Monday October 29th 2012
If you like photography you’ve most likely heard of (or at least looked at) the work of Andreas Gursky; a large-format photographer, he captures seemingly mundane man-made landscapes – such as the inside of vast supermarkets – architecture and crowds. His images are full of colour, movement and humanity, in all its forms.
But this is not about Gursky. This …
Posted by Alex at 11:13am
Tuesday October 23rd 2012
Upon returning from a recent trip abroad I read of the death of Eric Lomax and, consequently, learned of his incredible story.
Captured by the Japanese in WWII, Edinburgh-born Lomax was put to work building the Burma-Siam railway in Thailand (made infamous in the film, Bridge Over The River Kwai) and was severely tortured during his incarceration.
Lomax survived …
Posted by Alex at 12:08pm
Tuesday October 9th 2012
Romanian born Brancusi was a hugely influential figure in the world of sculpture, but before we even get into that we have to admit that Constantin is one of the major inspirations behind our brand new Funnel Neck Sweater (and, frankly, our Vintage Chino too).
Brancusi had such an effortless look, one that seems to exude an easy confidence – …
Posted by Alex at 8:32am
Monday October 1st 2012
Having had something of an unintentionally existentialist weekend (does that ever happen to anyone else?) I found myself re-reading an old favourite, The Outsider, by Albert Camus, in order to help me out of my torpor.
The book, as ever, is fantastic – all sparse text and profound normality of the everyman. But Camus himself is inspiring. Born into …
Posted by Alex at 10:37am
Monday August 27th 2012
While giving an interview to the BBC in 2005, Werner Herzog was shot in the stomach by an unknown assailant, with an air rifle. Bruised and bloodied he remarked: “It’s not a significant bullet.”
Such a strange incident seems somehow in-keeping with a film auteur for whom taking “a bold look at one’s environment, even the ugly things,” is central …
Posted by Alex at 2:32pm
Monday August 20th 2012
2009’s I’m New Here was Gil Scott Heron’s first studio album, for 16 years and it provided me with a first inroad into the ruminations of the famed poet of Harlem.
A champion and herald of the black cultural left, Heron was a man of razor-sharp insight and prodigiously beautiful perception – whether as the Agitprop jazz-scourge of mass consumerism, …
Posted by Alex at 9:51am
Thursday August 9th 2012
Dick Fosbury only competed in one Olympic Games. He won gold in his event, the high jump, achieving what any athlete can hope to achieve in their field. But while for Fosbury’s Olympic career began and ended in Mexico City ’68, his legacy has lasted for over 45 years with no sign of abating.
While not anything like the greatest …
Posted by Alex at 12:08pm
Thursday August 2nd 2012
In 1968 Spitz returned from the Olympic swimming pools of Mexico City with precisely no individual medals. He’d failed.
For such an intensely driven athlete, even one aged only 18, it hurt. “Swimming isn’t everything,” Spitz conceded later, “winning is. I’d rather win six out of six, or even four out of four, than six out of seven,” he said. …
Posted by Alex at 12:00pm
Monday July 30th 2012
“Daley is a Stalinist. It’s not enough for him to win; he has to mentally destroy his opponent,” – Sebastian Coe.
Competing in an event that, over two days, takes in the 100m, 400m, 1500m, 110m hurdles, high jump, pole vault, long jump, discus, javelin and the shot-put, you have to be a bit of an animal. To be the …
Posted by Alex at 4:50pm
Tuesday July 24th 2012
Some people make money, some people make history. Tony Wilson, simply one of the most important and iconic figures of UK Pop Culture, was one of the latter – and he pretty much wrote his own as he went along.
Factory Records, Joy Division, New Order, The Happy Mondays, The Hacienda… the list of things that Wilson helped into the …
Posted by Alex at 12:40pm
