SUSO

Sad But True

Barely a day seems to go by without news of someone killed.

On the street where I live, three people have been murdered in the last six months. Last week I came out the tube and all the roads around had been cordoned off. It was six o’clock. A young man had been knifed. A young man had died.

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Categories Art Tags Art Illustration

By on 20/11/07

What's It All About Eh?

Cyclists. Unnecessarily tight clothing. Difficult to get past in your car.

That’s about as much as I knew about those who choose to cycle mile after mile on their beloved weekends. But that’s because I didn’t understand the sport at all. And not understanding something invariably means it means nothing.

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Categories Sport Words Tags Cycling Icons Sport

By on 15/11/07

To Imagination

I get angry when I can’t sleep. I start trying really hard, as if closing my eyelids tight, squeezing them shut, will help. I become so determined to sleep that I forget how to. But when I forget determination and return to the beginning, to my imagination, is when I start to drift into slumber. I start to think about all the things I ever want to do; and it calms me. And I sleep. For me the imagination is a constant refuge, by day or night. I like listening to it. In my imagination, it’s as if I can do anything and go anywhere.

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Categories Words Tags Words

By on 15/11/07

Mr. Mann

This is the Reebok Miami Vice limited edition. Why?

Good question. Well because this was one of the early examples of the worlds of Miami Vice and trainers colliding and any excuse to feature a pretty disgusting bit of footwear is not to be missed. Michael (Miami Vice, Collateral, Heat) Mann has directed a new commercial for Nike, thus generating another collision between 'the Vice' and the shoe. It's work so good, it almost makes me want to roll the sleeves up on my jacket in homage to the mighty Crocket and Tubbs. More than this, Mr Mann has managed to get us excited by American Football, making it look more than just a turgid stop/start,stats laden romp between men in tight trousers and pads. Anyway, check out this awesome piece of work from a master of cinema and never buy shoes with palm trees on them. Ever.

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Categories Film Media Tags Film

By on 14/11/07

Building On Creativity

Lego. Oh how I used to love it. If you’re a guy, you probably did too. And if you’re a girl, then you’ll remember swallowing a few of your brother’s bricks.

Darren Neave and John Cake, AKA The Little Artists, still do love Lego, and they use it rather mischievously to question what it means to be an artist in today’s commodity-driven and throwaway culture by recreating famous artworks (particularly those of the YBA artists of the early 90s) with Lego bricks and people. No glue, no painting on the figures. Pure Lego. In themselves, the works are imaginative, creative and, more than anything, amusing.

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Categories Art Culture Tags Art

By on 14/11/07

Orange Unlimited

Orange have a new website to support their unlimited text promotion.

http://unlimited.orange.co.uk

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Categories Media Tags Orange

By on 14/11/07

Genius, Mutant Or Avatar?

So Roger Federer lost his first game in the Shanghai Masters. You just know it will only make him more determined to win the tournament outright.

It’s just the nature of the man (and all great sportsmen for that matter), to overcome adversity despite not performing at his peak. The will is the wings that carry talent across the line, and pure determination so often the difference between maestro and wasted talent, between fully fledged genius and meaningless potential.

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Categories Sport Tags Sport Tennis

By on 14/11/07

Vertically Challenged

BBC1 launched their Heroes and Villains series on Monday with a look at the young Napoleon. Despite what he might represent today - particularly in Britain where we like nothing more than a nice bit of gentle Frog bashing - you can’t deny it, Napoleon was a thoroughbred genius of the most imaginative, creative and determined kind. Just out of interest, what do you want to do by the age of 31? Or what had you done by 31? Napoleon? Why, he crowned himself Emperor of France. As you do.

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Categories TV Tags BBC Napoleon

By on 14/11/07

The Imaginings Of A Boy Named Freddie And A Girl Called Hollie

Freddie and Hollie are a pair of young and imaginative Londoners, plying their trade in advertising, who also run their own blog on the side where they post up ideas they think could make a difference, however small. Anything goes - it’s just a bunch of ideas in need of the determination to make them real; apparently Freddie and Hollie don’t have time.

There’s a web widget that changes the colour of popular websites so you don’t get busted at work; a Poppy ‘gift’ on Facebook to raise funds for the appeal (can’t believe they didn’t do this); recycling ideas for piles of freesheets polluting the capital’s streets; and my favourite, a direct mail idea for Sony’s ‘Colour Like No Other’ campaign which involves sending brightly coloured bin bags to one city street so that, when rubbish day comes around (assuming people remember - we often forget!), the street comes alive.

http://freddieandhollie.blogspot.com/

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Categories General Tags Freddie Hollie Ideas Blog

By on 14/11/07

Truly Untrue

I am Burial. No, really, I am. Not. Burial himself was once told, in no uncertain terms, that he was in fact a girl. Someone had met her, you see. He isn’t of course. He’s a man. A young one - in his early twenties. And that’s about as much as we know.

A few weeks ago I was in Manchester to see Underground Resistance live at the Warehouse Project. For those that don’t know, UR are a Detroit-based musical collective and record label (and entirely deserving of their own post here - anyone?) who have continued to pioneer the sound of techno ever since their humble beginnings in the late 80s. They have always been keen to conceal their identities - not so much these days but certainly earlier on - and up in Manchester each of them was wearing a mask. Drexciya, a duo who released on Underground Resistance, went to similar lengths to conceal their identities. The idea was to put the music first, meaning people’s appreciation of it would not be tarnished by what they knew about them as people. It’s music for music’s sake, and in today’s climate of almost fetishistic obsession with the artist (however worthy) rather than the art, in which people have become slaves to the cult of personality, that’s quite refreshing.

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Categories Music Tags Burial Dubstep Hyperdub Underground Resistance Untrue

By on 13/11/07