Sometimes history is just the other side of an open door

This lovely article about the golden era of cycling from Richard Williams seemed to really touch a chord.
There was distinct echoes of Small is Beautiful, which is coming along nicely by the way.
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(Don't) wait a minute

Tem Doran keep's on keeping on with this lovely entry into what looks like a fine competition. Fair play Tem for getting involved. // You've got to get yourself out there, haven't you. When was the last time Farion entered a competition? Never in fact. End of year resolution then: enter a competition in 2009. In fact, that's a nice idea isn't it? End of Year Resolutions. things you want to get done before the years out. Maybe I'll enter a competition with that idea..
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Somewhere between growing up and settling down

For some reason I still identify with coming-of-age movies.. Nice find Jestonbury!
I'd never heard of it but will surely now be trailing the net to find us a copy.

Treat

This was in the bag of sweets we'd bought for any 'trick or treaters'. Might be an obvious thing to highlight, but this has really got to say a lot about a few things, eh? Must eat one though, maybe they're gorgeous.. anyway, thought it might be nice to some really 'good' photographs of all the different types of incredible, yet somehow impressively ugly, sweets that there are in this packet. LIDL special for £1.50 by the way. Truly near the bottom of the sweet hierarchy.

A trip to London town: Streets with small signs and beds with big views

Batman in Training. In Truro. Truly.

So there's this boy. It's early, there's a lot of folk waiting for the London train. Up pops this lad, in a cape and wearing one glove. Out of nowhere. He then proceeded to flip, and thump and kick the air. 'Hello. Nice cape' I said. 'Yeh, I'm training to be Batman and it helps me do some of my superhero stuff.' 'Oh yeah, sound's good. I'm Steve by the way. What's your name?' 'It's Bruce', he replied, completely deadpan, Bruce Wayne. Quite a coincidence I know. My name is Bruce Wayne.'

We chatted for a long while, about the batmobile ('It's just parked down on the hill there') and the benefits and drawbacks of a cape ('Sometimes it can get in the way of my karate kicks') and not once did he portray anybody else but a boy that was truly called Bruce Wayne and was truly training to be Batman. I've no reason to believe that all he said was not completely true. He is one of the finest fellas I've met all year. Watch out baddies of Cornwall, it's going to get tough out there with this fella around. All strength to you young Bruce!

Reasons to take time off

The person who gets name checked the most with the graphics students I work with, is this man, Stefan Sagmeister. Famous for many things, not least of which his marvelous book/on-going project Things I have Learnt In My Life So Far.

Well, here is at one of the TED talks, spreading the idea that taking time off is a good move. Every seven years he shuts down his studio; well, disappointingly, he closes it rather than shuts it down. But still, wonderful stuff. So when you take time off and want to wisely fill 18 minutes of it, enjoy this.

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Reasons to stay on Facebook #1

The awesome Kate, right, just got in touch via Crackbook and it led me to finding this, a new photo of her
and her wonderful sister (nice watch Meg) rowing a boat in France. How good? I love this photograph.
My life has clearly been enriched by this discovery. Reason number one I think..
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How does 350 sound now?

Well that's very odd. Very odd indeed. But good odd. So first I posted about £3.50, and then after that, Sigur Ros. And then, today, it happens to be about them both!

Oddly, I was just sent an email about some event that's happening down here in Cornwall on Oct 24th as part of a global climate change action malarkey under the name of 350.org (as in 350 parts per million of CO2 is the safe level we have to get back down to). I went to the link and watched the film, and viola! Sigur Ros music., So nice full circle to round off a pretty special week.

Anyway, an interesting new pressure group which I hadn't heard about before. Somehow though there's some cringing going on when there's sentences like we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty, but have I got any better ideas? No. So I'll be one of the 350 people joining hands across the River Tamar on October 24th and if we're lucky we'll all have Sigur Ros playing in our heads.

See 350.org for more info.
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Sigur Rós - Hoppípolla (Heima)

We've all heard this tune a lot before, but here it is in it's rawest form in a fine looking arena. Think I'd better get this film and project it onto our wall and invite lots of people around to watch it..

And If you've got 8.26 mins to spare and you want to check your tear ducts still work, go over to Aitch's blog and watch what Jestonbury has put up there for her. So so good in so many ways.

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How does £3.50 sound?

