So Scottish Labour candidate Stuart McLennan has been dropped out of the race by the party, after a few hacks picked up on certain Tweets he made before he was selected to run. Oh dear.

It’s a bit unfortunate alright, even if anyone with such political ambitions would want to be a bit more careful regarding what they post publically. But dear lord, the guy sure as hell went out with a bang.

Leaving aside the political profanities (David Cameron is a ‘twat’, Nick Clegg ‘a bastard’ and Labour MP Diane Abbott ‘a fucking idiot’) or the celebrity rants (he reserved ‘c**t’ for Louis Walsh, and Jedward were labelled ‘odious little shits’), he also came up with some other gems.

My personal favourite has to be ‘Made my connecting train. No first class it would appear. Sitting opposite the ugliest old boot I’ve ever seen too,’ though ‘Jeezo, I’m as dry as a nun’s fanny today’ comes a close second.

He was running in the same constituency of the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader, so his chances of taking the seat were just about nil. So I suppose if you’re going to lose you might as well do so in style!

So… should he have gone?

I love stuff. It’s a fact. I particularly love stuff that has that ever so slightly geeky slant to it. Hence my excitement when I saw the following:

Diesel have launched a new scent called Only the Brave. It looks pretty cool, don’t ya think?

Well, if ya think that’s cool, what till you getta load of this one:

Yup, that’s right. Diesel are launching a new fragrance and for a limited time, offering a limited edition Iron Man bottle to tie-in with the laucnh of the movie. You’ll find more out on their site nearer the time, but for the moment…WANTSIES!

For those of you too busy to read my occasionally lengthy articles in this series, the good people at A Beautiful Machine have managed to encapsulate all my points in to one photograph.

Cycle lane in Leatherhead, UK.

Through my involvement with The Science Gallery, in Trinity College Dublin, I am privileged to see to some of the most interesting upcoming exhibitions in advance of their launch. I was at TED X 3.0 in the Gallery last week and one of the speakers was Margaret Wertheim. Margaret spoke about the great Reefs of the world and how they are being badly damaged by Global Warming. It was a candid and enlightening talk that really made me think about the effect that we have on nature, but also how amazing life under the sea actually is.

Margaret, along with her sister, Christine, have been creating awareness of both the beauty and the dangers that face our Coral reefs through their Crochet Coral Reef project.

‘Combining mathematics, environmental science and the art of crochet, the exhibition has been visited by over one million people in venues around the world, ranging from the World Financial Centre in New York to the Hayward Gallery in London. At each successive venue, the reef has grown through the contributions of local artists and crafters, and in the Science Gallery we will present for the first time the Irish Reef, created by myriads of crochet-hook wielding volunteers around Ireland.’

I’d suggest you go visit this exhibit in the Science Gallery when you get a chance. The colours and craftsmanship are quite something and it’s unlike any art exhibit I’ve seen.

The media and members preview starts at 18:00 tonight and the exhibit will run until June 11th. For more information, visit the Science Gallery website.

Here’s a few pics from the launch with none other than Sophie Merry (of Groovy Dancing Girl fame) modeling the reefs in a way that only she can. Don’t they look great

Hey Guys

Came across some seriously funny COD related vids on youtube

Have a gander

Peace

So I’ve not had a chance this week to post the many cool things that I’ve come across, so instead, I’m going to collect them in a single post which I have lazily named ‘The Corner of Cool’. Feel free to kick my ass for being just a little bit lame with it.

Film trailers that have me very excited

Excitement begins with an obvious choice, the Iron Man 2 trailer. I’m sure most of you have already seen it, but for those that haven’t, the movie is gonna rock:

Next up is a trailer that caught me by surprise. I’ve never seen the original Tron, I am ashamed to say. I am rectifying that this week. But I loved the new Tron: Legacy trailer. The movie focusing on Kevin Flynn’s kid finding out where his Dad has been all these years. It looks stunning, the soundtrack sounds awesome and it’s really tweaked my interest.

In terms of some film news:

Apparently one of my favourite TV actors, The Office’s John Krasinski, is close to signing on the dotted line for Captain America. Who’d of thunk it, huh?

And we have some fairly interesting casting news for MIB3

If I had ridiculous amounts of money I’d buy:

I know, I’m one big kid…but this toy…It does everything. Check out the link here for what it can do. It includes moveable eyes, changeable head’s and eyes that light up…like in the movie. Gulp.

Arty Farty

Finally, I loves a bitta pop-art I does. Particularly when it’s a Zombie re-imagination of Star Wars. Zombie Wars if you will. Found this thanks to Think Hero. See my favourite below:

Also thought I’d point out the Wired special post on variations of the Inglourious Basterd’s theme. Find it here. There’s some amazing stuff like this one to be found:

That is all

This is AMAZING:

I don’t often re-post something like this, but I came across this story on Wired today. I love a good ‘Youtube to riches story’. This one is about Patrick Bolvin who, in mere months, has gone from creating stop-motion clips on his kitchen table, to being sponsored by Google to create an ad for the upcoming Nexus phone. His stuff is quite amazing, and he will be pitching to various Hollywood studios in the coming months. Well deserved I say.

That reminds me, our good friend, Piers McGrail, created a brilliant stop-motion video clip for my band, The Kybosh a few years back. A very worthy link to it, as his work was quite brilliant. Have you any great links to stop-motion clips on Youtube?

I came across this news item late last night, and did not post about it due to the late hour. In short, I thought it was a dream. But no, I’ve seen a few tweets about it today, so here it goes.

Apparently, Rip Torn, the legendary Hollywood actor, whose career spans about 50 years and numerous great movies, including Men in Black and Dodgeball to name but a few, and some stellar appearances in 30 Rock might I add, was arrested on Friday night. The reason? Entering a local bank in Conneticut carrying a loaded gun, and obviously being out of his mind drunk.

If you don’t believe me, just read about it here…I’m as confused as he looks!

I had the great fortune to accidentally find Pogo’s music during my travels through hyperspace. He is an electronic artist based in Perth, Western Australia, who works with sounds from Disney movies, editing them into ambient mixes that are beautifully layered and expertly paced. Pogo first came to prominence with his track “Alice”, made with samples from Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland”. He gained some 4 million viewers on his YouTube upload of the video. He subsequently put together an album of four tracks called Wonderland, available here (free download) from last.fm.

The latest and coolest chillout track is “Upular”, featuring dialogue and sounds from Disney/Pixar’s “Up”. A friend on Facebook introduced me to Pogo’s work with this music video and it’s a great place to begin.

Happy listening compadres

I wanted to start the New Year off with something positive. I, for the most part, am not a fan of what the new year brings. I do, however, like penguins. Very much. This little fellow was born very recently in Edinburgh Zoo  and I find him to be adorable. Let this brighten up your January Blues and check out here for more pics: