New Blog
The Archigram Archival Project
"The Archigram Archival Project makes the work of the seminal architectural group Archigram available free online for public viewing and academic study." These words made my day when I first read them, and regularly still do - whenever I browse through the fantastic drawings and plans archived at http://archigram.westminster.ac.uk/
Recovered Photos: Taiwan, Week 1
All the photos from back then are blurry, as if to prove it must have been a dream. My camera broke for a bit, maybe a reaction to the sudden heat or the humidity as it worked fine again later. I just found the photos and it all came back to me, the dreamlike first week when so much happened and I didn't mind that I'd moved 6,000 miles away from home and wouldn't return for over a year. I had so many lucid dreams as a result of not knowing where I was.
This is what I remember.
There were fishtanks in bars and drinking games with Chinese numbers and the city lights of Taipei reduced to pinpoint blobs in a blur that could be anywhere, anytime after the invention of neon lights. There were new friends I planned to go to Japan with and never saw again but it was okay, there were koi carp bigger than my head and there were fading lights in the park at night with the tower blocks standing over us. There was KTV and an aboriginal guy who didn't understand why I didn't want to go back to his house on my first night in a strange country, as though sleeping in my own new bed wouldn't be strange enough, and there were clouds lit up by the chemical sun as it set on the beach and there was me in the bathroom with my new bad skin, built for colder climes. There was a place I named Factoryland and there were temples and lanterns and streets I found and lost and found again and there was a mountain full of statues and taxidermy and everything in between. There was a ghost ship built from a jade dragon and there was blurry sushi which arrived on tiny trains and there was a typhoon which happened under cover of the blurry grey evening and I had to stay safe inside my temporary home before I moved to my new apartment which later became home to the point where it didn't feel blurry, not even with hindsight.
Good things part 2
Sticker Geek Fest
As adulthood loomed, the contents of that desk were mostly neglected, the sticker collection being the part which survived the best. However, it was seriously harmed by the lack of decent stickers available in York and the fact that, when I did find some, I often stuck them on things quicker than I could replace them.
Times have changed. Not only do I now have the option of buying pointless things on the internet, but even high street shops like Paperchase are shaping up to sell some pretty nifty stickers. But this obsession really gained momentum during my time living in Taiwan. Yes, I have mentioned the stationery shops of Taiwan before, and no doubt I will again. Forget Stationery Box. Forget Rymans and WH Smith. How much of their stationery is adorned with impossibly cute creatures, inanimate objects with faces and nonsensical English with a nevertheless overwhelmingly positive message?
As if this wasn't all nerdy enough, I also bought a sticker album in Taiwan in which I keep the ones I like the most and which I'll never be able to replace. The book has illustrations on most of the pages so it's nice to look through even though I haven't actually put many stickers in it yet.
Good things
I know I could just add links to all my favourite websites on my sidebar (and I probably will do this at some point) but for now I just want to tell you about three sites I have been visiting a lot this week and really enjoying.
You can find the rest at http://joshgoleman.com/2009/06/ginny-and-eds-wedding/ I found this through http://emersonmerrick.blogspot.com/ which is a lovely blog written by the lady on the left in this pic. She collects and documents things in a very aesthetically pleasing manner and makes me want to live in America a bit.
Book Shop Girl
Did a new drawing/painting today. It's pretty much what the title says. I used Pilot Hi-Tec-C pens (for a change...) plus watercolours and a tiny bit of acrylic. I made loads of mistakes as I was drawing in pen - I tried to incorporate them as best I could. It's small in real life - only postcard size.