted by Nabakov at January 24, 2005 11:41 PM

Another sister, (not Dorothy) used to sing that song around the house. True.
Can't recall if it had a sedative effect.
Posted by boynton at January 24, 2005 11:54 PM

Love is Blue rocks!

I hope you were toting your little blue & white travel-bag, Nab.
Posted by Tony.T at January 26, 2005 05:45 PM

Take Two: Love Is Blue

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250479/
Posted by Tony.T at January 26, 2005 05:48 PM

I have one of those little blue and white bags in my collection, waiting to be toted.
Posted by boynton at January 26, 2005 06:45 PM

listening

to the jukebox at The Hi Lo's

dare

My Trip to Disneyland wtih Eugene Ionesco (via grow a brain)

Thursday, January 20, 2005

mind games

Due to a production error, yesterday's crosswords were a repeat of earlier ones. The Age apologises for the mistake.

Just as well I didn't get to the cryptic yesterday. I suspect that even getting the same puzzle again would not help the strike rate dramatically.


Comments: mind games

When my students fail a test, they have to do a "resit".

Sometimes this resit is exactly the same test as the test they failed. In other words, they are getting two goes at the same test. Most times THEY EVEN KNOW they're getting the same test.

Yet I've actually had some of them say "Ohhh, SIR! Can't I have another test? I don't like that one."
Posted by Tony.T at January 20, 2005 06:20 PM

Hmm - I can see the logic in that, I think.

Some tests, like some chairs, are simply too unfriendly in themselves.

No amount of concentrated sitting is ever going to change that.
Posted by goldilocks at January 20, 2005 06:40 PM

Yeah, but you'd think they'd just ask the smart kiddies for the answers. Surely, at least, they're THAT clever.
Posted by Tony.T at January 20, 2005 06:47 PM

Actually, I know they're not. But we live in hope.
Posted by Tony.T at January 20, 2005 06:47 PM

Oh - I get it...

(I did go a shade blonder today...)
Posted by boynton at January 20, 2005 06:49 PM

firewalls an dfoxes

A Sydney correspondent informs me that he cannot comment here regardless of the old browser thing of having to access comments via the permalink. News to me. It seems that some people may strike a Firewall problem at Ubersportingpundit blogs, as Mark Bahnisch explains over at Troppo (with a solution)

I would also like to reassure any of the Forbidden that no one has ever been banned from commenting here at boynton, apart from 180 spruiking bibs and bobs.

And this is probably too long (or too sorry) a tag to place over the Comments or in the sidelinks.


Comments: firewalls and foxes

On another machine. Stop. Testing boynton comments. Stop. Pressing post.
Posted by Sydney.C at January 20, 2005 06:04 PM

Stop.
Posted by Sydney.C at January 20, 2005 06:05 PM

I've pinged Troppo now, Syd. Stop.

Still - it might help open the floodgates to the forbidden commenters.
Posted by boynton at January 20, 2005 06:13 PM

If only I could figure out how to fix it :( Sorry it is all beyond my knowing.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at January 20, 2005 06:49 PM

No worries, Scott - I'm not complaining. Just wanted to reassure any people who may have thought themselves forbidden.

Going by my figures, it has probably affected 2 people in 2 months or so at boynton - and that's a generous estimate ;)

Meanwhile, the spam has been cut back to almost nothing.
Touch wood (as it were)
Posted by boynton at January 20, 2005 06:54 PM

3 cheers for free speech !!!
Posted by at January 20, 2005 09:22 PM

If I had something to say I would comment to see if it works.
Posted by Francis Xavier HoldenXH at January 20, 2005 11:54 PM

it seems to
Posted by Francis Xavier Holden at January 20, 2005 11:55 PM

In here
Posted by Ajax Bucky at January 21, 2005 08:48 AM

Ha!
Posted by Ajax Bucky at January 21, 2005 08:48 AM

Two or two hundred it would bear more on the "nature" of the blocked than their mass in aggregate, hmm?
Once as a flagrant violator of most rules I conspired to enter an amusement park after hours when the lights were off and the rides all still; my companions found it exhilarating to break the locks on the confectioner's stand and make off with candy and cigarettes but me I went and sat in the roller-coaster, even walked up the tracks a ways, more because I could and wasn't supposed to, but even more some extra thing, above that, a connection to the larger constellation we can't see, from being in the midst of it.
None of that directly snapping onto the template here, of course - but here I am.
At last.
Again.
Posted by Ajax Bucky at January 21, 2005 08:55 AM

hip, hip.

FX - having nothing to say has never stopped me.
Am I posting or testing? Who knows.

Ajax - welcome back.
(btw. I think the floodgates figure of speech was flawed. I knew it at the time, but posted it anyway. In conversation it would be muttered tentatively awaiting modification)
Glad to hear of your choice of contraband carnival.
My fear of heights might have deterred me from walking up the tracks. I would have chosen to walk among the placid carousel horses.

btw - had to use carousel instead of my preferred merry-go(delete)-Round because of that old Go(delete)ro questionable content!
Posted by boynton at January 21, 2005 04:16 PM

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

TV mix

Mix your own version of the Dr. Who theme. (via Incoming Signals)
I suspect this may be for broadband only but it sounds good.

Mr Sun's Bedding Mary Ann strategy
With the Professor neutered, Mr. Howell decrepit, and The Skipper obese -- I need only be south of repulsive...
(via *.*)

a pop quiz question via Okir

not often seen

While Sims 2 espresso makers are mysteriously transforming sims lives (via follow me here)
I have recently become reacquainted with a tea caddy that does seem to transform the tea making process.
It used to sit as a purely decorative deco item alongside its 50's bakelite canister cousins, but once recommissioned has been found to be a marvellous thing indeed.
I attempted to draw it in lieu of digital camera but mysteriously my circles and clover leaves kept going pear-shaped. Basically it is distinguished by its windmill-type hat that measures out a generous portion of tea with each click. Googling it was quite bizarre as it seemed as if I had transcribed an obscure piece of code... wipfli T-metr
(Made in Melbourne sometime in the thirties)

Nothing turned up on eBay au either.
But I did notice a nice line or two of sales pitch poetry along the way.

Retro Kitsch 1970's Boxed West German Party Server

Pro Hart Races Tin Not Often Seen

President pre-1960 One-Door Round Yellow Fridge

Purple Glass Fish Shaped Small Dish

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

comfort

An evening with Google's Marissa Mayer (via Jerz's Literacy Weblog)
4. The infamous "I feel lucky" is nearly never used. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button


I guess if you're tired of feeling Lucky, you're tired of life.



Comments: comfort

Tired of life and luck? One should never be!
Posted by at January 18, 2005 07:40 PM

Going to Google seminars means you must be tired of something. Fun, maybe.
Posted by Tony.T at January 18, 2005 09:00 PM

l will never tire of fun,Tony.
Posted by at January 18, 2005 09:08 PM

Half your luck... ;)

Or a student of life, Tony. Wish I'd gone - it sounds most interesting. But the notes are second best thing to being there.
btw - you might be interetsed to read through the comments there. An interesting bit of Pinter and Cricket features towards the end.
Posted by boynton at January 18, 2005 09:12 PM

Oops. I see how my comment came off all wrong.

