Minimal

Get in there, my son!

I love a bit of righteous indignation — v-2 sticks the boot into anti-piracy measures by the music industry.

Shafted

At first, when I read this Leeds fan’s anger at his football club’s plight, I had a bit of a laugh. Schadenfreude struck. When I stop and think about it, however, I’m a lot more inclined to sympathy. Those in power at Elland Road have truly shafted the club and its supporters. I’d be every bit as upset if the same had happened at St James’. The poor sods. At least Sunderland are going to save them from being relegated.

Spiritual leader?

I see Gazza has finally found his level in world football: a relegation-bound side in the Chinese second division. Somewhat incredibly, he has been recruited as player, assistant coach and — get this — spiritual leader. No shit. Well, at least he has expertise in one kind of spirits. As for the place itself, I’ve heard it’s a large urban sprawl with more than its fair share of wasteland and the worst pollution of any city in China. But then, he’s played for Middlesbrough before, so he should feel right at home. ;)

Non-visualisation

Acts of Volition has an excellent article on it today about the semantic web. The article itself is interesting enough, raising many points that I’ve encountered planning the intranet at work, but the first reply to the article is the best bit of the piece. How do you make a semantically-tilted editor that hides markup from the author without introducing an apparently WYSIWYG nature? Tricky. Very tricky.

Say hello, wave goodbye

Now that the Mini has arrived, I’ve got a car to sell, and a beauty at that.

Ford Puma 1.7i, T-reg (May 99), silver, 52000 miles, full Ford service history, luxury pack, climate pack, 4 months’ MOT, new tyres all round, new brakes, absolutely adored. I’ve yet to decide on the price, but if you want to make me an offer, go for it.

Out of sight, out of mind

We really are a disgrace at times, aren’t we? :(

Today’s the day

Need I say more? :)

Renzo Piano

I’ll admit it: I don’t know much about architecture. Yes, I’m often fascinated by the beauty and scale of it, especially modern stuff, but I’ve never gone out of my way to study it. Every now and then, however, something crops up in the news that makes me sit up, pay attention, and — for a short while, at least — dig deeper.

A few weeks back, Channel 4 News had a piece on it about Renzo Piano, an architect who, I’ve since discovered, has quite an impressive portfolio. His previous work includes a wide range of modern buildings, from the Pompidou Centre in Paris to the San Nicola stadium in Bari, and Kansai International Airport in Osaka to Ferrari’s high-tech wind tunnel at Maranello. All very impressive, all very modern. The building on which Channel 4 were reporting, however, was a new church nearing completion in Italy.

When we think of great architecture and churches, we tend to look to centuries past — times when you could get the money and labour for such monumental buildings as Durham Cathedral and countless other marvels around the country and, indeed, the world. To see a modern church being built that’s every bit as spectacular, and yet very definitely modern, is therefore quite a surprise. The Basilica of San Giovanni Rotondo, near Foggia in Italy is nothing short of stunning. I just wish there were a few more pictures of it on the web. :/

Decisions, decisions

I’ve been thinking lately that the posts to this site have been getting a bit stale. I need a new slant, a new direction. I just can’t decide which of the following articles’ advice I should heed:

1. 10 tips on writing the living web — alistapart.com
2. How to write like a wanker — infernus.net

Hmmm, I wonder...

Snuff it!

Ever heard of a dead pool? I hadn’t till a couple of weeks ago, but now I could be in the money if any of the following snuff it this year:

• Alistair Cooke
• Ian Brady
• Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair
• Pete Townshend
• Ned Beatty
• Holly Johnson
• David Beckham
• Michael Barrymore
• Henry Kissinger
• Gore Vidal
• Fidel Castro
• Sid Caesar

Actually, I wouldn’t put it past Barrymore topping himself this year — things aren’t exactly going too well for him at the moment. Castro must be getting on a bit now, too. Obviously, if I’d picked this lot myself, the Pope would be top of the list, but I didn’t — they’re randomly allocated in the pool I’m playing.

Yes, I know it’s incredibly sick, but it’s just a laugh. I don’t really want these people to pop their clogs — especially not if it’s going to harm England’s chances of qualifying for Euro 2004. Actually, maybe I should have kept my gob shut on the whole thing — seems you can get in bother for it. :)

Double-take

Is it just me, or was that Renault Clio advert starring Thierry Henry shot at the reconstructed Barcelona Pavilion? If it is set in Mies van der Rohe’s modern(ist) masterpiece, I’m staggered I’ve not noticed before. If it isn’t, just forget I said anything — I’m only going on fuzzy memories, honest. :)

Grown up

I’m twenty-eight today. I never normally mention my birthdays, but this one feels different. For the first time, I feel grown up. Twenty-seven just felt like I was getting worryingly close to thirty (worrying because I was still single — indeed, I still am), but twenty-eight just feels comfortably old and yet young at the same time. I like it. :)

Bad lad

Last night, I went kerb-crawling and picked up a prostitute. I drove to a secluded location and got my end away. As soon as she got out of the car after the act, I got out and killed her, taking my money back. Feeling much better, I then went for a drive. I was involved in numerous hit-and-run accidents in which I killed at least 6 people. My car was a bit beaten up by now, so I got out and car-jacked a Lamborghini. There was a policeman onto me by this point, so I kicked him to death and nicked his gun and truncheon. This didn’t go down too well with his colleagues — I had to get my (stolen) car re-sprayed to get away. Finally, to round off a great evening, I nicked some sucker’s superbike and pulled wheelies all the way home.

