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The king of Internet ideas, Ze Frank, has started a Colorwar.
I’ve taken my throw.
ROCK!
Go noTeam!
I’m feelin’ a little weird doing this. It was hilariously funny. They sussed it out and sent a nice little apology.
Why am I doing this. Well just to follow up on the story. Maybe I should have just left it at that. But what the heck.
from Clint Word <cword@godtube.com>
to
date Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 10:36 PM
subject GodTube Customer Care
Dear Members,
At GodTube, we take the responsibility of monitoring site content 24 hours a day very seriously. We are the Christian site where you can feel assured you will find clean images and dialog.
We’ve been made aware that on March 4, you may have received an email that appeared to be from our Customer Care department. If you did receive the email, we offer our apologies. The subject line and content of the email was not GodTube sanctioned messaging nor does it fit within our standards. We have taken appropriate measures to lesson future occurrences.
Your support is vital to our continued success and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our Customer Care department.
The GodTube Team
Why am I am member? I really don’t know. But for this I’m glad I am.
So where did I leave off. Ah yes, day two in Boston, Massachusetts. Its hot, the sky is blue, decent people, a personal feel, easy to get around, lots of culture and a heck of a lot of history.
On this particular morning, I stopped at a little coffee shop for some coffee and a mousse - the most awesome moose ever! Then we headed to Harvard Square once more. On the ground I found a brilliant piece of art work that really touched me. Unfortunately I didn’t see the artist about.
From here we headed to Au Bon Pain, unknown to me at the time, but this was the site of one of the scenes of Good Will Hunting - but more on that a little later. As we sat eating out sandwiches, or sipping on sumptuous (yes I just used that word) soup, we were entertained by a busker who enjoyed singing off spontaneous songs about articles from free newspapers picked fresh from the various newspaper vending machines behind him. Some songs were terrible - though he knew it, more often they were so stupid that they were funny.
Just outside the seating area for Au Bon Pain are permanent chess tables and sitting either playing, or reading a newspaper, is the ‘Chessmaster.’ Murray Turnbull in a in the top 1% of chess players, as he says in his own words. A master indeed, he has been sitting here making his living since 1982 playing chess and offering lessons between seven days a week between May and October. Hear him tell his tale on YouTube.
After lunch I was excited to look around Harvard University. Walking through the yard we saw a large crowd sitting on the steps to the Memorial Church. It one of the student-led tours. We joined on. The next stop on the tour was the The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library. This is the main library of the university and was founded with the $3.5m given by Harry Elkins Widener’s mother to commemorate the life of the Harvard graduate and book collector who died in the Titanic disaster.
The next and final, and probably most interesting, stop on the tour was the Statue of John Harvard, or the Statue of Three Lies, as it is commonly known.
The inscription on the side of the statue reads “John Harvard, Founder, 1638.”
When the statue was created, by Daniel Chester French there were no known images of John Harvard, so a student named Sherman Hoar was chosen randomly by French and dressed in the style of the seventeenth century so he could model for the statue.
The university was founded in 1636, and not by John Harvard was only contributed to it; donated half of his estate and of his library of around 400 volumes.
For some odd (or maybe its more odd that so many people do exactly what their tour guide tells them) reason visitors and tourists rub the shoe of the statue for good luck. Although it seems that, almost as a rite of passage, it is tradition to urinate on the foot before graduating, leading to speculation as to the yellowy discolouration. Often in a drunken state in the early hours of the morning. It seems, if blog comments and message forums are to be believed, that there are students out there who actually have done this, or claim to. Besides finding it totally nasty, I can’t help but be impressed that they can reach.
The statue is more subject to various hacks (The word ‘hack’ at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and “ethical” prank or practical joke), including the recent Halo transformation to celebrate the release of the latest game.
It was only after asking our excellent tour guide about my favourite film Good Will Hunting, did I find out that no parts of the movie were filmed on campus. In fact, much of it was filmed in Toronto, Canada! According to our tour guide, no films are allowed to be filmed on campus, after the last production decided that the actual Harvard students didn’t look enough like real Harvard students, and so they were replaced with extras. Naturally, the university was not happy and filming has been banned.
The McLaurin Building, where Will (Matt Damon) works as a janitor is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Also used in the movie is the Bow and Arrow Pub off Massachusetts Avenue, now gone, and Woody’s L Street Tavern, 658 E 8th St, which is still thriving and bringing further customers thanks to a sign stating its part in the film.
On our return to the great underground (harvard subway) we yet another busker. This time it was a cello. Only it was different. Not your typical classical pieces. This guy was playing Black Sabbath, and it sounded good.
