SUSO

The Fiery Depths

Peer pressure, frequently the scapegoat of the teen smoker. Unfortunately I'm not a teenager anymore but I had subconsciously hatched a plan whereby 'peer pressure' would be my go-to-guy once again. Except I wasn't sneaking for a crafty B&H behind the Design block, I was in the middle of the foreboding downtime between signing up for Tough Guy 2008 and actually going to Staffordshire and confirming that a) I am tough or b) As I feared, I am in fact quite weak. Should I fail, I would say "pah, never wanted to do it anyway."

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Categories Sport Endeavour Tags Adventure determination

By on 30/1/08

That's Correct, A Tinned Cheeseburger

When I first came across this I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or dob them in to Jamie. In this era of 'good, honest local produce' comes what could be described as nutritional perversion. Its a cheesburger in a tin. Part of me was livid - how have we come to this?

Then I took a closer look at the label. The company is 'Trekking Mahlzeiten'. Trekking you say. That puts a different spin on things. My wilderness experience stretches to a few walking expeditions in Scotland and the Lake District. So I'm no Sir Edmund Hillary but I feel qualified enough to comment. And let me tell you, If I was stocking up for an expedition and had the option of a tinned cheeseburger that I just throw into boiling water for a couple of minutes, then I'm not embarrased to say I'd take it, at least to try the thing out.

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Categories Fun Tags Food

By on 30/1/08

Creating Devils

Perhaps some see it as unusual to have a love of animals while simultaneously harvesting them after death to use in an extraordinary genre of art. To call it the taxidermy renaissance would be tempting, but for Battersea based artist Tom Van Herrewege it isn’t about recreating a trend from the past, it is an intensely personal study into animals - what they mean, how they appear, how they are exhibited and whether death is necessarily their final chapter.

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Categories Art Tags Art creativity taxidermy

By on 29/1/08

Sky's The Limit

It's been said that Motocross is to MotoGP what Go Karting is to Formula One - a breeding ground for the next generation of motorsport talent.

Just as Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard and certain others have honed their driving skills on the kart circuit from the moment they could climb behind the wheel Jonny Rea At Cadwell.jpgyou need look no further than the young Irish bike riding sensation Jonny Rea, to see how motocross can shape the skills of the world class Supersport rider. Shape and add an extra dimension I would say, if you've ever seen the way Jonny rides Cadwell Park and lifts the racebike clear at the classic photo opportunity ... not exactly what the 50 thousand pound corner hugging superbike was made for but something truly spectacular to witness for the viewing public.

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Categories Sport SUSO Tags CARL NUNN LIVERPOOL SUPERCROSS Motocross suso SUSOLOGY

By on 27/1/08

Flippin' Dots

Flip dots. The sound of travel. The sight of travel, too. Or at least the sight of travelling. They are the little mechanical pieces that form, or rather formed, the majority of airport and train station departure screens around the world. You will have seen them in action, when the whole screen you’re looking at decides to reorganise itself and flicker like water lit by the moon before it settles back into its more mundane role of information display. Their digital cousins are moving in, though. The age of flip dot is no more.

But we still associate the technology with the spaces of travel. That’s why Troika, the Russian art collective with studios in London, chose to use it for the new installation in the atrium hall at Terminal 5, Heathrow, entitled Cloud. Prepare to be mesmerised:

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Categories Art Tags Art Installation Travel

By on 25/1/08

The Power Of Puppets

It was no statue, no monument, no model. It was flesh and bone: 18 hands of taut muscle and sculpted flanks, such was the way this horse moved.

Yet, flicking his tail and twitching his ears as if troubled by flies, this was a horse made of wood, a fragile and skeletal cane frame, bent round plywood and bound by twine. It could trot and gallop, bolt and rear, and, with aluminium spinal structures, it could comfortably carry a man as well. But it wasn’t just that he (a stallion named Joey) could do all these things which enthralled; it was how he did them, how he breathed, how he shivered with fear, bent down to feed, and kicked against the stable with his hind legs when cornered by men he did not trust. Operated by three puppeteers, two inside moving the main body and legs with another outside overseeing the head and neck, the audience was invited to fill in the gaps, to forget the wood, and instead fall heart first into a story of a young boy separated from his horse by The War. That’s the thing with puppets. In communicating ideas and stories that real people and animals can’t touch, those watching are forced to turn to their own imaginations to complete what they see. And in the imagination, what we see and feel can be so much more moving than any black and white tale that allows for no interpretation whatsoever. You feel involved, a part of the action.

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Categories Art Culture Drama Tags Imagination Puppets Theatre

By on 25/1/08

Leave A Comment On The Wall

No, not a Facebook wall, but this year’s Diesel Wall. The popular art competition is set to launch again for 2008 with Diesel already laying down the gauntlet on their wall website. And this year there will be a UK wall - in Manchester - so all you budding British artists need to get your thinking caps on with a view to submitting your entries. There’s no entry form just yet but keep your eyes peeled. It’s a unique opportunity to get your work seen on a massive scale. And besides the wall in Manchester, there will be spaces in Barcelona, New York and Zurich, too.

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Categories Art Design Tags Art Competitions

By on 21/1/08

Pasties And Pens

Diggy. Strange name that, but a cool one nonetheless. Diggy Smerdon’s dad certainly thought so. So sure was he that his daughter would grow up to be a blues singer called ‘Diggy Malone’ that he coined it just for her. And it stuck. Or at least the Diggy part did.

But Diggy Smerdon isn’t a blues singer. So who the hell is she? Well, Diggy is a 21 year-old artist and illustrator living in Falmouth, Cornwall, and what’s more, she lives above a Cornish pasty shop. Does it get any better than that, drawing, painting and eating pasties? I can’t imagine it does, but then, as a self-confessed lover of pasties, I’m slightly biased. When I asked Diggy what it’s like to be so fortunate, I sense the pasty thing might not matter to her quite as much as it would to me; too much of a good thing and all that: “There’s no better alarm clock than the wafting aroma of a Cornish pasty drifting through one’s window each morning. Sadly, yes, this is what gets me up, but I guess it beats the buzz of a wretched alarm clock.” Damn right it does.

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Categories Art Tags Art Illustration

By on 21/1/08

Andy 'shredder' Warhol

Andy Warhol, one of the greatest snowboarders of his era, has had a range of Burton gear made in his honour for the 07/08 season.

Okay so he didn’t snowboard, but such was his capacity to constantly reinvent himself and change with the times that it would come as no surprise if, alongside his Marilyns and Maos, galleries around the world hung pics of Warhol spinning high above parks or carving lines into the Alaskan back country. Either that or you’d have found him in the bar at the top of the lift with an entourage of impossibly good looking people. In Burton gear.

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Categories Fashion Sport Tags Burton Snowboard Warhol

By on 17/1/08

Moody Tunes

I came across a simple yet imaginative little widget for iTunes today, Moody, that lets you add tags to your songs according to their mood.

It’s based on a grid of colour squares ranging from calm to intense and sad to happy on the two axis. When a song is playing in iTunes you just click on the square that best represents that song’s mood. Once you’ve done this with enough songs you’re all set...

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Categories Music Fun Tags Apple iTunes Music

By on 17/1/08