Perfect for a nice stroll around Hyde Park, or a spot of shopping, or general gawking in Covent Garden. I did a lot of each recently....
I saw this on the streets - the good old red buses again! Mayor Boris Johnson apparently started an initiative to get them back again. Well done him. However, the most reliable mode of transport is always going to be the Underground.
Covent Garden is quite possibly the funnest bit of London - there's something for everyone: shopping, weird street performances ranging from magic shows to opera singing, awesome restaurants, bars, clubs, etc etc etc.
Here are some regular sights:
Man in Gold Bikini Rides the Crazy-High Unicycle act. Always gets a huge crowd. He does this regardless of season, pity him when it's freezing and he's prancing about in his gold bikini thing.
Mr I Am Going to Throw a Playing Card Onto That Far Roof. Does random bits of magic in between, altogether very entertaining because of his showmanship rather than skill in magic. He DOES throw the card some ridiculous distance onto a roof though, so respect to him. That's him flicking the card some crazy distance, in a cool(ish) hold-my-hat pose.
Various 'Statue Buskers'. This is where they stand around and pretend to be mythical creatures or statues. Here are two of my favourite in a rare having-a-chat situation: Hunky Orc and Quiet Tinman.
Hunky Orc normally stands on a pedestal and snarls at passers-by, usually gets a load of giggly girls and for some reason gets a LOT of attention. I've always wanted to put my camera under his loin-cloth type thing and snap a picture just to see what he'd do.
Quiet Tinman is one of my favourites just because he's the most statuesque of the lot! A lot of them don't even look like statues but Quiet Tinman on the best of days looks exactly like a bronze statue of a tired worker.
Of course, if the weather's hot you can always have a soft ice-cream from the many vans. with Cadbury Flake in them. Awesome.
To summarise, get out when the weather is good. Cos it's going to be crap the next day.
[Update: apparently the Junkie Munkie design is a symbiotogram, not an ambigram. ...OK somehow I get the vibe that no one cares. Anyway I care, slightly.]
I was gonna convert this into an awesome comp card for Jay, but I've been so busy over the weekend (Korean BBQs, friends' birthdays and so on, you know :) ), so I didn't really have any time. However, I did design something and I didn't want it to go to waste, so here it is, another ambigram (previous ambigrams here):
Apologies for the really 'dirty' image - I'm rubbish at cleaning up images digitally, and my scanner ain't that good (or I can't work it good, same difference). If someone could volunteer to clean it for me that would be great!
Here's a logo I designed over the week - drawn in hand and then scanned using a lousy-ass scanner, therefore the resolution of the words aren't so good.
To see what's cool about this logo you'd have to view it upside down. Here, let me help. Thoughts?
Interesting past few weeks in London and elsewhere......this is a quick photo-upload post, more to come later!
Weird things noticed in the past few weeks
1. The flattest flat I have ever seen
Is this, or is this not, the flattest thing you have ever seen. I would so like to visit someone living in this thing. Spotted this while walking in Chelsea, unfortunately I saw this when I was late to lunch, and it was all the way over some bothersome fence or another so I didn't go check it out further.
2. Bars of gold...as doorstoppers
Proof that Chelsea residents are filthy rich. They are not satisfied wiping their ass and lighting their cigars with bank notes, so now here's a solid gold bar as a doorstop!
3. Milk carton jug
This one's just fun. Such an awesome design for a milk jug! Also in a Chelsea shop.
Finally, a dildo shower-head
This is the shower head of a hotel I stayed in recently.
It's smooth, polished and hard. Good for showers.
The dildo-shower in 'action'. Ahem.
That being said, I actually didn't like using it. Sure it looks funky, but it's disorienting as I always locate the water jet direction by feeling the shower-head (e.g. when your eyes are full of soap). With this you obviously can't.
Hanis the Manis recently designed her own banner at her blog, and invited others to have a shot at it. Here's my 5-minute attempt. Hanis, if you're interested, drop me a word and I'll tailor it to your taste... :)
[Update] I've incorporated Hanis' suggestions, will do the other later :) You like?
I'm flying off to another city next week - will try and take lots of photos when I get back! Meanwhile, a quick Google Image search yielded these wonderful photos.....
No one responded, largely. However, Jerad Solomon, of which MDG was his brainchild (it's MDG that's the brainchild people, not Jerad!), was kind enough to reply.
"For the last time, I'm not the brainchild, MDG is my brainchild...!!!"
Anyways, if you've read my email, this is what he had to say.
Hello.
Thank you for your comments and detailed analysis of our show.
Best regards,
Jerad Solomon
I was like, 'that's it?' Damn sien weh, I write so long he one sentence done already. I a bit mm kam wan can. I decided to prod him a bit more - I really wanted to know what he thought about it. I replied:
....Thanks for replying. Do you have any comments at all regarding my email though? I'm interested in knowing what you think, as someone who created the show, and is very close to the production process (and subsequently the complications not privy to viewers). My thoughts are just from a viewers angle, and thus it would be very refreshing to have a 'backstage' viewpoint.
Nothing happened. I was puzzled. I'm sure many people email them regarding MDG, but I had hoped that mine was serious enough for them to properly respond to it - I mean, it's hardly of the angry email genre at all which I think would form the majority of the MDG email demographic....
I decided to politely follow up with him a little more. I wrote:
I am still awaiting further comments on my thoughts - please let me know what you think. Which points you feel make sense, or conversely are totally nonsensical? Which ones may have potential for implementation for Season 2?
I am genuinely interested to hear what you think, I await your reply.
This time, I had a response a few days later. He replied:
While we appreciate your thoughts and comments, unfortunately we are unable to address each mail we receive on a personal level. Many of the points you raised have actually already been considered by our team. The rest we will keep in mind for the next season. The formula we eventually adopt will be one that best balances ideals, constraints and commercial factors.
Once again thank you for your time and interest in our show. We hope to hear from you again in the future.
Best regards,
Jerad Solomon
You bet you'll hear from me in the future. :) Probably not the immediate future though, I give up on this particular email tirade for the moment - I'm just going to assume they're going to clean up their act somewhat for Season 2 seeing they have less budget constraints and uncertainties.
Anyways, so yeah that's as far as I got, sorry for not getting a more thought-provoking response.
Following on from my previous SATC post, here is the summary of my adventure in Leicester Square's Odeon Cinema today....
I was occasionally looking at the live feed on Leicester Square to check on this, when at about 12pm I noticed a rather large group already formed in front of Odeon, so I decided to set out.
There was already a respectable queue at the cinema. I managed to be in the '4th row' upon arrival, which was a pathetic showing relative to my expectations considering the time of the day I arrived. But some of them had already arrived since 8am.
These people come with deck-chairs and picnics and supplies ok. Professional. I looked around to get a rough demographic of the crowd - 95% bimbo girls, 4% gay guys, 100% insane.
My spot, however, was perfect - directly in front of the main entrance. Although there were at least 3 people in front of me. I slowly tried to move to the front, and managed to get to 3rd row, but that was the best I could do. These girls are adamant.
Then journalists came to ask us some blah questions, who's your favourite character, are you a shopaholic, what items do you like the most, what designer...
Don't you think this cameraman looks a bit like David Beckham?
Apparently this hostess is in 'Balls of Steel', I've yet to verify that. I love that show!
Jane McDonald from Loose Women. If you're going WTF, don't worry, I didn't know her either.
A print journalist then came asking some of the front row questions. I sneaked a peek at the notepad of the journalist and I was like !!!!!!! Look at her writing - it's all unrecognizable squiggly code. It looks like some Arabic text to be honest.
And bam, out of nowhere, some bikini girls started handing out leaflets for tanning salons. They were told off pretty quickly and left, but they got all the construction dudes setting the place up excited for the first time - they even started snapping pictures, haha.
And then Gok Wan (from How to Look Good Naked) came on! The crowd went fairly berserk at this point, and loads of them screamed for Gok to come over. But Gok was there to interview the Fab Four, so he didn't mingle with fans. At one point one crazy fan went "GOK! COME HERE NOW!" and he went "I'm workinggggg" like Gok only can.
The crowd grew bigger.
Some were tired but didn't want to move from their place, and so chose to sit down. I was gonna try that at some point but suddenly realised a fatal weakness in that strategy - you are ass level to everyone else. Like this.
