It's only a phase

This week I've mostly been listening to..

2007-06-05T21:04:00.000+01:00

Scouting for Girls - Nice guys 'Scouting for Girls' not only have a great philosophy but have some really top tunes too. Particular favourite, 'It's not about you' originally struck me as a bit Emo, but now has become a real scream along-song! I'm hooked.

Swedish band Oh Laura - fronted by vocalist Frida Ohrn never fails to move me every time I hear 'Release Me'. The song was recently featured on a Saab advert & credit to their marketing team as it's hard not to be drawn in by those haunting vocals. The remaining featured tracks are somewhat more middle-of-the-road, with strong Sheryl Crow influences, but I'm still hotly anticipating the album.

Kate Nash, the hotly tipped chum of Lily Allen - If this 19 year old can keep banging out singles as good as 'Foundations' I think she could go on to have a lot more longevity than Lily. She's from my neck of the woods in Harrow, and although the similar vocal style and song content will draw obvious comparisons with Lily, musically I think she's already a few steps ahead.

Tags: music, scouting for girls, kate nash, oh laura

Some music for 2007

2006-12-31T17:20:00.000Z

Here's some music that I'll be looking out for and listening to in 2007!

The four-piece indie band from Dundee, The View, look set to become rather popular in 2007. With a loyal following already and no-doubt set to be heavily hyped before their album launch on Jan 22nd, I for one am really looking forward to it. You can listen to most of the album in rough-demo form over at Skag Trendy, but hurry I doubt it'll be hosted there for much longer! Highlights are a-plenty, including the indie-disco floor fillers Superstar Tradesman and Same Jeans, complete with the signature high-pitched gravely screams from front-man Kyle Falconer - great stuff!

For some reason the happy, jangly indie-pop from The Holloways has worked its way into my head this year, & while their album "So, this is Great Britain?" has been released a while I think with a bit more promotion & touring they could work their way a bit higher up the charts. Particular highlights for me are the ever-so catchy Generator - some tracks are available for a listen on their Myspace too, including a limited edition Christmas track for download!

On a rather different, more worldly note, I'm a huge fan of French artist Jehro, which (I think) I originally stumbled across via the fantastic Aurgasm. A mix of Caribbean and South American, with obvious influence from Bob Marley, the self-titled album is full of distinctive tracks that describe all-sorts of tales from Jamican to French life. Most of the album tracks can be sampled over at Calabash Music.

tags:music

Music for Kids - Colours are Brighter

2006-09-28T12:44:00.000+01:00

In my opinion not enough bands write tunes about monkeys escaping, being an astronaut or tidying up your room.

Belle & Sebastian have set about putting this right by releasing an album of songs for kids, all written & performed by modern indie and pop bands. Their offering on the album 'Colours are Brighter' - a project by the band to raise money for 'Save the Children' - is a fantastic little dittie "The Monkeys are Breaking Out of the Zoo" which unsurprisingly tells the story of some monkeys that break out of the zoo past a snoozing zoo keeper. Complete with full-on sound effects from those kind of instruments you only ever see at primary schools, it certainly had me smiling on the way to work! (until the next traffic jam that is)

Other bands that contributed include Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol, The Divine Comedy, The Kooks and Four Tet (Full track listing is on the main site) who shed the indie-coolness for a minute and sing about stuff ranging from ninja dinosaurs and horrible boys to sensible shoes and skeletons.

Modern bands and songs repackaged for children isnt a new thing, BabyRockRecords for example, create "cherub rock for a new generation" by transforming rock & pop classics into lullabies. They transform whole albums so you can introduce your tweenies to Nirvana or Coldplay EPs before they can even speak! Jack Johnson also recently got in on the kids music market too with 'Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George'.

So long as this type of thing stays in the realm of providing good, fun music to kids rather than allowing parents or the music labels to introduce the notions of cool, status and branding into kids lives even earlier, then I think it's a lovely idea.

If I had kids, or was going to buy some music for kids, then 'Colours are Brighter' would be my first choice, since the proceeds are for a good cause. I can't get the monkey tune out of my head now, so I might even get a copy for myself, just in-case I do ever have kids! At least it'll beat listening to tweenie pop like Girls Aloud.

To get a copy, & to help 'Save the Children' follow the link below.

tags: charity, music, kids

My First Animation

2006-08-14T21:08:00.000+01:00

Be gentle!

why not email this post to a friend!?

Edit: To add this to your blog copy and paste all the code below. If you want to tweak the size and are feeling adventurous, find the height and width tags and modify them to suit your blog!

tags:
animation
flash

The Genius of Google Idol

2006-07-14T13:42:00.000+01:00

I recently stumbled across Google Idol, via Garys blog, & instantly spent about an hour just watching all the different entries. What a FAB idea!

It basically invites people to make a video of them lip-synching to their favourite songs, like Pop-Idol but in their bedrooms! Most are hilarious, check out the Hall of Fame for the best entries.

My favourite is this rendition of Respect by Aretha Franklin from two dutch teens Pomme & Kelly:

I'm prob a bit old to get away with doing something this daft now but secretly I'd love to have a go making one!!

If you ask me this is exactly what the internet was made for! It's a fun harmless competition for people that love to have a laugh, listen to music & get creative - man I wish this was around when I was in my teens!

Links:
Google Idol | Unearthing the world's talent
pomme and kelly
lynee and tessa
google idol

Lily Allen - Alright Still, the Album

2006-06-27T16:48:00.000+01:00

A little follow up to my post earlier this year about Lily Allen, who's album 'Alright Still' is out in early July 2006.

Things have gone quite crazy for the young lass, who seemed rather unprepared for it all. I myself even messaged her about her forgotten myspace page http://myspace.com/lilyallen where the current single, LDN, was still availble for free download, presumably from the days when she was still trying to just get her music out there. (It quickly got removed before you go & check, & without a reply of thanks I might add!! :( I might have saved her thousands in royalties!)

Most of the tracks have been extensively picked up by the radio stations, and you can listen to quite a few on her normal myspace page or her new 'proper' site lilyallenmusic.com

Here's my thoughts on the other tracks on the album which aren't available on her myspace pages:
Not Big
A nicely polished track that suits Lily's style really well - It's a pretty harsh story about an ex (if it's true I feel for the guy she's talking about!) and has just the right balance between hip-hop & cutesy pop chorus. "I'm sorry if you feel that i'm being kinda mental, but you left me in such a state - now im gonna do what you did to me, I'm gonna reciprocate" & boy she sure does, attacking his bedroom antics, intelligence &, as you can guess from the title, the size of his naughty bits!

