Antispin

What on earth possessed the driver of my coach to London to flip on the air conditioning when it’s -3 outside? Aberdeen was, as usual, lots of fun. Despite our main gig being cancelled last minute, a productive time was had! We made jelly, watched films, caught up with people, entertained some randoms and generally had a good giggle. Now my mouth is missing its lining after the boiling hot tea I had to ingest to get warm at a service station. ...

Nick over at Playpoi posted this and I think ’tis awesome :)

A friend linked this and it’s a brilliant idea! Drawing 3D light paintings using a long-exposure photograph and an iPad. Note that I’m not saying “OMGOMGOMGOMG THE IPAD IS AWESUM GET OEN NOW!!1!”. However, what these guys did is bloody clever!

Kev from Spinning@ kindly donated some more music to my repository of ‘things I listen to when I do stuff’. It’s fairly extensive. The genre in question is Electro Swing. From what I can gather from listening, it’s a delicious fusion of splendid dancy jazzy swing and machines and synth noises. It really is something special and a lot of fun Here’s a sample!

So I’ve been thinking about our government – the UK that is – and the ways of policymakers in general of late.. It strikes me that we’re now stuck in an age where the old guard who ‘survived the [crisis of your choice] in [the 19xx’s]’ claim to know what is best for the country because in their opinion, environment and mindset, age equals experience. While in some cases it’s true and age can certainly mean greater experience in life and so forth, it’s no use if the experience is wrong or, worse still, outdated. ...

I’ve been turned on to this rather excellent blog on all things fun, exciting and non-traditional by a wonderful friend of mine. One of the articles I came across resonates particularly with me as I’m in the process of exploring communication and how it can be a great force for good in relationships. I mean that in every sense of the word, not just romantic, stars-in-the-eyes, oh-god-my-stomach-is-a-flutter way. Here’s a quick excerpt: ...

Watch these two videos. They are incredibly insightful and enlightening. I honestly cannot say any more in their praise!

As promised, I’ve taken Corinne’s burn clips, performed unholy magics upon them and now we have this! Enjoy!!

After my lovely trip up to the Frozen North to catch up with friends long absent I brought back tunes, videos and stories! So firstly, massive thanks to my perpetually happy friend Corinne, I’ve been introduced to Blogotheque which has lots of delicious, crunchy and smooth music from all manner of artists on. Here’s one that I love especially As well as discovering new music, Corinne, Cat and I got to geek out over poi for about 6 odd hours which was many different kinds of fun. ...

I love Scotland. One of the last bastions standing tall against the black tides of Poltical Correctness.

Ok, so as I mentioned in my previous post on the topic – I made some lovely new Tornado wicks (so called after the Tornado weave that is used to make them), following Jez’s instructions on the topic and with some modifications that Alien Jon and I came up with. On Sunday I got the chance to play with them alight and after some fairly heavy thrashing I can now post a pretty balanced review. ...

Saw this on The Oatmeal – yet another case of sea-dwelling mammals being slandered and abused for our entertainment. However, it is quite amusing. Compound-eye walrus sees EVERYTHING!Seriously, don’t fuck with Compound-eye walrus. That dude’s a badass.

A friend introduced me to this rather awesome band whose only instrument is the drums. They do covers of popular metal songs. Watch this one first to get an idea for what the song’s like: Then take a look at the Van Canto cover: Pure awesome, I think you’ll agree!

The backstory So for a while I’ve been researching into making some new fire poi heads to replace my HoP 90mm monkeyfist heads that I got from Alien Jon. The monkeys are great but they’re heavy and because they’re spherical, they tend to smack into one another frequently which annoys me somewhat. Added to which, they have a massive I-bolt embedded in the core and the eyelet of the bolt is absolutely enormous – about 30mm across. ...

Nick Woolsey of Playpoi posted this video on his blog and I thought I’d share. It’s a clip of a Thai guy making ice tea in the flow style! Enjoy!

Take good care of my baby Oh don’t you ever make her cry Just let your love surround her Paint a rainbow all around her Don’t let her see a cloudy sky This tune popped into my head a couple of days ago and I’ve been thinking about it. The whole ‘care’ thing – fine. Caring for one’s child and loving your offspring is what makes us human and it’s perfectly natural. ...

October’s garden party was magical, crazy and exciting! Also, there was fire and pretty lights and awesome people. Skins shot some pictures – check them out here: Skins’ Blog. Here’s a sampler! Opposite 3-petal antispins!We all wore “Carpe Awesome” tshirts to celebrate Burning Dan’s awesomeness too! Videos will undoubtedly come soon!

TEDTalks has a rather fascinating talk on how the Internet is driving innovation in communities that span continents. Well worth a look