View allAll Photos Tagged mind."-
Whether you're a train enthusiast or not, you couldn't fail to be impressed with the old world charm of this place. This old station is only a 15 minute walk from my house, and when they run the steam loco at the weekends, I can hear it's whistle from my garden. A sweet sound it is too. Info here www.deanforestrailway.co.uk
Simple Minds Jim Kerr.
23 february 2012.
Cirque Royal Brussels.
photo: Alex Vanhee.
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band who achieved worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.
Being fettled by John Hill of the Capri Club International at the Ford Capri 40th Anniversary at Castle Combe racetrack, Wiltshire, Saturday 6th May 2009.
This is my March, 2011 "Teacher Feature" #7 remix displayed in my Life-Long-Learners blog. I encourage viewers to share favourite educational quotations and/or Creative Commons images that might be suitable as remix components. Thank you.
I found this week's theme really tough. To think of something and to execute it. This isn't what I'd been intending at all, but thanks to Photoshop frustrations, it does represent my state of mind quite accurately now.
SIMPLE MINDS
BIG MUSIC TOUR 2015
Official stage photographer
Amphithéâtre 3000, Lyon, France
13/02/2015
by Sandie Besso Photography
for any booking, professional & artistic shootings contact me : sandie.besso@gmail.com
Paris / France
Complete "Acoustic Live 2017" photo's gallery available by clicking here
Source : 2017-05-15 - 20.25.54 - _DSC0916 - 1.jpg
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Other live performance galleries:
Simple Minds
Acoustic Live 2017, Brussels (Belgium), Bozar (Palais des Beaux-Arts), 15th of May, 2017
Simple Minds
40 Years of Hits Live 2022, Antwerpen (Belgium), Sportpaleis, 20th of April, 2022
U2
U2 - 360° Tour, Brussels (Belgium), King Baudouin stadium, 22nd of September, 2010
U2
The Joshua Tree Tour 2017, Brussels (Belgium), King Baudouin stadium, 1st of August, 2017
Coldplay
A Head Full of Dreams Tour 2017, Brussels (Belgium), King Baudouin stadium, 22nd of June, 2017
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SIMPLE MINDS
BIG MUSIC TOUR 2015
Official stage photographer
Falconer Salen, Copenhagen, Denmark
12/03/2015
by Sandie Besso Photography
for any booking, professional & artistic shootings contact me : sandie.besso@gmail.com
Paris / France
Share Mind Mapping with friends, family & colleagues with this FREE "Try Mind Mapping" example Mind Map.
A FREE promotional pack is available in Word & PDF containing an A4 poster, A5 Big Bookmarks with space to make notes, perhaps even for adding keywords if a Mind Map is going to be created of a book, standard Bookmarks, plus a postcard sized version.
Download a free copy here: www.mindmapinspiration.co.uk/#/try-mind-mapping/4532486456
You can subscribe to the Mind Map Inspiration Blog to receive new Mind Maps at www.mindmapinspiration.com/ and follow me on Twitter @mindmapdrawer twitter.com/mindmapdrawer
Also available: E-Books designed to help you create stylish and artistic mind maps of your own - visit the Mind Map Inspiration Website for more details: www.mindmapinspiration.co.uk/
One thing you'll never forget if you travel to London. "Mind the gap" will be heard at least a thousand times while you ride the tube..
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
The Gap store at the Temecula Promenade remains open while other stores such as Valley View in Roanoke; Virginia are closing, Promenade is still a fairly good mall so The Gap probably will stick around for the time being.
Never mind, our Gap is closing, closing date is January 26th, if not earlier...
New/additional pictures from an old model.
With retro-camouflaged Valkyries popping up in official sourcebooks (like Su-27, U.S. Navy or Royal Navy derivates) and some national identity in mind, I wondered what a German Valkyrie would look like? Well, this here is the (quite flashy) result! The idea came when I recently got hands on the brand new WAVE Ma.K. 'Snake-Eye' kit - the box art shows the fighting suit with very special decorative markings: "tulip" wedges.
For those interested, here's an excursion about the story behind it:
The 'black tulip' markings have a real historic heritage from WWII. They had been the personal markings of German pilot ace Erich Hartmann on his Messerschmidt Bf-109 fighter machines. The characterstic markings were painted on the motor cowl, just behind the propeller spinner, which used to be black, too.
