Blu Angel Almanac

Bicyclist Porn

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:20:00 +0000

Over at Ecomonkey we have been extolling the virtues of bicycle riding and our obsession with rider voyerism in Bicycle Lust. We are discovering we are by no means alone in our urban-two-wheeler adoration. All across the web photographers and writers are sharing their views of city bicycle heaven and offering heaps of advice and tips for wannabe and experienced urban cyclists all over the globe.

Here is a small sample of our current favourites:
Basket Full Of Beautiful
Image Copyright: busbozo / Adrienne Johnson

In San Francisco we find Adrienne who as well as posting her beautiful photos to flickr and various other bike and spiritually minded ventures, co-writes the Change Your Life Ride A Bike blog. A space
"for people to share how riding a bike has changed how they see themselves and the world!" - check it out.

Change Your Life Ride A Bike's other author is the equally stylish urban gal, Meligrosa of Bikes And The City - everything you wanted to know about San Fran bikes, boys, coffee and more.

0421 rain is better with an umbrella
Image Copyright: Toronto Bike Chic

Toronto Bike Chic is a previous incarnation by Canadian flickrites Xander N'Dante who currently write and photograph 416 Cycle Style
"From the multicultural flavored streets of the 416, we span the neighborhoods and asphalt in search of new aromas and combinations of visual and edible delights. Armed with a crank and a camera we search. Freezing moments in time of the familliar strangers sharing space and riding by. Brothers on Bicycles" - we like!

A Taste of The Toast from Michael on Vimeo

From a suburb closer to home, in Hackney no less, Urban Cycle Chic delivers a feast of info about bike fashion and recycling. "Urban Cycle Chic is a blog encouraging stylish, affordable bike culture ... The ethos is that the city is an arena for bike and rider thrive in and urban cycling is about leading a more active, spontaneous lifestyle despite spiralling congestion and vehicle ownership headaches. It's less about lycra and more about jumping on a bike in whatever you're wearing. Indeed, urban cycling is fast becoming a catwalk on wheels." - we couldn't agree more!

If all this stylishness has left you craving a bike chic consumer fix, check out the London Cycle Chic store where glamour and functionality meet. Or better still, get creative and re-design, re-fahion and re-cycle your current clothing to suit your bike lifestyle.

The Secrets Of Fools

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Catching up on my Google Reader I came across this gem from An Unreliable Witness via Swissmiss. Lush!

Red Rabbit from Egmont Mayer on Vimeo

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:32:00 +0000

Art, Design & Politics: A Modernist Perspective

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:20:00 +0000

Post World War I design and architecture virtually rejected the natural world in favour of celebrating man-made forms. This predilection led to some extraordinarily complex and arguably beautiful works of engineering and architectural design which were in turn displayed to near perfection by a compatible photography equally obsessed with abstract geometric form, vast scale and starkly contrasted tones.

In Framing Modernism - Architecture & Photography in Italy 1926-1965, the current exhibition of more than 100 images from the RIBA archives, this correlation of medium is analysed from a design perspective. In reviewing the exhibition for A World To Win, Corinna Lotz wonders why, particularly given the current political climate, the evident implications, inspiration and political issues that led to this world changing movement, have been underplayed.

From: Corinna Lotz, A World To Win, 7May09
"...Framing Modernism offers a chance to widen debates over Modernism’s legacy ... This outing of vintage and new prints from original negatives could provide a new case study in how Modernism related to political power structures and the reality of people’s daily lives ... Angiolo Mazzoni’s Marine Colony seaside camp is dedicated to Mussolini’s mother Rosa Maltoni ... If you didn’t know it was built to glorify Hitler’s ally, you could be forgiven for seeing it as a great effort to provide masses of school children with the chance of a sea-side holiday. As David Crowley has noted: “The years after Mussolini’s consolidation of power in October 1926 were marked by a strong degree of cultural pluralism … at the same time, artists and designers of all stripes were keen to court power.”"
Read the full review here

Framing Modernism is on show at the Estorick Collection, Highbury until 21 June.

