Anaconda (Tribal Guarachero Mix) is out NOW

It's out as an MP3 download and a 12" vinyl, complete with sleeve decorated by me!

The tracks are great; first is an anonymous remix of Untold's Anaconda, and on the other side is Pulso by Dubbel Dutch.  Listen to a sample on Boomkat.com (link here).  If you feel it buy the vinyl or download the tracks.  

The Albatross by C Baudelaire

I've finally got another one for you; another of Charles Baudelaire's splendid poems, accompanied by an illustration by yours truly.  This one equates the poet with an albatross; the best flier but rubbish on land.  Or something to that effect.

The Albatross
C. Baudelaire

Often when bored, the sailors of the crew
Trap albatross, the great birds of the seas,
Mild travellers escorting the blue
Ships gliding on the oceans mysteries.

And when the sailors have them on the planks,
Hurt and distraught, these king's of all outdoors
Piteously let trail along their flanks
Their great white wings, dragging like useless oars.

This voyager, how comical and weak!
Once handsome, how unseemly and inept!
One sailor pokes a pipe into his beak,
Another mocks the fliers hobbled step.

The Poet is a kinsman in the clouds
Who scoffs at archers, loves a stormy day;
But on the ground, among the hooting crowds,
He cannot walk, his wings are in the way.

Image Hoard 4: Tropic Tough

This is the final instalment in this run of Image Hoards.  I hope they've been as interesting and inspiring for you as they have been for me.  Let me know if you'd like to see more; I'm still collecting!  :)

The set below pulls together tropical energy in a hard package; a flashy array of colours, along with leather and studs; it's pretty like a flower, but still mean like the jungle.

Click the image to enlarge

1-3:  Christian Dior F/W 2010

If I were a fairy, these dresses would be in my tiny wardrobe.  They are beautifully fantastical and romantic, with a tough of humour on top.

4:  Dendrobeum Orchid

5:  Missibaba moulded and hand painted leather orchid necklace

Missibaba is a South African based luxury accessories design label.  As you may expect, they mostly deal in deliciously girlish and good-looking bags and belts, but they also make leather jewellery.  Website link here.

6, 7, 9, 11 & 12:  Burberry Prorsum F/W 2010

This runway collection has such a stunning mixture of textures, along with nicely contrasted acid and muted colours.  I liked it so much I have included 5 pictures here!

10:  Christopher Kane F/W 2010

Black, neon and kaleidoscope prints: so nice.

8:  Roller by Andrew Zuckerman

13:  Parrot by Andrew Zuckerman

Andrew Zuckerman is a photographer who crisply and cleanly documents many subjects, from age, places, music and creatures, to food-stuffs in motion.  Visit his website and say OK to not stealing his pictures.  (personally I think the disclaimer at the beginning comes across as a little paranoid, but perhaps that's just me...)

14:  Sketch by Ashley Wood

Mr Wood is a brilliantly original comic artist and a good painter to boot.  Browse his website or get news and pics of paintings in progress by following his Bambaland blog.  

Bird girl

Monday morning; lost in thought.
The drawn part...

With ink...

Excuse the shoddy image quality, it was photographed from an A3 sketchbook with an iPhone.

Image Hoard 3: Folklore

Click the image to feel the twin benefits of size and detail

1  Hubble photo of the Eagle Nebula

Nebulae are so beautiful and fascinating to look at, with every rainbow colour of refracted light and shapes so random, yet sometimes so familiar.  The names we give them make it clear that we want them to be more than clouds of gas and dust; to mean more than an untouchable and barely formed celestial body.

2  Random Dreamy Photo via Durban Central

3  The Crane Wife by Carson Ellis

Carson Ellis is the wife of Colin Meloy, The Decemberists' frontman, and a very talented illustrator.  She has created, I believe, every cover of every record The Decemberists have ever released, and this is a section of the sleeve artwork from the album The Crane Wife.  Enjoy it on Spotify.  

4  Vasilissa the Beautiful at the Hut of Baba Yaga by Ivan Bilibin

Baba Yaga is a witch of Slavic legend, who flies on a mortar, lives in a house that has chicken legs and, naturally, eats small children.  Beautiful Vasilissa is the girl who outwits Baba Yaga in the end and she is turned into a crow.  And the skull lanterns?  I don't know but I want one.  

5  Yoshi by Mark Ryden

6  Jessie & the Deer by Sally Mann

I saw an exhibition of Sally Mann's work at The Photographers' Gallery earlier this year and was awe-struck by it; these huge monochrome images, sometimes grubby and taken using not just analogue but antique technology, are arresting, unsettling and quite thought-provoking.  Indescribable.  Swot up on her Wikipedia page and conduct an image search post haste.