the cuckoo jar

PUB CARPET CRAWL #2

2012-03-07T17:34:00.001Z

After a truly EPIC first edition, it is my pleasure to announce Pub Carpet Crawl #2!!!!

On Saturday March 31st we will set out for the area of Roath in Cardiff. The route looks promising, with pubs ranging from charming locals to 'interesting' dives...

We'll meet up at 18.30 at the pub with the swankiest toilets in Wales (really a must-see, despite having no carpet!): The Ernest Willows on City Road. There's a bit more ground to cover this crawl, so please come early!

Find the Facebook event here. Have a look at all the carpets I've collected so far here.

Jazz Gallery Cardiff

2012-02-29T09:00:00.000Z

In collaboration with studio mate Daniel Hamilton I've created a logo and poster for the soon to launch Jazz Gallery Cardiff.

The Jazz Gallery is "a new jazz club that has been set up by musicians, for musicians, to help expand the ever-growing Cardiff jazz scene. Based at A Shot in the Dark café, we are providing a platform for musicians in and around South Wales to perform their original music to a new audience. In association with contemporary music group SN Jazz and in addition to weekly jazz gigs and a monthly jam session, we are offering an opportunity for local artists to exhibit their work on the walls of this venue".

So stay tuned for an exhibition at A Shot in the Dark soon! Join their Facebook group to stay informed on upcoming gigs and exhibitions.

Can Your Monkey Do The Dog

2012-02-27T23:03:00.000Z

Who would have thought a book fair could be so much fun! Over 60 lovely artists sold their (handmade) books and zines at the Ffotogallery in Penarth last Saturday. Lots of people came down, the place was heaving all day! I played records on my portable record player (the Fidelity), which went down really well I think. And I had the pleasure of ending the already brilliant day with a packed dance floor at the afterparty at 10ft Tall!

Especially for this fair I made sort of mini-zine titled Can Your Monkey Do The Dog, based on the song by Rufus Thomas. Besides monkeys dancing The Dog there are monkeys Footstompin', Vogueing and Shaking A Tail Feather.

I've got a few left that I'm selling through my website (click here), where you can pay the £2/€2,50 (that includes postage!) using PayPal or your creditcard. Or simply send me message and we'll sort it out. Download the soundtrack below (right click/CTRL+click and "save as") and get your hips shaking too!

Rufus Thomas - Can Your Monkey Do The Dog. Download it here.

Jackie Lee - The Duck. Download it here.

Dee Dee Sharp - Do The Bird. Download it here.

The Five Du-Tones - Shake A Tail Feather. Download it here.

Madonna - Vogue. Download it here.

The Flares - Footstompin'. Download it here.

My Dansette ♥

2012-02-15T23:06:00.000Z

So about two weeks ago I bought a vintage portable record player on eBay: a Fidelity HF45, built in 1971. It's a great little machine; very reliable, running smoothly, recently serviced and fitted with a new earthed plug (and cleaned with an awful smelling sort of formaldehyde!). I was very pleased with my purchase when it arrived, but it wasn't until long before I got this yearning feeling for a bigger, better, louder and more beautiful example (my Fidelity is very boringly grey). The search on eBay was on again!

I spotted a beautiful hot pink/salmon colored Dansette Conquest Auto. Dansettes were a very popular brand of portable record players in the UK in the 50s and 60s, famous for their stylish designs and colors. There were many different models, and the Conquest was somewhat more advanced because it has control knobs for bass and treble and two speakers.

This beauty was 'pick up only', which was good because it usually means the price is lower. It was located about a 2-hour drive away, so not too ridiculous. Luckily I showed it to a friend of mine and she loved it so much she kindly offered me a ride (I am eternally grateful and forever indebted to her!!). As it would be a bit of a pain to pick it up I didn't bid too much. It made the bidding process absolutely nerve wrecking, because I really wanted this gorgeous object to be mine! And it was!!

The Dansette turned out to be with an elderly couple in the petite village of Kinver. They had bought it in the early 60s and it had been in their loft for about 40 years! Oh they were so adorable and so disappointed we didn't stay for tea and biscuits. I'm ashamed to say we went straight off to MacDonalds. Then again, in our defense: we were on a proper road trip!

I am absolutely smitten with my Dansette. I can't stop looking at it! Cosmetically it's in excellent condition, just some slight wear due to its age. After these pictures were taken I've painstakingly cleaned it with a toothbrush and some toothpaste (!!), so it's no longer a dirty shade of salmon.

∧ Look at that grill!

As you might expect after being stored in a loft for 40 years it is in need of a little bit of TLC. Still I'm amazed at how well it operates, clearly this has been made in an age where things were made to last. It has a valve amplifier, which produces a beautiful sound and a characteristic hum. It even has a certain smell, that lovingly reminds me of my vintage Quad amplifier (another piece of quality British hi-fi equipment). It has an auto changer, so you can stack multiple records and it will automatically play them one after the other. It's all so nifty! ∨

There are some slight crackling noises when you turn the knobs, and the volume is a bit temperamental. And it runs a tad slow, especially on 33⅓. I've been scouring the net for advice on how to service a record player and to whether or not replace the stylus, and found a wealth of information on the UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum. Probably the grease has gone all gooey, so one of these days I'm going to open it up and carefully clean it and grease the parts that need greasing. Oh yes the geek inside me has been unleashed!

Pre-order 'What I Wore Today'!

2012-02-10T11:18:00.001Z

You can now pre-order the book What I Wore Today - Doodle Yourself into a Style Icon by illustrator Gemma Correll on Amazon!

The book is based on Gemma's What I Wore Today blog and Flickr group, where people upload their drawings of, well, what they wore that day. The book is a sketchbook, journal, manual on how to draw and fashion guide all in one, that will let you "scribble, sketch and doodle your way through a year's worth of your best outfits, or biggest fashion mistakes". To provide some inspiration and examples they've picked a couple of drawings from the (5000+ items!) Flickr group, and one of those is me in what I call my 'straight laced' outfit!!

I now realize I look rather chubby in this drawing hahaha.

Pub Carpet Crawl #1 - The Lowdown

2012-02-06T10:55:00.000Z

Wow, the first Pub Carpet Crawl has really been a big success!! Despite the dreadful weather over 20 people turned up to brave the pubs on the notorious Canton Mile in Cardiff. It has been a pleasure for the eyes in many ways, as you will see for yourself in the pictures below. It was also successful in the sense that nobody got the 'up-close carpet experience', we only lost one man along the way and nobody got into a fight. We've even been pleasantly surprised by some of the pubs, which we previously never dared to enter!

