Xtra Mile's T'was the Night Before Wembley

Ben Marwood, Dave Hause, Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun, [Xtra Special Guest] and Crazy Arm. £10. Camden Barfly (200 capacity). How could I refuse? So what if I went by myself, it was amazing. And in a room filled with like-minded music fans, I felt right at home.

Every single act was superb and Billy Brag (the special guest) was certainly a nice surprise. I admit I've never really listened to him before and only know a few songs – I know, I know, before my time, okay? (Well, not really when I listen to Springsteen and Neil Young, but…) So rather looking forward to seeing him again tonight for Frank Turner at Wembley Arena!

As usual, I took some crappy photos. Although none of Ben Marwood I'm afraid as my hands were full with a pint…

Dave Hause! Kind of a little bit in love with this man.
In a platonic way, if that makes sense.

Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun had a new album out this week. I haven't got it yet
but I definitely will soon. Haven't seen 'em since 2000 Trees Festival, 2010. Super.

Someone near me asked "what is that?!" It's a melodica, god damnit!

And the special guest is… Billy Bragg. Dave/Twitter already told us.

Oh, look who it is…

They only went and covered Bob Dylan's The Times Are A'Changing.
One of my favourite songs ever.

It's no secret that I absolutely adore Crazy Arm.

Patrick got hairy in the last year. (Not a bad thing.)

And they finished up with a cover of Springsteen's Born to Run!

So all-in-all awesome gig. Plus I managed to leave the Barfly at 11.15, power walk to the tube, hop on said tube and then run from Euston for the 11.34 train. I was very efficient. Now for Wembley!

Wolves, 2003

After watching the Land of Wolves two-part documentary that was on the BBC last week, I suddenly remembered a science project that I did in Year 7 at school. Wolves have been my favourite animal for as long as I can remember (although they've recently been joined by the moose, wolf is still no.1).

From looking at the project, it seems I knew more about wolves 9 years ago than I do now. I'll have to learn from my 12 year old self now. In fact, I really want to use the information and pictures in the project (the photographs more so than my drawings) and re-design it using my graphic design knowledge – something I clearly didn't have then!

Look at that experimental typography!

My hand drawn letters leave a lot to be desired.

I think I got these photographs from a calendar. They're great.

In the back of the ring binder, there is a mark sheet from my Year 7 science teacher covering organisation, content, writing style, presentation and advice for future projects.

I was praised for my own illustrations and hand drawn diagrams – "I like to see this when compared with some pupils reliance on printing out graphics from the Internet and CD roms." (Remember Encarta?)

But it's the comments in 'advice for the future' that are the best: "You may want to try word processing future work but personally I like the extra personality and individuality of hand written project. It is beginning to be more acceptable to hand in work done on a computer but often does not show how much thought a person is putting into their work." Still true today, but then look at what I do now.

I need to find some more of my old school projects. Reading through my work and teacher comments is fun and really quite interesting!

The Pirates!

I'd been looking forward to this film ever since I saw this trailer before Christmas. And it met all expectations for being well animated (it's Aardman, of course it would be), humorous – with jokes for the adults in the audience as well as the kids and fun. The cast (can you call it cast when it's just voices? yeah, I guess so) was great too – although maybe I'm just bias towards Martin Freeman.

Also, before the film, there was a trailer for TOP CAT. Amazing.

Jazzlines Ensemble

Over the Easter weekend, when I wasn't eating hot cross buns, I worked on the artwork for a Jazz EP.

"Jazzlines Ensemble are a group of young musicians who have been involved in various creative ensemble and educational projects with Jazzlines, Birmingham Jazz, Town Hall/Symphony Hall and Sound It Out over a period of around 5 years. Performing regularly in Birmingham, and have performed at a variety of venues and events across the city including Town Hall, Symphony Hall and Mostly Jazz Festival."

The cover that appears online currently.

And the rest of the artwork.

You can listen and buy the EP here, plus find links to their twitter/facebook etc. And when I get my copy I shall post some photographs of the physical thing.

Dalmatian forever

You may remember this dog costume from a few years ago, as it played a big part in my book project of first year – The Child Who Wanted to Be… At the time of doing the project I asked my dad to have a look for the costume for me, in the loft at home, but sadly he said that it had been thrown out years ago.

But no! He found it. So I have been reunited with my 6 year old self who wanted nothing more than to have a pet dog, and when I couldn't have that I settled for being the dog myself.

The head part of the costume still fits perfectly (so my head hasn't grown since I was 6?) For this reason it is tempting to cut the head away from the body and keep it as a hat but… I don't want to spoil the full costume.

Sushi

It occurred to me today that since I am now no longer a real vegetarian – call it a pescatarian if you like, I eat fish – I can eat some real sushi. In a real Japanese restaurant and hopefully one day… in Japan. I've also started a new book that is set in Japan, rekindling (ha, and it's on my Kindle) my love for the country.

Here's Pusheen the cat with his sushi.

http://pusheen.com/post/20498913589

Obligatory London visit

Whenever I'm at home, in Milton Keynes, I have to fit in a trip to London or two as it is so close. This time I needed to take some photographs in and around The British Library for major project research purposes. I won't share many of those photographs as they're pretty boring, but there's a few here. Plus some photographs at the V&A and Natural History Museum – non-work related.

The British Library

This is a 3D optical illusion. It looks flat in the photograph but as you move in front
of it the book shelves appear to move also, this is because they are in fact wooden pyramids
sticking out from the wall.

I just liked the print.

Colourful mural as featured on Creative Review.

St Pancras, looking more empty than it was.

These are quite nice.

Sweet sign/lettering.

V&A

This exhibition looks good. One for the future.

Into the V&A. Didn't take many photos, I've been before.

The V&A has a surprisingly large collection of locks and keys.

The coffee cup was so nice I took it home with me.

"Do not swim in the water." – it was about 15mm.

Natural History Museum

And then a brief visit to a child-infested Natural History Museum.

BUSY.

I like how the architecture has animals and plants everywhere. It's nice that the building
was purpose built, that people, however many years ago it was built, loved animals too.

A massive slice of tree!

Plant illustrations on the ceiling.

Such a grand building.

Tree art on the ceiling!

Mega deer.

Bring on the whale skeletons.

Another mega deer.

MOOSE - couldn't take a good photo.

Sperm whale – "like the one that fell from the sky". (Hitchiker's)

Really weird whale illustrations.

This is a wolverine.

Sabretooth cat.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na.

For Lauren.

This guy has an amusing expression.

I like the appearance of Mr Pigeon.

Obligatory tree photographs to finish, of course.