Kristian Goddard

4 Billion Years of Evolution in 40 Seconds

2012-02-16T21:43:00.001-05:00

A lovely animation from the wonderful Carl Sagan series "Cosmos".

Dazzle Camouflage Painting

2012-02-09T01:11:00.001-05:00

I've just finished the second in a series of dazzle camouflage canvases. The painting measures 60" x 40" and was created with acrylic paint on canvas. This one is based on a detail of a dazzle ship photograph by Allie Wojtaszek. The colours derive from original dazzle ship drawings that illustrate this post. In a perfect world I would be happy to keep working on dazzle camouflage paintings for the rest of my life! I love the modernist nature of the patterns and the use of colour, which seems very much of its time. Painting is one of the best reminders we have that the past actually did exist in colour so its fun to be able to work with a colour palette that existed nearly one-hundred years ago. I seem to be getting more and more obsessed with dazzle ships and their history after working on these recent canvasses and researching the subject. Dazzle ships are quite a romantic notion to me and the idea of beautifully coloured ships floating over the water at in the dark is the sort of warm thought that puts me to sleep at night.

There are many ways that pattern-based camouflage has been used, but none are as bizarre as the British dazzle ship designs of World War I and, to a lesser degree, World War II. These were abstract, clashing geometric decorative designs that were applied to battleships in order to confuse viewers, particularly German U-boats, using optical range finders. Although dazzle paintwork is sometimes described as camouflage, it actually wasn’t intended to hide anything in the way regular camouflage does. Instead, it made it hard to determine important aspects such as shape, distance, speed and direction.

The development of radar in the 1940s made dazzle ship graphics less relevant, but it still crops up here and there. In Austria, speed traps have been camouflaged with dazzle to confuse drivers as to the direction the radar is pointing. Many car prototypes also wear dazzle camouflage during testing to hide the "curves" of the vehicle before the manufacturer is ready to show it to the public. The USS North Carolina is still in dry dock in Willmington, where Twin Peaks was shot, so I hope to be able to take a day trip there soon!

Peter Saville famously used Edward Wadsworth's 1919 painting 'Dazzle Ships In Drydock At Liverpool' (shown on the left) as the inspiration for the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 'Dazzle Ships' album cover. The original is in the National Gallery of Canada. Peter Saville and Malcolm Garrett of Assorted iMaGes both made careers by brilliantly reinventing the past during the 80s producing album covers for Joy Division, New Order, Buzzcocks, Duran Duran, OMD and Peter Gabriel amongst others. The original vinyl version of 'Dazzle Ships' uses Peter Saville's distinctive design on the gatefold cover and an information graphic on the inner by Malcolm Garrett. The compact disc re-release uses the same imagery with a completely different colour scheme.

Its very difficult to find colour images of the original WWI designs, but they typically used red, green, yellow and purple, lavender and mauve greys as well as black and white. In 2008, the Rhode Island School of Design announced the rediscovery in its collection of lithographic printed plans for the camouflage of US merchant ships during World War I. The graphics shown on the left are from original WWI ship painting plans and show the intended colour schemes as well as the graphic shapes themselves. The underlying principles are diagonals, zig-zags and arcs, combined using sudden changes in the patterns at seemingly random points used to give impressions of different planes or facets on flat surfaces to break up physical lines and shapes. The patterns make it difficult for onlookers to determine which direction the ship is heading. Razzle dazzle deception uses abstractions to cloak the activities of movement by seemingly creating more movement.

War has inspired many great artistic moments but artists rarely return the favour. During World War I Modernism turned naval fleets into the largest painting canvases in the world. German U-boats were sinking enormous amounts of ships and there was no really effective defense against them. It is axiomatic that if you can’t stop the people who are shooting at you, you should make it very hard for them to find you. Most camouflage is based on the idea of concealment and blending in with its surroundings. However another school of thought has argued for making the item in question appear to be a mash-up of unrelated components. Naval camoufleurs found this theory particularly appealing. Blending didn’t work because ships operated in two different and constantly changing color environments – sea and sky. Any camouflage that concealed in one environment was usually spectacularly conspicuous in others. There was very little method in the mass of triangles, parallelograms and stripes of these colors, but they had certainly been most scientifically designed to secure the effect sought for. How they divided the boat into two seemingly unattached sections was most remarkable. It has made prosaic steamships picturesque, and they have enjoyed a favor among artists that had always previously been denied them. All are excellent records of a monstrous period. But camouflage, while increasing picturesqueness and artistic value, takes away much of the sense of power and strength that we have always been accustomed to associate with typical steamships.

Military historians have usually connected razzle dazzle with Cubism, which is wrong. The dazzle concept was invented in 1916 by Norman Wilkinson, a British marine painter and naval commander, taking inspiration from Cubist and Vorticist paintings. The Vorticists were the English equivalent of the Italian Futurists, and Edward Wadsworth, a leading Vorticist artist, supervised much of this dazzle ship work, supervising the camouflage of over two thousand warships. Razzle dazzle is quite clearly inspired by Vorticism, which is probably the only significant British art movement of the early 20th century. Started by Wyndham Lewis editor of the brilliant, but short-lived, “Blast” magazine. Picasso is reported to have taken credit for the modern camouflage experiments which seemed to him a quintessentially Cubist technique. He is reported to have drawn the connection in a conversation with Gertrude Stein shortly after he first saw a painted cannon trundling through the streets of Paris. However, Cubism was far more concerned with apples, guitars and life in the cafe while Vorticistism was not afraid of looking outside the cafe and observing the architecture which surrounded the cafe. Also, there was a hint of aggression, conflict and Brutalism in most Vorticist works that is entirely missing in French work. Vorticist works are characterised by the unease created by a disrupted perspective which is obviously a perfect metaphor for dazzle camouflage.

Wilkinson believed that breaking up a ship’s silhouette with brightly contrasting geometric designs would make it harder for U-boat captains to determine the ship’s course and while there was a marked decrease in losses to U-boats, historians agree that this reduction was mainly due to the adoption of the convoy system at the same time. Dazzle did, however, boost the morale of allied seamen as well as capture the imagination of artists and the public alike. All British patterns were different, first tested on small wooden models viewed through a periscope in a studio. Most of the model designs were painted by women from London's Royal Academy of Arts. A foreman then scaled up their designs for the real thing. Creative people including sculptors, artists, and set designers also designed camouflage.

An observer would find it difficult to know exactly whether the stern or the bow is in view; and it would be equally difficult to estimate whether the observed vessel is moving towards or away from the observer's position. Range finders were based on the co-incidence principle with an optical mechanism, operated by a human to compute the range. The operator adjusted the mechanism until two half-images of the target lined up in a complete picture. Dazzle was intended to make that hard because clashing patterns looked abnormal even when the two halves were aligned. As an additional feature, the dazzle pattern usually included a false bow wave intended to make estimation of the ship's speed difficult. This led to more scientific studies of colour options which might enhance camouflage effectiveness. Broken colour systems which present units so small as to be invisible as such at the distances considered are neither advantageous nor detrimental to the dazzle effect; the visibility of the camouflaged vessel at a given distance would depend entirely upon such scientifically measurable factors as the mean effective reflection factor, hue and saturation of the surface when considered at various distances.

American naval leadership thought dazzle effective and, in 1918, the U.S. Navy adopted it as one of several techniques. However effective the scheme was in World War I, dazzle camouflage became less useful as rangefinders and especially aircraft became more advanced, and, by the time it was put to use again in World War II, radar had further reduced its effectiveness. The US Navy implemented a camouflage painting program in World War II, and applied it to many ship classes which were in use until the end of the war.

The British Royal Navy dazzle paint schemes also reappeared in January 1940; these were unofficial and competitions were often held between ships for the best camouflage patterns. The Royal Navy Camouflage Department came up with a scheme devised by Peter Scott, a wildlife artist, which were developed into the Western Approaches Schemes.

The German Navy first used camouflage in the 1940 Norwegian campaign. A wide range of patterns were authorised, but most commonly black and white diagonal stripes were used. Most patterns were designed to hide ships in harbour or near the coast; they were often painted over with plain grey when operating in the Atlantic.

At first glance Dazzle seems an unlikely form of camouflage, drawing attention to the ship rather than hiding it, but dazzle did not conceal the ship but made it difficult for the enemy to estimate its type, size, speed and heading. The idea was to disrupt the visual rangefinders used for naval artillery. Its purpose was confusion rather than concealment. The artist Abbott Handerson Thayer did carry out an experiment on dazzle camouflage, but it failed to show any reliable advantage of dazzle over plain paintwork. In a 1919 lecture, Norman Wilkinson explained "The primary object of this scheme was not so much to cause the enemy to miss his shot when actually in firing position, but to mislead him, when the ship was first sighted, as to the correct position to take up. Dazzle is method to produce an effect by paint in such a way that all accepted forms of a ship are broken up by masses of strongly contrasted colour, consequently making it a matter of difficulty for a submarine to decide on the exact course of the vessel to be attacked. When making a design for a vessel, vertical lines were largely avoided. Sloping lines, curves and stripes are by far the best and give greater distortion."

This painting and others are available from my Etsy store HERE

Nothing Really Matters

2012-02-08T03:34:00.000-05:00

Kat Lamp Interview

2012-02-05T15:01:00.000-05:00

Kat Lamp is a Greensboro based artist currently in her final year of the graphic design course at GTCC. She has been independently creating her own beautiful work for the last few years incorporating very elegant type forms and fantastical illustrative elements. Kat has also created a great series of posters for The Avett Brothers which you can purchase from her online store HERE

What inspires your work?
I find inspiration all around me. Watching the work of my friends progress and evolve. Anything that makes me laugh or feel angry, music, animals & nature, vintage children's books, friends, my fiancee Jeff, and our cat and dog.

Would you recommend formal art training to others?
It depends. Speaking for myself, I initially tried to go the academic route and study painting at a four-year college. All the technicalities with studying the medium in that way quickly zapped my imagination and left me feeling less confident. The atmosphere felt too competitive to thrive & I dropped out. After realizing I was more of an illustrator than a fine artist, I decided to pursue graphic design at GTCC to integrate the computer into what I already do. I fell in love with it and I've learned so much. I guess I'd recommend formal art training to those who are certain about what they want from it.

What do you hope to be doing when you graduate?
I'm initially looking forward to having some free time to work on personal projects. Juggling school and work doesn't leave much time for that! I hope to maybe find work at an agency and learn more about the field.

