Archive for the 'Random' Category

QuoteUnQuote

I like quotes. Here are some of my favourites, including one or two from the good doctor above.

“Life has improved immeasurably since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.” Hunter S. Thompson

“Choose not a life of imitation,” Red Hot Chili Peppers, Can’t Stop

“Writing is the flip side of sex – it’s only good when it’s over.” Hunter S. Thompson

“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original you will have to ram it down their throats.”

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” Calvin Coolidge

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take them to.” Jim Jarmusch

Vanity Fair journalist to Matthew Perry’s character Matt Albie in Studio 60 as she takes down the name on the label on the rug in his office: “It’s a 10,000 word feature, they can’t all be winners.”

French author Frederic Beigbeder when asked what makes a good party: “Pretty girls, Champagne and me.”

“When two people know a secret, it’s not a secret anymore.” Titta Di Girolamo, The Consequences Of Love

“Midlife is when you get to the top of the ladder and realise that you’ve had the ladder against the wrong wall,” via Tom Ford

“I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.” George Best

“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.” Eleanor Roosevelt

John Updike on living in NYC: “The true new yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.”

“Outside of a dog a book is man’s best friend, inside a dog it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx

“I act real shallow but I’m in too deep,” Dizzee Rascal, Bonkers

“Pop music will never die, it just has no direction” Bis, Action & Drama

CoffeeOverload

I like coffee. A lot. But not this much.

ModernLifeIsRubbish

Virtual life getting you down? Never got time to see your wife/kids/real friends? Always too busy answering emails/facebook messages to enjoy a nice walk in the park? Always being poked, but not in a good way? Then help is at hand.

WavingAtNoOne

If you’re curious about Google Wave, or struggling to understand what the point of it is, this video explains both the pros, and with the very last bit, the major con.

ChairWhore

My love of chairs is legendary. I think I’ve just found me new favourite website in the whole world. Chair Whore.

WhatIsInterviewProject?

interview-project-pic1

David Lynch is my hero. It would break my heart to find out that he didn’t really talk like he does in this introduction to his new interview based project, Interview Project.

Where’sMyJetPack?

Where do I sign-up for one?

AncientWisdom

terracotta-army-general-xian-china

I’ve been reading Sun Tzu’s The Art of War – the legendary War For Dummies guide, written in 500 B.C., now worshipped by aspiring business types of the kind who go on The Apprentice and say things like, ‘No guts, no glory’ and ‘I’m a natural closer’.

Not that I’m after a job in middle management. Just curious.

Sun Tzu was clearly a very wise man who’d given much thought to the nature of conflict/competition and how best to succeed. Sun Tzu says… well he says a lot and most of it in slighty Yoda-esque backwards speak, but in a nutshell…

  • Plan like buggery. Come up with a watertight strategy… and a couple of other watertight strategies in case the first develops holes.
  • Research. Know your market, know your enemy, know yourself.
  • Make the most of your resources, by focusing your strengths against opponents weaknesses.
  • The best way to win a war is without fighting. Outsmarting your opponent is painless.
  • Only fight battles you can win. When you’re dead, you’re dead.

Makes sense. So there you go, 2500 years worth of tried and testest strategic wisdom reduced to five bullet points. Now you too are ready to be a business samurai. Show me the money. Lunch is for whimps. Etc, etc.

SoundtrackToMyLife

I want to live in this song.

StepIntoMyOffice

Maybe it’s because I work at home, alone, with no one to talk to, that I have a strange obsession with other people’s offices. Call it Office Envy if you like. But thankfully the internet provides satisfaction for every fetish imaginable and my office fetish is no exception. Welcome to OfficeSnapshots.com, one of my favourite websties. I’ve spent/wasted/enjoyed many a long afternoon starring longingly at the monitors, desks and chairs that others take for granted. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Again, you’re welcome.

*the picture above is of the office of brand development agency The Wonderfactory. I like the shelves. I have a thing for shelves. I like putting things on shelves. I know. I’ll stop.

ItReallyIsJustPlayingRecords

DJing. It’s just playing records. No it is. Alright, you’ve got to have taste. And some records. And as with everything in life there are those who are really good at it and then there’s Peaches Geldof. But as Amy Kellner points out in her stupidly funny Vice Magazine piece about her life as a party DJ, it’s ‘the biggest fucking bullshit con of all time!’.

