i hear that train a comin’

March 21, 20112 Comments

Train sets are important in every boy’s life. Right now, it’s the wooden train set. Truly, one of the best things about being a parent is that you can play with all these cool toys completely unabashedly, and you get to remember how cool you thought they were when you were a kid. I tell you though, some of these wooden trains you get now are pretty great. Below for example, trains from the New York Subway, given by my sister-in-law in New York. They are brilliant! I’d love to have Paris Metro ones, or London Underground ones (and I’d make them break down and wait for ages on the track for no reason). I say ‘I’ but I mean my son, of course…

those magnificent men with their flying machines

March 19, 2011March 20, 20111 Comment

So, after deliberation and destruction, a UN resolution and no-fly zone was finally ordered for Libya, but despite an apparent declaration of ceasefire, Gaddafi’s forces still pressed on with brutal attacks on the Libyan people, and now we have airstrikes by the West and who knows what next. I just hope it doesn’t mean more suffering, but sadly, it usually does.

I’ve been sketching some of my son’s toys lately in my small WH Smith’s sketchbook, and I started on the ‘air force’ the other day with the small yellow ‘spitfire’ Playmobil plane above. While the rains crashed down outside today (cancelling the Davis sketchcrawl) I sketched some more of the flying machines.

Here’s the toy Duplo fire helicopter. It goes with the previously sketched fire truck. Below, the Playmobil police helicopter – it is a favourite one this. And finally, a yellow toy F-16 jet.

Next: trains…

it’s raining; let’s not draw davis…

March 18, 2011Leave a comment

The rain is coming down heavy, and so tomorrow’s sketchcrawl at the arboretum is postponed…

…and rescheduled for Saturday April 2nd, when I am told we will have lovely sunny weather (we can hope!). So if you’re in Davis, join us on April 2nd! Everyone is welcome to sketchcrawl with us, even if you’ve never sketched before and justa want to give it a go. What better time than with others who love to draw? And at the Arboretum in the springtime, there is much to draw.

Of course, I’ll still sketch tomorrow, just at home, in the dry…

but nervous all the same

March 18, 20112 Comments

The sunshine is deceiving, because the rains are back, and in greater numbers. It was sunny yesterday though, on Saint Patrick’s Day, so I cycled downtown at lunchtime and drew a quick-ish one of a house on the corner of 3rd and D, I’d wanted to sketch it for some time. I was hopeful, but not that optimistic that his sunshine would stick around for the weekend, but now it looks very likely that heavy rain will stop play at the scheduled Davis sketchcrawl this Saturday.

just a northern song

March 16, 20119 Comments

While back in London in December, I spent about six million pounds just on travelling on the tube. Or at least, it felt like it. The Oyster Card was well used. Lots of urban sketchers sketch on their urban transport systems, so I of course had to do some as well. Being a Londoner of course and therefore absolutely terrified at the thought of interaction with any other person, I usually sketched when the tube was near empty. I am from the Northern Line, Edgware Branch, that was my highway. Years ago, before the trains very nicely started telling me where I was, I could tell I was getting closer to home because of the way the stations were painted – Hendon Central was sky blue, Colindale was yellow – ah, red! Burnt Oak. Time to get off and get some fried chicken. They’re all painted the same now, though the signs help.

Trains still stop inexplicably outside Golders Green for like, ten minutes though. “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of the tube stopping for no reason whatsoever outside Golders Green for ages,” as Johnson once said.

Someone enjoyed watching those dot matrix displays on the underground train (above). I remember when they brought those in, that was nice, and nowadays they even work! He got to know the voice that announces the stations very well (“this station is Belsize Park. This train terminates at Morden, via Bank“). Best of all though was the ‘Mind the Gap’ announcement, which in many places is a nice gentle FYI, but in others it is still the one I remember as a kid, the booming, authoritative ‘MIND THE GAP’, which I always imagined was the voice of the Supreme Being. Yes, the one from Time Bandits.

I do miss the Tube sometimes. Even after so many years and years of it annoying the hell out of me, even though certain ticket office staff seem to deliberately make an effort to be unhelpful, even though it’s overcrowded and unreliable and ridiculously expensive…um, sorry I forgot what I was talking about.

while the rains fall

March 15, 2011March 15, 20112 Comments

It is rainy right now, very rainy, annoyingly so; I’ve got a sketchcrawl on Saturday, and I could do without rain. Well, it’s March, I suppose. I stayed in my office at lunchtime, rather than go outside and get wet, and sketched my desk. I was listening to the BBC News; none of it good, really. The huge earthquake and tsunami in Japan last Friday were just so shocking, so unbelievable; it puts so much in perspective. For sure, the immense force of nature reminds us how small we are, but the reaction of the amazing people of Japan reminds us of how great we are too. I wish all my friends in Japan the very best. I just hope that this ongoing nuclear power threat does not get worse.