Let's redirect the bile: Cricket? I hate cricket!
Posted by Tony.T at January 19, 2005 08:32 PM

Leg Bile.

I think Pinter missed a sitter there with googlie?

Unless of course "to google" is the correct verb for the wrong (no)un.
Posted by boynton at January 19, 2005 08:40 PM

moorish

I watched the 1956 Man Who Knew Too Much and thought it was a bit odd.
But I forgive its long sequences sans suspense for the overall mood of bourgeois paranoia, and the restaurant scene.
The scenes of Stewart/McKenna at the Moroccan restaurant are precious. Hitchcock relishes Stewart discomfort. I am sure the rather large Hitch has often suffered discomfort in similar circumstances... Source


I wish I'd replayed it before the DVD time was up , but can read the scene at leisure here in PDF

66 INT. ARAB RESTAURANT
It has a Moorish atmosphere, and the diners are sitting on cushions or low sofas


And an uncut scene featuring Jo McKenna’s theatrical friends can be read here

not paranormal

The mystery of the radio plays by itself has been sorted.

A timer will do that every time apparently.


Comments: not paranormal

People who sort those things are very clever.
Posted by Tony.T at January 18, 2005 08:57 PM

Apparently.
In my case I had to consult the Manual to sort it.
Posted by boynton at January 18, 2005 09:16 PM

Monday, January 17, 2005

cuttings

A literary man in distress

The New York Daily Tribune, January 14, 1856
(from Odd Bits and Morsels... at the vast Voices From Nineteenth Century America
via Daily Jive)



A "Shaggy Dog Story" involving a Poet

(From The Salisbury And Winchester Journal
and General Advertiser of Wilts, Hants, Dorset, and Somerset.
Monday, May 8, 1826
via Philobiblon )

description

Descriptions from the Emilio Segre Visual Archives, Physicists Photos, Harlow Shapley
 



Harlow Shapley (Pictures and photos of)

suit; standing; talking; outdoors
L-R: hat ; coat ; walking ; talking ;
full-face; suit; standing
profile; suit; outdoors; standing; talking; boat
suit; sitting; outdoors; table; ocean;

three-quarter view; old age; suit; smiling
young; profile; suit; sitting; telephone
middle age; three-quarter view; suit; sitting; holding eyeglasses; desk; papers.
in the Observatory office he inherited
young; full-face; suit; standing; outdoors; at the time of his wedding
middle age; profile; suit; sitting; papers; desk; books; at his famous rotating desk
old age; profile; suit; sitting; smiling;

suit; hat; standing; outdoors; window;
suit; standing, receiving the Medals
suit; standing; outdoors; at the cornerstone
suit; standing; outdoors; chair
suit; standing; talking
full-face; suit; standing;
suit; coat; sitting;
standing; rug; picture; A dramatic moment
suit; sitting;
suit; standing; books
full-face; suit; inspecting the tube
standing; outdoors; and Mildred


Comments: description

suit yourself
Posted by Francis Xavier HoldenXH at January 18, 2005 12:53 PM

fits
Posted by boynton at January 18, 2005 01:15 PM

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Witold Riedel The Bear (via The Cartoonist)


And meanwhile a sighting of black labs


Comments: bear

You sure they're not bears, too? I think they are; I recognise them.

I'll get my mate the pig to have a look.
Posted by Pooh at January 16, 2005 03:48 PM

It's easy to mistake a Black Labrador for a Bear.
Or an eeyore.
Then again, some can see a Piglet in a Jack Russell Terrier.
Posted by boynton at January 16, 2005 04:47 PM

There black bears in Labrador?!? I didn't know that.

You know, Eyesore lived in a stye.
Posted by Tony.T at January 16, 2005 05:22 PM

... and Hamlet lived in style in Elsinore. Or was it Piglet?
Posted by Sedgwick at January 16, 2005 05:29 PM

I think it was some Great Dane.
Posted by boynton at January 16, 2005 06:02 PM

Nope; just Hagar's son.
Posted by Tony The Tigger at January 16, 2005 09:48 PM

weak wire

Often visitors arrive at boynton searching for “doorbell rings by itself”

I may now cast the google net further by adding “radio plays by itself ”
My CD player, un spinning for 2 years, was recently repaired.
But now it has an unsettling habit of suddenly breaking out of its stand-by silence into radio talk.
I had blamed terrier-paw-somewhere-on-remote
as there had been a precedent for this of yore, albeit labrador
But today, no dog was about when the cricket came on out of the blue.
No terrier or heeler had wanted the score
to interrupt the lazy Sunday afternoon snore fest
(and we all could have just said to the cricket:
That was uncalled for)


Comments: weak wire

However, other visitors arrive at boynton searching for 'boynton' via http://www.googlism.com/ only to find to their shock and bemusement that ...

boynton is here
boynton is gifted at coupling wonderful
boynton is notorious for its narrow channel and strong currents
boynton is distributing buttons with the slogan
boynton is the founder
boynton is also constructing a high
boynton is on one of six science teams that will study 433 eros on the year
boynton is the undisputed queen
boynton is a cleansing and purifying vortex and one of my favorite hikes
boynton is sweet balm for the spirit
boynton is back and better than ever with completely redrawn versions of her multi
boynton is the place where dennis was raised
boynton is the principal investigator for a suite of instruments onboard odyssey collectively known as the gamma
boynton is the perfect spot to hit on the way downtown
boynton is the principle investigator for the gamma ray spectrometer suite on the mars odyssey
boynton is currently a ph
boynton is the principal investigator for the gamma ray spectrometer suite of instruments
boynton is due out with a new line this may
boynton is someone who understands the profound importance of nonsense and silly beans
boynton is unable to meet the requirements
boynton is living in an altogether different world

BUT, boynton is not the only one revved up and ready to go ...

tony taylor is a little bigger and a tad faster version of what
http://www.googlism.com/index.htm?ism=tony+taylor&type=1

barista is today a part of our vocabulary
http://www.googlism.com/index.htm?ism=barista&type=1

nabakov is the most animated and interesting of all the lecturers ant 201 has
http://www.googlism.com/index.htm?ism=nabakov&type=1

gummo is simply a series of incidents with no central narrative
http://www.googlism.com/index.htm?ism=gummo&type=1
Posted by Sedgwick at January 16, 2005 05:02 PM

At last there are blog descriptions to rival those of KP's at Troppo.

I like the second for b, And/or:
boynton is someone who understands the profound importance of nonsense and silly beans

tony taylor is enthusiastic about colour management

barista is wearing a purple apron and glitter eye shadow

nabakov is spiderman you keep telling yourself that

gummo is what you might get if dostoyevsky wrote a roseanne episode that was then directed by jean

AND AND - any one of these:

sedgwick is as much a platform for ambiguous postmodern musings about the culture of a celebrity as it is a rock band

sedgwick is packed full of fossils ...

sedgwick is approximately 183

sedgwick is probably the easiest peak you will ever bag

sedgwick is a queer theorist in the tradition of derrida

sedgwick is a republican and has served on the school board but has refused to accept any other office

sedgwick is said to have bombarded female cast members with letters as well as loitering

sedgwick is the latest from pop artist and filmmaker andy warhol's menagerie of actors to serve as the inspiration for a feature film

sedgwick is still searching the records...


others may feel free to weigh in here...
(or to comment about weak circuits ;) )


Posted by ph at January 16, 2005 06:00 PM

Friday, January 14, 2005

the table

In the tradition of talking trivets and cars and blenders and things ...

