Monday 31 January 2011

R&D

Not much cracking off today. Defo a day for R&D. 

Spent some time perusing my 'go-to' sites for inspiration, adforum being one of them, and came across this for IKEA.

They're trying to push some kitchen appliances. They came up with a recipe book, an app and a giveaway. Nothing exceptional you might think, but just check out the photography for the recipe book. (There's something overwhelmingly therapeutic about having things laid out almost flat-pack-like, in fact, I wonder if that was part of their intention).










And then the rest. Whilst an app seems nothing striking, infact you're probably sat there thinking 'bet it's just a smartphone version of the book' but it's not. Even that's smarter (and cuter) than the average bear. Here, take a look at the rest of it you can see it all here. Some yummy thinking.

Thanks to Emma for finding me a real live meat popsicle

Thursday 27 January 2011

Toursim of a different kind

FIT

In attempt to find motivational tracks for the gym, I remembered this track from ages ago.

Love the song, love the video.

Can't decide which is the best thing about it- weird glowing bug dancers, flashy (literally flashy) car, plastic cup castle (always the simple things for me), tron/ casino royal title type graphic smashes or puppets.

But there's more to this story. Before I could find that vid (and having only been able to remember the shutterbug part) I downloaded song of same name from this album.


I then spent 15 minutes on the rowing machine, listening over and over, smirking at the sheer filth of it, whilst the meat popsicles walked by.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Duck egg blue

Fresh air, funny walks and duck egg pretty pic (I say that in the broadest sense. It's a rather unspectacular  pic in reality, but I don't know, there's something I quite liked about them. Maybe it's cos they made for rather scrummy dippy eggs after a very long weekend in Leeds- 5am start Saturday, 4am finish Sunday and no return till near 9pm Sunday).

So as I was saying duck egg pretty pic and music to accompany those things, mentioned first, from today.



Monday 24 January 2011

Resourceful is the word

Nowadays, its all about how much you can squeeze out of or cram into one product. Resorceful is the attitude, multipurpose the motivation. 


This has lead to a great many revelations for me. Examples? I can think of a few. There's the all oldies but goldies: old toothbrushes are not destined for the dump, but become mega utensils for cleaning bicycles or for a more domestic- but no less satisfying- application the mint at debunking grime from the filler between your shower room tiles. Worn but not-too-dirty socks make excellent dusters. And any card board lying around your car is as good a scraper when the ice sets in.

A personal favourite of mine is one of my Dad's. Its genesis lies in said father's utter devotion to recycling. This has meant that plastic inner cereal packets are not rubbish but instead enjoy a second life as sandwich bags. It does make for rather dusty sandwiches, but I can live with this discomfiture knowing I've given one plastic bag a new lease of life and resisted unnecessary use of another.

I think though, that this may overtake any of these examples as being the most wonderful multipurpose approach to what is- typically- a relatively socially unacceptable problem. 

Nice.






Thursday 20 January 2011

Strangely 80s

... but total feel good for it. Yeah, uh-huh, come on, come on, with that synth and electronic drum kit, yeah.

Cold War Kids - Mine Is Yours (Passion Pit Remix) by samhdot

NY's E the analogue pics

And here are some more of those photos I said I'd get up. These are new year in Perranporth. A class night with Lizbuf, her man and their friends down there. Shame that my favourite shot turned out as a double exposure of mixed up proportions (the better shot ended up the fainter of the two). But that's what will happen when you mix limited technology with one drunken pot of marmite.







Ahem, some abstracts lets say

So a long time ago I took my Brownie out- and that's not a euphemism. And not so long ago I finally got the films developed. Well these were the fruits of my labour.

Can't help but think there's maybe some of it's down to chemicals and processing. See the first one, there's some greens in there. On the left side.  And then for some reason the fuchsia gets everywhere. I don't understand. Can anyone explain? If only I had my own darkroom, maybe then I'd get it.

Still, I think they're kinda pretty.




Monday 17 January 2011

Cleansing rather than retraction

I feel dirty after that last post. The point of this place was supposed to be strictly analogue inspirations. After my dabbling with the digital devil, I thought I should probably get back to what I know (sort of) and love (defo). Therefore, please enjoy some of my recent photos. Most are from a Holga. A few from the Ensign I've got on here and then some 'abstracts' from my Brownie box camera. Tuck in.





erm, well there will be more, but sadly half are not scanned and the other half I saved as .tifs so am going ot have to do a bit of admin before they get up there.

Which one's prettier?

qrcode

or

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Monday 10 January 2011

Sad trees

'What if I promised I'd never drop another needle...'

I say it again, oh my, my

6 Music has defo got it right yet again. This guy's one to watch faw shaw. Just wish I'd heard who was number ONE on their watch list...

Sunday 9 January 2011

Made in the USSR

DEMO - HolyGunner - Made in USSR (original mix) by HolyGunner
 
Treated myself over the break. The justification, a little celebration of 20-10 and in eager anticipation of what 2,011 holds.

The draw- MADE IN USSR

How could I resist.

I like to think it was once a spy's.

He was separated from his Zorki 4 while documenting the British palate. In recording the comings and going of foodstuffs in and out of port, it was hoped the USSR could infiltrate British opinion through dietary persuasion, making them more suggestible to the Eastern disposition and open up to communism (see De Bono's theory on the Middle East crisis and how to solve it. If you can't be bothered, in short, the answer is Marmite- seriously- and there is a rational explanation for why. That's your lot lazy boggers, go read the real thing for EXACTLY why).

Any way back to my spy. The camera snagged on a container as he was snatched back by the motherland. Restored in the arms of mother Russia, neither hero nor enemy, he was discarded. Thrown into obscurity, cast out to be forgotten he was sent to a gulag. The only way to survive the gulag's system and Siberia was to turn to the other side. At first he saw it as playing double agent. For all intent and purpose he was still the law and with his intel he would one day be recognised for his valor and duty. This day never came. He now leads every criminal family in Russia. He's recognised- once met, never forgotten- as another side of law.

That's just what I like to think, makes it a little more interesting.
This is a 'grin' tattoo. It's taken from one of my volumes of Russian Criminal Tattoos (check out FUEL publishers, got some good books). Seriously intriguing stuff. Some tattoos were forced on people, others elected to have them to show rank. This one says, 'Wherever I see you, I'll rape you on the spot and strangle you.'

Got it from a tat shop (as in crap not tattoo) in Penzance. Run by a load of Londoners, relocated to the south purely for the purposes of ripping innocents off. In short, the buying experience was not overly pleasant. But I think my hanging round for over half an hour to ensure workings worked (what I knew of them at least), and was not just buying an incredibly elaborate and limited biscuit barrel, may just justify them in their bristly sales technique. Forty squid later I am the owner of this and another little brownie camera and cases for both.


Zorki 4 rangefinder, with Jupiter 8 lens.

Turns out I didn't know enough. There's a take-up spool missing, not to mention my finger prints (let's just say the film speed setting and wind action is like nothing I've ever seen before). Complex. Makes sense now. But before a bit of research it didn't.

Consequently, much like my Brownie escapade, I did the thing you're not supposed to do and in the process scraped my fingers clean of any unique identification markings they may have had.

But with the assistance of zinc oxide tape from my first aid kit, it's loaded up and ready to shoot. May have to find some sufficiently covert subject matter to be capturing on it.

Oh my, my

James Blake - "I Only Know (What I Know Now)" by Strange Moss

wow, truly bootiful 

Thursday 6 January 2011

FAIL!


Just one of those days. Spent most of it procrastinating. And really I shouldn't. I've got the work. It needs doing. There's no time to be wasting. But sometimes, you know, you just don't feel you're getting anywhere. Bit like wading through yoghurt. Ironically, I almost was. And that's after I'd done some minor scrapings up/ off.

New year started with a bad taste in my mouth

... not least because, as is to be expected with me, I overdid it on the pop.

Yep, so just to fill you in on that 2 week void. This is some of what I was up to- not just shirking the working, but plotting and man-making my bad taste fancy dress outfit for NY's E in Perranporth.


Wednesday 5 January 2011

last.fm, I love you...

...and of course metronomy radio, which brought these to my attention.

Check, check, check out the treats then, that this little gem of a radio stream chucked up...

Addendum to 'Misguided marketeering' and reasons to be good


ummmm, this I think is may THE lover of the person I attempting to identify in person number 1 in previous post. Take your pick as to whether it's the lady or the cat.

But this shall also serve as a good reminder why new year's resolutions are a good thing and should be maintained not mangled. the moral of the story being lose weight otherwise you end up big and hairy and potentially a cat. Again that could refer to either pictured.

Misguided marketeering

Spotted this over the festive period- pretty good indication as to my general diet. Thought it made for an amusing bit of marketing.

Would make a half decent nice idea if it were on something else, but seriously, who gives the gift of Pringles at christmas. There are only two answers to that, nay three.

1. You're a fat bastard 
...and so is your 'lover' (though you can barely call them that as there's no love-making to be done due to intrusive gutline).


2. You're a cheap bastard
...and you know your lover will, similarly, have put little thought into your gift and sketched out a blowjob token on the back of a crumpled duff lottery ticket that will then be tucked between his/ her tits come Christmas morn for you to 'unwrap' without using your hands.

3. You get gifts from the petrol station. 
(And therefore Sir/ Madam, may I also congratulate you. You're one of the fortunate few that manage to avoid the festive PANIC!!! sirens (aka craptastic chrismtas choons blaring) and the excessively premature countdown, consequently totally forgetting Christmas till 9 o'clock Christmas eve, when all that's open is a garage.)

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Back to work, BOI!

Super slackness ends now. It's new year. Got to be good. At least for the first month anyway.

So first day back and first thing I hit upon... this.

MEGA!