cowboy amateurs

Cowboys Amateurs - Intro only from CycloExpedition Americas on Vimeo.

more on this here

use your weekend

it doesn't need to be epic....

cycling central asia

bitter sweet this one. but what a journey....


Cycling Central Asia from twoonfourwheels.com on Vimeo.

ride to rio

The Ride to Rio - Peru, Central / South America America Bicycle Tour from Dom Smith on Vimeo.

a week of cycling videos

and why not via here. a lot of inspiration and a bit of tragedy. but mostly inspiration. you can watch them all via the link or just one a day...

The cycle bug from Florian Schmale on Vimeo.

the book of miracles

The Book of Miracles on Nowness.com

loving this!

matt dorfman

if, like me, your kindle or e-reader thing, is all right as it goes, but nothing compared to the full fat sustenance of an actual book in all its manifestations then most likely you'll be wanting a peek at the website of book designer matt dorfman.

if you spend any time exposed to books you'll recognise at least some of his covers. i would highly recommend a browse of the blog. i've said it before and i'll say it again - i'll buy a book because i like the way it looks and feels long before one that's badly designed or put together. obviously if i don't actually like the book afterwards i'll be doubly disappointed but that's the risk you take.

and i'm not ashamed to admit i've a happy habit of replacing old favourites with lovely new bits of design. it's a pleasure

j'ai toujours jeune

back when i was wee, one of my french teachers was a guy called moise from cote d'ivoire. we were a bunch of pasty scottish kids from a small scottish town and we'd never seen anyone like moise before. he took our spectacular ignorance in his stride. have you seen a lion? no, a monkey? i live in a big city. then a pause. does it have skyscrapers?

and he spoke beautiful french. even now when i hear a west african french accent it puts me back into a deeply content place in my childhood memory. thanks to moise and those few brief lessons we had with him my view of 'africa' would never be the same.

in those days, tho slightly later, being the time before internet and the like, getting your hands on african music, any music that wasn't western music, was tricky and relied on both luck and finding a decent record store. it must've been in one of these i first came across papa wemba and from there the sapeurs.

i loved those guys. and maybe yes, there was a time when i had a sapeur-lite phase in my life. so i was very happy to see the above mini documentary. okay, maybe the sapeur life isn't quite as it's portrayed but taken at face value - peace, respect and a healthy desire for dressing up? we could all do with a bit more of that!

the road to meikle seggie

when i first came down to these parts i used to ask people if they'd ever been to meikle seggie and, if so, where was it. no-one had ever heard of it. i didn't ask if they knew of richard demarco let alone joseph beuys. much later and quite by chance i found it on the map and just down the road. i'll save that one i thought

and for some reason today was the day. who knows why? not to get to meikle seggie! but that's where i went and although the cycling was a wee bit treacherous it was a sublime day. i haven't met richard demarco more than half a dozen times and, i think, with t only once or twice and she, like me, thought he was wonderful.

i could tell you i only got into beuys because of him but that wouldn't be true. what would be true was that i only started looked at beuys properly after i met him. but it was the meikle seggie trip that captured my imagination then and now. maybe i put off going down the road for ages because i thought it would be just another road but these days i don;t think there's any such thing and maybe i've been going to meikle seggie all along. who can tell.

as for richard demarco. great guy. i found the following on youtube - you can see him standing just about where i took these at about 1:19

podcasts

it may be that i like a rant about the bbc but that doesn't mean to say i don't listen to a fair bit of it. radio 3's spoken word output is rarely less than fabulous and radio 4, despite often feeling like a middle class family has stopped their range rover long enough to beat you to death with their golden labrador, is well worth the effort despite all the wallpapered mindlessness of it. even if the sound of your demise will doubtless be played to the tune of the archers.

(should i mention the tv? i could but i shan't, not unless i wanted to conflate a sentence using the words smug, preening and flamethrower)

but should one be able to reach the escape velocity to turn away from the bbc behemoth there's much to be found in the world of podcast. i don't usually post about podcasts, mainly because i post enough on here already (and i'll be stopping soon so make the most of it), but also because those lovely guardian people have just gone and done a handy starter which i mention not least because i used to have some online banter with the don logan bunch.

is it a relentlessly anglophone list? why, of course it is (you did see the link was to the guardian?). does it appear that their choices maybe reflect some of the global population more than the rest. maybe...!! but, get into the world of internet radio and the only limits you need to set are those you set on yourself. listening to stories from people who don't look or sound like you is a great way of hearing the world.

i strongly suggest indulging....

fold that paper

an easy way to pass the hours - looking for animation. and worth it when you find the likes of this -



not only that but maciek janicki includes some tests to show how it might have been done. still doesn't transfer me from being a viewer to a maker!

my favourite paper animation tho, remains the new zealand book council's treatment of maurice gee's going west which is on here somewhere but i can't find it so i'm only too happy to post again


New Zealand Book Council: Going West from Kreatif360 on Vimeo.

and if that wasn't enough for you check out moving paper. all the paper animation you need to get you started....

discardboard

a cardboard version of fitcarraldo you say? no problem!

this and so much more are on at discardboard in edinburgh this very week. how is it possible i could've missed this!? no facebook again i think. steps must be taken....

i'm off to see this if only for the fitzcardboardaldo. but there's so much more

i can see the drugs from here

sarah schoenfeld takes a bunch of drugs, fiddles about with them and comes up with these. not quite out of a lab but with the same strange and lovely quality. this one is filed under orphiril which, as far as i can tell is sodium valproate. i'm unsure why a drug monkey might want to take this for a laugh but there you are, beautiful image tho

for more material photography fun check out jason tozer. i can't copy the image so you need to click on the link. worth it!

melissa zexter

i'm getting more and more taken by the possibility of multimedia, particularly textile for obvious reasons,  so i fond it very easy to get lost in melissa zexter's images

standing start

Standing Start from adrian mcdowall on Vimeo.

fair play to chris hoy for all his achievements but i've always thought craig maclean maybe didn't get the recognition that he deserves. no idea what he's up to today but here he is back when

more x-rays

no information about how these were done but you can see more of saiko kando and mayuka hayashi's work here

and somebody told me it's art

without exposure (sic!) to x-ray machines it's easy to overlook the skill of a radiographer. me, i don't see x-rays and scans enough. seeing inside someone's head will never get old! even less chance for a radiographer to get let loose. but somehow arie van't riet managed it and has come up with images of haunting beauty. totally worth catching his ted lecture also, if only to see someone who maybe doesn't sound like the average artist!

peaks of life

back in the day i had a mate of mine who had a brachial plexus injury leading to similar to functional loss. he said there was nothing he couldn't do with hand hand that could be done with two. the only thing we found was dual control kite flying. that said i'm proper impressed with tom wheeler's modifications for bike riding.

it's a hard road tom and there will be dark times. but it's do-able. well done to you.

what i saw - film and moving pictures 2014

i'd like to tell you that my film watching suffered because of the hours i spent on the bike or reading books but that wouldn't really be true. i watched just as many films this year as i usually do but maybe it was because i was tired after everything else that meant aside for all the usual suspects this has to have been one of the poorest years for film in recent memory.

one of the reasons? no documentaries as such on tv and certainly not on cinema screens around these parts. i'm almost certain that the act of killing would have been up there in this year's top 5 given what i've seen of it
so far. i most likely would've liked blackfish also but i couldn't watch that with t and i was working when i could've got to it myself.

we did watch a bunch of popcorn movies. t, more than me, thought that the lone ranger was laugh out loud funny. i'm not certain it was meant to be unless you include johnny depp becoming more and more of a parody of himself. who remembers gilbert grape now? we both loved star trek. benedict cumberbatch but in the baddie of the year turn and more than did the source material justice. but it's still a remake of sorts.

somewhere some academic type should be writing something about the end of consumerist fears of the western movie making establishment in the form of popcorn destruction movies. star trek was a thinly, and poorly, disguised 9/11 allegory, and not a good one. and then there's the superhero movies which seem to me more and more a meditation on powerless in the face of unassailable power.

giant robots and giant lizards? we were made for pacific rim and both of us share the love for idris elba. unfairly slated - even guillermo del toro said it was a popcorn movie - this ticked all the boxes except maybe that he should've ignored the american market altogether. it's slick and beatuful but after a while i found myself wistful for the big rubber man in a suit godzilla style battling of the old days. obviously both of us are choking over the forthcoming godzilla remake which, at first glance, seems to understand this.

man of steel was a surprise like. maybe it was the kryptonian costume design that got me into it (too much wire work for me this last wee while not to notice) but the first two thirds of the film was actually interesting. i liked the colour palette, the sound track was acceptable but mostly it was the fact that the film focused around the fact kalel was an alien. almost lost in the last third when all the fighting and destruction kicks off is the question of what to do with the invulnerable man. in this superman humanity suffers. but just to make sure we don;t dwell on it man of steel has just about the most awful finishing minutes of the year. and i saw the internship.

a special word for that. i could say illness made us watch it. but really it was stupidity. easily the worst film i've seen in years. an insult to all those involved but particularly the viewer. the best thing about it? that it ended.

