Simple-tons

My last weekend of summer, for various reasons, seems to have been the SSWC up in Aviemore. It was relaxed yet energetic, social yet peaceful.

Some people speaking and riding at the 'event' :



Jenn and Nigel were our English heros, for differing reasons, not that any of that mattered much.

A link to my loverly bike

Lost Format

Courtesy of those nice people at Experimental Jetset.

Band names taken from song titles or lyrics

A Certain Ratio (Brian Eno)
Sub Sub (A Certain Ratio)
Oasis (Happy Mondays)
The Sunshine Underground (Chemical Brothers)

Got any?

IE CSS hack, including IE7

Okay, most of the hacks you've put in your CSS for IE6 and earlier are no longer needed in IE7 (hurrah!) but there may still be the odd occasion where your sites are now being drawn wrong by IE7. How do you change your CSS hacks so that they work for IE7 in the same was as IE6?

    /* text green in IE (both 6 & 7) */
    .classname {color: green;}

    /* text red in Safari and Firefox */
    html:not([dummy]) .classname {color; red}

Use this one sparingly, but it could be a lifesaver if a site is misbehaving in IE7 and you need to get things working using a fix that you've already applied for IE6. (Note: this one isn't always Opera friendly). If you really need a more thorough, and complicated, hack, have a quick google, but I recommend using this hack as firefighting fix while you get on and re-code your site to behave in IE7 without CSS hacks or filters.

Mouth of the Factory All-Stars

He did the job, he got them out there. He wasn't chasing cash, he was chasing dreams. "Anthony" H Wilson has died, the catalyst is gone. Never what is traditionally termed professional, but where does passion fit in with that? Check out the rag-tag performance from many of the Factory acts that joined together for a one off Jam on the tube (bringing together Tony's joint 'careers' of TV and music in a chaotic form that he must have loved):

click for more info on the Tube episode in the clip above

Bontrager 2412

Starting another lap, photo by Oliver Townsend.

Oliver's candid shooting style has yelded some great results from last weekend's racing. Go check them out. I almost wish I'd been there racing!

Time machines

What is the first thing that you would do if you had a time machine?

a) attend the gigs you're sorry you missed?
b) revist the gigs you're glad you saw the first time around?
c) go back and buy an extra pair of your favourite shoes?

On rare occasions it can be more satisfying to listen to the 'copyists' scavanging the music of you past than to the original artists they seek to emulate. This is normally only the case where the young pretenders have a very natural songwriting style, so that at least the song sounds their own, if not their style. Check out Mr Fogg. You'll get the stylist references straight away, but he'll win you over with songs that are worth several listens.

"london" Olympics logo unveiled

Are we being patronized by the patrons of the games? Will the headline event be the race to the bottom?

It's not just me

It seems I'm not the only one to prefer the use of Johnston's original 'underground' font rather than the reinterpretation his pupil created: Gill Sans.

Check out Ben Archer's very complete analysis of the inadequacies of Gill's most famous work.

London Olympics kills Olympic event in London

It was already know that London's only reputable Mountain Biking race venue would be lost for the period of the Olympics, but there are now suggestions that it will never be restored.

read about in on Bikemagic

Monument Valley

Monument Valley
Photo by me.

More from our trip at:
CB FLICKR Pool

Moab

Kelvin with no gears
Photo by Anne.

Home from Away

Climbing on the Slickrock Trail
Photo by Oliver.

Just got back from a great trip to Arizona and Utah. Lots more photos soon....

Chairs

Obsessed by chairs? David Byrne is.

Pine Needles

That's me that is
Photo by Phil Diprose.

I rarely like photos of myself cycling, but Phil's done a good job with this one. It's good to be back on a bike again, I missed it far more than the drink or food while I was ill, a lesson I'm going to keep with me over the holidays.

System IX

I'm quite jealous of Julian Opie's pre-OSX styled website . Looks great, works a treat, and is as intuitive to use as a real old Mac. Of course, as always, content is all, and he delivers in spades.

Robots Save Lives

From my www.spittingcat.com site last year, "Unlike most of Britain I have a very utilitarian attitude to cars. They get me where I need to go, and I feel no need to live out any Formula1 or RAC Rally fantasies. This might go someway to explaining why I feel no antipathy towards speed cameras on our narrow dimly lit residential streets. I'd much rather have those cheery camera signs, or robots as our 3 year old calls them, persuading me to slow down than car suspension and back breaking speed bumps. Despite, or perhaps because, no-one seems to share my attitude I've created a range of bags and t-shirts celebrating the speed camera sign. Available from the shop."



Now my sidelined views on speed cameras led me to the idea that those nice people at howies might be interested in my design, as they tend to favour the outsiders. So I, perhaps vainly, sent them my design. Not only didn't they take it up, no surprise there, but have done there own 'thought provoking' speed camera design. This one however seems to be disappointedly chasing the mainstream view that cameras have more to do with revenue than safety. Shame.

Not newsworthy?

Bomb plot

If the suspects were Muslim, I'm sure this would have made the national media. But as it is the truth doesn't fit the current 'story' of Muslims being more of a threat to our security than others.

DEF

Second part of an A-Z of great artists and bands you may not have heard of;

Dakota Oak Trio :: Derbyshire Krautrock and Folk
[see Badly Drawn Boy and Neu]

ESG :: real raw club music, by real raw women
[see A Certain Ratio and 400 Blows UK]

Fridge :: Drifting but not easy listening
[see Adem and Fourtet]

check out ABC

It's just noise

Very late last night, or it might have been very early this morning, I was listening to a big chunk of ambient music as I nodded off. Surprisingly something of my own came up; Looper. I think I wrote it back in 2003, when I wanted something I could listen to while getting my daughter to go to sleep. It was a one of a number of pieces of 'music' I wrote that were trying to create something akin to listening to a loud old fridge while under the influence of Opiates. Don't try playing it a party, but you might find that it's something nice to drift off to at night.