Furniture On The Street

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Vocational training for unemployed; workshops; experience and education for marginalised youth; confidence and inspiration growth; commissions; community outreach; wood reclamation and re-use; products designed and constructed by trainees; sold to local councils, charities and others - all in a days work for social enterprise scheme, Furniture On The Street (FOS).

Based in Tower Hamlets, the project has so far provided training for 37 people, helping them back or on to work producing quality pieces of local street furniture. Whilst local communities benefit from the divertion of young people from unemployment to skilled trade this inspiring initiative also ensures that timber from London's demolition sites is diverted from landfill and turned instead into useful products for the London community. A win-win situation.

"Furniture On The Street supplies high quality contemporary street furniture aimed at local authorities, housing associations, landscape designers and building contractors.
The enterprise was established by the Old Ford Housing Association, part of Circle Anglia with grant funding from the European Social Fund (ESF). The project is based in Bow, in a socially deprived area of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and was part of a regeneration initiative which grew out of a training programme for local youths in furniture making."

Visit the FOS website to find out more.
Source: Jo Adetunji, Guardian, 6May09 via Ethical Pulse

Art Not Oil

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:04:00 +0000

"Art Not Oil aims to encourage artists - and would-be artists - to create work that explores the damage that companies like BP and Shell are doing to the planet, and the role art can play in counteracting that damage.

It is designed in part to paint a truer portrait of an oil company than the caring image manufactured by events such as the BP Portrait Award, Shell's sponsorship of classic drama at the National Theatre, and other 'cultural activities' of the oil multinationals which also happen to divert public attention away from their actual activities. Climate chaos is set to have a catastrophic effect on all of us, while hitting the poorest hardest. The companies most responsible are profiting handsomely, yet they're still welcome it seems in many of our most prestigious public galleries and museums."

More here

The Papered Parlour Open Day 2May09

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:57:00 +0000

The Papered Parlour is a fabulous new art space set up by Claire & Louise, two young south London artists in Clapham. Providing a variety of classes, exhibitions and studio places, the parlour is designed to be a drop in space for artists, art-lovers, crafsters and anyone in the community who would like to get involved.

The Papered Parlour classes, taught by University of the Arts London graduates, take influence from the Make Do And Mend approach of the post war period. Promoting sustainability, classes aim to use recycled fabrics as much as possible.

For children and youthful adults alike vintage themed parties can be enjoyed at the Parlour. The Mad Hatter's Tea Party and Wonka Chocolate Challenge will keep young ones entertained as well as creatively challenged whilst grown up cocktail parties and dances are available for retro hipsters.

Promoting sustainable creativity, revolutionary craft and community participation, The Papered Parlour sounds so delightfully magical that we can't wait to visit. To celebrate the launch of this delightful addition to South London's creative community, The Papered Parlour is hosting a free Open Day this Saturday. Pop down to Prescott Place to meet the artists and help them celebrate:

"10.30am - 12.30pm - Exhibition Preview: What Comes Around
Katherine May and Clara Vuletich ‘upcycle’ mid century furniture with pre loved fabrics. Featuring contemporary quilted upholstery alongside hand printed wallpaper.

11.30am – 3.30pm - Craft Kiosk
Shop at our bustling indoor market showcasing inspirational work by some of London’s top designer-makers.

12.30pm – 3.30pm - The Great Proletarian Clothes Swap
From Hermes to High Street, come along to swap and customise unwanted items of clothing. With designers on hand to help you cut, print and sew your way to couture heaven - you’re guaranteed to leave with a fabulous addition to your wardrobe.

1.30pm – 4.00pm - Fidgeting Finger Fun
Keep your fidgeting fingers busy for hours! Parents and kids join forces to stitch and stuff revolutionary mutant mascots from second hand toys.

4pm - 6pm - Tea Dance
Enjoy a slice of mid-century glamour. Expect top notch tea and indulgent cakes accompanied by music hall legend Vic Charters."

