Forget the jacket, the cap, and even the cigarette pose for one second and tell me why this fellow deserves a blog post dedicated to him nearly 80 years after this picture was taken? His bike of course. A Phelon & Moore 'Panther' to be exact. 600cc with a 70 mph top speed, and yours for a fraction under 30 English Pounds. Oh I know times were tough and that war was on the horizon, but can you imagine the thrill. To ride something like that back then? A tweed cap, all dapper and debonair. You shove a letter in your jacket pocket, as you race into town on the muddy country lanes, rattling your bones as you just make it to the Post Office before it closes with the letter for your beloved.
29/10/08 - Working class cloth
If Cashmere is the fabric of Royalty then may I suggest the working classes claim Flannel to be their own. As early as the 16th Century Welsh Collier's wives were busy napping cotton to create the first flannel shirts. The mines were cold and wet, and flannel was the answer. It was the working mans uniform. D. H Lawrence talked at great length about the '...great rolls of coarse flannel and pit-cloth.' which stood in the corner of his grandfathers shop at Brinsley Pit, where he was a tailor. These hard hard men and boys, black faces with staring white eyes are a far cry from those sporting flannel this season. Generation after generation of working class men have worn flannel and it was changed in style, but not in substance. It is the turn of the humble Lumberjack to carry on the tradition, not for fashion, but because it's what Flannel was made for. Work. So if you're going to wear some flannel this season, please, make sure it works...
Oh to be the letter F. It really is the letter of the moment, well as far as cool photo websites go. The old dog flickr is still peeing on the same, now rusty lamposts - while FFFFound is catching the eye of many a young passer-by with it's perfectly groomed coat and pinned back ears. At the rear, and unsure why, despite being up and running for several years it is only being noticed now, is Flakphoto, the 'man's best friend' of the trio. Confused? No need, afterall F is for Photo.
In 2006, published by Faber & Faber and written by Simon Armitage, Tyrannosaurus Rex vs The Corduroy Kid was released, yet here I am in 2008 only now unearthing it's greatness. I was in the library last night and stumbled upon it, and this morning ordered myself a copy. Of course there are poems within this thinly bound book which I have no desire to re-read, but it's the re-telling of Homer's ‘the Odyssey’, and Armitage's ode to Dr David Kelly which makes this something I want to pick up and marvel at time and time again. Not a reader, but rather a watcher? This Charming Man gets the once over too.
23/10/08 - Don't be square, I said don't be square
I mentioned a few posts ago that I was working on a Zine, so here are some pictures of what I've been up to. I haven't filled all the pages yet, so if you have something you would like written, or pasted, just let me know. I am, as you can no doubt tell, going for a simple and rather 'rustic' look. Forget your printing press, Pritt Stik and newspaper cuttings galore. My favourite magazine have taken to listening to Irish radio....the grass is always greener eh?!
22/10/08 - All empty souls tend toward extreme opinions.
W.B Yeats has always been a hero of mine. Sligo, the place regarded by most as his 'home' is only a short drive from where I am, and for years I have adventured around Ben Bulben and taken in the scenery he was inspired by. I spent a large chunk of my summer down in Sligo, one of the days snapping the above shot. The sculpture of Yeats was created in 1990 by Rowan Gillespie, an artist and sculptor I am a huge fan of. The other piece which I love is 'Famine' which can be found on the banks of the Liffey.
20/10/08 - Faux-french follows boy around
If I were to tell you one thing about Benoit Pioulard it would be that, at times, when listening to his music, I get this strange and rather disturbing feeling that on the many occasions when I was alone, deep in thought and contemplating life's biggest questions he was there creating a soundtrack of exceptional quality. He released this soundtrack without my knowledge and now that I have stumbled upon it I am re-living those moments complete with musical score. Now if i were to tell you more then one thing about Benoit Pioulard I would divulge that he is from Michigan, faux-french and just responsible for the release of a new album. Listen here, learn here.
19/10/08 - A horse's head and a few eels
I don't know what to think of the above video. It's from last year, [2007] and is from Kilkenny born Richard Mosse. On his website he gives a brief description. "Lough Neagh, a large lake near Belfast, produces the tastiest eels in the world. Starting in the 1960s, when the lake was owned by the absentee Lord Shaftesbury, a priest in the village of Toombe Bridge collectivised the local community to buy out the lake's eeling rights and establish a profitable grass-roots fishing cooperative. Symbols of this activism, the eels and a horse's head perform in a large iron vessel, designed for skinning pigs, but now situated in an ornamental garden. Working backwards from the site of tragedy, the work alludes to a cathartic forgetting of atrocities in recent Irish memory." It's quite longwinded, so i'd advise, if you're interested in watching it all, having something to occupy yourself with once the water emptying begins....If you have nothing at hand try this, it is the season!
