Kate Hartman on TED

This excellent Ted talk by Kate Hartman, has almost all the things theSlog is interested in: design, glaciers, funnies..

JWC at the DBL

One of two videos from a recent outing with Jonnie Common to the Diving Bell Lounge:

L@tDBL - Jonnie Common - Shogun from Precious Productions on Vimeo.


Jonnie's excellent recent album is listenable and buyable here.
I cemented a rock solid professional reputation by fucking up two takes royally before getting this, still ropey performance, improved endlessly by some delightful cinematography by Extreme Man, Richard. Eg. here is Richard filming himself kitesurfing.

Enjoy, Roy

PS.

I've just read the caption for this video on vimeo, presumably written by Richard or Jolene, with much amusement! If it is Richard, we are clearly regarding each other with similar suspicion, me of him being some kind of superman, and he of me being a potential architect and assassin. One of those accusations is true, and the other is sort of true, see if you can work out which.

If it was my home

A scary tool that shows you how big the gulf oil spill would be if it was centered on your home.

gareth

New pics up

Have had an evening of sorting through photos and as such have updated my Flickr for the first time in a while! Too much to talk about but shall list the sets:
Homegame, Whitehills windfarm, Edale, Scope, Love Calculator, Dundee, Dumfries and Galloway before Christmas, and even Paris!

Here's one at random:


I am Roy.

Maps!

Delightful exhibit on at the British Library until September: Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art. For those that haven't figured it out yet, yes I am a map addict, but bias aside, I love this map. Click through to explore...

gareth

The Do Lectures

"The Do lectures are all about getting a handful of speakers together in one place, in the hope that they may inspire you to go Do something. To give you the tools and the desire to change the things you care about."

Photo dump

Flickr is being flaky and not letting me imbed a photo post so here are some links to:

Photos from Inspector Tapehead's recent Limbo gig in Edinburger they are good.

Suzy G's photos from our trip into the hills on Saturday it was snowy.

My photos from recording at Garmelow manor a couple of weeks back it was fun.

I've been pretty lucky with doing fun stuff recently, it's true. Its been hard work too though.

Sheddy

I just spent the entire weekend at the Shearer/Ling Cottage homestead in Norfolk, much of which was spent helping to put a roof shaped thing on Neel's 'shed' - photies here:
http://tinyurl.com/sheddy

It was great fun all round, thank you chaps.

Extreme climbing

Extreme climbing
Originally uploaded by Spherical Roy

Brand new photos up at Roy's Flickr! This one's from the weekend in Ardnamurchan, when Gaz showed off his climbing prowess.

Obsession

There are three qualities that motivate me in any activity: exhilaration, elegance, and sharing.

When cycling, I like to cycle fast, feeling the exhilaration of the wind in my face. I ride a fixie, the simplest, most elegant form of bike. I bought it from a social enterprise in Maryhill, sharing the assembly with those who can benefit most from the experience. I love the closeness of the messenger/fixie community in Glasgow, and how the best way to do anything with bikes here is to talk to someone else about it.

When doing design work, I am obsessed with elegance, and seek out the exhilaration one feels when having created anything. I strive for a more sharing community in industrial design, hence Zero-waste.

As for music, this is where all three are inextricably bound up. Playing for excitement, for beauty and for the act of interaction with players and audience, altogether, makes perfect sense to me.

I could go on, applying this thinking to why I do and don't like flying kites, why I like travelling, why I like staying in one place, why I'm unsure about moving flats.

The bottom line is that I'm not hyperactive - I'm obsessive, and will pursue any activity to satisfy these obsessions.

First Day Falls

Attempting to film Joel and snowboard at the same time. I knew I couldn't multitask...

Eerie view at Dungeness

Eerie view at Dungeness
Originally uploaded by Spherical Roy.

I've uploaded my latest film - pics from Dungeness in October 06, new year at Gilly's, and Neel, Kath and Rowan's recent visit to Glasgow.

Festive Greetings!

And as a gift, something I think I forgot to blog about a month ago: Neel's pictures from our climb in Glen Coe, that is Aonach Eagach:
here
Best wishes,
Roy