Author: 6000

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

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More music? Yes, more music.

There was a bizarre route to my discovering this band – the brainchild of Sam Duckworth –  but we can leave the sordid details behind, because the new album “Maps” is out on Monday and I’m going to go (to my computer) and buy it.

Here’s The Real McCoy from that forthcoming album.

And if you liked that, you can download it for free.

There’s more Get Cape. goodness on their YouTube channel. I’d particularly recommend Daylight Robbery, with its parody video (how many other bands videos can you spot?) and The Uprising, featuring British TV presenter Adrian Chiles.

Get Cape cornet and occasional drummer Mikey Glenister is also a member of band The Power of Voodoo, who don’t seem to be very active currently but whose music is still available on their Facebook page – try It’s My Time (free download of that is here).

Sweaty Palms II

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Twenty months have passed since I gave you this video of some young gentlemen doing some pull ups. From a crane. Several million metres above Paris.

Now, it appears that the Russian youth are at it as well.

According to PetaPixel:

If you’re afraid of heights you may want to look away, and you should certainly never make friends with these daredevil photographers from Russia. We here in the U.S. have memes, young Russian photographers, it seems, have “skywalking”: the newest extremely dangerous photography fad to hit the Internet.

Skywalking basically involves a photographer making his way up to a death-defying height, and snapping a photo that’s meant to give you both a perspective you’ve never seen before, and that feeling like your stomach just made its way into your throat.

And that post links through to Russian photographer Vadim Mahorov’s photoblog, which has an awesome mix of “skywalking” pictures for you to Luke at (geddit?!?) and some great Urbex stuff as well, à la Silent UK.

Prepare to lose PLENTY of time having a look at the rest of the site – it really is full of amazing examples of urban photography.

Nothing to see here – just a seagull-eating octopus

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Om nom nom.

We’ve all had that cheeky seagull have a pop at our chips or our ice cream, but this time, the boot is on the other tentacle, as a juvenile glaucous-winged gull ends up being lunch for a Giant Pacific Octopus.

The event, witnessed by Ginger Morneau, her husband Ken, and brother Lou Baker at Ogden Point Breakwater in Victoria, British Columbia, is rare, but not unheard of, and is described in full here.

The Giant Pacific Octopus can be seen regularly patrolling the shallows of the shorelines around Victoria. They primarily feed on crustaceans, but are known to occasionally take fish and even birds. Octopi are extremely intelligent animals, and great problem solvers. Although they live only about four years, they can grow to have a span of more than 20 feet and to weigh more than 100 pounds. This one wasn’t that large, but it was still an impressive individual. What was even more impressive, though, was that it had one of its tentacles wrapped around the head of the gull, holding it under water.

It’s likely that the gull may even have been picking and pecking at the octopus before the tables were turned. Bear that in mind next time you’re devouring a supposedly harmless pizza. It may just rear up and bite back. Or… er… not.

Once the gull was drowned and the struggle over, the octopus took its meal back down into the icy depths of the Salish Sea. (Actually, I have no idea how warm it is, but it looks pretty chilly.)

Octopus 1-0 Seagull