Meeting point was The Westgate and we were off to a good start with its classic carpet ∨.

∧ After our first pint we duly switched to half pints.
I'm afraid I haven't been able to enforce this rule the entire night...

Next up was The Kings Castle. I thought this pub didn't have a carpet, but after a quick look around we discovered an absolutely horrid example in one of the back corners!

∧ A fair attempt to color coordinate the upholstery!

The Foresters looks shabby on the outside, and I feared what it would be like inside. A friend who joined us there told me he had entered it on Google maps and the first review that came up read: "Some yob tried to hit me with a bottle by smashing it through the window behind me while I was standing outside having a fag". The review continues with "This place is a hangout for losers! The sort of place where people go after they have given up on life and just need somewhere to go and cause trouble and find something to do - RAGING ALCOHOLIC 6 Jul 2009".

∧ Entering the shabby BAR.

However we don't agree with Raging Alcoholic, we've all enjoyed it and many said it was their favorite pub of the crawl! The carpet looked alright in the dimly lit dancing area, but the photograph shows the harsh truth:

There was a disco happening and the DJ played some good music, I can recall songs by The Specials and The Undertones. But then a woman started singing karaoke and it was time for us to move onto the next one ∨.

At The Admiral Napier the disco was in full swing! I had troubles getting a good picture of the carpet because there were so many people standing on it! ∨

After this The Ivor Davies was a bit of a downer. For others it proved to be a silent haven, literally as there was no music! It's a massive pub and it was virtually empty, except for some grey doves. At least it was cheap (£2.10 for a pint of Brains!). I had photographed their carpet before, but this areal view provides us with a whole new perspective on the pattern! It's much more elaborate than it appears at close range. ∨

∧ Grey dove calling it a night.

By this time I urgently needed a wee, and I was glad I did because upstairs there was a very interesting carpet! It's almost like op art!! ∨

At first The Canton didn't appear to have a carpet, but much to our relief there was one in the backroom... ∨

∧ Patternfest!!

...along with a pool table! We played a game (boys vs girls), and I'm proud to say the boys almost wrecked the table and we girls only lost by an inch.

∧ All hands on deck for the staff at The Canton, the clientele has just quintupled!

By the time we got to The Goscombe I was enjoying myself so much I kind of forgot the purpose of this pub crawl. I did take a photo of these two ladies dancing but I failed to take a picture of the carpet!!!!!

I also totally missed The Corporation's carpet!! Luckily it is somewhat visible in a shot one of my friends took... ∨

We had hoped to make it to a ninth pub, but by 1.00 all the pubs on Cowbridge Road East had closed. We all dispersed into the night, and some of us went for a late night snack at Indo Cymru. This curry place was another pleasant surprise that the night. It was absolutely rammed, so the eight of us had to squeeze into one of the booths (I love booths). The food was good too.

∧ Or could it have been a case of 'Hunger makes raw beans taste sweet'?

And best of all: they had carpet!!! What a night!! Stay tuned for Pub Carpet Crawl #2 in April.

Jazz for the Jet Set

2012-02-03T22:30:00.000Z

To celebrate the arrival of the portable record player I bought on eBay last week, I went down to Kelly Records this afternoon to treat myself to some vinyl (as if I hadn't spent enough money..). I think I passed a good hour in the shop, chatting to the owner who told me some wonderful stories of the time he went to Detroit in the early sixties, when he - aged ± 14 - went to visit his pen pal there. Lucky for him his pen pal shared his love for soul music and the family took him to see the likes of Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and The Velvelettes. Imagine that!

I got offered a cup of coffee, which came as a godsend because I was having a serious caffeine craving. I enjoyed this cup of instant cappucino (which tasted heavenly at that moment) while I listed to a soca disco album (hilarious, but not quite worth 5 quid) and an album by Millie (of My Boy Lollipop fame) & Her Boyfriends. I considered buying the Wee Papa Girl Rappers album I once lost after a DJ gig, but settled for this marvelous album:

I've developed a soft spot for the vibraphone, and Dave Pike is a master on this instrument, though I later found out he only plays marimba on this record (same sort of thing but with wooden bars). Herbie Hancock plays organ, so in all it's one groovy record! Besides, who could resits a cover like this, not to mention the title?!

Dave Pike - When I'm Gone. Download it here.

Dave Pike - Sweet Tater Pie. Download it here.

It's off to Brooklyn

2012-01-31T23:16:00.000Z

It's off! To Brooklyn! My submission for The Sketchbook Project. I suffered from the 'blank canvas syndrome' for a long time, but when I had finally decided what to do with my theme ("the grey side of life") I did enjoy it a lot, experimenting with different techniques and just making silly portraits. Instead of using the ultrathin paper of the sketchbook I used paper made from recycled elephant poo (!!), which I then hand bound together using a saddle stitch. I'm not super pleased with it and next year I'm going to do everything differently (of course :-), but it definitely got the creative juices flowing. And I guess that's what it's all about. Here are some sneak peeks..

The sketchbooks will go on an exhibition tour in April, starting in New York. Then my sketchbook will travel, along with a staggering 5000 other books, to Chicago, Portland OR, Vancouver, LA, San Fransisco, Boston, Portland ME, Toronto, Philly, Atlanta, Austin, Melbourne and last stop London.

I was on a boat!

2012-01-29T21:22:00.000Z

Last night I went to see Wild Flag in Bristol, on a boat! I think Thekla has easily made it into my top 3 list of most favorite venues on the planet. Their programming is ace, the stage in the boat's belly is dark and industrial but in no sense claustrophobic, you can have a fag on the deck, and I believe there's another cafe/bar in the bridge of the ship.

Anyways, Wild Flag is the latest incarnation of two members from legendary riot grrrl band Sleater-Kinney: guitar player/singer Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss. They are two of the coolest people alive ∨

But I was possibly even more impressed by supporting band Peggy Sue. This indiefolky formation from Brighton has been on my radar for a while and I was thrilled to see them live. The band consists of two girls on guitar and vocals, and a quirky drummer. They have the most beautiful voices, goosebumps evoking harmonies, but it's all quiet dark and haunting. Think PJ Harvey x (early) Cat Power x The Breeders x 2 Neko Cases. So good.

Peggy Sue - Song & Dance. Download it here.

Peggy Sue - Watchman. Download it here.

Live jazz life drawing

2012-01-25T22:55:00.000Z

I hadn't been to a life drawing session for ages, so I was absolutely determined on going to one yesterday evening. But at the very last minute plans altered and I ended up going for a very spontaneous shandy at the pub, followed by a lovely meal and topped off with some excellent live jazz. Best Tuesday night in a long time! Since I had my sketchbook with me I decided to do some doodling while enjoying the music. So in the end I even got my life drawing fix! The double bass, hands and lots of movements provided some different challenges than a nude model..

