uselessdesires - random musings - photographs - diary - scrapbook

Death

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste, 
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Filed under  //   arts   literature   poetry  

Social Network Ads of the 1950's?

Social network adverts as if they were designed in the 1950's:

YouTube


Twitter


Facebook


Skype

Filed under  //   art   design   Facebook   Skype   Twitter   Vintage   YouTube  

How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you

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Filed under  //   cats   diary   fun   humour   scraps  

Travelin' Through on the Great Central Railway

A little short film (stills below) made with iMovie on the iPhone 4 featuring film and stills from the day Ryan & Ben had lunch on a steam train travelling on the Great Central Railway between Loughborough Central and Leicester North, stopping at Quorn & Woodhouse Eaves, Leicestershire. Featuring the song "Travelin' Thru" by Dolly Parton.

                           
Click here to download:
Travelin_Through_on_the_Great_.zip (1452 KB)

Video & Stills © Ryan Price and Benjamin Lane 2010

Music © Dolly Parton 2005 (from the film 'Transamerica')

Filed under  //   Dolly Parton   Great Central Railway   iMovie   iPhone   iPhoneography   Leicester   Leicestershire   YouTube  

Rolf Harris - Two Little Boys

Two little boys had two little toys Each had a wooden horse Gaily they played each summer's day Warriors both of course One little chap then had a mishap Broke off his horse's head Wept for his toy then cried with joy As his young playmate said Did you think I would leave you crying When there's room on my horse for two Climb up here Jack and don't be crying I can go just as fast with two When we grow up we'll both be soldiers And our horses will not be toys And I wonder if we'll remember When we were two little boys Long years had passed, war came so fast Bravely they marched away Cannon roared loud, and in the mad crowd Wounded and dying lay Up goes a shout, a horse dashes out Out from the ranks so blue Gallops away to where Joe lay Then came a voice he knew Did you think I would leave you dying When there's room on my horse for two Climb up here Joe, we'll soon be flying I can go just as fast with two Did you say Joe I'm all a-tremble Perhaps it's the battle's noise But I think it's that I remember When we were two little boys Do you think I would leave you dying There's room on my horse for two Climb up here Joe, we'll soon by flying Back to the ranks so blue Can you feel Joe I'm all a tremble Perhaps it's the battle's noise But I think it's that I remember When we were two little boys

***

"Two Little Boys" was written by American composer Theodore Morse and lyricist Edward Madden. It was written in 1902 and became a popular music hall song of the time, made popular by Harry Lauder. It describes the story of two boys who grow up to fight in the American Civil War. In 1969 it became a surprise No. 1 top selling single for entertainer Rolf Harris in the United Kingdom.

How to be Alone

If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were you were not okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find its fine to be alone once you’re embracing it. We can start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library, where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books, your not suppose to talk much anyway so its safe there. There is also the gym, if your shy, you can hang out with yourself and mirrors, you can put headphones in. There’s public transportation, we all gotta go places. And there’s prayer and mediation, no one will think less if your hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation. Start simple. Things you may have previously avoided based on avoid being principles. The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by “chow downers”, employees who only have an hour and their spouse work across town, and they, like you, will be alone. Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone. When you are comfortable with “eat lunch and run”, take yourself out to dinner to a restaurant with linen and silver wear. You’re no less an intriguing a person when you are eating solo desert and cleaning the whip cream from the dish with your finger. In fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where you were. Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst fleeting community. And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no ones watching because they are probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely move to beats, after-all, is gorgeous and affecting. Dance till you’re sweating. And beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things, down your back, like a brook of blessings. Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you. Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, they are always statues to talk to, and benches made for sitting gives strangers a shared existence if only for a minute, these moments can be so uplifting and the conversation you get in by sitting alone on benches, might of never happened had you not been there by yourself. Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. Like people must have problems if after awhile no one is dating them. But lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it. You can stand swaffed by groups and mobs and hands with your partner, look both further and farther in the endless quest for company. But no one is in your head. And by the time you translate your thoughts an essence of them maybe lost or perhaps it is just kept. Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from pre-school over to high school groaning, we’re tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cause if you’re happy in your head, and solitude is blessed, and alone is okay, Its okay if no one believes like you, all experiences unique, no one has the same synapses can’t think like you, this keeps things interesting, life’s magic brings much, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, the community is not present, just take back to you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. Take silence and respect it, if you have an art that needs practice stop neglecting it, if your family doesn’t get you or a religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it. You could me in an instant surrounded if you need it, if your heart is bleeding, make the best of it, there is heat in freezing. Be a testament. © Tanya Davis
(Audio transcript by Ryan Price)

For Mair. And for me.