Do you have a typical process/environment when you do your work?
I have an office/studio in our apartment where I work. Design projects usually begin in my sketchbook, move to generations of tracing paper, and usually wind up on the computer. Paintings begin the same way, except the drawings get traced onto blocks of wood.

What else do you do aside from art?
I've been playing bass and guitar off & on for about 17 years. Sometimes I go through phases when I focus on music more than art.

Do you consider yourself a graphic designer, graphic artist or illustrator?
Just the other day, one of my instructors told me I was more of an illustrator than anything, whether I like it or not. So we'll go with that. :)

How did your link-up with The Avett Brothers happen?
My friend Pete is their stage manager. He asked me if I'd be interested in doing some mock-ups for the band to look at, and everything took off from there.

How do you consider the art scene in Greensboro?
There are so many talented & inspiring folks in this town. I just wish there were more places in Greensboro for them to show their work.

What is happening with your website?
Hahaaaa. Well, I'm taking a web design class right now, so only time will tell. Hoping to have something solid this year.

What others artists do you admire?
I love the illustrations of Charley Harper and how he simplified the elements of his subject matter. Jessica Hische and Marian Bantjes are both contemporary designers whose work I find particularly inspiring right now. I love their creative hand-drawn type.

What are you currently obsessed with?
Vintage children's books, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart.

What are you working on at the moment?
Working on the save the date cards for our wedding, and some projects for school.

Cube Canvas

2012-01-31T13:33:00.000-05:00

I've just finished the first in a series of paintings for Estate Design & Trade of Greensboro. The canvas measures 48" x 36". More to come soon! You can find more information on the Estate Design & Trade website HERE

Patrick Bamford Goes to Chelsea

2012-01-30T15:13:00.000-05:00

I don't want to get into the habit of posting blogs about football, for various reasons, but the sale of Patrick Bamford from Nottingham Forest to Chelsea is something that's left me very despondent and needing to get out of my system.

Its upsetting to me because not only is Patrick obviously an excellent player, he's also a Grantham boy and I was hoping he would make the step-up to playing in the Forest first team and live out some sort of dream that I had as a kid. He did make two starts for the first team as a substitute before moving to Chelsea today for £1.5m.

I don't really understand the logic behind this move because there is no way in the world that Patrick is going to graduate to the Chelsea starting eleven in the next few years, if at all. He will most likely play in the Chelsea reserves before being loaned out to a lower league club. I don't see that helping his development any more than staying at Forest and playing in the Championship, which makes me think that money is the major motivation for this move. Of course that is understandable, but annoying all the same for Forest fans.

Perhaps Patrick should have been given a chance in the Forest first team earlier. He scored nine goals in his last two games for the youth team and I refuse to believe that he isn't a better player than Marcus Tudgay or Matt Derbyshire.

What bugs me most about this transfer is that Forest are struggling at the bottom end of the Championship and selling our most promising players. It reminds me of the time when we sold Michael Dawson, Jermaine Jenas, Andy Reid, David Prutton, Marlon Harewood and Gareth Williams in the space of a season and inevitably found ourselves in the second division as a result. We just cannot sell our best players and expect to be a successful club. Supposedly, Bamford and his representatives refused a new and improved contract with Forest so the club's hands were tied and there was was nothing that could do to keep him.

I was getting excited about following Patrick Bamford's progress in a Forest shirt but guess I'll just have to watch us, hopefully, scrape by with a bunch of loanees until next season. At least we still have Jamaal Lascelles!

Street Pashion

2012-01-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

Street Pashion is the new blog from my good friend Elizabeth Rushe. It's a Berlin-based street fashion blog that is a step-up from most other style blogs, in my opinion. As well as focusing on street fashion the blog also provides participants with a contact form so that people can contact them directly. The subject of online dating, or online complimenting, is a fascinating one and I wanted to ask Elizabeth how her new venture is working out.

How did Street Pashion come into being?
I had an idea bubbling in my mind for a long time about starting a kind of street fashion blog with a twist. Initially it was going to be called Dudespotting and I would just feature well-dressed fellas, but in the end I thought I should include gals too, so there's two categories on Streetpashion: dudespotting and gurlspotting.

How does it work?
Well the obvious part is that I walk around with my camera and keep an eye out for people to photograph. Then I explain they have the option to have a contact form in their post so that Street Pashion readers might contact them. So far most people said yes, some said no, and sometimes I plain forget. This idea is still in a test phase.

What are the aims of the blog?
That's a good question. It's a bundle of things like a selfish way for me to develop a daily photography habit to improve my skills, getting out and meeting people outside my periphery, I would like it to become a friendly platform where you can look forward to being invited out for a coffee by a certain someone after you're featured there.

Is there a typical reaction when you ask people to take part?
"Who, me?“, most people so far seemed taken aback about being approached for a photo. This is something I'm still working on myself – getting over my own shyness to ask for a photograph. When I explain about the contact form, this usually get's a laugh and in most cases an email address is handed over.

Isn't Street Pashion just a ruse for you to meet cute boys?
Haha – yesssss, ahem. This of course is another selfish motive behind the blog. The problem is I'm too shy to approach anyone that I would fancy. So I'll have to get over that...

I love the fact that Pip (Elizabeth's white German Shepard) makes it into some of the shots. Is she some sort of ice breaker?
Hahaha. I actually try not to bring my dog with me when I plan to take photos, as having a camera in one hand and a wild wolf tugging on the leash in the other hand is a bit of a struggle. But sometimes she happens to be with me and I just try my best, if she gets in the shot that's okay, I'm glad she pops up here and there.

Berlin has probably changed more than any other major city over the past two decades. What kind of changes have you noticed over recent years?
Hmm, I'm not sure. I've lived in the same apartment in Berlin for 5 years but I do hear people talk about rising rents, and there are a lot of complaints about tourists at the moment... Causing clubs to dumb down the music, and overloading local spots with pub crawls, apparently. Some neighbourhoods which nobody really wanted to live in a few years ago are now hot spots for finding amazing and cheap apartments, new shops, cafes and bars so it's interesting to see how people migrate to different corners of the city.

What do you do aside from Street Pashion?
I host a show called 'Off the Record' on Flux FM. It's the international show, so we present in English, and invite a lot of guests on, like bands that are based in Berlin or passing through, plus creative people that are just doing interesting things. Could be a couture designer, author, photographer, rock 'n roll massage therapist. We've interviewed a lot of folks over the years. Sometimes I DJ at parties, this week is fashion week so I will DJ at the Derzeit closing party at KTV. I'm also copy-editing the issues of their daily fashion week newspaper this week so we're pulling some intense all-nighters at the moment. That's very Berlin.

Are there any success stories/follows ups that you can share so far?
Not yet, that I know of! Watch this space.

You can find the Street Pashion blog HERE

Dazzle Ships Canvas

2012-01-16T10:45:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to painting a Dazzle Ships canvas. I've been planning on doing this for a few years and have finally found the pluck to do it! I'm a little bit sad to paint on top of the Flatiron Building canvas that we had but I guess a little change never hurts. It was certainly fun to do and I'm pleased with the final outcome!

I'm a huge fan of the Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark album Dazzle Ships especially the artwork by Peter Saville. The album cover was inspired by the dazzle camouflage painted on ships during World War I. Dazzle camouflage is a fascinating concept that shouldn't work but actually did according to marine painter Norman Wilkinson "The primary object of this scheme was not so much to cause the enemy to miss his shot when actually in firing position, but to mislead him, when the ship was first sighted, as to the correct position to take up. Dazzle was a method to produce an effect by paint in such a way that all accepted forms of a ship are broken up by masses of strongly contrasted colour, consequently making it a matter of difficulty for a submarine to decide on the exact course of the vessel to be attacked... The colours mostly in use were black, white, blue and green... When making a design for a vessel, vertical lines were largely avoided. Sloping lines, curves and stripes are by far the best and give greater distortion."

I only found out recently that the Vorticist painter Edward Wadsworth was involved in the design of dazzle camouflage, which makes complete sense having been aware of his paintings on canvas for a long time. War on Germany was declared only thirty-three days after the publication of the very first Blast magazine (Blast First). Wadsworth spent the war in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve designing dazzle camouflage for allied ships. Always a fan of modern ships, Wadsworth was to utilise nautical themes in his art for the rest of his career.

The canvas measures 60" x 40".

Anton Stankowski

2012-01-11T19:42:00.000-05:00

I've adored the works of Anton Stankowski since I first saw his geometric paintings in the Dictionary of Graphic Design (required reading for my first design study). I had absolutely no idea what his work was supposed to mean but I knew somewhere in my heart what it meant as it excited me beyond belief and made me re-evaluate the way I thought about virtually everything. A form of having my mind revamped somehow.

Stankowski was a German graphic designer, photographer and classically trained painter. Clearly inspired by the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements, he developed a Theory of Design and was a pioneer of Constructive Graphic Art. Typical Stankowski designs attempt to illustrate processes or behaviours rather than objects. Such experiments resulted in the use of fractal-like structures long before their popularisation. He advocated graphic design as a field of pictorial creation that requires collaboration with free artists and scientists and is probably best known for the Deutsche Bank logotype design (shown above in development).

I have a deep love of his geometric design works, the typographic quality of his work, the value he put in negative space and obviously his use of colour. His influence can quite clearly be seen in the works of Peter Saville and Malcolm Garrett, which may well prove to be his ultimate legacy.

Jack Angstreich Interview

2012-01-08T14:33:00.000-05:00

Jack Angstreich is one of the stars of Cinemania, a 2002 documentary by Stephen Kijak & Angela Christlieb about New York moviegoers who see up to three movies every single day. Its an incredibly compelling and empathetic look at this amazing group of people and certainly one of my favourite documentaries of recent times. I was able to quickly catch up with Jack recently and talk a little more about his obsession with the movies and his reaction to Cinemania.

Can you believe that 10 years have passed since Cinemania was released?
Ten years has sort of flown by, in some ways, I suppose.

Bill seems to be a little bit embarrassed about having been part of the documentary. What is your overriding feeling about Cinemania ten years on?
I'm not especially embarrassed by Cinemania but Bill labors under the delusion that he has both been misrepresented by the film and that he has fundamentally changed since the film. I don't know that I feel differently about the film now.

