Thursday  the Seventh of November, 2002

"etymology - late 14c., from Gk. etymologia, from etymon 'true sense' (neut. of etymos 'true,' related to eteos 'true') + logos 'word.' In classical times, of meanings; later, of histories."
A sterlingly thorough Etymology Dictionary, to keep within arm's reach at all times. The English-usage of "panache" isn't actually derived from the French for "shandy" after all...
"Comment tu t'appelles? Je m'appelle Didi.
J'aime la musique pop et j'habite à Paris.
Où est la poste? Où est le cinéma?
Prenez la gauche et après c'est tout droit.
J'aime l'Orangina, et le panaché.
Ecoutez et répétez."
The GCSE-level French rap comedy duo Priorité à Gauche are still dans la maison, it seems, with a web page touting their new album, including the legendary Tricolore 2001, quoted above...

Passing Frenzies: Urban Letterboxing - Eraser Carving - War of the Worlds


 Wednesday  the Sixth

And again, from our ominous personal vantage point, a photo of Chrissy's; "Ahh am GORD".
Update: That bonfire-bound effigy of George W Bush in full. I enjoy the fact that booing and cheering such things (there was plenty of each) are both taken as signs of support.
An astonishing archive of Lewes bonfire effigies, stretching back to 1855 ("Effigy of Emperor of all the Russias, mounted on a donkey.") - those since 1992 have photos, ranging from the smokily dramatic to the splutteringly obscene (elsewhere; last year's Bin Laden). [via Chrissy]
Last night's "enemy of the bonfire" to be burned in giant effigy was, and I was greatly impressed that they dared, Mr George W Bush. A twenty-foot representation of the man himself, drooling his way through fistfuls of a world-shaped cake, with a comedy-arrow missile through his skull and a Nike-swoosh "Ah'll just do it" emblazoned across his back. Photos of him being wheeled down Cliffe High Street to follow, this evening...


 Tuesday  the Fifth

"Lewes, East Sussex: liberal Middle England, a nice quiet place. Except on 05 November that is, when the town immerses itself in a night of booze, political sloganeering and pyromania."
Shop windows are being boarded up, the roads closed off, reflective-jacketed police officers and stripey-shirted smugglers gathering in the dusk - the blazing insanity of Lewes Bonfire Night is fast approaching...
Printable paper rulers, mentioned here on the same basis that they might be useful some day. This is a good strength of Internet bookmarks and weblogs and flat old web pages - being able to keep hold of all sorts of informative rubbish without it taking up significant physical space. The sooner we can scan in household objects and get them remoulded afresh by lasers, the better. [via Kirsty]


 Monday  the Fourth

Four Random Nouns and a Funeral, The 39 Random Nouns, The Random Noun Children, The Charge Of The Random Noun Brigade: Random British Movie Titles. Leonard is very nearly out of a job.
"The implications are colossal. Cycling would come into its own. Hillman predicts that the day will come when people in the street will feel sorry for someone passing in a car: it will be a sign of an emergency requiring them to use up a precious part of their annual carbon quota."
Impossible but beautiful plans for operating carbon quota on the level of individual people, from one-man think-tank Mayer Hillman. More of his thoughts have been archived at the Global Ideas Bank: putting clocks forward an hour, permanently, black roadside plaques to mark traffic fatalities and making all road intersections into speedbump pavements.
Three days earlier - 28 Days Later. Thoroughly glorious; emphatically not a zombie film, says Boyle, but it works in a lot of the undead's strongest motifs, and sharpens them up into fresh new drama. Immediate infection! Passable intelligence! Not lurching, but sprinting!

The film nods to Romero and Wyndham quite a few times throughout, and ends up as an edgy combination of the two, thrown together in 21st century Britain. Occasionally it feels rather more like lazy plagiarism than fond homage, but the fresh setting and tangents make up for it; some skilful touches of topicality and modern life in there, with a mighty radiator-bound parallel that suddenly casts the film, and Britain, in a chilling new light. Much stuff to talk about on the way home, after you've finished walking through a cineplex full of bellowing, sprinting teenagers...


CAMRAD Update #4

"The video showed up too early for me. I don't think the campaign yet commands the sort of zeitgeist where you'd expect to see people taking the piss. If people are going to spoof it, you might as well spoof it yourself. It's a very good way of getting cheap publicity."
Crude and amateurish email-propagated advert parodies might actually be clever "subvirals" commissioned by the companies being satirised; inveigling further into the collective consumer consciousness whilst getting away with stuff they wouldn't dare to broadcast on television.

The article itself is an advert for a couple of viral companies and the (currently unavailable) eatmail.tv, a members-only viral-infection newsletter site for opinion-forming patient zeroes; itself a slightly less exploitative version of Proctor and Gamble's current plans to target socially-influential teenagers.


As Above

Brain children. Recent or noteworthy Web offspring.

Online cliques. Trespassers may be welcome.

In the bookpile. Powered by allconsuming.net.

Incidental music. Ohrwurmen or otherwise.

Other weblogs. The ones I make a point of returning to a lot.

Supporting cast. That have Web pages. In alphabetical order.

Weeks beginning. All having ended.
2002: 04.11 28.10 21.10 14.10 07.10 30.09 23.09 16.09 09.09 02.09 26.08 19.08 12.08 05.08 29.07 22.07 15.07 08.07 01.07 24.06 17.06 10.06 03.06 27.05 20.05 13.05 06.05 29.04 22.04 15.04 08.04 01.04 25.03 18.03 11.03 04.03 25.02 18.02 11.02 04.02 28.01 21.01 14.01 07.01

2001: 31.12 24.12 17.12 10.12 03.12 26.11 19.11 12.11 05.11 29.10 22.10 15.10 08.10 01.10 24.09 17.09 10.09 03.09 27.08 20.08 13.08 06.08 30.07 23.07 16.07 09.07 02.07 25.06 18.06 11.06 04.06 28.05 21.05 14.05 07.05 30.04 23.04 16.04 09.04 02.04 26.03 19.03 12.03 05.03 26.02 19.02 12.02 05.02 29.01 22.01 15.01 08.01 01.01

2000: 25.12 18.12 11.12 04.12 27.11 20.11


Archive search. You never know.