56. Happy Halloween!

I'm still alive!

Right, straight to business.

I've occupied myself over the past 5 days making this cover video. Nothing too fancy, no money spent on it, just for a laugh.

I hope you enjoy it!

THRILLER - FULL COVER - CLICK HERE!

Speak to you soon!

55. "The best decision is not easy for us, otherwise nobody would make mistakes..."

No random quote today, just a little inspiring sentence I told my best friend the other day . . . I was quite proud that I came up with that all by myself!

As promised, here is a more frequent update (can you have 1 thing more frequent...?) with a thing that was at the bottom of the list of the previous one.

Staffordshire University Degree Show 2012 - "Show & Tell"

Last year, I exhibited the Syblade prototype and automotive clay models: a modern Triumph GT6 and the INSPI-R. (click the links to see images on Coroflot)

This year was weird, as I wasn't stood by any work that was mine! There were more than enough pieces of work there to make up for it though. Here's a few pictures I took both on the opening night and following day.

(click the links to view the designers/animators/artists websites or work)

Transport Design

Krieger - The Warrior - A zero emissions vehicle designed to carry a full size shipping container, yet traverse difficult terrain to reach people and places a vehicle shouldn't be capable of!

The BMW Venture Concept - A vehicle designed with BMW's "efficient dynamics" design ethic in mind, that is as at home in the city as it is on the open road, using an extending swing arm for greater stability at higher speeds.

 The PT-001 Apocalypto - Designed 'by the government' in the setting of the upcoming post apocalyptic wasteland, it is an all terrain vehicle able to rescue civilians and deploy rescue personnel equipped with 'never before seen nano-technology'. 

 Here are the stars of the 2012 animations queuing up outside the room they were displayed in. I don't have all the contacts for the animators... I can link you to a few blogs though!
LOD Creations
Animations & Illustrations of Chloe Howley
Kyle Bennett - Stop Motion
Locodreams Animations
Daniel James Animations
I can't seem to find a recent blog from Nathan & Ollie, but their character has a facebook page!

Now we come to crafts and jewellery. Here are Amy Lyne's me abstract yet finely detailed copper vases.

The above and below images are jewellery created by Jessica Speakman

I've done some soldering and general metalwork before... this is on an entirely new level though!

Then we move onto Fine Art . . . which I just don't get! Some work was quite cool though...

I would have liked a guide of some sort to say "this is why you're stood next to a guitar tuned to open G and 5 amplifiers feeding back on each other...". Alas, nothing.

Here's one side of Zack Ward's work (he's stood there in the background too!) which rather comically swore at you as you passed... Okay its not as random as that, there was meaning to his madness. One thing I could definitely appreciate in his work was the vast amount of time spent sewing it all together!

Ha, imagine if i'd tried to fit this and all the other things into one blogpost like I usually do!

Thats all for now. Go spend an evening on your computer and visit my friends blogs and websites. They are hugely talented and frankly I'm envious of them all . . .

53. "I'm just stood here fondling cheese because its cold..."

You know, it's getting fairly ridiculous now... Not the title... well, yes the titles are always ridiculous but that is simply because they are phrases taken at random and applied completely out of context.
No, I mean the whole "finding my calling" thing. Trying as many different things as possible no matter how extraordinary, just to see what works best.
The reason it's getting ridiculous is because they all seem to be picking up at the same rate, give or take a few... somethings. I mean, I can't just stop all but one and focus on that when I've nearly set everything up can I?

. . .

Whatever. I'll figure it out somehow.

Now for some picci's and links!

Lets start with my latest additions to Blood Red Offroad's Youtube channel.

And of course another shout out about the Beats Working Drum Show that nobody is going to this Sunday...

Now for the usual picture roll. Click to revel in their excellent quality! (ha...)

All in preparation for Beats Working and any future ventures into the music world, I've been expanding my logo's and working on various designs.

Here is the awesome Unreal Experimental album cover designed by Natasha Aldred

For my Single, MOTION, there is no CD case, just the image on the CD itself. I did however need to update it. This was the result!

Along with these, I've also got some badges on the way. These are the 2 designs I came up with.

The latter one I'm really happy with, as FINALLY I have a logo for the Syblade.

Can't wait to start building these things properly!

That'll do for now. Next post will . . . probably have more of the same, just progressed further!

52. The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma...

Thanks Patrick for the title!

I'd like to say big things have been happening recently. . . but I'd be lying.

Btw, listen to this while you're reading...

Syblade templates are progressing slowly, as is the Mini restoration. Most of my time at the moment has been spent on my various music projects, especially Beats Working 2012 with Lee Bowater. Click the link!

Otherwise its been same old!

Offroading at Parkwood Offroad Centre with Blood Red Offroad was on the 15th (new videos to come in the next month before we set off for the next outing).

Here's a few taster pictures.

(Click to enlarge)

The "Swamp Donkey" claiming her territory post overheating. 

The Isuzu Trooper disproving that cars get properly mucky when off-roading.

Nick failing to clean his car and cleaning himself in doing so...

Next blogpost should have more music links, updates on my mini, perhaps on the syblade, and maybe even a new album cover!

49. "Don't you have a goat to worm?"

Ok so the title isn't a quote from a friend like usual. It is infact from sherlock holmes. Went to see it the other day with Miss Natasha Aldred in a spontanious act of boredom! Well worth it!

One thing that surely isn't well worth it, no matter how much you love nacho's, hot dogs or popcorn, is... well, any of those things bought from the cinema! It may have been because I had my bag with me from 'work', but taking a sandwich, Thorntons chocolate, drink, frutella sweets and cream eggs, plus a torch to be able to see into the bag, seemed much better than crap crisps with a poor excuse for cheese on top!

Anywho.

Lots of things have been going on in the last month or so including the internet being worse than intermittent, hence abandoning the scheduled blogposts.

Music wise there are 5 projects on the go: (all links open a new window, so click as you go!)

JDStone - Experimental solo project

Mercurium - Duet with the very talented Jenny Kermode, some experimental, mostly symphonic, all epic.

Fall of Atlantis (might change our name...) - A six piece Metal band where subtlty is not its forte but, trust me, thats a good thing.

Drum Show with Lee ___ - The 3rd or 4th drum show which "needed something different"... I am that something different! It will be a combination of my solo efforts along with covers performed by a very talented female singer (and an as yet found guitarist!) plus new content written to back his students at the Ritz Ballroom in Brighouse on May 6th (write that in your diaries!!!)

Synth and Drum duo with Drum tutor Richard Wilson of Raw Studios - Don't know what to expect of this... but its going to be mega!

All these music projects will have something to listen to online by easter!

I'll stick to music for this post, as that's more than enough to keep anybody busy clicking links!

Thanks for looking.

48. "We should put all Southerners on top of a mountain, just coz its funny..."

I won't reveal who said that but I'll happily agree with them!

Last time I posted I said it would be frequent... and it wasn't. The day after I made the "mini mondays" post was when my internet decided to allow, on average, 15 minutes of usage per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Then ten days following, there was a power cut on my block...

Not all was lost however, as my camera still had some charge!

All these images were just taken on my Lumix digital camera, just with a 15 second shutter time.

I used to hate the dark... This was awesome though!

Here's a few other things I've been up to recently.

It was dads birthday earlier in the month, so I got out my old biro and sketched his favourite train.

Then came Christmas. I had planned on making about 8 cards and equal amounts of presents . . . I finished less than half that. Fluffy the penguin here was one of them! I'm quite happy with him, especially considering it was all hand sewn guess work.

Wednesday the 28th marked the first day my Syblade stood on a live stage. It may have only been a jam session, but it was still a proud moment.

Oh and, I bet this is the best thing anybody has drawn on one of those magic erasing slate things!

Feel free to prove me wrong!
Hope you had a good Christmas, and Happy New Year!

44. "...walk, fly, hitch a ride on a passing horse, jump on a flying elephant, phone ET, or get a Tardis."

These were suggestions made when asked to travel to stoke when public transport was not an option . . .

Thanks vicky lol

As usual, here's a song to listen to while reading the blogpost.

Remember my single, MOTION? Of course you don't, nobody does... Well, I've re-designed the cover for it, since the old one was done in one night using a chair, my crap camera and some pretty torches, all photoshopped to my keyboard. It looked as good as the amount of time I spent on it... infact you can judge for yourself by Clicking Here!

Here's the new cover.

I might have stolen an image from google to make this!

Aswell as the new cover, I'm finally underway with Syblade prototype No.2, which has half the keys but the same 'sexy' shape. This is a concept drawing based on the prototype, which will be made for a good friend, and my first customer!

The donor keyboard is on its way, so more updates to come next post!

Oh and be sure to check out Blood Red Offroad's Youtube channel where I post videos every week of our adventures offroading. New videos are in HD with funny subtitles, so you dont have to be a car nut to enjoy them!

Right, now for some random pictures!

Never had these? You should. Exactly as they say on the packet, these are REAL crisps!

 This was a very difficult championship... and the result was surprising, and relieving!!

 My customised army helmet and accompanying rip off goggles... This is what madness and ebay do to you when combined!

 Thats patch. He comes round every few days, conveniently when i'm having lunch, and demands attention while trying to steal my sandwiches : )

 Never thought I'd have to see my dad go off in an ambulance in the middle of the night this early in life . . . good thing is it was his own fault, just a bit of food poisoning. He was fine the next day! : )

Aaaaaaaand to finish off, a stoned happy face biscuit!

37. Ur just going to put that i forced you to write something and leave it as that aren't you?

Far from it natasha!

:D

Im baaaaaaaaack. Lets see if i can keep it going!

If i said i haven't been busy, i'd be lying. The past month has been insane, but i've coped fairly well with things as I decided not long ago that i don't really care anymore, and that things will just pan out for the best.

If you want to see whats been keeping me (and infact 300 other students) busy over the past month to the point where i've been severly pushing my nocternal perseverance . . . erm, read the picture below : )

Click to enlarge!


Oh and here's a little taster of some of the things i'll be displaying...

I'm also playing keyboard live too.

If you're coming along to the show, be in the DWIGHT building at 8, or just follow the weird synth music... and trust me, you'll hear me!