don't believe the hype

Chillin'

Our stray cat Frankie chills out on the roof of his house.

Harlem

We went to Central Park to catch the last of the fall colors by Harlem Meer.

USB Fabs

The Voluntary Butler Scheme

From Stourbridge, UK this is The Voluntary Butler Scheme (aka a bloke called Rob Jones) with the song 'Trading Things in.'

When Nazis marched through London

This is pretty amazing stuff. I never knew about this before. (The Times.)

By The People

On November 3, a year after the presidential election, HBO will air By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, a documentary that takes an "all-access pass" look at the Obama campaign. Produced by actor Edward Norton and directed by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, the film follows the candidate from Iowa all the way through to Obama's presidential victory. (USA Today)

Empire State of Mind

They finally put out an official video for 'Empire State of Mind' by Jay-Z & Alicia Keys. And here's a handy Google Map that shows all the places mentioned in the lyrics.

John Peel

Hard to believe it's 5 years this week since John Peel passed away. Here are 3 bands he used to play all the time. The Undertones, Misty In Roots and The Fall.

View from my window

The leaves are turning here in Bronxville. Here's a few photo's taken through various windows in our house.

Pillow

Emily uses Vincent as a pillow as they snooze on a warm radiator this morning.

Cozy!

Pumpkins

Louise took this photo in Ridgefield, Connecticut a couple of weeks ago.

Google Music

This is interesting.

Reality Check

NYT

Taken by Trees

From Stockholm this is Taken by Trees, with the song 'Anna.' The band features Victoria Bergsman, former lead singer for The Concretes.

It's Here

U2ube

U2 will stream their entire concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl live on You Tube on Sunday, October 25th. The venue holds the largest audience so far on the tour at 96,000 people.

Synth Britannia

I just watched Synth Britannia a BBC 4 documentary about the rise of electronic groups in the UK in the late 70's & early 80's. The majority of early pioneers were from the north. OMD, Cabaret Voltaire, New Order, The Human League.

This video was one of my favorite electronic songs at the time. From Australia these are Severed Heads with the 1983 song "Dead Eyes Opened.'

The Heavy

From a place called Noid in the South West of England these are The Heavy with the song 'How You Like Me Now?'

Headline of the Day

Only in America

Rats

My sister just got two pet rats. I'm sure her cats will appreciate them!

Bunnymen

New single from Echo & The Bunnymen called 'Think I Need it Too.'

Time Magazine

Check out these headlines. According to Time Magazine winning The Nobel Peace Prize is a bad thing.

John Lennon

John Lennon would have been 69 years old today.It's hard to imagine how he would have looked but this photo of his dad, Alfred, gives you some idea.

Berlin

Earlier this week, 1.5 million people filled the streets of Berlin, Germany to watch a several-day performance by France's Royal de Luxe street theatre company titled "The Berlin Reunion".  It was part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

To see an amazing set of images from the celebration click here.  (Boston Globe.)

How Not To Run A Club

I'm looking forward to reading 'How Not To Run A Club' Peter Hook's account of Manchester's infamous Hacienda club. I spent many nights there and even remember a few of them!

Cheese & Onion Pie

I don't think I've had a cheese & onion pie since I left England 20 years ago. When my Mum mentioned  she had one recently I got a craving to taste the cheesy goodness. Yesterday, Louise decided to make one and it was delicious!

Google Classic

This is what the world was like 11 years ago! (click image for full size)

Who You Gonna Call?

Carl Sagan Auto-Tune

With a bit of Stephen Hawking thrown in for good measure.

Do What Thou Wilt

Cream

Just came across this great photo of Cream boating on the lake in Central Park. I'm guessing from the attire it was 1967 or '68. And yes, that's Eric Clapton on the left!

Prefab Sprout

Recorded in 1992, the album 'Let's Change The World With Music' was composed and recorded in demo form but rejected by the record label.  The album was finally released this month a mere 17 years later! This release is actually Paddy McAloon's original demo, performed entirely by him back in '92, but slightly remastered by Calum Malcolm in 2009.

From it this is the song 'Sweet Gospel Music,' and believe it or not that's a photo of how Paddy looks now.

William Safire

Conservative columnist William Safire died this week, he was 79. He wrote a twice weekly column for the New York Times for over 30 years.

He was also a speech writer for Richard Nixon and amongst the speeches he wrote is the extraordinary one below, drafted for Nixon in July 1969, in the event the Apollo astronauts got stranded on the moon!

Lucy

R.I.P. Lucy.

Bad Lieutenant

First single from Bernard Sumner's post New Order band called Bad Lieutenant. The band also features Stephen Morris on drums and Phil Cunningham on guitar, so basically it's New Order without Peter Hook on bass.

Not bad, but I miss Hooky's bass sound.

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile

130 photo's from a reception held at The Met, Wednesday night in New York.

The Beatles: Bigger Than Jesus

Remember when John Lennon said The Beatles were bigger than Jesus and it caused all kinds of crazy reactions in the US?

According to Google trends in the last four weeks more computer users have typed in the search word "Beatles" on the Google website than "Jesus". The popularity of The Beatles has increased substantially during September thanks to the re-release of all of their albums digitally-remastered. (Daily Telegraph)

The Drums

From Brooklyn, these are The Drums with the song 'Let's Go Surfing.'  They list their line up as:

Jonathan Pierce - The Singin'
Jacob Graham - The Stringin'
Adam Kessler - The Twangin'
Connor Hanwick - The Bangin'

Infromed

Infromed (adj.): lacking the ability to spell the name of one’s own country.

Richard Hawley

New single from Richard Hawley, called 'For Your Lover, Give Some Time.'

Joakim

From Paris this is Joakim with the song 'Spiders.'

The xx

From London, this is The xx with their song 'Crystalize.' They've been compared to Joy Division, Young Marble Giants, Clock DVA etc.

Jess

Following on from yesterday's post about our 20th wedding anniversary.  We got married in the village of Sherburn-in-Elmet in a church that dates from around the year 1120.

I came across this story about a black cat that took up residence in the church a few years ago. Below is a picture of the church with the cat (called Jess) on the right.

The local vicar said "At first we tried to keep her out but she kept coming back so we gave her a bed, litter tray and food bowl to make her more comfortable."

I know how he feels!

We Got Married

Louise and I got married 20 years ago this week.

Empire State of Mind

From the Answer the Call benefit concert Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

For Students, 9/11 a Lesson, Not a Memory

Good article in today's Washington Post:

"Eight years later, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are pages in the history books to a generation that's too young to recall them."

(read the full article here)

What children think of the Beatles

The Times (UK) took a bunch of kids aged 6, 7 and 8 years old and played them some Beatles songs. Their reactions are hilarious. (Read the full article here.)

Here's what one of them had to say about 'A Day in the Life.'

“It’s about a healthy, lucky man, but he’s upset so he finds a magic photograph and goes into it,” explains Otto, gesticulating wildly. “Then he sinks down into Evil World and goes into a dream, and while he’s sleeping everything goes wrong. He’s really unlucky and he’s basically nothing now. He has no wealth. He’s just a frog. Not even a frog. He’s an insect.”

Glad they cleared that up then...

The Men Who Stare At Goats

This Country is Crazy

President Obama is scheduled to deliver a national address to schoolchildren on Tuesday as part of 'back to school' week.

The Department of Education's press release says about the address: "The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens."

Seems pretty innocuous right?

Not according to Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer who put out this statement:

"This is an abuse of power and an attempt by the Obama Administration to indoctrinate young Americans into supporting his socialist agenda. Parents should be extremely concerned."

Now Fox News has joined in the madness, calling for parents to keep their children home from school that day.