bench sleeping

I know almost nothing about this song/film except that it originates from brighton. even though I used to live and work in brighton as far as I am aware I don't know any one involved. but I do know that for some reason I really like it & that's enough.

summer?

I hadn't really intended to post today but I got back home cornwall from sussex (& brighton) today and checked through some of the pictures I had taken whilst fleeting from cornwall to the midlands (fri) birmingham airport down to west sussex (sat) for lunch, then spent a day in brighton (sun). brighton is a great place a place I have spent lots of time in the past, my younger sister lives just outside brighton the rottingdean side. was in her garden yesterday afternoon when I took this picture on my mobile. as you can see it is a summer scene without the summer if that makes sense. between showers and a strong wind her son was playing in their garden I just thought this little picture. summed up the summer well this (august) weekend just passed, so well.

may sunshine >> david inshaw

it has been a strange day heavy rain followed by bright sunshine. but we did manage to get the back yard clear of old bits of carpet and furniture from the alterations to our house over easter, yes it has taken that long to get the stuff removed. any way the rain came down and we ended up driving to the re-cycling centre (the tip) through rural cornwall in torrential rain. after getting home the sun came out again and I drove again through the same country side in the most fantastic light. I was dropping my eldest son off at a friends house as they are off to london in the morning to have a look round some galleries and design shows in the brick lane area. driving back home through the cornish early evening sunlight I remembered years ago visiting brighton museum and art gallery in the late 70's where I saw the work of david inshaw (a founder of the ruralists). over all the years since I can't say that I have thought about that show much, except for today it brought it all back simply by the light, the way the sun was casting shadow and the feeling it gave me all positive I have to say.

images, copyright david inshaw

bone idol >> surf co.

thinking about all the many fashion stuff I saw yesterday made me think about so many other fashion/clothing/design stuff that has is created from thinking, concentration, a passion for good things rather than the ever moving 'new thing'.
bone idol a company set up and run by a friend martin o'neill from brighton. I like the way his company have evolved making enough to satisfy demand without lowering standards and riding the call from the high street chains for 'surf fashion' over the last few years.

just because I like it >>

I have always tried to keep fresh as far as ideas in design and illustration, but when I saw steven wilson's work I was draw to it immediately.
not just because I am originally from brighton as he is.
but in the early seventies as a teenager trying to to learn to draw and spending ages looking through poster books, I really liked the splash posters of that time I even had one on the wall at the end of my bed. steven wilson's splash

>> go skateboarding day 2007

tomorrow (thursday 21.06.07) is go-skateboarding-day-2007 and all across the world skaters of all types and ages will be going skating. I am no longer part of the brighton skate scene as I moved to cornwall years ago my son gabes is. I am sure that during the day he will be going skateboarding.


as part of the event the vans skateboard team will be at the west pier brighton around 2pm. now the reason I am interested in the vans team is that they have some old school skaters as well as contemporary skaters, I will always consider myself old school, I first went skating in the 70's and that was in brighton then later london. since moving to cornwall the skate possibilities stopped as the old school skateboard parks became derelict, and generally we have less tarmac, and concrete down here, so the beach becomes the way to go and surfing the real deal.
however more recently some repairs and rebuilding has happened and I now have some good skate parks close by, and good friend and surf98 colleague moby is the man for them (check his surf pictures on the surf98 site).
anyway to add to the skateboard day I thought this video made in brighton might be worth a look.

another short blog

not feeling too great tonight, I spent the most of the day not doing much except worrying about gabes.
poor guy he had a very long journey from here in cornwall to brighton today.
and after two coach accidents and 18 phone calls between the two of us, he is fine and safely back so that's good.

I will have to wait for another day to be inspired.

gabes >> coffee >>

I have only turned my computer on once today and that was to do this no work for a whole day!
the images I have put in the is post today are not random, but considered.
gabes goes back to brighton in the morning, hope you have had a good week (enjoy the surf dvd) and the steaming coffee well I like it. no links today and yes it took less 5 minutes to do this.

saturday people >> we won

me and my family (except luca back in brighton hopefully revising for his exams) went to the rugby in really warm sunny saturday weather. to watch an always well contested local derby and the biggest crowd of the season also, so a few thousand other people had the same idea. our team won, though it was much closer and more exciting than the score of 19-9 suggests. there was no trouble on the terraces, no hassle parking and walking around the ground was fun. I thought I would take some pictures, during half time to document what it was/is like amongst the crowd. all people there were there to support their teams avidly. there was no segregation of fans but cheering, shouting and even heckling, with opposing fans standing next to each other with only friendly light teasing.
as our team won my lot where very happy as of course I was.
I like these pictures as they are just people, people who I don't know, people who tonight having shared the same experience of watching their team win or lose. they could be happy or sad. they could have been dragged there by someone else and couldn't care less.
I am not someone who looks for crowds or likes crowded places. I prefer space but I like rugby and I like watching good rugby and I did today.

ollie >> skating video

this is ollie smith from brighton.



