This Dane in Scotland is putting wrapped Christmas presents into postal boxes going across seas. While I'm doing this, I'm listening to my German friend, Silke, live on NZ radio. Distance is very relative these days. A few links: + Drake's Door: a big selection of audiobooks and poetry recordings with an emphasis on late 19th C and early 20th C British and American literature. Some material is restricted to US audiences only, but there is still plenty of things to sink your teeth into. + The Popdose 100: The Popdose site compiles their favourite 100 singles of the last fifty years. As always it's a matter of personal taste, but it's still pretty interesting. Also, thumbs up for number twenty. + The Museum of Weird Books: "TV Vet: Horse Book: Recognition and Treatment of Common Horse and Pony Ailments with over 300 action pictures", anyone? I'm particularly intrigued by the action pictures. + Judge A Book By Its Cover: a blog filled with horrid cover design, mind-boggling pulp fiction and readalongs of genre fiction. Surprisingly JABBIC doesn't provide full-on snarking but prefers gentle mocking. Nice one.
From Me To You
Today is the 21st of November 2008. I am one gift away from having completed my Christmas shopping. I know it's completely and utterly disgusting and I apologise profusely. If you do not know what to get people, here's a little list of helpful tips:
- Animatronic dinosaurs will please most boys, no matter what age. Some girls might also appreciate the thought but make sure you check with said girl's friends and family first. It would be epic fail if said girl had really wanted bling and you got her a Triceratops instead.
- Etsy rocks, full stop. It is particularly useful if you had promised Auntie Petunia a nice handknitted scarf and you didn't get 'round to it. Although if you find a scarf which will set you back $112, you might want to get out your own knitting needles, you lazy sod.
- Awesome handpainted shoes would go down very well with some girls (read: me). Of course I do own one handpainted sneaker and am eagerly awaiting the other (spring 2010?). And then I'd like me some totally amazing handpainted shoes I cannot wear because I have wonky feet.
- I would avoid Lush if I were you, but I think I'm the only human being alive who's not susceptible to being covered in glitter and smelling like blue skies and fluffy white clouds. Wtf?! Wtf, I ask you. But if you are not buying for me, the company does giftboxes which most panicky boyfriends/sons/brothers will purchase in late December. Also, what's with the Lush staff? They are scarily friendly. Time to pick up that cult assessment questionnaire again.
- Amazon wishlists are really helpful. Unless you haven't updated them since early 2003 when you thought adding that album by The Darkness was really appropriate and hadn't considered how this would make you a bit of laughing stock a few years later. Or that desperate and distant relatives would uncover your wishlist and think you'd actually really, really, really like that album.. in 2008. Not that I know anyone who'd be that careless.
- Finally, both Wists and Kaboodle are great tools if you are the sort who go "ooh, wouldn't mind that.." and then promptly forget what thing you wanted. They are also very useful if you happen to have a parental unit who starts asking for your Christmas wishlist in August. I think one of my goals of 2009 shall be to actually use these tools so I don't end up stuttering that I'd like some tea towels (which I once did).
But hang on, it's not Christmas yet. US citizens get to have Thanksgiving first! Everybody's favourite Hail Mary, Sarah Palin, went to pardon a turkey and then had a little chat with journalists. Squeamish people who are adverse to a) blood, b) dead birds or c) political ineptitude might not want to watch this video. Best captions evah, I tell you. (via)
The Next Doctor?
Philip Rhys - a UK actor starring in BBC's new adventure series Survivors with Freema "Martha Jones" Agyeman and Paterson Joseph - had a little slip-up during an interview on BBC News 24 tonight: “Yeah, we have a great cast. Max Beesley, Freema and Paterson Joseph .. y’know, the new D.. potentially the new Doctor.” And then the good Mr Rhys looked mortified and the interviewer quickly changed topic. Potentially? Let the speculation continue, although I suspect this might be confirmation enough for a lot of people.
