Not as much fun as Glastonbudget 2009, but if you do have to spend a long weekend in a field in Leicestershire, then I doubt there are any better things you could be doing.

A breakfast consisting of a most glorious apple-strudel cake-thing which tasted like manna from heaven, served to me by a waitress who weighed a metric tonne. The double espresso and erroneous glass of water were innocent bystanders in the calorie carnage.

Wild-boar meatloaf with cheese, complete with a cabbage, mustard and pepperoni sauce/relish. All washed down with kasierpunsch (like mulled wine but made with warm rum and orange juice).

What was that? You wanted pancakes with chocolate and whipped cream for breakfast? Sure, no problem. I’m surprised that the entire country hasn’t keeled over and died from excessive artery-clogging.

The age-old bratwurst and bread-roll combo. Initially unwanted, the machine that magically chopped the sausage up into bite-sized morsels proved to be an excellent idea. Notice that the kasierpunsch is back in full effect.

The most beautifully rare 300g Tenderloin steak without a morsel of fat and drizzled with a peppercorn sauce and some home-cut potato wedges. One of the finest pieces of dead cow I’ve ever had the pleasure to consume.

A friendly visual match between those two cities, as seen by a Parisian-based-and-lover on New York : details, cliches and contradictions.

Beautifully simple and effortlessly charming. I like.

Le Tennis

Le pain

Le réalisateur

See all of them here.

Via Cool Hunting.

Much as it pains me to say the word, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is one of the cutest <shudder> things I’ve ever seen. It could melt even the coldest and blackest of hearts and may yet hold the key to world peace.

A few weeks ago I saw something truly incredible. Out in the Egyptian desert I got to look at Jupiter through a fairly high-powered telescope. Two dark bands of colour wrapping around the planet and 4 of its moons. It was breathtaking.

As a kid, two things really captured my imagination – dinosaurs and space. Hardly the most original things for a young boy, but I still think they’re both pretty awesome. In fact, when a friend asked me a few days ago what period in history I’d go back to if I had a time machine, my first reaction was that I’d go and check out some dinosaurs. Still a big kid I guess.

I digress.

I’ve just watched this amazing video, and if you ever want to realise quite how small and insignificant we are in the Universe, then this is a very good starting point.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Enjoy. In 720p.

Ice skating rink in Central Park

Going past the Statue of Liberty on the Staten Island ferry

The Flat Iron – one of my favourite buildings in the world

The amazing Fuerza Bruta show

Water nymphs at Fuerza Bruta

NYPD – armed and ready

The beautiful Grand Central Station

Crossroads in Chinatown

Big yellow taxi

Central Park from the top of the Rockefeller Centre at sunset

The Empire State building and surrounding skyline at sunset from the Rockefeller Centre. Still feels weird without the World Trade Centre towers in the background.

Rest of the photos are here.

My new favourite ads for Panda Cheese, which feature a panda with a few anger-management issues. Never realised quite how vindictive the buggers could get.

via BoingBoing

In the meantime, here are my favourite couple of submissions to far:

and a slightly more filthy one…

Check out all of them on Spotify Poetry.

I never really got into Goodie Mob, but ever since I picked up his debut album, Cee-lo Green and his Perfect Imperfections, I’ve loved Cee-lo Green’s music. Blessed with a voice that stirs the soul like an evangelical baptist minister and a body that has the exact same proportions as a snowman, he’s one of the most criminally under-appreciated artists around.

I doubt his first album sold much, and consequently his second was an obvious attempt to sound a bit more mainstream with unnecessary collaborations with Timbaland and Pharrell. But then came a more left-field collaboration with Danger Mouse as Gnarls Barkley, and suddenly the world took notice.

Here’s his latest AMAZING song, Fuck You, from his as yet unreleased third album The Ladykiller.

Update – here’s the official video for Fuck You. Amazing.

Although Virtual Barbershop is three years old, I only came across it last weekend. And it’s one of the most interesting things I’ve seen – or in this case, heard – in a long time.

The technology required to create this kind of immersive 3D surround sound (called binaural recording) doesn’t appear to be used much, so I’m guessing it’s either prohibitively difficult or expensive. Either way it opens up so many creative opportunities for experiential events, and this new iPhone game sounds amazing:

Entering the Palace of Bones by Papa Sangre

Entering the Palace of Bones from Papa Sangre on Vimeo.