Holidays

I have been on holidays for the past two days, having not used up enough of my holiday leave during the year I've been forced to finish up two days earlier than the usual Christmas break. Which is fine by me. Has been nice mooching around for a couple of days while everyone else is still at work. The weather over here has got cold all of a sudden, with the temperature hovering around zero, and a blanket of fog causing chaos at Heathrow. Many European flights being cancelled so I am glad I hadn't booked to go anywhere. One upside to the fog though is that it gives some great photo ops, which I made the most of today while heading in to town to do some last minute shopping.

Bragging Rights

After the Jarvis gig on Saturday night, Sunday offered up another gig of an old favourite of mine - Billy Bragg. The gig was out at Hackney Empire which is a great venue - apart from it being quite hard to get to by public transport. Well, okay, fair enough - getting there was fine. It was just when trying to get home I took the wrong bus and ended up at the end of a bus route outside a hospital in the middle of who knows where. That combined with missing the last tube, night buses and then the night bus breaking down made for a bit of a extended trip home. Anyway, enough of that ....
Billy was in fine form - opening with Milkman of Human Kindness and finishing up with A13 Trunk Road To The Sea (joined by Wiggy on stage) - with a great mix of tunes in the middle and the usual banter.
L : Hackney Empire R : Billy and Wiggy playing A13

Jarvis - Take 2

It has been a while since the last post- I have been a busy boy. Last Saturday headed up to Camden to see Jarvis play at the Roundhouse. Another brilliant gig, with a bit more crowd banter than the previous one. Played all new stuff and a couple of covers - no Space Oddity this time though. I wasn't very close so no photos this time - you'll have to take my ticket as evidence. If you don't have the new album you really should get it. Be nice - buy it for someone for Christmas .....

And now for my first youtube post - Jarvis Cocker's new film clip - pretty funny.

10 Years Ago Today ...

- after finishing my University exams - I flew to Europe for 6 weeks travelling around with a bunch of guys from Uni. Where that 10 years went I am not so sure. Scary.

Deja Vu

Just after I posted the previous entry - I realised I had already banged on about early sunsets in this blog - so I searched my blog for "sunset" and found this entry "At Home Sick". Just over a year ago I had been at home sick and complaining about the sun setting early too. Deja vu indeed. No random python posts last year though ....

Photo Exibition : In The Face of History

Went to the "In the Face of History - European Photographers in the 20th Century" photo exhibtion at the Barbican yesterday. Interesting collection of images - most of the photographers I had never heard of though. Well worth a look. The Barbican itself is quite interesting - it managed to top a poll of Londons ugliest buildings - its like a massive warren of brown bricks and cement.
Anyway - I took a few photos below. The first one was taken a bit after four in the afternoon (the EXIF is wrong - I need to set the time on my camera). As you can see it is already dark. Sunset is just before 4pm at the moment - giving about 8 hours of daylight. I bet the Australian readers among you are feeling pretty smug right now. Summer. hrrumph.

More PyQt

Okay I am sure there is a right way to do this, and I am sure this isnt it, but this python function displays an image in a window ..... Now I need to go back to drawing board and do some reading to see how this stuff is really meant to hang together !!

def showImage(imageFile):
    import PyQt4.Qt as qt
    app = qt.QApplication([])
    imgWin = qt.QLabel(None)
    img = qt.QImage(imageFile)
    imgWin.setPixmap(qt.QPixmap.fromImage(img))
    imgWin.resize(img.width(), img.height())
    imgWin.setWindowTitle(imageFile)
    imgWin.show()
    app.exec_()

showImage("C:\\tmp\\zoom.jpg")

Python + Qt4 + PyQt4

Sorry - a bit of a departure from the normal ....
<geekstuff>
Off sick today and spent some time tinkering with python and the flickr api. I have messed about a bit with the flickr api and c# before - but I thought I would give python a go - not as cool as ruby though apparently. All was going well messing around with the flickr api downloading urls, parsing xml etc until it came time to display some images. Time to search for a suitable gui toolkit - some good info here. Decided to give Python Qt (PyQt) a go. It was a bit of a pain to get going - mainly because most of the examples I could find were for Qt3 and not Qt4.

Anyway - I got it up and running on windows xp using msis and prebuilt binaries (yes - I know ... taking the easy way out !)

• Downloaded the latest python (V2.5) from python.org as an msi here.
  
• Dowloaded the latest Qt 4.2.1 from trolltech as self exe installer here.
  
