nutty’s nuggets

Somewhere in the bowels of my mp3 collection resides a compilation called 524’s World Of Twist made by Konishi Yasaharu. It’s quite mad and a lot of it is just really classic songs given a twist theme (e.g. Istanbul, Guns Of Navarone) in 60s covers by various strange acts. One of them originated as this advert which manages to combine 60s cool, science, scooters, the twist and a kilt into one neat package.

Well, maybe I should stop now. Nah. I’ve been collecting out of date non-fiction second hand for some time now, and above is my current collection of Penguin Pelican books displayed atop my recently acquired terrifying duvet cover.

What makes me so fascinated with these? you might ask. To an extent I’ve bought more as I’ve worked out why, but turning back to the first I bought reveals a few reasons.

Firstly the cover designs are sharp, simple and interesting.

Secondly there’s usually some interesting illustrated content inside them which, quite simply, would not get published in the same form today, for good or ill. (look at that map!)

But lastly and most importantly there ’s the fascination of the road not taken. I’m a big fan of alternate histories in fiction and that’s translated into being a fan of alternate futures in non-fiction.

Anyway, I’ve decided I’m going to stop buying them for a bit and start blogging about a few more of them instead. There seems to be little else online on them bar this gallery of covers and a bare listing of the early works so I figure it’s a collection worth sharing.

So Ian (whose fault it usually is) sends me a link to this nifty video of tilt shift shenanigans in motion video form.

Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

I realise I rather like the soundtrack and google it finding out that it’s by Sonido Lasser Drakar who have an album on emusic.

And before you know where you are you’re listening to an electro remix of the Knight Rider theme.

Pontiac Firebird by Sonido Lasser Drakar

Just a normal evening in really. One of these days a similar link from Ian will push me over the edge and I’ll given in and buy either a Pentax K20D or a Nikon D90.

After several years of using flickr it seemed like a nice time to finally sort out my flickr profile, here’s the first paragraph:

It seems only fair to have a proper profile when you’re adding total strangers to your contacts list, and it’s nice to have some sense of history to my photography. I might almost believe I’ve taken a good photo once now. Anyone feel like swapping testimonials?

Right, that cements it. After my fourth Misty’s Big Adventure gig I am now happy to say that they are my favourite band in the world ever. I’ve not danced so much at a gig in ages. My favourite song of the evening was I Can’t Take The Time Back or as I originally called it on here:

the amazing song they played when I saw them at the 100 Club (Something about taking the time back)

That blippy keyboard bit at 2:15 or so gets me every time. Their new album Television’s People is out now and is rather marvellous. I’d show you the cover but the lyrics sheet produced in the style of Radio Times is rather more exciting to me.

Some of you have dared ask for a guess at my favourite music of 2008 already. With only Of Montreal and Tim Ten Yen yet to play their hands Misty’s do look like they are in a good position for the coveted number one slot in my year end round up. Although thanks in no small part to my colleague Alister I’ll be waxing lyrical about oddball oldies as well such as the Joe Meek produced Dumb Head by Sharades.