On were a piano trio called Eyes Shut Tight. As you can see in my drawings (click to enlarge) these were fairly young lads. The piano player spent most of the gig on his socks; his Nike Airs neatly placed under the piano. Funnily enough, one of the tunes I enjoyed most was a cover (or should I say adaption) of System of a Down.

Despite the grubbiness of the venue (though that adds to the charm really) they have some fantastic jazz musicians coming to the upstairs function room at Dempsey's in Cardiff. It's really worth taking a look at the Jazz at Dempsey's website (which is just as unassuming as the location) to see what's on. And if your hair isn't grey you're sure to receive an extra warm welcome!

Book Arts Fayre

2012-01-23T22:51:00.000Z

Another date to save: 25 February, the 6th Book Arts Fayre at the Ffotogallery in Penarth, Cardiff!

"Ffotogallery's Book Arts Fayre's celebrate the ‘artist book’ in all its forms, from hand printed zines to hardback monographs, giving visitors the chance to explore and engage in self-publishing and a wealth of contemporary book arts practice from Wales and beyond".

I'll be selling bookplates and hopefully a new zine, and I'll be playing records on my newly acquired vintage portable record player!

PUB CARPET CRAWL #1

2012-01-18T00:07:00.000Z

The Britons love carpet in public places. I admit, it does add a homey feel to the place (pub, train, cinema, casino, TOILET!). But to most people from the continent the idea is just digusting. Think of all the dirt and filth that gets absorbed by it! Now I've come up with a theory that the Brits have the most outrageous, busy carpet designs that so any kind of stain will blend right in, whether it's red wine, blood, ale, pub gub, dog shit or puke. So actually these are very clever designs! Like, can you spot the popcorn on this one? ∨

Would you spot a squashed chip, or spilled macaroni carbonara on this one? ∨

About two years ago I started taking pictures of carpets in pubs and other public places. So far I've managed to collect about 75 different carpets. But the last few months I've been adding fewer and fewer, for the simple reason that I've photographed all the carpets that grace the floors of my regulars. So now it's time to venture into unknown territory...

That's why I'm organizing a PUB CARPET CRAWL! I'm planning to make this a bi-monthly thing, each time exploring different parts of Cardiff (or perhaps in the future other UK towns and cities) for yet undiscovered carpets. Everybody's welcome, the more people to have beers and to critique carpets with the merrier! And at the end of the year we shall vote and give out an award for the best pub carpet.

In order to cover as much pubs/carpets as possible I've come up with a few 'rules':

obviously, no carpet = no drinks.
no drinks in pubs whose carpet has already been added to the collection
only one drink in each pub
only half pints, unless you want the up-close carpet experience!

This first crawl will cover the famous/notorious Canton Mile. There are about 15 pubs on that stretch of Cowbridge Road East, and with only the Ivor Davies' carpet already in the collection we'll have plenty to choose from!

Facebook event page here. Please come and join!

As a tease a couple of highlights from the collection; view them all here.

The thing with lists

2012-01-12T23:11:00.001Z

I regret not having made a "Best of 2011" list. I'm a pretty obsessive list maker: shopping lists, to do lists, checklists, playlists... And I especially love end-of-the-year lists. What better way to reflect on the past year than to put it in lists? It raises all sorts of issues. Like what the hell have I been up to these last 12 months? With whom? Have my tastes shifted? What is it exactly I enjoy in this song or movie or book? Oh remember that gig?! Wait a minute, was that this year, or last year? What were my highlights and what were my lows? Etc.

I know exactly the reason for the absence of my musical Best-of list. I just find it too difficult to put one song above the other, to put them in a hierarchy. I guess for me thinking about the list is more important that the actual countdown. But I do want to force upon you the songs from 2011 that I enjoyed the most (even though it's way too late - we're almost two weeks into the new year (yikes!)), so I'm just going to do it by presenting you a few in quiet random categories.

In the category Best Retro Indie Pop...

Cults - Bumper. Download it here.

Love the girl group sound. With a guy.

In the category Best Fuzzy Guitar...

Male Bonding - Bones. Download it here.

Runner ups: The Drums, Wavves, WU LYF and Wild Flag (though not as fuzzy).

In the category Best Electronic...

Little Dragon - Ritual Union. Download it here.

This song was a revelation to me it was.

In the category Best Foreign Language...

Chucha Santamaria Y Usted - Fiebre Tropical. Download it here.

From Oakland of all places..

In the category Best British Alternative Rapper...

Ghostpoet - Cash and Carry Me Home. Download it here.

Overall Dels impressed me more with his album GOB, but then again his best singles were released in 2010. The fact that Ghostpoet's show was one of my most enjoyable gigs of the year puts him in favor here.

In the category Most Overlooked Artist...

Theophilus London - Why Even Try (feat. Sara Quin) (from Tegan and Sara) (RAC Remix). Download it here.

I've been madly in love with this guy from Brooklyn ever since his early mix tapes, that were full of The Smiths references. Every single tune he's released since then has been absolute quality.

In the category Best Cover...

Spoek Mathambo - Control (Joy Division).

This was a tough one. I listend to Tennis' cover of Brenda Lee's Is It True? an awful lot. But it's the video for Control that has made me tip over to the South African.

Marbelous Wood

2012-01-09T23:26:00.000Z

Things are slowly starting to come together at the new studio. The butt ugly carpet has been ripped out and my roomie and I have painted our space. Big question now is what to do with the bare wooden floor?? While looking online for some inspiration and (low budget) solutions I came across this beautiful floor by Pernille Snedker Hansen, a Danish designer. She uses a combination of an old Japanese technique called suminagashi and a Western style marbling technique to create a wood grain-like effect in amazing colors.

Watch Pernille at work:

Definitely no low budget solution, but certainly inspirational...

Fossilized dog turds and chicken noodle masks

2012-01-04T22:08:00.000Z

I lied when I wrote earlier that EVERYTHING was closed for three days in Copenhagen over Christmas. On boxing day the National Museum opened its doors again. We visited the section on Prehistoric Denmark, where we enjoyed Viking runic stones, coffins containing preserved human remains and clothes, and lurs, ancient Nordic wind instruments. But the high light for me were neatly displayed fossilized dog turds. 9000 years old!

Of course I couldn't resist paying a quick visit to the 'ethnographical collection', in my quest for more information about my masks. They had lots of masks on display, but alas... I did make a few quick sketches though. I especially liked this mask, as it appeared to be a chicken mask made from chopped up noodles!