Pandamonium

Good title, good idea and apart from what looks like some flaky input from the big names, (can Rachel Whiteread not think of a better title than Charity Bears for WWF?) a beautiful and useful affair.
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For over three decades, our army of sturdy panda collecting boxes stood outside shops and offices around the UK, but were all recalled in 2007. Rather than recycling the lot, we got together with specialist curators Artwise and challenged top British artists to reincarnate them as innovative and memorable artworks, to communicate the importance of our work in a truly inspirational way. As you can see in this video, each Pandamonium artist has ‘reinvented’ the WWF panda, offering new ways to spread our urgent message that the world’s rapidly changing climate is affecting people, wildlife and the natural world.

“WWF and the arts have always been intrinsically linked,” says WWF’s Head of Design Management, Georgie Bridge. “Our founder, Sir Peter Scott, was a painter and naturalist who developed the original panda logo nearly 50 years ago. It’s since become a globally-recognised symbol for conservation, a design heritage we are intensely proud of.”

The finished pieces are being exhibited at Selfridges on London’s Oxford Street, from 4 September to 28 October, and auctioned to raise funds for WWF.
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Further info here

Waste not

This image is from an extraordinary book called WASTE by Tristram Stewart. It covers everything about food waste - from the complex social / business aspects of the situation all the way to this: how to store your green leaves. It's one of those books that instead of thinking - 'yes, that's interesting and very important but it looks a little dull, and, lets face it, I'm not going to read it - to 'you know what, that's interesting and very important and I'm going to read it all the way through. Or at least most of it anyway'..

Note: I wanted to put some of the images up from the book of fields of thrown away oranges in America 'cause they are beautiful but alas they don't have these images on the website. So next time you're at your local book shop, take a look and enjoy.
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We love you so

How excited? Very excited.

The new film by Spike Jones (and with a screenplay by him and the worlds busiest man, Dave Eggers) is nearly upon us.

Check the wonderful blog for the film as well; 'a place that has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality'.

Marvelous to think that these guys are, of course, just like us lot, and they're just sharing their own adventures, just like us lot..
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Note: And it's amazing to think that Arcade Fire could sound better than they did in the first place. Good example of image improving sound. Is that the right way to put it - improving? I don't think so; maybe image and sound coming together to create something that was stronger than either. I guess that's simply what good films/music videos do, eh, create something that's larger than the sum of it's parts. Maybe the same goes for decent magazines and their contents, no?

I've had an idea

cache |ka sh |
noun
a collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place : an arms cache | a cache of gold coins.
• a hidden or inaccessible storage place for valuables, provisions, or ammunition.
• (also cache memory) Computing an auxiliary memory from which high-speed retrieval is possible.
verb [ trans. ]
store away in hiding or for future use.
• Computing store (data) in a cache memory.
• Computing provide (hardware) with a cache memory.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from French, from cacher ‘to hide.’

Where words want to follow

He kissed her like he was pushing her away.
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Saw a couple on the train today and this line came into my head. Thought it sounded quite nice and for some reason it made me want to continue writing a (the) story that started with this line. I've come over all words-over-pictures at the moment.
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Note: the picture is not of the couple, just thought as I had a photo of 'a couple kissing' I'd put it up with the post. Oddly, it's actually from a Body Shop window display.

Onwards and upwards

Beautiful image from the blog of illustrious illustrator Dean Owens.

To be a full extension of yourself

top: Aitch through the rear window (1996), Steven Bond
bottom: Smoke & Silhouette (2007) Ryan McGinley

Strap line for the week

I do not want for victory, only for table tennis.
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Under the Influence

Always good to get a non artistic, non academic influence up on the blog... Enjoy Vince Carters top 10 dunks...a nice tip from Falmouth's own white man who can jump, Stuart Windmill Westhead. Of course thinking about it, what's unstudied about this? And what's not beautiful? Well, maybe the guitar solos in the background but the rest is bloody wonderful. Make sure you hold on for the 'my oh my' at the end of number two and then just imagine trying to do what he does for number one eh? Pure life, coursing through its vein's..
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Advice Sinks In

Well well, is that Jon Stanbury's Advice to Sink in Slowly project on the Guardian's education website? Yes, I think you'll find it is! Good work fella. Can't wait to flag up the projects great new website as well... it's looking wonderful so far and is very near completion. It's all happening in Jon's world. And his beard at the moment is second to none. More on both soon.

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