November 10th, 2009

Martian Landscapes

Martian Terrain - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Martian Terrain - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Martian Terrain - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Martian Terrain - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Martian Terrain - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Martian Terrain - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

More here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/katalogos.php

October 29th, 2009

Rockefeller Declares Independence

Iconic Photos

Normal Rockefeller - Iconic Photos

American Vice President and Republican Norman Rockefeller expresses his views to a heckler in 1976. Sometimes it seems that Republicans have all the fun since they aren’t caught up trying to be sincere. Other moments in history available over at the Iconic Photo Blog.

October 24th, 2009

Techno is the Jazz of the Future

Someday our kids will know some shaved head guy on their block with a load of ‘old’ techno records. A future with quaint Techno bars occupying gentrified areas. An ever-diminishing group of collectors meet to watch Derricka May having at the final stage in his life cycle decided on a gender reassignment, the old rhythms played in off-beat syncopation. Why not.

October 23rd, 2009

Black Knight 2000

Best pinball game ever and probably one of the best soundtracks. 1:45 is one of the the greatest events in pinball.

October 17th, 2009

Marko Speaks

Contains light swearing and a risqué reductionist view of our basic motivations.

October 16th, 2009

1444 East Chestnut

1444 East Chestnut

1444 East Chestnut

That big gnarled Japanese Coral tree.  Landscape architects and gardeners would offer to buy it regularly but we never considered selling it. During the summer while in full bloom and covered in masses of vibrant red flowers the tree used to audibly hum with bees. Coming back from a summer swim I used to run up that path to the front door so I wouldn’t get stung. Running and bees don’t really mix but I couldn’t help it. Those same flowers once attracted an escaped juvenile African Grey parrot. I spent days scheming to capture that parrot by building ever more elaborate parrot catching devices in the garage. The final device involved an old badminton net, a retrieve your golf ball from the water extension pole thing, duct tape and some copper tubing. It didn’t work, the parrot figured out what I was up to and never returned.  Neither did the umbrella which I thought might float me gently down to earth a la Mary Poppins when I leapt from the roof. I’ll blame it on growing up under high-voltage power lines.

October 5th, 2009

Forgotten Films: Cannery Row

I must have been around 9 when I saw Cannery Row (1982) on cable. The film stuck with me and stowed itself away in my subconscious. Over the years, every once in a while, the memory would kick a synapse into action the need to see it again. Why is the 9 year old version of me bugging me to watch this film? Why had it made such an impression?

Cannery Row - Title

Cannery Row - Title

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October 4th, 2009

Preview: Emiliano Maggi

I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is Emiliano and he lives in Rome where having left London he’s found more time to create. The newest sculptures added to his blog are some of his best and most gruesome yet. Touring the site  is like stumbling into a strange cabinet of curiosities with a variety of sculpture, ready-mades, paintings and illustration depicting all sorts of strange travellers he’s meet on his journeys.

 

Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Emiliano Maggi

Visit http://magikzaplakala.blogspot.com/

May 13th, 2009

The Zombie Porn Factory

Tired of aspirational interiors magazines where a single piece of featured furniture costs more than an average yearly salary? Apartamento magazine has carved a niche of exposing the interiors of the everyday profiling folks that have actually built and received splinters from that wonky shelving unit featured in its pages. 

Apartamento editor Marco Velardi paid our jumbled abode a visit last summer before it turned into a winter ice skating rink and took some pictures. Welcome to the Zombie Porn Factory… 

 

Apartamento Magazine Issue #3 Cover

Apartamento Magazine Issue #3 Cover

 

Photographs by Marco Velard

Photographs by Marco Velard

Here is the text by David Piper:

Among the more odious habits of the gang that live here is showering naked. Fat Fingers Miller (not to be confused with Footwank Miller and his brother Asterix) in particular really goes for it with the soap, which tends to rile Demolition Dave something rotten. But it’s just one example of the many little idiosyncratic paths of behaviour that develop when people live in a place while they’re slowly building it. Putting blinds up in the bathroom wasn’t as important, at the time, as the electrics, say, so it never happened, and now they like to joke they’re just performing a service for the neighbours.

Similarly, a random accumulation of objects and amenities from a variety of extremely fascinating sources constantly hints at an imminent aesthetic disaster which somehow hasn’t quite materialised: you’ll find a giant mirrorball and huge green fist, rescued from a friend’s failed sustainable disco campsite venture. But just you wait ’til they build the trompe l’oeil maze…

They recently became the first house in Europe to adopt Digital Time, the revolutionary new system espoused (in his book Power of 10, currently out of print) by good friend and frequent guest of the house Stanley Mchale, the arch-guru of the new chronologists, entrepeneur, and motivational speaker extraordinaire. A typical day might be divided into the following digital hours:

1. Light weapons training
2. Swim/run/darts
3. Horticultural inventions
4. Poetry team
5. Rain/hail/sleet/snow
6. Advanced time-wasting
7. Brain freeze
8. Freakbeat/psych/mod

Current plots being hatched within the house include an exhibition of drawings of boobs, Dandy speed-dating, a 6-star luxury obstacle course, and a handful of miscellaneous jokes and chat-up lines - it is something of a hub for hopeful young men (and women!) keen to gain whatever advantage they can on the Sexy Battlefield. If you’re there you should check out the plumbing, which they did themselves - they have 24-hour hot and cold running sex on tap!

 

Photograph by Marco Velardi

Photographs by Marco Velardi

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April 29th, 2009

The Train Project: Part I

It’s spring and everything has gone a bit choo-choo. While the sun graces us with its brief presence any excuse to spend some time outside and away from the studio is jumped at.  Nothing beats a hard days toil outdoors getting down and dusty while perfecting the farmers tan. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been working with the Snakeskin Jacket fellas; Henry, Dean and James at their workshop off Brick Lane on the restoration of a Victorian train carriage. 

 

Model Train by Dean Slydell

Model Train by Dean Slydell

The train project has been talked about for the better half of a year. It was on, it was off, dates kept getting moved and torturous silences ensued before delivery was finally set. When it finally arrived, it was like Christmas morning to a bunch of boys and has been one of the main topics of conversation since this beautiful teak and solid oak steel bolted wonder came into our lives.

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