I love the way he says "tubes" at 4:59. Jim Henson made the world a better place.
Jim Henson on Making Muppets 1969
Lost Map
Last week, my good friend Johnny (aka The Pictish Trail) announced that he is finishing up things with Fence Records, a label he has headed alongside King Creosote for many years, and is starting a new project with many of the artists involved. Today he launched Lost Map, a record label from Eigg.
To fans of Fence Records and the Scottish music scene, this is big news. It's big news to me too, having worked on a whole bunch of different odds & ends for Fence over the past wee while. Posters, album artwork, music videos and, um, Hott Loggz have all put food on my table (at least a couple of Mars Bars-worth).
More than that, I've been a fan. A big fan. Not as big a fan as some (there are some giant fans out there), but a good fan. An honest fan. A hairy fan. I bought my first Fence 'record' in 2000, Fence Sampler #03, from Avalanche in Edinburgh. It's still one of my favourites. That CD got me through college. From there, I bought albums, read zines, attended dozens of gigs (+5 Homegames), made friends and, eventually, got on the books. Fence has been a part of my life for 13 years and has influenced my work, my taste in music and helped me pass my driving test.
The what-the-hell-is-even-going-on events of the last few days have unsurprisingly caused much (mostly positive, I'm happy to say) a-twittering and a-beefering (?), but I don't wanna talk about that. I'm sad to see the end of this iteration of Fence, but I look forward to seeing whatever direction Kenny Creosote steers it in next. I also look forward to seeing where Lost Map goes too (hopefully to the Bahamas) because, if Johnny's involved, it'll be bloody good. You can like 'em both, y'know, that's ok.
So aye, Lost Map. I'm involved in a pretty major way. I could probably give myself a proper title but I can't handle the pressure / scrutiny, so I'll go with Chief of Winging It. I'll be working closely with Johnny on all the visual stuff - doing a fair amount of it myself and hopefully also getting some other artists involved where I can. We do have an art-direction direction, but fully intend to stay loose and playful as we go. The last thing we want is something cold and clinical so please forgive the wonkiness.
What you see on lostmap.com right now is our starting point. The above animation is hidden behind the main banner and will play when you click. It was made incredibly quickly and features a wee snippet of music from the upcoming Monoganon album, F A M I L Y, which is set to be the first full-length Lost Map release. It's brilliant, by the way. Incidentally, John B. Monoganon (MonogaJohn?) is good value on Vine.
From here on out, things'll get colourful.
Visit the site to download a free sampler, featuring music by Monoganon, Rozi Plain, The Pictish Trail, Kid Canaveral, eagleowl, Seamus Fogarty and Randolph's Leap. You can also follow @lostmaprecords on Twitter and like Lost Map on Facebook.
Stay tuned x
Flickrin'
I've started using my Flickr account for posting 'proper' photographs again (it had recently become a bit of an Instagram dump). Alex got me a spiffy new camera for my birthday and it's encouraged me to try to get better as a photographer. I'm not very good, but I enjoy it.
Have a look / add me if you'd like to follow my learning process (advice welcome!). See sillier stuff on my Instagram.
GFT: For All
Here's something bonkers. I've been working with the amazing Glasgow Film Theatre on a series of simple animations to accompany For All - a project discussing what cinema means to the community.
Between July and September, 9 writers will publish texts on the theme of 'For All' to encourage discussion and the sharing of ideas. Short extracts of each piece will be animated and shown onscreen at the GFT before films and on the Glasgow Film website where you can read the texts in full.
The first part of the project launches today. Pamwepo (at together), a poem by Tawona Sithole, beautifully sets the tone for what's to come. Visit the page, read the piece and share your thoughts.
(flip to HD for better quality)
Creating these animations (which I'm still working on btw - it's gonna be a hectic month) has been a learning process and no mistake. I may have dabbled before, but this is my first time working on anything on such a scale. Despite this, I'm determined to play around and enjoy myself. The turnaround on each clip is short so we're going for simple, effective little ideas and trying not to stress on getting everything perfect.
Music for the project is provided by two of my very favourite musicians in the world - Jonnie Common and The Pictish Trail. This makes me unbelievably proud. If you don't know their work, go check it out. Figurehead (by JC) and Michael Rocket (by Pictish) are good places to start.
