Updates 7:53 PM

It makes me so freaking bleak when I install any Adobe products, and I leave the computer for a couple hours, only to come back halfway through it's 500mb update. I'm sure this is an acceptable update in America, especially considering it's like 7 programs, but here, you can fuck off.

Not only is the update huge, but Adobe updater has to be one of the most complicated update systems to disable. I mean, you see the icon in the taskbar and you're like "oh fuck, there goes my cap" and you want to quickly click "preferences" and disable it. but no. You have to go in to program files >> common files >> adobe >> updater 5/6 execute adobe_updater, which will then check for updates, then you can only click preferences and stop Adobe from looking for updates, then after you press OK, IT CHECKS FOR UPDATES AGAIN!!! You know, incase there was some major update in the 2 seconds between opening it and telling it you don't fucking want updates.

If you go and look at the details about each update, it generally says something along the lines of "increasing stability" well, you probably should've fixed that before you decided to release the suite and start working on the next one (just to clear up quickly, I understand that they can't make a perfect release, but when they're releasing a new version each year at R6,000 - R17,000 for Design STANDARD, I think they could take the time to refine a bit.). Oh, and one more note about Adobe while I'm raging about the software I do love so much, Please make a better installer. Once again, I understand it's a lot of software, but I'm sure you can do something about it. I especially the installer that force you to close Firefox while it's installing.

While I'm talking about updates, which generally seem like a great idea, constantly improving your software and such, what's up with iTunes. Okay so you download iTunes version 8.0, but wait! you get Quicktime too! but I don't want Quicktime. Well Fuck You! You have to have Quicktime, because we're Nazi's like that. So you download 90mb of iTunes and Quicktime (which you will never use) and what do you know, the next day there's an annoying little notfication iTunes version 8.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.1.2 is out, download now? Umm, no thanks. Steadily you see it rise. Daily. I really don't think a program like iTunes needs all those incremental updates. Maybe 8.0 > 8.5 > 9.0? that's not so bad. Like I don't really wanna disable it completely, I just want, you know, IMPORTANT UPDATES!

Well whatever, got that off my chest. Keep up the good work on your software and stuff Adobe/Apple

///Summary for those tl:dr folks.

Fuck Adobe Updater. Fuck iTunes Updater.

My Favourite Artists: Michael Hacker 11:59 PM

I really love this guy's style and especially the hand screened gig posters. So freaking rad. check out his blog here [link]

Finally. 5:02 PM

So I finally managed to get my exposure's right. I was actually starting to get a little bleak with it failing all the time. Like I knew it was going to take some trial and error, except I was just getting alot of error and not much to go from...
So on Saturday night I was at the King of Arts show and I ran into my friend Skullboy and like I told him what was up and stuff and he gave me some advice, I ended up swapping the fluorescent lightbox for a couple of beer crates, a 150watt spotlight bulb and a sheet of glass. Which worked! So here it is, my first multicolour screen print!

Here's the actual screens whcih are generally a mission to photograph >.>

Screens, taping up and printing...

Supplies, prints, prints...

Me!

///EXTRA:

Just thought I'd put this in, after the first like 2 photos, I zoomed out on my camera, it beeped three times and turned off and wouldn't turn back on, the lens still half extended. Eventually I fixed it by shaking and twisting, and pushing and pulling and got it to work!

Screenprinting Experiment. 8:34 PM

So for my birthday 2 weeks ago I decided I would get around to screen-printing properly. For my birthday last year I got a screen printing kit which included a squidgy, small wooden screen, inks and dyes, and some rubylith paper. I did a few things with the rubylith paper, but it's time consuming and not very detailed so I was amped to get into the photo emulsion method.

I had seen the photo-emulsion method before in high school so I had a pretty good idea of what to do, and I'd watched a few videos to be sure.

Back to the story, so the other day my girlfriend bought me a 40cm x 50cm screen, and I ordered 2 more because they didn't have stock. So today I phoned them up and they had stock so I went and bought the 2 screens, a scoop-coater and some photo-emulsion. I decided to try out a little 1 colour design on my old wooden screen before I moved on to large A3 multi colour prints.

Did everything in garage, coated the screen with emulsion and left it to dry for an hour. Only when I went out did I realise that the emulsion was bright blue, I hadn't opened the tub before obviously and when I did it was pitch black. But yeah then I went back to expose the design. I used this design for the test.

