Eating out

Hospital signage is often poorly thought through.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Ji-Sung Park is more than just a shirt signing for QPR

QPR's signing of South Korean midfielder (and heart-throb) Ji-Sung Park is an astute one both on and off the field.

He's a tireless worker with excellent technical ability who will considerably improve the Rs midfield which will have to survive (!) without loveable rogue (!) Joey Barton until after Christmas. Let's not forget that you don't play over 100 times for Fergie's Man Utd without having a lot of talent and tactical discipline. Having Park pulling the levers in the midfield engine room will allow Moroccan magician (and the club's new number 10) Adel Taarabt to fully express himself in a way he hasn't since the 2010/2011 promotion season. I've said it many times on here and elsewhere but I'll say it again for the newbies ... Taarbs is technically up there with the likes of Messi and Cwissy (seriously) and has the potential to be the best player in the Premiership (sadly no longer The Greatest League In The World in terms of worldie star players).

Secondly, the signing of Park is a dead smart 'shirt signing'; it really does aid Uncle Tony Fernandes' attempts to launch QPR as a Global Brand which is recognised outside the blue-and-white hooped enclaves of west London. 32-year-old Park is bigger than Beckham in footy-crazy Asia and the QPR fan messageboards (and club shop) have been inundated by new fans from Korean and elsewhere in Asia since the hyped-up signing.

Well that was a night I will never forget. Unbelievable scenes in Indonesia. Craziest and strangest crowd I've ever seen. #QPR #AsiaTour

— IanJTaylor (@IJTaylor81) July 23, 2012

Guns vs Kinder Eggs

Frank Ocean: The future of R&B

The Guardian reckons that Frank Ocean is a “wildly original talent” and praised that, “in a formulaic era, his production is impressively idiosyncratic, heavy on hazy electronics and cavernous, dubby reverb, and packed with weird touches: the melodies never quite pan out as you expect them to, while the backing shifts and changes unpredictably.” Pitchfork said that Ocean has "quickly proven himself to be among the most gifted singer-songwriters of his generation; he’s got the type of voice, wit, charm, smarts, and ineffable humanity that’s always hoped for, but never promised.”

They're both right - Ocean is seriously talented. Here's him singing Bad Religion on the US tellybox:

The homes of football

Here's an "intimate short film" made to accompany photographer Stuart Roy Clarke's show at the National Football Museum in Manchester in July 2012. SRC is a tad self-important but his photos are top banana:

Top 5 grumpy pug models

BuzzFeed have posted up a seriously important 30 Most Unhappy Etsy Pug Models list story up on their site. It's taken me a g e s to whittle it down to a top five but I've managed it (you can thank me later for saving 25 seconds of your scrolling down time). And, yes, I did save the best (pugcake) until last.

Grimace-off

They snap was taken during Andy Murray's loss to Roger Federer in the 2012 Wimbledon men's singles final (and has nothing whatsoever to do with Bank of England topper Mervyn King's latest grim forecast for the UK Economy).

How not to promote an event by Danny Dyer

Presumedly, the geniuses at Box Nation were persuaded to hire propwah geeza Dyer after seeing what a great job he did here ...

Babylon on a thin wire ONCE UPON A TIME IN JAMAICA

Babylon on a thin wire, my father's seminal long read article for Rolling Stone mag about political gangsterism (and much more) in 1970s Jamaica has been published as a book by French publishers Patate Records. It was a book before but has been outta print for donkeys.

The very fine looking Patate coffee table-type tome is littered with wonderful images by ace photographer Adrian Boot. Below, find a few hastily snapped examples I've taken with my CrackBerry - needless to say they don't do 'em full justice. For no particular reason I seem to have picked out the ones of well-known reggae artists smoking weed but rest assured there are more 'grown up' snaps in it. The book also comes complete with a new intro by Thomas.

I'm bringing this book to your attention because for anyone even half-interested in Jamaica, reggae, His Bobness Robert Nesta Marley, Caribbean politics and/or urban street culture this simply is a MUST BUY. It goes w/o saying that I'm somewhat biased but I can assure you I'm not writing this post under any duress.

Buy it from Patate here.

If any bloggers/book reviewers out there are interested in a review copy please send babylon@patate-records.com or vvpanno@aol.com an electronic mail.

Intro from Patate:

Do you know why, although ska is just a beat, a dead simple nagging upbeat, so simple only illiterate Jamaicans can play it, the Rolling Stones never got it right? What did the CIAga graffiti stood for? Why Fidel Castro never stood a ghost of a chance against Big Youth when it comes to chatting 'pon the mike? What was tram-hopping all about and what made it such a good sport? Bob Marley's answer when someone had the cheek to ask, "how come a shantytown Rasta like him is driving 'round in a BMW"?


If you already know the answers to these questions, don't waste your time here. If not, then you better hurry and grab your own copy of Babylon on a Thin Wire, the best book ever written on Jamaica and reggae. First published in 1976, when the world couldn't care less about the sound comin' out of Kingston, then republished in 1982 under the title Jah Revenge - Babylon Revisited when the western medias were desperately seeking Marley's successor, this seminal book has been out of print for almost a quarter century. Here it comes again and for the very first time, it's also available in a French translation, and further enhanced with a foreword by Michael Thomas and an updated photo selection containing some previously Adrian Boot unseen shots.

Blurb on Boot:

Boot is one of Britain's best-known music photographers, and has worked for various UK music magazines and newspapers - NME, Melody Maker, The Times, The Guardian, The Face. He was a physics teacher in Jamaica at the time of the book.

Shane Warne's eight best balls

Here's Aussie legend Shane Warne when he was a little tubby and lot wonderful. I can't even look at the new gaunt fashionista version of Warnie - it's just too sad.

London 2012: Greco-Roman 'flying squirrel' takedown

My excitement about London 2012 has been slowly but surely building in recent weeks. But it's today that it's really peaked. That's because I now have my tickets in hand for the 6 august Greco-Roman Wrestling 120kg men's final. As I think I've previously mentioned here, I know next to nowt about Greco-Roman but I went for it on the grounds that's it's a proper old school Olympian sport. I've been educating myself on its fineries via YouTube. Here are a few choice vids for your delectation ...



The amazeballs 'flying squirrel' takedown:

Visions of the future: Robot takeover

Never play a robot at janken (that's rock-paper-scissors in non-nerd lingo):

Post Overalls (or Post O'alls if you prefer) Menpolini 'blue eye' shorts

Finding a decent part of shorts is dead tricky. By far the best fitting and looking shorts I've come across are Post Overalls' Menpolini model they repeat each summer. This year, they've done a 'blue eyes' version which is outstanding. It's almost as nice as the 'green buds' pair from last summer - still my fave. The detailing on these knee-length, slimmish fitting bad boys is immaculate. For example, different materials are used on the two pocket linings.












You can snap 'em up from The Bureau (Europe) or Unionmade (US).

Hendrix

Via Prog Porn

Celebrations

In rugger, head-butting is the new chest-bumping: