BERLIN

2010-03-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

2010-03-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

2010-03-24T13:23:00.000-07:00

2010-03-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

2010-03-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

2010-03-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

death explained.

2010-02-23T15:08:00.001-08:00

4

2010-02-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

/./.

2010-02-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

2010-02-04T07:47:00.000-08:00

2010-02-03T17:29:00.001-08:00

I'm writing in airwaves.
There are undecipherable codes in everything.
Mirrored, cracked and broken.
For circularity, read inevitability; for inevitability, read circularity.
They say opposites attract but I think that is wrong,
similarities are magnetic like gravity.
Love; a case for love.
Seek solace in romance.
The lark ascending with a sword.
All the trees start to walk and the rivers start to talk,
but only through manipulation of the mind.
Digital manipulation.
Some tides don't turn, some things never come back.
Tone-wheeled cyclones.
We'll be floating in the air, describing nothing.
Everything just melts away. Alone in the precipice.
Exploring infinity I realize I exist purely in metaphysical disarray.
I love you. Love me too.

some tides don't turn

2010-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

adrian ghenie

2010-02-03T02:57:00.001-08:00

'The Blue Rain' & 'Pie Fight Study'

Ghenie is an ardent researcher of the history of the 20th century, being preoccupied with unearthing forgotten narratives, marginal events and seemingly insignificant details in order to compose a visual vocabulary that is both compelling and uncanny. The subject matter does not revolve around a single set of concerns, and yet the different themes of Ghenie's paintings seem to connect. Spectral presences of Hitler and Lenin, collective bodies of anonymous, defaced people – are all there to reveal the feebleness and inconsistency of our memory. The failure of modernity brought about by the catastrophes of the Second World War is seen in conjunction with the rise of modern forms of entertainment such as cinema, another major topic for Ghenie.

i've decided to start painting again.

objects for contemplation

2010-01-28T04:52:00.000-08:00

war & peace

2010-01-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

You are so eloquent. May I have some tea?

2010-01-27T14:01:00.000-08:00

harmful logic

2010-01-25T03:21:00.000-08:00

2010-01-24T16:04:00.000-08:00

I will say this twice...

2010-01-24T15:55:00.000-08:00

Have you ever looked at the sun?
I mean really looked
I look at you and you blind me.
I could dissapear into this white expanse,
the buildings tower into oblivion and my feet are taken beneath me.
Talons.
The second sentence of everything I read is you.
Withered surface and brittle promise,
love blinds me, momentary weakness.
Amazing grace.
Inside pocket and an overwhelming sense of grey.
I witnessed accidents on the road to truth,
where's God now?
Crystalisation of dreams.
Window frames resemble the wings of a butterfly,
delicate and beautiful
but doomed for infinity in the absence of everything that makes me feel human.

6545

2010-01-24T06:14:00.000-08:00

i went to berlin

2010-01-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

pictures and then words and then infinity

2010-01-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

Sicillian Windows

2010-01-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

I've listened to this record on repeat for 4 days now.
It's my winter. My Walden.
My own personal Walden.
I embarked upon this vast white ocean with no sight of the horizon and only the memory of the look in your eyes.
I'll find you again if it's the last thing I do.
I'm going to drape my heart over the radiator for a minute or two. Just until the feeling comes back.
I'm going to escape, don't ask me why or what from, it just feels right. Do you ever get that feeling?
If I can't see you, you can't see me. That's the rule. It's always been that way.
I've had an orchestra inside of me for a while now and it makes the most beautiful sound, I wish you could hear it.