The Table: Childhood 1984-2001, a fully autonomous robotic table selects a viewer to attempt a relationship with that person. The table will not interact with everyone who comes into the room; it will choose only one viewer. As long as that visitor stays, he or she will be the object of the table’s attention...



The table has a vocabulary based loosely on the subtleties of how people meet. First it tries to catch the eye of the person it selected by drawing attention to itself, as if to say, "Excuse me? Hello? I’d like to meet you!" suggested by a wiggle, or slight motion from side to side. It attempts to show the selected viewer’s motions, speed of movements, responses to the table’s behaviour, and general conditions in the room, the table might try to get closer.

Throughout the encounter, the table monitors the chosen visitor’s physical reactions. If that person is unresponsive, "The Table" tries harder: it might initiate an action enticing the viewer to copy it; it might dance by itself, turning on its axis with an elegant pirouette; it might decide to chase – or even to flee...




Via disjointed via DRT news

an alice

Alice in Wonderland - a photographic re-imagining by Megan Pinch

(via Penny Dreadful)


Megan Pinch Photography

who am I?



Physical Culture March 1930
 

Physical Culture covers via Invisible Shoebox

Thursday, January 13, 2005

motto

Use it up - wear it out - make it do!


Ohio Historical Society War Posters (via the ultimate insult)


Comments: motto

Perhaps we should distribute copies to the nation's art students. I can tell you from experience that life will be all about "Use it up - wear it out - make it do!"

ah well..


Posted by David Tiley at January 14, 2005 01:45 AM

Fast learning that myself.

Then it's all - "Make it up" again.
Posted by boynton at January 14, 2005 01:15 PM

c'sphere

...people who are prodigious commenters are following in a grand literary tradition...

A discussion on ways to aggregate comments and commenters at Collision Detection.
(Such a facility would help the work of one of the most prodigious and literary local commeters in his Vice Regal Commentspherical Annual Awards.)


Comments: c'sphere

"I have nothing to declare but my comments" - Oscar Sedgwick.

(Am already unofficially collecting bon mots for the 2005 gongs. The usual suspectakov is in fine form already and it's not even a fortnight into the year.)
Posted by Sedgwick at January 13, 2005 06:23 PM

It's better to be commented about, than to score a (0). O.Boynton.

Yes the early form is both prodigious and literary.

I noticed my typo there in the post and was going to attend to it - but maybe it's one of those 'fraudian' typos, maybe "comet" has something to do with this side of the blogosphere.

If you have a category for best typo-ridden comment, boynton will win no worries.
Posted by boynton at January 13, 2005 06:39 PM

Worry not about the O.

It just means we all agree with you.

On a technical note, there is a bit of a problem with this kind of blogging (and mine too a bit) where people go to the link, get enchanted and just think "um. Yum." and wander off..
Posted by David Tiley at January 14, 2005 01:43 AM

Thanks, David.

I rarely worry about the 0 anymore.
(the great esnet and I once decided it meant a chorus of "Oh"... whatever Oh means)

And you're right about the hyperlinking away quality of the web. Guess that's the ultimate test of a good link, though.
Posted by boynton at January 14, 2005 01:12 PM

Oh!
Posted by at January 14, 2005 06:17 PM

The meaning of Oh?

Maybe this site may help?

http://blogs.salon.com/0003580/categories/theMeaningOfLife/
Posted by at January 14, 2005 06:23 PM

And this one
http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Oh
Posted by at January 14, 2005 06:28 PM

oh...

(I removed my earlier comments - thread was looking a bit messy)
Posted by boynton at January 14, 2005 08:16 PM

My first entry of the meaning "Oh"
was misunderstood.When l re-read the site it sounded like l found your "blogging" offensive.
Far from it Boynton! My definition of "Oh" is
enlightment and enchantment.l enjoy your blog.
Posted by at January 14, 2005 11:04 PM

cheers.
Posted by boynton at January 15, 2005 01:00 PM

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

coffee press

Didn't see The Ipcress File overnight with Michael Caine so I missed the early appearance of the Plunger or Coffee Press... although perhaps we should not be impressed ?


... it is a truth insufficiently acknowledged that, in popular culture, we must trust a spy to uphold gastronomic standards Secrets and pies:


...Actually, there is something much more disturbing about Palmer, for all his supposed culinary accomplishments: he can't make decent coffee, even though he has the tools for the job. In the title sequence of The Ipcress File, Palmer gets out of bed in his powder-blue pyjamas, puts on his glasses and then sets about fixing coffee. He grinds the beans in what looks like a prototype for my Moulinex 205 (boys and their toys), puts the grounds into his cafetière and pours boiling water over them. So far, so stylish - with lovely low camera angles, fetishistic gadgetry and John Barry's cool jazz score. Then it all goes wrong for, immediately after Palmer pours the water into the pot, he depresses the plunger. How on earth is the coffee supposed to brew, Mr P?

Historian Simon Schama has claimed that Palmer lured him into cooking; let's hope, though, he didn't learn to make coffee from this scene
.



Comments: coffee press

I'm more than happy to forgive young Harry the cackhanded coffee making for the gloriously offhand elan with which he says from the back of that Landrover, 'Lose that door...'.
Posted by Dick at January 13, 2005 10:52 AM

Actually Dick, didn't he arrive at the warehouse in another car with the Landrover following?

And what people fail to realise about the opening scene is that they were special WOOC(P)issue coffee beans.
Posted by Nabakov at January 13, 2005 12:39 PM

You've sold me on the elan. Must hire the DVD.

To confess, I'm not much of a coffee head, but was interested in the reportage of a Plunger sighting at that date.
But is WOOC(P) - or the inverted version - (P)COOW
a bit of plunger onomatopoeia?
Posted by boynton at January 13, 2005 03:52 PM

John Barry, people. John Barry!

It's not a "cool jazz score". Hell, Jerry Goldsmith could probably churn out a "cool jazz score".

It's Spy Rock.
Posted by Tony.T at January 13, 2005 04:02 PM

Ever heard Spy rock at the Espy, T?

some e-spy here.
http://www.epdlp.com/compbso.php?id=433

I see JB also does Lion Rock. (I used to singalong to that cool pop score as a child)
Posted by boynton at January 13, 2005 04:23 PM

Jeez Boynton, don't you know anything about the minutiae of 40 year old spy thrillers?

WOOC(P)was the British Government spook outfit that Harry Palmer worked for. I think it stood something like "War Office Oversight Committee (Provisional)".

And Tony, I always thought of it more as "pop noir".
Posted by Nabakov at January 13, 2005 04:36 PM

"the minutiae of 40 year old spy thrillers?"
na - just cafe noir.

Oh - I thought I spied an acronym, but was thinking more: We Outgrow Our Coffee (Plunger), or something...
Posted by boynton at January 13, 2005 05:01 PM

Shit, you're absolutely right, N. Doesn't he issue the order to the Landrover?
Posted by Dick at January 14, 2005 10:30 AM

Yep. He's standing there talking to some other bloke then turns round to the landrover driver; "Lose that door!"
Posted by Tony.T at January 14, 2005 03:12 PM

Just watched it last night (the old VCR still works its magic). Magic stuff. I was surprised to see a grinder and plunger in action. A wonderfully shot film.

Barry - jazz, or kickarse vibes to pop off an agent in a Slough car park to.
Posted by Flute at January 16, 2005 10:43 PM

mitchell kenyon

Cunard Vessel at Liverpool 1901

From Mitchell and Kenyon Image Gallery
Mitchell and Kenyon was a late Victorian and Edwardian film company based in Blackburn in Lancashire - hitherto best known for minor contributions to early fictional narrative film and for fake Boer War films. The Mitchell and Kenyon collection, however, consists almost entirely of actuality films commissioned by travelling fairground operators for showing at local fairgrounds or other venues across the UK.


Thanks to wen for the link. (The slow posting is due to the strange afternoon dial-up doldrums of the isp, much written about of late)
(via Mick Hartley)


Comments: mitchell kenyon

I've read about the rediscovery of those Mitchell & Kenyon films elsewhere quite a bit of late. A remarkable story.
Posted by James Russell at January 12, 2005 04:03 PM

Yes, a week is certainly a long time in the blogosphere ;)

Wen also referred to this Guardian article
http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1384840,00.html
that explains the appeal:
"Sitting in the BFI's cinema, I felt that history had suddenly been enlarged and one of its divisions abolished, that between the living and the long dead."
Posted by boynton at January 13, 2005 03:36 PM

and a rare twitch from a busy country woman to boot.
Posted by David Tiley at January 14, 2005 01:46 AM

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

exchange

Via Okir
Tom Beckett interview with Crag Hill  A great read on poetry, ekphrastic writing - and blogging at e-x-c-h-a-n-g-e-v-a-l-u-e-s

TB: I didn't mean to suggest that your blog entries aren't well thought out. But I do think a blog constitutes a funny kind of hybrid social space--straddling the public and private, the formal and informal, high and low, etc. A blog makes possible a kind of intimacy, in the manner of a diary or open notebook. A blog tends to be used as a soapbox, too, in a way that other literary platforms may not be. Political content often creeps in as part of the mix. Rants. It's the immediacy of the medium, I guess, that allows full reign for venting. I, for one, am still scratching my head about how to use blogs to best effect. How do you think blogging inflects your other writing? Is it an aid or a hindrance? Or a bit of both? Is blogging of a piece with that other work? Or does it exist on a different level? Do you see yourself continuing with your Scorecard into the indefinite future?...

CH: ... But has the medium inflected my writing? Has it changed it as other media has? Not yet, but I keep pondering, as you do, too, in your eloquent question, the possibilities of Blog. The program foregrounds the most recent entry, giving it some narrative bending potential – i.e. reading the end of a story, a poem, a rant, first, then scrolling down to the beginning, much like the unrolling of our personal experiences. I’ve been thinking of ways to take advantage of that programming. The main drawback: are there any blog readers who read below the first two-three entries they encounter on a blog? How to entice someone to read deep into the archives….? Other than that I think blogging is an electronic version of media that’s existed for millennia. Bells and whistles...



Comments: exchange

"ekphrastic" had me racing to dictionay.com

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ekphrastic

"Did you mean Ecphractic?"

Mebbe, how would I know?

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Ecphractic

Errrm? R i i i i ght ... ?!

"Serving to dissolve or attenuate viscid matter, and so to remove obstructions; deobstruent."

A definition as ecphractic as mud.

Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 06:05 PM

You had me blushing at what I imagined was one of my
trademark typos. I cut and pasted it but you never know. So checked - half flinching - the article...

"ekphrasis (art inspired by other forms of art)"

"ekphrastic" writing eg Poems about paintings.
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 06:14 PM

Oh well, serves me right for charging off to "dictionay.com" (sic, see above) and ecpecting an awnser.

That said, it is my intention from now until the great librarian in the sky calls me on my overdue fine is to use that word at least once a week - even if it means feigning Tourette's.

... and I feel an impressionistic pome coming on. Watch this space.

Ekphrastic Friday could be the new black ... Friday that is.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 06:37 PM

If you sneezed it could be onomatopoeia.

If you sneezed ekphrastically it could be onomatopoetry?

I endorse the idea of Ekphrastic Friday.
Will it clash with the cats?
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 09:44 PM

Given that "Paris, T*xas" is an example of parataxis, could we be looking at some ekphrastic onomatopoeia here?

I only ask 'cos the fate of millions depends on the answer.
Posted by Nabakov at January 11, 2005 11:14 PM

The reason I put a * in the middle of the name of the Lone Star State is because some bloggerwarebot responded with:

"Your comment could not be submitted due to questionable content: T*xas."

(Fuck me, I couldn't even cut and paste its own response about not letting 'T.E.X.A.S' through.)

Jeez, even the semi-autonomous software's getting all narky and po-mo about a certain US state and its attendent attitudes as reflected online.
Posted by Nababov at January 11, 2005 11:24 PM

One of my fondest memories.

On a trip to Japan with Walter Mitty and Leonard Zelig listening to the sounds of the smashing, crashing, bashing Hokusaic waves from atop Onamata Pier.

(Runs away quickly in search of a non tautological DYI seppuku book.)

Posted by Sedgwick at January 12, 2005 05:53 AM

Nabakov. I wonder if the T*xas Chainsaw Massacre
an example of alleGory?
(sorry - bit slow on the uptake today. Could not get past thinking T-Rope)
Curious about the *. I think the bot is getting a bit beat or concrete on us.

on a matter of peer review, here's looking at you, Sedge
Posted by boynton at January 12, 2005 12:12 PM

- as you are a Peer, of course.
Posted by boynton at January 12, 2005 01:03 PM

mini bats

Bought some Mini Table Tennis bats from the Supermarket, because there's always room to scale down. I bought them for the aesthetics, but who knows - smaller paddles might increase the athletics.


Comments: mini sports

OT, but currently watching Channel X teev news and (despite scant info) was reminded of my rememberance day comment.

http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/007688.html

"Know Skipton well. Pretty place, periodically all but razed by bushfires."

Fate's not for tempting.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 05:17 PM

I just turned OT (on television). Heard nothing.
X into the silly stories like Melburnians happier than Sydneysiders. (Call that news?)

"Returning now to the bushfire crisis in South Australia..."
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 05:39 PM

msn only now covering it.
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 05:45 PM

Twas a nanosecond of voice over and a map what caught my eye.

"X into the silly stories "

How could you say that boynts?! Just heard the sports type person say that this could very well be Andre's last Oz Open followed by a snippet from an actual Andre saying that it was his plan at this stage to return again. (Maybe the highly forensic reporter is more into nuance than silly face value, read my lips moi.)

