I found these wonderful videos by Emma Jolin a while ago, in them she discusses an aspect of relationships with some of her friends. This one is about which Star Trek character to be should you decide to do some roleplay in bed. Captain Janeway seems the popular choice though as a DS9 geek i'd go for Dr Bashir who seemed to get plenty and being British i can maybe do his accent.
Episode 9: Star Trek Roleplaying in Bed
Emma | Myspace Video
Monday, April 4, 2011
Adverts of yesteryear
A new occasional series, some adverts from old publications that amuse (me anyway).
My air force
I thought i would blog about my small but growing armada of aeroplanes. Models of course not real ones. As i recounted in my blog article about the Tiger Moth i started making Airfix kits again after a gap of over 20 years (apart from one interlude in the early 2000s when i made a MiG-17) because i had planned to buy a Tiger Moth kit for my Dad but never got around to it before it was too late... Later on after he had passed away i decided to build it myself as a tribute to him.
So it all started from there and now i have built 14 kits. With one exception they are all British aeroplanes and mostly from 1930-1950. For a while i had a theme of building the RAF decade by decade but now my choice of kit is a bit more relaxed. Building aeroplanes of this type and from these eras is all part of the general nostalgic mood i have these days perhaps.
After a couple of biplanes (which i have found hard to be honest as i am not the most dexterous of people) i have stuck to good old monoplanes. Mostly piston engined aircraft though there have been a few jets. In a departure last year i also did a Bloodhound SAM.
Now i am into my third "season" of making kits (where i make them is unheated so its a bit cold and damp to do much during the Winter). So far this year i have made a Bf109 and a Comet Racer and have a F-86 Sabre (RAF of course, natch) and a Gloster Gladiator lined up for the next couple of projects. The latter will be my first biplane since my first couple of projects, hopefully in the intervening dozen or so projects my skills will have been honed so i find it a bit easier!
So it all started from there and now i have built 14 kits. With one exception they are all British aeroplanes and mostly from 1930-1950. For a while i had a theme of building the RAF decade by decade but now my choice of kit is a bit more relaxed. Building aeroplanes of this type and from these eras is all part of the general nostalgic mood i have these days perhaps.
After a couple of biplanes (which i have found hard to be honest as i am not the most dexterous of people) i have stuck to good old monoplanes. Mostly piston engined aircraft though there have been a few jets. In a departure last year i also did a Bloodhound SAM.
Now i am into my third "season" of making kits (where i make them is unheated so its a bit cold and damp to do much during the Winter). So far this year i have made a Bf109 and a Comet Racer and have a F-86 Sabre (RAF of course, natch) and a Gloster Gladiator lined up for the next couple of projects. The latter will be my first biplane since my first couple of projects, hopefully in the intervening dozen or so projects my skills will have been honed so i find it a bit easier!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Sunday Fail : Convair 880
As well as the miltary-based Sunday Fail series i am also going to recycle my "Not Classic Airliners" series which was on yet another now defunct blog and presented commercial airliners which never made it. And here is the first episode...
It is pretty much forgotten these days but back in the classic days of Boeing 707s, Douglas DC-8s and Vickers VC-10s you also had Convair's attempts at a jet airliner. The Convair 880 was not a success though and only sold 65 examples. The 880 was faster than the 707 but also more expensive to run and even back in the cheap oil days of the 1960s that was more important. General Dynamics made a huge loss on the 880 and it's sister airliner the 990 athough one was sold to Elvis as his personal plane. By 1975 none were still in service with major airlines though a few continued in service as cargo airliners or with smaller airlines and in one case a test plane for the US Navy until the late 1990s.
I've always thought it was one of the best looking jet airliners. None are flying nowadays but a few still exist around the world, one in Portugal now serves as a strip club apparently. Despite only 65 being sold it was involved in 17 accidents and 5 hi-jackings so it was not a lucky jet.
Photo from ConvairJet.com
It is pretty much forgotten these days but back in the classic days of Boeing 707s, Douglas DC-8s and Vickers VC-10s you also had Convair's attempts at a jet airliner. The Convair 880 was not a success though and only sold 65 examples. The 880 was faster than the 707 but also more expensive to run and even back in the cheap oil days of the 1960s that was more important. General Dynamics made a huge loss on the 880 and it's sister airliner the 990 athough one was sold to Elvis as his personal plane. By 1975 none were still in service with major airlines though a few continued in service as cargo airliners or with smaller airlines and in one case a test plane for the US Navy until the late 1990s.
I've always thought it was one of the best looking jet airliners. None are flying nowadays but a few still exist around the world, one in Portugal now serves as a strip club apparently. Despite only 65 being sold it was involved in 17 accidents and 5 hi-jackings so it was not a lucky jet.
