Nostalgia isn't what it used to be

I was looking through some old photos and thought I should digitise them (well, try photographing them using a digital camera).  Purely for self-indugent reasons I've posted some of them mainly to remind the world (well the internet) what I looked like with hair (compare and contrast with my profile photo); so here are a few choice images (apologies for the quality, I may re-do them).

This is me in the lab in the Zoology Department at Glasgow University c1986.  You can see my excellent dress sense shining through.  That's Andy Harvey, my flatmate at the time, in the background.

Here I am on a beach in Norfolk probably in 1987 at the end of the first year of my PhD in Cambridge (Pembroke College).  I think I had been paddling.

I think this one was taken in about 1989 late in my third year.  I'm standing in Downing College trying to look intellectual.  You can see the stress of writing up written all over my face.

Goodbye Cruel World!

My son's primary school held an art show last week and as parents we were invited to view the work of our offspring and then perhaps pay for some (or all) of their works of art on display.  Being thrifty I was thinking "well, we'll get them back at the end of term anyway".... but that wasn't in the spirit of the thing.  Anyway, here's an example of what my son did (he's nine):

In preparation for the art show the children apparently enjoyed lessons on Dali, Munch, Monet and in this case Lichtenstein (I think).  My son chose to make this interesting image of a ninja leaping away from an explosion, which he initially entitled "Goodbye Cruel World", but then told me that he thought that "I Hate My Job!" might be better.

Personally, I thought that "I love my job!" would have been the best thing to call it, as what could be better than having an occupation dressing up like Lee van Cleef and blowing stuff up.

1541 Marketing

My wife's new business has opened up a creative avenue for me.  Not only have I designed her website and her business cards but I've just done a banner ad for the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland (out in the May 2012 issue, hopefully).

Actually, it's not an entirely new idea (as it's based on one of the images we use on the website and on the business cards) but at least it did get me back into GIMP again and helped refresh a few of the skills I'd forgotten I had.

As noted before I'm not at all keen on the normal corporate approach or images and so have gone for something that I hope that you won't see very often in a sober and traditional Scots lawyers' publication.

The idea was to do something striking, intriguing and simple that would catch the attention and draw the reader in, even if only for a few seconds.  In other words:

1) "Hey, interesting image"
2) "Eh, 1541?  What's that supposed to be?"
3) "Ah, I get it."

Something like that anyway. As the Journal has a circulation of 20,000 lawyers we reckon that if we get one new client (or just two small jobs on the back of it) it will be worth it.  Ah, creativity!

Too poor, too wee and too stupid

I had never intended to post anything about Scottish politics on this blog as it was always meant to be a place for me to explore some of my eclectic (possibly esoteric) interests.  However, the front cover of the latest edition of the Economist has forced my hand.  Would ye look at this (click to enlarge):

For those of you who'd like some of the real information that the mainstream media (MSM) seem determined that the general public won't find out about then please look for the antidote here:

A to Z of Unionist myths

Wings over Scotland

If your bent is economic then I refer you to the McCrone report (note this links to a pdf) from 1975, which was an official report suppressed by successive UK governments, on how Scotland would have fared if it had had control over oil revenues (in summary - very well indeed).  They were particularly worried about favourable comparisons with Norway (population 4.7m, less than Scotland).

Also here is the latest official Government and Expenditure Report Scotland (GERS), which shows that Scotland raised more in taxes (yes, we do actually have jobs and industry here) last year (based on a conservative assessment of revenues) than it received from Westminster.  Which kind of indicates what a load of tripe the Economist's slant really is.

St Peter and St Cuthbert

January was a busy month for some reason (I don't know why because I didn't achieve anything) but at least I've got off my hurdies (that's a Scots word, you'll just have to look it up) and got the beer making going again.  The 1541 IPA, I made previously, was based on a kit of Munton's IPA, which came out rather lacking in the malty body, hoppy finish and creamy head that one would expect (just about everything really).  My beer labels were eye-catching though (see earlier post and photo below with guitar and beer bottles in situ).

Therefore, although I'm sticking with kits for now, I'm going to try this St Peter's Ale, which I got from my local and very helpful beer-making shop at Bruntsfield, Edinburgh called Alba Homebrew.  It should be good as St Peter's is a real brewery and you can buy their intensely hoppy bottled beers in Waitrose and elsewhere.  Alba is the Gaelic name for Scotland, by the way.

