Category — funny

Before the default Bank Holiday weather kicked in, we took a trip to Staffordshire to visit Monkey Forest with my niece Meg who’s 3 1/2.

It was a really good afternoon spent wandering around the expansive fenced forest that is home to over 100 Barbary Macaques. They were quite chilled and obviously used to visitors (like me, with camera’s), and all looked content and VERY wise. It was funny seeing them snacking with ducks and squirrels hanging out nearby!

This is pretty crazy, the biggest drawing in the world!

An artist called Erik Nordenankar, gave DHL specific instructions to ship his case, containing GPS equipment around the world, tracing a world sized self portrait of himself!

Debate has started as to the authenticity of this work, and in the process DHL get alot of namechecks. Could be a viral advertising hoax, could be the first GPS earth sized drawing mankind has ever known!

Either way it’s worth checking out.

NEWS JUST IN 28/5/08

Erik’s come clean saying this is a fictional work, for his graduation project!! He deserves high marks for this…

Also he states this project was already underway before The World is my Canvas went live… over to Stavros…

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! 

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! 

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!

Today, (like so many other day’s) I went to Google and saw that their name was built of Lego? Hover over the image, and up pops the alt tag… Happy Birthday Lego! 

You’ve nurtured many hours of… innovative,

creative,

and hmm… ‘devoted’ (?)

hours of play!

Building stuff up, and then knocking stuff down… 

LONG LIVE THE BRICK!

Also, while I’m talking about building stuff up… today I see that the Created in Birmingham blog is a joint winner in the Media Guardians Innovation Awards, which is great news. 

Chatting with my friend the inimitable Mr Jago, the other day, he told me about an exhibition he was involved in Bristol in December.

Mr Jago at Opus Undergrond ©

The 12 Days of Xmas show involved ‘more than 70 of the world’s most loved & loathed contemporary urban artists’ and took place in the ‘The Old Bridewell Police Station in Bristol City Centre’. It sounds like it was a really good show with some great artists involved, several of whom I’m sure were chuckling to themselves as they brought their art to the Police station - a welcome alternative to their art bringing the Police Station (or it’s staff at least) to them!

The site has a full list of artists involved and their is a good Flickr set of images from the show.

Plenty of great stuff including the funny Obey pastiche - Tinker has a Posse. I’d been given some of these stickers in Bristol in the Autumn and was baffled but amused. I had no idea how big the Posse actually was!

The Royal Mail is Tinker’s Posse

Yesterday, I was enthusing about the latest series of the Mighty Boosh and their crazing ‘crimping’  to my brother Dan, when he suggested I’d like the kiwi duo ‘Flight of the Conchords’, a few short YouTube clips later I knew how right he was! I’ve still to see a full episode but from a brief search of ‘tinternet, I see that as well as being pretty darn funny, they also have an LP coming out on Sub Pop, next year!

Here’s a taste.

keeping warm is all about the layers… 

This is taking it a bit far admittedly, but very good fun nevertheless!