Then again he may warrant a buttock directed maxi paddle.


Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 05:55 PM

Was going to transcribe that too, Sedge, but couldn't take Sports type person anymore... so threw it onto The Price Is Right awaiting Nine...

Had no idea it was so dire. 5 dead...

Read an update earlier on Dock of the Bay.
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 06:04 PM

Your typos pale into insignificance compared to thosa our Declan at the Yabby Sea.

"An estimated 2,000 hectares of grass has been burnt in the Carrumbellic and Derrinallum area, west of Skipton."

Local knowledge allows me to wonder of Carranballac might not be what Declan (and Whereis) is making a stab at.

http://www.whereis.com.au/whereis/mapping/geocodeAddress.do?streetNumber=&streetName=&poiType=&suburb=Carranballac&state=Victoria&x=20&y=12
Posted by Sedgwick at January 11, 2005 08:14 PM

audio notes

The very notion that a professional musician, music lover, and audiophile such as myself could hear differences between cables was summarily dismissed as delusional...

The session was not easy. The stress of listening for subtle differences resulted in people frequently leaving the room for snacks and stretching. Before the session had concluded, a good half of the participants had already bid us adieu. This did not bode well for a blind listening test conducted without breaks...

We divided volunteers into two test groups. The first group arrived at 11 AM, with protocol explication beginning at 11:15. We broke around 1 for food. Agreeing not to say a thing about the test, the first group welcomed members of the second group at 1:30 for joint munching...
.


Can We Hear Differences Between AC Power Cords?
(via bifurcated rivets)


Why is the violin so hard to play

The physics of plucked and bowed strings - Linear versus nonlinear

(via apothecary's drawer)

Monday, January 10, 2005

bananas

It's getting hot. My dial-up has gone totally bananas. The greengrocer is back but the suburb is away. Curtains are drawn.

Which way to the beach?


I found this image in a round-about way looking for deck chairs at Picture Australia which oddly led to this unidentified beach

(But then this is more your standard deck chair, isn't it?)


Comments: bananas

Bringing back the modesty panel!

That great equaliser and gateway to the mysterious south has been sadly consigned to the dustbin of 'life's a beach' history by those shameless, desporting their wares, Speedo clad jocks and jockettes.

I think someone ought to do something about it!
Posted by Disgusted of East Malvern. at January 10, 2005 03:51 PM

Yes and I think he may have lost his equaliser somewhere in the surf?
A serious breach on the beach?
Posted by why_oh_why at January 10, 2005 04:02 PM

Very attractive. In my mind, boynton, the woman in the bathing costume is you.
Posted by millipede at January 11, 2005 11:46 AM

Na - I look nothing like that. Or 'Boynton' for that matter. Except around the hat.
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 05:19 PM


This would be Coogee Beach I suspect?
Posted by phlip at January 11, 2005 10:15 PM

Oh stop shattering my illusions!
In my minds eye boynton will always be the woman in the bathing costume.
Posted by millipede at January 12, 2005 11:47 AM

Millipede. I'll take it as a compliment.
(But it was lucky I didn't link to my usual type of historic photo of anonymous unglamorous woman in domestic deckhair with terrier.)

Philip. Coogee? Coodbe?

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~cfritz/GaleriePhoto/Notre_appart_a_Coogee/CoogeeBeach1.htm

I don't know Sydney, unfortunately.
Posted by boynton at January 12, 2005 11:59 AM


Indeed, coodbe Coogee. The historic photo is taken from a little further south than the contemporary one I think. Not Bondi or Manly or Deewhy or any of the little deep ones, and after a while you run out of options. Coogee has an adventure playground. I adventured there one night after an enjoyable evening out with friends, before voluntarily moving on to Pancakes on the Rocks where we were involuntarily moved on.
Posted by phlip at January 14, 2005 09:41 PM

That's a nice description.

And those beach names
Bondi, Manly, Deewhy, Coogee
they can't be beat can they
Posted by boynton at January 15, 2005 01:06 PM

poet notes

'Write drunk, but polish sober.'

a series of aphorisms, fireside reflections & general bons mots on poetry at patteran pages ( see also here and there)

(write drunk but boot polish? or as the etiquette set might say: write promptly and polish silver...)



Comments: poet notes

"'Write drunk, but polish sober.'"

They're birds I comment why.

Cheers.
Posted by Nabakov at January 10, 2005 10:06 PM

Y'know, blinking thout it, I reckon another pay of wooking at it is - "Just get it all out, waite 24 hours, then sought it all out."

How many Joyceans does it take to rebulbous sparkit?
Posted by Nababov at January 10, 2005 10:15 PM

Sixty what?
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 11:41 PM

write czech polish cash
Posted by Francis Xavier HoldenXH at January 11, 2005 03:34 PM

finnish turkey hungry again
Posted by boynton at January 11, 2005 03:44 PM

Sunday, January 09, 2005

flight

As I was quietly reclining watching television
a flying thing hovered near the light then flew directly into my forehead.
It was a beetle.
Call me paranoid, but that seemed a bit
deliberate.



related?: Paper airplane flight simulator (via the ultimate insult)


Comments: flight

To be paranoid , is a curse.
Posted by at January 10, 2005 10:56 AM

What? What are you saying? Am I cursed? ;)

Actually it made me laugh, when I saw it was a beetle. It's difficult to feel threatened or even mildly offended by a beetle.
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 11:50 AM

A beetle? To beet or to boot?
Posted by at January 10, 2005 11:53 AM

I like the beatles to boot.
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 12:03 PM

High heels or blundstones?
Posted by at January 10, 2005 12:31 PM

ideally a winkle picker
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 12:41 PM

My skills at the paper airplane are as bad as in real life. My best shot after the usual back-over-the-head-flip was: Distance-77.4 Maximum Altitude-14.16 Time Aloft-8.05 and Revolutions 1.207
Posted by Norabomb at January 10, 2005 01:00 PM

well, you know, we all want to change the world...

(Revolutions 9)
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 01:56 PM

A handy tip if yer wanna turn a skull-draining memo into a soaring thing of beauty. Paperclips make great nose weights for an office paperplane with a wingspan that's turned out too lofty and with not enough pull forwards and down.

Remember, gravity is an energy - that you can sail.
Posted by Nabakov at January 10, 2005 10:43 PM

Clippers of the open plan and cubicle?

That tip is a thing of beauty. I will try it.
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 11:51 PM

Norabomb and Nabacube... ah..
Posted by David Tiley at January 14, 2005 01:59 AM

Saturday, January 08, 2005

ettiquette

I happened to find an old Etiquette Handbook for all occasions to suit Australian Conditions amongst my papers, which may have belonged to my grandmother, but whose pages are now rather careworn and shabby I'm afraid.
I've been brushing up on good form...

Rules for the use of deckchairs are not to be broken.

When dressing for dinner, ladies should avoid wearing fragile evening frocks.

Flimsy envelopes are best avoided

It is sufficient to serve one white wine and one red wine during luncheon, which lasts about half-an-hour.

