Duaflex

Through the Viewfinder

Taken through the viewfinder of the camera in the entry above this. Weird, I know, but surprisingly popular on flickr, where you can see examples much more interesting than this initial attempt...

Macro Fuzzy

Close up

Only cubic when it rains

HP and Flickr have ganged up to enable you to make wee photo cubes from your flickr photos - in a spirit of seasonal something or other I've made one using some of my more watery photos (except for the record player one, though since it doesn't work after years in the garage water may well be involved somehow). Anyway, you can download it here if you fancy a photo cube...

A very Potato Christmas again

This year's version of this photo. The additional hats and antlers are there entirely to add a Christmassy feel and in no way to try and conceal the fact that in this scene Julie (who unfortunately couldn't make it tonight) is played by Colin (enthusiastic, yet ultimately unconvincing in the role).

Gravity

Occasionally, when my brother and I were wee, we'd pass some time on particularly boring Sundays by lying on the floor pretending that it was actually the ceiling and the ceiling was the floor. After a couple of minutes it was quite easy to see that the light hanging down from the ceiling was actually a strange, thin-stemmed table lamp and the ceiling had comfy chairs stuck to it. Anyway, sometimes I still do the same thing...(though it's harder to get right in photoshop than in your head and I'm just not entirely convinced by the shadows :-(

Hands

Read me like a book - Take 2

Another one of the book photos - I still really need to redo this with better lighting...

Hawkforce

willow
Originally uploaded by Lebeus

I remember someone telling me they'd tried to rid the Computer Lab of a sudden infestation of rats not long after it was built by bringing in a falcon.

I'm not sure if it was the official Cambridge Uni Falcon (complete with its own perch in the Vice-Chancellor's office, a heraldic waistcoat, and 800 years of tradition) but it may well have been as apparently the poor beast was not au fait with the concept of windows and knocked itself out on the vast expanses of glass involved in the Gates Building.

However, in order to deal with a surfeit of pigeons, the Lab have recently managed to secure the services of some more up-to-date birds from Hawkforce, as pictured here by Lebeus...

Writers' Rooms

The BBC have a slideshow with commentary of photos taken by Eamonn McCabe of various writers' rooms which is strangely fascinating (I'm very nosy). I particularly liked Martin Amis's room which has a glass ceiling with a tide of fallen leaves creeping across it, the big painting in J.G. Ballard's room, and Ian Rankin's window.

On the other hand, Beryl Bainbridge's room is Victorian-novel creepy with a dead ship in a tank (or maybe it's still alive, and she keeps it like a goldfish); A.L. Kennedy's blood-red nightmare appears to reflect her short-stories/novels (good but gloomy) rather than her blog (often very amusing); and, disappointingly, Craig Raine's didn't contain a single Martian or flying book...

Double Violin

Another strange retrieved photo...

Wobbly

 

Still cataloguing, still very dull, but here's another photo I found in the process...

One Way Street

George Square with Christmas Lights

Glasgow City Council: making Christmas tackier every year...

Ron Butlin

Ron Butlin reading at the Vital Synz gig at Sloans last night.

Valley of the Dolls

At the moment, and for many moments to come I suspect, I'm cataloguing my backlist of photos properly using Lightroom. This is fairly horrific (you would not believe how many photos of the cat I have - or maybe you would...). But not as horrific as the picture I just found of my old collection of Barbies/Sindys which I took just before it was consigned to a rubbish dump somewhere during a major clearout of the loft a while back:


As you can see, I was particularly keen on the DIY aspect of doll-keeping: their clothes, their makeup and, particularly, their hair. No matter how many dolls I scalped I never grasped the fact that the hair is put in in a stripe down the centre of the head which results in an automatic mohican if cut. Hairdressing was clearly not a talent. But I did have the toughest looking bunch of dolls around...

Read me like a book

Going to have another shot at this in the daylight I think - the lighting was a bit crap, hence the strange crop...

Threads of Sound 5

It was the latest Threads of Sound gig on Friday. Unfortunately the giant octopus had to pull out due to illness (severe indigestion, apparently), but Ned Collette, If You Lived Here You'd Be Home By Now, RM Hubbert, and The Moth and the Mirror all played and sang beautifully...

Sit down, sit down, sit down...

Paisley by night

Body Double

Bloodaxe Videos

This is less alarming than it sounds, unless you happen to have a terrible fear of poets (which you may): Bloodaxe Poets on Film. For some reason I can't get it to work on Firefox, but it runs okay on IE.

More Party Pics

Here are a few more photos from the christening party yesterday...

Michael making a toast

Andrew ignoring the throng of admiring photographers surrounding him.

David framed strangely by books and a door.

"I wonder what will happen if I bite this finger?" Andrew with Rachel and Hannah.

Baby runs amok with knife in pursuit of cake!

Teeth

After a tiring morning being christened, Andrew was keen to get his teeth into a good book...

...and some cake.

Lace-up

Heather agreed to be yesterday's photo-subject in a couple of very glamorous corsets, despite my completely inept assistance with the lacing - it's much more complex than it looks to get the laces pulled in the right order. I would never have cut it as a Victorian lady's maid...

Signs