Flip Flop Flying

Blah bleh blih bloh bluh

2010-02-08T14:19:00.002+01:00

I fell asleep with A Clockwork Orange playing. I don't really understand why I chose to watch that particular film at 5.30 in the morning. I woke up around noon. And when I turned my laptop on, I was slightly surprised to find I'd done a drunken blog post. Oops. It was good, though, to go out and get a bit too drunk. I've been feeling fairly tightly wound for the past seven or eight weeks and really needed a nice big get-fucked-up night. And even though I kinda wish I hadn't put up that drunken blog post, in one way, I'm happy I did. I've gotten out of the habit of writing about stuff and it has been a wee bit tough to get back into it. I read old blog posts and see a more interesting person than I feel now.

There's gotta be a way to bash through it, though, and just typing is probably the best way. Just type. And include hyperlinks to the songs I am listening to as I type. Getting from my apartment to the bar last night was quite eventful. I was getting dressed, went into my office to get my shoes, and there was a smell like something was burning. I had a check around, everything seemed fine, but the smell was still there. Left the apartment and there was a stronger smoke smell in the stairwell. And it was a bit hazy, too. Hymn From a Village. The people who live in the flat below me had had some sort of fire. As I left there were a bunch of firemen and policemen stood around. (See, this is the problem, I don't feel what I have to talk about is actually very interesting.) It obviously wasn't that bad, cos lots of people, the tennants and stuff, were all just hanging around, and the firemen didn't seem to care that much about their presence. Then there was a woman on the subway platform who was quite clearly having some sort of problem, shouting at people. As a train pulled in, she got on, and two ambulance dudes got on behind her to try and take her off. Lazarus. She and her companion insisted they were fine. On the train, at the next station, a woman got on and stood next to me near the door. As soon as the doors slid shut, she burst out crying. Next station, a woman who was selling a Big Issue-style magazine was trying to sell them and asking for spare change. The only change I had was eleven cents in coppers. She looked at my hand, looked at my slightly apologetic face, and shrugged my offer away.

Walking around is tough in Berlin at the moment. After five or six weeks of on/off/on again snow, the pavements have become caked with re-frozen slush. Tiny steps, no big strides. I'm glad I'm not an OAP with a dodgy hip. I fell over a couple of days ago. No damage done. My Favourite Dress. Not sure if I'm misremembering the past, but it seems to me that shopkeepers used to clear the pavements when I was younger. I know they did in Bellingham last year. Berlin is a grind when it is like this. The never ending greyness. Grey grey grey grey. Every single day. Right now, I've got a tickle in my ear. Seeing how long I can leave it before I have to stick my knuckle in there and have a good wiggle around. The weather and my mood are hand in hand right now. I had to re-type "weather" three times just then. (Waether.) I'd like to get my bicycle out and go for a ride, but it's too cold, too icy. Sproston Green. I feel like I scraping the last dregs out of an old Nutella jar with this post. Hoping that by doing so, I can permit myself to open a nice new jar, stick a knife in and, and, whatever the end of this metaphor is. You know what I mean, and even if I've not made myself clear, it probably doesn't matter. Actually, there's no probably about it. Still, there are few things in life as simple and enjoyable as peeling off the thing on a new jar of Nutella and sticking a tea spoon in there and sucking the goodness off. End of blah blah. Big Decision.

Super duper

2010-02-08T05:05:00.002+01:00

Nothing beats the Super Bowl. Such an enjoyable occasion. And one can get drunk. Very drunk. Go Saints. And then slip slide on the Berlin ice all the way home. And then take a photo of yourself in the bathroom mirror for posterity whilst one listens to the Wonder Stuff. Yep. drunk. Fuck normal life. Fuck everything. Being drunk is good good good. I fucking hate daylight and sobriety. I bet on the game and won 35 euros. And spent it on Jaegermeister. Gulp. 5-ish in the morning. This is the end of the blog post I may well regret in the morning.

Battery's dying

2010-02-04T10:41:00.003+01:00

My battery's dying, for those interested
fuck, the battery's dying
Shitt, my battery's dying :(

Ahhhh! My battery's dying!
Ahhhh! Phone battery's dying!
Uh-oh battery's dying. =(

Frack! My battery's dying!
Damn my battery's dying
battery's dying :'(

gahn battery's dying
ok, battery's dying, gotta go..
aww battery's dying :| goodnightt :)

welp battery's dying
Battery's dying...fug.
My battery's dying. . . Crap. :(

My battery's dying fml
Lol, my phone battery's dying.
Stupid battery's dying

AAAAH GOD, MY BATTERY'S DYING!!
UGH... MY BATTERY'S DYING. . N0000000000000000000!
Battery's dying!!!! Omg!!

Gutted! Battery's dying
Urgh, my battery's dying -.-
battery's dying..no

http://twitter.com/#search?q=battery's%20dying

Out, turning the wrong way

2010-02-02T22:16:00.003+01:00

I came across this, a two-part video explanation of the rules of British, or Welsh, baseball.

