Monthly Archives: Sep 2006

lollygaggers, gallinippers, gollywhoppers, doizabizzlers & flipadoodles

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21°C, clouds

A year on…
Reading through old entries is interesting, for comparison with the now.
I was avidly painting as well as finishing a 3D animation for the Whitley Project. this year I have but one painting on the go, I grumble about tiredness but that has clarified itself into a head-cold now.
The Walrus is despirate for a completed animation clip, in addition to a new plan that is old. A few years ago I made an animated video for the Stirling Association AGM. The guy I swent to Shuttleworth with last weekend tells me that they are very keen to see more and ask of me every time they meet. As a carrot & stick, they are having  a big "do" next winter which should be attended by their Chair – Dame Vera Lynn. The request was to get the film built up for that occasion. That puts me now in the planning phase again, storyboarding and keen to include the Walrus in a walk on part.
Making the storyboard also produces a shopping list of models to make, I have the various planes, crew and an airfield. It needs populating with buildings and vehicles (see below). Deespona’s 500 3-D collection should help here, though I prefer to do all the building myself. It will have sounds.

If you are a silly looking creature is it better to have a silly name?
lollygaggers, gallinippers, gollywhoppers, doizabizzlers, flipadoodles. And here was I thinking Daddy-long legs was a silly name.
BBC have featured an article on the Crane fly, but it doesn’t seem to provide an answer to its own title "What’s the point of daddy longlegs?".
The population round here has crashed, it seems a species that only lives about 2 weeks. They are still going in my painting, crash or not.

Rambles on bloggages

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20°C, sun

Despite the world seeming full of blogs and spaces, very few kids at school actually write a blog. I have asked amongst 3 classes today and only 3 kids regularly post to a blog. The reason can only be speculated upon, so speculate I will. They actually use Spaces ( Live/Bebo/Myspace) for networking advertising their sub-culture status with lists of favoured music and embedded video clips. A lot of the pupils had several “websites” that they claimed ownership to, but it wasn’t clear how much effort went into them. About a quater of each class had accounts with all three of the main players. I bet that the market share held by Microsoft has fallen over this last year.

Shuttleworth and the old Edwardians

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21°C, clear & light winds

The Shuttleworth Collection is based at the airbase RAF Old Warden. they have the oldest planes that can still fly, over 90 years some of them. Anyway, my step-father and another friend and I went there for the afternoon airshow today. It’s a very fine airshow with less of the macho atmosphere of the heavy metal Duxford shows. Commentators on the tannoys even waited as planes took off because they know a lot of people like to hear the roar of engines- which adds to the atmosphere.

Below are some photos of the "old Edwardians". Aircraft from the Edwardian era- in other words, the oldest planes still flying in the world. the picture quality is poor because light was really poor by the time they flew. They took off shortly after sunset because the wind is lighter then, just like hot-air balloons do. We didn’t know they would be able to until late, some spectators had already left but there was a strong atmosphere of tense expectation amongst us all, this could be really somethign special. these antique machines so rarely fly. the Origional Bleriot flew when it was almost dark, the photos are really blurred and grainey from then. Perhaps that helps the mood of them – this machine dates from 1909 and has to be treated with the greatest care, it can’t be taken out in winds above 5mph.

There was a real family atmosphere there, the show probably appeals to people who don’t normally go to airshows. The crowd was friendly and wellspoken if you know what I mean. I didn’t see any of the geeky spotter types you get at Duxford so this show comes highly recommended from me

Music I’m not listening to

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22°C, clouds gry & pink.

By not listening to Robert Wyatt, I didn’t miss a greater treat- yes the geese have spun their magic again in formation low over the skies of this town. You have to be quick when you hear their distant formation talk, you have to have no television on and windows open. Speed is important not because they fly quickly, but because you need to find a vantage point to see them, they fly at low altitude so dissappear behind houses or trees. Be sprightly. I stood on a bench.
Having the Television switched off and no music-noise blotting out the real world  really is living.
 
Crane flys: despite some insight with a working theory from yesterday, they still astonish. Eating supper tonight, one flitted a fluttery impact with my eye, in danger of trapping itself behind my glasses. Less than two seconds later it dropped into my dinner and got stuck in the viscous pesto sauce. Gently, I lifted it clear, but it was not airworthy anymore. They must be perishing by the millions in Britain this week, each life snuffed out in some bizarre unfortunate mishap. They’re clearly not destined to live long anyway so why not?
 
Neither of these creatures have the faintest idea of the pleasure they instill just by being.

