One of those days

I'm aware that the role of advertisments is to encourage you to purchase the product, but I think a truly good ad is one that is memorable, inventive, becomes part of the vernacular, or a clever parody eg. the Evian baby one
I remember the best part of having to watch the football replays on a Saturday night was the series of SGIC ads - didn't make me want their insurance (the South Australian State Government Insurance Commission), they were just well-made witty clips.(AAMI are currently attempting to emulate them, but it just doesn't have the same flair).
My favourite was the Milk Bar one, but I couldn't find it, so this is the second best (love the car-wash attendant). This one leaves Mr Bean for dead.


It is so easy to say "Sorry!"

Gobsmacked

It is not enough that Facebook, iTunes, and the rest keep changing layouts, hiding features, etc - telling us that we want it that we just don't know we do, now Google have decided to retire Google Reader its RSS reader!

Copied from the New York Times

Having had to change from Bloglines to Google Reader, I'm not impressed with the decision from the people who wish to be the sum of all printed knowledge. The 'RichSiteSummary Feed' harks back to my early blogging days with '23Things', monitoring the sites I follow for new stories.

Literal literates

What should have been a winning word score - was disallowed. Seems the people at Words With Friends aren't big library users (also checked with Scrabble word finder and it didn't include it either - Philistines!)it may be disallowed due to it being a 'proper noun' but that just takes all the fun out of the situation.
Words With Friends is like an app version of Scrabble (selecting lettered tiles of differing values to create words horizontally or vertically) allowing you to play remotely with your. ..friends!

Battle Victor

The first time I watched "Time Team" on tv, I thought I recognised the style used in the pencil sketches - looks just like Victor Ambrus, later I checked the credits - yep Victor G. Ambrus.

I fell in love with Victor's work when reading childrens books (many of them Australian) - all the Nan Chauncy's, Elyne Mitchell's "Silver Brumby" books, Ronald Welch, K.M. Peyton's "Flambards" series, Rosemary Sutcliff ... even his picture book version of "Dracula".

The paintings and drawings of Victor  Ambrus are familiar to several generations. He has illustrated over 300 books on classical and historical subjects in his own instantly recognisable style.Now there is "Battlefield panoramas : from the siege of Troy to D-Day". Over the years Victor has amassed what amounts to a visual record of the entire history of warfare, brought together here in one volume.

A few simple lines create a sketch

With a concise text explaining the background of each battle scene, "Battlefield panorama" is an art book.

Beginning with the siege of Troy, there's Caesar's invasion of Britain, the Viking raid of Lindisfarne, the Battle of Hastings, the bowmen at Agincourt, the Battle of Sedgemoor, the storming of the Bastille, Trafalgar and Waterloo, The Franco-Prussian War, the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War, the Normandy Landings, and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising (this takes on particular power and resonance when you know that Victor was actually there).

The Siege of Athlone in 1691

 Victor was born in Budapest in 1935. He studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Art, then fled the invasion, and arrived at the Royal College of Art in London. He has won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal - twice, with 3 books.

Classic Victor - the Iceni Uprising

The Battle of Trafalgar

He has been part of the Time Team as its reconstruction artist for many years. Tony Robinson (the presenter and world's best audio book narrator) describes him as 'an archaeological alchemist - he can transform a few stones and bits of pot into a vivid world of living, breathing people'.