The tram debacle

The mess caused by the imposition of a tram line in Edinburgh (and it is an imposition - citizens were not consulted, there was no referendum, probably because the last major city transport referendum - congestion charges - the citizens voted against the council's wishes and they don't want that again) is even more of a joke this week. Last week the main contractors walked off the job just as they closed Princes Street, the busiest main street of the capital, supposedly for almost a year. Which doesn't help the struggling shops and other businesses on Princes St now buses have to be laboriously diverted (adding longer to journeys - especially for those of us who have more than one set of major tram works holding us up every sodding day) and also makes a mess of a busy street and putting off tourists. Just what's needed in a rough economic climate.

Bus journeys into town were already down as folks avoided coming in because of the tram chaos, now this. And although the council and the contractors are blaming each other while trying to negotiate a resumption of the work the bloody useless eejits in the council have left the diversions in place all bloody week so we're all being shoved through more sodding long diversions even although there is no work being carried out and no good reason to put us to this extra hassle every day. I think that shows the attitude the planners actually have to the people of Edinburgh and how little they care about the stress and hassle they are putting citizens and businesses to.

Happy 4th birthday, Forbidden Planet blog

The Forbidden Planet International blog I set up a few days after starting work there turned four years old today.

Happy 4th birthday, Forbidden Planet blog

The Forbidden Planet International blog I set up a few days after starting work there turned four years old today. Its vastly jumped up the Technorati rankings since it started, had some nice things said about it by a lot of folks, we've posted a ton of reviews on all sorts of comics, graphic novels and SF&F books, news and interviews with authors and artists from those who create in their spare time at home right up to the giants of the medium like Alan Moore, and hopefully we've done something I've always enjoyed doing and that's introducing readers to books and graphic novels they might not have picked up otherwise. I've been a bookseller for years and written about books and comics (and movies for that matter) for about as long but that's still one of the best feelings, when someone tells you they picked up something new that they might not have read because the saw it mentioned and as a result they found something new that they discovered they loved. I still get a buzz from that.

Paris by night

This time last year I was getting all excited about going to Paris and feeling the beat and rhythm of the City of Lights, the air, the language, the buzz on the busy, historic streets. And I was happy :

horses on the beach

Down on the beach near Yellowcraig by the Fidra Lighthouse, walking along the long shore towards North Berwick, it brightened up as a couple of riders on horseback came along the beach:

Watchmen - the Keene Act

Readers of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons seminal Watchmen graphic novel will already be aware of the Keene Act, legislation passed in the alternative America of the Watchmen to outlaw the superheroes as vigilantes. New Frontiersman (named for one of the magazines which crops up throughout the graphic novel) is a marketing site which has been slowly releasing bits and pieces of pics, info and viral videos ahead of the film version of the Watchmen coming out in March, including this latest one, done in the style of a really bad 70s public information film (incidentally, there's a possibility I may be back on the BBC radio again to talk about the movie next month too, more if and when its settled):



(link via the FPI blog)

The Diagram Prize

Each year the Bookseller magazine runs the Diagram Award which is for the book published in the last year with the oddest title; these are real published books, submitted by booksellers - last year's winner was If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs. This year's final shortlist contender are:

• Baboon Metaphysics by Dorothy L Cheney and Robert M Seyfarth

• Curbside Consultation of the Colon by Brooks D Cash

• The Large Sieve and its Applications by Emmanuel Kowalski

• Strip and Knit with Style by Mark Hordyszynski

• Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring by Lietai Yang

• The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais by Professor Philip M Parker

The award will be announced on March 27th and is an annual event enjoyed by British booksellers. Personally I've always loved it, its a bit of fun and it appeals to my sense and love of the Absurd that these are the real titles of actual books (it also nicely reinforces the commonly held perception that we in Britain, especially among the literary fraternity, are, to put it politely, 'eccentric', which is no bad thing in my opinion. Booksellers, librarians and bookshops should be a little eccentric and individual). Link via the BBC

Tesla Coils do Doctor Who theme

The Tesla Coils do their own unique interpretation of the iconic Doctor Who theme (via Boing Boing) - geektastic!

