Senses working overtime #10

1 Take time
I like this 'stop and smell the roses' idea - stealing time.

2 The future photograph

I was talking with Fran about the value of the photograph in these digital days and then I read this erudite explanation of what's happening with photos these days. Serendipitous.

3 Learning to let go 
I enjoyed reading this passage from a short article about building a bridge:

Be humble. Do not boost your ego. Know that your existence cannot be stopped because of one incident or two or three or four. You are in this body to fulfill a purpose in life. To complete a task. To accomplish something greater than yourself. To transcend. Your existence is extremely powerful. Let the wounds heal. Fight the battle with yourself and come out on the top. The goal of life is to progressively become egoless. Know that you only have to answer to yourself. 

4 Lost gentleman traditions

I like to think chivalry's not dead (it just smells that way).

5 Blackfield
The Purdmobile has been grooving to Blackfield in general this week, and Blackfield II in particular and My Gift Of Silence even more in particular!!

Overtime: Not sure if he does or not. I have no idea how it's doctored if it is. I prefer to think he does really do this and then go  WOW!!

Senses working overtime #9

1 J.J. Abrams
I love anything J.J. touches - movies, TV shows, TED talks...whatever. So I was always gonna love this - an article published on medium.com with the wonderful title: He was The Beatles to me.

2 Star Wars fridge - Han Solo in carbonite
This is so cool - literally!! I want one:

3 This week's cheeky article:

This Guardian article explains in a really entertaining way, why tall women wear high heels.

4 People are awesome

Time for another dose of this series - only one word for it...A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

5 The Terminator

Arnold is still the man. This clip is destined to add another footnote to

the 'Arnold is awesome' file.

Overtime: It's all Greek to me - I have zero interest in economics but I found this article that explains the Greece bailout conundrum fascinating. Loved the layout and I'm now informed. You will be too.

Senses working overtime #8

1 Clarity and mystery

I am fascinated by design. In this article Chip Kidd explains the inspiration behind some of his designs. It's brilliant. 

2 The Guardian eye witness photos are often terrific. This one is of balloonists over east London in the Lord Mayor's Hot Air Balloon Regatta.

3 FIFA rats

This wonderfully written piece from the Washington Post is called How a curmudgeonly old reporter exposed the FIFA scandal that toppled Sepp Blatter  and you should read it!

4 How Labour lost it!

You'll need a cuppa and a bikkie or two to get through this longish read but it's worth it. How Ed Milliband lost the election (and Scottish Nationalist Party won it along with Cameron) is a fascinating study in leadership styles. I needed to read this to figure out how it all happened.

5 Lighthouse Family

I've gone back to using my ipod in the Purdmobile. Shuffle mode, of course. This Lighthouse Family chune came on, one of my favourites, and it reminded about the cool video that accompanied it back in the day:

Overtime: Count On Me
I've had this stuck in my head for a few days. We use it at school from time to time. There is a lovely naive innocence vibe going on. Enjoy. And sing along. Go on. It's good for you!

Senses working overtime #7

1 Twitter's verified users explained
If you are at all interested in social media and Twitter you need to read this. No dry analysis this - instead a fascinating collection of information and graphs about Twitter's verified users. I couldn't stop reading it.

2 Fathers and sons
Something about father and sons stories gets me every time. I'm always drawn to them, and so this article by Michael Cerveris about playing the role of a father in Broadway's Fun Home struck a chord. The article twists and turns and surprises and delights. Worth some of your time in other words.

3 Yossi Sassi
One of my new Twitter followers is an awesome musician. Here is his full album and it's free! And it's great! I am very partial to instrumental rock guitar albums (Joe Satriani, Jeff Beck, Steve Vai) and this one has a fresh desert vibe going on. What a world we live in eh?!



4 Matt Oliver
A plug for our next door neighbour - Mr Matt Oliver. He has just embarked on his new career in real estate by selling his first house - ours!!

Matt IS the man! Here's his web site. If you're looking to buy or sell your place...Matt's going places so hitch your wagon to a star. 

5 The FIFA Women's World Cup 2015
Canada is the place and I'm getting pumped. PUMPED I tell you! It will be amazing!

As a precursor - remember these scenes from the last one in Germany 4 years ago:



Overtime
I could fill up this bonus section with medium.com posts every week. here are two more that you need to read - one to make you think and the other to amuse in a nice gentle way.

