tate modern

i went to the tate modern today.

nothing happening in the turbine hall apart from a couple of saucepans running around.

on the 6th floor members terrace i had a most triumphant coffee

and in a shock move, the sun came out.

everything was falling into place... the sun was shining, i had a flat table at the right height

some tinted glass panels as a background and a camera with a self-timer... bingo !

textbook pose. 1-0

jackie's new bag

jackie debuted her new bag today...

it's made from harris tweed.

and lined with shirt material

it's a collaboration between modus and margaret howell and i think less than 100

were made...

many thanks to michael for this.

what i saw from the top deck of the 17

bank holiday monday. i took the 17 bus to st. pauls and on the way i saw...

1. evidence of bad driving in n7

2. interesting paintwork on the pavement near chancery lane

3. some serious heat

plate of chorizo

what the what ?!

sometimes mrs w's food presentation skills let her down badly.

islington sunday

this afternoon i had a corking latte in the italian deli on cross street.

strolling along upper street i took this snap of the town hall... you beauty !

then stopped to admire these mugs in a shop window... what the what ?!

i also liked the look of this bell on a bike nearby...

...but i didn't like the lettuce.

we stopped off at euphorium where i had this pretty bogus chocolate eclair

and also this poor coffee...

standards dropping at euphorium. 

bad times.

my favourite england shirt

let's face it. england have had some shocking football shirts over the years.

it went downhill after the 1974 world cup qualifiers.

until then the shirts had been the same plain classics that the team

had worn since before the 1966 world cup.

all white shirts with round neck at home.

and red with round necks as second choice shirt

for the world cup in mexico in 1970 england introduced a new

third choice shirt... pale blue.

they only ever wore it once, for the group match against czechoslovakia. 

it's the only england shirt i've ever bought... umbro re-issued it

in 2002 in limited numbers and it's made from an airtex material

which was supposed to help keep the players cool in the mexican heat.

seeing as there is no point in wearing my wales shirt,
this is the top i'll be sporting during the world cup.

charming prints

we went to the west end yesterday and chanced upon an exhibition of prints

in soho called outline editions. the prints were all "london themed".

i thought the one in the foreground was the best of the show

so i chopped down the money tree and took it home. 

it's by anthony burrill who is described in the press release as

"the godfather of the graphic art scene"

it's from a run of 300 and i got number 8.

on the way out i noticed it was one of the prints in the window display.


http://store.outline-editions.co.uk

friday food and self-portraits

friday morning and on the way to my shoot in knightsbridge i stopped off

for a porridge break.

i got this from 'eat' at berkeley square.

handsome.

i then made my way to a new restaurant to shoot interiors for a magazine

and self-portraits for my blog. i couldn't choose which pic to show, so this 

time there are two shots of me posing for the camera.

1. the arms folded pose

2. the arms by the side, thumbs in pockets pose

same facial expression in both shots though

in the afternoon i had a meeting in west london, then went back to the 

late 1960's to see my friend gerry for lunch at the elgin on ladbroke grove.

i ordered ham, egg and chips but look what happened...

ay caramba !

a bogus bit of salad or something on my ham.

i sent it back to the kitchen straight away and demanded a full refund...

...ok, i didn't do that, but i wasn't too pleased with the quality control at the elgin.

having said that... it was a corking meal.

nordic bakery photographic studio

another bonus at the n.b. is the big front window. it lets a beautiful light in during

the afternoon. then if you sit at the back you can make use of the plain blue wall...

here's a shot of good twin on thursday at the nordic bakery studio

world cup 2010 shirts

i'll try to do a few footy related blogs during the lead up to the world cup finals.

this first effort is to show my top 5 shirts that will be appearing at the finals.

i looked at a website and saw photos of all the shirts and have decided which

i like the look of best. 5 shirts that i think i'd wear.

before i show them, i'd just like to explain a few omissions.

i kind of like the england home shirt, but the collar... the collar just isn't right.

if you see one or touch one in a shop you'll understand what i mean. it's like it was

made by somebody else who had nothing to do with the rest of the shirt.

totally different material and strange proportions.

the collar feels like cardboard... personally i would prefer a round or v-neck.

also adidas... i think adidas have let themselves down badly this time.

most of their kits are in my opinion, very poor indeed.

spain and mexico could have been great shirts but oh no...

badly done adidas... badly done indeed.

so my top 5 shirts are all by nike. not because i like nike best. i love a proper

old school adidas with 3 stripes. also just missing out is the honduras away shirt

made by joma. it's just that this time i think nike have come out on top.

so here are my choices. all equal in my eyes and shown in alphabetical order.