So, if you find yourself in Glasgow over the next wee while, go see a film at the GFT. It's a beautiful cinema and they show brilliant films. The For All animations will play before the features and you can contribute to the project via the Glasgow Film blog, on Twitter using the #filmforall hashtag, on the Glasgow Film Facebook page and by using the post-it notes in the GFT foyer. Here's some more information about getting involved.
Emily Munro, Head of Learning at the GFT has written a response to Pamwepo on the blog. It's a good place to start.
I'll write more about the project as it progresses here and I'll toot about it on Twitter. Stay tuned.
David Galletly RSS
A wee reminder to Google Reader users that, come Monday 1st of July, the popular RSS service will be no more. There are many alternatives - some free, some paid. I've currently moved to Feedly (free / painless move) but this may change based on the recommendations of the MPU - Replacing Google Reader podcast, which I haven't finished listening to yet.
Anyway, long way of saying that, should you want to follow this blog via RSS, you should make sure that you've got my feed in your new reader of choice. Here's the link that'll deliver every post I make to your door:
Click here for the David Galletly RSS feed.
Alternatively, this blog has its own Twitter feed (@galletlyblog) which automatically sends out a single tweet whenever there's something new here. I don't post often, so it won't bug you too much if give it a wee follow.
Cheers folks. Hope you keep reading. R.I.P. Google Reader.
Daxflame
Daxflame, the YouTube sensation, resurfaced yesterday after years of inactivity with a link to Brushing Kevin's Hair, an animation by Augenblick Studios that tells the tale of Dax getting into trouble at school. I really enjoyed it.
If you don't know Dax's work, it's, um, complicated.
Kelvin Brawl
A couple of weeks ago, the God of Games himself, Robert 'Rab' Florence (Consolevania / Burnistoun), asked if I could design a poster for his spectacular pro-wrestling event, Kelvin Brawl (followup to last autumn's Oran War). Rab was looking for a layout with an old-school influence. Something tough. Something hard. I got to work.
Kelvin Brawl will take place at Kelvin Hall here in Glasgow on the 21st of June. A night of fighting, music and comedy with six bone-crunching matches between some of the top pro wrestlers in the country. To top things off, the evening will culminate in a bitter tag-team main event where Rab will throw down against his sworn enemy, Greg Hemphill (Still Game / Chewin' The Fat). There's certainly been no love lost between the two former friends with their dirty laundry aired for all to see in a very public feud of violence, rap put-downs and mothers.
Designing the poster was really good fun - a chance to revisit the kinda Art Chantry inspired style of the old Air3 Radio Poster I put together way-back-when. Lots of information and lots of energy in very little space without much concern for getting everything perfect. While it doesn't exactly look like the real deal, I tried my best to chuck ideas at the screen in an appropriately carefree way.
Thanks to Rab for getting me on board. Good luck to everyone involved. It's time to pick a side: #teamflorence / #teamhemphill
Recoating
A great wee video about the Recoat gallery, the work they do and their plans for the future. Amy and Ali are good people.
Remember that R.I.P. 323, the last ever show at Recoat's West End locoation, opens tomorrow evening (Sat 8th June). A bunch of us will be in and around the gallery today and tomorrow, finishing stuff off, sitting about in the sun and eating sandwiches. If you wanna stick your head in to see some work-in-progress, I'm sure nobody'll mind.
Failing that, come along in the evening or catch the show as it runs throughout June / July. More info over here.
R.I.P. 323 at Recoat
Here's a date for your diary.
In just over a week, Recoat will open the last show ever to be show'd at their West End gallery. R.I.P. 323, a collective and collaborative exhibition celebrates 6 years of events, projects and parties at 323 North Woodside Road. Featuring the work of Team Recoat in their entirety (I'm in that!) + friends of the gallery. We’re aiming to cover the space, floor-to-ceiling in artwork. It’ll be an absolute belter.
Recoat fans need not fear, though, they aren't packing it in. Far from it. Plans are already afoot for a whole heap of other stuff - murals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, pop-up shows, collaborative projects and (get this) a bigger and better gallery somewhere down the line.
