What did you want to be when you grew up?
(OK, my first answer is “a lawyer” but let’s pretend that that’s not true, shall we?)
Author: Alasdair
Aaah, globalisation
I have just bought Australian Wine from a German website, to be shipped to the UK, and paid in dollars.
On the bright side, I paid in dollars, so it was cheap.
[Book And Album Reviews] Week 4
Running a little late here, so a couple of very short reviews for last week’s stuff.
This week’s book(s): Still Life
Donelly does a sort of celtic horror – the stories are generally set in Scotland, and rooted in (heavily fictionalised) myths and legends about ancient Druids and witchcraft. I still think his first book, Bane, that I read many years ago, is his best, but these three did manage to keep me nicely entertained for a week or so. While his books have common elements – he’s particularly fond of slapping a love story into them, and his works do tend to be written from a default position of of Decent Man looking after Capable-But-Still-In-Need-Of-Rescuing Woman – the books are different enough not not feel entirely like you’ve read the same thing from him before.
I would heartily recommend Bane to anyone, and of these three, I think Still Life was the strongest.
This week’s music: A to Z of Classical Music by Various Artists
Nope, still can’t do it. I do like this stuff, but it completely fails to command even a fraction of my attention. Were I buy classical music in a serious manner, I’d need to buy it, and sit doing nothing but listening to it. Which isn’t unreasonable, except that that’s not how I listen to music – I’m almost always doing something else with music playing, but I do like to be aware of the music, and with this, I’m just not – I might as well be sitting silence. Once in a blue moon, I’ll lie in bed and just listen, but even then, I want something that’s not going to let me drift into thinking about other stuff. I feel like a bit of a philistine, but there you go. Anyway, I’ve always got the jazz collection to prove that I do in fact listen to music for grown ups when the mood takes me.
Photo development help
Can anyone recommend me a place to get 120 film developed, or even just a guide as to how much I should pay? My local shop are charging me around the 20 quid mark for a roll of 16, plus a set of 6×4 prints and a digital copy.
And while I’m paying it as a one off, if this is the regular price, then I don’t expect I’ll be doing it terribly often, since that’s about the same price as I paid for the bloody camera.
(Anyone saying “learn to print your own” will be laughed at. While I wouldn’t mind, I think my housemates might object to my turning our toilet into a darkroom.)
A request
Tell me about examples of good design that you’ve seen recently.
I don’t just mean functional, or informative – in fact, I don’t give much of damn about what the thing does or is. I want you to show me examples of something that you thing is really cool, visually cutting edge, and still clear and comprehensible.
Adverts, websites, t-shits, whatever. I just want a wash of fresh design stuff that I haven’t seen.
(I really really must sort out that subscription to Creative Review.)
Obsession
Reading an article this morning, The Design Disease, reminded me of something I’ve long held to be true – that while you or I might create Art now and again, it’s not the same thing as the urge to be an Artist. (Or in this case Designer.)
Everyone I know who has become a successful (by which I mean: makes their living doing it, and receives at least modest acclaim from their peers in the field) creative type has one thing in common – brain damage. They’re obsessed with their field. I swear to god, I could go round my friends with creative aspirations, and point fingers saying “will make it”, “Will do a few bits and bobs, might make a modest living”, “no chance”, purely on the basis of the level of their obsession. I’d be right about 95% of the time.
It’s a long documented thing, the thin line between Artist’s gift and madness. But the thing I find most interesting is the idea that it can be taught. You can make yourself an obsessive, with a brain that is optimised to do certain things, and you will do better than your contemporaries. All you need to do is be willing to sacrifice a bit of your normal human function in exchange. For some people, this is no contest at all. Others, they hold a bit of themselves back, in fear.
Probability Beach
Were I to attempt a videoblog, this is where I feel the bar currently is.
Whoops.
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City Dweller
The first appearance of cross-processing on this blog. This is a technique where normal colour film is processed with the chemicals that are supposed to be used on slide film, or vice versa. Obviously, I do it with a photoshop filter, but the effect is the same – slightly unreal colours, and a sort of dirty sharpness that plays into the effect I’m after here.
That’s probably all I’ve got from Exit – there are a couple more shots I’m still playing with, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make anything of them.
If I’m slow at responding this week
It’s because someone has unfortunately afflicted the electric internet pixies in our phone line with a case of the black death. We’ve dumped their little digital carcasses in a plague pit, and we’ve got a fresh batch on order but apparently there’s a quarantine period, and BT won’t let us have a fresh lot in until Monday.
(I’ll stop torturing the metaphor now.)
I won’t be on-line outside of office hours. If you want to get hold of me, use the mobile. Or your hands.