Sinning

According to Vatican research men and women sin in different ways - for men Lust is the biggest temptation of the Seven Deadly Sins. Well, wow, imagine that - men are obsessed with shagging! Hold the front pages for that shocker. Said findings come based on research on confessions by a 85 year old Jesuit - I'm sure an ancient celibate can tell us all about sexual matters, which is why we should all take advice on sex and related manners such as family planning from the Catholic Church. Oh, hold on, I meant to say, cobblers to all of that. Fortunately I do not commit any sins whatsoever. Not, I hasten to add, because I am a paragon of virtue but because, thankfully, I am free of the superstitious shackles of fairy tale religions and so the concept doesn't apply to me. Ladies, apparently, are more likely to give in to the sin of Pride than lust, which, like the nonsense statistics which say men commit more adultery than women, begs the question if this is accurate then who are the men committing lustful affairs with? Or is it more likely that the women simply don't want to admit to being a bit naughty?

Pink Martini - Lily

Melanie's really got me into Pink Martini recently, I've been totally grooving on their albums Hey, Eugene, Hang on, Little Tomato and Sympathique, with an intoxicating mixture of styles, themes and even different languages on some songs (Spanish, French, Italian, English and more). Check them out, your ears will thank you. This is them performing 'Lily'; it makes me want to grab someone and dance...

Doctor Who anime

This fan-made anime-style Doctor Who is pretty bloody good - Jon Pertwee era Doctor kicking it Japanese anime style with his Venusiak Aikido, genius! I'd love to see a pro version of this authorised by the Beeb:

Phone box in the snow

Snowy weather in Edinburgh, at least it makes for good photo opportunities.

This Way Up

Britain's nominee for possible Oscar glory in the short animation category this year is This Way Up, a lovely little Edward Gorey-esque dark comedy of a father and son undertakers attempting to bury a little old lady after an unlikely accident sees the hearse flattened with a boulder, taking them struggling across country with the coffin and then into the Afterlife in their quest to finish the job, all performed without words. For a change instead of just reading about it or seeing a clip we can actually watch the entire short animation on the BBC's Film Network site (the Beeb part funded the film by Nexus' Adam Foulkes and Alan Smith). While you're there have a poke around the rest of that site because the Beeb have some other animation and other short film gems there (I'm not sure if it is geo-locked to only play for folks with UK ISPs or not though and you will need Windows Media Player or Real Player to watch it).

The weather: a comparison

This seems to have been doing the round on the web and passed around by email:

50F degrees
People in southern England turn on the central heating
People in Edinburgh plant out bedding plants

40F degrees
Southerners shiver uncontrollably
Glaswegians sunbathe on the beach at Largs

35F degrees
Cars in the south of England refuse to start People in Falkirk drive
with their windows down

20F degrees
Southerners wear overcoats, gloves and woolly hats Aberdonian men throw
on a T-shirt; girls start wearing mini-skirts

15F degrees
Southerners begin to evacuate to the continent People from Dundee swim
in the River Tay at Broughty Ferry

Zero degrees
Life in the south grinds to a halt
Inverness folk have the last BBQ before it gets cold

Minus 10F degrees
Life in the south ceases to exist
People in Dunfermline throw on a light jacket

Minus 80F degrees
Polar bears wonder if it's worth carrying on
Boy Scouts in Oban start wearing their long trousers

Minus 100F degrees
Santa Claus abandons North Pole
People in Stirling put on their 'long johns'

Minus 173F degrees
Alcohol freezes
Glaswegians get upset because all the pubs are shut

Minus 297F degrees
Microbial life starts to disappear
The cows in Dumfriesshire complain about farmers with cold hands

Minus 460F degrees
All atomic motion stops
Shetlanders stamp their feet and blow on their hands

Minus 500F degrees
Hell freezes over

Fry's English Delight

I missed this first time around but BBC Radio 4 is repeating a series on the way the English language and they way people use it changes; it's typically Fry being clever, informative and highly amusing all at the same time.

Snowy hills

In the Campsie Hills (an extinct volcanic range north of Glasgow - my parent's home has a great view of them) a couple of weekends ago with dad taking some photos; snow lower down had melted, snow on top of the hills and bens was still there, the streams and burns full of ice and the wind bitterly arctic. Still beautiful though and the weather didn't stop people going out for a good walk on the hills as we passed quite a few.