Last month Berlin based Mashallah Design and Linda Kostowski came into the spotlight with their Digital portraits t-shirt project, but after looking at that with what I must admit were unimpressed eyes, I became far more facinated with what the pair were up to as individuals rather then collectively. Mashallah has some fresh ideas, especially in the realms of wallpaper, and Kostowski's REALFAKEWATCHES is whitty and therefore brilliant.
17/10/08 - Zine is the Kingdom
I am currently working on a project for a friend of mine who is running a Free Stall at a local craft market. This is what he had to say about the whole affair - "The Free Stall is a distribution point for our various creative endeavors. Its roots lie in the simple joy of giving. The fact that we aren't charging for our wares may also be a small liberation for some of us." So I have knuckled down to rustle up some zines. If I had a budget I would look to the likes of Soyfriends for printing. I don't have a budget, so it looks like all I will be looking to these fine Norwegian fellows for is inspiration. If you want to make your own zine you should check out their guide here.
What do you think of fashion? My opinion waivers. If you're looking for some inspiration a quick browse around some 'Street Style' websites is a must. Here, try some cities. Berlin, Amsterdam, or my personal favourite, Streetpeeper. Not only can you take in the styles from notable capitals such as Paris, London or Tokyo, but Streetpeeper allows you to take a tour of the lesser known capitals of style. Warsaw anyone?
Today involved too much driving. What should have been a two hour journey became four thanks to several hi-viz fellows and a couple of thousand plastic red cones. The entire M50 was reduced to one lane. I shouldn't complain, it gave me two extra hours with Van the man. If you haven't listened to his remastered version of this 1971 classic you should probably take a chance to. Come on, you can't just have Van-Halen and Vampire Weekend on your Ipod under V. Can you?
14/10/08 - A darlin' thing a darlin' thing
Compared to the plastic shrink wrapped packet of Turkey Twizzlers that is television, theatre really is a living breathing animal, waiting to be butchered. I went to see Sean O'Casey's - 'Juno and the Paycock' this week, and while some of the acting forced me into a hurried seach for the 'Amateur Players' slogan on the programme cover the whole experience was fantastic. I had forgotten my love for the theatre. The mingling before hand, the hanging up of your coat, the intermission with hurried drink orders. I have become so critical of the little TV I watch these days yet I found myself forgiving the odd line slip up or stutter when it came to this classic play. The theatre is about so much more then the play. A cliche? Perhaps, but I have vowed to first check what is playing there before I Google the Omniplex film times. Have a hunt.
Enzo Ferrari knows a thing or two about cars, so when you hear that he labeled the Jaguar E-Type, "The most beautiful car ever made" you know it was no goat's toe. I have always admired the E-Type from afar, for the 30 years which have passed since production stopped have only served to take these beauties off our roads and place them with great care in garages under sheets. A shame. The day before last, as I was inching through traffic I saw one coming in the other direction. In full flight and as black as the night it caressed the roundabout which had once stood in its way and disappeared from view. I was in love, and probably won't ever stop loving the E-Type. I will just have to hire one.
12/10/08 - Power-pop to the top
Scandanavian power-pop is the new cool. Or so I keep hearing. I took a trip to Sweden earlier this year and from what I saw there is no better place to hold the crown of cool this season. Smosch is a blog from Gothenburg resident Sandra Juto. It's one of those blogs I keep going back to, not only because it has beautiful photography, but Sandra is always up to something.
Here is the blog, and here is her shop.
11/10/08 - It's a new dawn its a new day
I thought I should make this change from old
blog to new blog during the summer months, but with one thing and
another it never occured. I had wanted to bring in the new, and say
goodbye to the old while the pollen count was still high, incase of
tears. The old blog has been like that gym bag you had all your life.
You look past its torn handle, broken zip and 'warm' smell for love of
its character. Alas for too long the slow loading and hard upkeep of
the old blog has been overlooked by yours truly. You can still see the
old dog here.