coffee and pie

One of my favourite blogs booooooom is currently running a competition with Converse Skateboarding called Hack Job The idea is to make a skateboard out of random materials you find.

There will be an online gallery at the end and Converse will be giving some prizes to the five most creative submissions. Seems like a nice targeted project from Converse. A few of my favourites below.

Last weekend me and @thomasmiskin on a hunt for breakfast decided on The Wapping Project, which is in Wapping (obvs) inside what was once The Wapping Hydraulic Power Station.I’ve been meaning to go for months and what better day than a bank holiday Sunday. However, and maybe this was just us but it took a good 10 minutes to find the place, google maps you failed me, the green dot was NOT where the Wapping project was, it was in fact right on the corner of Wapping Wall. Picture below for anyone who relies on their visual memory much more.

So finally once settled inside I realised that I really should of read a bit more about the menu. But despite no breakfast the food looked and sounded amazing so no complaints here. I did however apologize to our waitress who seemed rather baffled my our backwards approach to lunch – no wine can we have the coffees first, that kinda thing. She seemed a bit confused.

On to the food, despite it being 1.30 I still couldn’t face a whole main dish so I went for the pickled herring starter. Tasted amazing, perfect portion size (although maybe too big if i wanted a main and dessert too ). There is a picture of the dish below, I always think visuals are much better at getting the taste buds going…

@thomasmiskin went for the main course, egg stuffed squid with black cous cous. Which I tried and was very very good.

After dinner we walked around the space, unfortunately there wasn’t an exhibition on whilst we were there, but I loved the greenhouse bookshop. I can’t wait to go back to The Wapping Project and indulge in the full treatment. There is an in-house butchery and all food carefully sourced produce. Its the kind of place I want to take every person I know visiting London. Excellent food, unique space and character and charm that you can never quite achieve with a new space.

Last weekend I went back to Greenman festival in the Brecon Beacons. I went last year and fell in love with the atmosphere, music and setting. This year despite a lot of rain and mud it absolutely did not disappoint.

One of the best things about the festival is how small and relaxed it is. There isn’t always a band you have to go and see so you can spend a lot of time discovering new music. This years absolute find were a band called Islet. Islet are a four piece from Cardiff who until very recently shunned the Web and didn’t even have their own website. I will definitely be looking for London dates.

Flaming Lips were the Saturday night headliners. I’ve never been a flaming lips fan but was excited about the visuals. The set was a little boring if I’m being entirety honest but Yoshimi battles the pink robot was amazing.

Probably my favourite act of the weekend had to be James Blake. I had been listening to his ep on repeat coming up to the festival and he managed to get B.O.B by Outkast into his set as well as Destiny Child Bills, Bills Bills. Amazing. You cant beat dancing around in your wellies.

Already excited about next year.

Could the blue sky come back please…

Underfull is a tablecloth that turns spills into poetry. Designed by Kristine Bjaadal, each spill will create a new pattern on the cloth giving each cloth a story and some sentimental value. The cloths are only a prototype at the moment but hopefully they will be available for commercial purchase soon. Below is a bit about the cloths patterns.

The butterfly pattern resembles the tablecloth itself; butterflies always come as a surprise, they are soundless and suddenly come into view, as if out of out of thin air. They go through a tremendous metamorphosis; starting out as rather dull caterpillars, changing into beautiful, colourful, playful butterflies.

To find out more visit Kristine’s site

I want one of these prints. Mico Toledo takes lyrics from songs and produces an illustration centred around typography. You can submit your own song as a suggestion for him to create. Lovely stuff

Via Creative Review

FrogMob is an excellent site that taps into how people come up with solutions and adapt products to fit into their needs. Using social media they run research studies, about a particular topic and gather photography and stories to describe how products are used globally.

As more brands enter the social media space and it becomes a more sophisticated channel for advertising and branding I like seeing projects like this that highlight how much these tools facilitate communication for so many different types of things.

I love the past Mob Work Bikes where they uncovered insights about bike design by closely examining bikes that people use to make a living.

Everyone who knows me is aware of how many photos I take and that I like to record my day with pictures. So when I read about Sascha Pohflepp project and camera Buttons I instantly loved it. At the beginning of the video Pohflepp talks about the process of photography and how sharing photographs is part of that process.

We already know that people like to share information more than ever but there is something interesting about the rise in how many people want to not only tell you what they are doing but show you. The fact that the most popular camera on flickr is the iphone highlights this trend as well as the rise in sites such as Foodspotting and Lookbook.

Pohflepp’s plays on the notion of the camera as a networked object. Her camera has no analog or digital camera and will only capture the time the button is pressed, it will then search on the net for other photos that have been taken at that very same moment and will display those on your screen.

I love that the photograph you receive back despite being somewhere else entirely and not framed and shot by you is still linked back to you through this process.

I managed to get tickets for Bompass and Parr The Complete History of Food last week at Belgravia square. The event curated by Courvoisier Future 500 is the first part of their summer of punch programme.

The evening took us on a culinary adventure through time. The menu stretched from mediaeval, renaissance, victorian eras and the more modern and up to date food trends.

If only every Thursday could start here. There was quite a lot of liquid involved on the tour but I took some pictures to remember the details…

It was sponsored by Courvoisier

We got some tasty roof top cocktails

Full of Courvoisier

They made the grapes fizzy!

and we ate Foie gras surrounding a port reduction and covered in crunchy almonds and gold leaf.

Followed by duck confit on puy lentls and beetroot.

I admired the gingerbread gherkin but decided agaisnt trying any

Instead I ate some whale vomit (ambergris) Very tasty times!

California is a Place, is a collaboration between filmmaker Drea Cooper and photographer Zackary Canepari. The videos are beautifully shot, each telling a California story. There are five in the series so far and cover topics as diverse as Scraper Bikes, The Mexican Border and Pool Skating.

The project stems from the all the groups, stories and ideas that exisit in the Golden State put simply California is loaded. The project is ongoing and worth keeping an eye on.