Thanks Popbitch!

For bringing this to my attention:

http://www.takeaweirdbreak.com/

Sample:


Very funny. Thanks also for this joke:
Old Jokes Home:
Q: How many musos does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: It's a pretty obscure number.You probably haven't heard of it.

Tonight I am DJing at the Dolly Disco @ The Alley Cafe. Come along if you like to hear music being played with gaps in between and lots of cries of "Oh no! I pressed the wrong button!"

I have been selecting some tunes ready for the occasion. They currently include:
Vampire Weekend (great live footage), Doris Day, Hot 8 Brass Band (also amazing live footage),Kenny Rogers (live footage from the 70's) and Beyonce, to name a random, yet representative selection.

DJing tonight, Library EP launch tomorrow. Fun weekend!

Love
Bex
x

Hello Thor Library Gig on Saturday!

Afternoon All,

Just taking a quick mini-break from working hard to mention the Hello Thor Library Gig this weekend. I have been coerced into producing cakes for the occasion. I'm thinking Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes. They went down really well at the Chrismoustache party and I really don't mind eating up any leftovers, so I reckon they're a good bet. Any other requests?

Anyway, here's all the info for Sat from Hello Thor:

We Show Up On RadaR
@ Nottingham Central Library
Saturday 6th February (4pm - 6pm) FREE ENTRY

We had such a great time when we launched We Show Up On RadaR’s single at Nottingham Central Library last year (if you don’t believe us have a look at this little film) that when they asked us back we couldn’t refuse. Heck, we even booked a tour of other libraries to follow.

That’s right, this Saturday (6th February) at 4pm we’ll be introducing the world to We Show Up On RadaR’s beautiful brand new EP - A Loaf Of Bread, A Container Of Milk & A Stick Of Butter - in the company of a whole load of books, a heap of cake, a box or two of wine, and, of course, plenty of amazing live music:

We Show Up On RadaR is Andy Wright. Andy makes melancholic, mischievous acoustic pop to dream to. It’s full of contradictions - childlike and sweet, but a bit wrong; terribly sad, but hopelessly uplifting - and is, in our opinion, blimin’ marvellous. Check him out in a recent BBC session here.
www.myspace.com/wsuor

Escapologists are three very talented gentlemen who produce gently reflective post-rock, informed by the likes of Pavement, The Cure and Stereolab. We last saw them tearing it up at the Christmas Covers Party, and can’t wait to see them again.
www.myspace.com/escapologists

Henry Parkinson makes lovely introspective folk pop, kind of like Nick Drake...from Nottingham.
www.myspace.com/makeahalo

It’s all totally FREE to get in and you can read as many books as you like between bands. It’s going to be loads of fun!

We Show Up On RadaR’s 6-track A Loaf Of Bread, A Container Of Milk & A Stick Of Butter EP is released digitally through iTunes, Amazon etc. on Monday 15th February. It will also be available as a strictly limited handmade CD at the library gigs and from www.hellothor.com.

We Show Up On RadaR is also playing gigs at Leicester Central Lending Library (8th February, 6pm), Leeds Central Library (9th February, 6pm) and Norwich & Norfolk Millennium Library (11th February, 6pm).


Sounds great! See you there!

Becky
x

Looking for inspiration and finding Nic Cage

I was just trawling the internet looking for a pick-me-up as my motivation took a nose dive at work. When this happens I often have a peek at We Are What We Do's website. They are the brains behind a few brilliant books that encourage everyone to do small things to make a difference to the world.

The first one I read was Change The World For A Fiver. Which was a bargain considering how often it has inspired me to do something a bit selfless and/or fun.

Then they unleashed Change The World 9 To 5 on the world. And I unleashed it on my workplace.

Since then they've worked with kids to produce a book called Teach Your Granny To Text and the organisation has grown and grown.

I was just browsing their blog when I stumbled across a Swedish man's blog 365 things you can do which suggests a simple action every day starting with Start A Blog (which I've already done!). That lead me to this rather brilliant and silly blog which I am definitely gonna keep checking.

I think my fave so far is Nic Cage as Ellen

Best. Simpsons. Ever..?

Just stumbled across this Top 20 Simpsons moments on the Guardian website.

