Which Monopoly Token Are You?

Hilarious article in The Independent about Monopoly pieces and what they say about your personality.

WHAT DOES YOUR CHOICE OF CLASSIC MONOPOLY TOKEN SAY ABOUT YOU?

09 January 2013 02:14 PM

The makers of family-favourite board game Monopoly have announced their intention to retire one of the eight classic monopoly tokens and replace it with either a ring, guitar, robot, helicoptor or cat.

Which one would you be most sorry to see go? And - more importantly - what does your choice of classic Monopoly token reveal about your true personality?

Racing car - Your flashy ways conceal deeply ingrained sexual insecurities, but at least you are always nice to your mother.

Top Hat - You are a power-crazed, egomaniac who wouldn't think twice about screwing over your best-friend for a promotion or parking space. You compensate for these personality flaws with snappy dressing.

Scottie dog - You are a fully-grown woman who habitually speaks in a baby voice, or the downtrodden, long-suffering husband of such a woman.

Iron - You are a hip, young urbanite whose ironic selection of the iron conveys your contempt for bourgeoisie values such as tidiness.

Battleship - You are overweight.

Old boot - You are a working class hero possessed of unusual good looks and great integrity.

Wheelbarrow - You are cheery and good at gardening, but a bit thick.

Thimble - You are always offering unsolicited, yet insightful advice to friends. Unfortunately, your irritating manner and poor personal hygiene means they are unlikely to accept it.

I'm Angry

Interesting piece of contemporary video art / poetry by American YouTube vlogger Bryarly Bishop. Found it to be a hauntingly accurate representation of, for want of a slightly more eloquent phrasing, the modern-age human condition.

Brooke Shaden photography

A friend of mine introduced me to this really innovative, unique photography by artist Brooke Shaden. It's so difficult to describe, but this extract from her bio on her website seems to do it justice:

"Brooke works to create new worlds within her photographic frame. By using painterly techniques as well as the square format, traditional photographic properties are replaced by otherworldly elements. Brooke's photography questions the definition of what it means to be alive."

Check out more of her work here: http://brookeshaden.com/
And her blog here: http://shadenproductions.com/blog/

Incredible contemporary dance: Georgian National Ballet and Flying Lotus

I've been stumbling across quite a few breathtaking contemporary dance videos on YouTube and thought I'd share a couple of gems.

Check out this physics-defying performance by the Georgian National Ballet group (HOW DO THEY KEEP SPINNING LIKE THAT?!) -



And this eerie short-film-cum-music-video from downtempo/wonky/experimental hip-hop legend Flying Lotus' new album, starring incredible slow-mo dancer Solomon Gibbs -

Harnessing the Crazy

What with it being #WorldMentalHealthDay, I thought I'd share this interesting TED talk. Having myself battled with mental health problems in recent months, I found Joshua Walters' notion of channelling your 'crazy' into creativity. He's definitely one to google.

"At TED's Full Spectrum Auditions, comedian Joshua Walters, who's bipolar, walks the line between mental illness and mental "skillness." In this funny, thought-provoking talk, he asks: What's the right balance between medicating craziness away and riding the manic edge of creativity and drive?"



This also reminded me of Mitchell Davis (aka vlogging sensation LiveLavaLive), his battles with OCD and panic attacks and how he channelled this creatively into his YouTube career. His attention to detail and symmetry is beautiful. See here and here for some examples of his work, and here for his website.

Blind For A Day

I'm going blind for a day for charity!

BLIND FOR A DAY (BFAD) - SATURDAY 13TH OCTOBER 2012

Join the Facebook event page here.

I'm trying to raise money for the Royal National Institute of Blind People and spread awareness about issues surrounding sight loss.
1 in 30 people in the UK suffer from sight loss. The good people at RNIB offer information, support and advice to them and their loved ones. They also support essential research to find out more about and promote their needs, and spread awareness to the general public about the importance of regular eye tests.
Check out their website for much more info: rnib.org.uk

To those people like myself who do not suffer from any severe sight loss, the idea of being blind can be extremely difficult to imagine. To find out more about these issues and in order to gain sponsors, I am challenging myself to wear a blindfold for a whole 24 hours. I will be documenting the experience on camera, and then uploading it to YouTube at the end of the weekend as a 3-part video series!

Any donations large or small would be greatly appreciated! To sponsor me, visit justgiving.com/bfad

Interview I did with a lovely lady called Alba about living with blindness:

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Author, speaker and international advisor on education Sir Ken Robinson gives an enlightening TED talk about creativity in schools and universities, bolstered with biting wit. Very topical.

Alex Serra

Been keeping an eye on this YouTube musician for a long while now, and he's very talented. Sassy and jazzy, with an incredible voice and impeccable taste (he's covered a lot of the big names in jazz/blues/motown as well as some Bon Iver renditions). And interesting style of videos too. Check him out!

He also has four separate channels where he uploads different content. Explore:

Alex Serra (main channel)
Live Sessions
Car Sessions
Backpack Sessions

And his website: AlexSerraMusic.com

Abortion

In Values We Live By (one of my Philosophy modules at university where we debate about and analyse moral and ethical issues) we've been discussing abortion, and the liberal, conservative and religious standpoints standpoints around it.

It got me thinking - what constitutes a 'life', a 'human being', or a 'person'? Is it down to choosing an appropriate cutoff point, a certain stage during its development when a foetus can or cannot be aborted? Or is the very potential for life from the moment of conception arguably a reason to criminalise abortion altogether? Where do you stand?

My friend and I were discussing this and he linked me to some incredible photographs of babies at various different stages of development in the womb. To see all the pictures and the Telegraph article, click here.

8 weeks

16 weeks

18 weeks

Photographs by Lennart Nilsson

Knife Painting by Francoise Nielly

Here're some vibrant, dramatic oil paintings by artist Francoise Nielly, sculpted entirely using knives. Find more of her work on her website here.