• Downloaded PyQt4 from riverbankcomputing as a self exe installer here.:
  

and installed in to the default locations.
Need to make sure to add Qt to your path : eg. C:\Qt\4.2.1\bin
Run IDLE, a python interactive shell and enter the following

  import PyQt4.Qt as qt
  app = qt.QApplication([])
  hello = qt.QPushButton("Hello world",None)
  hello.resize(100, 30)
  hello.show()
  app.exec_()

All that for this Enough for today .... hopefully I will get around to doing something a little more useful with it. Thanks to this link which helped me on my way.
</geekstuff>

The Killers @ Brixton Academy

Last night I headed down to the Brixton Academy to catch The Killers. Never been to the Brixton Academy before - cool venue. Support were The Rapture who were pretty good . The Killers finally took the stage and the fans went crazy - especially those who had paid 100 quid a ticket on ebay ! As for the gig, well they played new stuff, they played old stuff. And well, that was pretty much all they did. Brandon jumped around the stage, but crowd interaction was pretty minimal. No Billy Bragg concert! All in all the show was pretty good but just seemed to lack something - to be honest I think I was far more into The Killers a couple of years ago. Maybe it was just bad timing ...
Anyway - obligatory photos below ....

2006 : A Jarvis Oddity

Just got back from seeing Jarvis (as in Jarvis Cocker ex-Pulp) @ Koko in Camden. Great gig. Only got the new album this morning so had only heard the new material a couple of times - the gig was still fantastic despite my lack of familiarity with the music. The new album seems pretty good after the first couple of listens.
The encore was amazing. When he first came back on he played "Running the World" (google jarvis + myspace). After that he bantered with the crowd - "You want to hear some old material?" - the crowd cheered. To be honest though I didnt really want to hear him play any Pulp. He had the last laugh though - "Ok. Here is an old song. its not mine though .... " with which he launched into a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity - "ground control to major tom ....." Brilliant. Glad I got tickets to the next gig at Roundhouse too !

Guy Fawkes

Saturday night I once again broke my vow of not taking photos at fireworks displays - they never seem to work out. The photo below was taken in Battersea Park - it was a pretty good display - but the photographic results were average ..... Headed out afterwards to see Soulwax play live and also DJ at Fabric. Soulwax was good but the venue was just way too crowded. That combined with an attempted pickpocketing at Fabric by someone who looked suspiciously like a sith lord took the shine off the night a bit. Will be a while before I venture back to Fabric again - shame - great music.

Along the Banks Of The Thames

Decided to walk back towards home along the Thames after work last night. Normally I catch the bus just outside work but I felt like a stroll after a busy week at work. Met A half way and as we wandered passed the London Eye we decided to do the touristy thing and give it a shot. It was nearly closing time and hardly anyone about. We managed to get a "pod" with just two other people - lucky we were spared the large group of screaming girls in the line just behind us !! The view is pretty amazing at night - especially considering its Guy Fawkes soon so there are fireworks going off all over the city.

Waiting For The Bus ....

Happy Halloween

To make it easier for all those people searching for "scary cemetery" photos on google images .....

Around Town

Billy Bragg Concert Online

There is currently a Billy Bragg concert online that he did as part of the Electric Proms - "a truly multi-media festival" (their words, not mine). You can check out the gig here. It is only up until the 1st November - so if you're a fan (yes V - thats you!) check it out.

Millenium Bridge @ Dusk

One good thing about it starting to get dark by the time I leave work .... great time to take photos !

Twilight

Went to the Twilight exhibition at the V&A on Sunday. Was worth a look - particularly the works of Bill Henson and Gregory Crewdson. Highly recommended.

Battersea Power Station

A couple more photos from the Chinese contemporary art exhibition currently on in the Battersea Power Station. More on flickr here.

Battersea Power Station

Yesterday I went to an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art at the Battersea Power Station. Well, theoretically anyway. I did go to the exhibition but, just like nearly everyone else there, I was far more interested in the power station itself. My bus goes passed it everyday on the way to work. It is owned by some property developer in Hong Kong so I always thought the chances of seeing inside it before it got converted to expensive riverside flats was fairly slim. Definitely well worth checking out. Will post some more photos on flickr later of the internals - it is pretty derelict inside.

More info : Wikipedia and development plans.

Upcoming Photo Exhibitions In London

I always seem to have trouble finding out about photo exhibitions in London so I thought I would mention a couple that are opening soon. Might come in handy for those others out there having the same problem ! Both should be pretty good.

Twilight at the V&A : INFO.
In the Face of History at the Barbican : INFO.



Photo taken at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Boston Photos

Arrived back from Boston this morning. Was meant to arrive at 635 in the morning, but got in around 9 due to spending 3 hours on the tarmac in Boston while they changed one of the planes tires. We had to sit on the plane the whole time - fun fun. They even did the meal service before we took off ! Needless to say was very late getting to work and was not overly functional due to the five hour time difference and sleep quality on the plane.
Anyway, will write more later. For now here are a few photos. I wasnt really feeling that inspired photographically over there and that kind of shows ....
You can check all ten (yes just ten ...) photos here.
Starting off with the Stata Center at M.I.T. (designed by Frank Gehry and home of the Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences)



Brownstone on Newbury St

And something a little random ....

