Tag: davis

never mind the bollards

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on the borderline

Incredibly, I did an urban sketch today, after something like three weeks. I’ve been busy, preoccupied, but mostly afraid of the outside world – hay fever allergies, you see. Today they eased off so I braved it, and sat over on the borderline of campus and city – these bollards represent the boundary, crossable only by bike, between UC Davis World and the City State of Davis. They really are two entities, they feel so different to me. It might be imperceptible to many but I see it. This weekend, however, they all come together for the annual UC Davis Picnic Day, the showcase event of the year, and the largets open house of any university in America. It’s a big deal going back many decades, and it is ridiculously busy (so naturally I’m dreading it).

you give me fever

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The Hay Fever’s really kicking in now. Sat outside the Davis Co-Op fighting back the sniffles and sneezes, and drew in the moleskine.

the davis co-op

The Co-Op is a nice supermarket, a proper Davis institution. It’s in old north Davis where the picket fences and old buildings are.

Incidentally, I now have a twitter account. Not actually sure why or what for, but I have one.

a parliament of fowls

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quad, the

Quiet on campus these days. Not the birds though. They are out in force, probably back from wintering in central america, twittering and tweeting and facebooking. I wonder if birds really do have an internet? Like, one of their very own that we don’t know about? (perhaps it’s called the internest) There’s a lot about birds we don’t know. We never ask.  

I don’t think I want to know. Probably all means, in bird language, “hey babe, fancy comin’ over to my nest for some early worms?” “i can’t, i’m washing my feathers..” You see, sort of thing that would put me off my lunch. Can’t imagine a bird’s blog would be much fun to read either. “I just ate a worm! And it’s not even early! (45 comments)”  They probably film little videos of themselves pooing on cars and post them on PooTube. It’s a growing problem. ‘Happy Crapping’ I think it’s called.

Okay, enough of the ‘cheep’ gags. Next week the students will be back, cycling about, going to classes, and the birds will probably fly off to Oregon or Canada or Vacaville or somewhere.

the eleventh of march

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vermeiher

This one’s Vermeiher hall, yet another on the UC Davis campus. If you’re wondering. It’s warm and sunny now, but chilly in the morning. This particular copic pen is living out the autumn weeks of its life with thicker lines and an uncertain nib.

Oh! Saw Watchmen last night. Flipping brilliant, start to finish. Big fan of the graphic novel, and cannot wait for the dvd. Rorschach wicked, when he roars, “i’m not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me!”

kind of a strange old hermit

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kind of a strange old hermit

What is it? It’s an odd sculpture, living on the UC Davis campus. It may well be a doorway, a portal into another dimension; I’m not going to walk through it, in case I can’t get home again. It might be pi’s physical manifestation, or the place where Aslan rose again. It could be the winning goal. I drew it at lunchtime, in today’s lovely weather. It feels like Spring is in the air.

reflections of

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rainy rainy dayRAIN! Much needed. And it gave me a chance to draw a big puddle.

Oh, time to comment on the weekend’s match. Football. The Carling Cup Final. I didn’t really expect Spurs to win, but we won it last year, and you never know. So to lose it on penalties was pretty hard to bear. I didn’t see it; it was all just text updates online, early in the morning. Even so, I hid in the kitchen, unable to watch, as is normal for penalty shoot-outs. This of course means no European football for Tottenham next year. I’m so glad Redknapp decided that playing in the UEFA cup wasn’t worth it. He sacrificed it this year for the slim chance of getting in next year. He has bowed out of the UEFA Cup twice this season now, with two clubs. That’s the spirit! That’s real ambition! Well, at least we have the relegation battle to look forward to.

Meanwhile, in Davis, I am drawing puddles.

this is not america

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I’ve always wanted to draw this building, the Cooper House, on the corner of 4th and F in Davis, so today I finally did. Now I don’t have to ever again.

cooper house

In that article this week I was quoted saying that Davis looked like America and that I was drawing it to show people back home; I said something about it being all picket fences. I think to date I’ve drawn one picket fence, two years ago. Well, there was a mini one here, and I guess this ragged collection of sticks is a technical picket fence (and I drew it a second time to be sure), but they are still notable in their absence. There are actually fewer pickets than, um, er, help me out here, something about strikes. The point I’m making is, um, Davis really isn’t a picket fence type of town. Actually there are more two-level apartment complexes than anything else, housing students and scholars and all the other folk. Perhaps they don’t like pickets here. Perhaps they cause a fence (oh please, come on). Anyway, I think even without the fence, this drawing says ‘America’ to some degree. Don’t ask me, I’m British.

under the brown fog of a winter dawn

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Bit of a misnomer that title, this being actually a sunny lunchtime sketch (and being about Davis and not London), but it’s from the Waste Land and it’s therefore cool, and sprang to mind when I was finished.
holding water

And it is winter, or at least what they call winter here. This is the tall UC Davis Water Tower (and environs).

Speaking of which, today is Pancake Day, but this year I didn’t make any pancakes. My little plastic lemon squeezer thing (yes, just like the old jif lemons but not called as such here) is out of date, by a month (bit stupid, I bought it for last year’s pancakes and then it goes and expires in less than a year, it’s like when you buy mince pies that end up expiring on December 24th, yes you know what I’m talking about, marks and spencer). It put me off.

Also posted at urban sketchers. That extraordinary site is growing and growing…

paper view

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That’s me there, on the front page of the local paper. That’s my double-jointed thumb, too.davis-enterprise-sun-feb22-09-smaller

The Davis Enterprise published a feature about me and my local sketches today in their new online edition (you probably won’t be able to read that after today, unless you subscribe to the paper), saying that i ‘save the world every day’ (referring to that ‘how to save the world’ thing I did). Quite funny, really. I’ve no idea what I was going on about; I said Davis was flat as a pancake (well, it is). There’s something about Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong to the left there. And look beneath: rain! It really does rain in Davis!