This time we made our re-entry in Copley Square, in Back Bay, one of Bostons most upscale and desirable neighbourhoods. Here, we inadvertently found many more ‘attractions’ that I had originally noted. First, was the quite spectacular John Hancock Tower, or Hancock Place as it is officially named. Completed in 1976 it is the tallest building in Boston, the tallest building in New England, the 45th tallest building in the United States, and the 135th tallest building in the world.
Next was the The Boston Public Library; the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials and take them home to read and use. The library was officially established in Boston by a city ordinance in 1852. The building, however, was designed in 1888 and opened to the public in 1895.
Facing the Library is Trinity Church, making up part of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
From here we walked to The Public Garden, another location from Good Will Hunting. Although we didn’t see swans, as are spotted in the movie, we saw squirrels. Amazing, tame, squirrels. In fact, it was something I noticed all around Boston, that squirrels can be seen everywhere, even crossing the road. And so, here are the photographs. Wild, Wild SEX!
The horny critters were lovin’ it!
And so that will be all for today. I hope you have enjoyed this odd mix of history, geography, arts, culture and biology. There will of course be more at the weekend.
In this country, the 12th July brings with it a lot of tension. In the last few years the Orange Order Parades have passed relatively peacefully, but if you are out when the parades are going by, it feels like the slightest thing could set any one of them off.
The government, and the Orange Order, is trying to make out that the parades are now a tourist attraction, rebranding it ‘Orangefest’. It is far from any “family-friendly pageant” and little in the way of a “kaleidoscope of culture and colour”. For me, it is an aggressive parade of angry music, following along a trail throughout the city in an attempt to cause friction between communities. The streets are lined with those of the same culture, out to watch, cheer and drink a lot of alcohol.
For it seems this is the only country and time of the year when drinking in the streets by those of all ages is permitted. Yes there is police presence, even with a group of 16-18 year olds walk by with boxes of beer in a shopping trolley. It is the addition of all the alcohol being consumed that makes the streets at this time very intimidating if you wish to go somewhere rather than stand still as the paraders go by.
I stayed at my grand-parents house, like last year, so that I could get some photographs as the parade passed Balmoral Avenue. At the time I went out, it was raining on and off, so I borrowed an umbrella. This was consequently stolen from my bag within 10mins. On a few occasions I had comments in my direction as to why I was going the opposite direction to the parade, and in effect away from the meeting (read: drinking) point at Barnett Demesne. Then there is the fact that every man woman and child who has lined the streets is wearing some variant of red, white and blue, generally a football top, or carrying a union jack or ulster flag, often draped across their backs.
The adults may say that there is peace, but the youths don’t listen. They enjoy a good fight, especially under the influence of alcohol. So when the streets are lined with hundreds of them you don’t put one foot out of line. It really doesn’t make for much family orientated fun, especially families of other cultures, or tourists for that matter.
What signal does it really send to the rest of the world, that people of one culture are allowed to casually drink in the streets, on this one day of the year?
I didn’t stay out for long due to the above reasons. I went back to the house for some coffee.
Later that afternoon - The Bill Cosby BBQ
The Bill Cosby BBQ is an annual tradition, now in its third year, acting as a distraction from the most historically & notoriously unpleasant of days in the Northern Irish calendar - instead focussing on the wonder that is Bill Cosby, through the inventive means of mass-quoting, sweater & jello appreciation and - naturally - mass consumption of burgers and beer.
Complete with a life-size effigy to the man himself, the party continued onto the beach
It was a truly memorable night.
I awoke to find myself on a sofa.
Some cleaning was in order
Followed by some coffee from a kettle which refused to boil.
Myself, Dave and Phil, proceeded to catch the train back to Belfast, after that is, we discovered Narnia and took the longest shortcut through Crawfordsburn Country Park.
We found some ponies (i think), then a herd(?) of horses came running towards us from a field in the distance
Eventually we did make it home. I’m pleased I managed to keep my camera in tact through such drunkenness on the beach. Until next year…
So it’s my Birthday tomorrow. I will be a grand old age of 22. I’m getting old. I’m going to get some wine and drink it all.
I enjoy going to public events primarily for the purposes of taking photographs of lots of different people in one place, as well as the atmosphere that often surrounds these pieces of cultural activity. It’s nice to take time out from the dark and dingy, seedy and dark, sweary, alcohol-fueled and smoke-filled bars and darkened rooms. To enjoy the sun and act like children.
