Posts in the Miscellaneous category
A new location
So, the blog has moved. The changes are fairly minimal:
- My interactive fiction blog (Blasting Requires Dynamite) has been fully merged with my old main blog (Two Swallows blog) and the whole is simply called Two Swallows.
- As such, the categories have been merged and moved and so on. If you’re only interested in posts from a specific category, by the way (e.g. you only want to know when I post something about my crafting hobbies) there is a link to the specific rss feed on each category page.
- Most of the old urls should work if you remove “/blog” from them, but I’ll set up redirects for the old blog soon, and ultimately I’ll take it down altogether.
- The interactive fiction blog has been entirely removed, so the urls won’t work at all; however everything from it is here and intact. Use the search if you’ve lost something.
- There is a new layout. It’s still grey, though.
If anything seems amiss, please drop me a line.
A selection of links
Writing
I’ve recently discovered Tomorrow Museum, which helpfully describes itself as a “collection of images and speculative essays exploring how technology, science, and economics are affecting the fine arts” (helpful, as I find succinct definition entirely beyond me tonight). It is deeply interesting and engrossing, and so far every link is worth following. The most recent post, Caring for Your Online Introvert, especially resonates with me.
Project Gutenberg and Google Books are excellent resources for plenty of free books, but I recently found the Chawton House Library collection of early women’s writing, which features rare and little-known works “which explore such broad-ranging themes as satire, slavery, marriage, witchcraft and piracy [and] signal the rich texture and innovative character of women’s writing in the period 1600 to 1830″. I’m enjoying the preface to Romance Readers and Romance Writers: a Satirical Novel, in which the author gleefully exposes some of the awful writing in romances she dislikes.
Music
The Headphone Commute podcast (here’s the FeedBurner link) has been supplying me with sound for some months. My particular favourites are Intelligent Breakcore, Ruckspin – Ranking Studio mix, and Bop – Micromixes. If you are at all inquisitive about “electronica, glitch, idm, drum’n’bass, breakcore, dubstep, trip-hop, modern classical, post-rock, shoegaze, ambient, downtempo, experimental, abstract, minimal and everything in between” (thank you, about page) you should try one or more of these mixes.
I ♥ McQueen
Oops! My RSS feed was broken, and I don’t know for how long. It’s fixed now.
Other than that, if you have a few minutes to spare today I’d highly recommend watching the video of Alexander McQueen’s Spring 2010 Ready To Wear collection, entitled “Plato’s Atlantis” (and I love that this is meant to be “ready to wear”! Ha!). It’s beautiful, bizarre, weird, terrifying (in that I was scared for the models in those fantastic shoes) and wonderfully inspirational. There are cameras on robotic arms, too – what’s not to like?
I tend to keep a close eye on the world of the catwalk, and while there are many things to dislike about that world, there are some designers who make outfits that are more art than clothing. I hope we never lose that. McQueen is among my favourites, but I’d put Gareth Pugh, John Galliano and Christian Lacroix at the top of the list.
Photographic round-up
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ve been busy:
I would like to expand on the photos, but as ever, have run out of time. I’ll just mention a rather unusually beautiful video I saw today: a Guy with a camera in his head broadcasts footage from inside the flames. Eerie and moving.
Avebury Henge
I have few long overdue photos to share today for anyone interested in henges. On the last day of August I visited the Avebury henge, one of the largest prehistoric stone circles in Europe. Unfortunately someone also went and built a village in the middle of it. (There’s an aerial photograph here.) Still, it’s very impressive and worth a visit purely for the mind-boggling historical nature of the place. Nearby is the partially excavated West Kennet Long Barrow, one of the largest surviving British long barrows. I kept an eye open for wights but was disappointed – or should that be relieved?
I was reminded to post these by the recent news on Stonehenge’s construction date. Sadly (but unsurprisingly) the Stonehenge stones have been roped off since 1977, unless you make a special booking. At Avebury there are no ropes or barriers, although I imagine that attempting to climb the stones would result in your immediate removal!
Further reading: Avebury: a present from the past
After an exhausting week, during which I’ve managed to injure my hip and shoulder (temporarily, I trust), this weekend is going to be pure bliss. I intend to move very little, but might start spinning up this fat braid of chocolatey BFL roving, courtesy of The Yarn Yard:
Good enough to eat. But I won’t.