Xmas in CPH

2012-01-02T20:20:00.000Z

Happy New Year!! I hope your holidays were happy. Mine certainly were! In an attempt to escape the usual Christmas frenzy my beau and I spent Christmas in Copenhagen. Well we got what we bargained for! Because EVERYTHING shut down for 3 days. It was wonderful.

Luckily we did mangage to do a little bit of shopping on the 23rd. We went to the Latin Quarter for some vintage shopping. Endless rows of Sarah Lund sweaters! (We watched the first episode of The Killing - Forbrydelsen in Danish - in Copenhagen and got absolutely hooked.) ∨

The Danes are fervent pipe smokers. A great chance for my boyfriend - a pipe smoker himself - to stock up on some exotic tobacco ∨

Even Tivoli, the charming amusement park in the city centre closed on the 24th and 25th, and closed early on the 23rd. A shame because I would have loved to wander around the park a little longer, with some gløgg (the Danish version of mulled wine) in my hand. I didn't even get to go on the 80 meter high carousel! ∨

But I was happy to sacrifice that ride on the carousel in favor of some Smørrebrød! It's the Danish delicacy of rye bread with i.a. cheese, shrimp, caviar, egg, red cabbage and (not in the picture) various types of pickled herring. Mmmm!! ∨

The rest of the days we spent on long walks exploring different parts of Copenhagen (and on emptying our hotel minibar..) ∨

And on doing some window shopping. Odd displays here and there.. ∨

I knew the little mermaid was going to be a bit of a disappointment, but it was a nice sunny day, perfect for a stroll along the waterfront. And besides, what else were we gonna do?! ∨

My stay with Arne

2011-12-25T11:27:00.000Z

I'm writing you from the 10th floor of the -what was once- the famous Royal Hotel (now owned by Radisson Blu). I've got an amazing view of Copenhagen and when it gets dark (3.30ish pm!) two million lights underneath my window light up at the Tivoli Gardens. The Royal Hotel was designed between 1954 and 1960 by the Danish designer and architect Arne Jacobsen, ENTIRELY. From the exterior of the building to the cutlery, from the door handles to the furniture. The famous Egg- and Swan chairs were designed especially for the hotel.

∧ a fervent pipe smoker, a real Dane: Arne Jacobsen!
By the looks of it they have just finished the paneling of our room here :-)

Although the hotel has lost a lot of its glamour and class of its early days, it still has Arne Jacobsen written all over it. They have kept one room in its original state, exactly like it was when the hotel was built in 1960: Room 606. It is available for bookings, and if it's not booked the less fortunate can have a peek. Luckily it wasn't occupied when we were there, so the concierge kindly took us up there. It was like a time warp!

Warmest wishes

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000Z

Warmest Wishes and Happy Holidays my dear readers!

This year I made a card inspired by vintage Christmas cards featuring pets, more specifically cats. I found a lot of these and they are just bizarre...

∧ The cats look either extremely sad, or sinister

∧ or mean

∧ cats and champagne, of course!

∧ those were the days that Christmas Wishes were still sincere.

The Bill Cosby Sweater legacy

2011-12-21T14:00:00.000Z

Last Saturday I went to a dinner party for a friend's birthday. The fact that he was the birthday boy wasn't the only thing that made him the focal point of the evening, his knitted cardigan made him the centre of attention as well! Opinions varied on his - what I would classify as a - Cosby sweater.

It's pretty amazing what an enormous influence Bill Cosby's sweaters have had; I mean, there's a whole type of garment named after it. And they still prove to be a source of inspiration to artists and designers today, even after a 30 odd years. Now I only recently found out that the guy who designed the sweaters is Dutch! His name is Koos van den Akker and he left fashionless Holland for New York in the early sixties. Vice interviewed him recently in his NY studio (watch it here - highly recommended!). Koos hits the nail on the head when he looks at the sweaters and says, with a very cute Dutch accent:

"This is a very thin line between absolutely awful and something of genius. Somebody can look at this and say 'What the fuck is this? This is the most horrible thing I've ever seen' and you know, somebody else says.. 'it's inspiration'".

Inspired by this (pizza??) sweater, pictured above, Andrew Salomone created this jumper on a HACKED electronic knitting machine from the 1980s (God, I wish I was so nerdy as to be able to hack a knitting machine!! Watch the tutorial here on the Craft site). Bill on the sweater is wearing the sweater, so there's a nice Droste-effect!

Another Cosby sweater inspired project is The Cosby Sweater Project. Kelly Tucker makes drawings of patterns of all the knits worn on the show. Maybe it was the outrageous 80s, but everybody in the Cosby show seemed to wearing awesome sweaters!

Even musicians have been inspired by the sweater: a quick research shows the garment gets a mention in songs by Ghostface Killah, MF Doom and Yelawolf. In 2008 Oh Snap!! released The Cosby Sweater EP. This remix by Hostage is a proper banger, with a nice Miami Bass-y intro. "... the elbow's leather and there's pink and green and o and blue..." hahaha.

Oh Snap! - Bill Cosby Sweater (Hostage Remix). ~~Download it here.~~

StustustustuSTUDIO!!

2011-12-20T16:50:00.000Z

I've signed the contract so it's official: as of January 1st 2012 I'll have a studio space in the Morgan Arcade in Cardiff! With 12 other illustrators, designers and artists I will move in on the second floor of this beautiful Victorian arcade. I'm very much looking forward to having an 'office' (which means home will be a home again) and 'colleagues'!

Dogs on show

2011-12-19T17:42:00.000Z

Totally forgot to mention it here on my blog, but in their quest for new sub-urban owners my dyed show dogs have traveled to Almere and Lelystad this December! They'll be for sale during the Kerst & Carry exhibitions, where you can buy perfect Christmas gifts from young designers and artists. Everything is hand picked by curator Renée Reijnders, so you know there'll be quality stuff. For more information on directions and opening hours visit the Corrosia! website.

If you haven't seen any pictures of this dyeing dog craze, have look here or here or here (I tried drawing the Chow Chow that looks like a panda, but it just looked like a panda!).

The Northern Soul phenomena

2011-12-17T17:26:00.000Z

All these findings of particles traveling faster than the speed of light excite me a lot. Because it means that time traveling is possible! In theory... I hope they invent a device soon because I need to be teletransported to the Wigan Casino on the outskirts of Manchester somewhere between the years 1973 and 1981.