1. australia ( home )

pretty simple, with a 70's look to it. i'd wear it.

2. brasil ( home )

nice and simple. adidas could have done this with spain and mexico. classic.

3. holland ( away )

this reminds me of a 1950's shirt, or even the shirts in the film 'escape to victory'

4. portugal ( home )

i love the combination of red and green. in fairness the away shirt is great too.

5. slovenia ( away )

different... unusual.

by the way... i couldn't see wales shirts anywhere on the world cup websites !

old prints

i found a few old prints yesterday.

the first one is a photo i took at old trafford a good few years ago.

eric the king

next up, a shot i took in belize city in 1994 of 3 lads. not much of a print really. the shack was really
vivid pink, but it doesn't look it here. hmmm... also, maybe i should have cropped off the right hand
side so the whole of the background would be pink ?

naturally i found a couple of prints of myself.

this was in seville where i tried out the obstacle course on the camel trophy

international selections prior to the event in mongolia 1997

and this... my mate chris took this. i reckon it was about 12 or so years ago

this was before i started getting platinum highlights put in my hair !

you beauty !

driving along the mall this morning i saw this...

i know it's not much of a shot but i did it at arms length out of the car window

as i was driving.

two blokes putting up eight royal navy white ensigns.

you beauty !

nordic bakery. good twin. nordic bakery.

i had a meeting in victoria this morning. 

i was running early so i dropped by the nordic bakery for a decent coffee.

at lunchtime i got a call. a shoot for a newspaper. they needed me to 

photograph a girl eating a sandwich at a well known establishment

in the west end. i had to bring along my own girl though...

so i called good twin, she modelled for me ( and got a free sandwich )

obviously i had to get a shot of the two of us together after the shoot...

i'm the one on the right.

funnily enough, the place where we did the shoot was 3 doors away from

the nordic bakery !

it seemed rude not to pop in for a coffee so...

guess what ?

the barista made me a special latte. she said it was the first one she'd made

 with this design and she wanted me to be the first customer to have it.

boom !

japanese and indian

last night i went to modus to listen to michael sodeau talking as part of 

clerkenwell design week.

i think the japanese mis-read the programme and thought the beatles

were going to reform and play a gig or something... there was a massive crowd

filling the showroom and spilling out onto the street.

or perhaps michael really is big in japan ?

after michael's presentation we sneaked off to the angel and paid a visit to masala zone.

i had chicken biriyani...

they usually run a tight ship at masala zone but standards slipped a little

last night and some greenery made it into my meal.

still, two enthusiastic thumbs up for this establishment.

snapshots from wales

the day after i got back from the lake district, i had to drive to god's own country

for a shoot near abergavenny ( gateway to wales )

i got to y fenni at about 7pm. feeling a bit peckish i went in search of a bowl of hot cawl...

unfortunately the cawl houses were all shut for the day so i did what anybody

searching for good food in wales would do...

i went to the chinese take-away.

boom !

chicken fried rice with curry sauce

i then retired to my room at the angel hotel and watched a film... zombieland

( don't bother )

in the morning i had the breakfast room to myself

it was all good. full welsh breakfast with brown toast, marmalade and filter coffee.

it was nice to see some black pudding kicking about on my plate after the 

let down breakfasts in the lake district.

on the way to my shoot i took a long time and put in a lot of effort to get a shot

of some welsh sheep grazing with a nice foreground, framed well and an

impressive background... yes it took me quite a while to get this shot...

... oh ok, i parked in a lay-by and wound the car window down and took two quick shots...

i spent a fortune buying antiques and collectables...

just look at the quality of this bad boy.

my shoot was at a pub called the walnut tree.

just inside the pub was this really tasty lino print...

after exchanging bore da's with the cleaner, i was given a coffee which was

almost as black as the ink on the print...

and i imagine, only slightly tastier.

although i had the 'hattie jacques' from four cups of stong black coffee,
i cracked on and shot some interiors...
taking time out for the self-portrait to show how happy i was to be in wales.

cymru am byth.