Story140

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I’ve been invited to write a 140 character story for the Story 140 competition being run by Twitter’s very own micro-novelist Nick Warren. A daunting task. If you haven’t read any of Nick’s stories on Twitter I suggest you stop reading this and go and follow him now. The drama, intrigue and humour he can find in 140 characters (including spaces) is staggering. My particular favourite being his story of Jan 19 2009, the eve of President Obama’s inauguration:

Welcome Mr President, we’ve been looking forward to meeting you. Agent Owen and I are with Alien Liaison sir, perhaps you’d better sit down.

Don’t know if I can match Nick’s pithy prose – as he puts it, a novel is a marriage, a short story an affair, the twitter story is a kiss – but I’m having a damn good go. Have written 10 possible contenders so far. I can only enter one, not sure how I’m going to pick, but so the other nine don’t go to waste, I’ll post them here after Nick has announced the winner of the competition.

HelveticaThePen

 

I received this in the post today.

It’s a pen.

A promotional pen for the Gary Hustwit’s fantastic film Helvetica: The Movie. Don’t know why they sent it to me. Maybe it’s because they know I’m a massive fan of the film and very excited about Gary’s new movie Objectified. Maybe it’s because I’ve blogged about the movies and linked back to their respective sites. Maybe it’s because I bought the Helvetica ‘Meet The Cast’ movie poster last year. Or maybe it’s just because they’re exceptionally nice people. Whatever, thanks very much. Made my day. I know, I’m easily pleased.

PopMusic’sNotGonnaDie

“Pop music’s not gonna die/It just has no direction.” Bis, Action & Drama.

So true.

ObjectifiedByApple

Objectified, the new documentary feature from Gary Hustwit of Helvetica fame, which gets its world premier in March at this year’s SxSW, will include a rare interview with Apple design guru, Englishman Jony Ive (I know, a bit jingoistic, but we have so little to shout about these days). Rarer still, the interview, from whence the above picture came, was filmed inside Apple’s Design Studio. Might not sound like much, but it’s on a par with pulling back the curtain and catching a glimpse of Oz.

BelieveTheHype?

New rap website HipHop.Com launches next month. As a taster they’ve just posted an inaugural address from Chuck D re: the election of President Obama. Brace yourselves.

AreYouHavingBurritosForLunch?

Goodbye George. Don’t let you door hit you on the way out.

TrySmiling


My favourite short film.

HistoryPartII

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Having stayed up all night on Nov 4 to see history being made, I fully intend to chuck in work early and spend Tuesday afternoon watching hope return to the free world. For anyone thinking of doing the same, the guardian have just put a handy five day guide to Barack Obama’s inauguration online here. You’re welcome.

SaveMeObiWanMinesAVodka&Coke

On the subject of Star Wars, Carrie Fisher’s autobiography wins the 2008 prize for best title and cover. The only thing funnier is that it’s just 176 pages long and the type is MASSIVE. Presumably she couldn’t remember the rest.

LikeTheDarkSideOrWhatever

Star Wars as retold by someone who’s never seen it. Genius. Especially the ‘whatever’s and special effects – arguably better than anything used in the Digitally Remastered versions.


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

TheSecondComing(UK)

The other day I did something I never thought I’d do. I emailed Channel 5 with a scheduling query. I know, who’d have thought Channel 5 had a schedule worth querying. I wanted to know when they were going to show the second season of Californication, which started in September in the US. After a week they replied saying that while they held the rights to show season two, they had no plans to do so.

That’s the last time I email them for anything.

If you didn’t see it – and why would you have, it was on Channel 5 – go and buy the season one boxset now. Here’s the season one trailer to explain why.

FollowMe

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Feel free to follow me on Twitter. Click here or go to www.twitter.com/dangennoe. I’m quite entertaining. The operative word there though is quite.

DearDiary


 

Great track from Free The Robots. Even better video. If only all the world’s conflicts and crises could be settled with such style and politeness.

SexualHealingIsGoodForYou


 

Just wait until it gets to the ‘wake up wake up’ bit… Baaaaaaaaaaby…..

MyLifeIsComplete

After years of searching the high street and the internet, months of envying those of friends and after sending numerous emails to the manufacturer begging for them to help me in my quest, I am finally the owner of my very own examples of minimalistic, futuristic, cartoonistic Japanese design that is the TagCup. And better still, I bought them in the Selfridge’s sale. Half price. Some things are just meant to be… for everything else there’s perseverance.

TheDefinitionOfCool2

Found this in a charity shop on the way to buy a coffee table. It was in the window. Framed & mounted. £11. Bargain. 



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