While the rest of the UK listened to funk, disco, punk, and later new wave, glam rock and metal youngsters in the North let their hair down to obscure mid-sixties American soul. The first club that started playing this music was the Twisted Wheel in Manchester in the late sixties. Soon other venues started having 'Northern Soul' all-nighters (they really went on all night, till 8 am or so). In September 1973 the Wigan Casino opened its doors in a former ballroom. It was massive, it could hold up to 1200 people. Lighting was provided by a couple of fluorescent tubes and there was no bar (!!). Plenty of other stimulants were available though, that were best consumed with water anyway (and chewing gum). The acoustics were excellent and the wooden floor was perfect for smooth moves, spins, drops and twirls. Look!

Next time I'm on the dancefloor I want to do what that guy is doing at 1:00!!!

Apparently The Casino wasn't the most interesting place when it came to the music, but it became THE place for dancing.

I find the whole Northern Soul phenomena fascinating for many reasons. For one that it was kids growing up in bleak industrial north of England that were absolutely gripped by this black footstomping music from the other side of the Atlantic, a decade after its heydays. These were ordinary lads and lasses who worked in the factory all day. Just as in the US (especially Detroit) this music was their salvation; when you listen to people speak about their experiences then it sounds like it was almost like a religion to them. For many 'soullies' Northern Soul is still a way of life. Manchester based Granada TV made a nice short documentary on it in 1977. It gives you a good idea of the context (and more impressive dance moves at 6:00).

I also love the fact people took a bag to the club. In here they kept their dancing shoes, talcum powder, a towel and a spare shirt (things got sweaty - many people went straight from the club to a public bath for a swim!). Venues, record labels and events all had their own badge, which would be sewn on the bag (jeez, that must have been hard work).

You could also bring a little case for your 45s, as there was a lively record trade going on during the night. There would be vendors or you could swap with other Northern Soul fanatics. Because Northern Soul DJs and fans were obsessive record collectors. As the competition grew DJs tried to distinguish themselves by playing the rarest records. In their quest people traveled to the US to look for obscure records at thrift stores, garage sales and warehouses. Even the vaults of small record companies were searched for unreleased material. As Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton put it in their book Last Night A DJ Saved My Life Northern Soul really was “a genre built from failures”:

“…Northern Soul was the music made by hundreds of singers and bands who were copying the Detroit sound of Motown pop. Most of the records were complete failures in their own time and place… but in northern England from the end of the 1960s through to its heyday in the middle 1970s, were exhumed and exalted.”

Artists like Gloria Jones, Junior Walker, Edwin Starr, Jackie Wilson and Martha Reeves (who danced at the Wigan herself for hours on end!) all to came to England to play and were given a second carrier thanks to The Norther Soul scene. Unknown singers were hailed as superstars, often much to their own surprise.

I've been to a couple of Northern Soul nights, and every time I would be amazed about all these tracks I had never heard before. You think you know a little bit about soul music, but forget it, I was happy to be singing along to one tune during an entire evening!

Even while watching Northern Soul videos on YouTube I heard a song that was new to me, and it was another case of 'song, where have you been all my life?!' You can download it here, as well as a track by Dobie Gray, a Northern Soul hero who passed away last week.

Lou Pride - I'm Comun Home in The Morning. ~~Download it here.~~

Dobie Gray - The In Crowd. ~~Download it here.~~

On December 6th it was 30 years ago the Wigam Casino closed. The council, who owned the building, wanted to build a new civic centre there. It never happened and about a year later it burned down. So there is no chance of ever going back there. I really need that time traveling machine!!

Interesting faces

2011-12-14T15:27:00.000Z

Totally inspired by the Grayson Perry exhibition and replenished with tea and a scone from the cafe I started wondering through the rest of the British Museum. It truly is a treasure chest! I went downstairs to the African section first hoping to find out more about the masks I bought in a charity shop recently. Idle hope of course... But I did see a lot of other interesting faces!

∧ Don't these African masks remind you of the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland?!

∧ Love Assyrian beards!

∧ The Etruscans also did nice beards. ∨

∧ Brrr.. F.R.E.A.K.Y.!

The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman

2011-12-13T23:03:00.000Z

As soon as I set foot on London soil this last Friday, I hurried myself to the British Museum for the Grayson Perry exhibition The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman. What a joy it was!

Perry curated his own show, displaying new as well as older works next to artifacts that he had picked from the British Museum's vast collection (it contains 8 million objects!). I know the man mainly for his ceramics: vases on which he makes beautiful drawings and collages. But I loved seeing works in other media here. I love the themes in his work like shrines, magic, maps, 'scary figures', gender, authenticity ("I love fakes for they make us think about what is is we see in the authentic") and craftsmanship itself. I love how he draws from folklore and outsider art, and mixes tradition with the contemporary. I also love the fact that he talks about his art in a pretty straight forward, unpretentious way and the way he sees himself as an artist:

"Part of my role as an artist is similar to that of a shaman or witch doctor. I dress up, I tell stories, give things meaning and make them a bit more significant. Like religion this is not a rational process, I use my intuition (...)"

As you can tell by my multiple use of the word LOVE I really LOVED this show and I urge you to go and see it if you have the chance!! It's on until 19th February 2012.

∧ The Rosetta Vase.

∧ detail of The Rosetta Vase.

∧ The Frivolous Now.

He made the sketch for this vase the evening before decorating it by doodling away in front of the telly.

∧ A dish from c. 1700. You can see where he gets his mustard.

∧ One of the most impressive pieces was this immense tapestry (almost 3 x 7 meters),
depicting religious and secular pilgrimage destinations.

∧ Perry went on a pilgrimage himself, to Germany, on this motor cycle, with on the back seat his 50-year-old teddybear Alan Measles (“the benign dictator of my childhood imaginary world”).

∧ He made sort of a pope-mobile construction for Alan. The bike is on display at the British Museum, but the teddy is a replica. The real Alan is far too precious to be displayed!

∧ Inspired by pilgrimage tokens/souvenirs Perry designed one for his and Alan's own pilgrimage. Several tokens were on display including this contemporary one from Japan:

"Perhaps more than any other object this hand towel embodies the spirit of this exhibition. It is fitting that it comes from Japan, a country that seems to have a remarkable ability to blend ancient traditions with modern technology and popular culture. Two Hello Kitty characters, created for merchandising in 1974, are dressed as traditional Japanese pilgrims (o-henro-san) in white robes, sticks and straw hats. This towel was sold as a souvenir on the island of Shikoku, famous for its 1200 km pilgrimage route taking in 88 Buddhist temples. So here we have an object featuring modern cartoon characters and a ritual dating back to the 18th century AD coming together on an object carried in most Japanese women's handbags."

