Merry Xmix

Here's a mix to soothe your port-addled brow. Press play, turn off the lights, and lie down on the bed. With best wishes.

♫ Horrid Horrid Xmas

Part i)
John Convertino - When Mass Was said in Latin
Low - Will the Night
Maria Kalaniemi & Timo Alakotila - Lappfjärd
The Innocence Mission - Follow Me
Tunde Adebimpe - Unknown Legend
Fikret Kizilok - Just As Long
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart
Sibylle Baier - Tonight
Erik Enocksson - The Joy of D.H. Lawrence
Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie Billy - Then the Letting Go
Bruce Langhorne - Arch Leaves

Part ii)
Brian Eno & Harold Budd - The Chill Air
Paul Cantelon - Theme for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Giant Sand - Spiral
The Real Tuesday Weld - I Loved London
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - God Is In The House
Phosphorescent - Endless Pt.2
Goldmund - Marching Through Georgia
Gavin Bryars - Tramp & T.W. w/ Full Strings

Update

Haven't even dreamt of updating this blog of late. Chris has

been gravely ill, which wasn't nice for anyone, especially him.

Meanwhile, either bravely or foolishly, Jason and I have

soldiered on, determined to finish our script.

I'm tremendously happy to report that not only is Chris

discharged and well on the way to recovery, but today we

finished our first draft. It is printing out right now.

Very exciting, but also a little bit scary.

Now Chris isn't the only one with bowel issues.

Penalty for being vain

Nice work if you can get it

Me and Chris washed and combed our beards, then went along to the UK Music Video Awards last night. We won for Best Animation, then for best Rock Video. Which was amazing.

Then we won Video of the Year, a category we didn't even know existed. Incredible, especially since they were all for our only piece of work this year. The president of Parlophone even wrote to say thanks.

Really though, the nicest part of the evening was the warm reception we got from the crowd. You make this stuff in complete isolation - and we always make work solely for ourselves - but you can't help but be cheered by kind appreciation, and from your peers to boot. My inflated head was throbbing this morning.

All told, a crazy week.

Epic win

Team GB - Before

My nipples bled, despite being slathered in vaseline. And Barney's knee looked like it was going to explode after only four miles. But, we made it. And in good time too.

Barney - 01:52:25
Nick - 01:52:35
Me - 01:53:48

Most importantly we raised a shed-load of money for CRY. So if you sponsored us - a massive, heartfelt, thank you. We raised a lot more than we ever imagined and the folks at CRY are ecstatic. If you didn't, you still can.

Also thanks to Dom, Baz and Mark who were great fun and vital for morale. Thanks too to Run Dem Crew, without whom I might have given up all hope long ago.

Gideon would have been proud.

I bloody hope so - I am knackered.

Team GB - Afterwards

Life drawing (05/10/09)

A Venezia Mix

Last of these for a while.

The songs and the art of this mix have a mystery connection.

I'll send a drawing to anyone who guesses what it is. If no one

gets it I'll keep the drawing and rip it up, (with mascara

running down my cheeks).

♫ A Venezia Mix

For my fellow insomniacs

♫ Nappytime

Evan Lurie - Love Lost

Grinderman - Man On The Moon

Deaf Center - Eloy

Chin Chin - Last Piano

The Mamas And The Papas - Dream A Little Dream Of Me

Helios - First Dream Called Ocean/Vargtimme

A Small, Good Thing - Saloon Dreams

Matmos - For The Trees

A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Portlandtown

Gabor Szabo - Some Velvet Morning

Gastr Del Sol - Black Horse

Blur - Sing

Mogwai - Punk Rock

Library Tapes - Cold Leaves For the Violent Ground

The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

Durutti Column - Royal Infirmary

Helios - Emancipation

Susanna And The Magical Orchestra - Crazy, Crazy Nights

Smog - To Be of Use

Jim O'Rourke - Halfway To A Threeway

William Basinski - Melancholia 3

This week's life drawing

Ones that got away #5

Old pitch I made for a Supergrass video that never happened.

For some reason I made the pitch as a comic. Looking back,

this was no great loss.

Miserable Summer Mix

♫ Miserable Summer

Sebastien Tellier - Classic

Inara George - Everybody Knows
Kinski - Semaphore (KEXP Radio Version)
Pure Reason Revolution - The Bright Ambassadors Of Morning

Midlake - Young Bride
The Everly Brothers - I Wonder If I Care As Much
Matt Elliott - Trying To Explain

M. Craft - Sweets
Laura Veirs - Galaxies
Rogue Wave - You
El Perro Del Mar - Party
The Clientele - Ariadne Sleeping
Leila - To Tell A Lie
Shona People Of Rhodesia - Taireva
Katzenjammers - Cars

Ones that got away #4

Old pitch I made for a U2 video that... ok you get the idea.

I keep meaning to make this idea into a comic. In other

words, it will NEVER happen.

Gideon Baws Memorial Fund

On October 11th 2008 we were robbed of Shynola director, brilliant

friend, and damn-good-egg, Gideon Baws.

Gid's sudden death was due to a form of Cardiomyopathy, triggered by

a viral infection. Chances are you've never heard of it. However in the

UK alone it is estimated that 12 "apparently fit and healthy" young

people under 35 die from undiagnosed heart problems EVERY WEEK.

This needn't be so.

A Gideon Baws Memorial Fund has been established at CRY (Cardiac

Risk in the Young). CRY works to raise awareness of Sudden Death

Syndrome (SDS) and campaigns for proactive screening of young

people. It also offers help and support to those who have suffered a loss.

On October 11th 2009 "Team GB" will run The Royal Parks Half

Marathon in Hyde Park, London. We are raising money for the

Memorial Fund.

Please, if you can, sponsor us and help prevent these unnecessary and

unfair deaths.

Team GB are:

Nick Goldsmith (Hammer & Tongs)

Richard Kenworthy (Shynola) &

Barney Newman (Pixipixel)

SPONSOR US HERE

(don't just sit there and make out that you'll 'do it later')

Thank you,

Team GB

x,x,x

Ones that got away #3

Old design I made for a vinyl toy that never

happened.

Ones that got away #2

Old pitch I made for a Avalanches video that

never happened.

Ones that got away #1

Old drawings I made for a reprint of Don Quixote

that never happened.

Shut happens

Currently preoccupied with un-knotting a large

ball of plot string. Here's another old mix.

♫ Shut Happens

Izzy Royal - Coronation Dub
Poni Hoax - Budapest (feat. Olga Kouklaki)
Bat For Lashes - Sarah
Jenny Wilson - Summer Time - The Roughest Time
Black - Wonderful Life
Bo Kaspers Orkester - Ett & Noll
Hanne Hukkelberg - Do Not As I Do
The Shins - Sleeping Lessons
Le Volume Courbe - Ain't Got No... I Got Life
Peter Bjorn And John - Amsterdam
Grand National - Peanut Dreams
Phoenix - North
Fujiya & Miyagi - Collarbone
Feist - Inside And Out
Ann Peebles - I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down
Alfred C. Priestley Stage Band - Cisco Kid
Ry Cooder - Chinito Chinito
The Chris Barber Band - Cat Call

After Tai-Shan Schierenberg

Love this guy.

For Harriet

I have a load of old mixes I made for the ill-fated iMix Club.

Hopefully I'll find time to make a new one by the time I have

recycled these. This was my first, pedestrian attempt.

♫ Melancholy Mix

Gonzalez - Overnight
Neil Young - Man Needs A Maid
Dustin O'Halloran - Opus #12
Steve Buscemi & Bronson Dudley - Korea/Career
Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage
TV On The Radio - Modern Romance [Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover]
The Earlies - Wayward Song
Dennis Wilson & Rumbo - Lady
Jeff Alexander - Come Wander With Me
Max Richter - Written On The Sky
Neil Young - Do You Know How To Use This Weapon / Organ Solo
Radiohead - Motion Picture Soundtrack
Gorillaz - Hong Kong
The Boats - Jumble
Milosh - Something Good
Elizabeth Cotten - Shake Sugaree
Wilco - How To Fight Loneliness
Sigmatropic (feat. Akis Boyatzis) - Haiku 14(a)
Elliott Smith - Bye

Return to life drawing

Results of yesterday's life drawing class I tried in Bethnal

Green. Nice class, great space, and tea on tap. They even

had real, non-savers biscuits. One of the organisers allowed

me to have the session for free in exchange for this drawing

of her dog. What a brilliant monetary system.

Drawings from Apulia

Another find

Last one - an old sketchbook I had totally forgotten about.

It is mainly full of napkin doodles that are of no use to man

nor beast, but must have seemed worth holding on to at the

time. There's a few nice things in there. Here are the things

I find least embarrassing.

Graham Greene

A long time ago I did illustrations for an exhaustive reprint of

Graham Greene novels by Random House. You can still find them

but most have already been re-printed with tedious photographs.

What's strange is that they seem to have taken photos of the exact

things I had chosen to draw and replaced them all like for like.

Is this plagiarism? Probably not, just insulting.

I did hundreds of drawings and never saw them again. But I just

discovered these in a folder, which were never used. They're a bit

stiff but hey, I was young and didn't know better.

Unused drawing for Ways of Escape.

Unused image of the author.