and that was about it. i've high hopes for nebraska but i haven't seen it yet. intouchables is worth a view but i've seen far too many disabled people in the real world to be really beguiled by a tale of how the very rich manage. jason statham of all people has a go at actual acting in hummingbird but blows it all in the second most lamentable ending of the year. surprise too in that genre as tom cruise wasn't half bad in jack reacher, a movie that has an actual plot and doesn't disappear up the cruiser. the same couldn't be said of oblivion. looked great. but shit. cruiser i'm looking at you. not a 2013 made film but easily the best film of this ilk was the guard. you'd need to ask an actual irish person just how offensive to them this film is but me and t loved it. brendan gleeson and don cheadle are great as the odd couple but the ever under-rated mark strong steals the shows as the baddie with the existential crisis.

and then to the tv. we've watched less tv this year than we ever have. if ever there was an argument for getting rid of the bbc it's the bbc. why are they so obsessed with dr who? and fair what drama you like is the drama you like but then there's the documentary. constant repetition, no bar too low to patronise its audience, the bbc's output these days is lamentable. horrible music at every opportunity, woeful limitations on actual explication and, if you can, the presenter's (brian cox i'm thinking of you) gurning face at every conceivable moment. there was loads of stuff that could've been interesting btu five minutes in at leats one fo us was shouting and we retired to read an actual book.

and that's before the news. and while the radio is, and has been for years, better you have to suspect that there's a special layer of middle class hell where you have to listen to mariella frostup's droning voice oozing into your ears forever.

on the upside. house of cards. great central performances from kevin spacey and robin penn and only a couple of shonky episodes and/or plot lines. loved it from beginning to end and can't wait for the next series.

so in terms of the moving image for 2013 there is no best film because there wasn't anything i saw, outside of entertainment, that even approached making me want to like it. so house of cards it is. and american autumn, or at least the trailer here because you can't actually see the whole film anywhere. my favourite thing this year.


American Autumn on Nowness.com

more of what i read 2014 - prose

i started the year with wodehouse, which is a good thing to do and i would recommend it. unfortunately, in terms of uk fiction that was about the end of it for me. not what i planned but what happened. too many similar voices, too much too obvious and really far, far too much written about and talked about re crime fiction. i still can't get into it...

so off to sweden for the hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared by jonas jonasson. the main character is an instant antidote to all those reflective old people who, when they do appear, seem to be always reflecting on a past, better time. not so for our man who embarks on all manner of nonsense. it is a bit swedish but i don't think that's a particular problem although there is at least one laugh out loud moment that maybe won;t be so obvious for the reader who isn't familiar with the country. however, if you're up for a big tall shaggy dog story with an elephant this is the one for you.

and then it was the year of richard yates. you could do worse than read revolutionary road, the easter parade and disturbing the peace. each is brilliant on its own merits but the easter parade, for me, is something everyone should read at least once. unforunately i kind of undermined my liking of the fiction by reading blake bailey's biography of yates, which is great but yates emerges as something of a repugnant character whose writing never strayed much from home. that said you can't go wrong with the above but i felt the need to temper yates with the more gentle and ultimately more satisfying william maxwell.

interspersed with all this was the non-fiction. i haven't finished any of the shortlistees for the samuel johnson prize so they'll need to wait into next year. special mentions then to kathleen spivak's robert lowell and his circle - a bit niche but if that squad bites your biscuit you won't want to miss this out. getting out and about formed a deal of my non-fiction reading. the cycling anthology vol's 1-3 are ideal for the cycling anorak in your life and contain much great cycling based writing. i very much enjoyed ken ilgunas' walden on wheels which chronicles ilgunas' adventures in alaska as well as his avoiding of chronic debt by getting educated while living in his van. much self deprecation and hilarity ensues but it's equally good as a critique of an economic system predicated on debt and the effect that has on people.

way of the world by nicolas bouvier is worth an old school read as bouvier and friend drive across the middle east in their dodgy 2cv open a journey that just wouldn't be possible today. it goes on a bit towards the end but it's all rather lovely and  a glimpse of a world you can only really feel now thru the eyes of people in their nineties. richard holmes, as ever, provided the goods in the form of falling upwards. you kind of need to like the ideas of ballooning but if you can do that then it's great. age of wonder however, it is not.

non-fiction book of the year tho will need to be geert mak's island in time. i like all mak's books, not least because he has a way of making points that i disagree with in such a manner i just want to read more. here's he's detailing the doings of a village he once lived in and the effects of the changing economy and agricultural practice upon it. that naybe makes it sound a bit dry but it's anything but. read this as a pendant to ronald blythe's akenfeld and you'll have a slice of social history you might not otherwise see. sublime the pair of these.