Have you had any disputes with people in theatres lately?
I try to avoid getting into disputes.

What do you consider good theatre etiquette?
I would prefer silence from other film goers but it's impossible to expect once food is allowed to be consumed in the theatres.

Are you recognised much as a result of the documentary?
It is only occasionally that someone approaches me saying they have recognized me from Cinemania.

What’s the best movie theatre New York?
The Walter Reade is the only repertory theatre that seems to have satisfactory projection in New York at the moment, so far as I know, but I find the programming at Film Forum 2 generally more exciting -- I haven't seen a film there in years, however, because of incorrectly cut aperture plates that they refused to replace despite their assurance that they would.

Do you still run into Bill, Eric, Roberta or Harvey?
Bill is in Paris at the moment and I haven't seen Harvey in quite a while but I do see Eric from time to time; Roberta passed away recently, I'm sad to report.

Do you consider film to be voyeuristic?
I don't think the cinema is voyeuristic in its essence, necessarily, but it seems to easily invite an indulgence in voyeurism.

Typically when I watch a great film in a theatre there’s usually a part of me that says “I want to sit here for the rest of my life and watch movies that are this great.” This clearly must have happened to you at some point. Can you describe that moment?
I must have had an experience similar to what you describe when I was 17 but I'd have to try and think back.

There’s a wonderful scene in La Nuite Americaine (Day For Night) where Ferrand (Truffaut) tries to convince Alphonse to stay on the film and says “Movies go along like trains in the night.” and explains that movies never have dead moments like real life. Is this suspension of reality part of the attraction of cinema for you?
Yes, I think I am attracted to the "suspension of reality" to which you refer.

What is the literal translation of your surname?
I'm told it translates as "fearful".

Your political views are touched upon briefly in the documentary… How would you describe your political views?
I'm basically a Marxist-Leninist in politics.

What’s your take on review sites like Rotten Tomatoes & IMDB and do you ever read or submit reviews?
I suppose sites like Rotten Tomatoes are useful for compiling links to reviews but the rankings and averages irritate me since they reflect nothing more than what the majority of established critics happen to think and that seems of no interest at all. I regret to say that I do write short reviews but I only do this to be admitted to press screenings.

The film industry has obviously changed a lot since the release of Cinemania when DVD was still in its infancy. What do you make of the DVD ‘experience’?
I guess DVD extras are an exciting phenomenon, potentially, as well as the release on DVD of the better television and analog or digital video productions but I haven't gotten around to looking at much on DVD and wouldn't be willing to watch non-digitally-processd material that was shot on celluloid with the intention to be exhibited on celluloid.

Have you ever sat down and watched a full movie on YouTube? Could you ever subscribe to watching movies at home or are you of the David Lynch school of though??
I've never watched a feature-length film on YouTube. Viewing works on television or on a computer screen is fine for analog video or digitally-produced works; I thought David Lynch was promoting this now, to my dismay.

The Cinemania DVD is available through Amazon HERE

Britt Blake Interview

2012-01-02T18:41:00.000-05:00

Britt Blake is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn currently in her final semester at the New York City College of Technology. She'll soon be taking her first steps into the art & design industry and has just launched her own website so I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with her to discuss her work.

What made you want to become a graphic designer?
I was born a creative thinker and it is so ingrained into my being that I came to a point in my life where I decided that I just had to accept the calling and persevere. A compellingness of graphic design for me is in its purpose of engaging and informing an audience. There are always changes in communication mediums, which keep me on my toes. And when done right, it is inclusive and adds a sense of enrichment to the landscape. I think that’s cool.

What inspires you and how does it affect your work?
Music definitely does. I visualize music functioning together like parts of a cell in biology, making the sum of a massive and greater whole. Because of that intrinsic sort of understanding with music I feel somehow more capable of making sense out of clutter and confusion when I design. I think it’s something sort of cross-sensory, perhaps. I’m fascinated by folklore stories and culture. I have an appreciation for journalism, underdogs and history. And I think that translates into making people pay attention to ordinary things, or things ordinarily missed and taken for granted.

Tell me about the Absolute USA Indie compilation that you curated.
I was working for a music marketing and distribution company. And they put me in charge of putting on a compilation to promote the music and their services. I made negotiations with the company to make the offer more appealing for the artists. So then I found the artists I wanted, went through all sorts of craziness to get their signatures on the agreements, worked through licensing issues with a few record labels, and by some amazing feat, it finally got out there. And I think it’s pretty solid if I do say so, myself. Look up "Absolute USA Indie" on iTunes.

How difficult is it being a student in NYC?
The challenges of just living in NYC can get hairy at times. But it’s also rewarding, of course. I chose to go to a CUNY school (Which stands for - City Universities of New York). My college is part of a network of public universities for NYC residents. Moving here as an outsider, I was a bit taken aback by all the native New Yorkers at school that knew their way around. I got over that intimidation pretty quickly though and I love it now. With so many people, it does take some determination to adapt and make it work. But the tuition is comparably inexpensive. And many of my professors also teach at Pratt and the New School! So you heard it here, guys – bang for your buck.

Do you feel your school has prepared you for the world of art and design?
I definitely feel it’s helped me along. But from what I understand, I think it takes talent, tenacity and relentlessness on the part of the student to really make it happen. And I think it's also an issue of making a place in the world for yourself that suits your strengths.

Do you have any moral issues about becoming a graphic designer?
Oh I definitely do, especially in the world of Advertising Design, (which is technically my major). And it is something I will likely struggle with ‘til the end of time. There are some companies I wouldn't want to design for. But I don’t think that I believe in the notion of ‘selling out’ or anything like that. It’s the designer’s job to make a product or environment look appealing. And everyone has different moral standards. But consumers should also take to heart that pretty on the outside doesn’t always mean pretty on the inside. And yeah, sometimes advertising and the product being advertised, is just plain junk.

Who do you admire in the design field?
The people I admire are mostly tied with music and illustration somehow. I know that Peter Saville is at least partially responsible for that legendary Joy Division album cover and a ton of other great records.

I love Peter Saville!
He’s great. And Raymond Pettibon who illustrated Sonic Youth’s ‘Goo.’ There’s this younger artist in NYC that is doing some pretty legendary illustration designs for music and his name is Nick Gazin. Graphic design-wise, I came across the works of James McKinnon, and I like the geometric juxtaposition of his work a lot.

Is graphic design about problem solving?
Yes and no. It should solve a communication problem in a most basic sense. But the other part of the equation is to make something compelling for the viewer, and it takes more than merely displaying relevant information in a visually appealing way to do that.

Your work seems to be quite illustrative. Do you sometimes question whether you want to be a graphic designer or illustrator?
That’s astute. I think the research and perception-oriented side of me can adapt to any project. And I feel like I pick up on technical things pretty quickly. So I say, why not do it all! But yeah, I like illustration a lot. I saw that documentary on Robert Crumb when I was a kid and I was totally enthralled with that. But I’m not sure if illustration is my biggest strength. I think I’m blessed and doomed to be interested in one hundred things all at once.

You’ve also worked in video production. Is that something you’d like to do more of?
Oh, definitely. I put together some featured artist interviews for the compilation that I worked on and those helped me in adapting to video editing. But generally, they are sort of visually static.

Are you working on a video project right now?
I’m in the process of getting documentary footage together of bands around NYC. And I’m playing with the idea of making web episodes on a blog for people to watch. My approach is pretty low-key though. I’m going for a mix of Penelope Spheeris’ “Decline of Western Civilization” and Andy Warhol's screen tests. I’m focusing on getting some amazing content right now and when the time comes I’ll take it from there.

Sounds great! So, what’s next for you when you graduate?
It’s so difficult to tell because the landscape always changes in NYC. At some point I’d like to find a few fellow artists and designers and programmers that I jive with, and collaborate in starting a bit of a graphic design business. But right now, I just got an internship at Vice Magazine/Records. And if that goes well I hope they adopt me.

You can find Britt's work on her website HERE

Wear More Buttons

2011-12-16T23:57:00.000-05:00

After something of a slow start my button making business seems to have really taken off and I estimate that I've made close to ten thousand buttons in the past twelve months.

I've always loved badges so its fun for me to be able to make my own and to supply them for others too. Its also interesting to discover which designs are popular on either side of the Herring Pond. It seems that Americans go crazy for buttons especially in the run up to Halloween when the Pan Am buttons went through the roof! Lots of people dressing up as air stewardesses, I guess!

The designs pictured here are the twenty-five top selling buttons from the past year and they're still going strong. You can see the rest of the pins that I have for sale on my eBay store HERE All the buttons are the classic one-inch size and are made to the highest professional standard.

Its possible for me to make custom buttons from your own design which cost $2 per piece (plus $2 for combined shipping). If you would like to place a custom order then please email me at: kristiangoddard (at) hotmail (dot) com

Lighted Christmas Ball Decorations in Greensboro, NC

2011-12-14T16:34:00.000-05:00

Punch-Drunk Nilsson

2011-12-06T03:59:00.000-05:00

I've been intrigued by the Punch-Drunk Love soundtrack since the film's release in 2002. Not only is it a great movie but the entire soundtrack is seemingly based around Harry Nilsson's Popeye score, predominantly around the song "He Needs Me" sung by the inimitable Shelley Duvall. Discovering this was something of a revelation to me as I had only discovered Nilsson's music myself a few years previously and absolutely fell in love with the albums he produced in the Sixties. Paul Thomas Anderson is also a confessed Nilsson fanatic and, along with Jon Brion, has routinely re-worked his music for films including Magnolia.

I thought it would be interesting to combine elements of the Punch-Drunk Love soundtrack and some of my favourite Nilsson songs into something of a 'Megamix'. Using Nilsson's "Aerial Pandemonium Ballet" and The Beatles "Love" album as influences I thought it would be fun to present the songs and incidental music in a completely new way. The overall mood is quite maudlin but is really good to listen to when you're working on your own thing. The music has been mixed-down into glorious one-channel mono (because of limitations more than anything else).

Its nice to be able to play with these songs to create some sort of narrative and mood and I hope some of you may appreciate it! You can download this twenty-two song mix from my website HERE

Achtung Baby

2011-11-19T09:16:00.000-05:00

I seem to be the kind of person who defines their life by when certain records or films were released and another reissue is reminding me that exactly twenty years have passed without me noticing it. The Joshua Tree is probably the most influential album in my lifetime but Achtung Baby is my favourite U2 record. When I started obsessing over music in the pre-Internet days of the late Eighties I didn't really appreciate just how great a time it was for music. This was a time when there were three weekly music papers in Britain and it was incredibly easy for me to discover bands like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Pixies, The Stone Roses, Spacemen 3 and a million others just as I was leaving school. Looking at that list its easy to see what a heady time it was for music and probably the last time that rock music was actually authentic and original (not that originality is important in any art form).

1991 was a fascinating time musically with the messy demise of Baggy in Britain and the global dominance of Grunge from America. The self-indulgence of Rattle and Hum had left U2 seemingly pious, out of touch and not to be taken seriously at all. With the commercial success of The Joshua Tree U2 became regarded as the musical establishment to be avoided at all costs. As a result U2 were forced outside of all that was regarded as cutting-edge becoming almost the Warhol of the Nineties, neither part of the underground or the manufactured overground but standing on the outside, looking in, and perfectly reflecting the moment. And in the words of Brenden Kennelly "The best way to serve the age is to betray it."

Elements of the Manchester scene and rave culture brought about a new interest and sensibility in rhythm. A lot of sonic experimentation had taken place in the early Nineties, quite probably due to the advent of compact discs in the late Eighties. The amount of information that can be stored on a CD meant that musicians didn't have to worry about sound limitations and record needles leaping from the turntable. Is it a coincidence that the early Nineties produced quiet/loud bands like The Pixies and Nirvana? I'm sure Martin Hannett would have argued that technology changes music rather than vice-versa and there's certainly a case for that. As a result, some of U2's previous recorded works had sounded weak in comparison to their contemporaries.

There are a lot of sonic experiments on Achtung Baby often used to give the listener the feeling that their hi-fi system is broken and its definitely exciting to listen to for that reason alone. Brian Eno posed the question "Are you really making a record that's recorded in a garage, or are you making a record that reminds you of the feeling of records that are made in garages (the way a film-maker might use a handheld camera to give the impression of documentary urgency)? Does it make a difference if people hearing this record say "that sounds like trash", rather than, "they've deliberately chosen to make a record that sounds like trash"?" That is a fascinating argument to me and my theory is that if you spend time in a recording studio making something sound the best that you can then its no more pretentious to make something sound as bad as you can.

Despite the surface matter of the record the reason why the album still holds true is because the songs are as compelling as anything U2 ever wrote. U2 have always been regarded as leaders rather than followers, in my mind, and for the first time Achtung Baby sees them being influenced by a contemporary music scene that had left them behind somewhat.

U2 flew in the face of fashion in the Eighties being anti-image and anti-masturbation which is something that I always liked about them. The music on this record seemed to instigate some sort of interest in overtly sexual images and a preoccupation with sexual themes, the earnestness of The Joshua Tree now seemingly being chopped down. It's an interesting reinvention and perhaps you could call it growing up, but I'm not sure. U2, the band least likely to say "baby" in one of their songs now used the word in the title of their new record. But it hides what is probably the band's heaviest work. Personally, I like both sides of the band and feel it would've been inappropriate for the self-righteousness and militant attitude of the previous decade to continue.

The band took the last British Airways flight into the old German Democratic Republic and initial sessions at Hansa Studios in Berlin, where Bowie and Eno had recorded Low and Heroes, pushed the band to breaking point in an attempt to find direction and a sense of self. Bill Flanagan described a split in the band between the "hats and the haircuts", the hats wanting to embrace the more experimental nature of music and the haircuts wanting to stay true to a typical U2 sound. To paraphrase Bono from 'Acrobat'; "What are we gonna do now its all been said? No new ideas in the house and every book has been read." Because of the pain of going though such re-evaluation Achtung Baby is without question U2's most original and vital record. It's vital because the themes it tackles are the most personal that U2 ever got. Clearly influenced heavily by the break-up of The Edge's marriage there's a melancholy and hurt that hangs over this record like a dark cloud. The earnestness of previous albums now lost in a personal monologue of betrayal that strips U2 bare. It's adult themes are hardly the subject matter of stadium rock in all honesty.

After U2's infatuation with America it seemed time to turn their attention home to where a new Europe was slowly being built. The fall of the Berlin wall and reunification in 1989 instigated a sense of hopefulness and despite the darkness of the songs on Achtung Baby you feel a sense of freedom under it's surface. 'Zoo Station', a song inadvertently inspired by the story of a British bomb hitting close by the Berlin Zoo in the Second World War and freeing the animals onto an astonished Berlin public seems perfectly fitting of its time and place and a renewed sense of playfulness.

The influence of Berlin as a metaphor for this record is obvious not only in its mood but also in its place in time. The Berlin of the Thirties (decadent, sexual and dark) resonating against the Berlin of the Nineties (reborn, chaotic and optimistic). As with The Joshua Tree there seems to be a backbone of songs that form some sort of musical Heart of Darkness. 'Until the End of the World', 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses', 'Ultravoilet (Light My Way)', 'Acrobat' (the first thirty seconds of which is as good as anything U2 ever recorded in my opinion) and 'Love Is Blindness' all discuss the tension between love, sexuality, spirituality, faith and betrayal. The influence of Scott Walker and Jacques Brel on these songs is easy to hear. 'Until the End of the World' is an imagined conversation between Jesus and Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane, not standard rock fare! However, Achtung Baby is the record where U2 discovered, or uncovered, their sense of humor and there is a knowing post-modernness in the lyrics self-deprecation. 'One' is probably the centrepiece of the album. A song about the break-up of a relationship and also about reunification and the one song that most people will remember the record for. Larry Mullen's languid shuffle dominates most of the record, never better illustrated than on 'So Cruel', and pushes the music forward with a sense of reawakening and Adam Clayton's reverberating bass is the perfect anchor, U2 having a rhythm section to be reckoned with for the first time.

In 1993 I spent six months in Berlin with my first band picking up shows wherever and whenever we could. We lived in the abandoned Potsdamer Platz, just around the corner from Hansa Studio's, which was left a veritable no-mans-land after the fall of the wall. Our home was a backstage trailer abandoned after Roger Waters' 'The Wall' concert and our hosts were the absurdly named Mutoid Waste Company. It was a crazy time in Berlin being able to set up camp in what was, and is once again, the thriving heart of the city.

Just by chance U2 had a show on the Zooropa tour at the Olympic Stadium two days after our arrival in the city and of course I crept away on my own to indulge myself as is my wont. It was an eerie feeling listening to songs about the reunification of Europe in a stadium that the Nazi's had built and where the Hitler Youth had beaten their drums 57 years previously. The Swastika's cut into the architecture now clumsily filled in with plaster.

It was exciting to hear songs from the new Zooropa album being played on the American Forces Network (AFN) radio station while in Berlin. A few weeks after we left Berlin U2 visited our Potsdamer Platz home with film-maker Wim Wenders to shoot the video for the appropriately titled 'Stay (Faraway So Close)' which is something that I'll always regret and daydream about.

I'm excited about the re-issue of this album and to have all the outtakes together in one beautifully packaged set. However the From The Sky Down documentary, with the band revisiting Hansa Studios and playing half-arsed versions of forgotten songs, is embarrassing quite frankly. I think its fair to say that U2 have never since reached the heights of Achtung Baby. Its always some sort of event when U2 release a new album but not since have they been anywhere near as compelling.

The Aesthetics of Rock

2011-11-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

I just discovered an email I wrote to two friends about five years ago concerning the importance of aesthetics in music and thought it might be fun to post here.

"I wasn’t totally dismissing the importance of image within music. I think that it’s vitally important in this day and age. I’m a graphic designer for God’s sake, so I understand how image can actually help people’s appreciation of music if used effectively. What I was trying to say is that there is definitely a tendency for people, particularly people in the music press who are obsessed with image almost as the main form of communication. Like I said before it is a case of “the way you say it rather than what you’re saying” that counts. The medium is the message, etc, etc... Steve sent me a Sun Ra quote where he says, “it’s not what you say of the music. It’s what the music says of you.” That’s kind of where I’m coming from.

I know what you’re saying about magazines being a flawed medium, I understand that but at the same time I disagree with it. Yes, radio, or even the internet, is the purest form for music but the written word or imagery can also play a big part in people’s understanding of music. I remember being 13/14 years old, skiving off school and going to the library and seeing pictures of Sonic Youth in Sounds magazine and thinking “what is going on?” or seeing pictures of U2 in a desert landscape and thinking “these guys are from another planet!!”. It might sound naïve to say that I knew I would like those bands’ music just by seeing pictures of them, but it’s true. Its no different for kids today reading the NME and seeing people that they can identify with. But there is a fashion in music that just deals with surface almost as it’s main form of expression and I find that ridiculous!!

Image does play an important role in people’s appreciation of music though. The fact that I spend my time working as a designer proves that I believe in its existence. If design or image is successful then it should co-exist or add something extra to the music. The first Joy Division record Unknown Pleasures is a classic example for me of how design can work to create an image for a band. I think that that record cover did more for the image of Joy Division then the clothes the band wore or Ian Curtis’ dancing, or Anton Corbijn’s photography. If you see that image on it’s own then it doesn’t work but it works so perfectly in tandem with the music, that it’s impossible for me to separate the two in my mind.

It’s a pretty heavy subject to deal with I think and impossible to draw any conclusions from because it’s so subjective… There are ways in which the image of a band can backfire though. I think the Arcade Fire record is totally amazing, even if I seem to be own my here (as usual!). But, I’ve seen pictures of them in the music press recently and think “what a bunch of arseholes!”. I’m trying to steer clear of seeing any pictures of them, seeing them live, reading interviews or hearing other people’s approval/disapproval of them because I know that it will affect my judgement of them. It shouldn’t do, but it will. I noticed that their record was voted record of the year in Uncut magazine and I guess Mojo magazine too, but I totally didn’t want to find that out. Hope that makes sense!

I understand what you mean about mainstream music and it’s relation to the masses. That is kind of the basis of my argument here. That kind of music is catering for the majority of people who are not passionate about music in the same way that you and I are. I’m talking about music which the majority of people are accepting of and not about what we consider to be ‘underground’ music. I think that underground music is probably more interesting, varied and exciting than ever before. There’s so much stuff and its so fragmented that it’s impossible to have any knowledge of most of it. I’m beginning to see that more and more as a positive thing though.

The Internet is fragmenting music more and more too and also shifting people’s focus back onto the music. I guess that this is a positive thing. I got quite excited about the Internet being some kind of Utopian medium for music, but it’s not gonna happen is it? I’m convinced that CD will be an outdated format in ten years time. More and more people are buying or downloading music online and I can see the benefits of that. You can preview the songs first and also you can buy them at any time of day, which I think is really cool. There are also loads of problems with it though, as you know. The album as an entity or one common thought is being outdated in this new era of online music. It’s possible to download whichever songs you want from the album rather than having to buy the whole record. I find this really sad and it drastically alters music as an art form. To me records like Pet Sounds or SMiLE just do not work unless you hear the album as a constant form of expression, so many people are going to be missing out on hearing music in that way. But, music is very rarely made in that way anymore and I’m convinced that the way music is sold (or played) has a big effect on the people making the music in the first place. Probably in the same way that Brian Wilson was affected by the way the Beatles were constructing albums in the Sixties.

The fact that there is no product when you download a file from the Internet is something that I find quite confusing. I love records!!!!! And because of the things I wrote earlier I believe in the role of design within music. That is totally being eroded by Internet downloads and that might be one of the reasons why the music industry is becoming more and more obsessed with fashion. If you download music from the Internet then you don’t even have a record to put on your shelf or a CD to put on your rack, or whatever... You just get a digital file to put on your iPod, or something. Nobody has any idea of the kind of music that you’re listening to and I think that that is actually quite important. Having some kind of visual identity with the music is key to me. Just having the focus on music is great, I think, but there has to be a visual aspect to it as well and I honestly believe that is why there is a shift in the role of image or fashion within the music industry right now.

I remember having a discussion with you about the importance of Sixties music in comparison to contemporary music but I don’t think it’s possible to draw any conclusions from it. I wish you hadn’t used the Beatles as a comparison though!!! They’re an entity all to themselves, bringing new forms of art appreciation into public view, and single-handedly instigating every major change in the music industry in the Sixties. They transformed modern music between their first single ‘Love Me Do’ in 1962 and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ in 1966. That’s four years!!!! In that time period they released twelve singles, seven albums, two movies and played, I guess, over four hundred shows!!!! Four years is the amount of time Oasis would take to make two records that are entirely based around a Beatles b-side anyway! So, it’s kind of impossible to say. The Beatles showed everyone the possibilities of music though.

I’ve been reading the Richard Meltzer book “The Aesthetics of Rock” recently. It’s pretty crazy but interesting reading. I’ll have to lend it to you at some point. I found an article on the Internet recently where he discusses the decline of innovation that started to happen back in the Sixties: "in the Sixties... every time Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones or the Kinks did an album, they were so conscious of dealing with new turf, innovation was so crucial to what they were doing. New material, new plagiarism, whatever you want to say. By about 1966, 1967, they had strip-mined every continent of source material, of available musical, y'know, concept, idiom. By the time the ‘US psychedelic Sixties’ kicked in, there really wasn't much left to do except, well, stand still, perfect your shtick, score bigger budgets, get fussier about your mix and take six months to do an album. Like the Doors, who were a great, great, GREAT live band. I saw them about 40 times before their second album came out but I don't think they did 1½ good albums. It was very rare after about 1967 for a band to be capable of doing two or three decent albums.” I find that really interesting…

I don’t find innovation or originality to be important players in music though. It’s impossible to find completely free expression-of-self in our society. As long as people find a medium for their own self-expression then that is fine. Why should anyone be obsessed with trying to produce something completely original? Whether it’s art or music (they’re both the same thing to me anyway) it doesn’t matter whether people make comparisons with things that have happened in the past. As long as what is being said is honest and true, then that is all that is the only thing that is important. It’s the first thing I look for in any art. I’m amused by the fact that Dylan going electric would upset so many 60s “radicals”. Particularly as the sentiment of the songs was exactly the same. I guess it’s just because it didn’t fit into their blinkered view of the American folk music tradition. Its just another indication of how narrow-minded the Sixties could be. It doesn’t matter if music is loud or quiet or if a painting is in colour or black and white, they are just surface issues that you have to look beyond."

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #10: Lewis McGugan

2011-10-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #9: Lars Bohinen

2011-10-25T15:53:00.000-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #8: Stan Collymore

2011-10-19T15:53:00.000-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #7: Des Walker

2011-10-18T15:52:00.000-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #6: Roy Keane

2011-10-17T15:53:00.000-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #5: Stuart Pearce

2011-10-15T15:52:00.003-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #4: Viv Anderson

2011-10-14T15:52:00.000-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #3: Trevor Francis

2011-10-13T15:13:00.001-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #2: John Robertson

2011-10-12T19:53:00.001-04:00

Nottingham Forest Legends Series #1: Brian Clough

2011-10-11T20:58:00.000-04:00

Design Is NOT About Problem Solving

2011-10-08T04:35:00.000-04:00

There was a time in the olden days when designers used to be considered artists rather than creatives sitting with their laptops in cafés whose lives are centered around finding solutions.

Whether you're designing a poster, magazine, website, album cover or, God forbid, an annual report, the intention of the designer is to produce some aesthetic, something beautiful and hopefully something that simply makes people feel good. Of course, this is some sort of problem in itself but it is not the main objective.

Design is NOT about problem solving! The role of a graphic designer is to add worth to something. Adding worth to something might well be seen as a problem to be solved. However, so is crossing the road and not getting hit by a bus, but it is not the reason for crossing the road!

Designers are not mathematicians. This is the age-old argument between science and art that we're talking about here. As William Blake said of Newton, "Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death."

Every piece of design that inspires me does so because of its beauty and because of the enduring combination of type and image. I have never once looked at a piece of graphic design and thought, "That is a great solution to a problem." Perhaps that is my own problem and the reason why I sometimes feel marginalized as a designer, always on the outside looking in.

I often receive emails from student designers whose instructors seem to be alienating them with the narrow-minded view that design has to be an answer to a specific problem. This is the problem with modern design, which will become more apparent when we reflect back on it in twenty or thirty years’ time.

I taught art and design in England for four years and would never criticize a student for doing something that they truly believed in. It doesn't matter whether the student's work fits into the modern doctrine or checks all the boxes that the school has to tick. What matters is that designers are true to themselves and the work that they produce speaks to their soul in some way. It's time to wise up!

Guerilla Marketing

2011-10-05T12:26:00.000-04:00

Doing some promotion in Greensboro for the release of Ate Something Bad. These posters have since disappeared. I'm not sure if people were offended or just wanted to keep them. I suspect the later. Anyway, it was fun to do!!!

Big Things

2011-09-30T20:17:00.000-04:00

Big Things, the feature film by my best friends from Nottingham, Mark Devenport and Tony Claassen, is finally available to watch on Facebook HERE You can either watch a preview or rent the full movie online.

Long in the making, the movie follows Richard Chambers a cycle courier who bored by his own existence attempts to make a film entitled A Distance Too Far. It's a tragi-comedy of sorts driven by an ensemble cast of Nottingham characters including Outdaville rapper Scorzayzee.

Like everything that Tony and Mark do this film is well worth watching, so please check it out. You won't be disappointed!

Video Glitch

2011-09-02T18:18:00.000-04:00

I've been fascinated by video glitches, or feedback, since I was a kid. Those amazing moments when an analog device overloads and a fleeting beautiful image occurs, like an analog grand mal. I'm sure I'm not wearing rose-tinted glasses when I say that digital technology has decreased the chance of these sort of magical moments happening. The best we can hope for is for YouTube to stall or very occasional digital glitches which are not the same as a television freezing or a vinyl record getting stuck in a locked groove. Those kind of moments are something I always tried my best to embrace.

Video feedback is a beautiful thing to look at and to manipulate. I did some experiments with it a few years, which I've sadly lost, by pointing an video camera at the tube of a television set. The same technique used by Bernard Lodge to create the original Doctor Who title sequence in 1963. Its a beautiful thing to do, almost like painting with light.

I think it would be interesting to produce a series of paintings based on video glitches but I doubt I have the time or patience to do something like that. I have been collecting video glitch stills for some time now and you can see some of my favourites below.

In Heaven

2011-08-08T16:49:00.001-04:00

Orphan of the Storm

2011-08-04T19:23:00.000-04:00

I think it's fair to say that my favourite musical discovery of the last ten years has been the discovery of Shirley Collins. Her music seems to have followed me around in recent years and, like all good music, always seems to relevant to my life on lots of different levels.

After spending two years in America making field recordings with Alan Lomax, in the late 50s, Shirley returned to England where she started recording traditional English and American folk songs. There's a tragic melancholy to these songs that are sung with a beautiful unaffected voice. The songs sounds like haunted reminders of a time now long gone.

Hearing Shirley's music was a revelation to me, having grown up listening to American influenced rock for the most part, and taught me that it is most definitely possible to have an honest and authentic British voice in music without being self-conscious about it (something unspoken that the majority of British artists would not admit to).

It's my birthday so I wanted to share this mix with you as my birthday gift. Orphan of the Storm is a collection of my favourite Shirley Collins songs. You can download it from my website HERE

iLike Pages

2011-08-01T19:43:00.000-04:00

Be sure to check-out the iLike pages on my website HERE You should find over 2,000 images that I find either visually interesting, inspiring or life-affirming in some way. This collection dates back to 1996 when I started photocopying books at college during my lunch-breaks. Since then a lot have been downloaded from the Internet but I'm certain you'll find something of interest if you take the time to scroll through.

The Music of the Spheres

2011-07-20T18:03:00.001-04:00

It's interesting to play the audio from these two videos simultaneously; Gyorgy Ligeti's "Atmospheres" from 1961, and a supposed NASA Voyager recording of Jupiter from 1990. Turn it up!

Daniel Johnston & Friends

2011-07-19T22:52:00.000-04:00

It looks like a bunch of videos from the Daniel Johnston and Friends Tour have been uploaded to YouTube. The tour featured Jad Fair, Mark Linkous, Norman Blake, James McNew, Emma Niblett and myself playing with Daniel. I've just seen this BBC Radio One session recorded at Maida Vale studios in July 2008 for the first time. Enjoy!

Jim Jarmusch

2011-07-11T20:50:00.001-04:00

Broken Arm - Negative

2011-07-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

Today sees the release of the second Broken Arm record 'Negative'. Four tracks available as a 7" or digital download is available through the Gringo Records website HERE It's a great E.P., with an awesome cover to boot, so you have no excuses for not checking it out!