I printed it on some low gsm tracing paper and I used the highest black print quality I could so it would be thick and stuff. I then used my light box which has 4 fluorescent light tubes and is about 820mm x 300mm so it can fit an A3 to expose the design. I left it for like 30mins because from what I'd read around the internet that seemed like a decent guess.

Cleaned it off and gave it a quick test screen and this how it came out.

It came out pretty over exposed so next time (maybe tomorrow) I'm gonna try like 15mins and see how that goes and then go from there. Although I'm pretty bleak it didn't come out perfect first time, I'm pretty stoked everything went pretty well and the light box works and stuff. Most of it was guess work and stuff so I guess it went moderately well. Oh, and I think my scanner sucks...

///UPDATE:

Okay so I cleaned the screen off and started from the beginning again, did everything basically the same, except only exposed it for 15mins, and this is how it came out!

Once again it looks kinda crap because I decided to take a photo because it was still wet, but yeah, other than the crappish photo, the print came out awesome! Next time I might try like 12mins or so.

I was pretty excited when I was testing it and I didn't feel like going to the study, so I screened it on a little canvass I had lying around. The canvass had textured paint on it, which I figured would work well, but came out pretty sick anyway!

///UPDATE 2:

So yesterday I decided to start trying my 3 layer, A3 screen print mission. Firstly, the emulsion was still wet, but I was on a bit of a time budget so I started exposing it anyway, which didn't work at all.
Today I decided it was too dark in the garage so I figured I would try somewhere a bit lighter to see how that worked out. That didn't work out at all and the emulsion wouldn't wash out after exposing it.
So back to the garage, I messed up a bit when I was coating the emulsion on to the screen but I think I managed to sort it out. Exposed it for like 15mins and it seemed like I did everything right, but for some reason it came out crappy, like it looks like it's over exposed, but I don't think that's it. The other problem is the light box is just A3, So I don't think it's exposing the screen evenly. I'm at a bit of a loss for solutions at the moment, so i'm gonna wait for my parents to get back from England (2 weeks >.>) and then I'm gonna get my dad to help make me a decent sized light box that my screens fit perfectly in to, maybe try get some unfiltered black lights and maybe a red light for the garage and then work from there.
*sigh*

Graham Wants This: Made For Skate 10:51 PM

I don't manage to skate as much as I'd like to, and it's not like I don't have time, I just don't normally have anyone to go with and I normally don't wanna skate for very long, just roll around. Having a little mini in my garden would be awesome.
Anyways, I want this book.

“Today, skateboard footwear is an $800-million-a-year market. And everyone wears skate shoes – without necessarily skating in them… Skateboard shoes exert a tremendous influence on fashion – and vice versa. But while much has been written about the evolution of skateboard riding technique and hardware, a comprehensive account of how skateboard shoes emerged remains missing. Until now.”

MADE FOR SKATE tells the stories behind the shoes that carried skateboarding through it’s colourful history. The long awaited 400 page book comes in a nice matt hardcover, measures 23*29 and must weigh more than 4 pounds.

“There used to be a time when you could spot fellow skateboarders by looking at their shoes. You knew it right away – the telltale ollie holes on the sides, the worn down soles, the frazzled laces. You made eye contact and exchanged a knowing nod or a quick what’s up. A little Fight Club moment at the corner store. You knew right away that you were both into the same thing, sharing same daydreams of spots and tricks, the same victories and agonizing defeats. You knew all that just by looking at someone else’s feet. (…) Nowadays it’s harder to pinpoint those who actually skate in their kicks, with millions of skate shoes walking around there, some of which have never seen a board. And even if you could identify another skater, chances are it wouldn’t be cool to talk to him, him beeing to hesh, too hip-hop, too punk, too whatever. Skateboarding has grown into such a broad church that we’re split into a number of sects – some kind of schism in the 90’s when the Rock-N-Rollers and Hip-Hoppers parted ways – and ever since then, never the twain shall meet. What we ALL share as skateboarders though, is a long history, and shoes are a big part of it.”

[via Skateboarding Magazine]

Mini Munny! 9:31 PM

So today I decided to see if I could buy some blank vinyl toys to paint and stuff and I came across Mini Munny by Kid Robot.

