Clodagh Phelan's Blog, page 7
October 5, 2013
Andrew Baines – London Exhibition
In August I wrote about Andrew Baines, a Australian artist I had stumbled across on the Internet, as you do. I was fascinated by his photographs and paintings. I wrote to him and he kindly gave me permission to reproduce some of them on the blog.
I’m happy to say that he’s now been in touch to let me know about a forthcoming London exhibition. I’ve posted a few examples of the work being shown.The exhibition runs from 2nd November 2013 until 11th January 2014 at the Blackheath Gallery,34a Tran...
September 29, 2013
Einstein couldn’t swim
Source: catnipsum.com
It’s been a crazy sort of week. A really good week but at the end of it I find myself dithering around and at a loss to know what to write about. This is not unusual. But it’s usually because I have too many things to choose from. This time it’s different. This time my mind is a bit like those squares of soft plastic that come in the boxes of stuff you buy from Amazon. And I’m not talking about bubble wrap; that would be interesting, at least you can pop it.
In the past we...
September 22, 2013
“All of a sudden my hand was empty.”
Source: billsmovieemporium.wordpress.com
A couple of weeks ago I made a grown man cry. He didn’t actually break down but had a hard job trying not to. Why? What did I do?
I made a speech.
I made a speech at my wonderful Early Birds Toastmaster’s club about the consequences of using mobile phones while driving. The purpose of that particular project, speech 9, is to persuade with power. I had some qualms about giving this speech to an audience of sensible, bright, intelligent people, as I did not...
September 11, 2013
Gobbledegook
The Joy of Travel
No. 5 – Airport Announcements
I have no idea how many people pass through Stanstead every year – millions. Maybe billions. I assume that most of them reach their destinations,with or without their luggage. Which is something of a miracle if my recent experience is anything to go by. The incomprehensible screeching that passed for public announcements would do a good job of shattering glass and put any self-respecting parrot to shame. As to fulfilling its purpos...
August 31, 2013
Eric, Larry and the Psychotic Goat
Eric emailing his controller at MI5
Despite fulminating and ranting about the misuse of English, I love some of the new ways the language is used. One of the words I’m particularly fond of is ‘random’. ‘Random’ meaning haphazard, without aim or purpose or without an underlying principle. Nowadays it’s often used to mean strange or weird – indeed sometimes it’s the only word that fits the situation.
Take last week. Last week was random in all senses of the word, old and new. Correct or otherwise...
August 27, 2013
How many cows does it take to make an airship?
“Laws are like sausages, better not to see them when they are being made.” This remark, in various forms and guises, is attributed to Otto von Bismarck, among others. Whether it was Otto who said it or someone else, they definitely have a point. Some of the stuff that goes into the modern sausage would have you reaching for the sick bowl. Or, in my case, the scotch.This is not to denigrate all sausages. Indeed sausage making has become something of an art form with thousa...
August 17, 2013
The A Word
iphonewallpapers-hd.com
Some words and phrases have become so embedded in speech that we no longer notice their absurdity and simply accept them. This is dangerous. Dangerous for clarity of thought. Dangerous for the language.
Of these expressions, the one I’m singling out today, among a myriad of candidates, is the use, or more accurately the misuse, of the word “absolutely”. Like the phrase “going forward” it’s redundant. It’s about as much use in a sentence as a snowman is in an avalanche. A...
August 10, 2013
August 3, 2013
Corporations, coastlines, cornflakes and cows
Andrew Baines - Busselton Bovines
Last week, when looking for wonderful and wacky things for the last post – about crazy collections – I stumbled across what was to become the subject of this one. Stumbling across things you weren’t even looking for is one of the joys of the Internet. As it is of Twitter.
At that point I had never heard of the surrealist Australian photographer and artist, Andrew Baines. This week, thanks to the world wide web, I have not only discovered his quirky and stunnin...
