Mad Racket returns Saturday, September 6, 2008.

Big Bowl-O-Sonic sound, reasonably priced drinks, patented copper ceiling effect and a bevvy of friendly faces await you at the re-invigorated Marrickville Bowling and Recreation Club.

Come along to celebrate the end of winter and warm up the room in anticipation of our approaching tenth birthday. Musical beats and treats provided by the four racketeers - Jimmi James, Ken Cloud, Zootie and Simon Caldwell.

Tickets available presale for $25 inc. GST from: Spank Records, So Music Newtown and Redeye Records.

A female Cruiser at the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary - Kuranda, just near Cairns.

Classic.
Simple.
Overused.
Uninspired.

What do you consider Helvetica to be?

The documentary Helvetica screens on SBS tonight at 10.05pm. Missed it? You can watch it over here.

Or… perhaps you’re after a little light, type humour? Heres’s the Font Conference.

I’m off to see The Herd on Friday night at The Metro. Here’s “The King Is Dead”, one of the cuts from the latest album entitled “Summerland”.

Just a little hollow?

From today’s SMH.

Sydney will be given a new international brand, NSW Premier Morris Iemma says.

The logo will encompass the “stature, strength and spirit of this great global city”, Mr Iemma told reporters today.

“The Sydney brand will deliver a consistent message to international audiences that will define Sydney as a leader in business, culture, tourism, events and education.”

“People are clearly aware that we are a welcoming city … now we need to tell them more about how well we perform in other areas.”

A Brand Sydney Project, to be chaired by the head of Events NSW, John O’Neill, will produce the logo, which is expected to be launched in the middle of next year.

First of all, did someone forget to tell them that a logo is just one component of developing a brand, and behind that brand you actually need to be able to back what you’re trying to position, otherwise it comes across without any conviction - a little hollow and certainly trite.

The first way to get that conviction going is for Iemma to pull his finger out and think about some long term planning for this city, otherwise we will see it very quickly usurped by Melbourne and Brisbane.

Morris, forget your logotype and get down to how business to work on improving how we do perform in other areas. Take a look at your transport infrastructure as one of the first of many things you should be tackling.

[/end rant]

Named after cognitive scientist Roger Shepard, a Shepard scale is an auditory illusion composed out of a series of ascending or descending Shepard tones.

To start the illusion, hit play and be sure to replay the video again and again. After listening to this a few times, you may just be questioning your sanity.

Vincent Laforet is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer covering the Olympics in Beijing.

You can check out what a pro photographer packs to cover such an event. Then just gasp. His kit consists of 6 cameras, over a dozen lenses, transceivers, storage, laptops, wet weather gear, grips, tripods etc.

Photo © Vincent Laforet

One of the biggest challenge for a photographer is knowing what to bring. If we were covering just one sport, it would be easy. Most photographers could probably bring 2-3 cameras, and 2-3 lenses, max. But given that we’ll have a few dozen sports to choose from, and that the equipment needed to cover each sport can vary widely, it’s a challenge to say the least. And don’t forget: we have to carry everything, so the more you bring, the more you break your back. I am easily bringing more than 200 lbs of equipment with me.

Read his blog post and the full photo-set.

The calm before the storm - a day before the Gentse Feesen commences

So much action, so little time.

We’ve been and gone, and there’s been very little blog action since Paris. Since then, we hit Amsterdam and Ghent with a very brief stop at Antwerp, and then spent 32 hours in transit coming home.

There’s plenty more photos to check out. You can view the first set on Flickr, or by slideshow. More to talk about soon!

We’ve been so busy that it’s been some time since I’ve made an update. Paris is now 6 days behind us, but was an amazing experience, all the while made better by our intermediate level of traveller French.

It seems that nothing pleases the locals more than trying in French first. If at first you don’t succeed, they’ll often come back at you in English, or they’ll come back in English as they can easily discern your accent.

Not that we had a list and had to check the items off, but we visited The Louvre for the “three piece tour” and the Museum of Modern Art where I was lucky enough to see a large Bridget Reily exhibition. Also the Institut du Monde Arab is well worth a look, even for the façade alone.

One of the highlights of the visit was a day of cycling around Versailles - quite an amazing venue, both the grounds and the building itself and a wonderful place to have a picnic too. Don’t forget the great shopping in the Marais and Latin Quartier as well - as it happens, we happen to be travelling through Europe during sales times - which can be good and also bad.

Oh, and let’s not forget the George Pompidou Centre experience!

Pompidou Centre forecourt

You’ll notice that the forecourt above is devoid of people, with a few packages left behind.

I took a photo with no idea what was going on as there were no people about. As we walked on there was a massive boom which scared the **** out of us. Not knowing what had happened exactly and without asking the police (and after seeing a van with "Deminage" on the side of it), I guess that a suspicious package was found and was detonated.

The radius had to be at maximum 150m - I can only wonder if the package was actually an explosive device.

The Eiffel Tower - a must at night. It sparkles for ten minutes at the start of every hour.

Lots of great food to be had, and a couple of shockers as well. Citrus Etoile, Les Philosophes, Le P’tit Troquet, L’as Du Fallafel and Berthillon were all very good - ranging from fine dining to quick in-and-out lunch, and the bad - avoid Le Petit Dakar, and Le Petit Mâchon - one of the worst dining experiences ever. We walked out after 2 hours, in which time we had only had an entree!

Dinner by the Seine - another fab food experience, complete with Pierre Herme desserts!

Anyway, we’re in Gent right now and just gone midday and I can hear the first of the music from one of the stages close to our B&B. It’s a miserable 16C outside and raining! Today is the first day of the Gentse Feesen - so, it’s time to go outside and brave the weather and enjoy the action.

You can also check out some of the other holiday snaps on Flickr.

Inside Guildhall in the City of London

It’s been an action packed, almost frantic 4 days as we’ve been whizzing around London. Great to see the sights - you name it: St. Pauls, Westminster Abbey, Tate Modern, British Museum, Guildhall, Hampton Court Palace and so on. Also was good to catch up with a few old friends last night at The Westbourne.

I’ve been too busy to worry about photos and such! Dribs and drabs will come through as time allows - anyway, time to roll as we’re off to visit the family in Bromley today.