Saw this on the blog of the mighty HiRes and thought it was worth sharing…  

Brilliant beat made by a team of jugglers

Yesterday I got back from a brilliant weekend at ATP. It’s the first time I’ve made it to ATP despite years and years of quality line ups. This one was at Pontins in Camber Sands in East Sussex and it’s a really great festival experience. Lots of great music, fun by the sea, a HUGE sandy beach, some really great company plus a bed to sleep in, hot showers, non portaloos, a swimming pool and a kitchen(ette) to make some delicious grub.

We shared our chalet with our lovely friends the Capsule girls, Mr Ben and Ian - who despite not having a website is most certainly no less fun

It was also a good opportunity to properly meet and hang out with Ian and Pip from 7 inch Cinema, amongst others.

After our  trip to the mudbath that was Glastonbury last year, I have to say that the chalet based festival experience might be the future as far as I’m concerned…

Hooray for ATP! Boo to Mud! 

at Moseley Folk! I’ve seen the line up for this year’s festival and am delighted that my friends from Bristol, Babel feature on Friday’s billing alongside The Accidental (a new project that features Sam from Tunng. Great to see this lovely festival growing and now Babel are booked I’m glad I kept on at Gerv (one of the organisers).

In March we were eventually made it to Thailand to visit one of my best friends from school Aine, and her family. They live in the crazy city of Bangkok, where we stayed with them before heading south to visit a couple of Thailands stunning beaches.

We took a lot of pics! Here are a few to start with (roll over the bottom section to show thumbnails).

April in the UK feels cold… but at least it’s light past 8pm

are exhibitions by my über-talented friends. 

Down ’sarf’ in fancy London at Stolenspace the one and only Will Barras - Halseowen’s finest has a solo show called ‘La Paz’. Will’s work has always been amazing but these new work’s mixing washes with his unearthly drawing abilities create something truly magical.

Then, all the way over in the US of A, Lucy Mc is spreading her organic visual goodness to the good folks of San Francisco. Her first US solo show show is called ‘Restricted Freedom’ and is at Upper Playgrounds FIFTY24SF Gallery. Following on from her amazing show at London in December, Lucy has once again (judging by the pics) done the business!

Great stuff.

to wake on Sunday morning to a fresh blanket of snow! 

For the past three weeks I’ve been in Thailand, and it was hot hot hot. We arrived back on Saturday evening and eventually got off to sleep, but woke early on Sunday to a fresh and bright morning complete with 2 inches of snow.

I wasn’t expecting that!  

I’ll post more on my Thai adventures over the next few days. 

I saw a link to this site today on the excellent Made in England blog.

 It makes so much sense! They paint pictures of things they want, and sell the paintings for the amount it costs to buy the thing they want! Simple yet so effective - Seems to be working too! 

…when video camera’s took two people to operate (one to carry the battery pack -  about the size of a betamax video recorder, am I showing my age here?) I used to spend my sunday afternoons in the dance studios at Birmingham’s (soon to be refurbished) mac. Hip Hop had landed and breakdancing with it. Eventually after many years (nearly 22 in fact) I have digitised these clips from the C21VOX archive.

Originally shot for use in sequences in a film about International Youth Year (1985), I have treasured this now fairly gnarly gem, a glimpse into the urban history of this city I call home. I knew where the Hip Hop happened back then (well as much as a teenager would) and led the camera’s to the dancehall and several extensive graffiti sites around the city.

It’s time to share it. I’ve posted these two clips on You Tube and a couple more will follow. It’s awesome stuff - Enjoy!

This looks like it’s gonna be fun! Be Kind Rewind is the new movie by French director (and creative genius) Michel Gondry, due for release later this month.

Gondry, in my opinion, has created some the most innovative and stunning pop videos ever, and this, his third feature, looks like it’s gonna be great. With Jack Black and Mos Def starring, and the kind of Lo Fi (ok, Lo Fi in a $20 million kind of way) mastery you’d expect from Gondry, classic movies are ’sweded’ and rented out.

The fantastic website defines ’sweding’ as “… remaking something from scratch using whatever you can get your hands on.”

Michel has even ’sweded’ his own trailer! Seriously, this guy is a Genius!

Oh… and he can solve the Rubiks cube with his nose!

well maybe not yesterday…

This is awesome! Spending a huge part of my working life at a screen, I’ve not really been into computer games for years, but more recently I’ve played on Nintendo’s Wii, and after my initial reaction - “the characters look really clunky!” - I realised that the magic was in the responsiveness of the gameplay, and the way lots of people can be involved instead of two people gonking out while the rest look on…

Anyway… I watched this clip and well I guess it’s just the beginning, of the next phase. It’s pretty darn smart though! (although it will only work for one player at a time… for now at least).