I've never been able to do clocks with hands, the whole thing confuses me. If I I get asked the time and have to use a clock like that it takes me ages to work it out, counting the minutes past or to the hour. If the big hand points to 8 it's 40 minutes to...or something...blah blah blah.


Anyway, the lovely people at the Biegert & Funk Project have created Clock Two (for me). It's beautiful in its own right, hand made in Germany and must be the simplest time-telling device ever. At almost $1600 it's a bargain...and by bargain I mean way too expensive. One day...hmm...

It's also available as an iPhone app for a much more pocket friendly $0.99.

Pie Paper

A couple of days ago I filled out a 'how are we doing' questionnaire on the always exellent 'It's Nice That' in which I commented that it would be great to have more global posts especially from New Zealand. Low and behold, today I found (through 'It's Nice That') a New Zealand design quaterly called the Pie Paper! Were they forced into action due to my incredible design world influence? Probably not. Was it nevertheless a delightful coincedence? Yes!

Promising 72 pages filled with secret wonders, I will certainly be purchasing it. I've been looking for some interesting companies closer to home for ages now. Also the kiwiana influenced title - love. Plus they have a page of Nudibranch illustrations! Double win.

Buy it here

Songs of the week

Taking a hint from the suggestive (although until now, inaccurate) name of this blog, I think it's time to post some of the music I've been enjoying this week. Two tracks should do for now. Both somehow feel like Spring but in very different ways. On a side note, it's still very weird to be going into spring at the end of August...

Free Energy - Free Energy (buy it)
Radio ready 70's power pop/air guitar fun produced by LCD's James Murphy. Cheap and easy but delicious nonetheless.

Eyedea & Abilities - This Story (buy it)
About as hip-hop as I get and catchy as hell. Love it.

Also I was clearing out my 'Misc' bookmarks folder today; it was brimming with links to overlooked pages. This is normally a thankless task but the art of Reed Danziger is my forgotten favourite of the week. I love the effect of the coloured, geometric shapes and the mix media. The piece below uses watercolor, gouache, graphite and silkscreen...all things I would very much like to be better at.

'an intermediate order, an equation of motion'

A few weeks ago I bought a new toy for my camera

My camera and I have been drawling over macro lenses since forever but as they cost (roughly) the same as a well situated newly refurbished house I settled for these metal extension tube things that go between the lens and camera body.

A flurry of uninformed photos later and I'm pretty pleased with the results considering my meagre £6 investment!

(see the rest of the Flickr stream here)

OK, first post

Hot ribena in hand I will start as I mean to go on - with some thing I would buy if I had more money (in this case only a little more)...

Palmer Cash have this awesome 'Stoked About Science' t-shirt ...maybe next pay check

(buy it here)