ideas, pictures

Quentin Blake, Art Buy the Inch and The Art of Giving

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This morning I heard that Quentin Blake was giving a lecture at the Institute of Education in London about 125 miles away and I decided instantly that I had to be there.

My new friend, Drew Anderson (Millions of Hundred Dollar Ideas) is opening a gallery to sell 1 x 1 inch pieces of art in his hometown of Portland, Oregon (USA). He is pimping his sketchbook (at http://www.buymysketchbook.com/) to raise funds to fit out the gallery. Yesterday I decided to help him by working on my own sketch book and donating it for auction.

So this evening I found myself at the Institute, near Russell Square in London.

At the end of the engaging and educational lecture I humbly joined the que for autographs. I read Quentin Blake’s pictures as a child and read them now with my children – Roly Poly Birds, Vermicious Knids – the whole kit and caboodle. Quentin was wearing very cool white shoes, I was amazed how clean they were and complimented him on them. A real dude!

I didn’t have a book for him to sign (most people had a Roald Dahl one of some form or other) but asked for a doodle for my Moleskine – he was happy for me to offer it to Drew’s cause.

quentin blake zagazoo

Here it is. Its a beautiful picture. One of a kind. And I am giving it away! There are 99 pages left in the book for me to fill and I have a ridiculously high standard to reach. Maybe I will just give it to Drew as it is…

interviews, music

Interview 3: The Aloof, Illicit Persuits

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Following on in the series of re-publishing interviews I did a while ago, here is an interview with The Aloof. I honestly have no recollection of doing the interview and was surprised when I stumbled upon it in a dusty back issue of G-echo December ’99! Alas, The Aloof do not appear to have done much since this outing although band members are also elements of the gestalt entities that are Sabres of Paradise and Red Snapper. This is the interview:
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rosa meena’s birthday card

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Dan Morelle posted a photo:

rosa meena's birthday card

Its little rosa’s birthday on Monday. We make a card for our kids every year (always at the last minute) to send in to early morning tv show in the UK on channel 5 called ‘milkshake’. The show CGI cartoons like noddy and rory the racing car. At 5am its dificult to be concious enough to entertain your kids so noddy will do for five minutes!

It looks a bit messy (only had messy glue) closeup but under bright tv studio lights it should hide the mess! If you squint it looks better!

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tides of man

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Dan Morelle posted a photo:

tides of man

Some local restaurants are displaying some of my paintings, this one is in Pizza Express by the river in Newark (UK). Its about 30″ x 40″ it was amazing fun to do. The title inspired by the Shakespeare quote:

“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”

interviews, music

Interview 2: The Herbaliser

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Following on from my interview with Talvin Singh, in May 1999 I spoke to Ollie Teeba and Jake Wherry AKA The Herbaliser in who were releasing their new album ‘Very Mercenary‘. I had learned my lesson to let the interviewee speak and not make the interview about me. It helped that they were very chatty and I had their records in my box. Here we go:

After a hiatus of two years The Herbaliser, a crew led by Jake Wherry and DJ Ollie Teeba, have emerged from their home made studio in Twickenham to unleash their third album. Jake took time out of his busy schedule of rehearsing for the forthcoming tour and spoke to Dan Morelle.

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family

Ella Can Do It!

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No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett

Nottingham, UK. Its raining and its muddy but for one little girl and her family Sunday 25th June 2007 is a momentous day. Ella Morelle (5) can ride a bike without stabilizers! “I just kept telling myself – I CAN DO IT ” Ella said.

3 hours of mud, tears and persistance finally paid off when little Ella peddled in to the horizon. “We lost count the number of times she fell off” said Dan Morelle, Ella’s daddy “Ella showed enormous character – She will achieve great things”. Ella’s mummy was also gushing with pride “it was difficult to see her falling off so many times but she kept trying even through the tears”. Rosa (2), Ella’s sister and best friend said “Pedal!, pedal! , pedal!”

When asked what her secret for riding a bike was Ella said “Keep pedalling and don’t fall off, if you do then stand up and just get back on and try again”.

interviews, music

Interview 1: Talvin Singh, Talking Tablas

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So, this was the first ever interview I did for G:Echo in November 1998. My University was around the corner from Brick Lane AKA Banglatown in East London. I saw Talvin across the road from me one day on Brick Lane and decided to approach him and ask for an interview he’d just released the eponymous first album entitled ‘ok‘ and was running Anhoka, Sounds of the Asian Underground – a night-club every Monday at the Blue Note in Hoxton – he gave me his number and I called him up, quite simple really! Anyway, the editor thought it was a major coup and it made the front page. Continue reading →

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