The Papered Parlour
7 Prescott Place, London, SW4 6BS
020 7627 8703
The Papered Parlour

Source: ArtsAdmin

My Forever Dress

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Thanks to Darling Petunia via Wardrobe Refashion for letting us know about My Forever Dress - an adorable book published this month by Blue Apple Books.

My Forever Dress looks like an absolute treasure of a book written by Harriet Ziefert and beautifully illustrated by Liz Murphy. The story follows the life of a dress made for a young girl by her grandmother and all its reincarnations as Granny adjusts and re-designs the garment to suit the girl's changing needs and tastes as she grows up.

From: Chronicle Books
"My Forever Dress: A story about sewing and sharing, recycling and remembering, this book follows a special party dress a grandmother makes for her granddaughter. When her granddaughter grows taller, new fabric is added. The next year, the dress is ingeniously turned into a sleeveless jumper. Finally, when the little girl turns ten and is ready for a new outfit, she decides to give the dress to her little cousin so it can be her forever dress."

bAd Reconstructions Mar09

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:54:00 +0000

Here's some recycled stuff I made earlier...

Further images, some methodology and more reconstructions are available to view at flickr in my bAd Reconstructions set.

Some images have also been posted on Nikki-Shell's rather wonderful Wardrobe Refashion Blog where users can take a 2 / 4 / 6 month or lifetime pledge to refashion, renovate, recycle pre-loved items for the term of the contract.

Anyone keen to re-use, mend, make-do, create their own designs from salvaged, pre-loved, vintage and recycled material using already available resources? Ready to eschew the buying of identikit, high-street, 'tres fashionable darling but only for a season', pre-made, new clothing manufactured from unethical and unsustainable materials fabricated into the latest trend by faceless, underpaid and undervalued persons in far flung factories that only feed the fashion industry and disparage both farmers, producers, manufacturers and consumers? Then sign up here.

The Slippery Slope

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Further Info:
You Tube: Peak Oil - How will you ride the slide?

The Great Intention Sat 11Apr09

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:29:00 +0000

What The Future Papers Say

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Those clever folk at Reclaim The Sheets have been busy distributing copies of FT2020 in London today. With their special link up to journalists living in 2020 - that's the future to you and I - Reclaim The Sheets have managed to tele-transport several copies of FT back to 2009. Pick up your copy from the streets or view online. News from the future is here.

From: Terence Hofmann, FT, 1Apr20 Capitalism isn’t really democracy - official

"“Capitalism doesn’t work in a free market ... To function, it needs regulating, and to thrive it requires manipulation.”
Britain’s break with dominator culture started at the 2009 climate talks, though the Copenhagen Consensus deleted all reference to it. Instead, that deal was framed as “sustaining ethical business, going forward.”
Today’s propaganda release is more forthright, describing post-ideology as “a framework-based market, not the market-based framework” of times past.
“If you gave more than you got you were always a loser,” the statement concludes. “But we were only winning by claiming our economies were ‘growing’, and to do that we had to take much more than we gave.”

COPYLEFT Not The Financial Times 2020 All wrongs reserved."

Further Info:
FT2020 / Reclaim The Sheets

ArTea Party 2 Photos

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Below is photographic evidence that ArTea Party took place earlier this month at The County Arms in Wandsworth. Guests and hosts alike enjoyed an afternoon of tea, cake, art, raffle prizes and tombola - what better way to spend a Saturday in March!

Together we raised over £230 for WFTC which will be put to good use on upcoming projects taking place in the borough soon! Keep and eye out, stay up to date and find out how you can be a part of the Wandsworth Fairtrade Campaign here.

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who took part behind the scenes and on the day: planners, artists, bakers, Wandsworth Guardian, Chris Gray, Divine Chocolate, The Co-operative, Abel & Cole, family and friends, WFTC, The County Arms and all our guests for coming down, eating cake, having fun and supporting the cause - it was lovely to meet you all - Cheers!

See you at the next one!