Addendum: Behind The Sofa picks up on the potential slip-up. They've posted a link to a youtube clip of the interview.
Fa'en!
My partner, David, doesn't really speak Danish. He knows a few, carefully selected, words like tak (thank you), hej (hi), ja/nej (yes/no), tillykke med fødselsdagen (happy birthday), and the good, old chestnut undskyld (sorry). He's also very fond of exclaiming kylling (chicken) whenever we make it across to Denmark. He says it makes him look special. I say exclaiming "chicken" in public places makes him look very special indeed. For fa'en is David's favourite Danish expression, though. He says that swearing in Danish means you don't really swear. Hmm. When I came across this youtube clip explaining the Norwegian swearword Faen, I knew David would get a kick out of it. He did and so will you, I promise.
Afterwards, go to this Metafilter thread for commentary and an insight into Scandinavian neighbourly "love":
"After living in Finland, I just can't take Swedes seriously."
"I mean, Norwegian is, without a doubt, the wussiest of all Nordic languages. Icelandic and Finnish are the two hardest languages, then comes Danish due to its awesome gutturalness, then Swedish, then Norwegian."
"I lived in Iceland where national sports involved remarking on how the Finns are always drunk and how Danish sounds like Icelandic spoken by a retarded sheep. I do firmly believe that both of these are true."
Codex or Kindle?
I am off to Edinburgh to attend a discussion on The Future of The Book. Codex or Kindle.. or something else? In the meantime, have fun with these links. + Urban Knitting: the world's most inoffensive graffiti. I'd argue it's not graffiti (as that word refers to lettering or the act of writing) but it's street art. Regardless, it's pretty cool. + Mighty Morph Pads. Sculptural notepads that you can morph into different shapes and/or decorate. Quite fancy. + Rethinking Garbage. How one man is very happy to receive your (empty) candy wrappers and why the end result can be bought on Etsy. + Swedish Dansbands of the 70s. Amusing photos for non-Scandinavians and painful family party memories for all Scandinavians around my age. Dansbands (Eng. "Dance bands") is a genre of music still going strong in Scandinavia - think of it as Scandinavian country music and bands like Vikingarna (youtube) continue to sell out venues. And Swedish TV is doing a The Dansband Factor primetime show! Aaaghrr! + Jenny Everywhere - an open-source comic book heroine.
Loot!
We went to the 3D/2D Craft Fair today. Having recently visited survived the Crafts For Scotland/Hobbycrafts, I was wary of visiting today's fair but came away quite impressed. Not only does this craft fair have superior quality control, they are also far more diverse whilst remaining local. Unlike Hobbycrafts you don't have navigate around bowls filled with glitters or squeeze through packs of people fighting over grossly overpriced novelty yarn. I greatly appreciate that.
Anyway, excuse my crap photos.
I like owls a great deal - both because of their association with Athena (the Greek goddess of wisdom and knowledge) and the far more contemporary piece of pop culture that is "Twin Peaks". The owls are not what they seem, you know. So I spotted this pin and loved it on sight.
Sadly I didn't get the vendor's details. He had some ace ceramic flying ducks with rather wonderfully quirky expressions.
My loot also bears testament to my continuing button obsession: these are handmade by Pat Longmuir of 'Paraphernalia' who does commissions too.
I recently bought some über-lovely Berocco Ultra Alpaca in the "Moonshadow" shade. I once said that I wasn't overly concerned with yarn I couldn't buy in this country because I'd always be able to find suitable substitutions. I was clearly wrong because I'm now deeply in love with the Ultra Alpaca and the only substitution I can find is twice the price for yard yardage - and in limited colourways too. Le sigh. Anyway. Pat's buttons might just be earmarked for that yarn..
PS. I'm doing NaBloPoMo in case you're wondering. That means the 'self-indulgent knitting plus random linkage' to 'brainy stuff, you know' ratio is going to be horribly skewed. Just warning you.