McJunk website

Link:

McJunk website

McJunk on Facebook

McJunk has finally made it to Facebook. Uploaded already are the original Polaroid photographs that started the whole thing off 10 years ago. This is currently the only place where these are viewable, except the one published here, which is the only Polaroid image to make it into the book after the rest were culled.

Link:

McFacebook

This is what a year sounds like 2010

OK, here goes the annual round up of everything I've bought, downloaded, borrowed and been given music wise in 2010.

I tend to judge what I consider to be the best on the amount I've returned to things throughout the year. On that basis, Liars' 'Sisterworld' and These New Puritans' 'Hidden' have got to be up there, as has Sufjan Steven's 'All Delighted People' EP. Massive Attack's broody 'Heligoland' also became a repeat player at various points throughout 2010.

On the pop front, the Gorillaz album and Momford & Sons were on constant replay in the car for a while but I haven't gone back to either since the summer.

Some albums have grown on me the more I've left them alone. For example, I thought The National's 'High Violet' hugely disappointing compared to the first single and having given it several goes after buying it, it was confined to the bottom reaches of my iPod until a few weeks ago when I gave it another go. I'm now really getting into it. Similarly Gil Scott Heron's 'Im New Here' (particularly New York Is Killing Me).

Bonny 'Prince' Billy continues to disappoint (has he peeked?) and Grinderman equally failed to impress with their second release, just as they did with their first.

I've been loving the Crass reissues, which were remarkably well timed to coincide with the student anti-fees demos and the word 'anarchists' being bandied about the news again. Spooky. Two other conjunctions included buying the first Big Audio Dynamite CD and some of Elvis Costello's back catalogue. This first was prompted by a visit to the Mick Jones's Rock & Roll Public Library and the second by visiting Process, the Barney Bubbles exhibition; oh and the fact that the new Elvis Costello release was Jools Holland fodder, (that's an insult by the way, in case you couldn't tell).

However, if nothing else, 2010 for me was the year I 'got' jazz. First up was going to see The Ex with Brass Unbound in Tufnell Park which is definitely up there with one of the best gigs I've ever seen. The melding of frenetic choppy riff laden and African rhythm influenced punk with an amaziningly chaotic freeform brass jazz band blew me away. Then came Jerry Dammer's Spacial AKA Orkestra in Brighton which was a joy from start to finish, particularly hearing the reworkings of Ghost Town and Man at C&A. And then, what has got to be the best release of the year for me, the one I keep returning to the most, is Polar Bear's 'Peepers'. Prompted by reviews and bored with many other styles of music, I gave it a punt. Truly astounding musicianship constantly on the verge of falling apart. Organised sonic chaos indeed. Thoroughly looking forward to seeing them when they play Ipswich in April.

These three events alongside gifts and purchases of The Ex's jazz collaborations past and present prompted a borrowing of selected CDs from a jazz buff work colleague (thanks Dave). The Bad Plus and Esbjörn Svensson Trio's 'Leucocyte' have both been big hits for me (although on borrowing other EST stuff, Leucocyte seems to have been a lucky break). And now I'm the proud owner of a box set of DVDs about Jazz courtesy of a Christmas present from Claire that I'm sure will influence my musical tastes for 2011.

The list…

Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties

Heavy Trash - Midnight Soul Serenade

Vampire Weekend - Contra

Radiohead - In Rainbows Disk 2

Radiohead - These Are My Twisted Words

These New Puritans - Hidden

The Imagined Village - Empire & Love

The Maccabees feat Roots Manuva - Empty Vessels

The Ex - Double Order, Maybe I Was The Pilot

The Ex + Tom Cora - Scrabbling At The Lock

Massive Attack - Heligoland

Seasick Steve - Man From Another Time

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Kollaps Tradixionales

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here

BangStick! - Ring of Salt

The Selecter - Too Much Pressure

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Dans Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - The Logic of Chance

Autechre - Oversteps

Liars - Sisterworld

Bonnie 'Prince' Billie - The Wonder Show of the World

Opa Hey! - Kottarashky

The Upsetters - The Upsetter

Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths - Young, Gifted and Black