I have known ollie since he was born, now he is a good friend of my sons, luca & gabriel.
a long, long time ago I used to skate the same streets both in brighton and london. I was born in brighton and lived there before eventually (via hampshire, london, even france for a bit) chose to live in cornwall. as an old has-been I still skate (rarely) but never as good as this.
when I did skate a lot (in the70's & 80's) with people like melvin (before ollie was even born!) it was on days when there was no surf and so we did nothing like this no doubt some old school skaters will disagree.

I added it simply because I think it's such a good video made by people with a passion.

today went to fast >> sunshine and thoughts of summer

today went too quickly I only had a short time it seemed until I was eating lunch with maria and jules. I couldn't resist taking this picture. It was of part of my lunch, it looked so good in the spring sunshine. after that the day simply flew past.
we had sunshine pretty much all day today. just spoken to gabes he was full of the joys of a spring day he had got down to the beach even had a skate as well. specially for him I thought I would add this publicity picture for the 60's film endless summer a surfing classic. it says a lot about how things have changed but even gabes at nearly 14 can relate to parts of the surfing lifestyle or his perception of the that lifestyle, any way it is a great picture.

whilst on a nostalgic theme I have to include a picture of a man that I hold in particular high esteem, george greenough (pictured here in about '73) who was and still is a phenomenal surfer and photographer and if that wasn't enough a very creative designer as well. surf boards, it was george who really brought kneeboarding to the notice of other surfers and non-surfers in the late 60's early 70's.
he is responsible for designing the 'spoon' the board he is holding in the picture. as well as camera housing equipment, and inspired many through his use of film images set to music. echos (pink floyd) at the end of the classic surf film crystal voyager being his most famous film. It is amazing how different a day can be just because it is bright and sunny, I was busy all day but don't really feel I produce much of the things I wanted to do.

I did finally get my podcast to work check it at dgthekneelo.podbean by going round in circles but eventually sorting it out. then after that davidthedesigner left me a very welcome message telling me about some audio software audacity (I had not heard of) I also downloaded an extra patch in addition to audacity enabling me to export to mp3 LAME no excuses now.
already I have had a play with and it seems it is an answer to making the audio podcast bursts I have been trying to create for the past couple of weeks, at what is good is that it is free! thanks for the tip davidthedesigner.

any way must get on I have too many projects on the go at the moment and to really need get back in to the design for 'the hub'.

sunday rugby >> mods & rockers

I had no idea that when I went over to newquay, (surfcity uk), cornwall to take ben to play rugby today. that I would be writing about mods & rockers when I got home. it was in the car park as we work leaving that I caught site of this scooter (left), the owner was very busy on the phone so I didn't talk to him but the machine was original and had been painstakingly restored I had to get a picture.

I grew up near brighton (actually born in brighton) on the sussex coast of the uk but I am just a bit too young to have been involved in the mods versus rockers battles during the mid 60's. I remember we always had to park the car (my dad had a grey vw beetle 1200) away from the seafront when we went to the beach on holiday weekends, as cars parked on right next to the sea often got sometimes got damaged. I remember very clearly noticing a real difference in the way people dressed, and just how incredibly import it was we used to talk about it at school one thing we did do was wear our caps in different ways to show which we were, I will leave you to decide which I thought were cooler, have to say it has changed over the years.

I also remember my mother speaking of her surprise that those nice, clean, modern dressers (mods) would want to get involved in fights!
I am sure some of you will be too young to remember or for that matter understand the difference between a mod or a rocker, nor will you care whether the scooter in the picture was a vespa or a lambretta. even that the size of the turn-up on your (italian) suit trousers had to be a certain size (mods), or how long you had worn your 'oily jeans' (rockers).
I love the fact that one person on a scooter can bring back such clear visual memories of my childhood days in brighton.
See film clips