Month: July 2006

The Times Online reports that Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett “died peacefully at home” from unknown causes. Barrett cofounded Pink Floyd with Roger Waters in 1965, but by the late ‘60s, just as the band was gaining fame, drug use and psychological problems led to his split with the band and “near-total reclusion.” Pink Floyd’s iconic 1975 album Wish You Were Here was dedicated to Barrett, especially the songs Shine On You, Crazy Diamond and the title track.

Wish You Were Here is one of my favorite songs of all time, and I’m quite sad to hear this news. I’ve uploaded the song in MP3 format  for your listening/downloading pleasure; here are the lyrics:

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

FlickrBlog reports that “On July 1st, the community of Beloit, Wisconsin came together on the banks of the Rock River to recreate George Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte.” Check out the entire flickr set here; more information on Seurat here.

Do you remember Mr. Yuk? I do, but I forgot just how scary the commercials were until I saw this circa 1971 Mr. Yuk commercial (YouTube video).

What could possible go wrong when a home shopping network tries to demonstrate a shoddily-made katana? Check out the Google Video and see!

Profanity Adventures reminds me of when I used to play text games on the ZX81, Commodore 64, and IBM… 🙂

There’s a lot of websites dedicated to 8 bit gaming about. Some have shots from the game complete screens, whilst others have maps, cheats and interviews with grown men who at one point felt fit to use their mathematical expertise in order to make a worm simulator. I felt, however, that there was one thing which (as far as I’m aware) has never been celebrated…. swearing on text adventures. I typed in swear words into as many games on the Spectrum 48k as i could find, and below are the ones which understood – which a pleasing amount did… as, let’s face it, the authors knew that most people would try it at some point when they’d gotten frustrated with the distinct lack of fun on offer.

3D Stereogram allows you to make a sketch and then converts it into a stereogram. Pretty neat…

This TV commercial for Pole Position (YouTube video) is awesome!

The Onion is one of the funniest sites on the Interweb, and for the next 10 days it celebrates 10 years online with its best stories, spotlighting a new year each day.

Gallery of the Absurd’s Celebimals series is awesome, as are most of the other caricatures and illustrations on the site.

The poor little barefoot Britneyroo (careerisoverum) is worn down and burdened from always having to lug the Freeloading Federline Lizard (paraciticus wannabeus africus reptilia) around in her pouch. The Lizard sits back, cracks open a 40 ouncer, and daydreams about one day becoming a big rap star. He never has to lift a finger to do anything other than keep the Britneyroo knocked up. What a life the slimy little Lizard has.

I am compelled to post the new music video from David Hasselhoff Jump In My Car (Google Video) simply because I feel that others must view this horrific cheesiness for themselves.