I started it this morning so it'll be a few weeks before it's ready and my plan though, is to repackage it as 1541 St Cuthbert's Ale.  Obviously this is for my own use and amusement and not for sale anywhere.  I'll be working on the labels next so watch this space/blog.  Cheers.

Building an Acoustic Guitar

The guitar bug seems to have taken hold as I have recently bought a copy of Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar by Jonathan Kinkead.  It includes full size plans for a steel string acoustic.

Already feverish thoughts are coursing though my brain about what guitars I'm going to build and in what order.  A Spanish classical guitar in the style of Torres or, better, a 1937 Hermann Hauser (as played by Segovia himself)?  Perhaps a Panormo or other early 19th century guitar as per my previous post?

Going through the book, which gets good reviews, is clearly written and has nice colour pictures in it (check out the preview on Amazon), I could possibly tackle the Kinkade Kingsdown Acoustic (a Martin OM variant) to start with, which is the one he builds in the book.  It's actually quite a handsome guitar although I do lean towards the classical and therefore nylon string guitars, which are of course different in style and in details of construction (having a integral neck for one thing).  By the way, his guitars are called 'Kinkade' rather than 'Kinkead', so it's not a typo.

Having gone through the book a few times it all seems very straightforward - all I need to get are some (more)  tools and I'm off!  I've even found myself looking at second hand bandsaws and routers on ebay.... OK, maybe that's going a bit far.

Panormo Guitar

One of these days I'm going to make a classical guitar and if I do it may well be one of these, a Panormo guitar.  Louis Panormo was a guitar maker active in London in the 1840s and 50s.  His instruments are actually based on earlier Spanish designs.

This one happens to be in the collection of Edinburgh University and I think that it is one of those on display at St Cecilia's Hall, an 18th century concert hall in Edinburgh's Old Town (in the Cowgate, just off Niddry Street).  We went to a guitar concert there during the 2011 Edinburgh Festival and were amazed to see all these early guitars on display in the area that they served coffee in at the interval.  They were in glass cabinets, mind you.

Actually, I've no idea how to make one but did come across a luthier (a maker of stringed instrument, especially guitars) called Gary Demos who had made one and shows how on his website. Another interesting website that discusses many 19th century guitars can be found here.

Admira Malaga

I've always loved classical guitar music and after my son was given a guitar and started lessons I thought I'd learn too, so I bought a guitar.  It's an Admira Malaga and I think that it is a beautiful instrument.

It has a solid cedar top and the sides and back are made from a wood called sapelli (a tropical African wood similar to mahogany).  The neck actually is African mahogany and the bridge and fingerboard are made of mongoy (another hardwood from west and east Africa).

I'm still learning and try to play every day (using Frederick Noad's Solo Guitar Playing (Vol 1)) which I think is excellent.   A long way to go yet but I'm enjoying it!

Lichen Photos

I'm a Zoologist by training and am currently involved in managing ecology projects.  Back when I was at school I had an interest in lichen and it's never really gone away.  I took some nice pictures of these interesting symbionts whilst I was on St Helena earlier in the year (there's one in an earlier post on this blog about 1541 banners) but here are some that I  found in Scotland and Northumbria over the summer (the latter place being in the north of England as opposed to north-Umbria (i.e. Italy), which sounds (and in fact is) much more exotic).

The picture above is from a hill (actually an extinct volcano - and it looks like one too) called North Berwick Law in East Lothian (to the east of Edinburgh).  The orange lichen is probably Xanthoria sp. or similar.  Not sure about the various grey ones.

This one was on a stone at Housesteads Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall.  You can see how the various lichens are pushing up against each other like a map of central Europe a river catchments or something. They do make nice abstract patterns I think and I will be using these and others in future graphical projects, even if it's just for making new labels for my home-brew.

Another 1541 Banner

It's been a hard week this week, although with the reward of a few work-related days in Bucharest (maybe) in December to look forward to my thoughts turn to pleasing colours and shapes.  Funny that.  One of these is an image I've used on the company website which I thought I'd share.

It has tone and direction and movement and a story perhaps and is calm and I like it.  Strange to think then that it is just a random collection of paint marks on a wall that when framed and photographed looks a bit like art!