"Bad Penny Blues"

Announced yesterday at the first day of this years TED conference, the Worldwide Telescope is a spatial interface for exploring the universe. Developed by Microsoft Research this free download for the Windows platform will offer "seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience."

The site claims the software was created using Microsoft's high-performance Visual Experience Engine™. Details are sketchy at the moment but the technology sounds very similar to their formidable work on Seadragon and PhotSynth.

I have a new personal project. The Computus Engine is an open source timeline built in Flash. I've had the domain for years (computus is the Latin term for computation and the calculation of Easter) but haven't quite found the right project for it. I think this is going to be an interesting ride.

Developer: Aaron Koblin
Technology: Proce55ing, After Effects, Maya

Malcolm Hardee has been described as the father of UK alternative comedy, yet few people outside the circuit have ever heard of him. His actual talents are difficult to define. Stealing was one. Notable thefts included a huge cheese, a Tory MP's Rolls Royce, the entire contents of Simon Munnery's medicine cabinet and Freddie Mercury's birthday cake. He also played harmonica; a skill taught to him by his neighbour Val Doonican. His most consistent talent though was getting naked and flashing the "biggest bollocks in show business". He didn't do much TV.

He made a great compère but not a great stand up. He was just Malcolm and that was funny. After achieving success with 'The greatest show on legs' he went on to found three London comedy clubs: The infamous 'Tunnel Palladium' near the Blackwall Tunnel, 'Up the creek' in Greenwich and the 'Wibbly Wobbly' in Rotherhithe. His biggest talent though (besides those enormous bollocks) was an incredible ability to spot new acts. As a manager he launched the careers of such brilliant left field talents as Simon Munnery, Vic & Bob, Charlie Chuck, Jerry Sadowitz and Madame Edith & her singing chickens.

In 1996 he published his autobiography, 'I stole Freddie Mercury's Birthday Cake' and it still remains one of the funniest books I've ever read. Although Malcolm put a show on every year (usually entitled 'AAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrgh' so as to be first in the Fringe guide) that years show was all about the book.

Malcolm came on stage with the obligatory "Oy Oy" then said, "Alright, what do you want?" He was serious. Brilliant. In the end he told a few anecdotes, played the harmonica and signed copies of the book. Although I lived in Greenwich for a few years and saw Malcolm compère quite a few times, this is the only chance I ever got to meet him. If you've been following along with my previous posts then you can probably guess where this show took place. Yup. Yet another gem from the Pleasance Cabaret bar. That place should have a blue plaque.

Arthur Smith Sings Andy Williams

Accompanied by Tony Hawks on the piano (and high notes), Arthur introduced us to the character of Arthur Cravan, a 19th century poet, surrealist and boxer. Part lecture, part road trip, part cover band; the story of his life is interspersed with the songs of Andy Williams. Embracing the surrealist nature of his subject matter the show was advertised in the Latin music section of the Fringe guide. It cost 50p and entrants were then offered £1 to leave, thereby making a profit.

Voted by Guardian comedy critic William Cook as the best comedy show of all time, it's not hard to see why. The show didn't just play with the form, it tore it up and started again. The show's lecture style paved the way for the likes of Dave Gorman and Yoram Bauman.

The Edinburgh Rock Show

Arthur's walking tours of Edinburgh are legendary affairs. It is not unknown for participants to be arrested en route. This was the same sort of thing with a twist. Arthur had hired a bus to drive us out into the countryside, whereupon we hiked up a mountain and were ambushed with a short play. We then went to the pub for a pint, another play, some fireworks and the unplanned protestations of a local woman and her dog.

All the while Arthur was wearing a costume that i find difficult to adequately describe. Imagine if you will a sort of cat-suit with a bright face and a big cigar appendage. Arthur is the self proclaimed "King of Balham". I would often pass him on the tube when I lived there and every time I did, the memory of that outfit haunted me. At the start of the Edinburgh Rock Show he offered £500 to anyone who could write a sketch to go with it.

Hamlet by Arthur Smith

"Programmes, 50p. Programmes, 50p!" The shout goes out as we stand in line for the show. "Yeah, I'll have one", I say. "Here you go sir. Here's your programme, and here's your 50p." Genius.