Photos by:
Thomas Woods @ Woowar & Rose Woods | Edited by Racheblue
Chris Gray @ Pikture Perfect

The Generation That Bought More Shoes...

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Via: Unreliable Witnessed

Little Red Riding Hood

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Is this the future of reading fairy tales and stories to our kids and grand kids? Probably. If we allow this wasteful consumerist society to continue. Let it go! Now.

Source: Nathan, Flowing Data, 23Mar09

Ada Lovelace Day 09

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:30:00 +0000

From Ada Lovelace Day
"Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women's contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, we want to celebrate her achievements."

Our Little World

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:44:00 +0000

Home Office Lunacy!

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:31:00 +0000

From: Visiting Artists and Academics Petition

"The UK Home Office has introduced new bureaucratic procedures for organisations that wish to invite non-EU artists and academics to the UK ... we are dismayed by these new regulations - which will curb our invitations to non-EU artists and academics to visit the UK for talks, artist residencies, conferences and temporary exhibitions.

The system is costly to both the host organisation and to the visitor, and has already meant a number of cancelled exhibitions and concerts. All non-EU visitors now must apply for a visa in person, and supply biometric data, electronic fingerprint scans and a digital photograph ... visitors must show that they have at least £800 pounds of personal savings, which have been held for at least three months prior to the date of their application; the host organisation must keep copies of the visitor’s passport and their UK Biometric Card, and a history of their contact details; and if the visitor does not turn up to their studio or place of work, or their whereabouts is unknown, the organisation is legally obliged to inform the UK Border Agency..."

Please read the full petition and sign here if you agree.

Robins's Clogs By Kotki Dwa

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:26:00 +0000

Watch Robins's Clogs by kotki dwa in Music

Love this work by Kotki Dwa! Reminds me of Gondry's movie The Science Of Sleep. It must have taken ages to make that beautiful set full of brightly coloured everythings, including buttons, candles, crayons, paper plants and houses, real daises, live and naughty gingerbread men (quick! eat them!) and a whole plethora of loveliness - ahhh!

The tune's pretty cool too - enjoy! More info about Robin's Clogs can be found here and for further details on Kotki Dwa try this.

The Age Of Stupid Release

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:03:00 +0000

The Age Of Stupid film from Spanner Films is almost here.
UK Release Date 20 March 2009 | Venue 35 cinemas across the UK

From: The Age Of Stupid
"If the first week's release is a success, the film will expand to more cinemas in the second week. It all depends on the box office receipts, so please take 10 friends, or your hockey club or your school class."

Further Info:
The Age Of Stupid

The Age Of Stupid

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:56:00 +0000

Further Info:
The Age Of Stupid

Your Invitation to ArTea Party

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Steriogram Vs Michel Gondry

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:36:00 +0000

How cool is this! Michel Gondry made the video for Kiwi band Steriograms's Walkie Talkie Man. It is full of yarn and knit - very lovely and oh so clever - we like!

The Earthman Project

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:59:00 +0000

The Earthman Project is a not-for-profit organisation based in Florida, USA that uses the powerful mediums of music, art and technology to inspire both kids and adults to protect our environment, teach the importance of conservation and promote the power of creative action.

Further Info:
The Earthman Project

How to Make a One Bobin Scarf

racheblue@hotmail.com (racheblue @ bAd) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:24:00 +0000

Garden Girl is such an inspiration - is there anything creative this women cannot do!
In this video (part of a series) we are shown how easy it is (relatively speaking) to spin a bobbin full of yarn from natural fibres. But, not content with sourcing natural fibres, presumably from her local shop or farm, the ever resourceful Garden Girl has literally fleeced some freshest of fresh angora from her bunny rabbit - wow!
Unlike commercial media that seems to thrive on making sustainability appear like a very nice but practically impossible to attain nirvana, Garden Girl's videos make us feel as though a simple, sustainable and beautifully creative life is readily available for us all. All it takes is a bit of learning and re-learning. Garden Girl helpfully provides us with easy to follow lessons.
Watch, rate, subscribe and be inspired!