Neu! Live – 21st Oct 2010

Grabbed a few seconds of Neu! encore at their gig last Thursday at the Barbican..

Neu! – Negativland (the slow bit)

Neu! – Negativland (the fast bit)

Let me know if you want a long and rambling description of the gig.

Fun fact: the drummer playing with Neu!’s original member here is Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley.

Micky S and his Orchestra

A song featuring Brockley! How perfectly delightful!

I’d take this over Lady Gaga anyway.

While I think about it, they had remove some tiling from Nunhead Station the other week and uncovered some swell graffiti:

Difficult to get a good shot in the narrow subway, but it looks pretty cool (and not quite so tatty) in the flesh. Has all the nice loops and kinetic movement that the best of NY grafitti has. I like it, I wonder if they’ll keep it or cover it up with boring tiles again.

Finally, the 21st Century arrives…

Robots are awesome, and for this reason alone Honda have pumped millions into developing a bipedal robot over the last twenty years.

Today their latest, called Asimo, came to visit us at work so we could see him in action:

As well as serving drinks he did some running, kicked a football (gently) and was able to be led around by the hand. The last was particularly impressive as that wasn’t ‘preprogrammed’ as such, it would respond to the direction it was moved in.

A cliche to say, but it’s amazing how wired we are to respond to humanoid shapes, imparting them with human emotion and intention. (Funnily enough, this was undemined somewhat by the child-like sound of it’s computer generated voice. It wasn’t the right voice for the job)

It’s certainly come along way since their first robot ‘EO’ in 1986:

Will we really have one in the home of the future as the presenter claimed? Maybe – at least it seems a little more plausible that those imagined in the 1950s…

Snow Dear

This sign on the railway platform says ‘I hereby give Oli permission to stay at home and throw snowballs’ (Not really Lee, that report is nearly ready!)

Of course, Chopper would be quite clear about the UK’s namby pamby attitude towards a tiny sprinkling of snow…

Video Challenge

YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A ‘Good’ Video

Lolsbbq ur teh ghey sux

…or words to that effect.

Bring back ‘Pototoe’ Quail

Not that the world needs another post on Sarah Palin, and I don’t even care except that let’s hope she doesn’t become the 2nd most powerful person on the planet, eh, but she really said this:

Sarah Palin: My understanding is that Rick Davis recused himself from the dealings in that firm, um, I don’t know how long ago, a year or two, ago and that he’s not benefitting from that, and I would hope that that’s the case.

Interviewer: But he still has a stake in the company so isn’t that a conflict of interest?

SP: Long long pause. Again, my understanding is that he recused himself from the dealings with Freddy and Fanny and any lobbying efforts on his part there, and I would hope that that’s the case, and as John McCain has been saying, and as I’ve been – on a much more local level – been also rallying against, is the undue influence of lobbyists in public policy decisions being made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg6hF0nShQ

Not having paid much attention to the whole business I thought this was the spoof thing everyone’s been talking about. But it ain’t.

Christ.

A pocket full of horses.

This is mighty:

Damn. I wish I was George Washington.

[Thanks to Lucy for bringing this fascinating documentary to my attention]