River Cottage Experience

Good tv last night- Hugh FW's new show where he takes a family that eats crap and teaches them about good food. Sounds like another reality show, but I was so moved by it. He not only taught them to cook, but he forced them to look at the reality of what is inside a supermarket ready meal, and having taught them to cook with good ingredients, he then made them appreciate it by showing them the effort needed to grow and pick vegetables, and most emotionally he made them confront the slaughterhouse.
The family obviously found it very distressing to watch a lamb slaughtered, but it taught them and us a valuable lesson. We all live in an age where we can get what we want at the click of a button, and where we move too fast to think about our actions properly. Seeing the truth of where our food comes from gives us all a chance to stop and give thanks, I know I'll remember those images when I cook a meat dish. It is important to appreciate where we get things from and the fact that hard work and death often go into them

The River Cottage

Rankin

Rankin is somebody I have kind of taken for granted, having grown up with Dazed and Confused and perhaps overlooked the effect that it has had on magazines in the last 20 years. I read an interview with him in the Independeant on Sunday and was struck by his vision. He has always looked for other dimensions to an image or situation. This is not unusual for a photographer, but he seems to grasp something that would otherwise remain unseen. In a photograph this is very powerful, as the abstraction is less than in other forms of art.
He has managed to see beyond what we see, most strikingly in the Queen's portrait and in normal looking women for a commercial. He describes it as 'pockets of resistance to images we are bombarded with', but I think that sounds too cool and he is more profound than that. I feel a spiritual aspect to the images, which exist on the borders of taste and culture, they test us.
We are not blessed in the way that he can see things, but we can learn from it, and try to position ourselves somewhere less comfortable.
He has now made a film, which I have not seen, but from the trailer and having read about it, it seems to hover around those difficult in-between places which can be disturbing but also profound and reassuring. Any shock might have something to it rather than the usual for shocks sake. It also seems to ask questions of faith and I hope that it doesnt try to answer them, as the beauty is in this glimpse of something different.

Independent article
The lives of the Saints
Dazed and confused
Rankin

you can't blame the youth

just listening to the old bob marley classic- what a great man, and seems we need to listen with all this rubbish looking to drag down the youth. every paper seems to be full of stuff about gangs and politicians are talking about raising ages for various things. Where are the responsible leaders, people who can teach them stuff thats worth learning?

You can't blame the youth
You can't fool the youth
You can't blame the youth
(Of today)
You can't fool the youth

You teaching youths to learn in school
That cow jump over moon
You teaching youths to learn in school
That the dish ran away with spoon,

So You can't blame the youth
(When they don't learn)
You can't fool the youth
(Can't fool the youth)
You can't blame the youth
(Of today)
You can't fool the youth

You teach the youth about Christopher Columbus
And you said he was a very great man
You teach the youth about Marco Polo
And you said he was a very great man
You teach the youth about the pirate Hawkins
And you said he was a very great man
You teach the youth about the pirate Morgan And you said he was a very great man

So You can't blame the youth of today
You can't fool the youth
You can't blame the youth
You can't fool the youth

All these great men were doing
Robbing, raping, kidnapping and killing
So-called great men were doing
Robbing, raping, kidnapping

So you can't blame the youth
You can't fool the youth
You can't blame the youth
(none at all)
You can't fool the youth

When every Christmas come
You buy the youth a pretty toy gun
When every Christmas come
You buy the youth a fancy toy gun

So You can't blame the youth
You can't fool the youth Y
ou can't blame the youth
You can't fool the youth

But What was hidden from the wise and prudent
Is now revealed to the babes and the sucklings
What was hidden from the wise and prudent
Now revealed to the babes and sucking
Lord call upon the youth
Cause he know the youth is strong
Jah Jah call upon the youths
Cause he know the youth is strong

So you can't blame the youth
You can't fool the youth
You can't blame the youth
(Save the children)
You can't fool the youth

Don't blame them Not their fault!

black balloons

good work by WWF in Toronto, they installed loads of black balloons as clouds that hang over us environmentally. they looked fabulous and show how we can make a visual impact cheaply and without harm to make a statement.

free beer

Lovely idea, that free beer can promote free speech.

The ideas behind internet 2.0 can surely spread into real places like this and promote some sort of change. What else can we do for free to challenge normal way of life and commercial domination over our lives?

The good the bad and the Queen

Lots of buzz going around about Damon Albarn's new band. I was excited to hear the music, and you can have a listen via scatter o' light. Must admit I am struggling to get into it, much as I love Damon's work. Feels like Parklife era Blur with some early 80s influences in there, I would have hoped he might have leant more on his african, electro and hip hop interests. Cant imagine Fela Kuti's drummer playing along to this.

However, I shall be at the boxing club next year to hear them live- it has something about it that I can't put my finger on, heres hoping its a grower

the worlds tallest building

i saw these pics of what is to be the new worlds tallest building. Aside from the fact that its disgusting to look at, how can people justify building to such a scale? Does it not ring alarm bells of some sort? Even though there are so many laws now on Carbon production, do we need this monstrosity on the planet? Its hard to even call it design

tags technorati : tallest building

tags technorati : bad architecture

tags technorati : environmental design

sketch furniture by FRONT

lovely way to make a piece of furniture
cant we work like this in everything we do- too many committees, meetings about meetings
perhaps we can design a way to produce better ways?