London graf and paste ups

Stencil near Old Street (click to enlarge)

Paste-up near Old Street (click to enlarge)

Sticker near Shoreditch (click to enlarge)

Paste-up near Brick Lane (click to enlarge)

Been a while since I've posted up any of my observations, so here's a few from the other night from around Shoreditch and Hoxton. Noticed a wicked piece on Old Street too, but will need to go back in during the day to get pics that will do it justice. Watch this space...

Meat case

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Don't know much about this, but it was on the Lifelounge site a few weeks back. From an Australian artists recent macarbe show in Melbourne. Thought it was awesome, so posting it up for comment from those who haven't seen it already. Ace.

Your First Album Cover in 4 Easy Steps

A friend sent me this today, and it's a great exercise, and brilliant fun too. Have a go following the 4 steps outlined below:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Note: you can't always pull pics off flickr (some people have their photos locked and you'll get a spaceball.gif). In this case, just refresh and go for the third pic of the refreshed screen.

4 - Use Photoshop (or similar) to put it all together.

5 - Post it to Facebook as a note and tag the friends you want to join in (inc. me, 'cause I wanna see yours too...)

International sevens tournament at Westpac stadium

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Wellington has just hosted the annual international sevens tournament in glorious weather over 2 days last week. The tournament has been running there for several years now, and is more of a fancy dress party than a rugby tournament. While some of the best players in the world battle it out on the pitch, the punters party it up in the stands.

Each year the costumes get more and more outrageous. This year was no exception. after much deliberation, I refrained from filling my blog with these pics. You can check them out yourself, but I did love this areal pic of the magnificent Westpac stadium at night.

http://www.nzisevens.co.nz/

Bush fire worst non-war disaster in Aussie history

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The number of people killed by the devastating Black Saturday bush fires that swept through SE Australia last week has claimed over 180 lives. Public anger over the worst bush fires in Australia's history remains high. Mr Sokaluk (the arsonist responsible for helping it along) was moved from Morwell, where he was questioned by police, to a cell in Melbourne for his own safety. As the van carrying him pulled out of the town, enraged locals pounded on the doors and yelled abuse.

The Australian government has announced there will be a national day of mourning on Sunday to honour the victims of the Victorian bush fires.

The death toll from the blazes stands at 189, but is expected to pass 300.

This isn't the sort of thing I usually post on my blog, but on good thing (?) that came out of it was some spectacular photography.

There has been a bushfire victim's tribute site set up if you feel like giving your sympathys or donations to those affected by this tragic situation:

http://au.respectance.com/Bushfire_Victims/memorial/?gclid=CLOS8KeW4pgCFQ0vQgodRHvadA

Some nice typography from Argentina

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Came across some nice typo examples in the weekend. You know when you find a site with some links that lead to other cool sites, which lead to more cool sites, which ultimately leads to a database of great designers profile pieces...

This piece is by Andres Cambiasso from Argentina, and shows some surprising skill in balance and composition. Not sure what the piece was designed for, but I liked it, so stuck it up. Loads of great work on the site (and some pretty average stuff too), but you get that.

Check the site if type & design are your bag. The designers profile list runs down the left hand side. There must be over 100 designers profiled, so it'll take you a while to get thru them all - or you can be smart (like me) and do it in installments:

http://www.typographicposters.com

More great stuff on the streets of Melbourne

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My man in Melbourne is definitely doing the rounds. He must be snapping every day on his way to work or something. Posting up a prolific amount of great stuff. He's managed to find some Banksy rats, and I love this TMNT piece too. Check out Blacklodge!!s pics on:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebadseed/

Style tips from Goldie at Matter

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Friday night, plan was set. Jagen, Paul & yours truely had tix to Ram Records bumper night at Matter. We'd been looking forward to this for ages. The lineup was a veritable who's who of D&B, and read like my wish-list. Andy C, Fabio, Chase and Status, Goldie, Hype, Subfocus, Red One, Noisia, D Bridge, Skream to highlight just the tip of the iceberg.

Got down there without a hitch. Free shuttle bus from the station was a nice touch too (thanks to our driver Dan). Thru the doors and security baboons, easy coat check and straight up to room 2 via the mezzanine, from where you could check the main area below, and the VIP area above.

Matter was rammed (as you'd expect with a Ram Records line up), but it was still easy enough to move around, as long as you weren't trying to break through the middle of the dance floor in the main room. The bar runs virtually the full length of the main room, and there's another one in the second room.

Unfortunately our night was cut short when I had a hypo, and after being marched out by a bouncer, seen by a medic who knew very little anything medical, etc... we found ourselves outside at the rear exit. After continued arguments with the head of security (more like the bad ape from Planet of the...) it was obvious we weren't getting back in.

So, Jagen and I were waiting out in the cold for Paul. That's when we were joined by (the infamous) Goldie. He had the biggest grin I've ever seen on a dj, obviously highlighted by the spotlights glinting on his gold teeth. He put his arm around Jagen and said "don't know if the sideburns are really working bro", laughed, and whipped off back to his crew. The thing that was the most amazing is that he'd left his crew and come all the way over to us just to pass comment on the sideys. Awesome.

Life in Lego - Wieden+Kennedy blog

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Came across a nice little bit of inspiration on the Wieden+Kennedy blog this morning. The story is about a father from NY who spent the winter months in Berlin with his 2 young sons, playing games with them in their room. Scanning the clatter of toys on the floor, he came across Lego and, in a moment of homesickness for NY, created some nice little pieces of Lego imitating life...

Lifelounge 103 - The Xanadu Edition

It's a little known fact that Xanadu (advertised as "the most dazzling romantic musical fantasy ever", FYI) was remade in the 90s with a male lead. The straight-to-DVD release starred Chingy (hit-maker and rapper extraordinaire) on the rollerskates, hitting the high notes of the title song, and romancing Mariah Carey. It was banned in most countries but went to #1 in Tuvalu where a large number of viewers suffered seizures.

Because it's not all work and no play

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In fact it's no work at all. For those readers not from the UK or NZ, you may be unaware that London has been hit hard for 2 days by huge snowfalls, in fact the heaviest dump in 18 years. No airports, all schools closed, no bus services, no train services, limited tube services, and limited work output given no one can get to work. It is estimated that on the first day London businesses may have lost somewhere in the vicinity of 1.3b pounds.

Still, on the bright side, a couple of days to run around making snow men and photographing familiar locations covered in the white stuff. This is Regents Park in central London. Usually lush and green, but today fairly monochromatic (mainly white with a bit of black).

More pics up on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamstar/sets
or facebook: Hamish Macaulay

Eat Static at Inspiral Lounge

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Last night Yorick managed to convince me to go to the Inspiral Lounge on the banks of the Camden cana for the Eat Static 20 year anniversary gig. I was familiar with the band - I'd been into their weird experimental electronic meanderings from the early 90's, so it was a blast from the past. Eat Static used to be a 3 piece (Merv Pepler, Joie Hinton and Steve Everitt), but now stripped down to one (Merv).

Inspiral is a great little space - intimate lounge bar/cafe upstairs and another little lounge space downstairs, which you can access the canal bank from for more outdoor water side action. This place is straight from Amsterdam, and is certain to go off in summer with a roof top deck as well.

We got to meet Merv before the gig, and he was a top bloke. Well edgy and the obvious result of 20 years of chemical experimentation. His set was top notch, and we had a great time.