Hold on a minute, that warm feeling has gone and I can feel the fear creeping back in from the side entrance.
I must have left the latch off again! Shit, fuck.
'Hello is that you? Can you come and make things right again? I know it's the third time this week but you know I wouldn't ask unless it was urgent'.
All I ask is that we hug for at least one hour per day.
I'm 78% water and the rest is made up entirely of language.
If I stand on one leg I'll feel closer to the centre of the universe.
I'm moving into my log cabin soon. Surrounded by trees and stars.
I look up and I see your crescent moon smile shining down on me and I feel warm again. Thanks.
Be still now.
If you want to live amongst these surroundings, you have to be these surroundings.
Purity is a rare thing, don't abuse it. If you do I'll kill you.

I love this place, it has it's faults I know, but it's ours.
My pockets are always full of ink.
Escape, escape, escape!!

Can you come back now? I miss you.

radiator wax jacket

2010-01-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

The sound of swords being drawn is one of my favourite sounds. I do believe that every tree has a soul.
I've had the urge to plant an oak for a while now but I just don't know if it would make any difference. It would to me, I'll just sit under it and read Charles Baudelaire poems.
What's your favourite number? Mine is 2.
To me, black is the only colour that matters. Black says something that others cannot, or perhaps will not.
My mind sometimes wonders off without my permission. 'Come here mind of mine, come back to where you feel you do not belong'.
I'm going to store your image onto the insides of my eyelids so I don't forget your face. I WILL NOT forget your face.
Just look at me one more time will you, I've forgotten your face.
We have a secret code; if my heart beats, that means yes. Everything is OK.

Your head reminds me of Saturn. You are stratospherically autumnal. An equinox.
I'll sit in this chair and feel content. I think I'll sit here and map out how to reach you again. If not in this life, definitely in the next.
I'm going to return as a robin. I'll be on the gatepost over there.
I'll hollow out the side of a cliff face and make a place to hibernate. In it I'll hide all of our writings and collect them again in 5,000 years. I'll leave a key under the mat.

If you desire an after-life will you get one? I think they are on a first come - first serve basis. Today is almost telepathic. I don't know what will happen but I know what won't.
I think Friedrich Nietzsche is plotting to blow up my brain. I think it's only a side project however, he's under my bed at the moment talking on the phone about the large hadron collider.

I don't know how I feel about going back to my tin shed. Francis Bacon will be there of course.
I wonder if the condition of something makes it appear different to the naked eye?
From now on I'm going to make my eyes get dressed in the morning.
The foxes always come in pairs. I've seen them a couple of times now. Staring at me like I'm the mad one!
I think I need some new tool's. Mine have been blamed too often. They are starting to read their own press.

'Only I can be the judge' he claimed.
'The judge of what?' she replied.. 'Your senses?'
Nonsense.
The time is right and the time is now. I've packed a hamper filled with notebooks and pairs of brogues.
I'll drop the anchor just after 3PM.
If you travel deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, soon enough you will realise that perhaps your the wrong rabbit. Maybe you just don't live here anymore.
Maybe you never did at all.
A change of mind doesn't always mean a change of head.
I'm going to stay here sat a top this cloud for as long as I feel welcome. I can see for miles.
Too much of a good thing can make you love it less and less. I do love you but please never speak to me again.
In this case I think an angel may have just been charged for grievous bodily harm.
The bail is more than you can even imagine.

merry christmas alex smith

2010-01-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

leon

2009-12-29T02:56:00.000-08:00

i watched leon for the first time in a long time yesterday. released in 1994, jean reno is hitman leon, a curiously subdued frenchman who lives a solitary life with just his beloved plant until he reluctantly offers sanctuary to toubled mathilda, played by natalie portman.

mathilda's family have been gunned down by the drug addicted, crooked cop, norman stansfield,played by gary oldman. mathilda offers illiterate leon help with reading and writing in exchange for him teaching her the basic knowledge of using a gun so she can seek revenge on those who killed her younger brother, the only family member she truely cared about.

as the two spend more time with eachother, the bond between them ever increases and mathilda says on numerous occasions thats he is falling in love with leon, only for him to react by usually spitting his milk everywhere in shock. as the film progresses, stansfield becomes ever more determined to kill leon and proceeds in doing eveything in his power to do so. when the manpower that stansfield has at his disposal becomes too much for leon, the two are seen together on the foor after leon has been shot by stansfield and leon hands stansfield an object with the words 'this is from mathilda'. stansfield looks to the palm of his hand to find a grenade clip set to detonate several explosives strapped to leon's chest.

i doubt i've done this film any justice at all, director luc besson is so considered in his approach to making leon the character he is. reno, portman and oldman are amazing and it's defnitely one of the best films i've seen.

blueberry.