This is what we did on Saturday 28th April.
Firstly, Friday. Nick McCallan from God Talking Soul followed by Mary’s Great Idea in Common Grounds. The weather was great and the music suited it so well.
After a late night, I met with Ciara, Michelle, Paul, Dennis, Ronan and Connor for an awesome Fry in a local eatery. Soon after we went to the EU50 Playday. This was a day run by the council to mark 50 years of the European Union, the first of a series of events leading up to Europe Day on 9 May. Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park is a beautiful large open space with rolling meadows, woodland, riverside fields formal gardens and the City of Belfast International Rose Garden, I hadn’t been in quite a while and loved going with my parents as a kid.
When we got there it was a little more than half over and had missed some stuff. Unfortunately our opinion of the day will be based on that.
The kids, and there were a lot more than we are used to being around, certainly seemed to be having fun, though I think it could have been better organised. The ice cream man made a mint, having a monopoly on all refreshments - high-priced ice related food stuffs and bottles of carbonated drinks that weren’t even chilled.
We managed to make our own fun, however. We found some trees to climb.
The figure at the top (red t-shirt) is my bro, Chris.
Most of us stayed a little closer to the ground.
But then as we found a patch of grass to eat our ice creams we were suddenly, and very literally, dragged into taking part in a spot of Scottish Dancing. I managed to avoid it, which pleased the others even less. The photos are priceless. 
Afterwards we played frisby like we came to do.
A rare moment of me looking energetic:
When we got bored of that we walked around the park a bit more. It is a beautiful park. Lots of greenery. So we sat in a field and whistling with the grass.
Finally, we ended the day with a pint.
Unfortunately we really ended the day with a trip to the cinema to see The Reaping, but as I won’t get back those ninety six minutes, I don’t want to ponder on it too much.
Another truly great weekend. I feel lucky to have friends who are cool enough to do stuff like that.
(For more pictures check my flickr stream.)
I don’t like TV, but I’ll tell ya one thing - Ben really doesn’t like TV!!
He went nuts. Like a mad man.
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Theres no oil in our house. I’m fucking freezing! My hands are too purple to write much. Instead I’ve been playing the penguin game, haven’t played it in about 2 years. Highly addictive. Highest score so far: 769 990 991.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://words.iced-coffee.com/files/bloodypingu.swf" height="290" width="460" /]
A great piece of advertising:
New Satellite Navigation system for the Northern Ireland.
Being a huge fan of classical music I enjoy putting it on in a bar juke box occasionally. I also enjoy doing that ‘cos its so out of place. But it’s usually hard to hear so there isn’t much point really. I did this on Tuesday in Auntie Annies before going to see The Last King of Scotland (more on that later). I must admit, I haven’t listened to a great deal of classical music over the last few months, this has been sparked by comedian Rob Paravonian (who has a blog) and his rant on why he hates the tune so much.
[youtube]JdxkVQy7QLM[/youtube]
Someone else who was famous before creating a most excellent web presence is moby, he probably even made the site himself! (*note to self; ask moby if he designed his website*). He often updates his blog many times a day and comes across as very down to earth, like he does on every other medium he has appeared. A lot of his blogging is politically driven, but not all thankfully. He has even talked about issues of net neutrality and put this humourous take on the topic on youtube.
[youtube]xOJnKgsWPGw[/youtube]
With all the wars, politics, economics, poverty, celebrities etc - we need more fun.
Every so often we hear of wonderful acts of kindness and people being good en mass. Although I have never gotten around to joining him, I have great respect for Danny Wallace. In 2002 Danny started a cult which, at the time had no purpose. He simply placed an ad in a local classifieds publication Loot with the words: “JOIN ME, send one passport-sized photo to…” followed by his address. Soon after Danny met his first Joinee by the name of Christian Jones. He was “a do-er”. Soon many others sent passport photos and, still not knowing what they were joining, they were still willing to join. Soon members began to question what it was they were joining. Soon after Danny set out his first task for his Joinees: It is better, think I, always to make happy, those gentlemen who are in advance of you in years!”
Soon after Danny received an email from Joinee Davies. He told of how he and four other Joinees had “the most exciting day in the name of Join Me.” They found several old men sitting on deckchairs and brought them cups of tea, and of course took pictures of the events. Later they paid for a hamburger for an old man in McDonald’s. Later they found an old man in a bar and asked “Can I make you happy?” This old man had no money to get the train home so they kindly gave him £38 for his fare home. At this point Danny knew he had found his purpose, even if it was only to “make old men happy.” The aims soon changed.