Saturday 20 December 2008

Favourite things of 2008

It's that time of year for people who's opinions mean next to nothing to come up with lists of willfully obscure records and what-not they've been enjoying. So here's mine - it means even less than all the others but hopefully maintains some level of willful obscurity.

Albums

Hush Arbors - Self-titled [ecstatic peace]


Deerhunter - Microcastle [4ad]




Lords - Everyone is People [gringo records]

I also rather liked Mogwai's 'The Hawk is howling', Portishead's '3', Grails 'Take Refuge' and Xela's 'In Bocca Al Lupo'.

Favourite gigs included an eventful night out to see Supreme Vagabond Craftsman at the Half Moon in Herne Hill in February where the highlight of the night wasn't getting the bus home with the band, my first Lords gig at the Cross Kings in March, Comets on Fire and more significantly the absolutely amazing Voice of the Seven Woods at the Luminaire in July, an ear-splitting line up of Oxes, Bilge Pump and Lords again at the Luminaire and possibly the highlight of the year Yeasayer at King's College Student Union in August. On top of that the B-Music endorsed Llama festival was smashing (although missed the feedback-drenched-granny-scaring-VOTSW antics of the previous year) highlights included a delightfully initmate Sam and the Plants show at the Old Cinema, the aces Twinkranes confusing local fellas (with their slightly adrogynous drummer) enough to make the in-breds both punchy and I suspect horny, and Wolf People doing their best to ease me through a hangover on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I also got introduced to Andy Votel and proceeded to act like a star-struck twelve year old girl. Good going me...

Prints

I guess I should limit this to the ones I actually got my grubby mitts on - shame...

Dave Kinsey - Regeneration

Heiko - Hellbent


Nigel Peake - Shed IV


Probably my favourite thing of all though was Print Club London and Fred, Rose and Kate. Thanks doods.

Thursday 18 December 2008

Lonely Monsters - Malcolm

This has been an on/off project for a few months but probably a more realistic description would be an off/off project seeing as I've not had a moment what with screen-printing to do anymore but the premise is simple - take one horrible framed print/painting for any ramshackle charity shop and add a lonely monster. This is the first of many.

His name is Malcolm. He's a Scorpio. He likes Woody Allen films and cats.

Monday 15 December 2008

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Oliver Postgate 1925 - 2008

Then, one day, the king rose from his seat as if to go down to his castle. The people watching him saw him shake and stagger and fall to the ground. The king was dead. Great was the sadness and loud the wailing. The flags on the houses were pulled to half mast and the great bell rang.

Sunday 7 December 2008

Wrestler's Milk - mmmmmm good!

Having spent the last 48 hours getting my new illustration together for the MuTate show I set off for Print Club with high hopes only to arrive an hour or so later to find Print Club had been evicted from the exhibition.  Baws.  I wouldn't mind but the 149 bus is fast becoming my own personal hell...  I haven't got the entire story but knowing Fred he probably got a bit punchy and aggressive and kicked off.   

I'm not totally disappointed and I fully intend to get the screenprints done at Print Club this week so watch this space - I'm really happy with the illustrations.

In the meantime after some interweb poking from Anders I have come up with a milk carton design which has something to do with a record label called Jazz and Milk although I think I missed the deadline.  Oh well...  Enjoy Wrestler's Milk.  

And there's a free carton of milk with every set of wrestlers purchased for a limited time only!



Thursday 4 December 2008

Business cards and wrestlers

The perfect combination.

The business cards were such a pain to do even though they're only one colour - I didn't do myself any favours by not including some kind of template which was fine until I had to screenprint the rear of the card - getting them to sync-up was horrible and involved a minor strop on my part followed by a kebab (Super Kebab in Dalston is the shit as far as kebabs go) and numerous red stripes before a sense of calmness was restored.

I'm also struggling to get decent photos of the wrestlers framed but here's a taster for now. I'm definitely going to have them on-line by the weekend. Speaking of which I'm going to be screen-printing at MuTate Britain again on Saturday from 5.30pm so come along and laugh as I attempt something a little more ambitious than a poster which will be available to buy at the exhibition from Monday. More to follow...

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Friday at Print Club

I've been silly busy at Print Club and pulled an all dayer on Friday to reasonable success - it was as well Annie was present to fix all the screen-printing related blunders I was making. We did two hundred or so business cards and a limited run of a set of wrestlers which will be available to buy via the shop in a couple of days already framed. More pictures to follow...