Neil Gaiman talks buttons

Neil Gaiman says a few words about the humble button (ahead of the release of the animated version of his book Coraline, which featurs the superbly creepy Other Mother, with her button eyes...):

A room in the West End

I've drunk in the pub above this bistro (Teuchtars in the West End) but never eaten in it, but I love the colours the sign makes on the wall:

Edinburgh in the snow

A very quick 360 degree video panorama of Edinburgh from North Bridge (which connects Old and New Towns) during the heavy snows on the way to work last week. It only took a minute but my coat was covered white in that time and the high winds on such an exposed spot were swirling the snow flakes so much you can barely see the Castle, but I thought it was worth it for a quick capture to give you an idea. In better weather this is a great spot for views across the city (if you are ever visiting its a good spot to take pics from)

Eddie's Images

My cousin Eddie has just started his own blog with some of his very fine photographs.

Bloody trams

The mess Edinburgh is in because of the buggering tram works continues to get worse - streets ripped up, constant roadworks, diversions, lengthy delays for weeks and months, bus timetables all over the place because of the delays, totally messed up pavements and pedestrian crossings (in fact in some places the crossing is now unavailable altogether because of the works and no safe alternative has been put in place, which has doubtless contributed to the three pedestrians injured in accidents inside a couple of weeks in and around Princes Street) and a fortune spent ripping up pavements we paid to have widen just a few years ago, now all being narrowed again, cycle lanes lost, listed buildings demolished and now an official letter replying to a disabled lady with MS tells her the disabled probably should go to an out of town shopping centre rather than Princes Street for the next few years while the works go on:

"I would not recommend visiting the city centre while the tram works are being carried out and would suggest instead that you continue to visit the Gyle Shopping Centre as it has dedicated parking for Blue Badge holders and an in situ Lothian Shopmobility service" (via the Evening news)

All this despite the fact the incompetents at the tram company (a council arms-length company) and the council insist that everything in the city is open for business as usual during the years of the expensive white elephant that is the tram, yet here they are telling folks not to come in (many already aren't, even before the credit crunch bit numbers taking the bus into the city centre were way down as folks avoid it because of the endless delays). These idiots are all being paid out of the public purse...

If we were going to have a decent new transport system out of it at the end of it all perhaps it might be worth it, but its just one near useless line - it goes nowhere near where the vast majority of Edinburgh residents live so it will be no use to them. I live fairly centrally and it will still be useless to me when finished, I (and 4/5 of the rest of the city) will still rely on the bus. And the bus will continue to be held up even after the tram works are finished because they will get right of way at junctions... They will also get in the way of cycles (especially in parts where cycle lanes are being lost), passengers embarking and disembarking will get in the way of other traffic and pedestrians and what happens when one breaks down? Years back we had a referendum on congestion charging, but for this trams we had it shoved down our throat and were never given the option of voting yay or nay, presumably because the council were worried that once again we would refuse to endorse their stupid, ill thought out plans. Meantime the same authorities won't even take the most basic steps to help keep traffic going through the works (despite saying they were doing everything, of course) - the green lanes aren't even being patrolled by wardens so lazy shopkeepers and customers are daily parking in them to go in and out of the shops and not bothering that they are making the long lines even worse (this is happening even right round the corner from police stations... sigh).

Brew Dog

Over on the Blog O'Beer we've got a multi-person review up where Darren, Ed, Tim and I all jointly review some of the bloody excellent ales that come from the independent Scotttish brewer Brew Dog (who were in the recent Scottish episode of the James May and Oz Clarke Drink to Britain series), who have not only been brewing some brilliant beers (like Rip Tide, Trashy Blonde and Paradox Smokehead) they do them in a style that is refreshingly hip, young and modern, getting away from the old, grey-bearded image of real ale (but sticking to the making damned good beer part of it).

Classic Doctor Who figures

William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton figures from the new classic Doctor Who range - I so want these, especially the Troughton one, I've always had a soft spot for the second Doctor going right back to when I was a kid and reading the old Target novelisations (the only way to get the older stories in pre video and DVD days)

new moon over Royal Mile

new moon over Royal Mile
Originally uploaded by byronv2

New moon and Venus rising over the tall, old tenements of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh's Old Town on the way home from work a few days ago.