Shame for You
Quite a funky rolling number, complete with deep horns & a wicked chorus. Not quite as strong lyrically as some of the other tracks, "Oh my gosh you must be jokin me, if you think that you'll be poking me!", but still pretty entertaining.

Alfie
"Oh little brother please refrain from doing that, I'm tryin to help you out so stop being a twat!" - IMHO this is one of the greatest tracks on the album & tells the story of Lily's little brother who basically smokes too much pot! It's got a great fun circus-style vibe to it & has some great samples thrown in there based around the lyrics. More like this Lily!

The links to some of the tracks still work from my last post, & if you really want to get a preview of the rest of the album tracks, drop me an email as I don't want to post them here for obvious reasons.

Overall I reckon it's an album well worth owning, just cos its got that something a little bit different to anything else out there at the moment.

technorati tags: music, Lily Allen

Illustration Friday - Dance

2006-06-17T20:44:00.000+01:00

Cheekily for this weeks IF topic I'm using a digital illustration that I already posted here recently - but I think it fits in rather well!

Picture the scenario - it's the 'Monsters Ball' final year school dance (get it, duh!). All the boy-monsters on one side, all the girl-monsters on the other side but then the last slow song has come on & this poor monster can't pluck up the courage to ask anyone to dance!

Illustration Friday - Jungle

2006-06-11T21:13:00.000+01:00

I think this is inspired by some childrens book that I read as a kid. I've no idea which one now, but I remember the illustrations depicted a thick, dense spooky jungle like this one.

Although I usually like to start from a sketch, this Illustration was (perhaps obviously!) done from scratch in Photoshop this time.

tags: jungle, illustration

Mini monster illustrations

2006-06-11T17:58:00.000+01:00

Here's a few illustrations that I hope to use to promote my new group drawing site MysteryMonster.co.uk

The three little fellas were done in Photoshop using a mixture of vector drawing & free-hand style.

Shame they weren't ready for the Illustration Friday topic of 'Monsters' !

Threadless A-Team T-Shirt

2006-06-07T16:46:00.000+01:00

I just got my A-Team Van submission approved for Threadless - check it out below & please give it a vote if you like it!

I hope to get it printed soon over at Closet Junkie soon too.

tags:t-shirt, threadless, a team

Lily Allen

2006-04-05T20:41:00.000+01:00

Seeing as my last musical obsession was Regina Spektor I must be on some female vocal-trip at the moment. Another track I have fallen for & is the basis for my next musical recommendation is by another fresh voiced laydee by the name of Lily Allen.

She currently seems to be running things from her myspace page, where you can listen to the great soon-to-be-summer-anthem LDN. Also there's a track called smile & around 50 minutes of a pretty diverse mix of tunes interspersed with her own here:
Smile.mp3
MyFirstMixTape.mp3

Her voice is again quite cutesy-pop style but her overall style is more urban & could even hold its place in the current singles chart. If Mike Skinner was a cute girl & sampled happier tunes he might sound a bit like this.

There's not a whole lot of info about her around the internet, but I'm sure that's about to change soon. An article over at Pop Justice does confirm she has a deal with Parlophone, although she doesn't appear on their artists roster anywhere as yet...

tags:new music, lily allen

Illustration Friday - Tea

2006-02-28T22:55:00.000Z

Being a Brit, & what with the British being obsessed with Tea I just had to do an entry for this weeks I.F.

Making the perfect cuppa is an art form & requires strict control over the ingredients and process. Luckily this baby right here does it all & makes the perfect cup of tea every time. (It's already patented too so don't even bother trying to steal the idea.)

Click for the full-sized version...

I think it's my background as an engineer that means I really enjoy drawing Wallace & Grommit style daft machines. Maybe it's my way of rebelling against all the theory - "Nah, an udder funnel - that has to work!!".

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

2006-02-27T13:42:00.000Z

I'm a relative latecomer in discovering Regina Spektor, the cutesy singer/songwriter from New York. I surprisingly have Drowned in Sound to thank for the tip-off. Their recommendations are normally obscure & quirky just for the sake of it, but this time the single 'Us' I instantly fell in love with. I'm no vocal expert, but listening through her back-catalogue of albums, there can't be a huge number of people that can use their voice as she does. It's not all about the voice though, her lyrics are quirky and witty and the overall songwriting is fascinating.

This is not the kind of music you can put on and have in the background though, as you can't help but be captivated by it. It came as a shock after deciding I immediately wanted the new album, 'Soviet Kitsch', that almost every UK online store has a huge wait for the CD while they import it. I don't remember wanting an album so badly for ages, my girlfriend thinks I'm mad (& thinks I'm obsessed with Regina). Anyway, two ebay auctions later & a few emails it is hopefully on its way to me!

You can listen to most of the albums in part on her website www.reginaspektor.com or find out more about her at BigHassle.com

Technorati Tags: music, regina+specktor

Illustration Friday - Cats

2006-01-26T19:39:00.000Z

I always preferred cats to dogs, I think you have to work harder for their respect! Although cats have many moods and tempraments here are a few that I hope I've captured.

I think an old Illo. Friday piece I did for the 'Mischief' topic may also count for this one! The link is here: http://only-a-phase.blogspot.com/2005/05/illustration-friday-mischief.html

ClosetJunkie finally launched!

2006-01-16T13:42:00.000Z

Hurrah, it's only taken many months but my t-shirt store www.ClosetJunkie.co.uk is now up online & ready to take orders (hint hint!)

I've tried to make the design quite retro & simple & hope to eflect that in some of my custom designs that will be added in the coming months.

technorati tags:closet, junkie, tshirts, tees

Must Have Utilities

2006-01-12T13:12:00.000Z

An unnerving sound has developed deep inside my PC's hard drive which has spurred me to think of what I might do if disaster did indeed strike & my (only) drive went platter up.

If you're like me & half-heartedly attempt to keep backups, you will have the same pile of blank, poorly labelled CDs with a random mix of programs, pictures and documents on them. Whether half of these still work I don't even know!
I fully plan to purchase a DVD writer & get organised on the backup-front, particularly with my expanding collection of digital images & website projects.

Then I started thinking of all the little programs & utilities I've downloaded or acquired over time & realised how important these were also. So here (partly for my own reference) is a list of my utilities that I'd want to get back on my PC soon after disaster hit..

AVG Free - Top priority - the free anti virus software from AVG.
Ad-Aware - Tool for detecting & removing any nasty bits of spyware that get onto your PC.
Adobe Acrobat Reader - You can't view tons of documents on the internet without it.
Beyond Compare - A directory compare and synchronise tool - I use this to sync my music with my iRiver MP3 player.
DVD Decrypter/SmartRipper - For creating DVD backups of course.
EasyCleaner - Very handy utility that allows you to clear temporary files, clean the registry etc.
Macromedia Flash - After a while one webpage is going to force you to get it anyway to view their fancy content!
Microsoft Anti-Spyware - One of few Microsoft application to make my list - their spyware removal & blocking tool.
Mozilla Firefox - A reccommended browser from Mozilla.
Real Alternative - Allows you to play Real Media (.ram files etc.) without installing the massive & slow Real Player.
RegClean - An old Microsoft utility to clean out unneccessary keys from the registry
SpyBot Search & Destroy - Another tool to rid your PC of nasties, similar to Ad-Aware but I tend to run them both cos I'm paranoid.
Trillian - Instant Messaging utility that supports all the varieties inlcuding MSN Messenger, Yahoo IM, AIM & ICQ.
Winamp 2 - Nice streamline music player. I found they got a bit clunky after version 2 (but I still prefer them to Windows Media Player).
WinRAR - Utility for compressing/uncompressing files & folders. Like Winzip but supports many more formats.

That's it for now - but I may update the list should I find any more really useful applications!

technorati tags: pc, utilities, tools

Joggers Delight

2006-01-06T20:50:00.001Z

So it's 2006 & my New Year's resolution of doing some exercise is still going after one session of going running! I plan to go again tonight, even though it's mighty cold & I still don't have the right footwear!

The first time running I had planned a few routes around our streets, mainly quiet ones to avoid the chance of having to pass anyone, or worse - meet other joggers. A square route seemed promising that would take me round the full block, though on the first side of the square I decided perhaps a shorter route might be more suitable after all ! Eventually I hope to make it to the park nearby our house, & then in the future get to the park & still be able to run around it.

When the enthusiasm starts to wane I plan to buy a new pair of trainers which should force me to continue!

Some new illustration related links for the new year, inspired by some Christmas presents...
terrainfirma.com
lastlemon.com

Illustration Friday - Small

2005-11-29T22:30:00.000Z

The last night or so we have heard some very suspicious scratchings and scrabblings above our heads in the loft.

I went up today to attempt to track the culprit(s) down or at least find some evidence of gnawing, but couldn't find a scrap! I hope they have had their fun & moved on...

So, although a rather obvious take on this weeks IF theme 'small', this is what I half expected to capture up in the loft and is my long overdue return to IF!

I started out with a pencil sketch & finished it up digitally using PS.

tags: small, mouse, cartoon

Christmas in Style

2005-11-21T13:13:00.000Z

Anyone observant enough to check the dates on here will see it's been a while since my last post, that's unfortunately my fault in taking on too much and subsequently being rushed off my feet to try and please everyone. I have a habit of doing this, and for a while there it looked like my phase of blogging was fading! But no! I'm not ready to move onto something else just yet...

As it's cold enough here to be Lapland, here's the results of my search for the coolest Christmas stuff around.

The Charlie Brown Pathetic Tree from Urban Outfitters ($24) - no danger of going over the top with this little beauty.

Some v.expensive crackers from Harrods (£199)- I hope the jokes are better for this price.

Cute festive Sheep from Heals! (£12)

Stripy Hotties from Heals (£9)- to keep those toes warm

Redline Snowmobile from Firebox (£8000) - No need to defrost the windscreen here!

Embassies refuse Congestion Charge...

2005-10-20T14:07:00.000+01:00

...get the tube like the rest of us

Well I haven't posted here in a while, & I'm still in the middle of a rather manic few weeks but this caught my eye in the London News the other day & really gets my back up!

Apparently the US Embassy, located in central London, is refusing to pay the Congestion Charge on the grounds that it is a tax & therefore should be exempt under Diplomatic law stated in the Vienna convention.

The congestion charge has been in force since 17 Feb 2003 & was a nice round £5 for cars entering the heavily congested city centre. Now the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has recently put the price up to £8, which is an increase far ahead of inflation and he is planning to extend the area which it covers - so it's not entirely surprising peope are unwilling to pay. (Though if it was up to me, it would be even more for overtly unnecessary vehicles like big American trucks and 4x4's!)

If I had the misfortune of having to drive into the city centre then I would most likely grumble about the charge too, but I wouldn't refuse to pay it & instead would look at the other option of public transport. This after all is the whole reasoning behind the charge - to encourage people onto public transport for a cleaner and less congested London.

Presumably the Embassy has been happily paying the charge for the last two years so why should they decide they are exempt now since it is going up? Maybe they will ask for a back payment too! The German Embassy has jumped on the bandwagon too & is using the Vienna convention as a get out clause to taking any responsibility for the environmental condition of London.

It seems to me the Embassy is picking and choosing to heed conventions or rules that suit them, and blindly refusing to accept any other responsibilities when it comes to helping congestion or environmental issues. After all if they are so keen on the Vienna convention, why not the Kyoto Protocol or other treaties? As ePolitix.com rightly points out "The Americans are quite happy to cite the Vienna convention, but are all too willing to play fast and loose when it comes to the Geneva convention."

So is it really a tax? According to the good old Wikipedia "A tax is a compulsory charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e.g., tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements)". The USAToday already quotes a spokesperson for TFL which answers the question - If you don't drive in, you don't pay so the choice is there for all employeees of the Embassy. (Quite how or why they manage to bring the Boston Tea party into the story is anyone's guess! )

As far as I'm aware, foreign diplomats are not exempt from toll road charges in the USA so why should the rules be bent for them here ?

tags: embassy, congestion charge

Illustration Friday - Fresh

2005-09-25T22:22:00.000+01:00

The topic 'Fresh' this week reminded me of how my father always describes the weather - no matter how grim it is!

'Fresh' always meant cold & windy to me; to him this wet 'n windy scene would just be 'Fresh', just blowing the cobwebs away, perfect for a stroll or a bike ride! ahh yes, many a holiday in the damp (but beautiful) Lake District where the rest of the family would be huddling & dragging feet just to get to the next English Pub, where dad would be 20 yards ahead going, "c'mon it's just round the next bend - just a bit of fresh weather thats all!"

tags: fresh, weather, illustration

dinky linky

2005-09-13T22:16:00.000+01:00

I've been gathering bookmarks randomly now across several computers as I stumble across great sites, so it's about time I consolidated some of them! I've added a few to the sidebar, so have a fresh explore there. Cream of the crop has to be Uli Meyer's blog & his Studio's website which has some extremely slick animation, as you'd expect!

Some I've been sitting on a while, some are from more recent entries over at Drawn!. Also check out the talents of illustrator Kirsten Ulve, her stylised caricatures are fab. Stan Makowski has some mad & slightly twisted cartoons too! If you can understand French then BenGrr is worth a visit & has lots to browse.

Illustration Friday - Roots

2005-09-06T22:04:00.000+01:00

Although I'm sure there will be lots of trees etc. knocking about for this weeks Illustration Friday I couldn't resist getting this image down - it popped into my head as soon as I saw the topic, so I thought sometimes it's best just to stick with that first concept rather than thinking too hard.

I find as I spend time in a certain place, be it studying or working, I slowly develop some kind of closeness to the place & it means I'm comfortable, almost homely, when I go back. All these places I've spent long enough at to have put some roots down in & feel some affinity with. Obviously my childhood home, & London where I live now. But also where I went to school in Oakham, & where I worked for a time in Leeds. My time at University also gave me many fond memories up in Durham & also UCSB in California.

I believe my roots have stopped growing as fast as they did over the last 10 years; now they are just growing deeper rather than wider!
tags: illustration, roots, sketch

Collaborative Toons

2005-09-06T10:26:00.000+01:00

Been reasonably busy over the past few weeks with some artwork as part of an on-going collaborative venture called C-Works to create a load of cartoons, with the hope of eventually building a portfolio of decent work.

You can see some of the finished ones by clicking below. They're being added to all the time & the style is somewhat different to what I am used to doing, so it's a great challenge & is hopefully going someway to improve my sketching.

It also makes a change from the normally solitary style of working alone in front of my desk for hours too!

tags: cartoon, illustration, cworks

Illustration Friday - Dreams

2005-08-30T19:11:00.000+01:00

Airport lounges are great places to let your imagination go crazy and daydream for hours. I love watching people & wondering where they might be going to, or coming back from & why? I sketched this while waiting for a flight to San Francisco as I was observing another young couple who were waiting and watching the comings and goings.

(edit - the guy had his hand on her leg in case you were wondering, nothing else :o )

tags: dreaming, airport lounge, sketch

Happy Birthday to Me !

2005-08-22T13:29:00.000+01:00

Yes, today is birthday which means I have reached a quarter of a century. Although today itself is just a normal day at work, yesterday my girlfriend surprised me to a champagne afternoon tea at The Savoy in London, a very swanky hotel. This consisted of lots and lots of bitesize food ranging from Scottish smoked salmon finger sandwiches to chocolate & gold-leaf slices accompanied by any tea you could imagine - all extremely rich & all extremely satisfying! It's a wonder all rich people aren't a bit tubby, or should that be the other way around?

It goes without saying I'm back on the kit-kats & value cheese sandwiches today.

I treated myself to a new hi-fi system last week under the guise of 'it's my birthday soon & I can afford this', so I'm currently rediscovering all my old CD's which now sound about 20 times better. Today was the turn of Replenish by Reef. If you haven't heard any of their early stuff I highly recommend checking out 'Choose to Live' off this album, fantastic stuff!

Crazy Drums

2005-08-18T13:45:00.000+01:00

Circular drums are so last year, that's right eight-sided is the new round - The folks over at Octaboom sure know how to make a crazy looking drum set. Pair it up with some laser drum sticks and there'd be no stopping the rock!!

Illustration Friday - Empty

2005-08-10T09:11:00.000+01:00

I'm finally installed in the new house, just the cleaning to do in the old place now. I always think houses/flats look really sorry for themselves when you move everything out, they are sorry to see you go as much as you are.

Seeing as a topic of mine was chosen for this weeks IF (yay thanks Penelope!) I thought it'd be rude not to submit an entry, so here is my take on my theme, inspired by my old, bare looking apartment.

I tried to keep it minimallly coloured to add to the emptiness. Where there is colour I used a large dry media brush in PhotoShop over the top of pencil strokes.

tags: empty sketch

2005-08-01T10:11:00.000+01:00

Got the keys to the new house over the weekend - some work had been done by the landlord to clean it up from the previous tenants, so it wasn't in too bad a state apart from a strange smell emanating from one of the downstairs rooms. Hopefully we've fixed this with lots of candles and air freshners!

At least this was what I thought until I checked the freezer...The grimy students had actually left a bunch of food in there, turned the freezer off and moved out. Over three months later, we were presented with stinking pools of stagnant liquified food with enough pond life thriving in it to rival the Thames.

After a weekend of bleaching I would almost consider putting food for human consumption back in there, but not before it's had a good airing!

Next time I move into a new house, I'll be sure to get me one of these bad boys:

Party Invites

2005-07-25T22:17:00.000+01:00

Planning house warming parties are much more fun than the actual moving, so despite not quite yet putting down the first months rent, my thoughts have moved on to partys! woo.

Here's a design for an invite I was contemplating in my head - what do YOU prefer though green, blue or purple ? Any other feedback also much appreciated!

Click for full sized images

tags: party invite invitations

Call Center Trauma

2005-07-22T13:19:00.000+01:00

A recent call to British Telecommunications customer service ..

ring ring....ring ring..
Machine: Please press 1 for enquiries about..blah blah blah.. press 2 if you are moving house
Me : (presses 2) ring ring....ring ring etc.
Service Rep.1 : (overly enthusiastic & friendly) Hello how can I help you?
Me : I'm moving house so I'd like to terminate my phone line and account.
Service Rep.1: Ok, do you have your account number?
Me : reels off lengthy account number
Service Rep.1: Can you confirm your name & address?
Me : yes, blah blah blah.
Service Rep.1: And what date are you moving house?
Me : The 10th August.
Service Rep.1: OK I'll just transfer you to someone that can help you do that. Please hold.
ring ring....ring ring...
Me : (why have I just spoken to you then?)
Service Rep.1: All our people are busy at the moment but they will answer shortly, please hold.
ring ring...ring ring etc.

