I’m guilty of watching this too many times for my own good. I now have people walking past my desk thinking I need to get to out more. But I don’t care. I love Keith’s enthusiasm and if everyone tried as hard as he did, there would be no need for guns, anthrax and cavity searches. Domo arigato gozaimasu.

There are so many images of Richard Rogers’ Lloyds building but I think it’s one of those buildings you can only appreciate up close and personal. And while the Gherkin is only metres away, this structure, with its services (lifts, pipes, stairs etc) exposed, plays such a different game with light and shadow.

To quote Rogers himself:
“Buildings are not idiosyncratic private institutions: they give public performances both to the user and the passerby.”

Rogers & Lloyds

Equipment: Hasselblad 500 C/M + Carl Zeiss Planar 2.8/80 T*
Film: Ilford HP5 Plus

One of the decent things about working in an interactive agency is that your colleagues find the best crap on the interweb. There are no superlatives that give this clip proper justice.

I’ve been scanning my dad’s old Kodachrome slide film and found this gem from 1988. I was in my first year of high school and obviously very in touch with high fashion. Back then I had the most ridiculous frontal section of hair that basically cushioned any blow to my forehead (by anything) just by sheer volume and density.

And since I afford myself the luxury of a quiet smirk at the odd bit of idiocy by others, it seems only fair that the door swings both ways.

Acid Wash

It’s like legitimizing a toy once forbidden for boys to enjoy. But at £330 a pop, my inner boy is still not interested. But major kudos for effort though. Artist link here.

The Joker

Stormy

He-Man: Prince of Eternia

Leia

Fat ladies on the bus dropping shopping bags filled with custard and syrup on your lap? Work experience kid make your coffee this morning? Work colleagues discover you like High School Musical?

Time to go Zen Bound.

I was recommended this app yesterday and I’ve not been able to put it down. Forget the cost (£2.99) - this little sucker is well worth your hard-earned (making assumptions) cash. Find yourself in a Buddhist like state by the most therapeutic of games. What’s more the developers have actually paid attention to the app’s aesthetics. Finally an app that marry a decent design with addictive interaction. The world may be collapsing around you but five minutes playing Zen Bound will have your soul at peace and your mind at rest.

Zen Bound

Watched the dramatisation of a Dickens classic the other day and one piece of script genius (which probably could be applied to every part of my life) has not left my head:

“If I could offer an opinion in regards to this scheme? It seems, uh, foolhardy, riddled with danger, and doomed to failure. Otherwise I can find no fault with it.”

Newman Noggs in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens.

BOOMBOX from Ely Kim on Vimeo.

Read a great article on Heath Ledger’s dedication to his craft by Great Hugh Hart. Really hope the Academy have the balls to give him the Gong regardless of the anarchist nature of his role or their own weird ideas on what films should be recognised as ‘great’. Do yourself a favour and watch Two Hands, Monster’s Ball and Brokeback Mountain.

My other picks for tonight’s Gongs:

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire. Why go against the grain right?
Best Director: Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon). Great closeups of Nixon’s sweaty lip.
Best Actor: Mickey Rouke (The Wrestler). Come on - just look at him. Give the geezer a break!
Best Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader). Watch her episode on Ricky Gervais’s Extras, then you’ll see how she’s on the list.
Best Actress Supporting Role: Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler). Because she defended Glam Rock in the film.
Best Animated Feature: Wall-E. Jen, Ben, Richard, Julia and all the rest of the god-awful romantic comedy regulars can take real lessons from this film.
Best Documentary: Man on Wire. Captivated from start to finish.

Dark Knight

Frank Gehry’s Fred & Ginger (as in Astaire and Rogers), now nicknamed Dancing House was one of the first buildings I put on my ‘must see’ list years ago. Nice to finally get here and even nicer to see its contrast with the Neo-Baroque, Neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau buildings for which Prague is famous for.

Fred & Ginger by Frank O. Gehry

It’s no surprise that parts of this city have UNESCO world heritage listing - we’re finding it quite the enchanting mix of cold-war austerity and Baroque extravagance. I must admit I also feel like we’re walking around in a Hansel and Gretel fable - possibly wanting to lick the facades of some of these buildings but for the most part I’m happy with a Czech sausage.

Prague

Prague

Started my journey to work today, then was turned back at the station. But it did make for a nice little detour through the park on my way home.

Walpole Park

Walpole Park

More here.

Do you like hamsters?

More here.

Probably both the most god-awful piece of television to be accidentally stumbled upon (accidentally being the operative word) as well as the best laugh I’ve had in a long time. Oh 90210 what has happened to thou? When it was first released in 1990 I was 14. So needless to say that my early teens were spent in awe of the beautiful yet slightly disturbing 30-year-old-looking high schoolers, the Google-like high school campuses (way before Larry and Sergey had cool-ass cafeterias and slippery dips indoors), and driving to school in a Corvette.

But the years have not been kind to the 2009 reincarnation of the series. Twenty years on, it seems anorexia is the new form of proving your high school age, musical theatre is all the rage, and Brandon has gone black! Well, maybe not Brandon exactly, but the son of the new family who just moved into the postcode. Ah the joy.

Brandon in 1990

Brandon in 2009 (sort of)

This is the result of a Curtis’s bat handle, his wayward swing, and Alastair’s chin and gum’s being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

One of the things I really appreciate about where I work is the worldview of the people in this room. Not to say that those in our work areas downstairs didn’t share the same sense of history being made - this was still a normal work day and not everyone was able to get away from what they were doing. And while it would of been amazing to be in Washington, sharing the moment with like-minded individuals you see almost every day of the week was still an experience to be savoured.

History

Amid the spectacle that is going to be the 44th presidential inauguration, and from a campaign that was so rooted in the interweb, it seems only fitting that the masses be the ones capturing ‘the moment’. CNN seems to be onto something very nice. Using Microsoft Photosynth are asking any of the millions standing around in the Washington chill to send in their photos of the moment President-elect Barack Obama becomes President Barack Obama. See it here.