Tracklisting:
1. Palette Cleanser
2. Disappearing Act
3. Golden Route
4. The House Rules

Ate Something Bad: The Book

2011-06-27T20:10:00.000-04:00

It's unfortunate that I've only had the pleasure of Adam's company on a few occasions. Typically when we do see each other we tend to corner ourselves off and discuss art, music and cinema away from the interruption of others. I feel something of a kindred spirit with Adam so seeing his mind at work in this project is almost like holding a mirror up to myself in some ways. Like all good art Ate Something Bad often reflects the things we think and feel but haven't yet expressed. An affirmation of our own condition, perhaps.

From past experience I know just how difficult it can be to set yourself the task of doing one piece of work a day. I set myself the task of doing one piece per week some time ago and lasted no way near a year, so I have the utmost respect for Adam in gracefully achieving what he set out to do. Ate Something Bad is most definitely not a case of quantity over quality and the time frame lends a stream of consciousness aspect to the work. Despite the amount of drawings you still get a sense of how deeply Adam feels in virtually every piece.

I consider Adam a graphic artist whether he likes it, or not. The definition of graphic art is the ability to communicate an idea, in two-dimensional form, without the need of spoken word. Raising The Flag (pictured here) communicates quite complex ideas and surpasses the written word completely, which is a very rare gift. Although it might not seem so on first glance there's also a great deal of sensitivity in this volume of work and other times not…

The first time I stayed at Adam's house, after a show in Liverpool, I went for an early morning walk with Adam and his brother Graeme. At one point the two of them stopped to inspect some poo on the ground and discussed how long it had been there and who its owner may have been, in all sincerity. My first thought was “These guy's are trying to freak me out!” but it seems Adam's preoccupation with shit is undeniable. So, it came as no surprise to me therefore to discover that excrement features quite highly in Ate Something Bad (as subject matter, not content).

I'm really happy to be able to edit this project into book format. During the year that Ate Something Bad appeared as a blog I would often have to psyche myself up before finding out what was going on in Adam's world. The drawings are definitely disturbing at times and other times they are almost too close to home to garner enjoyment from and I'd have to cover my eyes in order to look at them. I felt the need to leave feedback for Adam on practically every drawing but found it really difficult without coming across as a complete arsehole. I mean, how many times can you say “You're breaking my heart!” and have it sound sincere? Internet culture almost forces us to comment on virtually everything judging by the wealth of mediocrity out there. Fortunately this old fashioned book has no comment box and I hope that will encourage people to take their time, make their own minds up and have their hearts broken.

Ate Something Bad is published by Sea Records and available to order HERE

Honeymoon Videos

2011-06-25T19:28:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple of videos, shot out of the car window, from our honeymoon road-trip to the California desert.

Honeymoon

2011-06-19T19:05:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our honeymoon fund. Frances and I are happy to report that we made it back to North Carolina safely!

We set off the day after the wedding ceremony and spent the first night with our friends Julie and Nathanael at their beautiful home in Asheville. From there we took the I-40 west heading through Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Flagstaff and Las Vegas. We spent some time in the Mojave Desert where these pictures were taken. Seeing my first Joshua Tree was some sort of epiphany for me, it seems. Driving across America is terribly romantic and felt like the perfect thing for us to do for our honeymoon. On our return we took the old Route 66 through Barstow, Gallup, Shawnee and a bunch of places that I'll probably never be able to recall.

We had a breakdown in Memphis but luckily we were helped by guardian angels at the garage and your kindness. There's absolutely no way that we could've managed this trip without your generosity. Those of you who did help us financially will be hearing from us soon. We have gifts from our trip for you!

We Did It!

2011-06-03T19:35:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that after a fourteen month battle with U.S. Immigration that Frances and I are finally married!!! By some coincidence we ended getting married on June 3rd, two years to the day that I proposed to Frances at Cape Lookout. Our wedding ceremony was a simple affair held at the downtown courthouse and later we held a more intimate blessing, conducted by Betsy Blake, in the park across the street from Frances's apartment.

I'm amazed at how we actually managed to pull this off almost flawlessly, it seems, with virtually no time to prepare at all. I'm humbled by the support that our friends have given us in preparation for the wedding. It just goes to show that most things can be conquered with the love and support of friends and family and I will always be grateful to everyone involved.

Thank you to Kat Lamp for taking this picture of us on our way to the courthouse!

Zabriskie Point Honeymoon

2011-05-12T18:21:00.000-04:00

Frances and I hoping to take a road trip to Zabriskie Point in Death Valley for our honeymoon. We figure we need $1,000 in order for us to be able to make this trip and we're looking to friends and family to help us raise funds in order to be able to do this. We've always talked about taking a road trip to the desert after our wedding and we would love to make this a reality. Our wedding date is set for June 3rd 2011 and we aim to head out around June 5th.

The trip is likely to be a one-week round trip from North Carolina to Southern California. Hopefully we'll be able to hit some other landmarks along the way such as the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and Joshua Tree National Park.

Zabriskie Point is the title of the 1970 Michelangelo Antonioni film, which we're both big fans of, and also the location of U2's Joshua Tree album cover. Despite this, the desert is our number one destination and Zabriskie Point seems as good a place as any to aim for.

Everyone who makes a donation will receive a postcard from us along our route, a Polaroid photograph, a mix CD and a Zabriskie Point button, as well as our love and gratitude, of course!

We would love to make this trip to celebrate our marriage and to recover from what has been a very difficult year apart. Any donations would be gratefully accepted by us and you can make a donation for any amount using the PayPal button below.

Love
Frances and Kristian

Wedding Invites Go Out Today!!!

2011-04-25T19:11:00.000-04:00

In Awe of Waugh

2011-03-18T23:38:00.000-04:00

I've been on a complete Evelyn Waugh tip recently. I have Frances to thank for turning me on to the world of Waugh. Since the turn of the year I've read A Handful of Dust, Brideshead Revisited, Decline and Fall and most recently Vile Bodies. The latter is one of the most difficult books I've read in a long time with seemingly a new character being introduced on virtually every page of the book and almost impossible for me to keep up with. A Handful of Dust is an incredible book that left me in the grip of depression and anger for days, if not weeks, afterwards. I do think a lot of people miss the intended humour in Waugh's writing but I think it's clear that a lot of his later works were written in depressive states. He has such an esoteric mind which can clearly be seen in the endings of the majority of his novels.

I've found myself becoming completely obsessive about Waugh's magnum opus, Brideshead Revisited, and have read the book, watched the television series and listened to Geoffrey Burgon's soundtrack ad-infinitum in the past year almost to the point of being able to quote every line (certainly of the television series). I'm of the opinion that Brideshead Revisited is the greatest British novel that I've ever read. The depth of the book is kind of shocking to me in a way; Catholicism, homosexuality, redemption, alcoholism, Sebastian's insatiable need to be left alone, escapism, the British class system, morality, death and salvation, etc and all set between two World Wars. The mind boggles...

I'm slightly surprised that I could actually give two hoots about public-school twits and the British upper-middle classes in the 1920s but the characters are just so compelling that its difficult not to feel some sort of empathy with, or interest in, them. Perhaps it's the fact that I've been working at a manor house these past six months that makes me want to indulge in these characters somewhat. I think I'm also wanting to discover more about my own Englishness now that I'm on the verge of moving to America. Whatever, the scope of this novel leaves me reeling every time I think about it. As in life very little gets resolved in this story which makes me want to return to it again and again.

Ron's Love Shines

2011-03-06T07:41:00.000-05:00

I was really thrilled to see the Ron Sexsmith documentary Love Shines on BBC4 recently. I've long been an admirer of Ron's and it fills me with happiness to see him receiving some sort of mainstream media attention. After hearing that Bob Rock was producing his new album I was worried that the documentary might be an exploitative train wreck but I found it to be a really sensitive reflection of his life and music.

Ron has always felt like some sort of long lost brother to me. There's a fragility in his voice and a humbleness to his personality that has always made me love him dearly. It's weird, in this day and age, that those attributes are the very things that hinder him from being a commercially viable artist. I often feel that Ron is too easily swayed by what others want of him or what he feels he needs to be doing in order to have a hit record. Some songs have suffered from his producer's attempts to make him sound contemporary. Despite this the beauty and honesty of Ron's songs always shines through. I can understand Ron's preoccupation with wanting a larger audience, we all need to put bread on the table, but I'm not sure it would be in his best interests on a personal level. Having to deal with all the bullshit that comes hand-in-hand with being a commercial artist could be disastrous for someone who professes to be plagued by low self-esteem.

Ron's audience has always confused me. I sincerely thought I'd turned up at the wrong show when I dragged Emma and Guy along to see him in Sheffield for the first time. The audience was full of men in their 50s and I felt well and truly out of place. It's been exactly the same the five or six times I've seen him since. I've never really been able to understand this phenomenon as I don't consider Ron's music to be middle-of-the-road necessarily. Perhaps it is, I just find it difficult to think in those terms.

There's a very natural beauty to his melodies and lyrics and an incredible weight of honesty in his emotive voice. More than anything though I think the integrity of his song writing is really the key to his appeal. I could list ten songs right off the top of my head that I absolutely adore and I would imagine his songs have been on 90% of the mixes I've made in the last ten years.

You can download four songs I've recorded at Ron shows over the years from my website HERE

I love this performance of Just My Heart Talking on the Jools Holland show from 2001.

Another Green World

2011-02-01T20:04:00.001-05:00

If I had such a thing as a list of all-time favourite records then this would have to be on it! Listen HERE

Threads

2011-01-30T14:12:00.000-05:00

I've been waiting for Threads to appear on YouTube and now I've had the chance to watch it for the first time in twenty-six years it seems to have been pretty well ingrained in my mind. It's a BBC play, set in Sheffield in 1984, that shows the effects of nuclear war. It left me traumatised after watching this as an eleven year old and having nightmares about it for years afterwards. I do distinctly remember the mid-80s being a period of confusion and fear. There was an air-raid siren above my school and we did actually perform nuclear attack drills from time to time. I went to bed terrified most nights due to my vivid imagination or things I'd seen on television and it's hardly surprising seeing Threads again. It's very intense and there are some especially harrowing scenes in the second half of the play. I guess this opens up a debate about what we submit children to. I can't say that I took too many positives from watching this.

