Brewsterware

September 23, 2007

September 2007 update

Filed under: General,Personal — Joe Brewer @ 6:59 pm

Well, it’s already the eve of my return to work after my two week holiday 🙁  How quickly the fortnight went…

I’m actually currently working on several blog posts, including a day by day account of what I got up to in Orlando.  I’ve started uploading photos here:  Orlando 2007

The other posts that I have started to write are about optimism, designing web pages for mobile devices and stuff that you don’t know about me (and probably couldn’t care less as well)

One cool new aquisition I have just started to use is a glass topped computer desk.  This has replaced a very big (and heavy) board room type desk that I got from work a little while ago.  The new desk is much smarter and makes my bedroom look quite a lot bigger.  The only thing is, I now need a mouse mat as optical mice don’t work well on glass.

Oh, and another thing… SEO Rockstars is starting again on webmaster radio this tuesday. Yay!

September 10, 2007

Another rewrite for my Lonely Hearts Column dating site

Filed under: General,Marketing,Software — Joe Brewer @ 5:14 pm

It’s time for my 6 monthly rewrite for my dating site. I feel I’ve really gone to town this time 🙂 Not only have I flattened loads of bugs, I’ve redesigned the look and even gone to the expense of commisioning some artwork.

I’ve also rewritten loads of the database queries as I’m now using MySQL 4.1.x – my old host (yes I’ve changed hosting providers as well) was on 4.0.x and didn’t have any plans to upgrade when I asked them a few months back, so now I can use sub queries 🙂

Now all I need is a ton of traffic. Let me know what you think of my updated lonely hearts personals site

September 9, 2007

Secret Cabaret DVD

Filed under: Magic — Joe Brewer @ 5:04 pm

I’ve just discovered that The Secret Cabaret featuring Simon Drake is available on DVD. This is really cool news for many magicians who have been asking for this and patiently waiting for many years.

For those of you that have never heard of The Secret Cabaret or Simon Drake, this is a Channel 4 magic show which featured dark magic and allied arts, and aired twelve episodes in all around 1990 late at night. In each of the half hour shows, viewers would be subjected to Simon Drake impaling himself with knives, swords, hatpins, burning his assistants until only the bones remained as well as other deliciously macabre things. All of these were shot before a live audience in an equally dark theatre.

Here are some clips:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdb0a_jnPI0]

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaaV2ZAD2hM]

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Oi3Z82Z2g]

Unfortunately the DVD does not contain any of the interviews and acts containing the allied arts.

One of the acts that was on one of the episodes was a guy called Stevie Starr who was billed as “The Regurgitator” appeared at the student union bar when I was at university in Chelmsford. A few years ago I heard that he had died when he failed to bring back a billiard ball, but apparently he is alive and well (and regurgitating). Here are a few videos of him doing his stuff:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZFIRhJrHJE]

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1aLQ-R_vqw]

Great stuff 🙂 I’ll be putting this on my Christmas list even though I have most of the episodes on VHS. More videos and the shop for buying the DVD can be found here

EDIT: Why wont the image show up in the top left 🙁

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