Thanks to the Guardian I’ve just learnt all about Matteo Pericoli, an Italian who moved to New York in 1996 and started doing beautiful line drawings as a hobby while he worked as an architect. This hobby evolved into something more serious, and now Pericoli has a series of books
Suddenly this morning all the empty London Cycle Hire bikestands are full (or semi-full) with spanking new bikes, along with intrigued Londoners staring at them. As of yet though I’ve only seen someone pushing a bike around, not actually cycling on one so no idea how they work in practice.
This is all very exciting, and now we just have to see how Londoners take to the scheme which has met with varying levels of success in other cities around the world. Hopefully it will get more cyclists on the road as planned and reduce some of the overhead on the city’s public transport, as well as helping to push London as a city for cyclists (we can but dream). As for me, I may sign up – even though I already have a bike – as we live in the central part of London it’s easy to just grab one, cycle to work and park it nearby. Then for any evening trips the same tactic can work without fear of bike theft and the hassle of locking them up.
Of course now we just have to see how the bikes survive the attentions of some of the more Neanderthal natures in British culture… from random destruction and ‘happy slapping’ to drunken cycling and urination. Excelsior!
The other weekend I went on a reccy round Soho to find a few Space Invaders I’d not seen. Oh, and to check out the new tyres on my bike as well. It’s amazing how easy a bike is to ride with new, fully inflated tyres, especially when central London is nice and quiet.
You can see the full set of photos from that day here, a total of 14 invaders – unfortunately six of which were already destroyed – another lesson to get out and about and see any invasions in your neighbourhood before its too late.
In related news, Invader has a newsletter out right now, which mentions some new prints at Pictures on Walls in July, and a new, official invasion in San Diego and a full ‘Invader Walk’. Check out the trailer here.
The 40th Glasto – sun & colours. (More Photos Here)
I’m finding it hard to remember when I first went to Glastonbury, the grand-daddy of all British summer festivals and arguably one of the best music festivals in the world. Perhaps is was when I was at University. It was definitely in the 90s, which by all accounts means I must have been in my teens (coff). The special mix of hippy travellers, being able to camp in the festival grounds and world class bands made it something special. A 24 hour cornucopia of sights and sounds and chai tea, amongst other things. That first year we had weather that could only be described as ‘traditional English summer’ – a mix of occasional sun, showers and chilly damp evenings. None of that dampened my enthusiasm, and Glastonbury found its way into my heart.
The years that followed always seemed incomplete when I didn’t manage to make it to Glasto, the affectionate shortening of its full ‘Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts’ title. Even after the first year of torrential rain and mud floods, a year that the organisers were woefully unprepared for as were the festival goers, Glasto’s siren call would be there. “Come. See strange and wonderful things. Listen to many great and random bands. Spend a few days in a tent trying to sleep next to thousands of other people making noises like sheep”. There are many memories. Laughing in the mud. Sitting by our campfire in the green fields watching people climb over the increasingly high metal fence, or even pushing it over to cheers from the whole campsite. Watching the sun set and then rise again over the stone circle. Roasting in a tent from 8am in the morning as the mid-summer sun hits the site. Circus performers on stilts. Mulled cider from a big red bus. The toilets, ah the toilets…
Yes, yes. I know I’m ridiculously behind on getting photos up from our Korea & Japan trip. In the meanwhile though ‘our’ official reviews of hotels from that trip have been published. So for your pleasure, explore the delights of the W Seoul Walkerhill, Four Seasons Tokyo Marunouchi and, my favourite, the Park Hyatt Tokyo. Mmm… you want to go to there.
Regular readers of this blog will know I’m a tad bit obsessed about Parisian street artist Invader. In fact this very afternoon was spent cycling round Soho updating my map of London invasions. Sad? Me? Anyways, in carrying out a bit more research I came across this video of Invader in action on the streets of London, cementing his 116th London invader to a wall. Hopefully I can get to it before some numpty takes it down.
Keep up the good work, Monsieur l’Invader!
Update: Here’s a picture of the invader.
(Not) Geishas in Kyoto
At the end of April this year we were lucky enough to head to Korea & Japan for two weeks. This was our first trip to this part of the world, and although it was way too short we did manage to squeeze in a lot – albeit mostly food. Oh, and taking some photos. About 7,000 of the buggers. I fear that I’m not quite at the ‘one exposure, per motive‘ level that I aspire to, and the side effect of this lack of in-viewfinder editing is a large amount of in-Lightroom editing.
So, as usual, apologies for not having posted any photos yet apart from the above, they will be up as soon as possible along with a full travelog. In the meantime all I can say is: Japan & Korea – you want to go to there. And we want to go back as soon as possible.
I just wanted to say that over all my years of travel there have been many websites that helped me out – but one really stands out of late. Kayak, which now owns rival SideStep, is a flight comparison engine that works in browser to search multiple flight sites and suggest the best price. It’s not always right when it gets to the final price, but even so it will generally point you in the direction of the cheapest flight. Thanks, Kayak!
Finally! My own 1972 New York subway map
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
It’s taken a while… but I finally have my very own 1972 Massimo Vignelli NYC Subway Map. Huzah! It’s not only a design classic, but a representation of a city I love from the year I was born. Ah, bless.
Thanks to Jem, map lover extraordinaire, for telling me about this map originally. Thanks to Anne for selling and packing them so carefully to make their journey to the U of K, arriving at roughly the same time as Obama. And thanks to eBay for constantly bugging me as the prices went from a ‘reasonable’ $50 right up to $300 in the middle of last year (ug! due to an updated surge of interest after a magazine reprinted an updated version for 2008).
Now it’s time to retire my eBay search… and to find a suitable frame. Maybe one made entirely out of old subway tokens perhaps?
It’s now been seven years since 9/11. Seven years of more unnecessary wars and death around the world. Seven years of George W Bush and the ridiculous, damaging policies of him and his cronies (thankfully not for much longer though). Seven years of loss for families whose loved ones never returned home from work that day.
To everyone who died that day – we remember. For everyone else – here’s to a better world.