After the war (and 352 air combat victories!), when Germany began re-building its defensive forces under the pressure of the Cold War, Erich Hartmann returned from Russian imprisonment, joined German Luftwaffe's forces again and received in 1960 command over Germany's first jet fighter squadron, the JG 71 "Richthofen", which was initially equiped with CL-13 Mk. 6, Canadian-built F-86F-40 'Sabres'.
Consequently, besides the glamorous "Richthofen" name of the squadron, JG71's F-86 would sport the 'black tulip' trademark of their commander around their air intakes and on the fins, paired with bright red or yellow contrast fields. The tulips would, with the advent of the F-104G 'Starfighter' in the mid 60ies, disappear again, though.
But back to the little Valkyrie: The kit is actually a bastard. I did not have a single seater left in stock, so I bashed a VF-1D two-seater with the cockpit and wings of a single-seater Gerwalk kit. This caused little problem, since these kits have almost 100% matching 'interfaces'. The Gerwalk cockpit just differs slightly in proportions and lacks a landing gear compartment. The wings have no punches/adapters for weapons underneath, and the holes for the wings' sweeping mechanism are a bit larger than on the Fighter kits.
Beyond that, the Valkyrie was - as usual - built almost right out of the box, with typical minor details added to the exterior like some antennae, plus some interior things like a pilot figure and a HUD.
In oder to set this Valkyrie a bit apart from the anime versions, I gave it an "L" designation (for "Luftwaffe", the only plausible suffix I could find which was not occupied yet...). A scratch-built laser spot tracker (similar to the Pave Penny system) was mounted under the Valkyrie's front as part of a domestic KWS package ("Kampfwertsteigerung", a German term and abbreviation for military vehicle upgrades). This package also includes subtle details like passive radar sensors (fins, front, legs) and flare dispensers (legs), Small things, but they add some grit and differentiate it from standard anime models. The wings were left empty, in order not to compromise the wonderful lines and keep the kit's focus on its unique livery.
The basic paint scheme is typical for German jets like the F-4F, F-104G or Alpha Jet in the 1960-80 era. AFAIK, it was officially called "Norm '72", but it had the inofficial nickname of "Zitronenfalter" ("Brimstone Butterfly"). It already looks retro due to the angular design, but proves highly effective at medium heights over typical German countryside or over coast line areas. Today it would be sold as "fractal", but the design's origins reach back into the pre-WWII time.
The authentic colors of the Norm '72 scheme are RAL 6014 ("Gelboliv", a dark, brownish olive drab tone; Humbrol's 108 or Revell's 46 come close), RAL 7012 ("Basaltgrau", similar to the Bristish Dark Sea Grey or FS36118) for above and RAL 7001 for the undersides ("Silbergrau", a unique light grey with a metallic hue).
For the small Valkyrie kit , though, I settled for different, lighter shades, because the original tones are pretty murky and they'd rather conceal the wicked camouflage pattern. The Gelboliv became the much lighter 1711 from Testors (simple Olive drab, FS34087), and for the dark Basaltgrau, Humbrol's 27 (Matt Sea Grey) was used. The obscure undersides' RAL 7001 was simulated with a 1:1 mix of Humbrol's 11 and 34 (Silver and Flat White).
While the choice of tones was basically O.K., the olive drab turned out to be way too light after application. The contrast with Humbrol's 27 was weak, so Humbrol 108 would be recommended for a more authentic look, even though weathering would bleach the real colors. But, heck, we are doing anime here! Therefore, I left it as it was.
When the basic camouflage was done, though, I found that something was missing to round up the Valkyrie's look, due to the low contrast of the Zitronenfalter scheme's colors from above. As a visual trick, I simply added leading edges on the wings and fins in Humbrol 94 (Matt Brown Yellow) - this plausible detail clears up the machine's outlines but does not compromise the overall visual style.
The red squadron markings were painted with Humbrol 174 (Signal Red), a bright and yellowish red tone which came out almost orange in the proximity to the murky camouflage. The black tulip wedges were partly taken from a HobbyBoss Sabre's JG71 decal sheet in 1:72 and partly hand-painted in black, with white decal trims. I was surprised how these small details changed the total look of the machine!
A light wash with black ink in order to point out the surface engravings and a final coat of matt varnish (except for the nose, which is intentionally finished in high gloss like German F-4F Phantom's with the Norm '72 outfit) finished the job.
