РОБОТЫ - Comrades of Steel

Robotni - Comrades of Steel.

Very cool Soviet-era poster.

Brings back memories of my Archie the Man of Steel comics in the 70ies.

Florence & The Machine

My hands-down-this-summer's-favourite-song: Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) by new indie band Florence & The Machine. Absolutely great! The Cranberries meets Texas meets Kleerup (and then some). Leadsinger Florence Welch has the most amazing voice, great lyrics, loads of layers, backturns, countercurrent. Wow!

While at it do also check out their songs Howl, Girl With One Eye and Cosmic Love. All these songs are from their debut album Lungs, released 9 July 2009. Well... actually, while at it, get the whole album. Fabulous!

Not so sure that the KateBush-esque video they made for Rabbit Heart is to my liking, but just dump the video and listen to the music instead.

Florence & The Machine is going to be Big!

... and what do I just discover? My music guru Eric Corton has Florence & The Machine as his band this week on his video blog at nrc.nl
http://nrc.tv/video/rocks/article1357668.ece/Florence_%2B_The_Machine
This just wraps it for me.

The MADIGAN - a Gil Smith Catboat

The MADIGAN is a Long Island Catboat. It is a replica of the original catboat WINWARD built by Gil Smith in 1895. The MADIGAN was built in 1995 by The Apprenticeshop of Rockland, Maine.

In my view it is the most beautiful sailing ship ever designed. The lines are just amazing. A piece of art.

Apparently there is only one such ship in Europe. The COHIBA, built in Finland in 2002. Some years ago it was for sale for 25K euro.

The Apprenticeshop in Maine will build you a new Gil Smith Catboat, identical to the pictured MADIGAN, for 48K USD...... and by God, I am tempted!

www.atlanticchallenge.com

The J3 Soapbox Car

(A soapbox car - also variously known as a soapbox cart, and billy cart - is a motorless vehicle capable of holding a driver, usually a child, built for the purpose of racing or recreation. Propelled by gravity, soapbox cars can reach upwards of 50 km/h. Originally, soapbox cars were built from wooden soap or orange crates and rollerskate wheels)

The coolest 9-year old in the world

10.08.09 - View from my room at The Standard

GANT Rugger Bike

Finally it is there: the GANT Rugger Bike!
Pride on wheels.

Pieter Hugo

About the photo serie The Hyena & Other Men taken in Nigeria by South African photographer Pieter Hugo:

"In Abuja we found them living on the periphery of the city in a shantytown - a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons. It turned out that they were a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. The animal handlers were all related to each other and were practising a tradition passed down from generation to generation. I spent eight days travelling with them"

from

www.pieterhugo.com

Russian Criminal Tattoos

Between 1948 to 2005, 3,000 drawings were compiled by prison warden and ethnographer Danzing Baldaev of the tattoos of Russian inmates. Supported by the KGB, who recognised the usefulness of such a document, these drawings were supplemented by photographs by Sergei Vasiliev, a fellow warden: