Miss Barbie beauty pageant 2010

 
There have been a few news reports on Venezuela’s Miss Barbie contest, held in earlier this month. This from Sky News Australia:

Venezuela in South America is home to some of the most beautiful women in the world.

Reuters reports the country has proudly won six Miss Universe and five Miss World crowns.

Competing for the title of Miss Barbie Venezuela, Barbie fanatics adorned their favourite dolls in make-up and the latest fashions with chic hairstyles to match.

Echoing the approach of regular beauty pageants, the dolls don a mixture of stylish frocks and swimwear in their efforts to win the judges over. Similarly, contestants must also answer panel questions as per a typical pageant.

The majority of contestants are fashion designers, vying for a win and a place on the international stage representing Venezuela in the Miss Barbie Universe contest, Miss Barbie World and Miss Barbie International.

The competition winner, Jose Luis Rebete, told Reuters winning meant all his hard work was both affirmed and appreciated.

Rebete and his Barbie, the new Miss Barbie Venezuela, will now progress to the Miss Barbie Universe contest.

Rebete has high aspirations of winning the contest, particularly after last year’s tiny Miss Barbie Universe crown was won by a fellow Venezuelan.

And the following report from ITN
 

 

Sam Barber and The Outcasts

 
Christmas isn’t over until Sam Barber and The Outcasts play their excellent cover “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)”. Outcast’s bass player, Will Baird give Planet Paul the inside gen on how this tasty single came about:

The Christmas single came about because Andrew Moir from Leith FM asked us if we would like to record a Christmas song for him to play on air. We always loved the original by The Ramones so we recorded it quite quickly and it got played on air a few days later!!

The Outcasts was Will’s first band, which formed/started gigging in 2000.

We used to gig constantly around Edinburgh mostly, couple of trips to Glasgow, released one badly recorded EP titled “Alias Neal Cassady” EP… split up in 2004. Sam, who was the lead singer/songwriter released a couple of solo albums, Paths Into Light and Shadows On Glass. When he released Shadows On Glass he called me up and asked if I wanted to play bass on some dates he had to promote it. I was up for it and also got the original drummer on board. Said drummer left in May 2010 so we got a new drummer, Johnny Allen and guitarist/backing vocalist Fiona J Thom. We are also sometimes joined by a cellist named Georgina Williamson and saxophonist named The Fabulous Buddy B.

Sam Barber and The Outcasts are about to release the second in a trilogy of EPs titled “Valley Of Silence” on January 5th. The concept for the trilogy of EPs is loosely themed around space and astronomy, and the launch night is at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms on same date.

I can think of no finer way of kicking off the New Year than getting along to the Voodoo Rooms on the 5th January to catch this must-see band – details here.

Meantime, here’s “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” and a bonus clip for their “Valley Of Silence” EP. Enjoy.
 

 

 

Superman vs Muhammad Ali

This is the famous wrap-around cover for Superman vs. Muhammad Ali from 1978. The crowd scene includes a variety of famous people from the 1960s and 1970s including: Kurt Vonnegut, Andy Warhol, Frank Sinatra, Cher, Pele, Lucille Ball, The Jackson Five, the cast of Welcome Back Cotter, Martin Luther King, Jimmy Carter, Christopher Reeve, Wolfman Jack and Mad’s Alfred E.Neumann.
 
Via Nerdcore

The many moods of Batman

 
‘Nuff said?
 

 

The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense

 
A tick-box for the rationalists, ‘The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense‘, lists all things non-scientific, loopy, and daft from Big Foot to Exorcism, Mothman to Poltergeist, etc. It’s all here, except for maybe Reality Television and the ‘X-Factor’, but it all kinda make sense, even if it does take the fun out of things.

Click on the above picture to see the full Table or try here.
 

Blistering Barnacles and other curse words

 
Before I started reading the books, I grew up watching ‘Herge’s Adventures of Tintin’ on TV. The animations were serialised in five minute slots before the ITN tea-time news. It was an edge-of-your-seat, what-will-happen-next kind of series, one guaranteed to have me tuned in the following night. I guess it was how I also came to watch so much news when just a wean.

Though I liked Tintin, it was Snowy who was my favourite – the always brave, ever faithful Terrier. And when my brother and I visited our grandparents, we would play our own adventures of Tintin up-and-down the back green, with a little help from Grandma’s poodle as Snowy.

My brother was Captain Haddock, and he knew most of his cuss words, which was most impressive. Now you can generate your own Haddockian Insults too, with this Blistering Captain Haddock Insult Generator.

Give it a try and increase your naughty nautical vocabulary.
 
With thanks to Surbhi Goel
 

Star Wars Instant ‘Noooooooooo’ Button

If you’ve had one of those days when a shrug of the shoulders and a long drawn out sigh is not enough, then you need to hit the Star Wars Instant ‘Noooooooo’ Button.

Try it here.

Now, doesn’t that feel better?

With thanks to Maria Guimil