Boston

Made it to Boston safe and sound yesterday. 7 hour flight wasnt too bad but the 5 hour time difference is a bit of a killer. So far Boston seems pretty nice. Things seem cheap when you convert them into pounds, but not into Aus dollars. London warps your mind with respect to how expensive you expect things to be. Caught up with an old school friend after she finished work and went out for dinner for her birthday. By about 9pm A & I were fading fast. Not surprising considering our bodies thought it was 2 in the morning.
Anyway thats about it for now. I caved after work the day before we flew out and bought a D80 .... so far I like it. A lot. Cant wait to see how the photos turn out.

Boston

A last minute holiday decision sees A and I heading to Boston this weekend for a few days. One of my old school friends from Adelaide is working there for a month so will get to catch up with her - we arrive on her birthday. Nice timing !
Really looking forward to it. Have always had a bit of a fascination with Boston - not sure why. MIT maybe .... It will be Autumn so hopefully should get a few good shots of the New England fall.
Tried to buy a D80 today but failed. Went to one place on Tottenham Court Road - Ask Electronics - who quoted me 25 quid more than what they quoted yesterday (I still wasnt sure yesterday okay.) That kind of stuff shits me so I headed off to Jessops. Asked if they had any D80 bodies in stock - yep 5 - sweet - 10 minutes later - stock error. i.e. they couldnt find them. I think I might get a job at Jessops. Knock of 5 D80s, sell em to my mates and blame it on a "stock error". Oh well, looks like I am destined to be using my D70 for a bit longer. Am really starting to hanker after the 10M goodness of the D80 ....

Return of Winter

Weather was a bit rubbish on the weekend. Thought I would try and make the most of it and take a few wintry shots. Didnt really work though, just got rained on and uninspired. Oh well - heres my effort.

Island Crises ....

Spent last weekend on the annual work weekend away - this year it was Mal lorca. A lot of fun - took lots of photos but mainly inside dodgy nightclubs. I'll spare you !! Anyway thought I'd post a couple of non drunken photos - I particularly like the Island Cr_ises .... (These photos were taken with my new camera - a Fuji F30. Its very cool - quite happy with the photos. Great low light performance and nice and small. Aperture and shutter priority too. Handy. Replaces my Sony P100 which seems to be suffering from a few dust spot issues.)

Photos From Canary Wharf

Okay - I know yesterday I said Canary Wharf was interesting (in the context of its history rather than its current state) and that I got some photos - I didnt necessarily mean they were interesting photos.

Canary Wharf

Having some great weather over here at the moment. Decided to head out to Canary Wharf today as I am trying to venture to more places in London that I havent been to. Interesting area - though it would have been more so a hundred years ago ... Walked back from Canary Wharf to Tower Bridge along the north bank of the Thams, stopping at a pub along the way for a sneaky pint. Got a few photos that I will post later once flickr starts accepting uploads again - it seems to be broken,

Got the tickets from some f****d up bloke in Camden Town.

Sweet. Just picked up a couple of tickets to go see Jarvis, as in Mr Jarvis Cocker. He is doing a solo show in November @ Koko in support of a new solo album. Sadly the tickets were actually from ticketmaster ....

Take Me Out

Just got back from seeing Franz Ferdinand play at the Kentish Town Forum. Absolutely brilliant gig. Second to last song there were three guys playing on one drum kit drumming up quite the frenzy. Awesome. Its been a good week for music ....

V Festival (aka My First Radiohead Gig)

Headed up to the V Festival in Chelmsford yesterday. Luckily the rain held off until the last song of the night and it turned out to be a fun day. Strangely, after being quite excited about the line up when I bought the tickets, there didnt seem to be that many bands I wanted to see! I got to see a bit of Beck (didnt see much as have tickets to see him at a much smaller venue in a couple of weeks), The Go! Team (which were pretty cool) and a few other bands which were okay. The highlight of the day, by several orders of magnitude, were Radiohead. I have never seen them before so didnt really know what to expect. They were amazing - Thom Yorkes voice was in fine form. Incredible gig. Brilliant. You get the idea ....

Set list for those who are interested (stolen from ateaseweb.com)
01 Airbag
02 2+2=5
03 The National Anthem
04 My Iron Lung
05 You and Whose Army?
06 Bodysnatchers
07 The Bends
08 Nude ["That was an old bugger, this is a new bugger." Thom]
09 No Surprises
10 The Gloaming
11 Paranoid Android ["You can take your hoodie off Jonny." Thom]
12 All I Need
13 Pyramid Song ["Glad you can appreciate a good song." Thom]
14 Lucky
15 Just
16 Idioteque
17 Street Spirit

Encore 1:
18 A Wolf At The Door
19 There There
20 Karma Police
21 True Love Waits/Everything In Its Right Place

Encore 2:
22 Creep [Thom didn't play guitar]

TAR 10

The Amazing Race Season 10 starts the day before my birthday - isnt that nice of them ...

Keepin The Blog Moving ...

Expect Filler

Okay, not great photos but I got sick of the front page of my blog ....