Senses working overtime #6

1 Clint Eastwood's Blues Piano 
This DVD has some brilliant moments - I love boogie piano. There's a great clip of Marcia Ball playing Red Beans and some older clips of my favourite - Pete Johnson with Albert Ammons



2  Presentation tips
This article gave me some great tips for a presentation I had to do for the staff. I was asked to share my thoughts on Twitter and Blogging at the next professional learning group meeting thing. Along the way the article led me to a fantastic Ted talk by...

3 Rory Sutherland
Rory is hilarious - if he wasn't an ad man he would have made an excellent stand up comedian. This Ted talk is well worth your time. I chortled away for a lot of the nearly 17 minutes. Aside from the jokes, he is really on the money with his thoughts on life and our perceptions.

4 San Francisco
I love San Francisco. One of our daughters lives there and our visit in 2013 for her wedding to a San Franciscan boy made all of us fall in love with SF's past charms. These photos from Life magazine are spectacular.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti in his iconic bookshop.

The Fabs arrive at SF airport.

5 The Arsenal

This weekend is the FA Cup final versus Aston Villa. A fitting time to remember this magic moment from the 1971 cup final win over Liverpool.

COME ON ARSENAL!!

Overtime 

Michelle Obama comes across as a very genuine person. Like the rest of the world I love how she conveys herself. This photo collection of her hugging people is awesome. I chose that one for the reactions. Sheer joy from such a simple human act. Well worth a visit!

Senses working overtimes #5

1 Paris then and now

Some stunning effects created here by juxtaposing old World War 2 photos with modern ones of Paris. Most definitely got my senses working overtime. I remember an open bus tour of Paris commentating at one stage on the bullet holes still visible in buildings. That really got me thinking! 

Again - a simple idea but very effective!

2 I love book stores

One of the best reads this week was this medium curated article on a bookstore in Japan (seen below). It made me exceedingly homesick for the Dubai Mall's Kinokuniya Book World.

Kinokuniya in the Dubai Mall

3 Eruption
These stunning photographs come from a visual essay on Volcano Fuego's eruption.

4  Everyone gotta be somewhere

This week the Stereophonic playlist has had me grooving. I love a good sinalong in the purdsmobile. Especially this one:



5 The Fabs

Anyone with a passing knowledge of me knows that when I wrote 'poster boy for Mojo's demographic' on my Twitter profile I wasn't kidding. Here's a hundred and one reasons why: the website has just launched this - The Beatles top 101 songs. They know what we like!

Overtime: I get vertigo quite easily in high buildings. The second video in this set of amazing videos of the week had my whole body churning. Watch it if you dare - you've been warned!

Peace out - Wozza

Senses working overtime #4

1 It's been another Murakami week: currently I'm in Book 3 of Murakami's 1Q84. Here's a great passage describing a peripheral character Ushikawa

The man's grey suit had countless tiny wrinkles, which made it look like an expanse of earth that had been ground down by a glacier. One flap of his white dress shirt's collar was sticking out, and the knot of his tie was contorted, as if it had twisted itself from the sheer discomfort of having to exist in that place. The suit, the shirt, and the tie were all slightly wrong in size. The pattern on his tie might have been an inept art student's impressionistic rendering of a bowl of tangled, soggy noodles. Each piece of clothing looked like something he had bought at a discount store to fill an immediate need...It was not just that he had terrible style: he also gave the impression that he was deliberately desecrating the very idea of wearing clothes.

2 This is cool - Ed Sheeran is maybe...maybe the nicest guy in the world and he has created this video for Photograph. Tracing his evolution from his baby pictures to now is a great idea. I couldn't help think how much they reminded me of our kids videos. Nice one Ed!



3 Best read of the week outside of the wonderful 1Q84 has been an article I found on Medium about the latest Avengers movie from the Marvel comics people. I especially liked the discussion of story arcs and any article that references Joseph Campbell has got me salivating.

4/5 Been dipping into Spotify a lot this week but the Purdsmobile has also been rocking to Queen. The first two albums in particular have some wonderful prog exploration going on. Given they were finding their way there is a lot of wonderful stuff on those albums that never emerged from that point on. 

So here are two tracks - one from each album.





Overtime: Can't go past Blues Boy King this week. Let's celebrate a wonderful life with some of that sweet B.B. tone: