Lastnightstony

Check out the view from the third floor bathroom at WK London. There is at least 3 centuries of architecture and engineering all in one spot.  

When I think of the word Hollywood, I think of silicone, movie stars, and the ten mile zone of seemingly endless dubachary. But why Hollywood, why not New York or Florida as the heart of the film industry. Movie studios did not arbitraily start building lots at the bottom of the West Hills. They were built because of the light. The light that is unique to the area that is perfect for capturing an image. That is exactly what I found today on the South shores of England, light.    This is what is left of the West Pier. It was built in 1866 and burned in 2003. It is scheduled to be rebuilt this year, right now it is just a skeleton of what it once was. Damn thing is only 6 years younger than the state of Oregon.  Skaters, volleyball players, dudes playing hoops was all pretty normal. People were chilled a bit more. Folks in London walk fast as if their ass was on fire. Not here. Nice and chill. After walking around I found the Royal Pavilion. This thing is really amazing. The former residence of King George the IV. Oldest son of George the III, he was a huge fan of the arts and decided to buy a farm and build a grand pavilion in 1783. I did take the tour and tried to take pictures inside. This was not going to happen. It was the end of the day and they had a lot of security people inside. The picture below I found on the web of the main dining hall. It does no justice to the ceiling and chandeliers that hang from a dome.           On a technical note; my trusty Sony T-9 has died. A really good camera for it’s size and ease of use. I now have a new Lieca that is even smaller and with much better accuracy of color and great with a flash. Far superior camera. Something to think about if you are looking for a new one. 

My friend Slate has made a change in his world. He was the Nike client for 7 years and headed up Nike Cycling and Running amongst other things. For him, it is time to shift gears and leave the swoosh behind for new goals in the world of sport. Welcome to Rapha. The highest end of performance cycle clothing, proudly made right here in London. Last night was the presentation of the Rapha Condor Professional Cycling Team.A talented group of riders with a combination of youthful power and savvy experience. Exactly what is needed to be able to throw spears in the heat of battle at the highest level. An unexpected surprise was in store for these guys as well. An invitation to ride the Tour of Britain this summer will be a high point on the calendar of Team Rapha Condor.The cycling community is close knit all over the world. I was blown away how many connections with my own past I was able to make. Having ridden on the streets of San Francisco as a courier for several years created a bridge to all kinds of folks. People who knew friends from different parts of the world, stories of other people who are in town, events shared from ages ago. kind of bizzare really.It’s really nice to see friends from home. Slate is heading back to Portland to represent Rapha North America. Who knows what could lie ahead. That is the best part of it.

With that I was spent. Work hard and play harder has been my experience so far here in London. On my way back to the tube station I rolled by St. Paul’s Cathedral. Absolutely no shortage of incredible architecture here.

Now this is nuts. This is from the WK Portland office. An interactive 360º video. drag your cursor around the film while it plays.

Thanks Renny.

OK. First off.

The American version of The Office is stupid.

Now that we have that settled, lets get started.

In 1983 Eddie Grant dropped a hit called Electric Avenue. I know you have heard it. It got to #2 on the Billboard charts, but it’s success should not be measured in it’s height on the charts, rather in the duration it has lasted in our culture. Here is the video to renew those old memories so we are all on the same page, because that is what I did today. I rocked down to Electric Avenue.

Eddie Grant is from Jama much like a lot of the folks who live in Brixton. A part of South London that has a large Afro-Caribbean community. Also home to what I can only assume is a really good market place. Unfortunately, Sunday is a day of rest for most vendors and shop keepers in London so most things were closed. That was OK because there is more to see than just the market that is behind the Underground station. On a sunday the market place had a pulse, but not much more to offer than produce, meat and hair products. The essentials.  I gotta say though that I felt comfortable here. This area reminded me of San Francisco in so many ways. Mostly the vibe. Much like in the Mission or Lower Haight, it just had an energy that seemed real and livable. Now way back in the hay hay, some of the best live cassettes you could get always seemed to be recorded at this place called the Brixton Academy. I had no idea what that meant, but I imagined a place of heart and soul. One of my favorites was Faith No More whose live album went way beyond any cooked studio version they ever put out. I wanted to get inside to get a picture of a empty theatre, but no dice. Still it was nice to put a face on a 20 year old idea.No more than a couple of hundred meters up the road from the Brixton Academy is a skatepark. Unfortunately this to was closed for business. It’s called Stockwell park. Reminds me of Under Burnside skatepark in the PDX. These things should be put on the urgent list to be funded and reopened. Not only does it depress the people who live around the park, it kills the spirit of kids who could spend hours here carving turns and thinking big. Otherwise who knows where they go and invest their energy.   I had to ask Holmes here if I could take his picture because I digged his ride. The two girls behind me blew up laughing and saying that he was going to be famous because of his silly bike. We all had a laugh and I told him to represent. With that I was heading back to the Underground. I saw this sign and it made me laugh. Partially because I am really immature and poop humor still kills me. But it was equally the choice of words that seemed unusual. Next stop, The British Library.  From the streets to the galleries. How about a bit of typographic history. You don’t get these kinds of things in Kansas and now that I have figured out the tube, I am everywhere and anywhere all at once.The British Library is huge. A very modern building with 25 million books making it the largest library in the world. No shit. The Breaking The Rules exhibit was incredibly thorough. Breaking down typographic history and art movements by city rather than timeline. Just going through it provided more education about type and and art movements than of the people who made the history that was on display. So in other words, I am a genius now.  This is it. Right here. This is where I fell in love with London. Across the street from the library having a pint on my own watching the Man City vs. West Ham football match. A perfect view of a busy street outside with lots of people walking by. Sitting down as to rest my legs that I repeatedly wear out on the weekends. It has been a few weeks now and I feel like I get it and belong here. What better reason to get back on the tube to Oxford Circus. Welcome to Niketown London. This store is home to all of the stuff that I have worked on the last couple of years and never get to see in the real world. Niketowns in the states are rubbish compared to this one (except Manhattan). Yes, the wk employee discount works here and yes it is full of stuff you really don’t need. That’s fine though.The unique part of this Niketown is that you can book a time with a Nike designer in the ID Studio and craft your own set of kicks. Unlike the website, you can check out sample materials and fabrics to determine texture beyond just color. You can see all of the white “blanks” on the bottom here and twist them to your own flava. 