Do not stare about the room or make comments about the ornaments

Do not break any of the accepted rules

Pet dogs are never brought into the drawing room

Hands are very noticeable

Walking shoes, of course, are an essential item

wearing the colours of any club, etc., is definitely incorrect if there is no connection with the wearer and the club

Gentlemen do not speak to ladies with a pipe in their mouths

the legs of a pigeon are not eaten

There is no neccessity to be nervous

Doors were not made to be banged




Comments: etiquette

"Gentlemen do not speak to ladies with a pipe in their mouths."

I am equally unambiguous in such circumstances. It is the height of bad manners to conversationally engage members of the fair sex whilst they partake of the soothing communal meerschaum.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 8, 2005 07:21 PM

"Hands are very noticeable"

Which means of course, that socks too are an essential item, providing discrete and practical camouflage.
Posted by saint at January 8, 2005 08:57 PM

I agree, Your Excellency.
You'd never hear a peep out of me to the contrary, even passively speaking.

Indeed saint, and the more discrete the better in my little book. Especially if things are oddly afoot.

(btw - 'Rules for Picnics' deserves its own post)
Posted by boynton at January 8, 2005 10:49 PM


"Do not break any of the accepted rules" prompts the question as to whether that is one of the accepted rules. If so, it becomes impossible to break one and only one of the rules. I like that.
Posted by phlip at January 8, 2005 11:10 PM

Alas, I can't quite get my dumb head around that, Philip, but I shall take your word for it.
In the presence of a scary display of Accepted Rules around the drawing room, I would try not to stare, or to comment.
(I do know: Rules are broken, never cut. Never crumble rules into the soup...)
Posted by boynton at January 8, 2005 11:32 PM

"Doors were not made to be banged"

See, that's a lie. Doorsmiths understand human nature and build their doors to bang.
Posted by Kent at January 9, 2005 12:45 AM

- and to be unhinged is also human, I guess.
Posted by boynton at January 9, 2005 01:37 PM

Oh,the memories.
Posted by at January 9, 2005 08:27 PM

Hands are noticeable.(but) - There is no necessity to be nervous. Do not stare about the room or make comments about the ornaments

Scary boyn.

When it comes to the laws of etiquette I am an abject, miserable failure. Dad used to want to know what the 'right thing to do' was and sis' too indulged and delighted her paranoia in this pretentious load of cobblers! I always maintained that if one were human one would know how to behave. so there, *raspberry*

There are places that you can't take me, (obviously). But save your token, because these are also the places I refuse to go to.
Posted by Link at January 10, 2005 09:49 AM

No nostalgia then, anon?

It is usually unwise to blow raspberries in the presence of ornaments, not to mention pipes and fragile frocks.
No South Sea cruise circa 1933 for you then? ;)

Rules always make me nervous. But words like "overcoat", "Linesman" and even "entree fork" make me nostalgic.


Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 11:43 AM

Nostalgic? Of course.l'm human ( l think )
Posted by at January 10, 2005 04:00 PM

Wedding present burnt orange fondue set. 3 in fact. ("You never know when the entire extended Emmenthaler family might drop in for a bite to fork.")

True nostalgic lachrymosity.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 10, 2005 04:26 PM

Lachrymosity of joy I hope.

Hope you held on to all 3!
Fondue is chic again - well 2 years ago there was a slight flurry of activity in the op-shops in response to the revival rumours.
I bought one myself - and have been promising the extended Benefactor family (who gifted me a recipe book) a Chmapagne Fondue.

They haven't dropped in yet.
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 04:36 PM

champagne...

though chmapagne sounds possible too.
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 04:39 PM

When purchasing such creatures (zool: fondus arancione burnum-burnum) from Op shops you can be assured of this - "as good as new - used once only".

Lachrymosity of - how does that song go? - "Smoke gets in your eyes."

Back in those devil may care days of non mandatory smoke alarms. Them's what killed the fondue party.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 10, 2005 05:34 PM

Ahem...bin there, done that...

http://boynton.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/006787.html

One of a few fondue posts of mine - as it turne out. Maybe would have needed its own Category.

btw some of those fondus arancione specimens are like the fabled Trading Post wedding dresses - Never worn?
Unburnt orange.
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 05:43 PM

And speaking of etiquette - always be sure to pass the Dutchie (and port) on the left hand side.
Posted by Nabakov at January 10, 2005 10:47 PM

It is considered incorrect to refuse a gift except under exceptional circumstances.

(oh and here's one I really ought to have considered for inclusion.
"Knocking people, particularly with suitcases, calls for an apology..." )
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2005 11:58 PM

You could base an entire art movement on this..

what would you call it.. ettiquavism?
Posted by David Tiley at January 14, 2005 01:55 AM

And the notion of a previous generation of bon viveurs scarfing two glasses of wine in their half hour lunch, while not showing their hands, leaving the pigeon legs on their plates and concealing the socks in their sandals is too delicious and makes me want to hunt the Op-shops for an electroplated cake stand RIGHT NOW.
Posted by David Tiley at January 14, 2005 01:58 AM

...and the more discrete the better in my little book. Especially if things are oddly afoot.

Which is why one must not stare about the room or make comments about the ornaments, in case your gracious hostess notices some are missing.
Posted by at January 14, 2005 06:21 AM

I've heard of ornaments going missing under hats (true - a first hand account) but never within socks? (first or second foot)
Posted by boynton at January 14, 2005 01:05 PM

oh no stal juh

nanostalgia (nan.oh.STAL.juh) n. Nostalgia for an event that has only just finished

Missed a moment for a nanopun in that last one.
Given the steady nostalgia-creep, one could become nan.oh.stal.juhk about grandmother's footsteps, for instance.

I wonder if there's a word for nostalgia for an event that hasn't yet happened?


Comments: oh no stal juh

There are those well worn words, 'pre-emptostalgia', 'anticipalgia', 'anteretrophilia' and the chonic dysfunctional condition uncommonly known as 'premature nostalgulation'.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 8, 2005 05:48 PM

Thanks, Sedge.
Of that well worn group I think I like "anticipalgia" the best.
Has a nice retrophiliic hint of pain.
Posted by boynton at January 8, 2005 06:12 PM

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

vintage suggest

a Google Suggest-like Dictionary based on the 1913 US Webster's Unabridged Dictionary which makes the experience even more like a parlour game, a verbal grandmother's footsteps.

I found it amusing, a pleasant way to pass a cricket-infested afternoon. At first I followed the suggestions to look up neologisms and great words of the 20 th century that would make no sense in 1913. (eg: Faxed a.: Hairy)
but after a while I preferred browsing.

Ha interj.: An exclamation denoting surprise, joy, or grief. Both as uttered and as written, it expresses a great variety of emotions, determined by the tone or the context. When repeated, ha, ha, it is an expression of laughter, satisfaction, or triumph, sometimes of derisive laughter; or sometimes it is equivalent to "Well, it is so."


Via (prep.: By the way of; as, to send a letter via Queenstown to London) J walk

keyword fest

In 3 of the current crop of five-for-ten flicks running in this loungeroom cinema, people fall down stairs.
Apparently it would be possible to program a festival around such a trip trope


Comments: keyword fest

Without looking at IMDB - are you screening Psycho? The Exorcist? The Godfather?