The world should listen

2011-12-08T18:31:00.001Z

Not long now! My pal Rutger, who nowadays carries the alias of Bart Constant, will release his long awaited new album Tell Yourself Whatever You Have To on January 13 (well PIAS will :-). Which is still a good four weeks... BUT until then you can stream the album from Dutch website VPRO 3voor12! By clicking here. You should. Everybody should, because it is absolutely brilliant. A masterpiece. Maybe you don't believe me and think I'm biased, but just have a look & listen at this award winning video and be converted.

Bart Constant - "Do Better" (with Dustin O'Halloran) from Kimmo on Vimeo.

January 6 Bart Constant will celebrate his release in gallery Meneer Malasch in Amsterdam. And if you're very lucky you can catch him live at the Noorderslag Festival in Groningen on Saturday January 14.

Secondhand safari

2011-11-27T20:59:00.000Z

This Saturday I took a day trip to Bristol. While passing some time before catching the train I spotted these two lovely fellows in a charity shop! Love or hate 'm... I'm not quite sure myself to be honest. The shop assistant said originally there had been six masks and the others had flown out, so I had to decide on the spot (the fact that my train was leaving soon also helped hasten the decision). But they were just too funky to let them sit there. And besides, they were only £2.50 each. I'm completely in the dark about their heritage, but coincidentally the lady who bought two of the others masks was in the shop and she told me they're from Ghana.

I really had a lovely day in Bristol. We went by the contemporary arts centre Arnolfini to catch a musical performance, had tea and cakes with a friend and did some shopping in Stokes Croft, Bristol's '(counter-) cultural quarter'. Think lots of vintage and charity shops, record stores, bars and street art (I now completely understand why street art is so big in Bristol.. there are some grand buildings in that city, but boy there are lots of ugly, derelict ones as well!). I was gutted the bookstore slash gallery Here was closed, and I didn't nearly have enough time to visit all the vintage clothes stores, so I'll have to go back soon! I did score at Plastic Wax Records on Cheltenham Road, where I bought these two compilations of Jamaican music for a tenner:

They're not in mint condition (hence the price), but the music still sounds great:

Lloyd Price - Coconut Woman (off 300% Dynamite!). 3x faster and (thus) 3x better than Harry Belafonte's version of this very tropical calypso song. ~~Download it here.~~

Prince Buster - Cincinatti Kid (off 300% Dynamite!). Inspired by the 1965 movie, a song about poker. Love the Hammond organ on it! ~~Download it here.~~

Jerry Jones - Compared To What (off Feel Like Jumping: The Best Of Studio One Women). Raw and soulful reggae tune by this American singer. ~~Download it here.~~

Do It Yourzelf!

2011-11-24T11:38:00.001Z

Tomorrow the semi-permanent exhibition ZELF! opens in Villa Zebra, Rotterdam!! The exhibition consists of six art installations that have been created specifically for 3-6 year olds. One of the installations is a little hospital where kids can create new human beings with the (fabric) body parts I made together with Renée Reijnders and Geeske de Graaff. The way the exhibition space is designed is a work of art in itself, so you should really go and take a look! You can either go to the opening at 10.00 and have coffee and cake, or at 17.00 if you fancy a drink and a snack.

Bear necessities

2011-11-23T10:27:00.001Z

My hair has never been this long. I desperately need a haircut. Because now that it's getting colder outside it's getting all frizzy and out of control. I look like a lion! So last night I was complaining to my boyfriend about this and to make my argument more convincing I let my hair down (in all its frizzy glory) and made some scratching movements with my 'paws' while saying wroaw wroaw. It reminded him of the animation I made him for Valentines day this year. And it still cracked him up! This pleases me immensely because the animation is so crappy. It's really just the bare necessity (pardon the pun) of an animation: moving images. But it did the trick. And apparently still does, even after so many months.

("You're so sweet, I could eat you alive!")

The big and bold and beautiful

2011-11-18T18:18:00.001Z

It's here and I'm in it! Together 365 other artists, photographers, fashion-, product- and graphic designers, illustrators and architects... De Grote Rotterdamse Kunstkalender 2012. It's a big and bold and beautiful thing: A3 sized and nearly 3 kilo's!

∧ My page!

I'm happy and proud be featured alongside good friends: Gees Voorhees ∨

and people I went to school with: like David Elshout ∨

and Pim Palsgraaf ∨

and other people whose work I admire: like Koen Taselaar ∨

and Rufus Ketting aka Homey Universalis ∨

and true heroes: Co Westerik ∨

Just to name a few! So €27.50 will get you 366 pieces of art, which I call a pretty good deal. Order it online here.

Happening Haarzuilens

2011-11-09T23:58:00.001Z

My friend Renée and I were working together at here place in Utrecht today, when we needed an extended break around lunch time. As we had some wheels to our disposal Renée decided this was a good opportunity to take me to the nearby village of Haarzuilens.

It's a pretty little village; it consists of nothing more than a castle, a few neighboring houses, a couple of restaurants (I'm sure they all serve pancakes), a common ground and a bus stop. The houses all have wooden doors and shutters, which are painted in the colors of castle: red and white.

Nothing ever happens in Haarzuilens, it's a sleepy town. Expect on Wednesday afternoon! When the local charity shop Emmaus opens its doors at 1 pm promptly!! The only parking lot in the village fills up quickly with scavengers from all over the region and queues form in front of the several buildings (yes there are separate buildings for the 2nd hand furniture, clothing and books, records, lamps and kitchenware!). As Renée said: "It's an event". There is even a little coffee shop and a Vietnamese guy who sells spring rolls, soups, and excellent fries from his van (I know they were excellent because I had some. With frietsaus - a creamier version of mayonnaise).

I wondered why there's this huge charity shop in a tiny, fairly posh village. So I did some research and turns out the shop came to existence in Haarzuilens after the founder of the Emmaus charity, the Frenchman Abbé Pierre, had incidentally met the duchess of Van Zuylen Van Nijevelt. She offered him the use of part of the castle grounds. And so the charity for the homeless and the poor started operating from one of the pigsties in 1966. Up until this day people live on the grounds and the community runs the shop.

If you ever fancy going, here's the address: Eikstraat 14, 3455 SJ, Haarzuilens. Open every Wednesday 13.00-16.00 and every last Saturday of the month 11.00-13.00. Who knows what you will find...

∧ I was so tempted to buy this dispenser, but it was so dirty I was afraid to touch it. I didn't dare open it to see what the inside was like. The outside didn't look promising (the picture doesn't do the smudge justice at all!!).

∧ Another item I left with pain in my heart. But it just had too many scratches.

∧ Kitchenalia a plentyful.

∧ No idea what this was. It looked like a Sinterklaas sleeping bag.

Or may be it was an all-in-one suit??

