Convenience.

My food reviews are meant to be taken with a pinch of salt, because who in their right mind would comment on the stuff I eat, never mind care about it? But the idea alone amuses me. Cue the Rustlers Deluxe.
Everything about this burger is fake, and I mean everything. When you first peel off the label the you get a fairly noticeable woft of ass, followed by plastic. It’s what Barbie must smell at night after Ken eats toy curry.
Now even before this burger is heated it looks disappointing, I felt a lack of respect for myself for having paid for this, and I eat some low grade stuff. The lowly strip of Bacon dwarfed by the top bun made me giggle slightly, this is what makes it ‘deluxe’ after all. But in just over a minute its good to go, well, once you let it cool back down. And dry slightly as the moisture made by the burger makes the bun soggy. Now this is the fun part, putting on the burger sauce. It is incredible! Somehow they have managed to make every condiment including gurkin and onion into one! Reinforcing the fact that this thing is fake, concocted in a lab. I don’t think at any point from design to production has a chef of any sort been involved with this. Then again, why would they want to be?
Now I take a bite and my mouth floods with the eversauce, there is so much it oozes out at all directions and you realise why there is so much, if there wasn’t you would notice how un-deluxe the burger really is. The sauce is there to trick you into thinking you are actually eating a burger, all the flavorings combine to make a very believable substitute but when you think about what your eating you realise its all enhancements. The bun does not taste like bread, the burger does not taste of meat. But whatever additives have been used sure do. My advice? Eat a bowl of additives and flavorings, and chew your tongue if you need some texture.
But all that aside, I don’t think anyone would buy this as a quality product, you get what you pay for. And I only got this since it was half price. What does that yell you?

Full of Hyperlinks

2012, I’ve got a good feeling about this one.

It’s only day eight of a whole new year and already a decent amount of unexplored experiences have popped up in front of me, it’s interesting to think of the links that get you there. How different would my life be today had I not followed the path that got me here? I doubt I would have been listening to Gabriel Ananda that’s for sure.

It’s a name I picked up while flicking through some strips of Questionable Content, which again is something new for me. It’s a great comic which manages to take its time but keep you hooked. And the drawing style, I can imagine when it first hit the web the artwork would have kept most people from checking the second strip, but you shortly see the style improve to something mindblowingly refined. That alone was inspiration for me to pick up the pencil again.

The friend who recommended QC also passed me some details for places that may display some of my photography, not mine in particular but they are looking for work. Who knows, even if I don’t get my work up I could end up with a new contact or two. Links, links people.

And that’s what this post is about, links. It’s fair to say that I tend to live day-to-day with no real plan for the future. But it was yesterday that got me to today, it was the people I met that led to the friends I now have. And it was this second espresso that led me to begin twitching.

I don’t really have a point to this, a general musing if ever there has been one. But like I said at the start. I’ve got a good feeling about this coming year.

Sketchy

Today I bought an A3 sketch pad and 91 piece art set. In a nifty little box, which was broken. But it keeps all the pencils organised, which is good enough for what I want.

 

I used to really enjoy drawing, I took art at GCSE level and during my exam I finished up my piece so quick I was able to draw a second to accompany it. I then took Fine Art at A level and it went downhill for me. At the time I couldn’t figure out why I was being told to draw in a certain way. I had  no interest in Cubism, or how to drip ink onto paper with a twig. So I asked. Why can’t I draw and improve on what I am aiming to draw, which at the time was mainly anime/manga style. To be told it wasn’t fine art.

 

I never went back to that classroom. At the time I took it as a waste of effort, I knew what I wanted and this course wasn’t going to help me get there. I realise now how much of a dick I was. It was a fine art course, ‘fine’ and being told what I wanted to do wasn’t ‘fine art’ hurt me, but its true, I don’t like how what I want isn’t fine as such but I always thought art was about expression, not how it stacks up compared to other works.

 

And while I’m a little older, and a tiny bit wiser my drawing style certainly isn’t. Which is ‘fine’ by me. For now, I’m just enjoying having a pencil in my hand again. And I might finally get that comic drawn up that I’ve always wanted to do.

Pocky Pics – Glass

Ok, this is a little different to my usual photography. But when playing around with my macro lens I noticed loads and loads of tiny scratches on a glass counter top. Just think about how long they could have been there, what caused them, and the fact that they aren’t noticed at all usually. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there remember.

Grubs

 

The other thing I wanted to blog about, was food. And how I love it, oh so much. But I am by no means a good cook, I certainly am not at the forefront of pushing culinary boundaries. My greatest contribution was not adding hot water to dry noodles. Eat them like crisps. Lovely.
So the food side of this blog will more or less catalog my world of noms.

Starting with these. Nong Shim’s Big Noodles. Udon flavour.

There are more versions of instant noodles out there than I care to think, but I know I like Udon noodles, so thought I’d give these a go. Plus, they were on offer. They are a little thin for Udon, but definitely thicker than your average cup noodles. The soup base is great, very mild fish stock mushroom savoryness, dashi stock I think, but I haven’t tried it enough to be sure, but what really makes it cool for me is the dried ingredients, there are little naruto swirls, made me smile when I saw them. The problem with dried bits that you get in noodles packets is they all end up the same texture, but this added a little extra variety to the pot.

Nom rating. 3.5 out of 5

Decent for the price, but I wouldn’t want to buy too many when not on offer, if even just for the bulk of the packaging!