Service Rep.2: Hello, how can I help you?
Me : Well I've just been transferred here
Service Rep.2: Ok, what can I do for you?
Me: Well I'm moving house so I'd like to terminate my phone line and account.
Service Rep.2: And what date are you moving house?
Me : (sigh) The 10th August
Service Rep.2: Can you give me your address and postcode?
Me : Yes, blah blah blah.
Service Rep.2: Ok can you hold for a second?
Me : (why?) (calming music)
Service Rep.2: Do you have your account number?
Me : oh, for f.. reels off lengthy account number
Service Rep.2: ok can you hold for a second?
Me : mmmm. (calming music)
Service Rep.2: ok so you want to terminate your account on the 10th August?
Me : Yeees.
Service Rep.2: ok can you hold for a second?
Me : (calming music)
Service Rep.2: ok, that's done for you. Just to recap what I've done for you your phone line will be stopped on 10th August and a final bill sent.
Me : Where will the final bill be sent ?
Service Rep.2: To your current address.
Me : But I'm moving house!!!!!
Service Rep.2: oh.
Me : Why can't you forward it to my next address?
Service Rep.2: I can't do that, that's billings - I'll just transfer you now...

At this point I lost it a bit & basically told them to leave it how it is & I'll sort it out somehow when they send it to my old house!

Do these people ever trace a call through to see how stupid the system is!? I pressed '2' at the very start - you know I'm bloody well moving house! Do they have a first line of muppets just to try and get you in a good mood before they transfer you to someone that actually has the authority to do anything at all!?

Phew, I feel better now though.

Tag: call center

Illustration Friday - Metropolitan

2005-07-14T23:40:00.000+01:00

Finally have found the time to get round to an illustration for this weeks topic - Metropolitan. In case you didn't know the police force in the UK are known as The Metropolitan Police (or The Met for short) - hence the inspiration for this cartoon.

What with all the amazing work the Met, and the other emergency services, have done this past week during the London bombings I thought they could use a mention too! A common (but sometimes irritating) sight in London is also the lowly pigeon, though I think the world would be a better place if this was the only nuisance they had to worry about!

Subject to References

2005-07-08T00:17:00.000+01:00

Haven't had much time to indulge in much sketching, or drumming or anything for that matter since getting back from hol. Rather miffed about missing the last couple of Illustration Friday challenges as there were some nice topics too - hopeto be back on the pad soon!

Looking for a new house to rent was the priority and after viewing some dumps and some luxury (but over budget) places, we have finally found a suitable one. Moving closer into London, which after todays tragic news is a little disconcerting, but that's just me being overly paranoid. I don't want to vent my feelings about what happened today in London here as I'm sure there's another million blogs where you can read the same thing - for now I'm just glad my friends and rellies are safe.

In the meantime I'm going to wait for our in depth referencing forms to be processed while they check who I am, where I've been, who I've spoken to and what I've eaten for the last 20 years or so. It's a wonder anyone can get into rental property these days!

Under the boardwalk...

2005-07-01T00:08:00.000+01:00

Just had a lovely break away on the south coast of Devon. Love to be by the sea, had some great seafood in wonderful restaraunts, and soaked up the sun, sea, and sand - unfortunately it was all over very quickly and normality is fully resumed again.

Illustration Friday - Black & White

2005-06-24T00:06:00.000+01:00

A rather late entry for Illustration Friday this time, but better late than never I guess!

Been a VERY hectic week house-hunting, lots and lots of driving and traffic - partly the inspiration for the sketch perhaps. I hope it's not too cliche, what with the utopian view on one side and the inevitably ugly looking futuristic side where even buildings have to jostle for space. I think I was trying to convey the fact that even though it might look as though the grass is always greener (or whiter in this case!), things aren't always black and white - after all which side has everyone ended up living on !?

Tom McRae - All Maps Welcome

2005-06-14T21:48:00.000+01:00

Another album that caught my eye/ear recently is by Suffolk singer/songwriter Tom McRae. Album opener 'For the restless' is definitely one of the stand-out tracks of the album. It has deep layers of strings, and haunting vocals combined with pizzicato that make for a moody ambience. "For the restless not the peaceful sleeper, this song's for you" sings Tom, which is a great personal introduction to his album (at least if you're a bit of an insomniac like myself!!)

The love song 'Humming bird' continues the mellow theme of the album (to which he dedicates to his own humming bird), and contains some lush harmonies. 'The girl who falls downstairs' is one of my favourites from the album and sees the return of some lovely strings and strong vocals.

The middle of the album unfortunately doesn't hold any of the strongest tracks, but never loses your interest. 'Silent Boulevard', one of my other favourites on the album, grabs your attention back and sees Tom get more passionate, with a great climatic chorus that you can't help but shout along with.

'Still Lost' slows it down again and soft lyrics "If i was to call would you come, oh my love when will you come to look for me, 'cos i'll still be lost" makes it a touching tune highlighting insecurities.

The final song 'Border Song', perhaps a song about a lost love "her eyes on fire, undressed to kill", is one of those beautiful tracks that makes you glad you listened right to the end of the album - not that you need an excuse anyway.

If you're looking for album to stick on, hit play and put your feet up for an hour this will fit the bill perfectly. A little darker overall than my last purchase from James Blunt, but it has rightly earned itself the position in my summer albums listening rota along with that and Jack Johnsons 'Inbetween Dreams'

tags: music tom mcrae

Good Luck !

2005-06-06T20:51:00.000+01:00

My girlfriend is taking a tough exam on Thursday as part of her professional Marketing qualification - she's much more ambitious than me like that! I'd much rather spend my time coming up with drawings like this one, which I did especially for you hun! I'll be thinking of you.

Click for full size illustration

tags: luck cartoon illustration

Illustration Friday - Digital

2005-06-05T22:28:00.000+01:00

There's nothing quite as frustrating as when the digital world goes wrong - I know we've all been there when the blue-screen is staring back at you...