2009-12-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

i've always been a fan of late of the pier, i remember going to see them and midnight juggernauts in sheffield around 2 years ago. it was good. this is the new release under erol alkan's phantasy label. enjoy.

a place to go (after thoreau)

2009-12-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

i plan to make a log cabin. a real size log cabin. this is derived from an idea of tranquility and peace. inspired by a lot of writings, a lot of music and a lot of personal feelings over the last couple of years. i like to think of it as a 3D version of my 'i'll love you forever' posters, it's mine at first, but then it can belong to anyone, think of it what you will, it's existence will be it's beauty and it's soul purpose when all is said and done. sometimes art can be complicated and sometimes it can be simple. this has elements of both and i feel excited about creating a space from real materials of the earth and therefore creating a place to go and a place to be.

it's cold out

2009-12-18T04:01:00.000-08:00

and these two are all i want/need.

Birds

2009-12-15T08:31:00.000-08:00

rundgren to dilla

2009-12-15T05:14:00.000-08:00

'sometimes his doctor would listen to the beats through Yancey's headphones, getting a hip-hop education from one of the best in the business'

TEMPZ

2009-12-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

i love this photograph. tempa is a big fave at the moment aswell.

i'm in this now.

2009-12-13T11:57:00.000-08:00

hold on tight.

6 photographs i wish i'd taken.

2009-12-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

i love flying lotus.

2009-12-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

you should too.

CW

2009-12-11T07:03:00.000-08:00

_________________________?

2009-12-11T06:58:00.000-08:00

////////////+

2009-12-11T06:56:00.000-08:00

berlin + ventral = birds.

2009-12-10T17:40:00.000-08:00

http://www.ventralisgolden.com/

zine.

2009-12-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

toby burrows.

2009-12-06T10:08:00.001-08:00

i was thinking..

2009-12-05T04:57:00.000-08:00

i think i may be one of the only people i know who still actually purchases music with real money. i love to buy cd's and vinyl partly because i'm an art student and the visual appeal of an album cover has always been something that has got me excited about listening to the band or singer or whatever. i definitely download music illegally but that's because it's easy and i can't really afford to buy music anymore but i think this trend in the way we access music has had a profound effect on the creativity of some musical artist's when it comes to the front cover of their precious albums.

i digress..

i was looking on amazon at the cd's they sell and the choice is vast but i was so shocked at how bad some of the album covers were to some of this countries most popular music figures.

i believe the best selling and therefore most popular cd in the country by definition today is that of x-factor sensation susan boyle. i'm not fully aware of how good she is as a musician or singer but her album, well, i wouldn't want to un-wrap this in my half asleep state of festive excitement in 20 days time..

anyway, susan boyle is one of hundreds of examples i noted where i feel they could have tried a bit harder. in susan's defence, she is new on the scene and the public eye was thrust more upon her rather than her pleading for it's attention. the following examples are different though i feel. the following bands are established 'artists' and i feel like they have probably forgotten what that word means.

right so, the above examples are, let's be honest, pretty good in terms of showcasing bad album covers. i see michael buble has tried to be all mysterious with some kind of hand gesture where you can't quite see his whole head, just enough for a middle aged woman with no real clue about music to fall in love with him. just enough for a teenager or early twenty something to think it would be perfect as a christmas gift for their mum, (that very thought had crossed my mind but i thought better of it. sorry mum if you read this, i know you quite like michael buble).