The geniuses at the Kidrobot labs have managed to squeeze MUNNY's endless world of possibilities into a miniature, 4-inch frame. Paint, draw, or scribble; pierce, pose or clothe.

Soooo I ordered 2 of those (can't wait to get them! probably end up making them into skulls haha) and while on the site I saw a link to a competition they held, here's some of the rad ones. [link]

Graham Paterson Likes This: Bastard Flagship Store 8:57 PM

This looks like the most awesome place to work [source]

"Founded in Milan in 1994 by four skateboarders, Comvert S.r.l. conceives, produces and distributes clothing for skateboarders and snowboarders under the brand bastard and distributes the brand Electric in Italy.

Few years ago Comvert decided that it was about time for finding a new location to set up its new headquarter and gave studiometrico the opportunity to search for the right building and then, possibly, to refurbish it.

The ideal place had to be spacious enough to be able to host the administrative department, the design department, a flagship store, a storage facility, a wide access for the goods and a skate-bowl for bastard employees, friends and team riders."

As an artist this just looks like the most awesome environment to work in

Music I Used to Like 10:38 AM

I like this picture. A lot. I am an uber elitist when it comes to music and there are only like 3 or 4 people that I like to share music with and it annoys me when people I don't like listen to music I do like. It's immature and crap blah, blah blah but yeah that's the way it is. Also, apparently Roy wore this shirt on the IT Crowd season 3 (I don't remember seeing it) which makes it that much awesome!

Slow Computer 6:55 PM

I dunno what the fuck is wrong. I just formatted my computer, I have virus protection, my hardware is all decent, but for some reason my computer is running slow, and lagging, and all kinds of crap that's really bleaking me out.

UPDATE:
So I finally figured it out, I reformatted my computer and tried some stuff and it still wasn't working properly. I decided to switch my RAM around and see what happens, sure enough, I turn it back on and the screen isn't working. So I plugeed the screen into my onboard graphics card to see if that worked, it did AND my computer seemed to be running smoothly again, so I figured out it was probably my graphics card. So I opened up my pc again and started taking my graphics card out, when I noticed that one of the power cables wasn't in properly, so somehow my graphics card was still working and stuff but the power wasn't at full capacity or whatever, and I fixed, I'm awesome.

Graham Paterson Likes This: Terry Richardson 11:09 PM

I dunno what it is about this photo but I just can't stop staring at it and I think it's by awesome. Check out the rest of his stuff, some weird, some awesome. [link Terry Richardson]

Typography Assignment 2:32 PM

This was quite a big assignment, I think we had to hand in like 7 pieces of work all together. But yeah, these are my "type in concert" pieces, the brief is kinda confusing, but basically the we had to do three clever things with words without changing the font or anything, only the font size and stuff like that. They're all different in some way, like the horizon one utilises the page, the darWIN one just uses the letters or something like that...

This one is pretty obvious...

This one the letters get bigger like they're evolving, they also go from lowercase to uppercase and WIN gets emphasized along the lines of natural selection

This one isn't too clear because it's embossed, if you can't read it, it says "forgive &" and the idea is it's embossed because it's a faded memory or whatever, but you never fully forget, and also the forget is left out because you "forgot" it.

Eduardo is the best character ever. 1:37 PM

Bloody Lip at Woodstock '08 11:20 PM

I was thinking about this story earlier and figured I'd write about it because it's pretty bizarre and not really awesome at all but somehow it all worked out.

So last year December my friend Nich and I decided to drive six hours inland to go to the Woodstock music festival which is basically an annual music/camping festival over 4 days or something. the year before was pretty awesome, all our friends were there and it wasn't as far away and everything in general was just way cool, 2008 pretty much sucked ass, but on to my story.

On one of the nights, I can remember which, probably the second or third night, I got pretty drunk (I was drunk most of the time I guess) but yeah so we went down to watch some of the bands at night and I had my camera on me, so I decided to go get some photos of the band, so I walked through the middle of the pit, it was quite 'loose' so it wasn't really a mission, snapped this photo...

...and started heading back through the pit. Halway through somebody jumped and head-butted me in the face and I could start to taste blood, so I was holding my mouth and when I looked back at my hand it looked like this (but more blurry haha)

So yeah my friends were like "oh shit, it's really bad, we have to get you to the medic" and stuff like that. So we went to the medical room and the guy was like, "yeah, I can't do facial stiches, you need to go to a hospital", this part's a bit blurry, but I think he said he just sent some other guy to the hospital and I should get a lift with him, the guy happened to be friends with my friend Juane and he had a dislocated finger.

