The big essay

I'm ploughing through reams of stuff on William Hogarth for my big context essay. This isn't really work, as I'm as obsessed with London as he was. I get to peruse beautiful old maps, tracking his movements as he wandered through the city, and cross referencing against the rather less beautiful modern A - Z. Went to London in the summer for the first time in years, and was impressed with how good it looks now.
Wouldn't want to live there, though.

Cabaret Voltaire

                                                                          Oh dear.

Create Comics workshop

Went to this at the cornerhouse on saturday. It's run by Jim Medway, who draws people with cat's heads. We learned to get our ideas on paper quickly, never mind how crap they were. Two comics resulted, and as they were built from 14 different ideas they're very strange. Good day, though.

Screen Printing

Did some screen printing with Kiren on tuesday and thursday. We were tasked with decorating a 5-metre long tablecloth for the UCAS fair next week. It took a lot longer than I expected - lining up the hexagons relative to each other took a whole afternoon. I can see why people like it so much though. There's an almost sensual pleasure in driving the pigment through the screen. And a massive sense of satisfaction in looking at the finished article and thinking, 'I did that'.

People's Museum visit

The story of the people's battle towards equality and justice, right up until 1979 and the dawn of Thatcherism, when things started to get worse again. It'll be interesting to see what's in here in another fifty years time.

Creepy alien plants

I saw this weird shrub at Tatton park. Foolishly I put one of the purple seedpods in my pocket. Where it burst.

Empty River

Forgot to mention the river at Liverpool. There's a huge waterway, linned with docks and wharves, and it's all but empty of shipping. I saw two tankers go plodding downstream. That's all. Then I visited the Museum of Liverpool and saw what it was like until fairly recently, alive with ships and buzzing with activity. Youu can imagine the sense of loss scousers above a certain age must get when they see it and remmember how it used to be.

Tate Liverpool at last

Finally got here. And thanks to reading Will Gompertz's 'What are you looking at - 150 years of modern art' - A brilliant book - I even knew about some of the exhibits.

Never really looked at the three graces close up before. Very large and beautiful - thank god they never built that pig - ugly cloud building next to them.

The desert? No, Cheshire.

This is the Archimedes screw generator on the river goyt at otterspool weir. Nice touch, painting them green.

Parachute opening

Do YOU know what your tutors get up to when you're not around?

Got a bit obsessed with canal bridges and reflectiona on water today.

Good for Nothing

Imagine a shop full of people staring at laptops and drinking beer. That was Good For Nothing. Lots of nice people getting together to donate their time to good causes.
We were split into three groups and tasked with sorting out the problems of the relevant good causes. Mine was Carbon Co-op, who aim to empower people to cut their energy consumption by, among other things, monitoring their usage.
The other guys were all techies, getting stuck into the hardware and software, so I roughed up a few posters for the cause. Well in between eating chilli, sipping becks and smiling at the bemused passers by as they peered in through the window.

Went to Hebden Bridge today, The town shows the battering it's taken recently, with loads of shops closed and sandbags all over the place. There's a wartime - styled teashop full serving stuff like sardines on toast and mugs of bovril. And there, on the shelf surrounded by old cameras, ration books etc., is a photo of Hitler.

Mirrormere, aka Torside reservoir.

Aaah, that's where it is!