gibberish


Holocaust nonsense
November 30, 2007, 8:43 pm
Filed under: Rants, life, photography, politics | Tags: , , , , ,

I was sent an email today that claimed lessons about the Holocaust have been removed from the UK’s school history syllabus in case it offends Muslims who are in denial about its existence.

First of all I find it incredible that an entire religious body could deny a plain historical fact. Can this really be so?

And secondly, why on earth would the British Government endorse this sick and disgusting show of weakness to a minority pressure group. If that is what you’d call the entire Muslim community.

It certainly resonates with the current trend to avoid confronting or challenging minority opinion in case it offends people.  But to go this far, to run away from the truth, if indeed we are makes me very sad indeed.

In fact, if it is true then I am appalled.

Perhaps these photos were staged?

holocaust-2.jpg

holocaust-3.jpg

holocaust-4.jpg

holocaust00_1.jpg



SQA Art exhibition
November 30, 2007, 7:51 pm
Filed under: Arts, Scotland | Tags: , , , , , ,

The SQA is to be congratulated for mounting an exhibition, in the RSA no less, of A grade artworks by Scottish Schoolchildren sitting Standard, Int 2 and higher grade art.

I saw it on wednesday and it is brilliant and must be seen.

Here’s a taster by Steven Mcarthur of Williamwood High School.

school-paintings.jpg



ten decades of edinburgh art college
November 30, 2007, 10:48 am
Filed under: Arts, photography, videos, work | Tags: , , ,

My friend Terry and I went to an exhibition celebrating ten decades of Edinburgh Art College at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh on Wednesday. The show features works from some of the colleges best known alumni including Bellany, Byrne, Inness, Blackadder and Peploe to name but a few.

But it this piece of haunting animation by a young American?italian, Josef Feltus and his brother that stole the show for me.

The Simpsons it aint but stick with it. It is beautiful and won the Jim Poole award, amongst many others, last year.

]



It Woodd seem I have upset the Woodds

In a previous post I ribbed the Woodds for not spelling their names as ‘the Woods’.

Sorry! No really. I am sorry, it wasn’t a Wooddist thing.

I did, I have to admit, think it was an affectation but apparently it is an old 12th century Shropshire name and I should have known that.

Or researched it.

So, I did. I googled Woodd and this came up…

woodd-google-search_1196381611203.png

Funnily enough… that’s what I thought.

However, it does lead one to the conclusion that the Woodds were either very posh or very bad spellers in 12th century Shropshire.

Doh!

I Woodd say that, Wooddn’t I!

woody.jpg



McGlashan
November 28, 2007, 7:57 pm
Filed under: Scotland, humour, independence, life, videos | Tags: ,

My Brother in law enjoyed the diatribe by McGlashen about the unfairness of world cup draws.

but he has nominated this gem of Xenophobia as his favourite.

Don’t blame me.  I’m the medium.  Not the message.

]



olbas man
November 28, 2007, 7:04 pm
Filed under: life, photography, work | Tags: ,


Seen at Waverley Station this morning.

So what do you do for a living?
I dress up as a snotter-free nose.
Nice



I stumbled upon this last night
November 28, 2007, 1:15 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

It’s not nice.

pink-golfer.jpg

Why do I do this?

Standing on a golf tee in front of my friends as a Danny La Rue substitute.

It was a friend of mine that took this photo!

I wouldn’t be that bothered, but my kids insist on calling me Farquar Gaylord.

And the worst of it is… I know why.



What my dad would have loved.
November 27, 2007, 11:05 pm
Filed under: dad, family, humour, jokes, life, photography

This is what. Read all the comments here and follow the links.

Right up his street.

Good old James!

It’s basically the classic “Someone taking a photo of someone taking a photo routine” which my dad loved so much.



Stephen Tait. Or is it Tit?
November 27, 2007, 10:47 pm
Filed under: family, life, sports | Tags:

Sent me this.

He seems to think I might empathise with it in some way.

]



no picnic?
November 26, 2007, 11:13 pm
Filed under: Scotland, photography | Tags: , ,

Of course it’s a picnic. It’s Gleneagles.



78 at The Queens today
November 26, 2007, 9:25 pm
Filed under: Scotland, family, golf, sports, stories | Tags: ,

 

insland-of-the-queens-wee.jpg

44 out.

34 back.

Tom was crushed, but happy for me.

Home run was 4 4 3 4 4 4 3 4 4.

6 pars, 2 bogies and a birdie.

Back of the net.

A net 60 to the course par of 68.

I was happy.



Sky plus
November 26, 2007, 9:22 pm
Filed under: family, humour, life, tv | Tags:

A new system is arriving on Saturday.

That’s the 12th.

Jeana screaming down the phone “I’d like to speak to someone who understands what I am saying” over and over again was priceless.

That’s our twelfth box in under a year. (And another free month. Our fourth I think.)