What a tough call!

I'm always surprised when people say they don't love The Simpsons. Some people just don't watch it. That's odd. Some just don't like it. Now to me that shows a lack of intelligence! At it's best The Simpsons manages to surpass pretty much any cartoon, sitcom, TV show, film or musical I've ever seen. To combine such comedy (high and low brow) and pathos in the confines of a half-hour cartoon is incredible. Very few shows have even come close - and certainly not for such a sustained run.

As for my fave moments, I have to agree that any time Maggie puts on her snowsuit is a gem. I also love to see Homer having to win back Marge...Marge singing You are so beautiful to me...Natural Born Kissers is a belter (when Marge and Homer decide to spice up their lovelife)...the bizarre Johnny Cash cameo (which I first saw dubbed into Spanish and had to wait years to find out what it all meant!)...there's just so many.

I could also do a whole Top 20 of favourite Ralph Wiggum moments. Best soundbites are probably "I bent my wookie" and "I ated the purple berries..."



What you saying?
Who's your favourite Simpsons characters? Fave episodes? Quotes? Moments...?

Hello Thor Zine #3

Hi!

Hello Thor's third zine is now ready to take submissions! Zine #2 looked like this:


Zine #3 will be another lo-fi, DIY production along the theme:

SIGN O THE TIMES

Please submit your doodles, scribbles, illustrations, comic strips, masterpieces, messes to helloanders@hellothor.com. They need to be black & white and reasonably hi-res (enough to be printed A5 size). If you want to submit an actual physical picture you've made with your actual hands then please email Anders for the address to send it to.

Thanks!

Becky

Music-Go-Round

Hello All,

As I was making hundreds of resolutions in a hungover state on New Year's Day I came up with the idea of having a Music club amongst myself and friends so we can find new music and share mix CDs without too much work. Luckily Chris was also there and came up with both the idea of sharing the files online (rather than having to make and post CDs - hard work) AND with the brilliant name: The Music-Go-Round.

If you'd like to join in, here's how it will work:

1 - Each month someone will make a mix of some of their favourite songs at the moment - new stuff, old stuff, whatever you're enjoying. It can be anything between 5 - 20 tracks. Any less is daft, any more is greedy.

2 - They then drag & drop it into a shared DropBox file - if you want to take part Chris will send you a sign up email - and post a tracklisting up.

3 - We can all download the tracks onto our computers. New music, for free, all you have to do is share a few of your treasured tracks one month in return.

Let me know if you want to sign up and me and Chris will get sorting it out.

Love Bex
x

... now to get started on cooking something new each week and blogging about it...

NYE

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New Year's Eve is often one of the most underwhelming nights of the year. There's high expectations, high prices and high spirits, but sadly these don't always add up to glory. Last year for example, I was ill in bed and too sleepy to stay up for the 'bongs' even! This year, however, was a different story...we had the best NYE EVER!! First we got to hang out at our friend John & Anna Ray's house with an open fire and a game of pictionary. Brilliant. Then we partied (see below). New Year's Day we felt bad, walked, didn't win the lottery, ate Malaysian food and watched Flight of the Conchords. The day after we went to see some art and eat food at Borough Market... all that choice, would it be a hot chorizo baguette, middle eastern falafel-type balls, thai fish curry... or a big fat chip butty... mmm chips, my old friends (to borrow a phrase from Abi).

Thank you to our wonderful friend Emma for organising an amazing 30th birthday bash for her hubby-to-be Mark and for letting us all be a part of it. 70 of us rocked around the Thames on a boat, some of us were drinking smuggled-on raspberry vodka and some of us felt very much worse for wear the next day because of that.

Here's some pics:









Guess who was drinking the raspberry vodka?! Luckily I was behind the camera, so all I have to be embarrassed about are a lot of blurry photos (I hope anyway!).

Oh dear it got messy.... but still brilliant.

While we were down in London we caught the last days of the Seizure installation nominated for the Turner prize. It was fascinating and beautiful. Basically Roger Hiorns (the artist - good name, right?) filled a disused flat with hot water and copper sulphate, left it to cool for a couple of weeks, drained the water and had a look to see if any crystals had formed:




Hope yours was a goodie too.

Bex
x