Photo from ConvairJet.com
Saturday, April 2, 2011
TOTP 1976
I so love BBC4, if i was in charge of a TV channel it would look largely like BBC4. Euro-dramas like Wallander and The Killing and now pure nostalgia with a year's (at least) worth of Top Of The Pops starting from 1976 (which is when they started keeping the tapes i guess).
So from April 1976 we have a chart topped by Brotherhood Of Man, ABBA, Barry White and 10cc. The Beatles also appeared three times in the top 30 for early April which was interesting, i didn't realise they had so many single reissues. I was only vaguely aware of music (and indeed anything) back in Spring 1976 as i was 4. My earliest memories come from around then though, sat on the bus with my Mum singing "Yes sir thats my baby" no doubt to the delight of other passengers.
Pan's People? Whats that all about? Well a dancing troupe obviously but their performance of "Jungle rock" was equally bizarre and awesome. As well as the girls we had a collection of people in animal costumes of varying degrees of awfulness, including a camel and a kangaroo. In the jungle. Pan's People were quite good though i preferred Hot Gossip who came later on, obviously i'd never admit that in public.
In truth the TOTP repeats have begun in what is not quite a golden age of pop and the first show opened with "Girls girls girls" by Sailor, the kind of pop shit that needed to be destroyed. Punk rock kindly obliged soon enough.
Now Tina Charles is a singer i'd like to see in these TOTP repeats, judging by this clip she should appear around Christmas...
So from April 1976 we have a chart topped by Brotherhood Of Man, ABBA, Barry White and 10cc. The Beatles also appeared three times in the top 30 for early April which was interesting, i didn't realise they had so many single reissues. I was only vaguely aware of music (and indeed anything) back in Spring 1976 as i was 4. My earliest memories come from around then though, sat on the bus with my Mum singing "Yes sir thats my baby" no doubt to the delight of other passengers.
Pan's People? Whats that all about? Well a dancing troupe obviously but their performance of "Jungle rock" was equally bizarre and awesome. As well as the girls we had a collection of people in animal costumes of varying degrees of awfulness, including a camel and a kangaroo. In the jungle. Pan's People were quite good though i preferred Hot Gossip who came later on, obviously i'd never admit that in public.
In truth the TOTP repeats have begun in what is not quite a golden age of pop and the first show opened with "Girls girls girls" by Sailor, the kind of pop shit that needed to be destroyed. Punk rock kindly obliged soon enough.
Now Tina Charles is a singer i'd like to see in these TOTP repeats, judging by this clip she should appear around Christmas...
Friday, April 1, 2011
Tiger Moth
Yesterday i bought a Haynes manual on owning and maintaining a Tiger Moth biplane. Of course i am unlikely to ever own such a wonderful thing but it is a very nice book packed full of the interwar nostalgia i am currently obsessed with.
I find the Interwar Period one of the most fascinating in history, the world emerged from one of its darkest ever periods and within years the world (or parts of the West anyway) was swept by a wave of optimism, modernism and joy. However by the middle part of this period the world was facing economic collapse which led to the rise of a darkness and a war that even eclipsed that which had happened before. Its also the period where the British Empire reached its greatest extent yet within a few years was falling apart.
I've always liked some of the style of this period, women with those short hair cuts and cloche hats, art deco and of course the machines like the Tiger Moth.
The Tiger Moth is an icon of the Interwar Period. My Dad told me he flew in one when he was an air cadet. I did think of buying him an Airfix kit of one when the company relaunched but he died before i had a chance to. In late 2009 i bought the kit for myself and built it and since them have built quite a few more. When i was a kid i built dozens of models though i seldom painted them and usually they were a bit rubbish, these days i can afford paint and proper tools and sometimes they turn out half decent.
I find the Interwar Period one of the most fascinating in history, the world emerged from one of its darkest ever periods and within years the world (or parts of the West anyway) was swept by a wave of optimism, modernism and joy. However by the middle part of this period the world was facing economic collapse which led to the rise of a darkness and a war that even eclipsed that which had happened before. Its also the period where the British Empire reached its greatest extent yet within a few years was falling apart.
I've always liked some of the style of this period, women with those short hair cuts and cloche hats, art deco and of course the machines like the Tiger Moth.
The Tiger Moth is an icon of the Interwar Period. My Dad told me he flew in one when he was an air cadet. I did think of buying him an Airfix kit of one when the company relaunched but he died before i had a chance to. In late 2009 i bought the kit for myself and built it and since them have built quite a few more. When i was a kid i built dozens of models though i seldom painted them and usually they were a bit rubbish, these days i can afford paint and proper tools and sometimes they turn out half decent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)