Harry Js All Stars - Liquidator

Lou Reed and John Cale - Songs for Drella

Micah P Hinson - All Dressed Up and Smelling of Strangers

Dave Formula - Satellite Sweetheart

Polar Bear - Peepers

The Fall - Your Future, Our Clutter

John Eden - RSI Radio 4

Konono No. 1 - Assume Crash Position

The National - High Violet

Pavement - Quarantine the Past

These Are End Times - We Have Come So Far, It Is Over

The Bundles - The Bundles

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Various - Too Old To Be New, Too New To Be Classic: DFA Gets Cheap with Bleep

Big Audio Dynamite - This is…

Stornoway - Beachcomber's Windowsill

Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island

Jon Langford & Kay Ex - KatJonBand

Television - Marquee Moon

Wire - A Bell Is A Cup Until It Is Struck

Chemical Brothers - Further

The Ex Guitars Meet Nilssen-Love/Vandermark Duo, Vol 1 - Lean Left

Colin Newman - A-Z

Electricity In Our Homes - We Agree Completely

Four Tet - There Is Love In You

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty

Autechre - Move of Ten

M.I.A - /\/\ /\ Y /\

The Ex - Dizzy Spells

The Ex & Guests - Instant

Ex Orkest - Een Rondje Holland

The Books - The Way Out

Ornette Colman - The Sound Of Jazz To Come

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Skream - Outside The Box

UNKLE - Where Did The Night Fall

Various - Randy's 50th Anniversary Reggae Anthology

Niney The Observer - Roots with Quality Reggae Anthology

Micah P Hinson - Pioneed Saboteurs

Mogwai - Special Moves

Grinderman - Grinderman 2

Roots Manuva meets Wrongtom - Duppy Writer

Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Leucocyte

Bojan Zulfikarpasic - Solobsession

The Ex - Catch My Shoe

The Ex & Tom Cora - And The Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders

The Ex - Too Many Cowboys

Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

Tricky - Mixed Race

Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP

Various - Around Robert Wyatt

Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love

Everything Everything - Man Alive

Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen - For The Ghosts Within

Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

Lee 'Scratch' Perry - The Black Ark Years, The Jamaican 7"s 1974 - 1979

The Bad Plus - Give

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, National Ransom

Various - Producers: Lee Perry vs Niney The Observer

The Jim Jones Revue - Burning Down The House

The Beat - Wha'ppen

Wire - The Drill

Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon

Crass - Stations of the Crass, Crassical Collection

The Fall - The Marshall Suite

This Mortal Coil - Filigree & Shadow

That Petrol Emotion - Manic Pop Thrill, Babble

Polar Bear & Jyager - Common Ground

Brian Eno - Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Ninja Tune XX Vol 1 & 2

Five hundred plus

As many people opened their presents on Christmas morning, the good people of Ipswich, in association with McDonald's, gave me the gift of allowing McJunk to turn 500. As Claire and I walked Timmy over our local park my trusty camera phone was put to good use documenting this monumental occasion. Check Flickr for images (link right).

Quick book update: every thing is set to go for 1 Jan 2011. More details here soon in the next couple of days as I the finalise promo copy, sort out some postcards and knock up a website.

Furniture vs midnight mass

RIP Celia Stothard

I was lucky enough to see the poster artist Alan Kitching speak about his life and work a couple of years ago. It was extremely touching as he had to take breaks because he was getting overwhelmed with emotion as he was realising, mid-talk to a room packed full of design lecturers, that many of the people he was mentioning as having been a great influence on him had passed away. It was really quite moving as he chocked on his own words and asked the audience to bare with him while he composed himself.

It is with this in mind that it is very sad to hear the death of Kitching's long-time partner Celia Stothard. The design community has lost one half of a creative partnership that produced many iconic posters. I particularly like the story of the two of them blowing their pension on a huge collection of theatrical type. As Celia wrote of their finding the collection in Eye 74:

"Alan climbed up a ladder to check a range of condensed letters stacked on the barn wall shelves. Some had become damp and infested with woodworm. They would have to be dried out and treated, but first the make-ready (random bits of printed paper, glued to the underside of letters to bring them to type height) would have to be removed. As I logged, measured and photographed cabinets and randoms of type around the barn, I heard a shout of ‘Schwitters!’ and joined Alan, looking in amazement at the first of many examples of the Wrington pressmen’s unconscious ‘make-ready’ art, reminiscent of Dada collages.