Does anyone have Norris McWhirter’s phone number?



Old Sea Dog.
November 26, 2007, 9:18 pm
Filed under: life, photography | Tags: , ,

Old Sea Dog.

Originally uploaded by jimbodownie.

Jim Downie at his greatest. Is this not a peerless and perfect photograph?



Vapour trail in Manchester
November 26, 2007, 9:05 pm
Filed under: photography, work | Tags: , ,



Kinda like this shot I took in Manchester two weeks ago.



Scotland win world cup
November 25, 2007, 10:24 pm
Filed under: Scotland, family, golf, humour, life, sports, stories | Tags: , , , ,

Go on yersel’ Monty. (And Marky boy, of course.)

Scottish golf has had such a bad year that it would be fair to say that my personal emergence from the woods to become a credible 18 handicapper has been one of the Scottish Golf Union’s highlights.

So today’s golf world cup win (as predicted by Monty) was not universally expected.

What was even less credible was that I spotted Dougie Donnelly at Gleneagles this afternoon and whispered the fact across the table to Jeana.

She was astonished.

“Colin Montgomery?” she whispered in a tone below the one that dogs can hear.

“Yes.”

(”The guy you snogged in 1988?” I must have subconsciously thought, seeing as I really thought she had said “Dougie Donnelly?)

“It doesn’t look like him”, she replied

Naturally it didn’t because a) it wasn’t and b) it was Dougie Donnelly and c) Dougie Donnelly doesn’t look like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle.

Judge for yourselves…

Monty?

monty.jpg

Or Dougie?

speakoutdougiedonnelly1.jpg

Spitting images?

OK, they’re both gingers, like the Mrs, but how could Monty be relaxed at Gleneagles at the same time as he’s lifting the cup in China?

For the record, Jeana was at a corporate do in 1988 and Dougie was the compere. In a moment of weakness Jeana shreiked across the dance floor “Dougie, gie us a kiss.”

And you know what?

He did.



There will be blood
November 25, 2007, 7:51 pm
Filed under: Arts, movies | Tags: , , ,

pt-anderson.jpg

PT Anderson is currently the world’s most gifted film-maker.

Fact!

Boogie Nights, Magnolaia and Punch Drunk Love are each brilliant in different ways. His new movie “There will be blood” breaks in the US at Christmas and in the UK on Feb 8th. (I will be there on opening night.)

It is garnering feverish reviews as this punter blog on IMDB shows.

PT Anderson delivers perhaps his best work with “There Will Be Blood”. Unlike “Magnolia”, the film’s daunting runtime is not very daunting whilst watching it. All acting in the film was solid, even the work of the child actors. Daniel Day-Lewis in particular delivered a truly phenomenal performance, capturing the power of greed, fear, insanity, and comedy simultaneously, at many points throughout the film. At no point does the time period distract from the power of the film. Sometimes period pieces cannot be appreciated because they delve too deep into historical details — turning the experience into more of a documentary than a narrative set in the past. This is not the case for “There Will Be Blood”, as human interactions are the focus of the film. Johnny Greenwood’s chilling score is very strong, benefiting from the elegant minimalism that he show’s in the band Radiohead. Will this picture go on to win Best Picture? It absolutely has every right to, however I feel that this movie is a bit ahead of current trends in modern cinema, and will sadly go unnoticed for that particular Oscar. I’m certain that this film will garner many accolades in the independent and film festival scenes. All in all, this is truly a perfectly crafted film.

Apparently Daniel Day Lewis is, once again, peerless and fully method-acted throughout.  (Although, to be honest I thought his portrayal of Billy Blood; the butcher in Gangs of New York was over the top.)

daniel-day-lewid.jpg

If you haven’t seen any of his previous films see them on DVD now.

They are ALL masterpieces.



Steve Mclaren vilification
November 23, 2007, 8:59 pm
Filed under: football, life | Tags: , ,

He was not a great manager. But being treated like the antichrist is totally out of order though and I think this is a very intelligent blog post to that end.

http://almax.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/england-2-3-croatia-revisited/



I thought Aussies liked a laugh.
November 23, 2007, 8:50 am
Filed under: family, humour, life | Tags: ,

Doug Cook tells me that Santas in Australia’s largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas’s traditional “ho ho ho” greeting because it may be offensive to women.

Sydney’s Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say “ha ha ha” instead.

One disgruntled Santa said a recruitment firm warned him not to use “ho ho ho” because it could frighten children and was too close to “ho”, a US slang term for prostitute.

Jeez, what next?  Soon the won’t be able to tell kids they had a nice shag the night before because campaigners will claim it encourages kids to partake in rubbish American dances.



FAHQ

The English Football Association Headquarters are quite appropriately named right now. (Read out the acronym phonetically!)



News just in
November 22, 2007, 11:50 pm
Filed under: Scotland, football, life | Tags: ,

Scotland has major flood warnings as 5 million pish themselves laughing.