Being an internet refuge for Graeme McMillan
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A Boston police officer stands near the scene of the twin bombing at the Boston Marathon late night in the city. Three people are confirmed dead and at least 141 injured.
I’m still not sure I have words for everything that happened yesterday.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A Dormouse appears to be laughing as it sits on top of a yarrow flower. The amusing photograph, taken by Italian photographer Andrea Zampatti, in Italy, shows how the heat had a strange effect on this little critter. Photograph: Andrea Zampatti/HotSpot Media
I mean, seriously. Seriously.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
Mount Etna is still spewing lava during an eruption on the southern Italian island of Sicily. Mount Etna is Europe’s tallest and most active volcano. Photograph: Antonio Parrinello/Reuters
Once upon a time, back in San Francisco, my family came to visit and we ended up in this terrible theme restaurant because it was close/no-one could agree where to eat/I have no idea. One of the things about this restaurant was that people could order a dessert called the Volcano, and when it came out of the kitchen – the door to which, we were sat right next to – the server would shout “VOLLLLLLL-CAAAAAAYYYYYYYY-NOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!” at the top of their voice to announce it.
After you hear that yell for, what, twenty times or so in an hour, it sticks in your brain. So, when I think of volcanoes now, I tend to think of them as VOLLLLLLLL-CAAAAAAYYYYYYY-NOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHs.
And then I look at this picture, and remember how beautiful they can be, sometimes.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A woman looks out of her window as fireman inspect the debris after a fire in central Bermeo, northern Spain. The fire broke early this morning affecting six buildings, causing the collapse of two of them and damaging part of the City Council. Dozens of neighbors had to be evacuated due to the fire that started due to unknown causes that are being investigated. Three firemen and a police agent got slightly injured during the extinction works. EPA/MIGUEL TONA Photograph: Miguel Tona/EPA
The level of damage here just looks horrific. I have no idea why, what it is about this picture in particular, but looking at it I found myself wondering about the smell of this disaster, and the way it would make just breathing a particularly difficult experience.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads ‘Iron Lady? Rust in Peace’ in west Belfast, Northern Ireland, following Margaret Thatcher’s death. Parliament has been recalled today to honour Thatcher’s memory, a decision that is causing many divisions. Photograph: Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images
Do you see what they’ve done? They’ve turned “rest” into “rust” because she was the iron la- Oh, you got it already.
I find myself torn by the celebrations surrounding Thatcher’s death. On the one hand, I grew up in Thatcher’s Britain and understand the sense of… relief that such a horrible force in the world is gone, but on the other, isn’t there something kind of tasteless about organizing parties about the death of a nearly-90 year old woman who hasn’t had any real power for more than two decades…?
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A Cherry tree in bloom at Scott circle in Washington, DC last night. Photograph: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images
There’re two cherry trees on either side of our house, here, and right now, our backyard is just filled with cherry blossom. It’s something that’s simultaneously beautiful and ridiculously messy after awhile. Nature, people.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
Another scene from Hanover: Putin is confronted by an activist from the Ukrainian women’s rights group Femen as Merkel looks on during their visit to an industrial exhibition. Photograph: Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images
Putin’s face. Putin’s face.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
A golden sunlit aerial view shows paddy fields outside Jiangping village near Donglan, China. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media
This is just beautiful.
From the Guardian’s Photo Blog:
Here’s a beautiful image from Nasa released today. Now here’s the science: it shows the tip of the ‘wing’ of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy in this new view from Nasa’s Great Observatories. The SMC is a small galaxy about 200,000 light years away that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy. The spiral galaxy seen in the lower corner is actually behind this nebula. The colours represent wavelengths of light across a broad spectrum. Other distant galaxies located hundreds of millions of light years or more away can be seen sprinkled around the edge of the image.The SMC is one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbours. Photograph: NASA/AFP/Getty Images
It’s nice to remember that we exist as small specks in the middle of this kind of thing every now and again, isn’t it? “All we are/Are stars…”
Being a massive Beatles fan, it’s no surprise that “The Sound of Science” is my favorite Beastie Boys track. I can actually still remember hearing it for the first time, one night in 1994 on Chris Morris’ short-lived Radio 1 show, and thinking “Wait, is that sampling The Beatles?” in surprise. The smartness of the samples – from “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (both versions, unless I’m mishearing) and “The End,” respectively – is one of the reasons that I love the song so much, the way that the first three sound at once familiar and unusual, with the looped drums from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” giving the song more impetus and immediacy than the final version arguably has.
The sampled guitar from “The End” sounds great, too, but what I love most about the song is the placement of that guitar. There’s something just perfect to me about the juxtaposition of Mike D’s “Do whatcha like, huh?” at 1:57 with the guitar that immediately follows – It gives the guitar more attitude, somehow, and yet feels utterly appropriate for the track it’s lifted from (“The End” being a series of improvised guitar solos traded between John, George and Paul, literally them doing what they like, even as the song’s lyrics suggest that we be a little more conscientious in our actions) and the Beatles in general.
Accidentally or otherwise, that verbal shrug is something that I always attribute not to the Beasties, but to the Beatles now; somehow, it switched tracks in my brain and belongs with them. I like to think that the Beatles that were, back when, would’ve heard this track and wished they’d made it themselves.