Urban Sudoku John Peel Day
August 31, 2005
 Have a go at my Brighton Sand Festival Sudoku - Created by Becky's Web. It's on the Stuff page along with a lot of other, er, "stuff". Most of which is transvestite related, Becky not being born Rebecca... So if that sort of thing make's your bum go all pointy I suggest you look away!
SLIDE An alternative to flickr?
Urban Nomad Shelter to cut a long story short... The "Urban Nomad" inflatable shelter is conceived as both a social and humanitarian act. As a social act, the intention is to distribute thousands of these brightly colored structures in order to foster a dialog about the invisibility and marginalization of the homeless.
Via We Make Money Not Art. Urban Nomad Shelter has just won the first prize of the I.D. Magazine 51st Annual Design Review in the Concept category.
 What will you be doing for John Peel Day? October 13th.
I'm pleased to say that friends in New Orleans, Justine and Pat, are safely in a hotel room in Houston with the dogs and cat! Can't say that they have anywhere to live or not still though.
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It's In The Sand!
August 30, 2005
 Finally got to the Sand Sculpture Festival in Brighton yesterday - Many thanks to Michelle for the tickets and to everybody involved - It's truly impressive. The weather was perfect as well. I'm quite pink today!
Other highlights of the weekend were Carl Cox's Okeydokey Karaoke Wedding Disco set at SW4. I suppose you can do what you like when you're Carl Cox but why talk over tunes and invite such ordinary acts to share the stage with you? - I guess all previous events that I've been to at Clapham have been poorly attended as this was the same size site, with much the same tents, but everything was rammed! And why did they turn the sound down half way through Coxy's set?
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Bikini A[r]toll
August 26, 2005
Just spotted this link over at Boing Boing to Military paintings made at Bikini Atoll during the A Bomb testing in 1946. Ther best of which are by Charles Bittinger.
Bittinger, a noted military artist, was a camouflage artist in World Wars I and II and was an artist for the National Geographic Expedition and U.S. Eclipse Expedition to Canton Island in 1937. He was the official artist for Operations Crossword and in this capacity, painted the atomic explosion of 1946.
Bittinger lived in New York from 1907-1914, Massachusetts from 1915 to 1929, and Washington DC from 1929 to 1970. He studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Sorbonne, and the Academy Delecluse, and with Jean Paul Laurens and Jean Leon Gerome. In New York, he studied at the Art Students League.
Source: Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"
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Kev Plays Out
August 25, 2005
 A rare chance to hear a few KSX & Porntsar sounds in a club atmosphere.
Kev and a host of other DJ's will be at Trafik in Hoxton Square for another Night Zoo. Admission is free if you send an Email with the subject "I Want In" to guestlist[at]nightzoo.co.uk otherwise its £2 on the door.
Thursday 1st September
6.00 - 2.00am.
Trafik
331 Old St, London
LONDON
EC1 9LE
It's 5 mins from Old St tube (Northern Line) apparently - Google Map
 A couple of interesting Coop links including his Blog and I forgot to say Robert Moog RIP earlier this week... Just found out about Studio Voltaire
Studio Voltaire was initiated in 1994, by a collective of twelve artists who set up a studio space in a disused tram shed in Voltaire Road, Clapham. The organisation quickly grew and became a limited company in 1997. In response to the demand of low cost studios and a dissatisfaction of the lack of an independent exhibition and project space in the Lambeth area, the organisation moved to its present position in 1999. Studio Voltaire was now able to provide over 45 artists with the much needed resources of lost cost studios in the 12,500 sq.ft. of derelict metalwork's factory. Adjacent to the studios, a crumbling former chapel was transformed into a dynamic, if not challenging, exhibition and project space. Studio Voltaire was officially launched in January 2001 when it became a registered charity.
map
Since transferring my music onto my new desktop PC I haven't been registering anything at Audioscrobbler - and when I last looked it was down anyway - But lo and behold I see that a shiny new Last.fm has appeared now and even better my starck tracks appear to have devloped a few fans! There's a whole load of new features I need to have a sit down and play with too - Unfortunately the RSS feeds have vanished temporarily but I might leave the links and see if they re-appear soon... If you are an Audioscrobbler user, try the Audioscrobbler Browser. Consult the Wiki for more details.