Summer holidays in the loungeroom are the best.
Posted by Laura at January 5, 2006 05:12 PM

Well *crash* is there
(for cred)
and err... Now Voyager...

and err... Gone With The Wind
(see below)
which isn't there,
but surely Scarlett's turn is one of the most iconic of these occurances?

And err...now I've got through some of the
guilty pleasures/old faves,
the arthouse/foreign season is due to start next week...
although I am tempted to think about a Cigarette Case Fest (err...An Affair to Remember)
Posted by boynton at January 5, 2006 05:46 PM

Now Voyager! That's one of my favourites.
Posted by Laura at January 6, 2006 08:16 AM

Now Voyager! That's one of my favourites.

I wonder how hard it's be to come up with a festival worth of movies where the hero habitually lights two cigarettes at once...
Posted by Laura at January 6, 2006 08:17 AM

or 'the hero habitually lights two cigarettes at once and hands one to Bette D'?
" - a similar exchange occurred ten years earlier between Davis and George Brent in The Rich Are Always with Us"

NV - Funny sort of film, isn't it...

and Hmmm_might have to hire The Haunting before I finish the Fall Down Stairs angle...
(or is that the Robert Wise angle..)
Posted by boynton at January 6, 2006 05:31 PM

Finally I realise why I don't like many of the Films listed, its my Bathmophobia — Fear of stairs or steep slopes
Posted by andy Farnsworth at January 7, 2006 10:07 PM

I caught the end of "Ann of Windy Willows" (starring Anne Shirley as Anne Shirley? -- this needs investigating) yesterday on small screen. Best scene is when tyranical Aunt Pringle falls down the stairs after suffering a heart attack -- she drops the lamp and the house burns down (tho' not before the subplot heroine - who aunt P locked in her room, thus sealing her own fate - is rescued.) Very satisfying.
Posted by wen at January 8, 2006 09:28 AM

That's one phobia I don't have in my extensive list, Andy.
Would be reluctant to see too many of these films:
http://www.imdb.com/keyword/trapped-in-elevator/

Sorry to have missed it - it's been too long since I read that (once loved) book to recall the scenario, but sounds pleasant.
I did see Anne S play Anne S in Anne of GG.
"Changed her stage name from Dawn O'Day to Anne Shirley after playing the lead character of the same name in the film Anne of Green Gables (1934)"imdb
Posted by boynton at January 10, 2006 06:00 PM

Pretty much OT but there's a hilarious line in Michael Winterbottom's Code 46 where the rather fey investigator played by Tim Robbins is interviewing suspects at a major corporation.

He asked them all a teaser question, "Tell something I wouldn't know about you." One female Chinese tech responds by saying she finds freckles a sexual turn on.

"Really?"

"Yes, I regard Anne Of Green Gables as an erotic classic."

Not a filmic kink you hear everyday.
Posted by Nabakov at January 15, 2006 06:35 PM

http://www.imdb.com/find?s=kw&q=freckles

If five films do not a freckle fest make, could always recklessly dip into the approx. match reserve
Posted by boynton at January 15, 2006 09:13 PM

music trail

following a trail of free music

classic cars

Volvo: I roll, I turn, I run on wheels. Proud boast of a haughty car.

Latinish names for Classic cars

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

m

This is my 1000 th post at Ubersportingpundit

or M - to keep things in perspective

 

(when I get to C - I may do a highlights page)



Comments: m

So hitting the big M in MMIV?


Congrats, you don't look a I over XXXI.
Posted by Nabakov at January 4, 2005 10:21 PM

http://tinypic.com/162fex
Posted by Sedgwick at January 4, 2005 10:29 PM

X will never be the same now that Big M's here. Cheers.

Thankyou kindly, Sedge.

mm - and just for the record...although a girl never likes to reveal these things I have nonetheless declared my real age on this customised M&M...

http://tinypic.com/162ipw

(found via Living Room)
http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog/archives/mmmm.php
Posted by boynton at January 4, 2005 11:16 PM

"...I have nonetheless declared my real age..."

Ipse celere!
Posted by Nabakov at January 4, 2005 11:41 PM

Veritas non erubescit
Posted by boynton at January 4, 2005 11:56 PM

- or something.

(think I'm on thinner ice with the Latin than I am with the numbers)
Posted by boynton at January 4, 2005 11:59 PM

"...think I'm on thinner ice with the Latin..."

None the less, my Aunt is very grateful for your kind offer of a bicycle pump.
Posted by Nabakov at January 5, 2005 12:20 AM

That Aunt gets around, doesn't she.

(she of the disengaged wheel)

This is all very coincidental. Have a post
'on ice' about Latin and vehicles. That will be 1001.
Posted by boynton at January 5, 2005 12:30 AM

"C’est magnifique ma tante, mais ce n’est pas le pumpe de bicyclette de Martin Guerre." - Gérard Depardieu.
Posted by Sedgwick at January 5, 2005 08:52 AM

http://photos1.flickr.com/482664_5c988eff87_m.jpg

Congratulations boyn!
Posted by Link at January 5, 2005 11:24 AM

mmmm-merci Link.

My connection just slowed to an escargot pace, so could not post this reply to Sedge as L'AGB might say:
Montez vos velos (Oi - que vous divisez en lots)


Posted by boynton at January 5, 2005 12:33 PM

Well done Boynton on some very good posts among the M. I have enjoyed the occasional read, and am still stuck trying to solve some of the puzzles you have introduced me to. Looking forward to many more.
Posted by Phlip at January 5, 2005 05:59 PM

Thanks Philip.
Still haven't restored the Java so have not explored those Puzzles. But have glanced at them elsewhere and they look intriguing.
Posted by boynton at January 5, 2005 06:30 PM

foreign lands

Great post about the past and a discussion on narrative history in the comments at Dock of The Bay The Past is a Foreign Country

Similar terrain from a foreign land: Fragments - From Floyd A Shrine To Memory


Comments: foreign lands

Things rust differently there.
Posted by Nabakov at January 4, 2005 10:23 PM

over uber

I notice that über is in the Lake Superior State University
2005 List of Banished Words (via bifurcated rivets)

ÃœBER – Nominated by many over the past few years, including Paul Freedman, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. “Since when has this become a prefix for everything? That’s über-rific!” – Lolina, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
“…Everything that is big, amazing, unique is described as über.” – Sue, Colorado Springs, Co.


Yesterday I had a referrer searching for Mere Boynton. Perhaps mere is the new uber.


Comments: over uber

I've read a lot of history of the Third Reich and terms like 'uber-leutnant' are used to denote a rank above.

The prefix was co-opted recently by the computer community to distinguish between a run-of-the-mill geek and a super-geek. The term 'uber-geek' was born.