I can't tell if kids these days have the same amount of fear thrust upon them as I did when I was a kid. Maybe the terrorist threat or something... It's hard to tell but I guess every generation has some sort of universal fear to contend with. These fears are either very real or pure propaganda, however they can often be very traumatic. Growing up in Cold War Europa was quite difficult in many ways. As well as Threads I remember being scared stiff of When the Wind Blows and even the Frankie Goes To Hollywood "Two Tribes" video.

I'd always convinced myself that U2's "War" album was the soundtrack to Threads but it seems the only music in the play is ol' Chuck Berry. I'm sure I must've got mixed up with the play and the music blasting from my brother's bedroom. It's fair to say that both left a big impression on me and go hand in hand in my mind.

Stanley Kubrick

2011-01-11T19:54:00.000-05:00

Harlaxton College 40th Anniversary Logo

2011-01-08T17:41:00.000-05:00

My logo design has been chosen by Harlaxton College to celebrate their 40th anniversary year. The design brings together the British Union Jack and the American Stars and Stripes to create a new unity.

Harlaxton College, based in my home town of Grantham, is the British campus of Evansville University. I've been working at the college the last few months until my U.S. visa is approved and it feels good for me to be able to contribute something to the anniversary year.

Soul Lips

2010-12-24T07:10:00.000-05:00

It seems the phenomenon I call the Fake Soul Lip Quiver is still very much in force these days. Every time I walk past the television at home I'm submitted to this fakery. I guess Whitney Houston started all this in the late-Eighties, the cocaine soul era. It's hilarious, and incredibly depressing to me, that quivering lips is the modern day indication that something is soulful. I just cannot believe that these self-professed diva's can actually continue to get away with it. It is hard to do though but who really cares about vocal gymnastics? Having said all this, I caught "I Will Always Love You" on the radio the other day and was really taken aback by how amazing the first forty seconds of that song are! If you lose the chorus then it's on a par with some Nina Simone.

It almost drives me to tears when I do occasionally encounter things like X-Factor on the television and people's inability to distinguish between the real and the fake. Anyway, I guess this all just a question of whether you consider music to be entertainment or art and I really can't waste my energy discussing it in regards to modern culture. I just wish we could get Otis Redding on X-Factor and finish the whole fucking thing! If we do eventually encounter aliens and they want to know about the human condition we just need to put on an Otis Redding forty-five and we're all set. If their advanced civilisation can do better then get them to send me a tape!

Minimal Wave Vol. 3

2010-12-15T12:40:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Dear Readers! You can now download the third, and possibly final, Minimal Wave mix from my website HERE

Tracklisting:
01.SS-Say: Care
02.Stereo: No More
03.Vital Signs: Trading In
04.H.D.: Come With Us
05.Rupert Hine: Picture Phone
06.Jonas Sjostrom: Visioner Av Guld
07.Malaria!: You You
08.Pattern Clear: Waiting In The Wings
09.The Naughtiest Girl Was A Monitor: Is All I Need
10.Days Of Sorrow: I Travel

Like Death

2010-12-01T07:17:00.000-05:00

Visuals by Bernard Lodge/Audio by Delia Derbyshire

Minimal Wave Vol. 2

2010-11-13T23:20:00.001-05:00

Vol. 2 of my Minimal Wave mixes is now available for download from my website HERE

Tracklisting:
01.Chris Carter: Beat
02.Ruth: Polaroïd/Roman/Photo
03.The Neon Judgement: The Fashion Party
04.Throbbing Gristle: Hot On The Heels Of Love
05.Circuit 7: Video Boys
06.Shoc Corridor: My Secret In The East
07.Absolute Body Control: Is There An Exit
08.Linear Movement: Night In June
09.Tara Cross: No More Drugs
10.Poeme Electronique: The Echoes Fade

Alisia Casper

2010-11-08T02:35:00.000-05:00

Leeds based artist Alisia Casper has asked me to produce a website for her which you can find HERE

Alisia also has a lovely voice and is a great songwriter. She has released her recordings on Sea Records and Daniel Werner's Drahtwald label. Please check-out her music on her MySpace page HERE Her new site is the home for all of Alisia's art including her fabulous drawings, paintings and photography.

Made of Stone

2010-10-25T15:02:00.001-04:00

Finally, after a year of saving up I’ve finally been able to get my hands on a copy of The Stone Roses beautiful 20th anniversary box set. It’s become more apparent in recent years just how important The Stone Roses have been in my life. In many ways their debut album symbolises my move into adulthood as much as any other. I was fifteen and in the middle of my final school exams when I got to see them play at Oxford Polytechnic in May 1989, a week or so before their debut album came out. How I managed to sag off school and get to Oxford at that age is beyond me but I somehow pulled it off. Seeing them was the final nail in the coffin of my education and, for better or worse, part of the inspiration for me to explore the arts. I guess you could call it my first proper gig as up until that point I’d only seen local bands or stadium rock. So to see a band who had just recorded one of the best debut albums of all time with the world at their feet is an extraordinary thing and probably something that I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. I thought all band’s would be this good… When they played live you had the feeling that the music could fall apart at any moment and that is testimony to the fragility of the music. Sometimes it's only in retrospect when it occurs to you how beautiful it really was.

While The La's re-recorded and re-recorded their album The Stone Roses appeared on the scene completely usurping them and changing the face of British music for a generation. I always found that a little bit hard to swallow and when The La's record was finally released it felt antiquated in comparison. Even though I loved The Stone Roses dearly I always felt slightly that they were taken away from me and were only "my band" for a week or so. I've never read such across the board praise for an album in the music press before or since that album was released. My loss has to do with seeing them play on the verge of becoming huge but it also with the hoards of fashion kids who adored them. Wearing exactly the clothes as your favourite band always seems like a completely futile gesture to me. I can't count how many bands I saw, most notably The Stone Throwers, wearing flares, floral hoodies and covering their instruments in paint splatters.

I have to admit that I was initially attracted to the pictures of the band that I’d seen in Sounds and the NME. They were of the few bands to successfully combine musical and visual imagery since The Who. A generation of kids really did learn about Jackson Pollock through The Stone Roses. John Squire’s paintings, often attempts to visualise the sound of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s feedback, became iconic and much copied. Vandalising their record companies office with tins of paint, as a substitute for baseball bats, is probably one of the best pop art statements of the decade. Also, they were just so bizarre looking and had one of the most charismatic front men for years. Ian Brown was an angelic looking boy but there was also something Neanderthal about him. I guess I was kind of fascinated by that.

What strikes me about this album is that every single track is fantastic and it's still one of the most complete records I’ve ever heard. It’s indescribably right for it’s time and place with one foot in the past and an eye on the future. You can quite easily draw a line from The Smiths, Primal Scream and the Postcard Records bands to The Stone Roses but this is really the sound of mopsters letting their hair down. The roots just as firmly planted in Chicago as much as they are in northern Britain and influenced as much by 'Voodoo Ray' as they were by the psychedelic bands of the Sixties. Along with De La Soul’s 'Three Feet High and Rising' it should be held up as one of the defining records of the post cold-war era.

The album has more in common with the euphoria of acid house than it does psychedelia or indie rock. The sense of space in the music is key to its place and time. I never took ecstasy at the time but perhaps I should have. God knows how many countryside raves I was dragged along to as a teenager sitting in the corner listening to crappy house music surrounded by people getting wasted and foaming at the mouth. That and peer pressure were definitely what put me off taking it. I generally have never listened to music as a means of escapism, rather as a way of turning myself on to the world around me and this album is definitely a major turn on! Having said that the opening chords of 'Waterfall' are as close to an aural orgasm (ahem) as I’ve experienced. Despite the obvious euphoria of the record there's a melancholy and eeriness to the music reminsicent of Love's best work 'Forever Changes'.

There are so many elements that make this record astonishing. I hate the word “chemistry” when applied to bands but The Stone Roses really did have a perfect mix. Everything is built around the brilliance of the bass and drums, probably best highlighted on 'Waterfall', which is about as loose as any British rhythm section ever got. Their philosophy was to separate the kick, snare drum and hi-hat for the belly, head and shoulders respectively. Without question they brought about a new awareness of rhythm, not just in Britain but across the Atlantic too where they ended up being sampled by Run DMC.

The cinematic opening sprawl of 'I Wanna Be Adored' is the sound of Joy Division’s 'Shadowplay' on temazepam. Check it out at 45rpm! But, there’s so much joy in this record and that I think is what brings people back to it so much. Ian Brown is criminally underrated as a lyricist too. 'Bye Bye Badman' is a song inspired by the Situationists and the Paris riots of 1968. The lemons on the album cover in homage to the lemons sucked on by rioters to dispel the effects of tear gas. 'Elizabeth My Dear' is a cheeky medieval sounding anti-monarchy lament to the tune of 'Scarborough Fair'. 'Standing Here' is one of the great modern love songs with the lines “I could park a juggernaut in your mouth. I can feel a hurricane when you shout. I should be safe forever in your arms.” in the beautiful second half of the song. Reni’s harmonies really cannot be understated when you listen to 'The Stone Roses' and are a perfect counterpoint to Ian Brown's lead vocals. Hearing the demos for the first time here makes you appreciate just how hard John Leckie must have worked to get Ian Brown to sing in tune! There's something pretty esoteric about Ian Brown which can probably be best heard on 'Fools Gold', a criptic denouncement of capitalism.

Unfortunately The Stone Roses legacy is that they were a pre-cursor to Britpop and the nihilistic male posturing that came with it. That totally annoys me and misses the point. Having complete belief in what you do without seeming arrogant being the main difference. I seem to be alone amongst most of my friends in my devotion to The Stone Roses so it's really something to be able to share these songs with Frances. I have beautiful memories of listening to a cassette copy of the album on our way to the North Carolina coast at night time. As a parallel it seems that The Stone Roses album was just as forming and important for her as it was for me and that is testament to the power and grace of this music. Even twenty years on these are still songs to live your life by.

I Have A Badge Maker!!!

