The last post

I'm under doctor's orders to not use computers for a month in order to try and ease my RSI so Dublog will be static for a while. McJunk, Pindown videos and MA research are obviously all on hold. Check back here in a month or so and hopefully I'll be posting again with mended hands and observing all the health and safety advice about posture, avoiding f***ing laptops and not allowing my obsessive work ethic to get the better of me. So, as you are reading this, all I have to say is Sit Up, Look Sharp, to paraphrase Dizzee. I'm off to do some drawing and read some books for a month. Ta ta.

Glasto girl

Callie's Official Review of Glastonbury;

Blur- Fantastic
Nick Cave- Very good
Bon Iver- Very good
Bruce Springstein- if he'd sang one more song I would have thrown a stone at him to make him stop
The Specials- Good
Spinal Tap- dreadful- accidently saw them
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Alright
Bat for Lashes- a bit dull
Neil Young- Excellent
The Doves- Very Good
Camping- Hell on earth

Human interface

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

And dead

Mark Thomas is celebrating. Thanks Ken.

Blame it on the boogie

When Steven Wells signed off his last piece of writing before he died, little did he know the ironic connotations of the last line. As the press hype up a world going stupid idiot mental over a dead pop star, Boff of Chumbawamba pays tribute to Steven Wells who would have had a field day with this current farcical praise of pomposity and egotism. Read it here on Chumbawamba's blog. It puts things in perspective a little.

Mc300

For eager Dublog readers (the select few), you may have wondered why this blog's header still contains the phrase 'recent work', considering most of my postings of late have been more of the 'interests and throwaway comments' variety. Well, here's a brief round up of all things Dubdog, outside of talking about graphic design for a living in the day job.

McJunk is still ongoing and in fact, it turned 300 today. I posted here a while ago that I was looking at putting on McExhibition and this is still on the cards. I'm getting large prints done every month to level out some of the costs and I'm looking into different display formats and framing options. In the meantime I have also started writing and designing McBook to bring together the myriad of reasons for my continuation of this project. McBook will service two main functions; firstly it will give McJunk some context outside of observational photography and it will also act as an exhibition catalogue which I will use to help secure gallery space. Of course, if there are any Dublog readers who have any inroads in this area (gallery space that is), I'm open to suggestions. McBook will be self published through Lulu.com and will be available to buy online.

The book will take a while to get together, as will all the exhibition material. This is not just down to the day job but also because I'm also currently stepping up the pace (ever so slightly) on the Pindown front. In response to the relative success of our recent gig in Colchester, I'm working on some back drop visuals for Pindown for future live outings. I will also soon be writing new lyrics to accompany Jason's current spurt of musical creativity. This is all in preparation for going into a studio to record new tracks and stuff we've had knocking around for a few years but have never properly recorded. This should all see the light of day in a new Pindown release scheduled for late 2009, early 2010.

More details of all these projects will be released here as and when they unfold.

R.I.P Swells

Forget Farrah Fawcett, I've just heard the sad news that Steven Wells, journalist and poet, has died. There would rarely be a week that I wasn't glued to a Swells review or interview in the NME in the 80s. He lambasted most bands for the pompous self loving smug idiots the majority of them were. Not to say I always agreed with his tastes, but he was never, ever, a dull read. The closest we've got in mainstream journalism today is Charlie Brooker. There's a tribute here, and his last article here. For a sample of a rather tame (for him) rant about the Manic Street Preachers in 1999, go here.

Just play

Doesn't matter what order you play them in, it works - just play. Musical experiment by Darren Solomon here.

Batman, but better

Pixel chair