Unfinished Sympathy

2010-01-28T15:34:00.003+01:00

I've been feeling a bit lifeless for the past month or so. Mostly I've been preparing paintings for Back to the Future IV, my forthcoming exhibition in Düsseldorf. I've not really been enjoying the work, or life for that matter. But the clouds are looking like they might be parting. I've been doing some stuff on the Flip Flop Fly Ball site, and that's cleared my mind a bit. I did a painting I actually like yesterday, too. And last night, about 1am, I had an idea. It's the first time in a very very long time I've had an idea that has made me get out of bed to start working on it. I did that until 5am, and when I woke at 11.30am, I started on it straight away. It's finished now. So with apologies to Massive Attack and Google, here's a recreation of the Unfinished Sympathy video made with Google Street View. It's about 15MB, so it might take a while to load.

Update 29 Jan: A few people have emailed and mentioned a couple of things I should address. First, every possible screengrab from Google Street View has been used. There are no missing frames, and that's why some images stay on screen for ten or more seconds. If there were more possible images, I'd have used them.

Second, I could have made it shorter, made the screengrabs a bit more animate-y. I pondered it, but felt that the idea to match up as best as possible with what you see on Google Street View dictated having it full length. Plus, I really enjoy just staring at seemingly boring streets. And I kind of like the idea of leaving it up to you to envisage where Shara Nelson would be on the street.

Here's a Google Maps link so you can see it for yourselves. And here's a YouTube link to the real video.

Ocean spray

2010-01-27T18:11:00.003+01:00

More more more finger painting

2010-01-12T10:48:00.001+01:00

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It's Drawing section.

Self portrait w/ self portrait

2010-01-09T12:55:00.001+01:00

15:47

2010-01-08T12:21:00.001+01:00

More anomalies

2010-01-07T18:18:00.003+01:00

A couple of years ago, I put up a post with some Google Maps anomalies; where the aerial images have been stitched together showing buildings with different perspectives next to each other. I was looking at São Paulo on Google Maps last night and there's some really good stuff there, too. (Click images to see location in Google Maps.)

Sunny

2010-01-07T11:24:00.001+01:00

Cabin

2010-01-06T13:15:00.007+01:00

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It's Drawing section.

Tree

2009-12-31T12:11:00.000+01:00

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It's Drawing section.

s2u0n0n9y

2009-12-24T11:53:00.000+01:00

Him

2009-12-23T17:09:00.001+01:00

Döner flamingo

2009-12-22T15:02:00.000+01:00

Got myself a döner kebab on the way home from the pub last night. With the shred of dignity that I had left, I used a plate. I scoffed it down, dripping the juice all over the plate, watched some Seinfeld, and fell asleep. When I got up this morning, I saw that the red cabbage-y stained drips of kebab juice had made a picture of a flamingo.

Minipops app: new price

2009-12-21T15:31:00.000+01:00

If you've not got it yet, we've reduced the price of the Minipops app for the iPhone/iPod touch for Christmas. You've probably already spend a crapload of money on stuff for other people, so why not break out 59 pence (99 US cents, 79 euro cents) for yourself? That works out at 0.06 pence per Minipop. Perfect. Rubbish salesman spiel over.

http://itunes.com/app/minipops

Mega cone

2009-12-19T10:14:00.000+01:00

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It's Drawing section.

Balloons on Falckensteinstraße

2009-12-18T16:57:00.002+01:00

Full-size version on my Flickr.

Feeding the birds

2009-12-18T10:39:00.000+01:00

Faves

2009-12-17T12:07:00.002+01:00

Tediously indie on the whole, these are my twenty-five favourite records of the decade, alphabetically.

Animal Collective "Strawberry Jam"
Badly Drawn Boy "About a Boy"
Baxter Dury "Len Parrot's Memorial Lift"
Bonnie "Prince" Billy "Ease Down the Road"
Clipse "Lord Willin'"
Coldplay "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends"
Elbow "The Seldom Seen Kid"
Gorillaz "Demon Days"
Kanye West "Late Registration"
LCD Soundsystem "Sound of Silver"
M.I.A. "Kala"
Mark Lanegan "Bubblegum"
Miniature Tigers "Tell It to the Volcano"
Queens of the Stone Age "Songs for the Deaf"
Panda Bear "Person Pitch"
Radiohead "In Rainbows"
Rufus Wainwright "Want One"
Sigur Rós "Ágætis byrjun"
The Streets "A Grand Don't Come for Free"
The Strokes "Is This It"
Super Furry Animals "Rings Around the World"
The Unicorns "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?"
Tinariwen "Aman Iman"
Vampire Weekend "Vampire Weekend"

And by far my favourite album of the 2000s

Wilco "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"

A 3rd visual gag for American readers

2009-12-16T18:47:00.000+01:00

If you've not got it so far, this one should give it away.

A 2nd visual gag for American readers

2009-12-15T19:42:00.000+01:00

A visual gag for American readers

2009-12-15T19:07:00.002+01:00

Senator Joe Lieberman

2009-12-15T10:00:00.003+01:00

I don't really bother doing caricatures much. Never something I've felt particularly good at, but this self-important tosspot from Connecticut has got a face like a melting ventriloquist puppet, and it's ripe for the caricaturing. There's something missing in the drawing, something not quite right. I think he may be smiling a tiny bit too much, and there's something about the eyes that isn't right. Still, it was fun to draw.

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It's Drawing section.