Of course, I was just playing Vice City on the Playstation. Would I do any of that stuff in real life? Don’t be stupid. Do I even think it’s acceptable? Get real. So why do people moan on and on about games like this corrupting society? Answer: they’re idiots, albeit well-meaning ones.

Phoenix from the flames

On the 5th September 2000, someone set fire to Cale Cross House in Newcastle. Sat at the North end of the Tyne Bridge, Cale Cross was one of the tallest office blocks in the city. It was also one of the least architecturally inspiring, being little more than a 17-floor square, black peg rising up from the quayside.

For nearly 2 years after the fire, the building sat empty, all of its previous occupants long since chucked out due to the offices being badly smoke damaged. Last year though, the building’s owners took it upon themselves to renovate the place, just as had recently been tried with the still-hideous Cuthbert House. Up went the scaffolding, up went the protective plastic sheeting around it, and off came the black metal cladding to a deafening soundtrack of angle-grinders. Rumour had it that the building was merely being re-clad in fresh shiny metal and I have to say, I really thought they were trying to polish a turd.

6 months later, the upper floors are now beginning to emerge from behind the plastic curtains and I’m stunned. It actually looks quite good. Same structure, same shape, same windows, but with shiny silver and turquoise cladding. It must’ve taken a brave architect / designer to suggest the change, but it looks like it might just work. Wonders may never cease. :)

Ce-le-brate good times, COME ON!

What’s that you say? The Spanish Sponger has finally been taken off the Newcastle United payroll? About bloody time. Goodbye and good riddance, Martha.

Statistically speaking

Just got my site stats working again after about 6 months of having none. Much to my surprise, it appears the 7days7cars part of the site — something that’s been dormant for most of the last 6 months — is the most popular overall. Even more surprising is that the Focus ST170 review is the most popular page therein. It’s not even as if I gave it much of a write-up. I suspect Google has got a lot to answer for here. :)

Faired income, mate!

Just how incredibly cool is this? Australia is planning to build a tower rising a kilometre into the sky, generating electricity from solar power. Not from your traditional solar cells, mind you — from wind:

The 200 megawatt solar tower, which will cost A$ 1 billion ($563 million) to build, will be of a similar width to a football field and will stand in the centre of a massive glass roof spanning seven kilometres in diameter.

Despite its size, the technology is simple - the sun heats air under the glass roof, which slopes upwards from three metres at its outer perimeter to 25 metres at the tower base.

As the hot air rises, a powerful updraft is also created by the tower that allows air to be continually sucked through 32 turbines, which spin to generate power 24 hours a day.

Sounds absolutely awesome. I can’t wait to see it. :)

Update: the official site has more details.

Most irritating?

I don’t know who voted for the worst adverts of 2002. While they may have got the winner right (or should that be loser?), some of the others in the top 12 seem rather misplaced. How could the Ikea “Live Life Unlimited” adverts possibly come third? They’re sheer genius cunningly disguised as insanity. As for the Capital One credit card adverts coming 11th — I would’ve said they were in direct competition with the Lotto for top spot.

Anyway, enough of this negativity — what were the best adverts of 2002? As hinted above, Ikea would figure strongly in my list. Alongside them would be the perfectly pitched ads for the Honda Jazz. (It's not all rosy for Honda, mind — that “What If” advert was a shocker.) Other car manufacturers got in on the quality commercial scene too, with Skoda continuing its strong brand reinvention and the VW Passat getting the gentle humour treatment.

A good number of other adverts contained more humour than your average 30-minute sitcom, too. The Adidas “Footballitis” campaign shown during the World Cup went down well, as did the Virgin Mobile ads starring Wyclef Jean and the locker-room Phones4U advert. Let’s not forget the perenially humourous beer commercials, either. Carling produced the odd decent ad, most notably their “Frustrating” one, but John Smith’s probably wins my final vote with its series of ads featuring Peter Kay. ‘Ave it!

You know, I don't know why I bothered linking to those corporate sites. You’re more likely to be interested in the streaming video in the Guardian’s Creative Lounge.

New year, new layout

After threatening to put the permalist further to right nearly 2½ months ago, I’ve finally managed it. Admittedly, I’ve had to sacrifice one or two things on the way, but it pretty much works (Netscape/Mozilla/Phoenix/K'meleon/etc users may need to reload the page). Give me a shout if you spot any problems. Cheers.

And before I forget, Happy New Year!