A single act of carelessness leads to the eternal loss of beauty.

Ansel Adams' Lost LA

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:58:21 GMT

A collection of photos of 1940s LA by Ansel Adams, recently unearthed.

"I don't recall what I was searching for when I came across the Ansel Adams photographs of Los Angeles at the beginning of World War II..."

Via Kottke.

Noughty noughty, very noughty

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:44:08 GMT

Like all good ideas, this one is stolen (hi Jon!).

So:

What is the best album of the 2000s?

The best film?

Pick a couple if you can't decide/if you think there are some worthy mentions.

Toys

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:47:35 GMT

Where were toys like the Casio EX-F1 when I was a kid, eh? (Ignoring the price tag for a moment):

Slow motion Youtube video of toy cars being blown up

In other news, I went to the West Oxfordshire Shooting School this weekend with some people from work. Great and pretty affordable fun. Kablam!

Photos here. Apologies to those who already saw this on Facebook.

Lovely Weather

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:50:51 GMT

Could be worse, could be... oh.

Oxford City Fireworks

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:09:40 GMT

Click for bigger

Taken with my new Canon S90. A slightly pricey but impressively good compact digital camera.

Video here (on Youtube), shot with the same camera.

Fun Ways to Die

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:03:12 GMT

All of There I Fixed It is awesome, but this in particular qualifies for FWTD:

Petrol powered creeper

(A creeper is a skateboard-like device that you lie on and crawl under cars to fix stuff underneath).

Stornoway "Fuel Up" Lyrics

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:10:15 GMT

Because I couldn't find this elsewhere on the web, I've transcribed "Fuel Up" by Stornoway:

Curled up in the back of the car
9 years old you don't know where you are
And your head's on the window, your eyes are just closed
There's a voice in the front and a hush on the road
You're a passenger but your mind is travelling on

Open your eyes and you're 9 years older
Hands on the wheel and you're racing on over
To lie with your first love, you can't wait to see her
You borrowed the car and you think you're the driver
But now you're the passenger to your own heart and it takes you travelling, travelling on

When the morning broke and the sky fell down
It went black as night and the wind blew round
And stole your directions, you lost your way home
And you felt like a passenger left by the road
But I'll tell you the reason you couldn't get home

Cause there's nowhere you've been and it's nowhere you're going
Home is only a feeling you get in your mind
From the people you love and you travel beside
You may feel like a passenger but now you're the driver
You've got to go travelling, travelling on
Because if you break down, it's a cold, hard shoulder

So fuel up your mind and fire up your heart
and drive on.
Drive on, drive on
And when your days are darker, put your foot down harder
Drive on, drive on.

And it's 9 more years you've been driving now
But tonight you're stumbling through your old town
You met up with a schoolfriend who's still just the same
And you talked all the same shit you talked in those days
And now you're drunk and you're sad for the old times passing you by

For there's no rewind so you might as well play while your time is rolling away
And get back on the road, it's a beautiful day
Pick up all the friends you can find on your way
And if you lose direction they'll be there guiding you on
Guiding you, guiding you on.
We're all going the same way down this long road
[So fuel up]
Yes, we're all bound the same way down this long, long road

So fuel up your mind and fire up your heart
And drive on
Drive on, drive on
And when your days are darker, put your foot down harder
Drive on
Fuel up, and drive on
Fuel up, and drive on
Drive on.

Obsolescence

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:03:36 GMT

Further to my post about when you last used a payphone:

When and where did you last use a cassette tape? Bonus points if it wasn't in your car.

Mine was probably a recording of me reading Ant and Bee stories aged about 6, and a few weeks ago when at my parents' house in Cambridge.

Fun Ways to Die

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:12:39 GMT

This one's unlikely to be fatal, but I think it deserves an honourable mention for sheer cowboy mechanics.

How to change a VW Beetle fanbelt in under 5 seconds. While the car is running.

Longbridge Way Round

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:47:41 GMT

OK, so the Midget was built in Abingdon, but it made a good title. This is a fun story:

Man drives MG Midget round the world to win a bet with his neighbour who said it wouldn't make it

Downfall parodies

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:35:54 GMT

Every time I see another Downfall subtitle parody video - a meme that's been doing the rounds for a while, for those who haven't seen them before. Essentially people are replacing the subtitles with a humorous rant. However, I find I cannot banish the spoken German from my head, which interferes with the comedy.

Hence, I have done it properly:

Edit: This one is good, though!

Payphones

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:40:00 GMT

This article made me think, and I realised I actually cannot remember when I last used a payphone. I reckon it must be at least five years ago, possibly more.

So: do you remember when and where you last used a payphone?

ETA: My last clear memory of using one is in my first year at university (98/99). I was a relatively late adopter of mobiles and didn't get one till my 2nd year. So I think that could well be 10 years since I used a payphone.

Fun ways to die

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:55:34 GMT

Being an adult should involve more stuff like this:

Jet-powered merry go round [Youtube video, courtesy boingboing]

Heidelberg

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:13:54 GMT

This. This is why I love Heidelberg. D'you see?