Naturally this weeks illustration was done entirely digitally, without a sketch, using my brand new Wacom (which I lurrve!). Managed to find a A5 version for approximately the same price as the smaller A6, but without all the software bundled - but they ended up shipping the Studio XL version with software included :D ... sssshhh

tags: digital cartoon crash

Illustration Friday - Envy

2005-05-31T11:00:00.000+01:00

Envy : I think everyone's a bit envious of something or someone at one time or another. What you usually find though is that the grass is always greener on the other side.

I decided on another cartoon for my illustration this week, I've been dying to get my big stupid macho character in a cartoon for ages, so I'm pleased he fits in with this theme well!

Without being too deep!, in the cartoon:
One man has everything he needs,
One man has everything he wants,
One man doesn't need anything else.

Click for the full image...Tag: cartoon car

Yugop

2005-05-27T13:36:00.000+01:00

If you haven't checked out Yugop.com recently then it's well worth revisiting to see Yugo's new AmazType project that creates a composition using artwork resulting from an Amazon product search - at least I think that's how he does it!

Be sure to while away a few hours playing in the Archives section too for some beautiful and innovative flash projects - my favourite has to be ClockBlock.

tag: flash design

Illustration Friday - Aquatic

2005-05-23T23:05:00.000+01:00

I am in no way a 'water' person and I see toe-testing as a very necessary part of getting into any pool!
The original sketch was actually done on a post-it note believe it or not, I removed the yellow and added the colours in Photoshop. I also discovered feet are extremely hard to draw!

Custom Greeting Cards

2005-05-20T13:39:00.000+01:00

My creative urge has led me to try and design my own greeting cards this Christmas, whether it happens this year or next is another matter but I'm going to start thinking about it early and give it a shot. They'll only be for friends & family, & it'll probably more expensive than just grabbing a pack from Oxfam but I hope the experience will be rewarding!

I've never done anything like this before, but luckily the folks over at Illustration Friday have been pretty helpful in answering some of my very basic questions, and I think I roughly know what I might need.

Planning - Finding resources in the US is easy but a little harder to track down in the UK, but there's some good tips over at KookyKards and useful info on size codes and envelopes/cellophane.

Designing - hmm yeah still got to do this bit. I hope to have a shortlist created in the next few months. Then I might ask for some feedback on the best one design to carry through!

Printing - Thanks to nic for recommending ThinkInk a UK based printers who very quickly sent me an impressive sample pack. I think when it comes to this stage these guys will do fine.

Finishing - I always think having envelopes that compliment the card colours look far higher in quality than plain white so I might order some extra goodies such as coloured envelopes or cellophane wrappers. Of course, this will have to wait until I'm happy with a design though! I have my eye on SimplyEnvelopes or Mayfair as (after my brief investigations) they seem reasonably priced, though I am open to better suggestions!

Check out these inspiring card sites: TearDrop, BlueTurtleStudio and lots at Bottman - especially Sue Jenkins ones.

Tag: greeting card

Its's One of Those Days

2005-05-18T11:30:00.000+01:00

I discovered today I went into work with my pants on inside out. Enough said.

(That's pants in the UK sense by the way, not the USA sense!)

Illustration Friday - Nourishment

2005-05-16T22:58:00.000+01:00

The Friendly Giraffe!

This illustration came from playing around with textures and patterns in Photoshop. I wanted to get a crafty 'cut-out' sort of look, but keeping it cartoony at the same time - hence the rather friendly looking giraffe (I hope you can tell that's what it is!)

keyword:cartoon

Illustration Friday - Mischief

2005-05-11T23:52:00.000+01:00

Here's my entry for this weeks Illo Friday topic - 'Mischief'. Ideally I would have like to have had a two image 'before-and-after' style cartoon but, hey I'm too slow as it is! I shall therefore leave the 'before' picture to your imagination!
Created from a pencil sketch and tracing/colour in Photoshop.

Tag: cartoon

Climate Change - Fact vs Fiction

2005-05-11T12:48:00.000+01:00

Although one can't help feeling a little sorry for the poor old man David Bellamy, a botanist whom I have fond childhood memories of from various wildlife and nature programs, his irresponsible claims that global warming is a load of old rubbish has surely stripped any credibility this bearded environmentalist used to have.

During a rather one-way 'discussion' on the UK's Channel 4 News last night, Bellamy met for the first time George Monbiot who has investigated his claims and found them to be somewhat ropey at best. Monbiot, who was suited up and well prepared, demolished the arguments of Bellamy, who looked like he had just come from the wild himself (and strangely enough seems to be wearing the same set of clothes he did for his 'I'm a friendly old man' photoshoot here.)

Bellamy's 'facts' about glaciers actually growing seem to have originated from about half an hour of surfing the web, and towards the end of the interview Bellamy was practically admitting he didn't get paid to research this topic and hadn't checked his sources out. Surely when the World Glacier Monitoring service has called your ideas bullshit it's not a good idea to try and argue your point more on National News. Better stick to the badger watching Bellamy.

Technorati Tag:Environment

Berlin Here I Come

2005-05-05T23:13:00.000+01:00

Berlin is my destination this weekend, mainly to see my fave Jack Johnson in concert seeing as tickets in the UK sold out in half an hour!

I'm keeping my eyes peeled for artwork by Jim Avignon, who apparently is renowned in Berlin and believes all his art should be really affordable. Also I found a portfolio of Robin Max Marder who has some really nice digital illustrations.

Unrelated other than by name, Annette Berlin has some great pastel drawings, and some rather bizarre illustrations of animals.

Hopefully I'll get some time for some airplane doodling, and expect a (biased) review of Jack's gig !

Illustration Friday - Ambition

2005-05-03T23:21:00.000+01:00

Had drums on my mind a lot recently what with all the gigs coming up. Hopefully now I've got some down on paper I can think about something else for a little while.

Hopefully this might be suitable for my Illustration Friday topic of 'ambition' too. Learning any instrument has to involve some ambition, and a bit of courage and determination too. The sketch was done with a soft pencil, with the splashes of colour added in Photoshop to add some interest.

London Bloggers

2005-04-29T12:53:00.000+01:00

This great site has classified lots of bloggers in the London area according to where they're located on the Underground Tube Map! Quite cool to browse familiar stops and see what characters are there! There's even 8 other bloggers in my home town!