Another show from the Pleasance Cabaret Bar, as was 'Arthur Smith sings Andy Williams' incidentally, this one had a crowd deafening finale courtesy of some close proximity opera singing. This was more than likely the work of Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer the Opera) who is credited with working on the show. Playing Ophelia to Arthur's Hamlet was the gorgeous Sally Philips (Green Wing, Smack the Pony). Another triumph.

The Doug Anthony AllStars were a highly explosive Australian three piece who sang songs and performed anarchic feats of audience participation. Often crude but incredibly intelligent, there was a palpable sense of danger about going to see them. At the end of the show we were herded out into the Pleasance courtyard where various members of the audience were encouraged to jump into a raging bonfire.

The following year they filled one of the biggest halls on the Fringe (The Assembly Rooms) but experiencing this much energy in such a small venue was like having a nuclear bomb go off in your living room. Hilarious, terrifying and thoroughly exhilarating. Just to max out his stress levels my brother bootlegged the show. It's a wonder he didn't have a heart attack.

This was DAAS last year at the Fringe and they put on shows in two different venues. The first, 'Blood & Guts' was another small venue, part of Edinburgh University. There were two levels of seating: a ground and a balcony level that went all round the room. Naturally Paul picked on some audience members that were feeling safe up on the balcony and went for them. The end of the show involved the guys juggling cans of beer that eventually exploded over the audience. I have a great shot these can going off somewhere, which if I can find I'll post it.

One thing I haven't touched on was their vulnerable side. In the midst of all their extremes they would regulate the tension with a completely straight, and often breathtakingly beautiful cover song. Favourites include, Marvin Gaye's 'Heard it through the grapevine', 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' by Hunters & Collectors and Nina Simone's 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood'.

After seeing the guys in small venues I wasn't sure what to expect from their show at the main hall in The Assembly Rooms. All the big name comics play here. It's a nice enough building and they run the shows like clockwork but it's got all the intimacy of an air display.

Greg Proops vs DAAS deathmatch
Fortunately we timed this one right. It turns out that every night prior to our show DAAS had encouraged the crowd to stamp their feet and make as much noise as possible. The ensuing carnage had drowned out Greg Proops, who was performing his one man show downstairs. Bits of plaster were falling from the roof. Two weeks of this had really ticked him off a bit and he finally snapped. Rounding up his entire audience he took them upstairs and stormed our stage.

Okay, no contest really. Three against one, he didn't stand a hope but the ensuing chaos was awesome. Sadly the bootleg of this one didn't come out, but I know for a fact that a copy exists as we met the sound engineer the following day. Somewhere out there is this show!

I saw them one last time before they split, in Glasgow in 1993, and they were as good as ever. A beautiful, ugly, hilarious juggernaut. God I miss 'em.

Back in 2002 I was fortunate enough to have an article included in Flash MX Magic. It was great fun to write as it included my two favourite subjects, Flash and Time. Technologies move very quickly but I tried to ensure it would have some longevity by including a lot of material about the history of timekeeping. The version in the book was half Flash tutorial, half popular science. A lot of the historical stuff was removed for the online tutorial, which is a bit sad as that material is probably more relevant now than the source code.

Keeping Track of Time with Flash MX

This was an after hours show at my favourite venue, The Pleasance Cabaret Bar (of which you'll hear more in future posts). We had just tumbled out of a show called The Comedy Zone and was handed a flyer by an earnest man in a silver space suit. You get handed a lot of flyers in Edinburgh, but this one looked interesting. It promised Techno music, a late bar and mind alteration machines. Now that sounds like a night out.

They were of course brilliant. A wonderful pastiche of bands like The Shamen and ColdCut, all delivered with a wonderfully sincere dead pan delivery by a pre Mighty Boosh, Jullian Barrett. What elevated them to "classic" status though was the music. Save the world new-age-techo never sounded so good.

Enjoy a classic 1996 interview with The Pod from London Shouting.

Kiss the ruby, smell the snake...India

dawdlr describes itself as a Twitter for The Long Now. What I like about it is the very un-digital user interface. To submit a dawdl you need to send a postcard to this address:

dawdlr
77 Beak Street
London
W1F 9DB

Russell will scan and post the results "regular as clockwork" every six months.

I came across an interesting horological project via the BBC called 'Stopped Clocks'. The site aims to aggregate images and locations of stopped public clocks in the UK.