Senses working overtime #520

1 Experiencing: The second week in California

Jade, Chris and Asher joined us for the second week and we have had lashings of ripper adventures at places like Universal Studios and Disneyland. We have certainly seen some sights - including Jesus and Spiderman teaming up to (I think) entertain tourists on Hollywood Boulevard.

2 Universal Studios and Disneyland

Farewell to Universal Studios

Y'all come back now ya hear!

Hello from the happiest place on Earth!

3 Browsing: Record shops

I've been cruising into record stores along the way. Amoeba Music (on Hollywood Boulevard) is the star turn but the ambience in this store in San Luis Obispo was superb.

4 Dining: Saddle Ranch Chop House on Sunset Boulevard

A great experience, even if we couldn't persuade Chris to ride the mechanical bull. We did indulge in toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiches though.

5 Dining: Mel's Drive-in diner in Santa Monica

Framed poster in Mel's.

If it's good enough for Lana Del Rey, it's good enough for me!

Overtime: Watching and listening: Whales and seals at Big Sur

I looooove the Big Sur coastline so much. This shot includes two whales frolicking around with some noisy seals providing the soundtrack on the shoreline. The slaps by the whales echoed all around us.

Senses working overtime #372

1 The race to reclaim the dark

2 Disney adults

It's the happiest place on Earth - what's not to love?

3  Hoboken Hasn’t Had a Traffic Death in Four Years. What’s It Doing Right?

4 The best science fiction books you've never heard of

5 Why you can't remember being born

Overtime: Collective wisdom from Pocket saves - Part 1 and part 2

Senses working overtime #269

1 Lazy

Photo by howling red on Unsplash

This week I'm pulling the lazy card. We've just finished a 12 week term which included unprecedented moments like a Covid-19 Lockdown in NZ. That's starting to fade in the memory, never-the-less, it resulted in a totally knackering term. I'm pretty empty and really tired. The last two weeks especially have been of the smell-of-a-oily-rag variety.

So - laziness abounds in this edition.

2 RIP Milton Glaser

He created/designed a huge number of record covers like the Jan Hammer cover. God bless you Milton.

3 RIP Carl Reiner

4  Anne Lamott

5 Memory

Overtime: Splash mountain's makeover

Senses working overtime #149

1 Annihilation

Looks and sounds gooooooood!!! And it's coming to Netflix in March. The link has a promo which is actually worth your time and doesn't tell you the whole story, shock horror.

2 Liam Gallagher and the cute kids
Hilarious! Having been interviewed by our Year 3 students this week, I know how Liam feels. 




3 Neutral Milk Hotel

An in-praise-of from Pitchfork. I love this album so I'm especially happy to pass this on to my select clutch of JFTT followers. Possibly this has appeared on JFTT before. Possibly. What the heckfire! It's worth it.

4 Then and now

I love these kinds of photo essays. Enjoy it with me here.

5 Get over it

Fascinating!

Overtime - Grim!

California dreaming - the downside of Disneyland and the tourist industry is explored by The New York Times - the reality is often overlooked. Best thing I read this week (apart from Ian MacDonald's essay, The People's Music, in his anthology of the same name, that is).

Senses working overtime #120

1 Disney's Star Wars Hotel

Last time we were at Disneyland we saw the huge area where the Star Wars stuff is under construction. The Hotel concept is explained here. We'll be there!

2 Arsenal v Leicester

Premier League is back! Read all about the first weekend.

3 The Last Jedi...

is getting closer.

4 U Thant Island
Loved this Vox video - best thing I watched on a computer this week!




5 THOR...

...is also coming. Great poster!

Extra texture
In praise of San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), actually their museum store which looks splendid.

Senses working overtime #90

Okay - I'm currently on holiday and these Jewels are coming to you from Anaheim - the happiest place on earth. So - I haven't actually read many of my feeds and figured out the best of the best to share. Instead I'm gonna cheat and give you five plus images from our holiday in SF, London and LA so far...

Disneyland parade - amazing - made me want to watch
Toy Story again...and buy loads of stuff!

Me and Fanfa watch the parade in our cool new hats!

London and Fopp - my happy place!

IHOP - blueberry pancakes - o.m.g.

Riding the 101 with Samantha and Jacky.

Walking the dog in SF's Chrissy Field.

Overtime: Love those Disney parades!

Senses working overtime #41

Well well well - here I am back in Nu Zild again. Airports and planes are a riot of senses.

Hence the lateness of this edition - I'll never understand what happens to time on a flight from London to Auckland!!

The worst noise was at the Domestic terminal back in NZ waiting for a flight to Napier. What a racket! I had to leave - it was that bad!

Anyway - here we go with some delights for the 41st time. Wow - these things mount up!

1 Refugees
The crisis may have dwindled in terms of news reports but this is still dire times throughout the middle east and Europe. This article gives a break down on the flow of humanity heading to Europe. It's scary!!

2 High50
I should visit this site more.  It's pretty cool.

3 Control

I have learned (slowly and painfully) to trust pilots of airplanes. Actually it's more that I have slowly and painfully realised that control is an illusion. I like this piece.

Doing the London Eye was an exercise in relinquishing control!

4 Another list about living
I'm an all day sucker for these kinds of lists.

5 Star Wars at Disneyland
While in LA we visited Disneyland again - happiest place on Earth? You betcha. While there we did the Star Wars stuff (the movie hadn't been released yet) and it was wonderful!

Overtime: Books
Nicely written piece on eavesdropping and reading.

Senses working overtime #31

1 Tina and Amy

I'm a huge Tina Frey fan! This is a cool little piece about Sisters - new movie featuring the immensely talented dynamic duo of Tina and Amy Poehler.

2 Whatley in

James Watley's Five Things (TM) alerted me to this amazing collection of photos - part of a National Geographic competition. They are all brilliant and as he rightly says - well worth a look. The one I've chosen is bizarre - a wedding couple heading into the surf - did they know about the rays? Incredible image!

3 Adele

She's about to reconquer the world with third album 25. This is a great piece from The Guardian that gets things right - the interview, the tone, the picture of Adele.

4 Jake Bailey
My Walrus Gumboot newspaper alerted me to this inspirational speech by CBHS Head Boy Jake Bailey who was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks before this prizegiving.

It's obviously made more poignant because of that but he makes a great series of points that regardless, are worth hearing. How refreshing to hear a young guy allude to his moral compass. Wonderful! 

He's doing well apparently and if youtube love has anything to do with things - he'll continue to do well.



5 Star Wars makeover of Disneyland

The acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney was bound to result in some amazing awesomeness at the happiest place on Earth. My wife and I will be there in December and I'm really looking forward to Hyperspace Mountain!

Overtime: Glen Hansard

Ever since Once, I've been a big fan. Here he is doing a cover of the Springsteen song (an obscure one from The River - half way up side four is pretty obscure). 

This Letterman Show version is without Eddie Vedder and Jake Clemons who appeared on the single but it's still full of Glen's wonderful soulful passion. 

Goodnight, and joy be with you all!