Saturday, April 09, 2011

SG 306

"Good evening sir. Welcome to fl-" I switch my brain off. Avoid hearing their artificial welcomes, two facetious smiles and a ripple of Chinese whispers.

I seat myself, buckle in. "Sir may I tell you about..." Yeah yeah bring it on bring it on. Tell me all about the lovely emergency exit. You don't really want to tell me and I definitely do not wish to listen. But unfortunately you have to tell me and I surely must pretend to listen.

Thank you very much.

I'm a row 18 traveller. I know which rows are the back emergency exits with additional legspace (row 18). Which airhostesses are going thru nervous breakdowns (look for the extra puffy eyes) and which damn pilots do not for their lives know how to make a decent announcement (the drunk ones).

I hate being a row 18 traveller.

Monday, April 04, 2011

Is that a Facebook "Like" button? :-O

Hello All.

Yes the all-pervasive "Like" button has invaded this blog too. I know, I had vowed to stay away from the Facebook AppPlatform and all the evil that it stands for. Unfortunately, Network Effects have willed me to swallow my pride and add the damn button already.

This brings me to a question of netiquette, or rather facebooketiquete: Is it acceptable for one to "Like" one's own blog postings? Anyone?

Cheerio! :-)

PS: For those looking to add the "Like" button to their own blogs, this is the easiest source I could find: http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2010/04/facebook-like-button-for-blogger.html


Friday, April 01, 2011

Banksy: Wall and Piece



He's a fly by night operator - draws his hood over his dyed hair, he walks into the dead of the night to arrive the scene of the crime. On foot, always on foot. He takes mere minutes to unbundle his cans of paints and specially prepared stencils.


That bizarre photo of a carefully shaded girl child holding a balloon which forms a crayoned "NO FUTURE" over by the bridge street corner was him. That defaced thousand dollar billboard with a wolf-like mouse molesting a famous celebrity was him. His trademark signature drips down, akin to a the Joker leaving a calling card behind a robbed bank.


Banksy is a British graffiti artist and political activist. Known for his contempt of government, Banksy displays his art on public surfaces and is known to even build prop pieces. Lately his every occurrence is labelled as high art and cordoned off, preserved and auctioned off for tons of money, none of which actually goes to him.


His work is vandalism. For ever anti-War depiction of children suffering, he could be put behind bars for 2 years. For every anti-authoritarian slogan written out in 7-foot high capital letters, he could be fined more than he has earned in his lifetime.


There's no light around him. He works in the dark. Banksy steps back and looks at his half complete shade of a starving little boy toting a machine gun, wondering what it'll actually look like in the daylight. He hears sirens in the distance and quietly trots off leaving his precious hour's effort still unrefined. Such is life.


Some of my favourite Baknsky works are shown in the above pictures. Check out banksy.co.uk for more stunning displays of his art.