Alan already had enough type in his ‘palette’ but the prospect of working with this range and scale was thrilling. In June that year I had up-sized from a two-room flat in SW7 to a former alehouse in Kennington SE11. I had envisaged Alan and some of the Typography Workshop in the covered rear yard, but almost an entire print works? Still, there was plenty of room on the ground floor, the joists could take the weight and the old beer cellar was dry. Who else would or could do it?

Perhaps it was the full moon over the horseshoe atop the Organ’s barn door, or the sweet Somerset air that added to the feeling of fate, but I turned to Alan: ‘Pension payments or this?’ ‘This!’ we chorused and returned to London to make the bid."

RIP

Links:
Eye announcement
Celia Stothard - 'Buy a pension or…' Eye 74
Fine words article, Eye
Vauxhall Society Obituary

So much to do

SoMuchToDo
Originally uploaded by eyemagazine

x mass

RIP Don Van Vliet

Shhh

The Guardian, 07.12.10.

Unlearn to relearn

After three weeks of using a PC at work (my staff iMac was in a computer hospital), I'm now struggling to get back into Apple keystrokes at home.

I'd become used to strange menus appearing every time I hit the wrong keys as I retrained my fingers for a Dell keyboard.

Now I'm working at home on my Mac desktop, I'm trying to unlearn in order to relearn!

And who's bright idea was it to shift the f#<*ing speech marks and 'at' symbol around?

Detail, please.

The vacuous phrase 'moving forward' seems to be on trend at the moment.

I'm hearing it everywhere; at work, in the press, in meetings, online, in interviews.

But without context it is meaningless—moving forward from what and to what?

On its own, moving forward equals standing still.

Detail, please.

Walker on the wild side

Last night Claire and I attended the Private View of Russell Walker's exhibition at University Campus Suffolk. There is some fantastic, well crafted and iconic work on display, and I'm not just saying that because Russell is a work colleague and friend of mine.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to take any photos of what was an amazingly well attended private view, considering the weather conditions, but Russell and I returned this morning with students where I took these shots.



Titled Friends & Acquaintances, the exhibition showcases 30 years of character based work that according to Russell, "capture either a time or illustrate an emotional attitude experienced through my engagement with literature, the arts and fascinating individuals".



The exhibition poster and catalogue cover (above) was designed in a collaboration between Russell and typographer/designer Jonathan Barnbrook, and on display are musical influences, working materials and books that have inspired his work.





This free exhibition comes highly recommended and is on Monday to Friday until 23 Dec at the Waterfront Gallery, Ipswich.





More photos to follow on Flickr.

Exhibition details
Getting there

McHard

I got the hardback McJunk through the post on Thursday. I'm generally really impressed, but test copies always throw up a lot of issues previously unconsidered.



For a start, I've decided to abandon the paperback version. The size of the prints and the overall feel of the book just didn't justify the price I'd have to charge for it. This was made blindingly clear when I held both the hardback and the paperback editions in my hands and I realised a £10 price difference didn't translate into tangible value. There will now only be a promotional paperback version which won't be available to buy.



I'm also rethinking the inclusion of the Polaroid McJunk shots. They may be axed or included in with the introduction text.

Layout and type size issues are bothering me and the bleed on the endpapers is a disaster. Even though I've artworked correctly, it appears I'm not going to be able to trust Blurb's print registration so this needs a rethink also (see below). There are numerous other details I won't go into here.

Needless to say this is pushing the publication date back even further, but this is no bad thing as we approach the end of the year and I'm thinking a 2011 release date could play into my hands as far as publicising the book anyway. I'm now aiming for a release date of 01 Jan 11.

Anyway, I've had some invaluable feedback from those whose opinions I trust enough to show this too in the flesh at this formative stage. So thanks Russell, Dave, Heike, Matt, Ken and obviously Claire, my most astute critic without whom I'd never formulate my half baked ideas into fully formed content.

Keep a pen handy

Dan Welsh

A few weeks ago I invited final year UCS graphic design students to give advice to first year graphic design students via the medium of posters. There's not enough room to show them all here, but for those with blogs that have posted about the project, check the links below:

Abandon Modesty

Cream of the Crop

Design Shenanigans

Obsession

Luke Mitchell

Sean Cooper, Candice Alvarez, Tara Gardner, Vicky Patmore, James Tye

Peasant in the big city

I've been up and down the East Anglian line between Ipswich and London this last week so much I'm beginning to get to know the people who work at Delice de France on Liverpool Street Station.

