photoblog

What are they doing to the park?

November 29th, 2006 2 Comments

Ominously, the fencing was up in the middle of last week. By Thursday the digger and portaloo were in, and a couple of trees lay uprooted on their sides. On Friday the fun started and, like a Magnus Mills protagonist,Â the one man and his digger had taken up the gravel pit/football pitch and had [...]

Tags: photoblog · urban geography

More street stuff

November 24th, 2006 No Comments

Anyone know what this is about? Art? A promotion of some sort? Is that a beer can or a mobile? Old fashion masking tape rather than the chalk easy option is a nice touch. It might be in very poor taste given that it’s about 30 yards from the scene of a shooting outside the [...]

Tags: brixton · photoblog · street art

who is the myspace hater?

November 23rd, 2006 1 Comment

Further to Hoxton 2.0?, I received a Flickr comment from Dr Max who has seen more anti-myspace graffiti around the Shoreditch area. From the fast becoming mantra-like: to the no nonsense directive: I like the blue background on these. I also like that there’s apparently an unfinished version that just says MYSP… GET OUT OF [...]

Tags: graffiti · photoblog · street art

Hoxton 2.0?

November 16th, 2006 1 Comment

This has possibly been blogged to death… Saw this graffiti last night in Hoxton. I wonder how long it’s been there and what exactly inspired someone to go to the effort. Someone whose mates won’t come out anymore? The unsigned band member who sends out demo tapes to no avail?

Tags: photoblog

Billboard Psycho

November 7th, 2006 No Comments

06.11.06Originally uploaded by meltingman. Norman Bates behind a Matalan curtain. Vauxhall, London This is my first ‘blog this’ attempt from flickr and, my, it works!

Tags: photoblog

My Tumblr

Briliant!

Dave Brubeck with young Russian violinist

“During a visit to Moscow in the 80’s, Dave Brubeck met the faculty and students in Moscow Conservatory. While he was improvising on a “Ei, uhnem”, a Russian folk song, a young man downstage stood up to play Stéphane Grappelli-style violin jazz with him.”

(by afahsu)

via @openculture

(via Ai Weiwei Piles 1,200 Bikes On Top Of Each Other, For Dazzling Effect | Co.Design)

Infographic: The Changing TV Landscape

(via Iconic Photographs With Their Subjects Removed)

“I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.”

austinkleon:

Ronald Searle, Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole

47 jewel-like drawings by Ronald Searle made for his wife, Monica, each time she underwent chemotherapy. On New Year’s Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. Each time she underwent treatment, Ronald produced a Mrs Mole drawing ‘to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead’. Filled with light and illuminated in glowing colours, the drawings speak of love, optimism and hope. Like the mediaeval illuminated manuscripts such as the 15th-century Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, to which the title of this book refers, the 47 drawings are on an intimate scale and were never intended for publication.

When asked about the drawings, Searle said, “I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.” Here’s a little more about them:

Prior to the cancer shock the couple had bought a decrepit house in the south of France and, despite her illness, Monica continued to devote her time making this house a home.

Devastated with his wife’s diagnosis Ronald did the only thing he knew how to do to cheer her up. .. draw.

Before every chemotherapy session he gave his wife a painting. Monica was depicted as a mole, a very happy mole celebrating life in their new home. (The Mole idea came after their discovery of a large celler that they made into a cosy room)

‘Everything about them had to be romantic and perfect,’ says Ronald. ‘I drew them originally for no one’s eyes except Mo’s, so she would look at them propped up against her bedside lamp and think: “When I’m better, everything will be beautiful.”

Searle died last week at 91.

(Images via bluedoorbooks)