2010-08-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

If you need any badges made then get in touch. The size is 1-inch and I can make large or small runs of badges. Just send me your image and make sure it fits nicely within a circle. Message me at: kristiangoddard(at)hotmail(dot)com

We Jam Econo (The Book)

2010-08-09T12:09:00.000-04:00

After four years of delays I'm excited to announce that the book version of We Jam Econo The Story of the Minutemen will be published in 2011 by Akashic Books, NY. You can pre-order the book through Amazon HERE

This project has been a labour of love for me working as the sole editor and designer. It offers all the interviews conducted for the documentary including those that didn't make it into the final cut. The contributors include Thurston Moore, Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, Richard Hell, Lee Ranaldo, Flea and Mike Mills amongst others. It's been a long process designing the whole book but through it all I've been inspired by the music of the Minutemen as well as Mike Watt's words of encouragement.

The book will contain 170 illustrated pages. The Minutemen lyrics are also presented for the first time in print! You can see some sample spreads from the book HERE

Always Fun

2010-08-06T11:49:00.000-04:00

HERE & HERE

Minimal Wave Vol. 1

2010-08-04T17:42:00.000-04:00

It's my birthday and I'll make a mix if I want to!!! You can download it from my website HERE

Tracklisting:

01.Absolute Body Control: Figures
02.Stereo: Somewhere In The Night
03.Bal Paré: Palais d'Amour
04.Peppermint Lounge: Perfect High
05.Eleven Pond: Watching Trees
06.Chris & Cosey: Heartbeat
07.Nine Circles: Twinkling Stars
08.Neon Eyes: Communication Without Sound
09.Black Fantasy: Evil Places
10.Victrola: Maritime Tatami

Ate Something Bad

2010-08-01T15:50:00.000-04:00

Ate Something Bad is the work of my friend Adam Hell. One drawing per day for a year, I believe. I know how difficult it is to do something like that, so I really appreciate this blog. Hilarious and heart breaking.

The Powers of Ten

2010-07-31T14:43:00.000-04:00

A beautiful 1968 film by Charles and Ray Eames depicting the relative scale of the universe in scales of ten. Life affirming and awe-inspiring!

Less Is More

2010-07-01T15:48:00.000-04:00

When times get bad I usually find myself turning to minimalist design in order to stay focused on the good things in life. The work of Dieter Rams has always brought me comfort since I discovered his work in the college library on my lunch break. Yeah, I was in the library at dinner time!

Anyway, this Design Museum retrospective is really worth checking out. Rams is without question one of the 20th century's most influential and pioneering designers. Beautiful!

Geneva Jacuzzi Site

2010-06-07T19:04:00.000-04:00

The site I've been making for Geneva Jacuzzi is now online! Vinyl International release her album "Lamaze" on vinyl this week and the new video for Gray Wave City is also exclusively available on the site. Please go there and check it out!

Permanence

2010-04-18T17:22:00.001-04:00

A Act Acting Admire Afraid Again Ago An And Angels Angry All Always Another Anymore Apart Around As Assassins At Attracted Are Away Back Barely Bed Been Behind Beside Beware Blue Bodies Body Blame Blood Bloodsport Bodies Brought Building’s But By Cage Campaigned Can Can’t Car Care Cars Case Centre Chance Chair Change Childhood Children Christ City Closed Cold Colours Come Connect Confusion Close Clue Collect Control Corner Corrupted Could Clinging Cracks Crashing Creeping Cried Cross Crowds Dancing Damn Dark Darker Day Death Deep Demanded Depths Descend Despair Destroyed Did Didn’t Die Died Different Directionless Disbelief Distance Distorted Disturbed Do Don’t Door Down Dreams Drink Dust Each Edge Edged Else End Ends Enormous Errors Escape Everything Eyes Expressed Faces Fall Far Faster Fatal Fear Feel Feeling Felt Fence Filled Find Fine Fingers Fire For Flashing Floor For Force Forced Forget Forgotten Found Four Free Frequent Friend Friends From Full Gaps Gave Get Getting Give Gives Glory Glow Go Goaded God’s Going Good Got Group Grouped Guess Guide Gun Habits Had Hand Hard Have Heat Hear Heard Heart Her Here Herself Hey His Hold Hopes Hoping Hour Houses How I’ll I’m In Inserted Interest Is It It’s I’ve Judges Just Keep Kicking Knew Knife Know Knowing Knowledge Land Last Laughed Lay Leads Left Let Lights Like Limits Lines Living Loaded Long Longer Looked Looking Lose Lost Low Made Make Making Man Man’s Many Marked Martyrs Me Means Meet Memory Mess Metallic Mine Mistakes Moment Motion More Move Moves Moving Much My Nail Nature Nearest Neon Never New Nights No Noise Not Normal Nothing Now Obtained Occupied Ocean Odour Of Oh On One One-Sided Only Our Out Outside Over Own Pain Passer-By Pass Past People Phone Pity Place Plain Played Please Pleasure Pleasures Portrait Power Pressure Prisons Proof Prophet Pulled Reaction Red Reflects Regrets Remember Right Rise Road Roads Room Round Row Rules Run Rust Sadness Said Saints Same Sank Saw Say Screamed Screeched Secrets Scene Searching Second Same See Seem Seen Seized Sensation Sensations Sense Senses Set Shades Shadowplay Share She She’s Sheets Shined Shock Show Showed Shown Side Silence Sin Since Skins Slowly Slumps So Some Somehow Someone Something Sons Soon Sound Special Speed Spirit Stairs Stare Start Stay Steel Step Stomach Stop Strain Strangers Streets Style Sure Surrendered Take Takes Talked Taste Tears Tell Ten Tenth Territories That That’s The Their Them Then There There’s These They Thin Think This Those Though Thought Through Time Times To Too Took Told Torn Toys Trail Train Trapped Travelled Treat Trials Tried Truth Trying Turned Twelve Understand Unknown Until Up Upheaval Upon Use Values Violent View Voice Waiting Want Wanted Wall Walked Warmer Waste Wasted Watch Watching Water Way Ways We We’ll Well Weak Were We’ve What When Where Who Why Wide Window Windows Will Wire With Withdrawal Within Without Won’t World Worked Wrong Yeah You Young Your Youth

The Ecstasy And Madness

2010-04-09T11:10:00.000-04:00

I've put together a mix for my friend Adam Hell which you can download from my website HERE

Tracklisting:
01.Philip Glass: Metamorphosis
02.Body Of John The Baptist: If You Ever Go Away
03.Scott Walker: Boy Child
04.Andrew Hill: Wailing Wall
05.John Foxx: He's A Liquid
06.Kraftwerk: Kometenmelodie
07.Joy Division: N4 Europop (Martin Hannett Mix)
08.Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Navigation
09.Spacemen 3: Feel So Sad
10.Alexander Spence: All Come To Meet Her
11.Shirley Collins: When A Man's In Love
12.Kristian Goddard: Distance
13.The Walker Brothers: Nite Flights
14.David Bowie: Sense Of Doubt
15.New Order: Procession
16.Aphex Twin: Avril 14th
17.Ultravox: My Sex

Sloane Magazine Illustration

2010-04-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

Entertaining Ms Sloane

2010-03-30T19:23:00.001-04:00

The first issue of Sloane Magazine is published on April 15th. Named after Sloane Peterson, the magazine is aimed at women in their 30s with an emphasis on fashion, beauty, travel, art and design for those who have difficulty identifying with mainstream media.

Published by Dana Córdova, the eZine will be released on three platforms: web, as an ebook file for iPad (!) and as a smartphone app. All versions will be interactive with embedded hyperlinks that will trackback to information of interest, products for sale, insider tips, contributors blogs and more.

I'm happy to be involved with the magazine and have contributed illustrations for this flagship issue.

Substance

2010-03-29T11:29:00.000-04:00

Recycle is a ridiculously good blog dedicated to Joy Division and New Order. The artwork and audio have been beautifully restored and it really is heartwarming to discover such a labour of love by people obsessed with this music. It really sets the standard for all music blogs to aspire to!!! Life affirming.

Plastic Ono Blog

2010-02-07T14:09:00.000-05:00

Over the last few years I’ve found myself constantly returning to the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band record. More and more I think of it as some sort of musical utopia or an ideal of what art and music should and can be.

This first solo album was recorded in October 1970 just a few months after undergoing Primal therapy with Arthur Janov in Los Angeles. The effects of the therapy are easy to hear on the album. The repressed pain and trauma of John’s childhood are spelled out clearly in “Mother”. Never has pain been so clearly expressed on a rock ‘n’ roll album. The beauty of Lennon’s work is the simplicity and directness of language, which is matched here for the first time by simplistic arrangements. Long gone is the studio “trickery” which Lennon had accused George Martin of. The stripped-down nature of the album is even more remarkable when you consider that the psychedelic tour-de-force “Strawberry Fields Forever” was recorded only three years earlier.

It’s a challenging album to listen to for the layman because there is little harmony or musical sophistication to be heard. Here the primary colours of rock at their most vivid. The sound of a man using his art to confront and rid himself of his own demons. Why this album doesn’t top every list of all time greatest albums is beyond me. But, we seem to live in a world obsessed with the surface of things rather than what is actually being expressed, where decisions about music can be made in a matter of seconds based purely on sound. There is no way that the masses would revere an album that is sometimes downright painful to listen to and something that hardly classes as entertainment.

Richard Starkey’s drumming is perfectly understated as ever. He really is the perfect accompanist in many ways, I mean who has ever noticed that there are drums on Norwegian Wood? Never are there more than three instruments heard on any track and those elements are wonderfully stripped back to the bare minimum. There is an economy about this music almost as if no notes or beats are allowed to be wasted. The blank canvas of the Beatles’ White Album would have a perfectly appropriate cover in many ways.

John had almost completely ostracised himself from the general public by 1970. His relationship with Yoko Ono, drug conviction and mis-quoted statements about Jesus Christ had made the public distrustful of his motives and without the shroud of The Beatles John was really out on his own. The album is almost a denouncement of absolutely everything other than love. Despite this he is still keen to play the everyman, in the Lennon tradition, with a song like “Working Class Hero”.

Plastic Ono Band has none of the avant-garde leanings of Two Virgins or Life With The Lions. This is strictly art as opposed to entertainment and is the antithesis of intellectualism which John rebelled against so much at the beginning of the 70s. The Rolling Stone Interview which was published at the same time as the album’s release is almost as notorious as the album itself in which John renounces his work with The Beatles.

There really was nowhere left for John run after this album. His soul is laid bare for all to see and it's hardly surprise that he went into an early retirement only five years later. It's a creative peak and one seldom matched in music.