[blogfocus saturday] of higher things

1. You want to see an interesting site, through the eyes of the artist? Norman explains:

St. Ives harbour. The beach at low tide. Pencil drawing on 150 gsm cartridge size 10 x 10 cm. I took a small pocket sized sketchbook with me to St. Ives. A handy size when working outside in an Atlantic gale.

I took with me my usual four clutch pencils; HB 0.5 mm., 3B 2 mm., 6B 3mm. and 4B 6mm. This latter functioned as a sort of graphite stick. I had a chunk of putty rubber and a collection of servietttes gleaned from the various cafés I visit.

2. Dabrah can say something not too many others can:

The thing about skiing in Dubai is the contrast between the extreme heat of the desert and the coldness of the ski dome. In Lebanon, nature provides this contrast for free. I can remember, in my youth, snow skiing in the mountains of Lebanon in the morning, and water skiing in Beirut in the afternoon, all on the same day! I do not exaggerate.

3. Mousy meets some intelligent people in his medical work:

One of the paramedics phones to say they're at a students' Christmas party with a buffoon who has drunk some bubble bath for a bet. They're wondering if it's dangerous and they actually need to bring him to hospital, or if they can safely leave him there. I explain that there should be no need to bring him, as, generally speaking, ingestion of detergents isn't harmful (the exception to this is dishwasher detergent, I might add).

4. Lady MacLeod is buying action heroes for Christmas, which is only meet and right:

I found a special vehicle (kismet I tell you) for "President Arnold S" (one of the main characters) - it is the Mr. Freeze auto that I am given to understand he drove in the Batman movie and the package included that car of the same genre, the Batmobile - which is now the vehicle that will convey our hero on his sojourns around the globe in the name of ...well I am just not sure of his motives yet as he is a Captain in SOCOM and being 28 years old he is embodied with the earnestness of youth.

5. Colin Campbell has always been one to go against the flow:

The story here.

That is an incredibly powerful instinct at work. I can remember watching bears catch fish in Alaska. They would just sit on the falls and wait for a big juicy one to try to jump up the fall. These guys are jumping into a flowing pipe so that they can go 50 metres into the river where the water is coming from. That is a lot of power.

[aw shucks] is this sweet or is this sweet?

Click pic for more

[st. george] scourge of islam and the eu monster

Sigh:

FC Barcelona shirts sold in Saudi Arabia have had their club emblems altered to exclude the St George's Cross, the municipal flag of the Spanish city, according to reports in La Vanguardia newspaper.

The alterations have supposedly been made due to a fear of offending Muslims through the cross' connotation to the Crusades during the 12th and 13th centuries when English soldiers adopted the St George's Cross as they attempted to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

[independent boys] know when they're not wanted

Looks frightening for the parents:

When Connor Wilson was turned away from after-school care because his name wasn't on the list, he took matters into his own hands and decided to walk home - all 15km. Police found the six-year-old walking along Geelong's busiest road, the Princes Highway, more than 6km into his journey to his Whittington home.

Quite apart from the issue of the inadequate care provided and the mother's possible guilt as well, I'd like to focus instead on the resilience of the child - of any child that age.

I remember such situations well:

Age 4 - I'd pick up my raffia case with cut lunch [not being up to preparing my own sandwiches at that stage] and would nip round the corner to my girlfriend's place, collect her and walk her to kinder, just under a kiklometre away. There was only one dangerous corner but I'd been trained for that. Naturally, I had no idea who was observing - I just thought it was my job.

Age 8 - We were in the High Street, doing Christmas shopping. In one store, maybe Woolworths, my mother told me to wait by the "snack bar" for her, while she went to get something further into the store. So, I went looking for "a" snack bar, not realizing I was actually beside "the" snack bar she was referring to.

Not having any luck here, I went outside onto the footpath and asked a lady if she knew where "a" snack bar was. To think that my choice of the indefinite article could have been the catalyst of all the troubles.

She did know where "a" snack bar was. It was about a hundred metres further down the street and it had a big sign "snack bar".

No problems.

Down I went and waited dutifully beneath the sign until my mother found me, distraught - she was distraught, not me - I was more concerned with what had gone wrong with my mum.

