Threave Castle
This place is only about 45 minutes' drive from where I live. It's a pretty awesome place - you can read the history of it in the last post.

Grass vs. Man
At Threave Castle on Saturday,they had this fake grass matting to stop the natural grass getting wrecked by all the foot traffic during winter. There was just this one little spot where grass was staging an escape attempt. I could imagine it with little wire snips at night, cutting through the nylon to be free.

Hot Air
God, do I want to see this film? I love a good doco about people who are passionate about something. Especially if it's something totally fucked. I confess I'm crap at air guitar, always have been and hope to always be. Mind you, I'm crap at real guitar too. I'm partial to a batter on the air piano (favourites - Ray Charles and Otis Spann) and am an absolutely spellbinding air drummer if I know the tune well. One of my favourite air drum tunes, by coincidence, is in fact by Air - it's "Dead Bodies" the drum solo tune from the Virgin Suicides score soundtrack. I'm not the least ashamed to say I've played that tune alone at a very high volume level and exhausted myself just rockin the air kit, in fact. What other air instruments do people master, I wonder? thanks to TSO for the link - you're awesome

Bovine Pop Haircut I met a cow yesterday that wanted to be Thom Yorke. She had that rough n' ready, studiedly tousled pop singer haircut that may or may not have been cut with a rusty knife that's been found in an abandoned farm building. I quite liked it. On a cow.
Thom Yorke just looks like a prick.

McDonald's Levels
McDonalds' new labeling system had us in stitches yesterday. Is the new objective to make it so indecipherable as to make the eater give up entirely and chomp with abandon in utter ignorance. For example, my own interpretation of the system diagram on the back of my Big Mac (my first since before Christmas, I'm proud to add) is this:

The Top Line is actually The Bottom Line - calories - they just tell you "this shit will make you fat as fuck, but do you care?" This much I understand.

Line Two: appears to suggest either a Firewire connection speed rating of 39% or that it contains 39% radioactive waste material.

Line three: Take your waist size now, in inches and add 36% - that's the size of trousers you'll need to get used to asking for as of tomorrow.

Line Four: your minimum speed loss, post-mastication. (e.g. if right now your top footspeed is 10mph at a trot, knock off 0.15mph tomorrow)

Line Five: Footballing skill retardation - the average player of the grand old game's accuracy will have decreased by 40% in total after eating this sandwich. (e.g. Just three Big Macs and Roy Keane or would never work again)

A helpful Ronnie McD, on the left there appears fairly full of the joys of saturated fats and is jumping for vicarious joy at your reduction in results in life. Quite what the little monochrome nursey/matron figure in a small circle beside the calorie amount at the top line suggests, I dare not consider for too long, given the graphic nature of the rest of the information given.

LastFM I've joined the LastFM (must read that sometime) revolution and suggest you, or the tune fans amongst you, do likewise. This is the link to the tunes that Last FM thinks I'll like - it's pretty accurate at times. I'm still not that sure what all it does but am working on it. All's I know is there's heaps of music, good music and you can listen (without owning) for free. If any of you get into it, add me as a friend and let's spy on each other's musical pecadilloes. I'm JeepsterFive-O

Old Joy

This film his highly recommended by Newsoup. A calm, subtle whispered suggestion that perhaps things are a little too loud in the world today, a little too busy, and that the things that are really important are not so very far away or out of reach. 8/10

Parkour
Have you heard about Parkour? I came across it only because apparently it features in some recent movie with Jude Law and though I’ve not sought out details, it seems to be cropping up with increasing regularity. It’s like urban gymnastics – not really extreme sports but a real extreme art, in my opinion. There’s this video doing the rounds – (give it 'till about a minute and a half in - it's worth the wait) a promo for a gang called Dvinsk Clan who seem to be a Parkour outfit from the former USSR somewhere. It follows one young guy jumping around an abandoned apartment building to a really god hip hop track that I’m sorry, I can’t trace the name of. Anyway, if you type in “parkour” to Youtube, there are heaps of examples.

I find it fascinating to watch, although ostensibly it may sem rather unspectacular, but just think while you watch it. You have to keep in mind how much bottle it takes for the average person over the age of 15 to jump off a six foot wall or to recover from a stumble off the second bottom step! Also, while watching it, I find myself thinking of all the stuntmen in the world and all those famous movie sequences that would have been filmed with crash mats, nets, harnesses and here are these kids doing it in sneakers, chinos and bare-gut for kicks! Stuntmen and free-climbers everywhere must be shitting themselves. I love it¬ Kids doing a thing just for the laughs that's in it and to dare their mates to do one better - the true spirit of (male) youth.

Lifted Up By Bill

Unexpectedly, on Friday night, I stumbled upon a 1974 live performance at the BBC by Bill Withers. Now let me say I've always loved his songwriting, his albums are among my most prized vinyl and his voice has always melted me. But to watch him, in his prime, performing in a studio setting with a tight combo of musicians - man! It was a treat and a half. I was absolutely transfixed and was reminded with a shovel-in-the-face wallop, of the power of soul. What a performer, what a laid-back, in-it bowl-o-soul and a what a handsome bastard too. His understated delivery, his ability to let the song breathe and leave out all the right things - the TRUTH in his performance was so damn moving and so very refreshing. To say that it was an inspiring performance would be to do it a great disservice - it moved me to tears repeatedly and raised every hair on my body. I hope some of you can get a portion of what I'm talking about from these tastes and if you ever have the chance to see this whole concert - take it.
A clip from that performance
A taste from a slightly later period but equally good
A great interview