Fred Baier

Fred Baier continues to produce work that defys the boundaries. At his best his work transends the barriers or art, craft and design. Perhaps the lack of recognition he so richly deserves lays in the fact that it unsettles all these areas or fake bracketting systems. I believe, when these times of struggling partitioning of creative endeavour are over and historians look back, Freds work will be seen as the great cultural warrior of his time. I couldnt put this on the designer makers forum as it would be a total disservice and desrves the broader readership of the Skreeworld blog.

Well it's friday night and I just got paid

popped out to see the travellers after going to see an old client. She's been great, over the years, giving me work when I had none so she gets a bit extra for her money. Things much the same with the travellers though autumn brings with it the inevitable solace and the welcoming and motherly arms of mother morphia reach out to hold the suffering to her bosom.
Excited about tommorrow, off to the Groucho Club for halloween, Pauls 'Songs of Misery and Darkness'. No cameras or phones so I'll have to report with lamguage aloneTell you how things went on sunday.
Happy Halloween

love Skree

Fiesta

when I parked I was sure I would remember where I had left my car. Anyway, got the bus home, time passed. 3 years later I remembered where I had parked up. Fortunately, I still had the keys and finally drove home safely. You know when you find someone elses mobile lost on the train, you flick through thier friends and pictures, sometimes it's better than your own life and I often think to take all thier friends and dispense with my own, just take on thier life.

Brick Chair 2 by Michael Wainwright in walnut

Last piece of furniture by Michael [if you can call it furniture], a generic chair form is used as a canvas to a tough but brutal realisation about class and housing. The sheer mundanity of the brick pattern soon starts to resonate as the mind makes colour connections rather like the mental process triggered by Damien Hirst dot paintings though, where as Hirsts paintings are decoration to fill a wall, this three dimensional object flicks you back and forth twixt interior and exterior. The mind struggles to place it, as childrens toy as dolls house? Furniture? something to sit on? Perhaps the strongest emotions triggered are ones of false protection and vulnerability. Anyone who has found themselves out, lost in a strange town, walking past windows lit up showing subburban security as the cold bites for the homeless and excluded, the whole sensation is inverted and projected back. Outdoors and indoors blur, vulnerability and security thrown back at you for your own introspection.

Detail of Brick Chair 2 by Michael Wainwright

It took ages, Michael reckons, just working out how all the bricks fit in to the space then mitring all turns, often compound mitres. The piece raise issues of class, housing but came from our attitudes to outside or outdoors and indoors, the false sense of protection one feels in a house with 5 lever locks yet a 4 millimetre sheet of glass just begs for a brick, the sense of protection is a false one. Here the outside is turned inside out, any potential intruder has already entered. An early working title was 'The honest art of burglary'

Thoresby House, Quarry Hill Flats part 1 by Michael Wainwright

A never ending project, the recreation of Quarry Hill Flats. If I can complete the work I shall create a ressurection.

Quarry Hill Flats- Thoresby House

My project to rebuild Quarry Hill Flats as domestically sized furnirure began here, not wit the Great Curve as I imagine most would hsve thought most obvios. Thoresby house was in the square network close to york road and the peacock pub

Great day for my mates

I'd had a chat with Paul on saturday about 'The Age of the Marvelous' so was surprised when he texted me to chech out page 3 of the Sunday Times. I'd already, inadvertantly got up an hour early and bought the Observer. Any road, I bought a copy and was thrilled to see he has been shortlisted for a major piece to rival the Eifal Tower to celebrate the 2012 olympics along with Anthony Gormley and Anish Kapour. It would be great if he gets the commission, there are plenty of Gormleys strewn across the British Isles and more Kapour would be a bore so let the new blood flow and fresh breath take us forward. The piece is reminiscent of a huge pylon, at least 4 times the angel of the north with its framework framing stained glass, walkways so the public could go up and look down, lit up at night it would be a beacon of positive energy.
Having blown out my trip to London on saturday after friday nights antics I felt compelled to go see Jason Feddy on the last night of his british tour. After a long drive through those streets paved with broken dreams and glass I found the place and joined Jason and his friends, many he hadnt seen in 20 years as he now lives out in California, for a meal. I was late, they were already eating but all welcomed me.
He played a blinder in a perfect, intimate setting. I got some great footage to put out on this blog though my memory card is getting forgetful and my battery losing it's spark' I met a girl I hadnt seen since my early teens, she was in my german class and am apalled with myself for not recognising her immediately. She has weathered well. It was only towards the end of our conversation that I fully remembered her. She was vibrant and probably the brightest in the class who could play comedic yet still get the work done. I could only manage the first of these skills.
Fucking great to see Jason play again. There seems a universal consensus amongst those who know his work that his slip through the fickle net of stardom is a crime of history so anyone out there reading this get on i player and discover his work. Richard Hawley is only just getting his dues so there is time yet. There is time for us all still. Paul has only recently accended to the peak of his field and this gives me hope that we shall yet claim our righful place in cultural history.

Introvert Demon Box by Michael Wainwright

Stainless steel spikes in carved American black walnut

Tower of Thorns revisited by Michael Wainwright

Here are the drawers. The last purely functional piece of furniture should be able to defend itself from intruders

Tower of thorns revisited

A miniature flight of drawers in swiss steamed pair and CNC turned stainless steel spikes

Overgrowth detail

Overgrowth by Michael Wainwright

A bleached, scrubbed oak box interwoven with carved oak branches taken from the top of a tree in woods above West Wycombe with ebony thorns. Based on close up photography of hawthorn twigs. An early attempt to create a domestic monster, an uncastrated beast of the living room

Lead Crystal Vase by Michael Wainwright

stairway to hell by Michael Wainwright

david linley designs furniture from the buildings he grew up around, in this piece the interior of a terraced house slices through the exterior revealing who is prone to burglary. It isn't the stately homes of Lindleys upbringing but the desperate preying on thier own

The Age of the Marvellous

The videos on my blog from 'The Age of the Marvelous', specifically Paul Fryers and Joe La Placa are saying something very impotant and explain things better than I can. Recent years have seen a slope off in to highly cerebral and overly interlectual type of art. Art about art. Avery sealed, uninclusive and inward looking period. When the YBAs first came on the scene they were a breath of fresh air. Like punk rock they by passed the gallery network and shook up the artworld and showed you didn't need to know how to play the guitar to get up on stage and make music. Punk lasted barely a year, firstly due to its nihilistic undertones that overshadowed the jojous side. It split off down a number of avenues, the social realism of The Clash, the art punk of the sex pistols with the support of Malcolm McClarren, Jakie Read and Vivienne westwood. All artschool intelectuals who shaped thier boyband, dressed them up and paraded them in creative clothing. It wasnt even intended to last. After the first year there is barely a punk record worthy of mention. The aftermath of the YBAs has been a little like this. Apart from the magnificent works of Damien Hirst there is little of consequence left with hinsight. Joe La Placa equates thier work with the freak shows of the early 20th century that began in new york, sheep with three heads, bearded ladies, where the intent is merely to shock.
The Age of the Marvelous could possibly prove to be as seminal an exhition as Freeze, the show Damien Hirst organised during his 2nd year at Goldsmiths. The 'Frieze' art fair, which obviosly references its origins in 'Freeze' was a jumble sale like affair. No way to look at art. Unless you are a collector buying for resale. Little thought, no sense of wonder. 'The age of the Marvelous' showcased a different and refreshing kind of art. Wonderfully crafted, amazing creatures to stimulate the art fan and newcomer alike. Akin to exhibitions from the 1600 and 1700s where travellers brought back strange new plants, animals and craftworks from farawy lands. Tere is a distinct possibility of a shift. Icertainly prefer that kind of work as its closer to my own. For a long time I felt no openings as my work was overcrafted and most galleries were showing scratty, over intelectual works. Never has th Turner Prize seemed so out of date.