Filed under  //   arts   culture   poetry   Tanya Davis   video   YouTube  

The Crayonettes with Kathryn Williams

The Crayonettes
Playing Out: Songs For Children & Robots
[One Little Indian; September 6]

Longtime fans of Kathryn Williams will know that she has plenty of weird and wonderful song ideas of her own (who can forget the early demo ‘Fandango Lasagne’?), but this debut album from side project The Crayonettes – a duo formed with fellow mother Anna Spencer, formerly of punk band Delicate Vomit – takes its inspiration from the imaginative playworlds of their two sons, Louis (4) and Lenny (3). Tired of the unbearably earnest singalongs found on your average children’s CD, Kathryn and Anna aimed to incorporate everything from punk and disco to hip hop and country into their version of a kids’ record.

“We would meet in the evenings when the kids were in bed…and play!” says Kathryn of the making of Playing Out. “It was so much fun creating with a friend. We would be crying with laughter and have to wait for the giggles to go before doing a take. When we’d written a song we would play it to the kids and get a reaction.”

The writing sessions weren’t the only fertile thing – both women became pregnant again during the project’s development; Kathryn’s second son Ted was born in April, and Anna is due in August. And to add further continuity, the album artwork is by Anna’s eldest son, eleven year old Sam.

Undeterred by their additional motherly duties, Kathryn and Anna plan to take The Crayonettes out on the road later this year. In the meantime, you can catch Kathryn playing the following dates in support of her recent album, The Quickening:

23.07.10 Trowbridge Festival, Trowbridge
24.07.10 Port Eliot Festival, Port Eliot
21.08.10 Beautiful Days, Devon
23.09.10 The Sage, Gateshead
25.09.10 Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Tracklist:
01 Robots In The Rain
02 Disco Teeth
03 Rainy Day
04 Hopscotch
05 Emergency
06 Sweet On The Floor
07 Let’s Dance On The Moon
08 Spooky Way Home
09 How Hot Is A Toad
10 Pirates On The Bus
11 Illegal

Source: Wears the Trousers:
http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/2010/06/incoming-the-crayonettes/

Original article by Alan Pedder:
http://www.wearsthetrousers.com/author/alan-pedder/

Related links:
www.kathrynwilliams.net

Marlene Dietrich, Falling In Love Again.

Failing in love again
Never wanted to
What am I to do?
Can't help it

Love's always been my game
Play it as I may
I was born that way
Can't help it

Men flock around me
Like moths around a flame
And if their wings burn
I know I'm not to blame

Failing in love again
Never wanted to
What am I to do?
Can't help it

Love's always been my game
Play it as I may
I was born that way
Can't help it

Men flock around me
Like moths around a flame
And if their wings burn
I know I'm not to blame

Filed under  //   arts   culture   media   movies   music   YouTube  

Reinventing the Bic Biro Pen

when lászló bíró saw a ball rolling through a puddle on the street and leaving a trail of water behind it, he conceived an idea that would go on to change everyday life forever. based on what he had seen, the hungarian journalist along with his brother georg, began to work on the first commercially successful ballpoint pen. ---
a brief history

bíró had become frustrated by the time spent filling-up fountain pens and waiting for the ink to dry. he had seaen that the ink used to print newspapers dried much quicker and so decided to create a pen using the same type of ink. In 1938 the bíró brothers patented a design which featured a tiny ball in its tip, which turned freely in a socket. as the ball moved along the paper it rotated, picking up ink from the cartridge and leaving it on the paper. whilst ballpoint pens had existed in the past - none had proved very popular due to constant problems with clogging,
leakage and ink distribution - the bíró's, was the first pen that significantly overcame these problems.

after relocating to argentina in 1940 the bírós licensed their design to a number of makers in the US and britain but it was almost ten years later when the design was mastered and introduced to the rest of the world. marcel bich a french pen manufacturer who had bought the ballpoint pen patent from lászló bíró - ironed out the remaining design problems (mainly ink distribution) and began huge, low cost mass prodctions of the 'bic crystal'. it's not surprising to hear that in 2005 bic sold its one hundred billionth pen, when you consider just how many of their pens you might have owned, borrowed or even stolen.

   
Click here to download:
Reinventing_the_Bic_Biro_Pen_t.zip (56 KB)

- dining in 2015, was 'din-ink' by andrea cingoli, paolo emilio bellisario, cristian cellini and francesca fontana from italy. the design sees pen-lids integrated with cutlery allowing the user to transform their writing tools into a knife, fork and spoon. finally there is a good excuse for when you're caught gnawing on the end of your pen!

another designboom competition entry which used the 'bic pen' was giffin termeers 'dasiy vase'. developed for
the macef award 2004 - H2O_on the table, the american design duo blow-mold the pens by hand. as the plastic becomes flexible its stretches allowing the vase to sit naturally. since its initial competition success the'daisy vase' has been shown at designboom marts, and can also be purchased online from the designboom shop.

bic pens have found their way into the work of several other designers and would-be inventors. from maneuverable lighting and chandeliers to candy and weaponry - more 'bic pen' projects are featured (below) here:

                             
Click here to download:
0Reinventing_the_Bic_Biro_Pen_t.zip (581 KB)

Via www.designboom.com with thanks

Filed under  //   art   design   news