Links
Drawing
www.mariawilliam.net
What beautiful drawings. What imagination. It gives me confidence that there
is a point to drawing and a standard to aspire to.
www.geocities.com/geng_si/ Michael Mertens describes himself as a
craftsman but not an artist. He's plainly both but too modest. Another
artist whose drawings I find inspirational. If I ever manage to draw a
picture like Michael's I should be well pleased.
http://www.mcescher.com/
I first became aware of Escher's pictures when I was
about twelve or thirteen at school and an older class (the big children in
then Form 5 (they must have been about 16)) decorated their form room with
some of his pictorial paradoxes. I loved the paradoxes and still do. Who can
fail to be intrigued by the water mill where the water flows down and falls
upon itself in a never-ending perpetual motion machine? When I was twenty I
read
Godel, Escher, Bach – an Eternal Golden Braid
and the original impressions became deeper and better
understood. Now I love Escher's pictures not only for the paradoxes but also
for the craftsmanship, as starting to draw helps me appreciate the structure
and skill better. Perhaps I should try to play the organ
to appreciate Bach more. (I've done enough maths both to appreciate Godel
and to know I don't want to do any more.)
www.pencilpushing.com Portraits from James Garner, a young artist of
great talent and another who makes me want to draw better.
Science
http://www.skeptic.com/
I get frustrated by people who rubbish science in favour of their own
particular brand of pseudo-science. This web-site will explain things better
than I ever will.
Puzzles
http://www.sudoku.com/ I started doing these puzzles in the Times
a few months ago and became hooked after doing two or three. The Times has
now started printing "Samurai Sudoku" which are five puzzles in one - one
central puzzle with another overlapping each corner. Last week their "45
minute" Samurai puzzle took me about three hours. I had made an assumption
that the corner puzzles needed doing before the central one, whereas the
central one needs working on first. This week their "55 minute" puzzle took
me about 80 minutes. Both weeks I started to feel a bit dizzy after about 45
minutes. Is that the concentration or the short-range focus?
Humour
www.bertc.com I gave up my
own humour page when I realised that I couldn't possibly desire people to
look at my effort when there are far better sites than I could ever manage.
Music
http://www.jamiemarshall.com/ The proof that
there is no justice in the world is that there are many rich and famous
singers and musicians but Jamie Marshall is not one of them. At least, not
that I know of, but I hope that it changes. Jamie used to be a customer in
MBE Windsor but seems to have moved away from the area. He's a great guy -
one of those people who always adds a smile to your day. One day he gave us
a copy of his CD In our lifetime to play on the shop player.
It became one of our most played and enjoyed CDs and now that I am one of
the ipod generation, it is still high up there in the Most Recently Played
list. Simply, Jamie writes beautiful songs and performs them as well as any
great star. At times he's a bit like a mellow Springsteen, at other times he
could be Mark Knopfler. Catchy tunes, memorable lyrics, I find myself
humming the songs long after I've listened to them. If you want the chance
to hear and enjoy some great music, go buy one of Jamie's CDs from his
website. Go on, do it now. You're only risking a tenner.