at the end of the year i wandered into madame verona comes down the hill by dimitri verhulst purely by accident. as if often the way these happy accidents are often the best. madame verona lives in a small village in the wake fo the death of her partner. and that's about it. the characterisation tho, is brilliant. his description of hunters is both funny and utterly accurate. this has poise and real empathy. i'd love to read it in the original but i'm never going to be good enough at flemish no matter how much i watch the classics!

best book of the year tho? given how it's been hyped to death you'd be forgiven for thinking it was maybe all part of a publishers trick but you'd be mistaken. john williams' stoner is a monster of a book that i'm going to be enjoying reading for years to come. almost as if i'd found that synthesis of maxwell and yates and in the combination something better. i was glued to this from the first page and it didn't give up until the last. i can;t say more than that or i feel i'd be shortchanging the reader. it's great. go and read it. now.

so maybe not the best year for fiction or non-fiction in terms of everything that i read but those thing i really got into really grabbed my attention, sat me down in a chair and wouldn't let me go until i was done. i'll take that!

what i read - poetry - 2014

that old adage that the more more you read is good for you was certainly true for me this year. fair enough it was most likely driven by laziness. stuck between actually having to write some poetry or lying on the couch reading it the latter easily one all too often. seeing as i wasn't actually working i made it feel more like work and that level of paying attention was very handy. that, coupled with actually getting out and doing a (tiny) bit of reading made it a rather enjoyable poetry year.

given that i did read some poetry i disliked more than anything i've read for a long time but, as grayson perry said in the reith lectures, i don;t have to like it all and that acceptance in itself was handy. what i did like tho, was grand.  i read some lists at the end of the year and i was a bit disappointed to see the same old names - refuse to believe that year after year these are the best books published and i'm more than a little inclined when looking at this sort of thing, or prizes, to make associations with those judging, who publishes them and who eventually wins. not just applicable to poetry by any means but more than statistically significant i'd say.

so it was good, in the lines between, to see some mention of small presses. helena nelson's happenstance in particular, seems to be getting the attention it deserves, which is great given the graft she's put in over the years and i feel there's more to be had by a good trawl thru the small presses these days than much of what the more traditional and larger publishers are doing. not that this is a criticism of them as such, more a reflection of the iniquity of the poetry publishing business, such as it is, generally.

but anyway, any 2013 list which does not include new work by pauline stainer is, by definition wrong. so, and as much to contradict myself almost immediately, there was her new collection out on bloodaxe, tiger facing the mist, which was the bar everything had to be meeting for the coming year. i've said it before and i'm happy to say it again - pauline stainer is the best poet writing today by a country mile and it's a crime she's not more widely read or better known.

this last is maybe not my favourite of hers but it was still going to be my poetry book of the year by a long chalk. she goes her own way does pauline stainer, writes strange luminescent thing that are beautiful on the surface but tricky to get into but, by doing so, are worth the effort and that, to me, is just what i like. you'd think maybe that i'd like geoffrey hill for the same reasons but he's just a bit too abstruse for me. stainer says more by doing less and is the better for it i think. but you don't have to agree!

but it was to geoffrey hill my thoughts turned to when i got the forward book of poetry, leafed thru it and lodged hard up on steve ely. a proper wtf moment in amongst all the rest (not that there isn't much to enjoy in that anthology - well worth a punt).

oswald's book of hours is way different from much of the middle class finger twiddling going on these days. grounded in language as much as history there's as much ecclesiastical as there is of old and middle english, it's a happy joy to trawl thru it and get to awkward wee knots where you realise you don't know what he's on about, fire up the googlemachine and be released into a vista of new knowledge.

ely wears all this like a badge on his sleeve. there's a hagiography of arthur scargill in there which is just on the wrong side of ridiculous but, given what's gone before let alone what's to come (highwaymen!), it's easy to take it in your stride. it's worth checking out ely's website if only to see an almost lance armstrong like transformation form what he's done before but as much to see ely pronouncing on himself. true, it's maybe a bit hilarious in its iconoclasm but there's something about ely that goes beyond the man in the pub/scoring on the spectrum and gets right to the heart of a thrawn, wilful englishness that's seen far too infrequently in poetry these days.

i loved oswald's book of hours. i was into it the moment i got it out of the envelope and it's sat this last couple of months by my chair so i can dip in and out of it again and again. tiger facing the mist is quieter, more introspective but if i had to give someone only two books of poetry from 2013 these would be them.
the stainer is for those curled up in your chair looking upwards transcendental moments ely's for shouting off rooftops, transformative poetry you can feel on your tongue.

shake out the coppers from your pockets and buy these books. they are brilliant.

the clock ticking

i could only think of one thing to post for new year….