Illustration Friday - Daring

2005-04-28T00:00:00.000+01:00

Flying in a big hunk of metal is pretty daring at the best of times in my opinion! Going up in the new airbus would have been even more daring.

My lack of time over the past couple of weeks has forced me to go for a very basic style directly in Photoshop for this weeks Illo, but for me it conjures up those brilliant summer skies to come, which can't be a bad thing!

The Art of Music

2005-04-26T10:27:00.000+01:00

It's amazing what you can do on only three hours sleep. Despite being partly on another planet, our band had a good gig last night at a London club (and the crowd seemed to like it too which is always a good sign)

With all the upcoming gigs we have, I thought it'd be nice to show some music related sketchery and cartoons but they're suprisingly hard to track down. Maybe I'll just have to do some myself!

I did find some good music related cartoons by a guy called Mark Parisi though, who has a nice Garly Larson infulenced style. There's also a typically American strip about some struggling BLUES musicians by Jason Nocera which is worth a peep!

Athlete : Brixton Academy Gig

2005-04-22T11:26:00.000+01:00

Saw Athlete on Wednesday night at the great venue Brixton Academy. They're currently touring their new album Tourist but played lots of crowd pleasers off their previous album Vehicles & Animals (including both my favourites Shake Those Windows and the title track!). Top tune of the night for me was 'Tourist' though - great sing along track!

Support acts were pretty good too - Iain Archer whom I'd not heard of before did a solo acoustic/electric set and, apart from a couple of songs with rather tame 80's drum backing (get a REAL drummer!), I really enjoyed. Then came on The Magic Numbers, who were a little bit cheesey with lots of male/female call and answer style songs. If Abba were dark haired and more chubby this is what they might have looked like. To be fair, if you do like folky type rock then they might well be up your street, and they do have a great illustration of the band members as their logo!

Athlete blew them away though, the drummer was excellent and made it look very easy using lots of electronic samples etc. I find myself watching drummers more closely than ever these days for technique hints and tips.

If you can still get tickets for shows I'd highly recommend you bag yourselves a couple.

Illustration Friday - Re-invent

2005-04-19T22:41:00.000+01:00

I really wanted to get a full cartoon in for this weeks topic so worked flat out to get this one finished! I started off with a pencil sketch and traced this in Photoshop. For the details I used a mixture of freehand sketching and Photoshop tools such as the shapes etc. For the background I just used really (really) simple sketches to keep focus on the action in the foreground.

Relax ? Maybe next month.

2005-04-19T13:34:00.000+01:00

woah sooo much going on at the moment. Annoyed that I missed last weeks Illustration Friday topic 'alone'. I think I was trying to be a bit ambitious and tried a full 3-sketch cartoon that I started on the plane back from San Francisco. It's all good practice I suppose! This weeks though I'm ready for, and it's going to be a belter!!

So our landlady has up and decided she is going to sell her house, which leaves us, well, without one. It's back to looking round nice places we can't afford and crappy places with brown patches on walls trying to find a compromise I guess. The only thing we can do is try to delay the inevitable by cooking fish and leaving socks around the place for viewers.

My band has announced a tour too which will be good practice for my live drumming, but leaves not a whole lot of time in my schedule. This means less time for my girlfriend and less time for my sketching so I forsee a frustrating few weeks ahead.
We have an exclusive press launch party for our big gig at Shepherds Bush at a club in London on Saturday too, though apparently there will be a load of hairy spiders in attendance too - I do not like spiders that have hair. Maybe after a load of cocktails or some virtual reality , or both preferably, I won't mind so much.

I really wanted to work on my technique for some drumming styles, and maybe even hire a pro teacher. These things might have to wait until I'm in a new house and off the tour now. At this time I'd give anything to be able to relax and spend all my time on my hobbies (and with my girlfriend too)!!

ps - Ironically enough the top search result in google for 'relax' is a rather frantic and bold cartoon sketch page. Try it!

San Francisco Holiday Highlights

2005-04-14T13:41:00.000+01:00

Well I'm back from my travels from "Frisco", what an amazing place! The sun was out for the entire time (bar a couple of early mornings), we didn't bump into any crazies and from all the walking we did I am now a bit pink and peeling horrendously, but someone at work did say I looked tanned huzzah!

We did too much to mention everything, but highlights were:

The Modern Art Museum with some excellent media exhibitsThe classic tram ride, which required the purchase of a banana to get the right coins
Lots of great restaurants - Considering I'm not really the adventurous type, we managed to go for a different style of cuisine every night! Highlights here were the amazing brunch at the vegetarian Greens restaurant, and Gaylords Indian restaurant (no snickering)
Alcatraz, particularly the audio tour which is great.

I thoroughly recommend spending at least a week to get to know the place, we did lots but still didn't tick everything off our list.
Hope to get some of my airplane sketches and photos up soon.

Travel - Illustration Friday

2005-04-04T10:50:00.000+01:00

Wow! I am off on holiday tomorrow to gorgeous San Francisco and so came up with this character sketch directly in Photoshop - I was just going to post it & begrudgingly skip this weeks topic. But huzzah- I think it's actually relevant, I bet that doesn't happen too often!!

I was unsure how to mask off the guy, but in the end I decided to make it look as if he was saying goodbye to maybe a neighbour in an over-the-garden-fence type of way.

By the way I believe there's no resemblance to me, apart from maybe the over excited look of going on holiday.

Any feedback appreciated, though be gentle it was my first sketch directly in PS!

Illustration Friday - Crowded

2005-03-29T23:23:00.000+01:00

For me the Illustration Friday topic, crowded, conjured up pictures of a busy, polluted city which is what I attempted to portray here. I actually used the crappiness of my digital camera to try and get a smoggy effect from my sketch!

I am off on holiday soon to San Francisco, so I hope to come back with some more positive, cleaner inspiration!

Easter sketchings

2005-03-28T23:32:00.000+01:00

Spent some of the Easter weekend brushing up on my photoshop skills, and wishing I had a tablet. Still, the fruits of my labour can be seen below!

Compare to my original sketch here.

Car Essentials

2005-03-24T09:56:00.000Z

My flat-mate is currently learning to drive, and after her parents bought her a nice, shiny, new car (not that I'm jealous or anything) they went on an enourmous shopping spree to fill it with all kinds of unneccesary crap - from bug-shaped air freshners to pressure gauge checkers.