I was listening to news of Libya too; that madman Gaddafi is fighting back, and yet we stand by dithering, unsure what to do, while people are dying. Here’s hoping that sanity prevails, and that somehow that mad Colonel is defeated before he can commit further atrocities. Do we have a plan if he is not?

the line it is drawn, the curse it is cast

March 12, 20111 Comment

Saturday afternoon, Spring is not only in the air but shining all around; with freshly cut hair I cycled about Davis looking for a perfect building with perfect March afternoon shadows and a decent shaded spot for me to perch without being in the way. I was uninspired however, or overinspired, perhaps they are the same thing. I drew this corner four years ago, interestingly enough, from a little closer up; 5th and J Streets, this cool but kinda scary-looking old house with the enormous telegraph pole towering above it. I rode off and went back to the library after this, to put up a poster about next Saturday’s ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ Sketchcrawl at the Arboretum (See the Flickr group and Facebook event) – if you’re in or around Davis, and like to draw even just a little, come down on Saturday and sketch together with other sketchbookers! If the weather is anything like today, it will be a great afternoon.

‘Spring forward’ tonight folks. Don’t forget to change your clocks. Oh, you already have. Welcome to Summertime…

quiet time in the library

March 11, 2011March 11, 20115 Comments

The Mary L. Stephens public library in Davis reopened a few months ago after a big refurbishment; I popped by last weekend to check it out. I had forgotten just how much I love libraries. I used to spend hours and hours in libraries, searching through the books, letting my imagination go wild in silence. When I was a kid, I would go to Burnt Oak library and spend ages reading books about space and dinosaurs and languages. As I grew up the love of libraries never left me. I spent a lot of time at this library when I first came to Davis. It was nice being back. I think libraries are incredibly important for our societies. In these days of budget cuts and ‘austerity’, I’m more thankful than ever that we have them. It’s amazing, in a way; while record companies vehemently fight tooth and nail to stop illegal downloading of songs and file sharing of copyrighted material, it’s perfectly normal for us to go to a library and borrow for FREE any published book they have. It’s a lesson to those moneygrabbers; free lending libraries have usually helped rather than hurt the publishing industry. Nowadays we have the internet of course, the ‘reliable’ Wikipedias and Googles and other such instant sources if information, on our iPads and iPods and Kindles and Blackberries and Raspberries and other smart-fruits, people might think libraries are less important, just places for people with nowhere to go. I however think that a society which wilfully loses its libraries loses its link to culture, learning and freedom of thought. In Davis, for one, the library seems to be as popular as ever. Long may our libraries last.

wheel of misfortune

March 10, 2011March 10, 20112 Comments

Anybody who has been to Vegas knows that the sound of the inescapable beeping of slot machines stays in your head for ages afterwards. The one-armed bandits, which still have their levers, unnecessary though they are in this age of buttons, now have the pre-recorded sound of quarters dropping into a plastic tray when you win or cash out your paper token with a little barcode on it, replacing the sound of real quarters, the sound of winning big. The first time I went to Vegas, nine years ago, quarters were everywhere. They gave you big plastic slurpee cups to hold them in, and the cashiers distributed little sanitized towels to wash the metallic stain from your fingers. The world has changed so much, except for one thing: the house always wins in the end. The thing is, you win big one time, maybe twice, and it keeps you playing, and then ultimately you lose it all, because you don’t know when to stop. I won $100 on the Wheel of Fortune machine at the airport once, just before getting on the plane; that didn’t happen this time, oh no. Oh well.

And of course, the buffets – you have to do the buffets in Vegas. They are good. The problem with buffets is that there is so much choice, you end up getting too much and not eating all that much of it. Not that I didn’t stuff my face of course, and we got there late enough for breakfast that lunch was starting to be served as well, which was handy (there’s one for Alan-Partridgesque buffet tricks 101). This was what remained of my very big breakfast. That chocolate mousse thing was delicious.

oscars at zeffirino’s

March 9, 2011Leave a comment

I sketched at Zeffirino’s, a bar/restaurant at the Venetian in Las Vegas, while the Oscars were on TV. The King’s Speech did well, didn’t it? That was a good movie. I like Geoffrey Rush, ever since that movie Shine. Colin Firth was good too of course, but he’s more for the ladies (he’ll always be D’Arcy apparently). I have a British accent too – OSCAR PLEASE! Mike out of Neighbours was in it too, as Edward VI. I didn’t see many of the other films that were up for stuff, except for Toy Story 3, and was therefore utterly ignorant; good job the King’s Speech won, I’ve seen that. I’ve never been a big Oscars-watcher, though. It was always on in the middle of the night, when I lived in England; you’d get up and catch the end of it on GMTV, but it wasn’t exciting like Election Night or anything. At least in California it’s on at a more respectable hour of the day. Happy Hour!