From there it was all downhill as it fell into common usage (and, dare I say it, abusage).
Posted by David Furst at January 8, 2005 12:05 AM

In my copy of Wahrig Deutsches Wörterbuch I stopped counting the über- prefix at 507. Hard to imagine the Germans getting excited by the English words “over”, “greater” or even “super” but to the English ear, there’s nothing like a good umlaut u to wrap your lips around, eh? Erhalten Sie über es! Ãœber! Ãœber! Ãœber! Ãœber!
Posted by Norabone at January 8, 2005 02:54 PM

David, I agree about the uberabusage, although I know nothin about geekery.

I guess "run-of-the-mill sportingpundit" didn't have the same ring to it, but I imagine that Scott (master of the domain) was being po-mo (old fashioned: tongue in cheek) in his abüsage.
btw - might need the advice of a super-geek re ADSL soon.

Nora: Umlauts are certainly easier to pronounce than to publish here. Keep forgetting the um ...ü code
Posted by boynton at January 8, 2005 04:48 PM

Monday, January 03, 2005

100 things

100 things we didn't know this time last year

36. One in five British homes has a foot spa, although mostly they lie idle, among more than £3bn of "useless gadgets" to be found in UK homes, according to insurance firm Esure.

(via *.*)


Comments: 100 things

I wonder if I learnt 100 things last year? If not I can always come here and catch up.
Posted by Link at January 3, 2005 10:37 PM

65. "Square eyes" might be real - Australian researchers have found that children who spend a long time inside watching television or on computers become more susceptible to short-sightedness.
Posted by nb at January 3, 2005 11:09 PM

I've had an inkling about a few things, Link.
Like foot spas.
Potato peelers, on the other hand, was news to me.

Sorry, nb?

E
CB
DLN
PTER
FZBDE
GOOGLE
Posted by boynton at January 4, 2005 11:39 AM

I probably forgot 100 things last year.

I'll always remember John B Priestley's middle name, though.
Posted by Tony.T at January 4, 2005 12:51 PM

Hmm - Was it Bronte?

I can't remember if we had the collective noun for Rhinos at Trivia before?
(some pub trivia just crashes through)
Think we may have had #47 before - I'll remember in 10 milliseconds.

You can delegate all UK foot spa questions to me henceforth.
Posted by boynton at January 4, 2005 01:12 PM

Oh c'mon. All that stuff is pretty much common knowledge.

Although I'd argue from personal experience that the number of people killed by falling tombstones in the UK is grossly underrated.

Also, who or what is a "Scooby Doo"?
Posted by Nabakov at January 4, 2005 10:17 PM

I think a Scooby Doo is more of a Where.
Posted by boynton at January 4, 2005 11:30 PM

http://www.magictrade.dk/images/kort/mirage/Crash%20of%20Rhinos.jpg
Posted by yobbo at January 6, 2005 07:40 PM

Love is also like a rhino 'cos it gives you the horn?

Certainly many great love affairs seem to have been executed on the principle of crash through or crash.

Or in my case, crash out.
Posted by Nabakov at January 6, 2005 11:46 PM

Thanks Yob, for the adage.
An advatnage at Trivia.

Just as well it wasn't a "prickle of hedgehogs"
"a bed of oyssters" of "A rhumba of rattlesnakes", eh? ;)

Dunno about Love, but just took a crash-course in collective nouns there. A google of something.
Posted by boynton at January 7, 2005 07:09 PM

Sunday, January 02, 2005

chainwheel



Many say chainwheel, some speak of crankwheels, or front sprockets. Others call them stars, plates, and rings...

Chainrings must be as round as humanly possible, close to a perfect circle, Pi, the number 3.14159265...


Chainwheel Archive Gallery (via Daily Jive)


Comments: chainwheel

Chainrings. Pshaw!

I'm a Hinge and Bracket man.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/h/hingeandbracket_1299001477.shtml

BTW boynts. Happy New Year. (Or as me mate Vincent might say ... though I certainly wouldn't, but AGB probably would ... "Happy Hewn Ear".)
Posted by Sedgwick at January 3, 2005 06:14 AM

The bigger the better
Posted by kent at January 3, 2005 10:35 AM

you de-linked me
http://www.fixedwheel.co.uk/Image1.jpg
Posted by kent at January 3, 2005 10:35 AM

Not to mention Cranks and Bolts...

Hew Nose what AGB would say, but Happy Hewn Ear to you too
Posted by boynton at January 3, 2005 10:39 AM

Cross-commenting there, Kent.

The above comment is directed to Sedge, of course.

Gosh - that sprockety pi takes the cake.
A 3-wheeler, not a bicycle.
A picycle?
Posted by boynton at January 3, 2005 10:45 AM

nb - realised I had linked to wrong gallery there - (rings instead of wheels) Have adjusted my chain links.
Posted by boynton at January 3, 2005 10:51 AM

Oi! You lot! On your bikes!
Posted by Tony.T at January 3, 2005 08:07 PM

3rd man

I picked up The 3rd Man for 2.49 at JB over Xmas

as you do. And just watched it for the 1st time in x years. Now I have that zither stuck in my head again.

Karl Hartl, the film's Vienna producer had invited the film crew to a typical Viennese "Heuriger" wine tavern before work started, Anton Karas' play on the zither hypnotized Reed at once. His music, exactly synchronized with the film sequences-especially the "Harry Lime Theme" which sounded hypernervous, schmaltzy and dangerous at the same time-became part of film legend... source

 
Because the music is so unusual and evocative it can be difficult to describe. The brilliant American critic Manny Farber, for example, writing in The Nation (1 April 1950) resorted to a weird, striking image: the music "hits one's consciousness like a cloudburst of needles". However it's described, the zither score of The Third Man is a unique piece of film music, which manages to create a vivid world all of its own. Sometimes it accentuates the dramatic action, at others it acts like a kind of ironic commentary, alleviating tension...source.


Something to do on the 2nd day of 05. Play it on guitar in lieu of autoharp.


Comments: 3rd man

My all time favourite film for a bargain price. Well that or the Karate Kid 2.
Posted by Flute at January 2, 2005 04:48 PM

Hey Mr Flute. I remembered you saying so at Blogger's cafe do. Was even going to make a cheap shot about daily zithers - but it didn't quite work.
I thought it was fab. Enjoyed it much more than when I first saw it. I'm sufficiently 'impassive' now, I guess, and the final scene makes impassive sense.
Haven't seen KK 1 or 2.
Posted by boynton at January 2, 2005 04:59 PM

It's a fine film with an enduring message for us all.

Don't run with pointy zithers!
Posted by Sedgwick at January 3, 2005 09:56 AM

Just walk on by

Cut
Posted by boynton at January 3, 2005 10:33 AM

Martin Carthy has a great guitar version on his latest album, Waiting for Angels. (Neither of which seem prepared to link to this comment).
Posted by Dick at January 3, 2005 11:14 AM

Cheers, Dick. I read about it yesterday - "The 1st Link" in Google for 'Harry Lime Theme'. Think I'll be seeking the album.

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/martin.carthy/songs/theharrylimetheme.html

(I disabled HTML in comments very early on here - but it didn't seem to deter the spammers - so may restore it)
Posted by boynton at January 3, 2005 11:28 AM

Lots of great moments, I usually start going on about it after beer 7 so it must have been a good night.
Posted by Flute at January 4, 2005 11:00 PM