A couple weeks ago the blogoshere was abuzz about the plant that Twitter’s. Well, that might be interesting to horticulturists, florists and plain old plant lovers but it really doesn’t float my boat.
However, I was excited to learn (via Russell Davies blog) that one of the most famous bridges in the world uses Twitter to tell the world about it’s ups and downs. You can now follow London’s Tower Bridge for the latest activity on River Thames. Now this is something us mariner types can really appreciate.
Not on Twitter? Don’t even know what Twitter is? Here’s a great short video by Lee Lefever of CommonCraft that explains things.
Twitter’s free so you should consider joining and if you do, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/petermello; I’ll end up following you back too. There’s also a group of sailing enthusiasts on Twitter that you can join or follow. Give it a try, it can fun and useful after you get the hang of it.
Photo credit: Diliff via Wikipedia.
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Here’s a short video to launch your high performance week.
If you are ever in Erie, PA, make sure you visit the amazing Erie Maritime Museum and the beautiful US Brig Niagara which offers one of the most authentic sail training experiences in America.
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Filed under: Sunday VOW's
Commercials / Shipping
The Secret Tournament
This is Nike ad is an oldie but goodie. A three on three secret soccer tournament takes place between the world best players under the cover of darkness in the bowels of an old tanker. The director was Terry Gilliam, the only American born member of Monty Python. Filmed in 2002, the advertisements were part of Nike’s World Cup campaign. The music is Elvis Presley’s song A Little Less Conversation. The advertisements were hugely popular and critically acclaimed. (more details)
“The Secret Tournament”
“The Rematch”
Slightly lower budget than the $10 million Secret Tournament advertisement, this one involves a ship and sports too.
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Filed under: Sea-Fever Style
Kitsune Noir is one of my new favorite blogs. It’s written by Bobby S. as “a collection of art, design, movies, music, technology and ideas that I want to share with people who read it.” KN’s was recently featured on Boing Boing for it’s cool Desktop Wallpaper Project.
Yesterday, Bobby posted a link to a great mixtape he created for a weekend journey. It’s call Deep Blue Sea so you can probably guess what the inspiration was. I really enjoyed listening to it today so I thought I’d pass the link on to you too. The music artwork is beautiful as well. Enjoy.
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Messing About In Ships podcast episode #15 has launched.
(46 minutes)
Download MP3 file: Messing About In Ships 15
Show Notes over at Messing About In Ships blog
Subscribe Via iTunes HERE
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They don’t make movies like this anymore. Wow!
Nevermind the state book, this should be the Official Massachusetts’ Movie.
Related post: Moby-Dick, Coast to Coast
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Earlier today The Old Blog Cabin posted Sail training ship in Cobh after hurricane which included these photos of the damage sustained by the German sail training vessel Roald Amundsen.
The Irish Independent posted this story as well. Crew safe after ship survives savage storm.
Former US Navy official Bob Harkins was a crew member aboard was quoted:
“This was the worst storm that I had ever heard of people sailing through and living to talk about it,”
European weather has been wicked over the past week wreaking all kinds of havoc with maritime interests. (see Robin Storm: In Search of Severe Weather) From the above quote and these pictures, it sounds like the Roald Amundsen and her crew were lucky to have made it to port without injury or worse.
Related post: Fine French food, great views, ample parking
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Filed under: maritime
The crew of the Dutch ship Artemis was hungry and heard about the fine French food, great views and ample parking at restaurants in Southern Brittany. (NY Times Pictures of the Day) (This is actually what happened)
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James Pearce of the BBC reported yesterday that:
Plans to promote the 2012 Olympics using a ship sailing around the world advertising Britain’s “cultural riches” have been ditched, the BBC has learned.
London’s successful bid team promised that the ship – named the Olympic Friend-ship – would spend four years traveling around the world.
The full-size ocean-going clipper had been due to set sail this August.
Crewed by young people, artists, philosophers and students, the ship was to be run by professional officers.
London 2012 to Shelve Ship Idea – BBC Sport – Olympics March 11, 2008
What a shame! Back on January 4, 2008, Hugh Muir wrote an article in the Guardian entitled Olympic ship plan drifts into troubled waters which highlighted that the sailing ship plan was an integral part of London’s winning bid and that environmental advocates were upset by this significant change.
In may years as executive director of the American Sail Training Association I witnessed dozens of similar grandiose ship plans never get launched. This one is really too bad because a tall ship sailing ambassador on a youth sail training mission celebrating the spirit of the Olympics would have been something special.
Frankly, I think that London 2012 would be better served to jettison their ugly logo and not abandon their majestic ship plan.
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Filed under: storytelling
No matter where you try to hide on the Internet, if you are a blogger, you are bound to get tagged someday. This is my second time so at least I have one person to get back.
I was tagged by Bonnie who has a great blog called frogma. She got me with the 123 Book Meme. Here are the rules:
- Pick up the nearest book;
- Open it at page 123;
- Find the fifth sentence/ phrase;
- Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions;
- Don’t you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book;
- Pass it forward to six friends.
When I received the tag I was conveniently sitting in my reading chair surrounded by stacks of books. On the top of one pile and the first one I grabbed was Lead Like a Pirate! Leadership Secrets of the Pirates of St. Croix
The next book down in the pile was an old musty copy of An Introduction to Conrad that I had found at the Mattapoisett library book sale last summer. Here is what I found on page 123:
But for me all the East is contained in that vision of my youth. It is all in that moment when I opened my young eyes on it. I came upon it from a tussle with the sea – and I was young – I saw it looking at me. And this is all that is left of it.
These sentences are from Joseph Conrad’s Youth which is an great sea story of a young man’s right of passage. It’s a story that we use to explore leadership during youth sail training programs. You can download a free copy of this and many other Conrad classics from Project Gutenberg. Since you read this blog, I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s short, so read it.
Okay, I’m tagging:
- Ed Brenegar from Leading Questions
- Scott Allen from Center for Leader Development
- Captain Richard Rodriquez from Bitter End
- Heidi Cool on Pownce
- Christiaan Conover from Mass Maritime Academy
- Old Sailor from Marine Buzz
Thanks Bonnie!
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