A student trip to the Barbican Curve gallery on Friday took in the Damián Ortega show. The Mexican artist has responded to a newspaper article everyday for a month. He's produced some dramatic and inventive installations in response to a challenging schedule that sees doors and window frames floating above your head in response to a story about a hurricane, an airplane made out of cigarettes to represent Ryanair's CE denying the existence of climate change and a bicycle impossibly laden with a fridge, bed, suitcases etc in reference to an article about refugees. Well worth a visit, and it's free. Details here.

I covered a stand at the Design Your Future UCAS event at ExCel for University Campus Suffolk on Tuesday.

There appeared to be lots of interest in graphic design from the visiting FE students. This was mirrored across other universities from the fellow exhibitors I spoke to. This is a bit of a change from last year which saw a fairly even mix of interest across creative disciplines.

The UCAS event aside, and the hideousness of the inside of the ExCel Centre, I found the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) strangely appealing.

I was in London again on Thursday evening, unfortunately not traversing the pleasures of the DLR, but instead for a lecture by Creative Review editor Patrick Burgoyne for The Typographic Circle titled 'On Liking'. The talk went from Facebook to the 2012 Olympic logo, Crouwell vs Smile In The Mind designer preferences, Exactitude (check it out), rational and emotional judgements, Pimentel & Heckler's theories into persuasive imagery, what he termed the Twiggy Nadir ("if I see that M&S advert one more time I will kill someone"), as well as discussing examples of the designer's challenge to get clients to 'like' their work over and above rational explanations about appropriateness. He then opened the mic up to the floor where creatives discussed their experiences of getting clients to like their proposals. I managed to sneak a quick word with Patrick afterwards and he seemed to like the fact I'd banned students from using the word 'like'.

So, an interesting week all round that has sparked lots of trains of thought, and lots of thoughts of trains and a dream of getting the DLR to extend to Ipswich.

Blurb deliver

A test print of the paperback of McJunk is back and it has provoked much thought, as well as much marker pen action over glossy pages.

The print quality, for what it is, I'm impressed by - and I'm pretty choosy. However, I'm now having an internal debate about charging £20 for a 40 page paperback book. I'm on the verge of cancelling the paperback, except for promotional copies.

I now can't wait to see the hardback, which should arrive tomorrow.

Cat sat…

This is Gladys. She likes sitting on my notebook.

A generally happy file.

A message from Blurb.com

Linotype

"Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

Drawww

I've submitted an update of a piece of work I posted here 3 years ago to Can You Draw The Internet. This is a competition that pits 10 year olds against grown up creatives.

Submissions close on 12 Nov, if you think you're hard enough!

With thanks to Steven Ball.

Mwunk

Things have been incredibly busy for the last few weeks day job wise, so the progress on McJunk hasn't been as rapid as I would have hoped, but there is progress. This chipping away at little jobs is at least making some headway.

The folios are now done for both Large and Regular versions. A Sunday morning of RSI inducing cutting, pasting and editing sorted that one out. It took an age for the registration of my first ISBN to appear on the Nielson UK ISBN Agency online publishing service, but it's there now (after an email prompt yesterday). Somehow the title was changed to 'Mwunk' somewhere between me sending the forms off and a Nielson employee inputting the data, so I've had to update that. I have also now applied to assign my next ISBN number to McJunk Regular, something I couldn't do until the first title appeared online. Here's hoping both these won't take too long. I don't know whether Nielson have a priority system, and I'd understand if they did, considering they deal with all UK publishers and Dubdog is small fry, but time will tell.

In updating the details on their site, I discovered there is a BIC Subject Categories scheme for the UK book trade which classifies publications into subject areas. I was pleased to find that there is a specific code for Graphic Design. It is AKC in case you were wondering and I've now assigned it to McJunk.

So, once these are through (could be a 2 week wait, again), then I can get some ISBN barcodes. I'll then be ready to upload to Blurb, get proof copies and see this thing in the flesh at last. That's if I can settle on that tricky last paragraph.

Finally, this project had its first public outing after I gave a presentation about my design practice to final year graphic design students at UCS last Friday. I showed sample InDesign spreads and read them three paragraphs of text. Thankfully they were gentle on me.