Personally I've never really had an interest in cars, it's just something I never got into. My old banger gets me from A to B and I'm happy with that! But despite this, I decided to compile a list of essentials that any discerning individual should have in their car anyway:

Driving Tunes - oh yeah, none of this crap pop stuff. I'm talking full on cruising anthems like Uncle Kracker and Tom Petty. ooo and one of those tape things to plug your CD player to that dated car stereo.
The AA Girly Map - An essential item for those long, complicated journeys.
Water - Cars get thirsty too.
Lots of sweets - Preferably from here.
First Aid Kit - Accidents happen and car surfing is dangerous.
Pound Coin - For releasing shopping trolleys at the supermarket when stocking up on item 3.
Shades - You never know when you might have to try and look cool.

What horrors lurk in the back of your car?

Bored?

2005-03-23T14:14:00.000Z

Watch this for a laugh. You gotta love the expression on the ladies face.

Alternatively, you could try your luck at bobbing for sea urchins. I can't see it catching on myself.

My wee voice

2005-03-23T13:55:00.000Z

With my freshly found interest in all things blog, I've been scouring the 'blogsphere' (as I believe it's called) and found some wonderul examples of great blogs and creativity. I had no idea there was so much to learn.

I stumbled across this article this morning. What an amazing piece - I feel that is exactly the point I am at now, my impulsions to discover and learn more about illustration are pretty much summed up here! Thanks must go to Fishbucket for the huge array of links, among which I found the article.

My own illustrations are slowly improving, I'm experimenting with different ways of converting them to neat computer graphics so I'm picking up lots of tricks in Photoshop too. Look out for some more characters appearing soon!

It's official...I'm stupid

2005-03-22T12:00:00.000Z

Apparently when it comes to this game I found, the more intelligent you are, the longer it takes you to work it out.

I got it first time. Hopefully I'm not alone.

Charactar Illustration - First Attempts

2005-03-21T13:41:00.000Z

Here's some simple sketches that I've been trying out. Now be gentle, these are my first attempts at character illustration!

The expression on old Daisy here just came out so bemused that I had to have something completely mad happening! The slightly crazy looking guy was inspired by Illustration Friday whose current topic was 'fragile'. I took this to mean mental!

This third one is actually a character I just wanted to practice previously done by Fitz - see if you can find his rather more pro version!

Here is a grumpy farmer type character that I came up with, and shows the converted sketch too.

Cartoons and characters

2005-03-18T10:07:00.000Z

The gig went A LOT better last night thankfully, egos are back on track and optimism is flowing again! Hopefully the trend will continue for our weekend session! Enough of that though, I have a new passion to share...

I've recently developed an interest in all things cartoony - particularly character illustration art. You know those cartoons of people or animals that look slightly ridiculous, but somehow you know just what they're feeling and what they'd be like if you met them in a bar? Well thats what fascinates me at the mo!

I have a reasonably artistic family but I don't claim to be any good at this yet - but hopefully I'm improving with practice. Soon I'm going to try and upload some sketches I've been trying, and eventually want to try doing some drawing or animation in Flash. I'd love to be able to come up with great sketches like these:

Cartoons by Fitz!

This is (unfortunately) not one of mine, but by an artist whose great site and characters I discovered by accident while searching for some art resources, check him out!

You win some...

2005-03-17T09:56:00.000Z

...and you lose some.

So last night we had a gig at a London University. Not a bad venue, only problem was it was somehow doomed from the start. In-fact before we even started - our guitarist managed to have a car accident on the way down to the gig after only two days of driving. An unusual event one might think, but no this has happened before last time we played!! (Luckily all involved were ok by the way)

Another problem was it was not so much a gig night as a Fine Art students' club event. Now I don't have a problem with Fine Art students at all, but it was actually one of the only gigs we have done where people had not specifically come to see us (or anyone) play. Somewhat disheartening, more so for our frontman who kicked off a little at the "crowd" towards the end. We chalked it down to experience, and practice for our next one...tonight!!

Gigs and Tuning

2005-03-16T10:19:00.000Z

My band has a gig tonight - though it's a private one so we won't know anyone there - sometimes this is a good thing, new ears and all that, but sometimes can make for a boring post-gig experience.

We've been asked to play Shepherds Bush Empire on May 6th as part of a charity doo. This is a huge venue by our normal standards so will be very scary! It's kind of encouraged me to get into my drumming a bit more and I've been doing some rudimentary practice again, I may even get some lessons again at some point. It also spurred me into searching out some good new heads for the bands drum kit - so I'm hoping they should improve the sound of the kit lots.

Tuning of a drum seems very hard to me. Now don't laugh, I know you're thinking how hard can it be? I've done lots of research into the best way to tune a drum up and followed every instruction but sometimes it seems I just end up going round in circles trying to match the pitch around the drum. I swear sometimes my ears even play tricks on me, and if I concentrate hard enough you can get a sound to appear lower or higher in pitch than another just by imagining it is! I hope it's not just me that fins this so hard.

This one's still going strong

2005-03-15T13:54:00.000Z

So here it is my first blog! All seems to be in correct working order - I guess my main interest for starters is my drums - I first started playing at around age 14. This was mainly because my other friends were in a band, but they didn't have a drummer. I'd always been able to tap around in time and hold down a basic beat so I decided to take the plunge and see what I could do.

A while after just messing with the school kit, I somehow persuaded my parents to buy me my first shiny kit! A black NewSound kit, which I now realise is quite horrendous and cheap sounding - but to this day is still dutifily sat in my parent's house! I'm 24 now and I'm still playing, and still gigging more so than ever. Here's where I surprised my parent's I think.

I suppose here is a good time to shamelessly plug my band that I currently play in...check the link!! more about this soon though...

Well hello

2005-03-15T13:45:00.000Z

Ever had your parents utter the words "It's only a phase..." ? Yeah, me too - okay sometimes they were right but sometimes they were wrong too and I still have a keen interest in lots of things I discovered a long time ago.

I have a habit of getting deeply into things, lots of things. I have changing passions, maybe we all do and I've decided what I need at the moment is a Blog. Why? Well, I don't know, and maybe this is just another phase but I'd like to share with you and discuss what it is that I am currently passionate about - and maybe you'd like to share your passions with me too!