If you haven’t yet seen these photos from the Iron Maiden Land in Toronto article in BlogTO, you’re in for a treat: here are photos of Ed Force One, the custom-painted Boeing 757 that Iron Maiden are flying about in their world tour, landing here in Accordion City:
Photos by Tom Podolec. Click the photo to see the BlogTO article.
Even more rockin’ than the jet’s design is the fact that Iron Maiden lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson is the pilot! (As is heavy metal singing and piloting weren’t enough, Bruce also has a very good slot on BBC’s 6 Music: Friday Rock Show.)
The name “Ed Force One” comes from the band’s mascot, Eddie the Head, the evil mummified creature who’s been gracing all the Iron Maiden album covers since my grade 5 days when my friend Dean Burzese and I would obsessively study them.
A number of the Toronto tech gang who went down to South by Southwest — often referred to in its shortened form, SxSW — have come down with a flu-like bug. The combination of flying and being at an event attended by thousands of people packed into close quarters, either in conference sessions or bars, makes for the perfect germ and virus exchange.
I’ve managed to avoid the bug — which Alex Hillman cleverly dubbed SxSARS — through a combination of hand-washing at near OCD frequencies and regular doses of Cold-fX supplement, which is readily available at drugstores in Canada. The active ingredient in Cold-fX is an extract made from North American Ginseng, and both personal experience and a number of studies, including this one from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, seem to back Cold-fX’s claim of immune-boosting properties.
If you’re flying to a conference, I strongly recommend using Cold-fX backed by a hand-washing regime!
(I have no connection with Cold-fX, nor do I own stock in its parent company. I’m just a satisfied customer.)
Image from Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog Click the image to see it on its original page.
Back in the mid- to late nineties, one track you couldn’t avoid on alt-rock radio was Pulp’sCommon People (from their excellent album, Different Class), a song that pokes fun at the genteel faux-poverty of kids from rich families at art school.
In the lyrics, the “narrator” tells the story of a rich Greek sculpture student at St. Martin’s college who wants to do a little lifestyle tourism amongst the British working class. The song is purportedly based on a real-life female acquaintance of Pulp’s lead vocalist Jarvis Cocker, who had a rich Greek female acquaintance at an art school named St. Martin’s who said that she wanted to “live like common people.” Cocker embellished the story in the chorus’ lyrics, adding “I want to sleep with common people like you.” According to Wikipedia, The BBC went so far as to try and locate the real-life rich art student who inspired the song without success.
Image from Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog Click the image to see it on its original page.
There are (ahem) commonalities shared by Common People and the situation in Archie comics between rich girl Veronica Lodge and the very middle-class Archie Andrews. There are probably thousands of Archie storylines that are based on Archie not having enough money take Veronica on the type of date to which she has become accustomed. Some clever Photoshopper noticed the Common People/Archie connection, took the Common People lyrics, mashed them up with panels from Archie comics, and the result is over at Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog: Archie in…A Different Class!
Image from Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog Click the image to see it on its original page.
The photo below could be the greatest movie scene re-enactment ever: it’s a re-enactment of the “Spider-Man stops the runaway train” scene in Spider-Man 2:
A number of the Toronto tech gang who went down to 
