The Weather

I’d just like to say I’m getting really fed up with the weather.  Thank you.

Harold Budd kept me sane

It's been a gloomy week this week. Apart from the rain and wind, my PC decided to call it a day (I had backed everything up the day before, thanks for asking).

So in need of a bit of cheering up where do I turn? Lady GaGa? Pet Shop Boys? Lily Allen? Well, all of these actually, but the music that really did the trick was Harold Budd and his neo-classical doodlings. Along with his mates Brian Eno and Andy Partridge, it's been just the right sort of music to wash over me, allowing me to get an important report written and forget about the most depressing month of the year. I commend Mr Budd and his works to you.

National Geographic

I'm a big fan of National Geographic Magazine for the quality of their articles and the brilliance of their photographs. This month's issue is well up to standard and I was very struck by one picture by Monica Szczupider of chimpanzees mourning the death of one of their number.

Cameroon—At the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, more than a dozen residents form a gallery of grief, looking on as Dorothy—a beloved female felled in her late 40s by heart failure—is borne to her burial.

Original Jake and Dinos Chapman art

I've been having a bit of a trawl through my database (it's nice to have a tidy up occasionally). I came across the following artwork which was given away, I think, by the Guardian website. It's by Jake and Dinos Chapman and I thought that you out there in the Blogosphere might be interested.

Birds on a wire

I saw this photograph in National Geographic magazine and it made me smile.

London tourist tube map

With all the fuss about TfL removing the Thames from the tube map, lodonist.com have come up with a new simplified map for tourists.

Nice fretwork, sir!

Cross dressing, a thumping bass and glasses of milk (towards the end). What's not to like?