So yeah in the car it was dislocated guy's friend driving, dislocated finger guy in passenger seat, Juane and me in the back. So we race off to the clinic and like we get to the first clinic and they're closed so we decide to go to another one. Okay so the guy driving is driving pretty fast because, well, there's 2 people in the car trying to get to hospital and like we driving pretty close behind this one car, and then they kinda stopped, I think they were probably doing it as a warning for us to get off his ass, but we drove straight into him. Not hard at all, like there was no damage to either cars I think. But this motherfucker gets out his car and starts freaking out, he comes over, pulls the door open and starts kicking the driver, the guy with the dislocated finger gets out and ran off somewhere, I dunno, it was all kinda a blur.

Yeah so eventually we got to the hospital where we sat in the waiting room for ages, met some chick that had cut her leg at the skatepark...

played around in the wheelchairs a bit...

and yeah then I eventually got stitched up, and we got a lift back with dislocated finger guy's dad back to the music festival (because he had to stay over night for an operation) where it was like 2am and everybody had gone to sleep and I managed to miss one of the only bands I really wanted to see at Woodstock.

The next few days were a mission eating and stuff, oh, and did I mention I locked my keys in the car within hours of getting there? well yeah, that sucked, and it was a cool life experience I guess. K BAAI!

My Favourite Artists: Adam Dedman 12:33 PM

I only recently stumbled upon his Adam Dedman's page and I think his stuff is awesome! Especially the circle one, additionally, I based my portfolio around his because I thought it was that cool.

Badass... 3:01 PM

So I've been reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and like Blink, i's super interesting and stuff, especially when you see how much effort went into making Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, but the thing I'm super stoked about is a little story who tells about the subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz.

Back in '84 the subways were in a bit of a mess in Manhattan, lots of crime etc... So Goetz gets on to the number 2 downtown express train on and early saturday afternoon in December. He sits down opposite 4 young men in their late teens who, he some how managed to miss, all the other passangers were avoiding. So they start hasseling him and demanding money while 2 of the men blocked him off from the rest of the passengers, in Gladwell's book he also mentions one of the young men motioned towards a bulge in his pants. After being hassled a bit, Goets reaches into his windbreaker and draws his .38 special Smith & Wesson Revolver and assumes a two-handed combat stance from his previous firearm and shooting experience, and shoots each of them. This is the best part, so one of the guys is injured on the floor, Goetz looks at him and says "You look okay...have another" AND SHOOTS HIM AGAIN! omfg what a freaking legend.

After he'd checked that the 2 woman, who hadn't run out because they were frozen in fear, were okay, the conducter asked if he was a police man, he said no, then he asked Goetz for his gun, he said no again, jumped off the subway and ran into the darkness. True vigilante style, he did turn himself in a week later.

On a similar note, this cracked article is amazing! 5 Real Life Soldiers Who Make Rambo Look Like a Pussy

Steve Rocco is Awesome 2:59 PM

So back around 1990 when Powell and Peralta was the almighty god of skateboards, a small company by the name of World Industries/Blind was trying to make their mark on the skateboarding world, lead by the awesome Steve Rocco. Effectivly the companies were arch rivals of sorts and in 1991 Powell ran an advert mocking the small skateboarding companies, featuring 3 of Powell's top skaters. So Rocco, who had no shame in infringing copyright or putting obscene things on skateboards and in short did what ever the hell he wanted to, decided to fight back. They ran and advert and the copy said:

Dear George (Powell)

After seeing all the ads lately (especially yours) making fun of new or small companies I realized how stupid I was for having one. Dude, you were right small companies are cut! Anyway, I've talked to Jason (Lee) and Rudy (Johnson), and we all agree we should try to be big-time just like you guys. Here's a picture of our new graphic and logo. I hope they're OK. And if there's anything else we're doing wrong, just make another ad and we'll change it.

Sincerely,
Mark Gonzales

P.S. Do you think I should kill myself?

...and there's a picture of the 3 skaters holding skateboards (I'm guessing in the same style the Powell ad was printed) with graphics completely ripping off the Powell graphics. What a freaking awesome win. All this information was from Sean Cliver's book Disposable.