then we have those welsh wizards the stereophonics or as i like to call them, shit.
what are they doing? i didn't really research much into this album cover to be fair so maybe there is a fantastic reason why 4 grown welsh men should be sat around a cafe table, half way out to sea. i can't think of one though so for that reason and that reason alone, i don't like it. i think this one of quite funny though because this was definitely not their own idea, it DEFINITELY was not. i like to imagine some young marketing guy at their record label having this idea and slowly working on the band to make them come round to his way of thinking, and then the label head likes the idea, and when enough people who really don't have a clue about what looks good are getting excited almost to the point of orgasm, the band don't really have a choice and therefore get put in the sea. nobody want's to be put in the sea against their will, not in my experience.

then i saw the new biffy clyro cover. biffy clyro are a funny band, their fans are quite dedicated from what i know and i can be quite sure that all biffy fans (i heard zane lowe refer to them as that once, a little collective family. nice) think this album cover is GREAT! why though? i can't actually work it out, is it a fantastic piece of visual art or is it two big bits of fabric in the wind? i guess that question comes down to it's concept and i read a little bit into it and i couldn't find any trace of one of those. i am willing to be proved wrong though by anyone who cares enough to do so.

now i know i'm being less than polite about these bands and anybody that knows me will know that the musical artists above are not exactly my cup of tea so i have tried to be fair. whilst on amazon i found 2 album covers that i think are really good by bands that, well, i don't like 'em that much.

i think these two album covers are really good! 30 seconds to mars are a band i don't think i will ever really like that much but the album cover is great! why? just because it's a massive tiger right in your face. it's exciting and scary and different and it'd be even better if it didn't have the white title strip. i would buy this album for that front cover but i know this is foolish. especially 'cos their crap.

then there is take that, as i am writing this i realised that the stereophonics front cover is a kind of, poor man's take that cover. the stereophonics are all together in the sea, all wet whereas take that are up on some kind of electrical wires doing ballet stances. that's impressive enough in my view. i think this is a great album cover. well done gary, mark, howard and jason.

i didn't know their names without help.

i guess the whole point of this post is to remind myself more than anything that music albums are pieces of artwork, and in a time where money is tight, if you're gonna throw your cash at a cd, i think it should be worth it on more than just a musical level.

failing that, just download it. free innit.

peace and love x

birds. featuring me and joel.

2009-12-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

i don't really ever write anything on this blog but i thought i would inform anyone who looks at this page of a new series of work i'm about to embark upon with my friend joel galvin.

joel by the way, along with his partner in crime and owner of a good beard damien knightley, run a blog called ventral which is probably my favourite thing to look at.

please have a look... http://ventralisgolden.blogspot.com/

so anyway, the series is going to be called birds and it's gonna be about birds. we're proper imaginative. it was joel's brainchild based on a collage i did a couple of weeks ago.

this one to be precise..

we are going to make 10 pieces of work each which will involve images of birds in quite weird and wonderful forms. i don't think there is much else to say other than keep your eyes peeled for some cool looking birds.

peace and love x

work.

2009-12-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

some new things.

2009-11-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

A MILLI A MILLI A MILLI A MILLI AMILAMILLAMILLI

2009-11-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

yesterday

2009-11-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

control.

2009-11-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

triangle walks.

2009-11-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

XLR8R

2009-11-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

My favourite photographer.

2009-11-08T04:56:00.001-08:00

untitled.

2009-11-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

I STARTED SOMETHING I COULDN'T FINISH

2009-10-29T16:02:00.001-07:00

LEEDZ

2009-10-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

AND AGAIN

2009-10-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

DISPOSABLE CAMERA

2009-10-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

HEY!

2009-10-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

these are all more than a year old.

2009-10-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

-------------------//

2009-10-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

BON ANNIVERSAIRE

2009-10-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

LS7

2009-10-17T10:36:00.000-07:00