For greying types in their early-to-mid-40s like myself, Jeremy Brett is our Sherlock Holmes and rather terrific he was too. Natalie and I went to see the production he and Edward Hardwicke toured with at the Hull New Theatre. He really was quite astonishing to watch live - every tick, each flare of the nostril seemed entirely spontaneous and natural. Slightly before Brett seized the role and made it his own, Tom Baker, fresh from his life altering spell as Doctor Who, was also a rather splendid Holmes. It's a shame he didn't get the chance to do more. In comics, Edginton and Culbard's adaptations of the four novels are splendid. For audio Holmes on the go, these readings recorded by Peter Cushing in the early 70s are a delight. If you've read every Holmes story three times and still want more, Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk takes no liberties and isn't half-bad at all.
As we skimmed through Spaghetti junction yesterday, Harry speculated as to how old it was. He pitched at ten years, while I volunteered I thought it opened in the early 70s. And, bish bosh, today is the 41st anniversary of the opening of the Gravelly Hill Interchange. I once had dinner with one of the construction engineers at a Japanese restaurant in Singapore. He was out there digging a tunnel. That makes me sound much more sophisticated and jetsetting than, in reality, I am.
"Interestingly enough, I did have breakfast with Alex Garland this morning," he told Collider. "It's not off the agenda." He being Karl Urban (quite possibly the world's greatest genre-flick actor) and it being a Dredd (quite possibly the best genre-flick of this century) sequel.
A few thoughts about RSS news readers from someone who thinks about them way more than you probably do. In other news, I'm trying out The Old Reader.
I'm prepared to listen to arguments in favour of Zatoichi. And Bubba Ho-Tep. Both those films lean towards comedy. Dredd leans towards aggro. I'm torn.
Outside an ice cream van chimes just as the rain splats once more against the skylights.
I'm off to ride a bike that goes nowhere, then have another run at sorting out some software that helps you ride your bike somewhere.
The Deep The World's Only Submarium! I have no idea what that means but it sounds ace. I should visit Hull again, haven't been back there for years.
Osgood-Schlatter disease is an irritation of the patellar ligament at the tibial tuberosity.[1] It is characterized by painful lumps just below the knee and is most often seen in young adolescents. Risk factors may include excess weight and overzealous conditioning (running and jumping), but adolescent bone growth is at the root of it.
Email from the school telling us that [our] son was given a letter this morning with strict instructions to deliver it to you, please ask him for it. A copy of the letter was attached the email too. Since we now have the letter, well ahead of the end of the school day, I can only conclude this some kind of test. Can Year 8 boys successfully transport a piece of paper, an important piece of paper, from school to home and then remember to give it to us?
The letter isn't actually that important. It's essentially a reminder that the school trip is in a couple of weeks, a list of what to bring, and of what not to bring. Is is a test.
I know it's childish, but I do snigger every time the Met Office is a Warning of Wind.
Leave a cashpoint this morning, I dropped something out of my wallet. I was alerted to this by a private hire driver, who communicated with me the only way he knew how.
Waiting outside the gym with Harry when the door opens and virtually the entire British Womens Artistic Squad walked passed. They look bigger than they do on the telly. Except for Rebecca Tunney. She's tiny.
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Lasted 49.28 seconds on Super Hexagon. It was like time stood still. Contemplating declaring victory and retiring.
Trying out the new Android Studio. Immediate impression is it's just like Intelli-J but dark grey. Second impression is oh, it has the new Gradle build stuff. It's a keeper then.
Clippy.js - Sometimes you look at a piece of software and you just sigh.
Just seen Phillip Schofield off the telly on his way to work on the telly. Whoever was chauffeuring him this morning (did you see what I did there) is a really, really bad and dangerous driver and should find other employment. And be given a good shoeing. I watched him overtake a cyclist so slowly and closely the guy on the bike could have easily collected Schofield's autograph on the way past. Having barely cleared the bike, chauffeur-boy immediately turned left across the cyclist into the This Morning studios. That's the kind of manoeuvre that puts people in hospital.
I’m trying out NewsBlur.
Harry's injured his knee. Please kick my pushy parent arse.
Tried to read an article on cassette tapes - Can not play media
Last Bat-Time, Last Bat-Channel - The strange case of Bill Finger's last Batman story.
Been up since half past four this morning, at work for ten hours, now off to a gig. It'll be FAB!
London's contours and lost rivers. That's based on OpenStreetMap data, obviously, who are running a donation drive at the moment. Chip in, if you can.
Think I finally sorted the last kink in the CycleStreets App sat-nav mode yesterday morning. I've set things up so that if you go off track it automatically replans the route for you. Problem was itwas sometimes doing that even when you didn't go off course. Not disasterous, but as the euphemism has it "sub-optimal". I finally realised the calculation I was doing to try and determine how far along the current part of the route you were, the along track distance, was just doing completely the wrong thing. Specifically, I was trying to work out if you were off the end of the current route segment, perhaps because you'd missed a turning or you'd just turned round and pedalled off in the other direction.
102-Year-Old Abandoned Ship is a Floating Forest
I've let the whole thing sit for several weeks, which in the end turned out to be a good thing, because if I'd chased it at the time I would almost have certainly carried on being wrong and probably just go wronger. Yesterday morning, after drawing a few little diagrams and realising some of my test data would give those particular results because the Earth isn't flat, the right calculation was suddenly startlingly clear. Pleasing.
More maps - Greg's Map of undersea cables. There are cables across the Pacific! That's astonishing. Here's West Midlands life expectancy by train station. The station in Moseley closed in 1941, so no idea how long we get to live. Perhaps that's why a former local councillor campaigned so hard to get it reopened?
She Spoke Of Bikes In Birmingham
Mowed the grass. It is my one contribution to garden maintenance. Actually starting to enjoy it. I'm nearly 44 you know.
Email from my son. In full, it reads Thanks for the Merder!!!!!
Just lasted 30.11 seconds on a game of Super Hexagon. It is what "casual games" should be, not yet another tedious Bejeweled variation.
Spark Meet Gasoline (Works in Progress). Kristin Hersh has a captivatingly otherworldly voice, gently more so now than then.
11 Most Absurd Inventions Created By MacGyver - Items: Obedient dog, bottle of sulfuric acid, yardstick, jar. Result: Catapult to launch acid into a position where it can burn binding ropes.
Image Duplicator - I call the assumption that making something BIG makes it Art Lichtenstein's Law. But the more I delve into this, the more I reserve special contempt for the gallerists and dealers who promote this cultural annexation - who are happy to display the results of this kind of copying in places like the Tate, our cathedrals of culture, as pinnacles of artistic excellence that deserve to be lionised.
Judge Minty extended audio - suspected vintage comicbook seller on McMahon Skedway
Email this morning from my online dogfood shop of choice began "Hello Pet Parents!" If their service wasn't so good, I'd go elsewhere immediately.
Going to a gig next week. Haven't been out and about for ages. Excited.
