i don’t know about you, but as soon as i read about the possibility that micro$oft would take over yahoo, i began to search for an alternative to flickr.com (part of yahoo) to host my photos.
there’s google’s picasa, of course, but i’ve always found it appallingly slow and it seems to insist on running programs on my computer to inventarise and manage all the images on my hard drives. this i don’t want. i just want somewhere to put my photos where anyone (i choose) can get at them.
but there’s 23hq.com. i’d never heard of it before but it seems to have all the main features a modest user of flickr like me would need. there isn’t an API, which means little chance of swish facebook applications, but there is an RSS feed and even a wordpress plugin called ‘23hq integrator‘ (which i have yet to test).
23hq is also danish, which somehow feels like a breath of confidence-inspiring fresh air.
and … del.icio.us is also part of yahoo. now the search for an alternative to del.icio.us …
today, by a rather circuitous route, i came to read an interview with nicholas shakespeare about the background to his novel ‘the dancer upstairs’. the article, which originally appeared in the buenos aires herald in 1994, is quite fascinating and i’d recommend it to anyone who, like me, is nostalgic for the days when the prospect of joining what would now be termed ‘a terrorist group’ seemed almost attractive – or at least preferable to joining normal society. the interview is here. and i recommend the film made from shakespeare’s novel: http://imdb.com/title/tt0118926/
souad massi is an algerian living in exile in france. her songs protest against the loss of connection with the traditional values of her homeland.
this song ‘raoui’ (storyteller) also features in the film ‘le soleil assassiné’, set in algiers during the political turmoil which made it impossible for souad massi to continue her career in algeria. and she has the most fantastic voice!
the lyrics of the song are:
Oh storyteller tell us a story
Make it a tale
Tell me about the people of old
Tell me about 1001 Nights
And about Lunja daughter of the Ghoul
And about the son of the Sultan
I’m about to tell a story
We’ll be far from this world
I’m about to tell a story
Everyone of us has a story in his heart
Narrate and forget we’re adults
In your mind we’re young
Tell us about heaven and hell
About the bird that never flew in his life
Make us understand the meaning of the world
Oh storyteller tell it just as they told you
Don’t add anything, don’t leave anything out
We could see into your mind
Narrate to make us forget this time
Leave us at once upon a time
this song features in the soundtrack of the film ‘le soleil assassiné’.
at about 2 o’clock on wednesday morning i noticed out of the corner of my eye that something very large was obscuring the view from my window. it looked like noah’s ark, complete with a giraffe on the bow. for a moment i seriously considered the possibility that i was imagining it. luckily toby sterling, a journalist living nearby, saw it and photographed it.
