camera obsessa

xmas crossing

sharononeill — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:04:46 +0000

at the station, empty spaces.
no metro seller – I smile,
no herald to mark this childs arrival.

the carraige rings silent.
just us few to answer those manned phones
and tended tills.

not long now.
time to move this little ass
and alight for Christmas

the cure

sharononeill — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:44:53 +0000

Her eyes sparkle as I look up. I’ve been staring beyond the grains of wood in the table. “enjoy” she says and gives me a knowing smile. The coffee has a tanned film, the spoon almost disintigrates on contact. She’s made it strong. She knows. And I think, “Christ, I must look awful”

this town is dead on a saturday

sharononeill — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 21:21:53 +0000

Things You Need to Know

sharononeill — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:20:57 +0000

Since the days of sitting under the crook of my dads arm on the sofa watching Tomorrows World, I’ve had a soft spot for science. I also thought it a great tragedy when Tomorrows World was no more.

Now it seems science in its own little bite size chunk way has come back again (due to the s*xy Professor Brian Cox I’d wager). So we have things like BBCs wonders of the solar system and star gazing live popping up (here’s a clip on how to photograph the night sky from Star Gazing Live). Another little pop up is the James May Things You Need to Know series. And its a gem. There are only 3 of them from what I can tell; The Human Body, The Universe and The Weather. These are pretty big concepts explained in simple form with extremely well thought out and entertaining animations. The ‘favourite old uncle’ voice of James May makes for a great choice as presenter.

(okay, okay, so these are quite astronomy/space based rather than all science based, if you want a science based show have a look at this wonderful Open University style Science spoof – Look Around You)

ear worms

sharononeill — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:08:52 +0000

Yay! The tremendously silly Adam and Joe have returned to beat on the inner ear drum once again. I used to watch the TV show back in the day, but for sometime now they’ve been on radio shows only. After a long stint of doing other things (how dare they leave me!) they are back for a twelve week run.

One of the best parts of the Adam and Joe Show (BBC 6 music on saturday mornings) is a section called Song Wars, where they pick a theme, each one makes a song and the listeners choose their favourite. When Quantum of Solace was announced as the name of the new Bond movie (yes, it’s a while ago) I was tickled pink by Joe’s version of what the theme tune could sound like. Shameful the film didn’t take him up if you ask me

and, of course if you like that sort of thing you must listen to our own home grown (groan?) boys, Dermot and Dave on 98FM (weekdays, drive time).

But Adam and Joe (or even Dermot and Dave) are not the only tasty ear worms out this week. The eminently talented, and slightly crazy, Mitch Benn is on podcast 7 (7!) of gatherings of humour. He accepts original songs from artists anywhere with a comedy theme “It’s a showcase for comic songwriters to get their work heard” (man, quality control on that one has got to be tough). You can see his website here – mitchbenn.com. and guidelines for song submission are here. Thanks to this little gem I’ve come across some old favs like Paul and Storm (who have played Dublin and were a joy to behold) and some new interests such as Jake Farr-Wharton.

Project 12: Part 3: Firm Hand Shape

sharononeill — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:41:41 +0000

This is becoming a bit of habit now.. 3rd one in and, as usual, on the last day of the month. Well. At least it IS a habit. It’s forcing me to read/write/think and that is exactly why I started it in the first place (albeit in shorter bursts than hoped).

This months post was to be on something else, but that one needs more time and thought so away to the files with thee. Todays thought instead is brought to you by hands.

During the week we were discussing how designers (and other professionals) make lives easier for each other in certain ways and how there can be a bit of an ‘old boy network’ in some things. Which brought up the Stone Masons. I got to check out the Mason Lodge in Dublin during the Open House night 2010. The building for the most part is like some old school house with these unexpected rooms with bursts of grandeur and ceremony. It seems, as I understand it that the Handshake thing is real.. but it’s not what you think. They didn’t have CVs back in the day. So, as the stone masons were first and foremost a group of tradesmen, one way to prove the level of competency you had achieved was through this ‘special handshake’. Pretty good system if you ask me. A really simple idea communicated and understood without language barriers (yes, yes, I know there is sign language but I was more intrigued by this as communication of an idea/status/ideal in one swoop, rather than mere of words) .

On a continuing Hand thought; Have you seen Labyrinth? Please say you have. During one scene our heroine falls down into a pit filled with arms and hands which then start to form face shapes and speak. When I first saw it I was both slightly creeped out and really impressed. Check out this vid of behind the scenes of Jim Hensons Lab working out the hands. Love to watch this kind of creativity in progress:

(20 minutes left in the month. yeesh. this habit needs a bit of tweaking )

Protected: on my mind

sharononeill — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:40:06 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.

Hyper real

sharononeill — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:42:47 +0000

The video in my last post feels sedate to me because I live in that future… I think I now know how the viewers of the time may have felt watching it.. I’ve just come across this and it scares me.

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Project 12: Part 2: The shape of now, then

sharononeill — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:41:58 +0000

I adore old clips of ‘The World of Tomorrow’ (in fact I was pretty much raised on a diet of sci-fi, science and Tomorrows World).

The funny thing is.. thanks to MTV and channels of that ilk all these fashions that were explored as wild fantasies of the shape of the future are pretty bog standard for todays starlets.

Project 12 : Part 1: MisShapes

sharononeill — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:55:46 +0000

Ironically, as soon as I decided on Shapes as my theme my mind wandered onto thoughts of Shapes that arent there. For example, when you were a child in a strange room for the night every shape in the darkness could be anything else. There would be a fierce tiger in the corner, or a mouse on the floor, but switch on the light and it flips back into a coat on a chair or a knot in a wooden floorboard. Here’s some things I’ve wandered across that in first glance, before the mental light switch is flipped, are something else.

Actually, the lovely thing about shapes that arent there is they add a new and slightly more animate skin to your world

Burger King Grafton Street: When you go in here, the first thing that gets eaten, is you.
Bear Necessities: I’ve heard of being hungry like the wolf, but according to the tools on the shelf, prehaps you can be hungry like the bear?
J sea B: The great lesser spotted JCB angler fish. Angling for cups of tea and jumbo breakfast rolls.

If you like these momentary illusions of the brain too, check out the blog of Psychology Magician Richard Wiseman for puzzles, videos and images of some weird and usual stuff.

and the time is.. 9.56pm. yay! all is not lost. I might even make it to a post 2 new month