I shot someone

I hear something a lot when showing my recent photo expeditions. “That’s nice, but you should have had a scantily clad lady in it.” I don’t always agree with the scantily clad part, or the lady part necessarily. But having someone there would certainly add something.
I still like what I do, but sometimes you can see their point, you could easily pretend my portfolio is that of a location scout.  But I have my reasons.
Shyness mostly, I don’t even like taking the shots I take when people are watching. I embarrass easily.
So today I spent the morning with Darren O’Brian shooting Danielle Ganning, partly to boost my confidence and also to help Darren practice the teaching side of his work. Win win. And I now know more about portrait photography than before, practice makes perfect though, and I plan on getting into it a lot more.

 

 

Aside from learning some new skills, and trying something new, it was over all just a good morning/afternoon. Even the ‘street’ stuff.

Projecting

Slight setback. The artist mentioned in a previous post has pulled through and got his work ready. In other words, I will have to wait to get my pictures up in Tilleys. Gutted. However, at least when/if I get my stuff up it should be up for longer, had everything worked out as planned it would have only been on display for maybe a month, maybe less. So this way I should get a bit more time. And hey, I can work on getting some new shots with the time I have.

But this doesn’t mean I have given up, oh no. I plan on contacting a few other places to get some photos shown. The rest of the Head Of Steam franchise would be a good start, Cluny mainly.

Also, I plan on beginning work on a couple of poorly planned projects. Have I said that already? Anyway the first is based on the roofs in Newcastle. Why Newcastle? Because I’m there all the time. Why roofs? Because its about the only place I havn’t shot. But in all seriousness, its because they are places which aren’t seen day to day, out of sight, out of mind. And that’s been something that has stuck with me for a long time. Just because you don’t see it, or choose to ignore it doesn’t mean its not there. And I like showing these things to people.

Some shoot pretty flowers. Each to their own I guess.

Rinko Kawauchi

The second I saw these images I knew I liked them. And in the end what more needs said?

I’m not greatly artistically minded, I hope to be in the future, or to at least try harder, but for now I am content to simply enjoy. I cant express what it is in a lot of the things I see that I like, or not in words that I think would do it justice.

Beautiful. Might be a good word to start with. Calming could be another. And definitely, inspiring.

 

Some things improve, some get worse.

The prints I ordered came through, very pleased with them. And now I can totally recommend Peak Imaging. Had a few issues to start with involving print sizes and dpi, a little apprehensive because of this, last thing I wanted was to blow £100 on posters to find them the wrong colour, all pixeled or cropped incorrectly. Turns out saving everything as a large JPEG was a good idea.

As for delivery time. What delivery time? I barely finished the order before they showed up. All I can guess is they must have an artistic future teller on stand by, he knew what I wanted before I did. Must cross his palm with silver when I see him.

And then for the framing, I had to get them safe and sound behind glass (or plastic as is the case), the law of sods would get me eventually, there’s only so long I can handle A3 prints before I bugger it up and scratch them. Or drip coffee on them. Or have them trampled on by involving myself in drunken shenanigans. And so, the quest began for some frames, solution? Wilkinsons. Bless all the little students, thanks to the shops having moving in and starting term deals I was able to get 7 frames for around £36. A lot better than the £40 price I was quoted per frame somewhere else. Mind, they were going to clean the glass for a small charge as well. Maybe when I’m rich and famous, but in the meantime, plastic will suit me just fine thanks.

Last hurdle was picking the prints I wanted framed, and I still don’t know if I’ve made the right choices. Lesson learned, pick the prints I want ‘before’ I order them. Although, I think I have Christmas presents sorted thanks to my error.

Now the only thing left to do, is hang my offerings for all to see.

I’ve spoken to the manager of Tilley’s Bar, and I don’t think I’ve heard anyone sound so positive before in my life, also, he didn’t have a white beard. Unexpected considering his name. Turns out I may have a window of opportunity, the next artist hasn’t completed his work for display yet, and the current work has been up for some time, meaning its due for being taken down. So cue Dave, I will not stand for bare walls! And I have wanted my work up in this particular bar for some time, I’m not as regular as some people who visit the place, but it’s my favourite watering hole in town, seeing my photographs on show would make me smile. So damn hard.

There was even talk about having the open night sponsored by a drinks company. Free crate of Duvel? Now that’s how you bring in a crowd.

If all this fails however I will need another plan, and I have a few ideas, nothing concrete yet but at least I’m being proactive. Sort of.

Posters for sale!

Prints sure aren’t cheap, and then I still need some frames for each. Lets hope this plan pays off.

I decided a while back that I want to get my work displayed somewhere, something akin to an exhibition, it just seems like the right thing to do. Sure I have Flickr, and this here blog, but despite the surprising number of views I just don’t think it’s enough. No offence intended. I cant help but feel that should the right people see what I have to offer, something opportunistic could come from it.

Initially this didn’t mean anything to do with monetary gain, the thought has always been in the back of my mind however, who wouldn’t like the idea of being paid for doing something they really enjoy. And after the wad of cash handed over for the prints to even come close to this chance, I sure hope someone helps a soon to be hungry Dave out.

On a slightly related note. I managed to find yet more photos from my earlier days of shooting. The sheer amount is daunting, but just try to make me delete them. I have a plan to post the unedited versions here at a later date, I don’t think I should post them under he Pocky Pic title, but maybe more as a poll. Maybe an X Factor of photography, X Photker? No, that doesn’t work. But the winners live, the losers. Most likely headed for the recycle bin.

If I get any opinions at all that is. Otherwise. I’ll work something out.