Tedx'd

I went to TedxAldeburgh yesterday. An independently organised (but sanctioned by Ted.com) event that will hopefully become an annual affair. Hosted by Thomas Dolby (who is Ted's musical director), it featured great talks from David Toop; founding member of the Flying Lizards and now a research fellow at LCC and journalist, who spoke lyrically about silence; Martyn Ware, ex Human League and Heaven 17, who talked about his visual 3D sound experiments with Vince Clark; and United Visual Artists, who gave a presentation about their interactive graphic installations for Massive Attack, the V&A Museum, and other private commissions. Other speakers included Sarah Nicolls on physical pianos, Nick Ryan on sound games for iPhones and an interview between Thomas Dolby and William Orbit, who was remarkably down to earth.

These were all punctuated with Ted clips that included an excellent talk from David Byrne on how venues have influenced the way music is written and performed, and Evelyn Glennie who spoke about music/sound and hearing impairment.

Unfortunately I missed Tim Exile and Imogen Heap, both of whom were due to run into the evening and my lift couldn't stay longer, but by then I was a bit over loaded anyway.

A great day all round, with plenty to think about, both from a visual and sound perspective. This is highly recommended if it does come around again next year. Keep a eye on the TedxAldeburgh blog and Facebook pages, links below.

Cheers for the lift and company Dave.

TedxAldeburgh

TedxAldeburgh on Facebook

Ted.com

David Toop

Illustrious (Martyn Ware & Vince Clark)

United Visual Artists

RIP Gregory Issacs

Sad news of the Cool Ruler's death, Gregory Issacs.

Guardian link

Smoking

RIP it Up

I was saddened to hear today of Ari Up's death. The Slits were an important band, and only partly for their music. They gave punk an authentic female angle and a spirit that embraced 'crusty' long before that scene ever existed. Like many bands, they got worse the better they learnt how to play their instruments, (now that's a blog post list in waiting), but when they burned bright, they were truly brilliant. All you need is Cut, their fantastic first album. And their rendition of Heard It Through The Grapevine. When I found that 7", backing Typical Girls, at a car boot sale about 12 years ago, I played it back to back all day when I got it home. Although I'd heard it before, I felt like I was discovering music again. Took me back to when I heard the Buzzcocks Spiral Scratch EP for the first time at the tender age of 15 and the excitement it gave me. Grapevine would be on my desert island disc list.

I wanted to go to Chelsea

I spent the day in London today visiting 'must see' exhibitions with UCS graphic design students. I ended up at Tate Britain checking out the Muybridge show which I found much more engaging than I thought I would, but the main attraction was Process: The Working Practices of Barney Bubbles.

For those that don't know, Barney Bubbles created many of the sleeves for punk and post-punk pop favourites such as The Damned, Generation X, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Nick Lowe, and was Stiff Records' designer in residence. Before this he had a history of designing record sleeves for Glastonbury Festival and Hawkwind, as well as creating light shows for Pink Floyd, which is where his name was coined, as he mixed oil, water and ink and projected this to form psychedelic 'bubble' back drops for live shows.



It is only in the last few years that he has been getting much deserved recognition as he preferred anonymity to fame during his working lifetime, with much of his work going unsigned. 27 years after his death, with Paul Gorman's excellent 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' biography (2008), and this show, Barney Bubbles is finally being seen as a hugely important figure in the history of graphic design.



Paul Gorman was on site this morning and together with Donald Smith, Director of Exhibitions at Chelsea Space, kindly gave an introduction to Barney's working life and practices to students. The show was put together on the basis that most of the finished outcomes, (the products) were displayed along the entrance ramp, with the focus being squarely placed on Bubbles working methods. Sketches, Letraset and Rotring artwork, overlays of tracing paper with notes to printers and PMTs were all given pride of place. Students were amazed, enthralled and daunted in equal measures by the fact all the artwork was produced by hand - Barney committed suicide 2 weeks before the introduction of the Apple Mac in 1983.



The show unfortunately finishes this coming Saturday (23 Oct) but find below more images and links to Paul Gorman's blog, the Chelsea Space website, and unusually for Dublog, a link to Amazon for Reasons To Be Cheerful book; go buy it.

I look forward to the coming weeks where this exhibition will form much debate and discussion among students about process on display, ideas informing application, application informing ideas, and old school design methods.