Tipulidae

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19°C, Ç=67miles, clear

I have a theory, and it’s all about crane flys. It occured to me this morning on a dogwalk. Walking through the grass clouds of those oddly lanky harmless souls would take flight. The big question has been "why" and "what the…"? Now I can settle in the conformtable knowledge that there may be an explanation.

My theory is this: It’s their mating season and they do it in grassy/pasture fields. To get the best chance of finding a mate they need to be seen which they do by standing above the blades of grass, holding on with their long long legs. they cancatch several plants’ tops and hold themselves higher. The game is that to stand the best chance of getting a mate, climb higher than the others. I bet these creatures only live as comedy flying insects for a few days after living as some kind of larvae first.

Why have i set this post under the "cycling" category? This is the kind of thing I like to think about as I cycle along.

Muji

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19°C, cloudy

Shopping: bought a nice new laptop style bag from Muji. Even not owning a laptop doesn’t stop these things being useful. Muji is a very nice shop, and with my birthday coming up in a couple of months, I suggest you plan a trip there. They have likable clothes, stationary and hand-made sketchbooks- of which I bought a little one today.
 
It’s two weeks since we started back at school. Still we are plagued by uneven sleep routines, bouts of tiredness or surplus energy. Barely done any painting in the last few weeks, though drawing is coming back. Is it always like this at this time of year?
 
Actually, yes.

Actionscript: I really need a usable book that I can learn Actionscript in Flash 8. It’s really hard to decide on which one, there are dozens. Any suggestions?

News: is full of a story that is silly enough to be in the Castle of Camelot when full of knights. The Pope has finally apologised for some citation he made in a lecture in Regensburgh University. While you are on a roll mate, any chance of looking at the Catholic Church’s support for the Nazi Genocide? Your organisation still has dirty hands from that one. When you have done that, can we go onto the next one on the list?
….this may take some time.

On the other side, what do we think of a group of protestors- complaining about linking Mohammod with "evil & inhuman" behaviour? It’s the bit where those indignant men burnt an effigy of that pope, isn’t that a symbolic death threat? Those chaps aren’t doing the cause any good are they?

They can’t be as silly as the Yorkshire hens besieging schools with their packets of deep fried chips.

Giraffes love malteasers

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25°C, foggy start, after- cloudless and hot. Ç=73.3 miles

What a splendid day, September is good at this- crisp, warm, low humidity and another noticable change in the landscape. All the harvests are in, but there is green growing amongst the stubble. England at its best.
I was joined in a cafe by a retired couple from Armitage who were fine company. The whole thing felt natural, even when they told me about Giraffes taking malteasers. The cycing was easy- such that I got home feeling that there was at least another 15 miles or more in my legs.

Sounding any clearer?

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18°C, clear

We’ve been given a newer TV, one of far higher quality than the other. this has no green patches at the sides of the image, we can hear what most people are saying and the colours are all much easier to believe. One aspect of it leaves me speechless- no-one else has noticed the sound quality. Now, why is this? Is there something in common with a recent decision of mine- that is not to go and see Radiohead at the V festival. I really would love to see Radiohead live if that included hearing them too. A chance to do that hasn’t come up yet, the nearest has been to hear the mess Marshall/Peavy amplifiers make of their music when pouring out their noise to a large audience.
 
Now, what’s on TV?
 
 
 
 
 
….oh.

The shock of work

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20°C, humid with rain later

Back to work is the usual shock, physically and mentally. It’s not just us feeling this way, the kids are too. They’re refeshed but still heave great sighs and then yawns. Some, clearly have been feeling somewhat stressed in the build-up to the return. I espect some have lost sleep and maybe even had nightmares.
It all takes time from creative, pursuits leaving Live with fewer entries from me. Once I am over it and recovered it should be easier to spill thoughts over here more regularly. Going back hasn’t been all bad, the new year sees us with a new head of dept. who is excellent, and a tutor group who are gorgeous. Bless them.
There are too many holiday things not finished: the animated trees video is not near done, the grass needs a cut and the rest.
Oh, and there is a troublesome painting on the shelf up there (points).

Blast

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22°C, sun & strong winds, Cy.66 miles

Æsthetically, an interesting day. Ragged clouds racing from the sothwest driving bulkier cumulous with those intricate crinkly edges, and the hedgerows. The hedgerow’s colours are different at this end of summer, deep velvety reds/blues and violets in berries hidden by darkening foliage. Wind exposes them though. We discussed the merits of helmets, only considered because of the number of mossy branches that shatter onto the road in a shower of splinters as you ride along. A slight hazard mixed in with acorns rolling downwind or downhill.