The typical German bort numbers in black with white outlines came from a spare decal set. The Valkyrie's shown registration 27+85 corresponds to German Luftwaffe's nomenklatura since 1968 (the Hartmann tulips are older, though), but is fictional. By current standards, numbers from 20+01 to 49+99 are reserved for front line fighters, with serials corresponding to types in service (and not to sqaudrons). 27+85 would have been a TF-104G Starfighter trainer at its time, but phased-out numbers have been knwon to be used again, so the bort number is plausible ;)
Overall I find this Valkyrie interpretation better than expected. At first I was afraid that the Zitronenfalter scheme would make it look boring. It IS retro, O.K., but the flashy, historic JG71 trims add that special touch and comic-likeness that make it IMO look plausible even for the Macross universe? It is amazing what you can make from these simple kits, and once more respect and awe for Kawamori Shoji's timeless design. So inspiring! ^^
Of the thousands of American aircraft shot down during the Vietnam War, well over half were lost to antiaircraft fire—most in the close air support role for troops in contact on the ground. In the latter half of the war, when the North Vietnamese Army switched to a more conventional style of attack using tanks, both the US Air Force and the US Army found that they lacked a decent antitank aircraft. This deeply concerned both services: if a conventional war should erupt in Central Europe with the Warsaw Pact, Soviet forces would employ mass tank attacks, which the Army would be hard-pressed to stop alone, and might require use of tactical nuclear weapons.
With these factors in mind, the USAF commissioned the A-X study in 1967, issuing a requirement for a dedicated ground attack fighter with special emphasis on antitank weaponry and survivability—A-X study groups of the responding companies were asked to review specialized World War II-era antitank aircraft such as the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik and the Henschel Hs 129, both of which employed heavy cannon armament and armor protection. World War II’s top aerial tank killer, German pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel, was brought in as a consultant.
By 1972, the USAF had narrowed down its prospects to the Northrop A-9 and Fairchild-Republic A-10, both of which had first flown in May 1972. Based on its maneuverability, survivability, and Republic’s reputation for building hardy aircraft (including the P-47 Thunderbolt and F-105 Thunderchief), the A-10 was chosen as the A-X in 1973 and went into full production as the A-10A Thunderbolt II in 1976.
When it entered service a year later, it immediately turned heads. Unlike the sleek “teen fighters” such as the F-15 and F-16 entering USAF service at the same time, the A-10 seemed almost dumpy in comparison, and its slow speed and hideous appearance quickly earned it the moniker of “Warthog,” a name that stuck far more than Thunderbolt II. However, the throwback straight wing and airliner engines hid a superb combat aircraft. The A-10 was built literally around a titanic GAU-8 Avenger 30mm gatling cannon, the largest such weapon ever built in the West, capable of firing 4000 rounds a minute—with each soda-bottle sized round made of hyperdense depleted uranium capable of slicing through tank armor. Firing the GAU-8 put such forces on the aircraft that it would immediately lower the speed, to the point that pilots reported being thrown forward in their straps, while the gun gases were capable of causing compressor stalls. If that was not enough, the A-10 was provided with a dozen underwing hardpoints capable of carrying every bomb in the USAF’s inventory, along with TV-guided AGM-65 Maverick missiles. Laser guided bombs could also be carried thanks to a Pave Penny designator attached to the right side of the fuselage.
Survivability was paramount in the A-10’s design. The cockpit was surrounded by a titanium “bathtub” impervious to cannon rounds below 30 millimeter size—an important consideration given the Soviet Union’s employment of the lethal ZSU-23 self-propelled antiaircraft gun that had wreaked havoc among Israeli forces in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The high-bypass turbofan engines were mounted high on the rear fuselage, apart from each other to better resist damage, while their placement behind the wing and forward of the twin tails both masked them from ground fire and reduced their infrared footprint. The fuel tanks are protected by foam and two small tanks are designed to keep a small reserve in the unlikely event all four interior fuel tanks were penetrated. Redundancy and simplicity are meant to keep the aircraft aloft even after heavy damage, while the semi-recessed wheels reduce the damage caused by a belly landing. The A-10 was also designed to operate from austere forward bases and be capable of quick turnarounds in combat. Finally, though the straight wing seemed a throwback to World War II, it had been proven by the A-1 Skyraider in Vietnam that a straight wing, combined with comparatively slow speed, made an aircraft very maneuverable. Pilots reported the A-10 to be easy to fly, though difficult on long missions because of the lack of an autopilot.
A-10s were quickly deployed to Central Europe, waiting for the mass Soviet tank attack that would never come. In bad weather common to Europe, it was found that if the A-10 had a weakness, it was its lack of all-weather capability, and given that the aircraft was meant to operate from very low level, this could be a real problem in wartime. There were also concerns that, even with the A-10’s durability, it was still too vulnerable to ground fire and surface-to-air missiles. With the fall of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact in 1989, the USAF saw no purpose for the A-10 and prepared to retire them from service in favor of more F-16s.
The First Gulf War saved the Warthog. Employed in the desert, where weather was less of a problem, the A-10 proved to be devastating to Iraqi tank crews, breaking up attacks on Coalition forces, and inflicting catastrophic damage on the so-called “Highway of Death” north of Kuwait City. Four A-10s were lost during the conflict, none to ground fire. So valuable was the A-10’s long loiter time and massive firepower that US Army commanders informed the USAF that, if the latter service got rid of the A-10, the Army would buy them back. The A-10 would see extensive service in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq (again). Each time, Warthog units posted mission capable rates exceeding 85 percent. The type’s durability was also proven, with one aircraft coming back during the First Gulf War missing most of its left wing and one engine, and another in the Second Gulf War after complete loss of hydraulics.
With the realization that the only replacement for the A-10 would be another A-10, the USAF in 2008 began upgrading the A-10As in service to A-10Cs, with new wings, autopilot, GPS, “glass” multifunction cockpit, and true all-weather capability in the form of LANTIRN navigation pods. A number of A-10s are used in the forward air control role, with additional radios, as OA-10As, but functionally do not differ from regular A-10s. The type is now intended to remain in service until 2025.
80-0168 first served with the 81st TFW at RAF Bentwaters in Great Britain. When the 81st closed shop at Bentwaters, it was transferred to the 355th TFW at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, then retired to the AMARG boneyard in 2000. After 9/11 and the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 80-0168 was returned to service to the 355th, where it saw service over Iraq. In 2013, it was decided not to convert 80-0168 to A-10C standard and it was retired for good. The aircraft was donated to the 122nd Fighter Wing (Indiana ANG) at Fort Wayne, where it is displayed at their small airpark off the front gate.
80-0168 wears the current two shades of gray camouflage used by USAF A-10s, which was found to be far more effective over the desert than the green "Europe One" scheme used earlier. It also carries the 122nd's current "IN" tailcode rather than the earlier "FW," and a "Fort Wayne" tail stripe.
As the nickname of the 122nd is the "Blacksnakes," it carries a unique take on the A-10's traditional sharkmouth--a profile of a rattlesnake's head. If it was possible to make the A-10 look any more sinister, the snake's head does it.
I took this photo on a cloudy morning at Fort Wayne in May 2017.
The ship’s company of Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Charlottetown take advantage of the good weather for physical training during Operation REASSURANCE on October 9, 2017..
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Image by Corporal J.W.S. Houck - Formation Imaging Services RP11-2017-0822-2708
Mind the gap - frase típica do metrô de Londres, Inglaterra.
London's underground, aka "The Tube", London, England.
No prizes for guessing what the two guys at the end of the platform are thinking; What the hell is that idiot taking pictures of the mind the gap line for? So that's taking pictures of toys in the wood, leaping into a tree in a wood and now laying on the platform of Clapham Junction taking pictures of the line. This group should come with a warning that it is likely to get you sectionioned under the Mental Health act....
Shot for the ODC theme "A coloured line"
With recent demands for services of a brave ninja sheep on the rise, it was crucial I kept up my training.
For as you know a true ninja sheep always strives to become better in the deadly art of shaun-jitsu. Todays training was known among the highest order of ninja sheep as “Crushing Minds” a spiritual exercise that, if done correctly, enabled the ninja sheep to crush things just by looking at them.
I was a little rusty but after a few minutes of deep meditation the nuts explodes left and right and I felt myself ready for the next assignments of my talents.
Better not tell Pip about this ability though or he’ll want me o terrorize the local squirrel population :-)
pearls - 18th birthday present from my mom, my dad gave them to her the day she brought me home from the hospital
sweater, top, belt, cords - Gap
boots - Ugg
BT Mind Book of the Year, Journalist of the Year, and Student Journalist of the year award winners with friends and Paul Farmer.