I'm getting the urge to redesign the site again but really ought to wait and see the year out I think!
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Au Retour
August 23, 2005
 That weeks break and relaxation was completely wiped out by another all nighter at the "Happy Valley Country Club" - Where I think I also left the CD with the holiday pictures on... So they will have to wait until tomorrow
Managed to get a copy of Cocksucker Blues on DVD on my way out of Aix. A real pressed silver DVD-9!!! All Audio is in Dolby Digital 5.1 apparently - though I don't know how as it was made in the 70's! Can this stuff be converted?
It's over 3 hours long and has interactive motion menus as well as over 90 minutes of bonus material including Saville Theatre 12/14/69, Australian Tour Documentary 2/17/73, Australian TV (ABC), Rolling Stones-special, Various Promos, David Frost Show 1969, Interviews With Mick Jagger, Mick and Biancas Wedding!
Picture quality isn't brilliant but then neither was the original and god knows what generation copy this might be! Still worth it though as it's what being in a Rock'n'Roll band is all about.
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Aix-en-Provence
August 22, 2005
 Weds 17th
Arrived in Marseille - Not a particularly nice place - Really bad [as in rubbish - not wicked!] grafitti all along the motorway, the walk from the station to the hotel was like a mini Tangiers... A lot of homeless North Africans who, although probably harmless, looked pretty intimidating. But it was nicer by the old harbour and I'm sure it has a lot of nice areas but we were only there for a few hours.
Carpaccio [not bad - had better] and veal escalope. With excellent chips [sorry frittes!]
 Thurs 18th
Bussed it to Aix-en-Provence - Did the Cezanne town walk to get our bearings. Not really much to see, but we found a few other interesting places along the way. More graffiti but it's getting better.
Nice rabbit in mustard sauce with Tagliatelli!
 Fri 19th
Did the Chemin de Bibemus Cezanne walk and continued uphill until the Gendarmes stopped us and told us there was a very strong risk of forest fires breaking out and we shouldn't continue any further. Which was a shame as it would turn out that this was by far the most pleasant of the walks. The rest are along busy roads that have been built up around and look nothing like they would have done 100 years ago. Mind you it was 34 degrees in the shade at 9.30 that day! Had a tasty if chewy bouef daube on somebody's doorstep!
 Sat 20th
Trip to Cassis for the day to get a bit of sea air - Too much as it turned out as we went on a very hairy boat trip to visit the Calanques - Port Miou, Port Pin, En Vau I think! Decided to visit one of the many pizza places in Aix but opted for gnocchi and gorgonzola - Good job I didn't have it before the boat trip, the thing really would have capsized then!
 Sun 21st
Caught a bus to Puyloubier to try and get some uninterrupted views of Saint Victoire - Beautiful little village, where we stopped for a half litre carafe of local rose and a bowl of olives. £2.60!!!Walked the Jas de Bouffan Cezanne route in the evening - Which is the shortest and least interesting of them all. North African cuisine this evening - A tagine of lamb, prunes and almonds.
 Mon 22nd
It was a bank holiday in France so not much was operating and our planned bus trip to Le Tholonet backfired when the bus turned around a village early and returned to Aix! So we visited Cezanne's studio instead. Bought a picnic in the local market and ate it in the studio's garden. A really smelly cheese, pate, a couple of baguettes, tomatoes and olives. Fantastic.
After that we continued our walk up to De Lauves which had, by far, the best views of the mountain so far. Sat in the Parc Rambot reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas in the afternoon. Chez Maxime for carpaccio followed by duck breast. This place is good.
 Tues 23rd
Bus to Le Tholonet - Discovered that the No 3 went the same route as the Cezanne walk [except on Bank Holidays!] - Visited exhibition in Moulin Cezanne - Was lucky enough to be shown around by the artists', Rene Palermo, godson. Well, maybe he shows everyone around, but there was only us there so it was like a personal guide. Walked back to Palette, the previous village to visit the local wine cave but the whole place was closed so conitnued back into Aix. Long walk, uphill! Detoured to visit Pont Des Trois Sautes, which probably hasn't changed very much, except I couldn't see a way down to the river.
