Banner ads are strange beasts indeed. To be honest, I'm a banner-avoider. I just don't click on them if I can avoid it. This banner slipped through the net. I clicked and was rewarded. 

It's actually a website for Aquent - click on the different widgets and banners and it tells you who you need to hire to create them. Like the best ideas, simple, entertaining and to the point.

In a gunfight it appears that good guys draw faster than the bad guys but usually die because they wait. This article/video in the Guardian explains all. Apparently "...the Nobel laureate and quantum physicist Niels Bohr was so intrigued with the puzzle he came up with a theory: the one who draws second moves faster because he reacts without thinking." A team at Birmingham University set up some tests to prove/disprove the theory. As usual, Hollywood twists the facts - the one who draws last gets shot. Still, it wouldn't be the same if the good guys lost in the movies.

Driving home a couple of weeks ago and saw Martin Creed's installation on the front of Tate Britain. It cheered me up (difficult week) and it was so unexpected. I'm guessing there's a level of irony in it but I found it strangely calming and comforting in the circumstances. The combination of simplicity and message is at the heart of Creed's neon works - they call a spade a spade. I like the straightfowardness of these works. Art has many functions - amongst others - to challenge, to reassure or disconcert but above all, to communicate. 

I first saw this video for a song by Chas Jankel (Blockhead and Ian Dury's writing partner) in 1983 - always loved the light in the mouth. It still feels really vital - I have no idea who directed but it's a corker. Enjoy.

No reason to be there, no reason to be written. This sign makes me laugh out loud. I wish I'd written it. 'This isn't the movies you know...' Thank you Craig, whichever time you're in.

Image from Dropular.com