Links:
Barney Bubbles blog
Chelsea Space
Chelsea Space 'Process' images
Reasons To Be Cheerful biography

Good fucking design advice

Loving this: Good fucking design advice

Agit mail

This week, on the same day, I received 2 pieces of communication via snail mail and email from friends both stating that they saw these and thought of me. Not sure what that says about me, or them.


This postcard came from the William Morris house and gallery in Walthamstow and is self explanatory. Thanks Dan.


The second item came from my friend Liz, who titled it Westminster Dicks. Thanks Liz.

Mentor 1930

978-0-9567146

I'm one step closer to adding a publishing wing to Dubdog as I received my ISBN prefix through today. I've never, ever been so excited about numbers as I was when I got the email earlier today, being math phobic as I am. I now have an Excel file, (something else that is rare) with 10 shiny ISBN numbers awaiting something to be attached to them.

Next up is registering with Nielsen's online publishing service, which carries a 5 day wait, so I can register the paperback version of McJunk with its own ISBN.

As for the book itself, I've been refining the introduction again. It was my colleague Dave who told me that 'writing is rewriting', and how true he is. It is definitely improving with each draft and I'm pretty much there with most of it, except for the last paragraph that is. This I'm really not happy with at the moment but I'm fairly certain I'm within grasp of nailing it.

Lastly, I imported the text into the InDesign file yesterday and was relieved that the text still fits the space allocated for it despite these umpteen rewrites.

ISBNed

The current incarnation of the McJunk (large) cover, subject to change.

McJunk is a step closer to publication now that I've actually ordered ISBN numbers for it. I say 'numbers' because as a new publisher I can't buy a single ISBN, but have to order a batch of 10. As I'm publishing two versions of McJunk, I'll have to find eight other books to publish under the Dubdog moniker to use up the remaining ISBNs. Hmmm, I feel an anthology of Bum Gravy and Pindown lyrics coming on. Or maybe not.

The two versions will be:
McJunk (large), 200 x 250mm, hardback, 80pp, full page photographs printed on premium paper.
McJunk (regular), 200 x 250mm, paperback, 40pp, multiple photographs to a page, paper as yet undecided.

The large version will obviously be of superior quality and cost considerably more than the regular version. It will also be deleted after an as yet undecided number of sales.


Imprint page awaiting ISBN number

Once the ISBNs are through, there are barcodes to order, and then I'm pretty much ready to publish after a final proof read, sorting the folios and ordering a proof copy from Blurb.

As in previous posts about McJunk I've decried the slow progress of this publication. So I've decided smaller, but more regular bursts of activity are much more likely to get this project completed while I've got other more important responsibilities to deal with (i.e. paid work).

Updates to follow as progress advances.

Where's me jumper?

September has been super busy. After the wedding of some good friends of ours at the end of August, we've been to Brighton 3 times, taken in some art by the sea, been to a private view of some UCS graduate students (well done Luke, Nicki & Tom), grown a moustache for a stag do (me, not Claire), seen the reformed Pop Group in that there London, and given our bedroom over to Claire's daughter and grandson and so have been living out of our front room for the last week. Oh, and then there's the day jobs stretching into evenings & weekends as well, and getting side tracked writing the odd post here! All of which means I'm even more behind schedule with the McJunk book. I should never have made a brash deadline statement online about completing a personal project. What's frustrating is that it's 90% done - someone give me 4 days straight and I'll have it wrapped up. Never mind. Some sort of normality is due to return this week, whatever that is, and hopefully I should be able to plan in time to mop up the remaining 10%. Believe me, you'll be the first to know.

In the meantime, here are a few things that have caught my eye over the last month. Sorry, no tash shots, that's far too embarrassing, but feel free to check out my upper lip menagerie on the Dubdog Flickr photostream.

Art on the Prom, Felixstowe:



Poor Richard, or poor books?



Remixed ad. Reminds me of those plastic puzzles where you have to shift squares around to complete an image (I was always useless at them):



My Garden, Your Litter, the follow up to The Fall's Your Future, Our Clutter?



And finally, in my office this morning I was caught by my shadow as I was about to rush out of the house:



And now my favourite season of the year has arrived, can anyone tell me where I put my jumper?

A team of highly trained monkeys

Searching for the Bug's new video on YouTube, I got a team of highly trained monkeys instead! Click on the image below to see larger version.




This was what I was actually looking for: