This won't be the most cohesive blog entry I've ever produced since it's been written in fits and starts over the past too weeks (I was ill, got better and fell ill again - I reek of Vick's Vaporub). Still, that means there should be something to interest everyone (blatant lie).

Congratulations to Ed Salter (BlewBMX) for making it to the finals of the Times Young Photographer competition. Also props to Lloyd for winning King Of Street at the recent Street Vs Tweak 2 jam in Southampton. Check this vid to see why he won (whips on lock!).

Recently I have been been keeping one eye open on Nike's Art Of Football project. What I find interesting is that they have taken a subject that I am familiar with but have no love for (I don't have the attention span to appreciate sport) and repackaged it in a manner which perks my interest. By treating what is normally a mainstream culture in ways usually reserved for subcultural activities even I am intrigued enough to pay attention. The best example of what I'm waffling on about is the 1-1 exhibition.

In a similar vein i like the direction of the NSW (Nike Sportswear) collection. What I find interesting is the way that it is presented as a bridge between dedicated sportswear and casual attire so that the result would leave one neither looking like they had just stepped off the playing field or like another token streetwear poser.

I like the marriage of casual sensibilities (which have the emphasis on aesthetics) and genuine technical ability. This is fashion meets function but instead of appropriating practical garments, the staple items are designed with practicality in mind.

Having sorted out a new computer I am now in the process of acquiring a new font I've had my eye on. Namely, Johnston Underground, which was originally designed specifically for the London Underground signage and was the main inspiration behind another favourite of mine, Gill Sans.

Eric Gill's most famous work is often seen as an icon of post war British style (and as thus is a fitting partner to the original Penguin paperback covers) but I managed to stumble across a couple of less than favourable evaluations of it's design. This Typotheque article is the better of the two whilst this entry on Typographica has plenty of links to alternative but similar styles (I particularly like the idea of Wayfarer, otherwise know as Sheffield Sans).

I wrote some of this post whilst listening to the latest Tru Thoughts podcast. I've been slacking off on them lately but I had to check this one out as it features the one and only Natural Self. The new Shapes compilation is also out now.

I've still not got used to my Macintosh yet. It's like trying to walk in a borrowed pair of shoes, familiar and yet, at the same time, completely alien.

P.S. Bonus points if you can spot my Mam in the top picture.

The bluetits have returned. There is a sizable squadron of fluffed up, yellow-faced fledglings twittering away in the garden. I saw the piebald blackbird on my way home from work the other day, his whole head is white and the rest is black so he looks like a tiny Bald Eagle.

On Friday Thom (who happens to have started a nice new blog which you can find here) and I went down to Newgale and we found a dead badger washed up on the beach. At first we though it must be some kind of dog but then we recognised the remaining tufts of fur. It was probably the most disgusting thing I've seen in ages. I went back to Newgale on Saturday with my mum. No badgers but we did find a three legged Starfish (which I guess makes it a Mercedes?).

Scott Hansen (ISO50/Tycho) has created a poster to support Barack Obama's political campaign and I really, really want one. Unfortunately the store is only open to residents of the USA. Gutter. I'm hoping it may yet appear in Scott's own web store. Oh, and just in case you haven't seen it, Shepard Fairy made one too.

Speaking of both twittering and Obama, I found this article quite intriguing.

I was watching the Young Ones the other day and spotted the Protect and Survive poster in the kitchen. I had a quick skeg on eBay for a print but no luck (I can't even find an example online to show you). I did however find this website which has full scans of the accompanying booklets which were issued in 1980. I love the diagrams. These then introduced me to Raymond Brigg's, "When The Wind Blows" (which I now really want to see - Raymond Briggs is amazing).

If you watched the extended edition of The Culture Show on Friday night you will have seen an animation called, "Procrastination," by bright young thing, Johnny Kelly. I'm pasting up a link here in case you missed it because, if you did, you missed out (you'll have to let me know if the video doesn't work since I don't currently have either Windows Media or Real player so I can't test it out).

I imagine if you're into your 20 inch bicycles then you've probably already seen this Nigel Sylvester ad but it's definitely worth a second look. I've been wondering for a while why people don't use monochrome footage more often? I don't mean just using desaturated video, I mean punchy black and white.

Any other business... Even the least observant of you will have noticed the new site layout. I wanted to make something a little more streamlined and that acted as a better background to display my photos. I tried to make the typography friendly in case the black was too severe, I hope you like it. Be warned though, I haven't quite finished tweaking yet.

I'm still missing a links page but I'm hoping to sort that out asap though I may be delayed by the fact that after two years of saving, I've finally made the switch from PC to Mac. I'm now running a 24-inch iMac (3.06ghz with 4gb RAM for the geeks) but I've yet to sort out software. I still need to pick up Photoshop and something I can use to make webpages.

The screen is fantastic, it's the best TFT/LCD type display I've seen and it really brings photographs and video to life. Any kind of image looks good and to make the most of it I've been trawling through lots of photo-based websites. At the moment I'm digging Rural Bicycle and Curb Detritus.

All that's left to say is; shout out to Jam Factory, thanks for your help dude. RIP theshovelload (nah, I'm sure they'll be back) and where's my brake bolt Kirkby?! (That last link is to Tom's new blog as I think Agenda has gone belly up - though I'm not sure if it's dead or if it just ate a big dinner and has gone to sleep it off).

Once again I must apologise for my prolonged absence but i hope the extra long blog entry helps to make up for it. Toodles.

We have seen a week of dozy buzzards, a sparrowhawk in the garden and dueling greenfinches. It was also a week of pain - Tuesday morning saw me trundling down the cyclepath to work, travelling at a fair old lick and then decelerating rapidly as I skidded across the tarmac on all my delicate bits.

This was followed by a week of squirrels in the woods, rabbits on the verge and toads in the shed (oh and at work, the robin who lives in the warehouse has found a mate).

I've been doing some serious thinking about the future of my blog. Nothing drastic, I just wonder if things could do with a shake up aesthetically. Not sure yet as I don't really have a strong idea in my head. I need to sit down and sketch it.

My new camera has finally arrived! I now have a Nikon D300. Rather than increase my productivity I fear this may actually have the opposite effect as I'm still trying to work out what everything does. That and the fact that it shoots black and white and that it's big and heavy and metal and it feels (and sounds) like a big old film camera and it's the bestest ever...

These things all take me back to my schooldays, so I've been messing around, gleefully shooting off b&w than concentrating on actually making photographs. I'm hoping I'll be more inclined to make more monochrome images now, which is another reason I'm thinking about switching up my blog a bit.

Right then, I'd better add some links in here somewhere:

The buildings in these photographs from English Russia are amazing They're like the drawings of Nigel Peake come to life! I'm also really digging Gus' screen print book (click the picture for a larger version).

I've been checking out some nice blogs recently. I like the intricate, fiddly papercuts and tiles made by Rob Ryan and as a complete contrast, the stark utilitarian meets graffiti styles of MSTRPLN. This entry by Elph must be a contender for best blog post currently online. I found the next link hiding in Flickr so not technically a blog, but it's still ace. My final link is from the Guardian's photography section.

I am painfully aware of the fact that if I rode a fixed gear I'd die instantly but that said, I'm still fascinated by them. I love the latest video from Charge Bikes.

The puppeteer must have mad skills.

I picked up some toy lenses from Loreo (hence today's packaging picture). Basically they turn my dslr into a pinhole aperture with a variable aperture. They're not very sharp but they're fun to play around with.

It was my 23rd birthday last Saturday so I'm afraid I'm going to be terribly vulgar and use this post to list a load of my new stuff. For starters I've been slowly making my way through watching Tomorrow We Work.

Fresh from the fair hands of Mrs Muju I have a new toy to keep my Yetis happy.

I have also acquired an original manual for my Kodak Brownie 127. I wish they still made electrical appliance manuals like this. You can see a scan here (though be warned, that link is to a .pdf).

I'm currently reading 'Penguin By Design' which explores the history of the Penguin paperback and how their iconic cover designs were created (there are lots of pictures too). I think I may have to steal a few of their ideas! It's worth buying the book just for the two pages displaying the evolution of the Penguin logo.

Last but not least I have a new favicon (so you need to delete and renew your bookmark). The design is taken from some type that my mother bought me. When I say type I mean actual blocks of movable type (to be used in a letterpress, had I such a thing). The font itself is made up of leaf-shaped dingbats rather than letters. Maybe I should buy a printing press, hmmm...

I haven't spent much of my computer for the last couple of weeks as I've been too zapped from working.However, the time I have spent meandering through the internet has thrown up a nice crop of links for us to peruse.

We'll start simply. I want one of these even more than a shiny new iMac.

Tricklist has finally awoken and stumbled, blinking, into the light after a prolonged period of hibernation. Also, Angus has finally provided me with a link to his design blog, and I can see that he has in fact been a busy bee (but just forgot to tell me about it). I was a bit weird reading through since I've already seen a lot of the articles that the blog links to but from entirely different sources. It's been like a mix of déjà vu and parallel experience.

Tweaker zine recently saw a healthy dose of new articles though I have to admit it took a lot of effort to get past the current cover photo, it's so good (coincidentally, I'm a sucker for; leaves, tre flips and the juxtaposition of blue and yellow).

I really enjoyed this article that I read over at the Design Observer.

Sticks & Stones is another online zine-thingy (about skate/bmx/art/music/you know, all the good stuff) which is currently doing the rounds and deservedly so since it looks amazing (I saw looks since so far I've only had the energy to look at the pictures rather than read the articles). It pretty much blows all my zine ideas out of the water and I am obscenely jealous.

I manged to pick up some (really beat) Air Jordan IVs for seven quid! If you don't know then let Mars explain. You don't know who Mars Blackmon is? Why, he's this guy.

I think I've probably wasted enough of your time by now so I'll wrap things up. Just one more thing though, I've altered the .htaccess file for wearehomegrown.co.uk so if any of you encounter any problems either viewing the site of linking to it could you please let me know asap. Thanks.

Quayside

No updates last week as I was either making the most of the sunshine by exploring with my camera or because I was focusing my attention on Dreamweaver rather than Blogger. As a reward for your patience you can view the initial fruits of my labour here.

Recently I've been enjoying Pacifica, which is the first book to be released by Quiet Corners. The book documents Paul's recent trip to the Pacific Northwest through black and white photography and Super 8 film (which features on the accompanying DVD). You can find out more and purchase your own copy here.

I've also acquired some new prints from the Keep Calm Gallery, namely; Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining, Make Your Own Path (so stoked to get this since I was gutted when I missed out on the first run) and Get Lost (scroll down that page to see a short 'making of' film).

I love this flyer for an Alleycat in Connecticut. Ben Wilson has finished his Monocycle (dude needs to get some video footage up)!

I'm poaching links again (sorry) but you have to check out Matt Stuart's website, the juxtapositions he captures are amazing. While I'm at it I may as well steal another link, this time I'd just like to reiterate Chaz's reccomendation that you check out the Style43 interview with Aversion's Louis Mikolay.

That's all I've got for now, if you fancy something a little longer to read, I really enjoyed this interview with Joe Corre (founder of Agent Provocateur) and this article on one man's love for Wikipedia.