I scored some awesome cookie moulds for baking speculaas, a Dutch cookie with lots of spices that traditionally is eaten during the Sinterklaas festivities early December (I promise to blog about this Sinterklaas character later!)

And I got myself some bright mint green lace ups! How cool are these?! ∨

I fixed Michael Jackson's nose

2011-11-05T16:53:00.000Z

Yesss, I have finished sewing and mending the 'body parts' for the exhibition at Villa Zebra! One of my last tasks was to fix Michael Jackson's nose...

It turned out to be a bit of a MJ-themed day, since I also came across a cover of his Baby Be Mine by Quadron - a blue-eyed R&B duo from Denmark. Their super groovy song Slippin' is on high rotation here at the moment.

Quadron - Baby Be Mine. ~~Download it here~~.

Quadron - Slippin'. ~~Download it here~~.

Big Feet

2011-10-31T22:10:00.001Z

I spent this weekend answering a call for submissions by Pictoplasma - the world's leading festival of contemporary character design. They called for views on Bigfoot/Yeti: "one of the last mysterious entities without a clear depiction in our culture of visual overdose and instant google-search gratification". Great thing is that some of the entries will be presented at an exhibition in Paris in December! I'm not into character design big time, so I do feel out of my league here. But even though I know my chances are slim, I thought I'd give it a shot and I don't care what happens with it because I had a ball doing it anyway!

∧ So Bigfoot is somewhere between man and ape. And bear?
And Chriet Titulaer??

∧ I imagined Bigfoot being very self-conscious about his big, ugly feet. A bit like myself, I despise my feet. When bare-footed in public I tend to scrunch up my toes, as to hide them..

∧ Or maybe he's very vain when it comes to his big feet and he spends many hours pedicuring them.

∧ Or maybe worse: he has a bit of a foot fetish!

∧ Then I thought about how difficult it would be for him to do yoga...

∧ I also played around using different materials. This one is done with pastels. I thought I had some fake fur lying around which I could use, but alas. I wondered what else I could use to create a hairy texture... So I emptied my hairbrush and tried felting it (I even looked online into the iffy world of felting human hair..) and shaping it using some wax and an iron (a tip I picked up from a felting-human-hair-forum). Not unexpectedly this one turned out pretty grosse! ∨

In the end I concluded Bigfoot is most likely to be a very shy creature; that's why we don't see him that often. But luckily for him he can sneak off quickly thanks to his big feet! ∨

The lipphone

2011-10-27T15:58:00.000+01:00

Look what's gracing my desk as of today!!

Finally hunted one down for £3.99 at a charity shop. So happy!

For the Graca Da Silva's

2011-10-24T16:34:00.000+01:00

Two of my good friends are moving to Bali next week (guess what my next holiday destination is going to be!) and we had a farewell party in their honor last Friday *snif*. The couple had asked me to supply them with some music for the night, which I happily did. She is Indonesian, he is half English/half Portuguese and they both have traveled the world extensively, which is reflected in their musical tastes.

Of course I played Dara Paspita for her (read about this Indonesian girl group here), and for him I selected some oldskool hip hop (as requested):

Eric B. and Rakim - I Know You Got Soul. MC/DJ combo hailing from Long Island, New York. ~~Download it here~~.

and some contemporary dance music from Senegal:

Alif (Liberate Attack of the Feminist Infantry) - Douta Mbaye. All female hip hop group from Dakar. ~~Download it here~~. Buy it from out|here Records.

and something Portuguese:

Batida - Yumbala. Lisbon's DJ Mpula mixes "the high speed rhythms of kuduro with sweet melodic guitar samples of '60s Angolan semba music" with some fine Angolan MCs on top. ~~Download it here~~. Buy it from Ghetto Bassquake.

(and Survivor's Eye of the Tiger so there could be a push up contest, which for some strange reason has become a tradition at our parties...)

Another day at the office

2011-10-21T11:42:00.000+01:00

I'm knee deep in embroidering and sewing for a project for children's museum Villa Zebra in Rotterdam. A few years back I made, together with Geeske de Graaff, life sized body parts from fabric for the exhibition Completely broken at Villa Zebra. The kids could put the body parts together with poppers to create new human beings, ANY WAY they wanted to. The cool thing about the body parts was that there was something 'wrong' with all of them: one is cross eyed, another one has pimples, another braces. Some limbs have wounds or are broken, there's a beer-belly, a leg with varix, a foot with six toes, and so on.

Now the dolls are going to be part of a semi-permanent exhibition at the museum. Therefore they first needed a good wash because they were dirty. Very dirty.

Pretty disgusting, innit?!

Some of the dolls need to be repaired. Especially the felt we used became a bit rough after being handled by hundreds if not thousands of little hands.

Villa Zebra also commissioned some new body parts, which I'm creating with my friend Renée Reijnders. This baby in distress will be added to the collection, along with a dog with 5 legs, a trunk with an 'outie' bellybutton, the arm of a very clumsy painter and more. Grand opening will be at the end of November!

Girlschool

2011-10-16T22:14:00.000+01:00

My eyes have scanned an enormous amount of secondhand junk over the (extended) weekend. Sadly it was mostly just junk and I've come home with just a few items..

On Thursday I went to an auction for charity at a convent. That was to say, I went to the viewing. Because apart from an needlework portrait from the 1980s (God knows how it ended up with the nuns!) there was nothing of interest to me. The portrait was a bit like this (less Madonnaesque but I think you get my drift):

Imagine this in needlework! It truly was a masterpiece, but I dreaded the thought of having to sit through the whole auction. I even skipped the homemade cupcakes and tea, and went straight for dinner in town instead.

Today I went to my usual car boot sale. I did manage to scoop up some great 7" singles for just 20p a piece. I bought ten, including songs by Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, The Smiths and The Specials. And the vendor recommended me a cover of Soul Man by Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave) and Lou Reed. Of course Lou Reed's version is completely soulless, which is pretty hilarious.

Saturday I went to some charity shops on the other side of town. Fresh junk! Maybe the fact that my friend and I were chatting so much explains my meager score, but I only bought one item, spending a whopping 99p: a record by Girlschool. Girlschool is the best British all-female metal band from the 1980s. Well the best (female) metal band ever, period. These girls were clearly respected for their music and virtuoso guitar riffs and not for their looks!

I've got their first three albums and the one I found yesterday is their fourth, Play Dirty (1983). Like all the metal from the mid 80s their sound is more stadium like (and more mid-tempo) on this one. Commercially it wasn't such a success as their previous albums, but the songs are still good and catchy. Personally I prefer their earlier work as well, so here are two of their hits from way back in the days. I suggest you download them (and get all their other hits), put them on your iPod, listen to them while you're on your bike and I promise you'll get to where you need to be in a jiffy!