Macintosh Portable

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:44:46 GMT

It seems that the Macintosh Portable has just turned 20 years old. I remember getting to play with one of those when they were new! While hardly portable by modern standards, I'd love to add one to my collection. Anyone got one gathering dust? ;-)

In other news, I'm off to Germany tomorrow for (among other things) the annual Hockenheim classic car event on Sat/Sun, complete with run out on the F1 track.

Fun Ways to Die

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:45:10 GMT

This time, Trabant[1] Rallying [Youtube].

Nice recovery!

[1] East German car made of "recycled material, cotton waste from Russia and phenol resins from the East German dye industry" and featuring until 1990 a 2 cylinder 2-stroke engine.

Pretty views

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:38:39 GMT

More here, including a couple showing St Giles' fair from a distance

AMOC Autumn Concours, Mapledurham

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:40:01 GMT

Today, courtesy of her free ticket, ms_saffie and I went to the AMOC Autumn Concours event at Mapledurham (a stately home near Reading). Lots of shiny metal there, including the new Aston Martin One-77 (pictured) - a limited run of 77 cars, 7.3litre V12, (are you sitting down?) £1.2 million...

Complete set of photos here, on flickr.

Fun Ways to Die

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:16:45 GMT

brrm most definitely does have room for:

Road-legal bumper cars. Supposedly capable of 160mph :-O

Art Does Not Have Room For

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:32:03 GMT

This arrived through my letterbox today. I'm pretty sure I don't have room for that many:

My whole life

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:39:33 GMT

Some of you might know that I was enough of an early adopter to get the username art on Twitter. Today, my client flags up the following message because it mentioned my name. I get a lot of these, usually referring to art-the-noun. However, this one seems to want me to give him my username with no readily apparent benefit to myself:

Art_News: @art I would be very happy to have the name @art & run with it. Art is my whole life, and you would make me eternally grateful for it.

Well, Mr Art_News: it happens to be my name. Sorry. ;-)

Brrm brrm

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:16:40 GMT

Today, in exchange for helping man the Aston Martin Heritage Trust stall for 2 days at the launch of the Aston Martin V12 Vantage (pictured right) and DBS Volante in Long Stratton, ms_saffie arranged for me to have a test drive in the new V12 Vantage. Yes, the one you saw on the last episode of this year's Top Gear [Youtube link]. It's similar to the original (V8) Vantage, but it has the 6 litre V12 engine from the DBS.

To say I was terrified of it is about accurate, when I got in. It didn't help, of course, that at £135,000 the car is worth around half of my house. The craftsmanship is amazing, and the cabin feels more like a spaceship than a car; the gauges and switches like precision-made watches in the dash. Hand-stitched leather is everywhere, and the steering wheel is covered with a soft suede-like leather.

Slide the glassy rectangular "key" into the slot on the dashboard, and hold. It lights up, and the V12 burbles into life. The clutch, accelerator and brake are not at all difficult to operate - light in action, and as you might expect a normal car to be. And of course, in the Vantage, the transmission is a normal manual gearlever, no flappy paddles. Pulling away, it all feels very familiar, and the nervousness dissipates a little. The handbrake, incidentally, is curious. It's between the driver and the door, and acts like a momentary up-down switch rather than a mechanical "locks-up" lever.

Once on the open road, the demonstrator showed me the 'sport mode' button. Press this and, despite my suspicions that not much difference would be evident, the throttle response really does increase. And, on encouragement to put my foot down, I did so.

A 0-60 time of 4.1 seconds does not adequately convey just how mind-bending the acceleration is in this car. Sure, you only get 4 seconds of fun before you hit the national speed limit but wow, those are four seconds I could repeat over and over. The soundtrack, too, is simply glorious. As the torquey engine (570Nm, three times the torque of my most powerful car) pulls away from 500(!) RPM up the rev range, the muted burble becomes a howling symphony of metal.

The handling is every bit as good as I'd been led to expect. Through a series of open left-right bends, it remained flat, manageable and giving plenty of feedback.

Sadly, I couldn't keep it all day. They say that if you ever got to sleep with the celebrity you've always fancied, it'll probably be a disappointment. But that's not the case here. Not even slightly. I have driven what is without doubt the best car I have ever and will ever drive. What's next? ;-)

Also in the set of photos from the day is A3, the oldest Aston Martin in existence, which has been painstakingly restored/reconstructed over the past ~2.5 years, using only 5 photographs as a reference. It's a beautiful old machine, and even more frighteningly valuable than the cost of a new Aston:

Sad artefact is sad

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:12:57 GMT

Sad movie encoding artefact:

Photo update

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:48:45 GMT

First: some photos from the Great Bucks Steam Fair 2009 (also contains classic cars, motorbikes, bicycles and horses).

And second, some photos taken in Kilchoan, on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, using my Bronica medium format camera (pictured). Only developed 4 years after taking them...

TV appearances

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:09:55 GMT

The QI elves claim that 25% of the population of the USA has appeared on television. Which made me curious.

View Poll: 15 Minutes of Fame