Fart much?
All thingamajiggies were pretty much set up by 5.30ish.
At this point there was some crazy screaming going on at the far end, and the whispers began - Sarah Jessica Parker has arrived! The screaming was phenomenal - you could easily deduce where she was even if you couldn't see her, as the screaming just followed her. Can you see her in the distance in the green dress and hat?
I could also see Kim Catrall in the distance - in a red dress.
We were all craning our heads to get a better look, and then the Sugababes came over to our place.
Are they the Sugababes? I have no clue. Hahahahahaha.
And Vivienne Westwood as well - she signed a few autographs but didn't really mingle that much. She didn't look all that well to be honest.
Then the SATC stars started coming our way!!! Yay, cue the theme song!!!!
We were still focusing on SJP and Kim when Mario Cantone (Anthony, Charlotte's gay best friend) appeared pretty much right in front of us.
I forgot his real name so I just yelled 'ANTHONEEEEEEEH!!!' and he signed my book.
And damn if he didn't take up pretty much the whole page.
He must be thinking 'Nyahahaha, you girls can hog the spotlight, but I'll be damned if I don't hog ALL the good spots in the autograph spaces!!' Eeeesh.
And then OMG Cynthia Nixon was upon us, in a floor-length, low-cut pleated black Calvin Klein dress. And reportedly £200,000 worth of jewels. I certainly didn't notice that many things dripping off her neck/wrists.
There was just a host of CYNTHIA, CYNTHIA, CYNTHIA all the time she was near us. She was very polite and nice, but didn't come near my place, so I failed to get her autograph... Gok then whisked her away for an interview.
Then the almighty Kim Cattrall came over for a bit, wearing a red off-the-shoulder knee-length dress with a faint stripe by Vivienne Westwood.
This time the crowd went fairly insane. The girl in front of me went totally bimbo-mode - she'd look at her friend and go 'OMG it's Kim!' and they'd both scream at each other. Awesome, never seen hyper-bimbs before. Kim didn't get to our place as well though, but she went 'I'll be right back, okay?' and a honest-to-God Samantha wink. OMG I didn't know she talked like that in real life too.
And then she came back later and signed my book. Cue picture of her signing my book:
But my damn pen ran out of ink halfway through her signature so I have a half inked, half scratched autograph by Kim Catrall. Limited edition ok.
And then Kristin Davis, the cutest of the lot in a cherry-red vintage sleeveless dress and cream peep-toe heels, came over.
She was bubbly just like Charlotte - when we saw her we screamed, and she did her Charlotte-big-eyes thing and went 'AAAAAAA!!' back as well. I got her autograph right away!
Sarah Jessica Parker then was on the scene, wearing a pale green Alexander McQueen frock, with bag and stilettos, and a peacock feather Philip Treacy hat (which has attracted some controversy, but for the record I loved it immediately - it looks good on her), but she was quite surrounded by cameramen and photographers, so didn't really get to talk to her at first - she hung around agonisingly long before coming at us!
The girls then held hands and walked as a group to be photographed by the worlds photographers. Be flashed with the light of a million flashbulbs.
At this point they broke up and signed more autographs, but they were already starting to go in. SJP was the last, waving goodbye and motioning 'I haaaave to go in....', before disappearing and posing in front of more photographers.
Tally of the day: 1 back, fairly sore, hurts to cough 2 damn tired legs 2 aching feet, 6 hours standing, of which 1 hours tiptoeing 1 fairly nice bag, trampled somewhat 1 camera battery, from full to flat 1 throat, severely hoarse and parched 1 head, aching 1 set of hair, full of tree seed type things that only came out after washing a lot
Coups of the day: 4 autographs, sans Cynthia Nixon Numerous photos, of which most you just saw Viewing the Fab Four in person Didn't get to see Chris Noth (Mr Big), Madga, Jerry Lewis (Smith Jerrod) et al, but oh well. Lucky people in New York But got to see lots of other random celebrities, highlights Gok Wan, Vivienne Westwood, Sugababes, Cheryl Cole (I think) and Nelly (I think) And knowledge of the fact that I was behind them when they took this eternal picture:
More pictures will come as my friends send me theirs!!!!
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