Age 11 - Don't know if I should mention this one. My father took me to the football but because for some strange reason, I had a membership card and he didn't, he explained in detail where I'd go in and he'd watch me in, then I had to turn left and follow the tunnelway to the barrier, where he'd be waiting.

No problems.

I went in but there were two tunnelways, so I took the one that looked as if it would lead to a mesh fence and it did. However, he didn't appear. I waited for half an hour but as the game was about to start, I gave it away, determined to go looking for him at halftime.

I managed a spot down by the touchline and had a good first half. Now it was time to find him. I asked officials about the layout of the ground, about where he probably would have come into the ground if I'd come in where I had and so on.

No luck. My dad had got lost.

OK, well there was a damn good game on, so I settled down for the second half and it was well worth the money I'd never paid. Now it was time to find him - I'd have to pull out all stops in this endeavour but the huge crowd pouring out of the ground made it difficult.

I went round that ground three times and was getting tired so thought it best to ask a friendly policeman if he'd seen a stray father. Nope but the policeman now had some questions for me I don't remember.

The upshot was that they took me to the station and when I saw one of their guns, the desk sergeant let me check it over. I'd given my address and phone number already and so they now reported that all was well. My father had been found and was safely at home.

The biggest problem was calming my mother down on the phone but once that was done, it was into the car and they even gave a blast of the siren for effect and we stopped off at a chippy and had supper. I still remember the fun that evening.

Then the boys in blue delivered me home - door to door, mind - no walking at all and my mother embarrassed me by embracing me in front of them. Don't remember much else.

So I understand wee Connor completely - it's what any boy would do under the circumstances. They don't want me? OK, I go home. No money? Well, nothing to be done - I'll just have to walk.

You have to like young Connor very much. Check out the photo - is he in tears or is he angry?

[banksy] let us spray in bethlehem

It appears that Banksy has gone seasonal - he's made it to Bethlehem and is graffitiing in the Manger Square:

One colour mural on a Bethlehem wall shows a little girl frisking an Israeli soldier in combat gear. A downtown gable end is decorated with a silhouette of an Israeli soldier checking a donkey's identity card. Elsewhere, one of Banksy's trademark rats brandishes a catapult at a watchtower set in the wall.

I'd like to know your view on Banksy and graffiti in general. He certainly does it well, the authorities would like to catch him, I've seen a possible photo of him and he brings a smile to the face.

But is he right for somewhere like Bethlehem?

Another of Bansky's supposed works

[top 25] popular musicians and singers since the 50s

This is the last musical post for a little while.

What does "greatest artists" mean? This is my attempt at a workable definition:

1. Technically excellent;
2. Heavily influential;
3. Internationally acclaimed [not just in the U.S. or the U.K.];
4. Leaving a substantial legacy of recordings or sheet music;
5. Memorable for far more than one song.

We then get into the problem Rolling Stone found - that of different generations revering different sets of artists so that should perhaps give N6 - cross generation. On that basis, my Top 20 non-classical musical artists since the 50s would comprise:

1. The Beatles 2. Elvis Presley 3. The Rolling Stones 4. Led Zeppelin 5. Bob Dylan 6. Michael Jackson 7. The Doors 8. The Eagles 9. Abba 10. Roy Orbison 11. Van Morrison 12. Sex Pistols 13. Bruce Springsteen 14. Elton John 15. The Beach Boys 16. Simon and Garfunkel 17. Eric Clapton 18. The Drifters 19. Joe Cocker 20. Pink Floyd 21. Creedence Clearwater Revival 22. Queen 23. Rod Stewart 24. Tina Turner 25. The Shadows

What changes would you make to the above list? Don't forget that they must transcend generations and continents. For example, Aretha Franklin was largely U.S. and the Hollies were largely U.K.

Run DMC or Patti Smith are too specific, as are Joy Division and there must be a legacy people still sing today all over the world. On the other hand, Prince is just a prat and I wouldn't put him on any list.

Also, you couldn't put in virtual illiterates like, Spears, Lavigne or Martin. They have to be artists who've actually achieved something.

Don't forget either that these are not the 25 best [I'd put in Touch 'n Go] but the 25 greatest.