Although I'll be sad to see the doors close at North Woodside Road, I'm super stoked for everything Amy and Ali are set to achieve in the future. I first worked with them back in 2007 as part of Recoat's first ever exhibition and they have been incredibly supportive, bloody lovely people and amazingly good friends ever since. Whatever they do, I back 100%.
If you can make it to Glasgow on the 8th of June 2013, you should come along to the opening (the opening of the closing, I guess) party. It'll be fun as hell. FUN AS HELL! Expect many faces from Recoat's past, present and future to be enjoying the work, having a drink and saying farewell to the space. Recoat parties are warm, welcoming and a good laugh. We'll all be heading to the pub afterwards too. Say hello! Say goodbye!
Full details:
R.I.P. 323
The final show at Recoat (for now).
Opening party: Saturday, 8th June 2013. 7-10pm (free entry, all welcome).
Show runs: 9th June - mid July, (Tues to Sun 12-6pm).
Featuring Team Recoat: Susie Wright, Kirsty Whiten, Elph, FiST, Mark Lyken, Al White, David Galletly, Syrkus, Death Rattles and Rue Five.
Plus special guests: Fraser Gray, Throne, Chris MacFarlane, Jamie Johnson and more.
Recoat
323 North Woodside Road,
Glasgow, G20 6ND
(near Kelvinbridge subway station)
Email: info@recoatdesign.com
Tel: 0141 341 0069
Web: recoatdesign.com
For more info, visit the R.I.P. 323 Facebook page.
Glasgow Smiles Better
CoasterMania
With the impending opening of The Smiler at Alton Towers, I've been going on one of my frequent theme park nostalgia-trips via YouTube.
Alongside Shoot for the Moon, CoasterMania, an amazing documentary from 1995 about roller coaster enthusiasts, must rank pretty highly on my most-watched-things-ever list. My mum taped it for me knowing I was a bit of a nerd for this kinda stuff and I'd pour over the VHS in the way that only kids can.
It's brills - tons of weird characters, great footage of top-of-the-line (well, for 1995) roller coasters and plenty of behind-the-scenes information and anacdotes. The 12-year-old me cherished the parts about Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I knew those rides!
It must be 15 years at least since I last watched this thing but, dang, I still know the dialogue like it was yesterday. Charles Jaques' slightly unhinged and breathless description of riding his first coaster at 01:25, Rev Nick Bralesford's very polite little anecdote about proposing to his wife at 03:40 and the Roller Coaster Club of Great Britain pretending to ride their bus at 18:40 all curl my toes just as badly as they ever did.
The best part by far, though, is old Bernard & Phyllis Buxton at the 43:30 mark sitting in their car, big flask to hand, watching The Big One being built 'piece by piece' for thousands of hours. His theory that all the wheels must leave the track (around 45:30) on the first hill is lovely.
Website Redesign!
My website (davidgalletly.com) has just undergone a little facelift. While not 100% complete, there is a bunch of new stuff to see (+ the old stuff looks better).
Aside from generally just keeping things up-to-date, the main reason the redesign was to move my site over to Squarespace 6, the most current version of the popular website platform. I had been using v5 for 18 months or so and, while I was totally happy with it (I actually kinda prefer 5 to 6 behind-the-scenes perspective), I couldn't help feel like I was stuck on a ship that was, not so much sinking, more, um, stationary. A stationary ship.
What Squarespace 6 lacks in letting you get down-and-dirty with the details, it makes up for in:
Being responsive! Shrink your window - images should adjust accordingly, text should wrap to accomodate different sized screens and devices.
Being Retina-ready! All thumbnails should look great on an iPad / other HD screens. (I'm still a wee bit reluctant to post super high-res versions of my full artwork for the world to download. We'll see how things go)
Being actively developed! Because Squarespace 6 is the latest version of Squarespace, it's constantly getting new features / improvements.
Being easy to update! Adding artwork and posting to my blog should be a lot quicker now. This means you'll see more rubbish from me.
Would I recommend moving to Squarespace? Um, maybe. With 5, yep, no hesitiation. 5 allowed you to easily tweak every single little detail. Squarespace 6 is a wee bit too templatey for my tastes. You can go all-out custom, but you need to know a whole lot more about web development than I ever care to learn. It took a fair amount of trial-and-error to achieve what I wanted (and I don't think I'm there yet). 6 is still really good, but I'm crossing my fingers that it'll get better.
Anyway, have a look around. Stay tuned. Subscribe to my blog (old subscribers should be fine but updating your RSS feed certainly won't hurt). All feedback appreciated - I'm sure there are a ton of typos / broken links to find. Christ, you can even 'like' my posts now if that's your bag.
Facebook Home - A More Realistic Mockup
Facebook Home, the replacement homescreen for your mobile phone, has just been announced. The preview looks absolutely beautiful - not something I'd use - but beautiful nonetheless.
Considering it further, my thoughts turned to my current relationship with Facebook and how I've been inching closer and closer to deleting my account. There's just so much stuff on there that doesn't interest me and, um, so much other stuff that kinda creeps me out.
Regardless, I thought it'd be funny to quickly grab a few things from the top of my own Facebook feed and slap them into a mockup (above) of how Home might look to a regular person. I dunno about you, but there ain't too many models and professional photographers hanging around when I log in*.
I've changed the names to protect the privacy of my friends. If any of you guys read this, please keep in mind that I just grabbed the first few 'normal' images I found. I hope I don't cause offence - I honestly do care about you, your cocktails and your interests - I'm just not sure I want them on the freakin' homepage of my phone.
* saying that, there are a couple - what with having art-farty friends, but compared to people talking about football / work / the weather, they don't post much.
A 2012 Montage: 12 Photos Per Month
This is a chronological 12 x 12 grid of photographs taken during 2012* (the first row is January, the second is February and so on). I've been making these things for 5 years now as a kind of quick-reference sheet for what's happened in my life. The photos mostly come from fairly ordinary stuff like trips and restaurant visits, but I like to share them regardless. March is a little later than I'd have preferred to get this up (I was aiming for New Year's Day, sheesh) but hey ho.
Compared to my fairly miserable 2011, 2012 was a good year. Hoo-boy, maybe the best ever. The photos don't quite do it justice but, honestly, it was really fun. For the nosey, there's a giant version of the montage over on Flickr and clicking the #montage tag below'll let you scroll through the full set from previous years.
Looking back, everything changed really early on when things took an, um, half-expected turn in February. Along with a few good friends and teammates, I was made redundant from the design job (the source of my misery) that I'd been working at full-time for the previous 11 months due to company cutbacks. I remember Alex screaming 'That's wonderful Dave!' when I told her on my walk home. Christ I hated that place.
Luckily I had a few freelance gigs that I could turn to and, as fortune would have it, I found enough work to survive on for the rest of the year. For the first time ever I was paying 100% of my way with no part-time jobs as backup. I really hope that I'll be in the same position this time next year. Thank you Job-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You didn't mean to, but you made my life a whole lot better.
What else happened? Oh yeah, in June, Alex and I got bloomin' married, didn't we? That was pretty amazing. Everything at our wedding went perfectly (bar the weather) and all our friends & family spoiled us rotten. We followed with a mini catch-our-breath honeymoon in Jersey (complete with a 'comedy wedding anecdote' collapsed ceiling on our return) and, in September, a bigger let's-go-on-holiday honeymoon in Paris. 9 months on, we're still solid as a rock. No divorces or nothin'.
Shortly after we got back home, my grandfather ('Poppa' to the family) sadly died. The old boy did alright - 94 years old, father of 4, grandfather of 10, great-grandfather of 15 (and counting) and owner of the twinkliest eyes in town. He and my Nana (who's still going strong with a mean sense of humour) were married just shy of 71 years. Platinum anniversaries don't come round too often and, barring WWII, those two barely spent a day apart the whole time. He was a good man and I miss him.
The rest of the year was full of our usual trips to Arran to visit Alex's grandparents, plenty of walks and picnics in Pollok Park, car painting in Inverness with the Team Recoat folks and a visit to a potato factory in Lincoln. The arrival of a Chillies just around the corner wreaked havoc on our waistlines and the terrible weather didn't exactly help with the repeated attempts to 'get fit'.
Some miscellaneous things:
Best meal: My annual hog roast roll from Oink in Edinburgh. I nip through every December to do some Christmas shopping and look forward to sitting down by myself on a bench with one of these all year long.
Funniest moment: Mark shouting something unrepeatable on The Rubber Dinghy Rapids in Alton Towers on my stag do.
Best harbinger-of-good-times: On a very grey New Year's Day I spotted a kingfisher in Pollok park. We watched it fly up-and-down a little burn like a bolt of blue lightning.
Best bar: Aye it's town centre, but Max's on Queen St. in Glasgow is unfussy, has good beer, nice staff and really tasty food. We started going because it's a convenient place for a few friends to meet up and grew to really love it.
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As for 2013? No idea really. Exercise is sorely needed. I don't think I've ever felt so unhealthy. My best man, Fergi, has just moved into our street. Hopefully that'll make me a little less hermit-like. There are a few imminent big birthdays on the horizon too which'll be good fun. Work wise, there's a new computer winging its way to me as I write. Can't wait. My iMac, after years of solid service, is getting a bit doddery in its old age. Hold on buddy, you can put your feet up soon.
* Other photo credits: Nikki Leadbetter is responsible for the 4 wedding photos and Alex most likely took any others featuring me.
Stirling Arts and Culture Cuts
Ok, last post on this for a while - I know it's probably pretty tiresome for folks who don't live in / care about Stirling. I guess now that the (pretty grim) 21/02/13 Stirling Council meeting has come and gone, it's more useful to share some resources for furthering the discussion than to have another moan. I will keep this list as up-to-date as I can with the most important links. Please feel free to share / bookmark this post - it's not going anywhere.
UPDATE 22/02/13 at 6pm: The Changing Room will be closing its doors on Saturday 30 March 2013 for the final time. From the Tolbooth Stirling Facebook page.
UPDATE 27/02/13: More links added.
Discussion & Information:
Stirling Arts Info Group - A public Facebook group. This is probably the best place to go to discuss the cuts, access / share the most current information and to find out if there's anything you can do to help.
The Changing Room on Facebook - news and info from Stirling's only contemporary art gallery. All Facebook discussion that directly mentions The Changing Room should appear here.
#stirlingarts - When discussing matters relating to Stirling's arts & culture cuts on Twitter, it may be useful to include the #stirlingarts hashtag in your tweets. Doing so means that anyone can easily follow a focused public discussion by searching for that tag.
People on Twitter:
@parrallines - Kirsteen Macdonald. The Changing Room's former Visual Arts Development Officer. Kirsteen will likely share a lot of useful links and information.
@Kevin_Harrison - Kevin is director of Artlink Central, an arts charity working across Central Scotland. He lives in Stirling and has been active in discussions on the arts cuts and, like Kirsteen, will likely put some good comment / info out there.
@davidgalletly - Me! I talk a lot of rubbish but I'll always tweet whenever this post has been updated or if anything new comes to light.
Stirling Council:
Stirling Councillors - Stirling councillors need to know your thoughts on the art cuts in Stirling. There is contact information on this myStirling page.
An Email From Councillor Benny - a frankly terrifying email from councillor Neil Benny sent just before the 21/02/13 meeting to Kate Sankey and shared on Facebook.
@neilbenny - Councillor Neil Benny's Twitter account features a fair amount of comment on the cuts. I've not included this in the above Twitter recommendations as, well, I don't recommend you follow him.
Stirling Arts & Culture:
The Tolbooth - Tolbooth veune homepage.
The Changing Room - Changing Room art gallery homepage.
Creative Stirling - A non-profit creative hub in Stirling.
The Smith Art Gallery - Exhibitions on natural history, heritage and culture.
Artlink Central - An arts agency established in 1988 working across Central Scotland.
Articles, Letters and Opinion:
Stirling Likes to Spend on Roads, Not Culture - Fantastic a-n article on the cuts by Kevin Harrison.
Letter from Peter Russell - Peter Russell writes beautifully on the fall-out from the 21/02/13 Stirling Council meeting.
Email From A Concerned Artist - an anonymously written email voicing concern on the closure of The Changing Room. Written a few days before the 21/02/13 meeting.
Stirling Council Plan to Close The Changing Room Gallery - a blog post by myself written on 20/02/13
Change - a blog post by Stirling artist RueFive written on 21/02/13.
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If I've missed anything you feel is important, let me know on Twitter or leave a comment below.