Ben Tyers Lives and Breathes His Art | The Age of The Marvellous#atssh-blogger

Ben Tyers Lives and Breathes His Art The Age of The Marvellous#atssh-blogger

More videos like this on www.t5m.com

More videos like this on www.t5m.com

Jotta

Jotta

friday night

Went out to see K at one of the four main traveller sites in our area. I feel it important, with the potential collapse of conventional society, and due to my own history of living on traveller sites that its important to stay in touch with that world, being able to live for free, feed from skips, hunt rabbit, pigeon, knowing how to butcher up roadkill deer may well be useful skills.
I parked up on the road and walked to the site through dark undergrowth. I got what I came for then gave K a lift to get some K , he's off the gear and needs to fill the vaccuum with something.
We drove off, got the gubbins, then after chips drove back on to site. Rain has been pouring for days and channels have been forged deep in to the mud. The secret to not getting stuck iss to get up some speed and charge through.
They got K'd up, the other lad deep in K holes could hardly stand and stopping him from finding a prematuredeath took up the rest of our evening.
When I left, I checked out the frpoute of greatest traction, reversed up on to the grass got speed up with low revs, hit the mud channels and it carried me through like a scalextric car in a sea of mud and apun off home. One small loss of rear end control on the A36 but otherwise an easy ride home in the pissing rain and leaf mulch

Demise of Handwriting

My year at university was the first where no essay or disitation would be accepted if it was handwritten. I had no access to a computer and in my youthful righteousness I campaigned against this as I could see where it was leading. All my generations granparents could hand write beautifully. I could see that the computer was a great leveller, those with poor hand writing need worry no more, if you were crap at mental arithmatic you were free, for those who's sole advantage over other kids was our ability to draw it was terrible, all these kids were now better than us who had spent thier whole lives developing our drawing skills.
I have reverted to writing important letters to clients by hand. When I get mail, mostly computer generated, the odd hand written one jumps out as the human amongst the robots. Years of evolution have taken us to this point and we are at the front and all this is communicated in the subtle variation and innacuracies of our hand writing.
CNC technolgy can now create what to the human eye look like hand carved wooden objects. Does it matter how an object came into existence if it differs in no way to it's hand crafted brother. This question lies at the very heart of our relationship and valueing of craftworks and probably is the reason for thier spiral off into obscurity.

Lofthouse Colliery Disaster

On the 21st of march 1973 3.5 million gallons of water and sludge poured in to Lofthouse Colliery n was this concrete wall withear Wakefield. This is my earliest news memory and is etched in to my memory more deeply than The Ripper, the Black Panther and Lesley Whittles hanging in the sewers. 7 men were trapped underground. Only one body was found. Tony Banks was underground on the night of the disaster, 'We were in the middle of the coal face with the machine team and at about 2.30 am there was a sudden surge of wind and everything went quiet. It was as if someone had turned your mind off then it all came back to normal, the wind started blowing back in your face and the clanging of machinery, it was about 4.30 when I got back to surface'.
I remember the news broadcasting possibilities of how the lost men were caught in an air bubble underground. Even as an 8 year old it seemed futile.
The rescue attempts were all in vain, there was no chance for those men. The men at Lofthouse were never the same again, 'I'll never forget I used to go and inspect the roadways and you used to take a man with you so you werent on your own but none of them would come up there. There was this concrete wall with this big cross painted on it in white it said RIP.'
Tony remembers that just six weeks after the disaster, water was coming through the roof of the pit. 'I thought , whata job, water coming down and we're drilling for over a week', but it was just some water that had got in to the strata. 'After that rule came out that we had to drill ahead if we were going towards any old workings. I think another lesson learned was to check old chaps who knew the area.'
It is 36 years since 7 miners were trapped in Lofthouse Colliery when the seam they were working on became flooded. A rescue mission went on for 6 days that I followed on ;Look North' after school but 6 bodies were left buried, down there.

Jogger Trap

I think it grew from some idea I had about the irony of suburban buissnessmen, getting up, going jogging for three miles, then driving three miles to work. As a paperboy I would watching, bellys waloping about neath lycra. Bored one evening me and paul set about trapping us a jogger, rather like one might snare a rabbit. There was a main path through Primley Park woods these men favoured so we took a length of good thick wire, 3 or 4mm diameter and stretched it taught across the path at waist height between two sturdy trees. To one side of the path was a ditch drainsge stream for the golfcourse , to the othert a thicket of young silver birch trees interspersed with aged hard woods, not far from'The old mans back' , you may remember from earlier postings on the blog. Once the trap was set we sat like poachers in wait for our prey.
As luck would have it, two local yobs came racing through, down the woodland path on 50cc scrambler bikes, Lanky [Ian Lancaster] and Shepz [Warren Shepherd] both prolific in spray can grafitti and bullying skills. Lanky hit first, the wire took him clean off his bike that shot off in to the ditch, Lanky went flying. I didn't wait to see Shepz hit but followed Paul who nhad already scarpered. I think Paul climbed and hid up a tree somewhere. I saw Lanky dish out some misguided justice on some other kids, unconnected to our plot, beating them with his crash helmet. I was stealthy in those woods and knew every last ditch. I heard the kids sayingf 'it wertent us, it was Skree and Fryer'. Luckily for Paul the two yobs both went to my schgool and for a good three weeks Ihad to hang around its corridors after school to avoid them as they waited each bnight to kick my head in. Not sure how it ended for Paul, I think he got a bigger yob to warn them off. Me and my brother, Dave, were walking back from the woods one day. Shepz wizzed up on hois bike. Askede if it was me and Fryer who had set the trap. I said yes. My brother wqas bigger than him and outnumbered 2 to 1 he retreated.

Old fan of my work

Swan

The Swan is almost impossible. Like thw unicorn, had it noy existed no fool would have believed it could

Green Door

whats that secret yuo@re keeping

I don;t know what they're doing but thry're having fun behind the green door

Revenge of the Freegans 2

Theres a Dickensian poetry in this photo if you zoom in, reminds me of the opening scene of 'A tail of Two Citioes' where the wine barrel bursts and a party for the poor ensues. Recession will hit the poor hardest, not the smart benefit experts, but the true poor.

Revenge of the Freegans

Marks and Spencers skips were the cornerstone of the eating habits of the small town where I live. On a sunday , particularly, you could meet over hungry souls digging deep in to the vast ammount of fresh food they would thgrow out. Most freegans were sensible and took only what they could eat before it went off, the odd idiot may take more thgan necessary but were viewed as twats, ron. One christmas our flat was filled with hundreds of pounds worth of fresh flowers decorating our living room. My first meeting with a particularly overzealous community copper was near those skips where I stood defending thew rights ofd the poor to takew food destined for the landfill site. In their spite Marks and Spencer staff sprayed the food with a blue dye so you could tell by thier hands, who fed for free. One day, tiring of thier own unconsciouss charity, they put locks on the bins. Today I walked by and photographed the Freegans reply, a mass of burnt out melted plastic with the four metal wheels entwined in the mess. I wish I had been there tyo film the fire.

autumn drain cover by Hepworth

Eddy Waring

I grew up watching Rugby League. Eddy Waring had worked himself a contract whereby all Rugby League broadcast on the BBC would be commented on by Eddy. His work in his early years promoting the Dewsbury Black Knights, organising international trips for the Great Britain team. Hell, there's an argument that Rugby League would not have become Australias national sport were it not for Eddy. He was also joint presenter of 'It's a Knockout' , a comedy game show where teams competed in comical games dressed in strange costumes along with Stuart Hall, still the most poetic of radio football reviewers working today. Little was known about Alzhiemers and Eddy Waring was allowed to paraid his deterioration on national television for a good decade before he was sectioned to High Royds mental hospital. Opinions in the Rugby League world are mixed. Some say that through the ironic angle, 'The Eddy Waring Appreciation Society', a zany student group, that the game at least got attention. Others say he brought ridicule on the game. The tragedy for me was watching the deterioration of a great and knowledgable man. I sometimes where a trilby. Many have accused me of Pete Doherty affectation. The truth is that I wear it as a tribute to Eddy Waring, in memory of when his brain worked properly, before people began to ridicule him and his desent in to senility.

Important message to readers

The Skreeworld blog is a creative, art based endeavour and as such not all posts are entirely factual and often a response to events straight from the heart. If any offence is caused it is not through intent and responses should be sent to the blog and to the specific posting, not to my phone.
I apologise to all Gary Glitter fans, my critisism is not of his work which I admire but of his actions. The dialogue between dogs and aliens is pure speculation on my part and has no scientific foundation.
Basically, please don't take it all too seriously.
On the whole the feedback has been fantastic though you can't please everyone, thank you to all who bother to read and I hope that newer readers look at the earlier postings to contextualise the current ones.
I intend to continue in the same manner.
Finally an apology to a freind, I picked up on what was probably a passing thought rather than his considered opinion and I was wrong to post what I did. An extreme statement will usually ellicit an extreme response, rather than stoke the fire I should have extinguished the flames.

Why

The common thread is an attempt to return to my childhood and a mythology of the early 1970s and culture as seen through that lensea. I sawpunk rock albeit through the eyes of a 12 year old and in a sense we were the pure punks as the older kids had turned from their Led Zeppelin, Yes, Genesis, Roxt music, Bowie et al to punk, where as my generation had seen virtually nothing to align themselves with before. There is nothing of real interest to say about punk. What really fires me up is something I was just too young to understand and stems from three specific moments from my childhood.
1; We were on holiday as a family somewhere down south west, one of the reasons I live down here is it reminds me of childhood holidays, the Glitter Band were playing. I saw three teenage girls as the sun was setting on an expansive area like a main road next to a park. Maybe Exeter? Looking up at thier faces I saw joy and a dusting of glitter on there cheeks, one had a silver star on her face, something I might have got at school for a good piece of schoolwork. I must have been 7 and was a Gary Glitter fan.
2; On our way home from a family holiday, maybe the same one, we had got back from Devon to Leeds by train and were waiting for a taxi. Suddenly an army of exhuberant Leeds United fans stormed out of the train station. They were all dressed in the fashion of the time, 3 star jumpers worn tight, high waistband oxford bags, tight round the groin, 12 to 15 button waistbands, pockets you could fit an exersize book in, cut half mast to show off either platforms or oxe blood polished doc martin boots. A look expanded upon by the Bay City Rollers.
3; Brog and Shy, a couple I saw walking round our estate, he dressed in falmer jeans, half past, tight wrangler jacket, she in 3 star jumper, long hair, bleached under side to a dark red cover. They were perfect.

There have been various attempts to recapture this time, Life On Mars, David Peaces Red Riding 4 books and the 3 part tv series it spawned. His Damned United too.

The closest I have found are Jake Arnotts book Johnny Come Home
Mott the Hooples all the young dudes

My fascination for this period stems from the last days of a happy childhood before things caved in. Punk marked the jump to personal nihilism, so small yeyt so well documented. This era that was the background to Glam Rock had no theoreticians, no art school types. No Malcolm McClarren, no Jamie Reed. The backdrop also had IRA bombs, Barder Mienhoff, power cuts, strikes, the 2nd world war was still in the eyes of older men, raccism was everywhere, Bernard Manning was on the Commedians as early as 6pm, TV was black and white and finished at midnight.

The earliest news memory I have was the Loft House colliery disaster.

My glam rock research came from the music I loved as a 7 year old. I saw a glam rock compilation in Sommerfields, 2 cd set for £3. It covered most of the bands of the era but no gary glitter. He has been editted out of history. I've always been a Slade fan and Claire got me the Slade boxset for christmas and I was off. At Paul Fryers new year party we were allk dancing to Do YOU Wanna Touch by gary glitter and Ballroom Blitz by The Sweet. I started buying up stuff I had lost years ago, Wizard, The Sweet, Mott the Hoople, more Slade, Nazsareth, Geordie, Chickory Tip. I have scoured the local CD shops but Gary Glittewr still eludes me, I had a vinyl greatest hits but, having no turntable, I left all my vinyl in a box in the street for the public to take thier pick. I tracked down a Gary Glitter video and a glam rock compilation video, mainly made up of top of the pops performances.
This isn't about forgiving his repugnant crimes and seeming lack of remorse but about my childhood, remembering his art and stopping the rewriting of history

Bath gas silos

Since my photographic project on the demolisition of the Lower Bristol Road Bath gas silos I have seen a few out east london, a few in Manchester, some in Leeds and , through some persuasion, it looks like Bath will keep it's kast silo

Modern Aetheism

Richard Dawkins is getting well boring. He has become as dogmatic in his attempts to convert folk as the worst religious bigot. The campaign he was involved in where London busses were plastered with the slogan 'God probably doesn't exist, now get on with it' seemed of the same ilk as the 'Jesus saves' or the unwelcome knocks on the door from Jehovahs witnesses. There is nothing more annoying than when some excited idiot approaches you in the street, desperate to tell you what they think. None of us know what is really going on, the only fools are those that think they do know.

C'N'C Stop Mithering

The experimental is now conventional, the conventional is now experimental

I quote Mark E Smith in regards to Mark Fasts fashion show using normal shaped women for models and being treated as sensationalist

Today I showed a freind some photos of Damien Hirsts paintings currently being shown at the Wallace Collection in London. to me these paintings look weak and derivative referring to Bacon and a huge drop from 'For the Love of God', diamond skull piece.

My friend said it was a gimmick. An artist doing his own paintings is a gimmick. I knew what he meant, so does Damien

'Some one said to me recently, after seeing me in the studio covered in paint, 'Are you really making these yourself?' It's funny that that is shocking as well. For me to do paintings is more shocking than formaldehyde'

The conventional is now experimental, the experimental is now conventional and in no way noble

I wanted to like them, at college I wrote my disitation on Damien Hirst, he grew up near me, he is the same age as me, I went to Allerton High School, He went to Allerton Grange, I'm a fan. Like when Leeds United win, it's my community succeeding, Marco White too. Damien is one of ours. He had a crap phase just after his second Turner Prize shortlisting where he won. I want him to be good.
however, these paintings are very, very poor.
No doubt he'll be back with something mindblowing but this show looks like a heap of shit.

Alan Peters RIP

My first training in furniturewas at Shrewsbury college training under Hugh Scriven. He made us aware or Rupert Williamson, John Makepeace, Fred Baier and of course Alan Peters. We all had varying opinions on the others but Alan was beyond reproach. There was hardly a point of critisism, barely an angle you could critisize his work from. We as students all looked up to him, not only for his work but for his updating of Ernest Joyce The Techniques of Furniture Making. There were 2 furniture making OBEs , Alan and John Makepeace. Alan was the last direct connection to the arts and crafts movement. His training gave him an authority few could question. I only met Alan 3 times. When , at my last copllege High Wycombe, our external assessor was Alan Peters. He looked at my work and approved. He patted me on the back. This human contact meant more to me than my first class honours, my commendations in design and in cabinet making. I only met him again twice whilst exhibbitting alongside him and, though furniture making royalty he remembered me and treated me with the same respect I payed him. There were no affectations, no superiority just a straight man to man bus queue conversation. A truly great loss to the world and after the 'Furniture Futures' symposium at the V and A perhaps he stepped out of the world at the right time. The era of celebrity would have been anathema to Alan. He was always just an honest furniture maker, creating objects he believed in and knew to be good.
Jeremy Broun has spent many hours with Alan in his winter days and has produced a significant DVD and book looking back over what can only be disgribed as a legend of design and craft. This timely work will be the seminal tribute to a truly unique mans work and I would encourage anyone to purchase a copy. I'm not sure of the direct link though guess a google search of Jeremy Broun Alan Peters would get you there.
An entire movement is indebted to the work of Alan Peters.

Jason Feddy october dates

Rare chance to catch one of our national treasures, the singer song writer, [though this overused phrase fails to capture the raw energy and emotion of perhaps the greatest lost artist of our times]

15 oct 9pm manchester mojo bar- 19 Back Bridge Street, M3 2PB 01618395330

16 oct 9pm cottingley- king william iv 152 hallgate, cottingley, HU16 4BDN 0482847340

18 oct 9pm Knaresborough, the mitre 4 station road, HG5 9AA OI423868948

23 oct 9pm Aylesbury, hop pole inn, 83 Bicester Road, Bucks HP19 9AZ 01296482129

24 oct 8pm London, the regal room- 64 fulham place, h'smith W6 9PH 02087482834

25 oct 9pm London, kiss the sky 18-20 park road, crouch end, london, N8 87D 087125877o2

Leeds Rugby League Make History

Many said it was impossible to win three gand finals in a row. I've supported Leeds since I was a child. I went to the two cup final victories in 1977 and 1978 first against Widnes then against St Helens. I was too young to remember when they were last champions then after 32 years we won. A couple of years passed as St Helens dominated the game. And now, for the first time since grand finals began a team has won three in a row. At the end of, Leeds captain, Kevin Sinfields', winning speach, he said this one is for John Holmes. Probably the best player I ever saw and involved in those '70s cup victories.
So much was at stake yesterday. Sea Longs last game for Saints after 12 years, as is usual, he had a great game. In the first half his kicking ensured Saints domination. Both sides defended well, Saints scored with a great try converted, added a goal from a penalty, Leeds pulled back with two grinded out trys but Sinfield failed to convert either so we went in at half time 8 a piece.
From my arrival in Manchester, the atmosphere amongst the Leeds fans was bouyant and optimistic. Saints fans seemed unusually sobdued but after losing the previous two and Sean Long playing his last game for the club before his move to Hull, I could understand this and feel deep sympathy for them. The game could have gone either way. They had two tries disallowed as players made for the line near the coner broaching touchline through determined Leeds tackling.
Barely 2 minutes in to the 2nd half and Sinfield dropped a goal that seemed a tad premature but put Leeds ahead for the first time in the game. There were two of the most perfect defensive sets of 6 in mid 2nd half, showing we are closer to the NFL than some would have you believe, that, to my mind, swung the game. The Leeds team seemed spiritually closer than Saints, a brethren that seldom occurs. Leeds have no celebraties like Sean Long whose controversial autobiography and antics have given him that status. Sinfield, modest to the last, polite. Leeds are a true team where individuality never clouds the whole. The nucleus of the team has grown up together, local lads, through the academy, augmented with some select signings making, perhaps the greatest Leeds team of all time. Certainly not since the days of John Holmes, Sid Hynes, Les Dyl, John Atkinson, Alan Smith in the 70s have a Leeds side seemed so powerful.
When Wigan were winning everything I recall the cup finals wher all Leeds fans wandered around, strangers in a strange land whereas the Wigan fans had thier pubs and meeting points established like Wembley was thier home ground. There was a touch of that yesterday as Old Trafford is Leeds home for one day a year.
Lee Smith scored 2 tries and sadly is moving down south to play the other code. He won't experience a high like yesyerday again. Wasps are one of the better union sides but even should he break in to the England side and achieve international honours, the lack of passion in union fans, the sheer boredom of the sport, lonely out on the wing. I'm sure he will return to the superior sport. I understand old, battered players, past thier best using it as a transition in to retirement as union is much more gentle and less taxing, the ball in play for half the time it is in league, 5 of thier premiership average less than a try a game. A sport in confussion, unable to come to terms with the pressures of professionalism.
As the game moved in to the last 5 minutes and Leeds were 2 scores ahead, everyone in the ground became aware of the outcome. The euphoria of the Leeds players, coaching staff and fans erupted. We witnessed history, this may never happen again. Withj Long gone which team can hope to catch Leeds? I wouldnt bet against a fourth.

Rugby League Grand Final

So here we go. Leeds Saints 3. Can Leeds make it a record three in a row? Trying to decide whether to drive up or to go on the train. Apparently thiers a BNP ralley in Manchester that day. Reckon I'll get up thier early to photograph that then go out to Old Trafford for the game. Come on Leeds. Look forward to further posts.

Dogs in Space

The first creature from earth to get itself in to outer space was Laika, a dog on the 2nd of november 1957. Say you were looking from the outside, as an alien, might it not cross your mind that rather than a cannary in a coalmine or a guineapig, Laika was the most advanced creature on earth. I imagine, that, since then, a dialogue has been taking place with dogs, omitting the servant humans that brought her thier. It is clear that dogs understand humans better than humanms understand dogs. I have friends, interested in philosophy, noses in books, that blinker them to being able to observe dogs and what they do. It is thier loss.
There is the small capsule used by Laika, the first dog in space. There are the two other space dogs, Belka and Strelka, both of them stuffed. Hanging from the ceiling is the worlds first satelite Sputnik. There is the tiny Vostock capsule used by Major Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. After Russias early space endeavours they took a break. Now they're back on a trip to mars and a new £54m museum to show off the old achievements. Old items like Gagarins space suit were sold to America, other bits and pieces chucked out on the street during the '90s. Laika, sadly is neither in space or on earth, she was sent up on a low orbit and burned up on reentry. Belka and Strelka, however got back safely and went on to lead happy lives. They were stays, the soviets had learned that stray dogs were better at space travel than other dogs being genetically programmed to survive.

Shivering Sands

The Golden Age of Rock and Roll man hole covers is over.
Shivering Sands.
We have discussed it and regardless of the great blog we reckon we should do it for the experience. We're both cleaning out our systems, getting well and fit for it.
We're off, it's on.
Sometimes wonder if it's a form of self harming as I hate heights and the ocean scares me.
Shivering Sands.
Even the name is poetry.
Got the Rugby League grand final saturday, pauls' show 14th and Frieze art fair first.
November, the anarchists month, Guy Fawlkes, Otley boy, Leeds lad, Mischief night.
If the going gets tough, don't you blame us, you 96 decibell freaks

Shivering Sands

you know that feeling when you have an idea and then find out its been done, probably better than you would have done it yourself, http://seafort.org/blog/index.htmt.
After the Moortown Water tower and Bath gas silos expeditions I asked Kipper if he fancied another adventure. I had just watched 'Slade in Flame' and thier is a scene where they go to a pirate radio station to be interviewd for 'city radio', I had imagined this was a fantasy place but reading a Rolling Stones history they occurred again.I consulted the Oracle and they still exist. My plan was to get down the Thames estuary and get on to them. However it's already been done so check out this guys blog. I'd wanted to just have a secret invasion with my fellow adventurer Kipper but Stephen Turner, artist, has already done it. Shivering Sands Army Fort, the home of Radio City still exists. It was built on land in 1942 and floated out in 1943. First 4 naval forts were completed as a naval defence to preotect shipping, later it was decided that a further 3 ports were needed closer to land to protect the city from aircraft. Essentially concrete foundations were created in dry dock. These were floated out to position and allowed to sink. These foundations supported 7 in total. There were 4 3.7inch gun towers, a single bofors tower and a searchlight tower, each tower was connected by single walkways of steel.
7th May 1964 Radio Sutch, created by the legendary Screaming Lord Sutch began, he soon tired of the idea in the war of 'pirate' radio stations, named so because they were mainly broafdcasting from ships further than 3 miles off coast. He sold the project to Reg Calvin in september 64. In 1965 the platform was boarded and they went on air for a few days during disputes over rival pirate stations. During this dispute Reg Calvin was shot dead but the station went back on air, this is what the scene in 'Slade in Flame' is based on. It went silent in 1967.
It was in 2005 that Stephen Turner made, in my view, one of the best blogs of all time.

Oscar Tame

Some are lieing in the gutter, looking at the stars. Some of us are lieing in the gutter looking, very closely, at the gutter

John Holmes 2

Friday night, headingley, Leeds. Semi final against catalan. 100 ex players of the hardest, most beautiful game of all who had played with John stood on the halfway line I and many others, had seen him kick off from and cross in open play. Steve Pitchford, Roy Dickenson, so many of my childhood heroes. A minutes silence seemed too short for someone who had given so many hours of excitement and enjoyment to so many for so long. My favourite, all time player

street hole covers

I won't bore you further but you get the point, you don't have to risk your life climbing dangerous and illegally up buildings that everyone else would rather forget. I first had the idea to go out with a paint tray of die and a roller, roll ink on to the drain covers, then lay a T shirt on top, then roll a dry roller to print it on to the T shirt. I then went out one night and wanted the streets to be paved with gold so , unable to recast them in solid gold, I sat, removed all dust and debris, then painted the manhole cover with gold paint. I aim to photograph and paint them all gold.