Back to Chez Maxime for our last night, via a charming little wine shop to get some goodies to bring home. Four courses, including the Fois Gras this time, and Bouef a roquefort - With a bottle of Cuvee Valerie - £75 for two. Bargain! Bit of trouble getting to sleep after all that though!
Weds 24th
Killed time on the Cours Mirabeau waiting to go off to the airport. Bought that Stones Bootleg I mentioned earlier on the way back though...
More pictures in Flickr Set
Aha! It seems the Blogging bug has struck the Ginger DJ
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Random Gubbins!
August 09, 2005
Riflemaker Gallery is a new gallery in Beak Street.
Must have a go at creating something with Google maps EZ when I get back. Whether it'll be useful or not I don't know!
Drips grafitti is an interesting take on street art... Street Pollocks?
Hopefully I will remember to watch Newsnight tonight - For Mark Lawson's Tim Berners Lee interview.
And famous kid pictures - Worth a laugh! Angelina Jolie wasn't a pretty kid!
via exclamation mark
That's it - I'm off to Aix
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Pictures On Walls
August 08, 2005
 "It will always be easier to board a London bus with a bomb than with two kids and a pushchair".
Found this on the Pictures On Walls website - Home of scribblings by Banksy, Shrigley, Donwood [Radiohead] etc...
Unless I thinkof something thrilling to say tomorrow - See y'all in a week. I'm off to Provence.
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From Painting By Numbers To Painting With Film!
August 05, 2005
 A couple of things via Things today!
A short preview of Simon Goulet's 9 minute film, OIO (mpg)... Referred to by Goulet as cinepainting. Get it on DVD
[Left: frame from OIO]
And Richard Caldicott - A South London artist, so Things claim, but originally from Leicester, which brings me to the South London Gallery and their Summer Daze Events from August 1 - 26th. Oh! and there's a history of Painting By Numbers too!!!
After mentioning that Banksy is in Wired [see below], this month, it seems his visit to Palestine hasn't gone unnoticed either! As this piece on the BBC website will testify.
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Banksy Asylum
August 04, 2005
A few random things that have caught my eye. Banksy is in the current edition of Wired and I just noticed there is a Banksy pool over at Flickr
And a couple of links via We make Money Not Art...
The Asylum A psychiatric treatment game in which you examine and treat seriously disturbed plush toys! Like a neurotic crocodile, a sheep with multiple personalities and a hippo suffering from a compulsive urge to solve jigsaw puzzles! Amongst others...
And this 3-D Theatre on a table!
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Queuefest 2005 - AKA Global Gathering
August 02, 2005
 Never have so many queued for so long - Only to have to queue again! Glad we only went for the one day. Thankfully Deep Dish and Sanchez saved the day...
Underworld were OK but I didn't think their hearts were in it. New stuff seemed unfinished and Karl mumbled stuff from a book. The Drum and Bass like track, which may or may not be called Vision [or something] was good but the other new stuff rambled aimlessly.
Darren Price sung some nice girly vocals but I don't think he was much help on the desk. Rick seemed to be hovering over him all the time. The sound wasn't great either and no encore! I suspect that may have been the BBC's or organisers fault though.
Not the best Underworld gig I've seen, and I've seen quite a few, but I liked the desk cam - Could have watched that all the way through. Just curious to know what the 2 screens [possibly raised lids] next to the Powerbook to the right of the desk were now.
Anyway... All that way, all that cash to see 4 acts - 2ManyDJ's were the others. I won't be going there again...
But thanks to Kerry and Rob for a great weekend - Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was a good idea. And it was interesting to hear Terry Hall's mum's record collection on Thursday night! Terry mate - Don't DJ - All you were lacking was a ropelight to spell out your name!
Been sent a link to some pictures from the Sand Sculpture thing in Brighton - I hope to go The week after next. Cheers Jonathon.
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