Girlschool - C'mon Let's Go. ~~Download it here.~~

Girlschool - Demolition Boys. D~~ownload it here.~~

The Awesome Dr. Seuss

2011-10-11T23:24:00.002+01:00

“We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”
- Dr. Seuss

This is exactly why I'm in love with Dr. Seuss. And my love for him has grown even more after seeing a documentary on him on Network Awesome. As a kid I have read The Cat in the Hat and the Fox in Sox, and I've loved his drawings and stories, but I never knew anything about Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr Seuss' real name). To be honest I didn't even know what he looked like! I was relieved he really did look a bit like a doctor (at least later in life - with a grey beard and all).

It was so interesting to learn more about the man who came up with all those BIZARRE creatures and rhymes. And boy, did he have an amazing studio - on the top of a hill, with a stunning view (quite the opposite from Roald Dahl's humble shack!). When he was about to die (at the age of 87) they wheeled his bed into his studio and that's where he took his last breath. What a way for an writer/illustrator to go.

He was also a very wise man, as proven by this quote:

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

I've embedded the Network Awesome docu here, but make sure to pay their website a visit because Network Awesome truly is awesome. It collects the greatest stuff that's out there on YouTube and if necessary they 'glue' it together so you can sit back and relax and watch it in one go, without having to click on the next clip every five minutes. They have an awesome collection of old tv commercials, art and music documentaries, obscure movies and cartoons and tv series that will fill your heart with nostalgia (Jem and the Holograms, 21 Jump Street, Pingu anyone?).

The Hut

2011-10-10T22:33:00.003+01:00

I recently came across a story about Roald Dahl's writing hut: the shack in the back of his garden in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, where he wrote all his children's books. The family has started a fundraising campaign to move The Hut from the garden to the Roald Dahl Museum (also in Great Missenden) to prevent it from becoming a total ruin. It will be taken apart brick by brick and rebuild and then decorated it in exactly same way as it was. Great!! But. The costs: half a million pounds. Needless to say this caused somewhat of a stir...

Roald Dahl had The Hut built in the late 1950s. He was a man of discipline and routine: he went there everyday for 30 years. Nobody was allowed in! He sat in an old wing chair, that had belonged to his mother, with a writing table on his lap. It rested on a cardboard tube to tilt is slightly. According to Quentin Blake he had a sleeping bag to keep his legs warm in winter. At 12.30 he had Norwegian prawns and half a lettuce for lunch and had a Kit Kat for dessert. I don't know why, but I was touched by the fact that he liked to have a Kit Kat every single day.

On the table he kept all sorts of stuff, among which his own hip bone and a ball he made of tin foil candy bar wrappers ∨. Genius or what?!

Will we ever be able to 'room raid' The Hut?? I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens to it (well, or if you're a little bit more pro-active and got lots of cash lying around you can find more information about the Save The Hut-campaign here)..

Gems from the East and the West

2011-10-06T18:03:00.002+01:00

I'm a big fan of girl groups; they make up a substantial amount of my record collection. So you might imagine the thrill when I came across the cd Let's A Go-Go! Singapore and Southeast Asian Pop Scene 1964-69 at Earwax in Brooklyn. Which is a nice little store by the way. They don't have a huge selection, but what they have is all good (lots of reissues that are dirt cheap). The 31 tracks on the cd feature not only girl groups, but also boy bands and solo female vocalists. It's a rather nice compilation of pop songs, rock 'n roll, beat, garage and surf in several languages. These are two of my favorite songs:

Betty Chung - Bang Bang (yes that's a Nancy Sinatra cover). ~~Download it here.~~

I couldn't find out more about Betty Chung than she was (is??) Chinese and also an actress and played in a Bruce Lee movie.

Dara Puspita - A Go-Go. ~~Download it here.~~

Dara Puspita were one of the more successful girl groups in Indonesia in the 1960s. What made them really stand out at that time was that they played all their music themselves. Their live shows are supposed to be really wild and quite a sensation! And all this in an oppressive regime, where you could be jailed for playing rock 'n roll. There is a greatest hits album out on the Sublime Frequencies label, which I desperately want to get a hold of.

I also bought the double LP West Indies Funk 2. I have no means of letting you hear anything off this record, but just to give you a taste here's a track of volume 3: a steel drum version of Hold On I'm Coming!! Also highly on my wish list as you will understand.

A blank canvas

2011-10-05T23:13:00.001+01:00

It's not the first time I'm staring at a blank canvas. It's always a bit intimidating. Especially when you want it to be really good. But then again, the idea is to use this blog more like a sketchbook. To collect images and stories and music that I like, and to to show some stuff that doesn't really fit on my website. Like work in progress and sketches. So why not start by putting up some of the sketches I did in my inimini sketchbook while I was in New York last month. Best holiday I had in a long time: visiting family (my 93-year-old grandmother!), camping next to a remote ocean beach and the big city ♥

∧ On the plane I watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (and a sappy film about that surfer girl whose arm got bitten off by a shark).

∧ On day two my glow-in-the-dark legs were already covered with mosquito bites.

∧ My uncle George hosts poetry readings at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association on Long Island. We came along one evening and listened to a.o. Geraldine Green and M.L. Liebler.

∧ We went on a little road trip in grandma's car to Montauk, the most eastern tip of Long Island. There were some impressive waves thanks to hurricane Irene. Too impressive for me to go in, but it was a lot of fun watching the more experienced surfers!

∧ We also went camping on beautiful Fire Island. We were greeted by billions of mosquitoes (it was right after the hurricane, so it was hot and humid = ideal mosquito conditions). We needed to upgrade our repellent as soon as was possible!!

∧ Meanwhile other creatures were preying on our food...

We spent the last few days in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn. Very interesting neighborhood!

∧ And some interesting looks there... ∨

∧ We got to see some live music there (please note I was slightly intoxicated when drawing this. Plus it was dark).

∧ On our last day it rained. The whole day. Relentlessly. Everything seemed to fail: the Moma was closed, the American Folk Art museum had moved and once arrived there it turned out its collection was reduced to just a few quilts. We went to the Natural History Museum, which was fun but by this point my feet were so wet because I was wearing my suede flats. We fled into a movie theater were we ended up at a screening of a remake of Strawdogs. There was a Q&A afterwards with the director who came up with a lot of BS to defend this pointless remake. Apparently one of the actors also starred in True Blood and there was a hardcore fan there. She liked the movie. As I said, everything failed that day, even my drawing skills...