And that my friends is a weekend. My camera is pretty much dead and my feet are tired. These things will change. A nights sleep will make the soles of my feet new again and the Fedex guy will bring a new camera in off the bench. This little guy is going to get 6th man of the year award because next weekend, Paris. 

Went for a walk this afternoon. For about 8 hours. First stop London’s Condor Cycles.Condor has supplied custom bikes to World Champions and Tour de France Teams. Very high end bikes that are ultra-PRO. Not only do they make their own frames but they also had all the gucci models like Hetchings and Colnago. Super tight Rapha Condor Team issue. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a few of these in the Hills of Portland in the coming year.  Interesting custom fit bike used to get precise frame size and stem height.   Now it was time to wander around and see what was going on. London is great for getting lost and finding something new. With a veritable labrynth of streets, alleys and nooks it is easy to make discoveries. If you get bored of London, you get bored of life.    I have been finding skating rinks all over town. This one is over near Charing Cross….I think. Then a dip into the National Gallery before it closed. I only saw part of it, but what I did see was Baroque style paintings of incredible detail and scale. Some portraits were a couple of hundred years old and had almost photographic lighting effects. This place needs more time.   Trafalgar Square.  Big Ben is not actually something you can see. Big Ben is what you hear. The name refrences some fatty bureaucrat for whom the 13 ton bell is named after.Across the Westminster Bridge is the London Eye. Each observation room holds about 25 people and this thing won’t be running until Monday. It is interesting, but seems really out of place when next to all of this old gothic architecture.     It’s been a tough week on my trusty camera. The hard drive is failing causing it to grind for long periods of time. The photo below is unaltered and is one of the only photos that looks cool when this is happening. A new camera has been shipped and I should have it Monday.  When I first got off the plane a few weeks ago the first ads I noticed were for Nokia. WK did these ads for a phone that plays music and the ads are these really tricked out headphones. The media buy must have been massive because they are everywhere. After a good week of working on Nokia I think I can safely say, Now You’re Nokia™.  At this point my hips hurt from walking and standing all day. As I dragged myself from one train to another, along with a ton of other people, a little bit of magic happened. It is these little things of a large city that never cease to surprise and pick you up.

 Cheers! 

My Friend Joe back home has put together an event that will function in tandem with the North American Hand Built Bike Show which will be in Portland Oregon this year. The show is Feb. 8th-10th and will showcase bike culture and design from around the U.S. Portland in particular is establishing a reputation of being a bike friendly city in a car centric world. From civic administration being mindful of traffic layouts and decisions, to bike manufacturers who continue to raise the bar of engineering and design for cycling.

The event is to be held at Wieden+Kennedy and will showcase several of the local cycling teams. The intent is to open the doors of the convention hall for the bike show atendees and invite them inside WK for a display of cycle kits, equipment and a photography exhibit. Below is a link dump of several cycle-centric aspects to the City of Roses.

BikePortland.org

This site is a catch-all for everything cycle oriented in the city of Portland and beyond. A great independent site with a strong reader base.

handmadebicycleshow.com

If you can make the trip to the Portland Convention Center it will be worth it. A show that is as much about usability design as it is about bikes and having fun.

Teamsofportland.com

The site to coincide with the event to be held at WK.

vanillabicycles.com

Arguably the most coveted of custom cycles made. Sasha White’s remarkable attention to detail is on a standard of high art. A six year minimum waiting list says it all.

Ok, this has been a hell of a week and it is not even to the half way point. A week that has more hours in an uncomfortable chair riding jockey on a horse called Nike than Gipeto slings shoes. That is why the idea of a band called Radiohead playing a free show in the neighborhood seemed like a convenient release valve. Timelines were not on my side to take the kind of shots that I have been able to in the past, but just the idea was enough to get me through. I dropped the mouse and took a few hundred meter walk down to Brick Lane. The show had to get moved from Rough Trade Records because there was thousands of people who wanted some action from a band that has busted doors on traditional marketing conventions. This was the original venue after the change of locale.  93 Feet East. A building that is possibly older than Lewis & Clark.  The satelite truck was installed for a live webcast on radiohead.tv.  In the end of the night I realized that London PD is just a bunch of polite folks who are not violent and who are just trying to keep order. They absorb a million times more grief than the LA, NY and SFPD. It’s just the American cops would not socialize and flirt with citizens. In the states, police business is business. The Rodney King incident was not a fluke. the only fluke was that someone filmed it. London folks have respect for coppers who could not hurt a fly and there is something endearing of a culture that has boundaries like that. 

I have discovered the tube. I have walked just about everything I could so far and the tube really opens up the whole city of London. Went completely across town from Dulwich to Hampstead Heath to meet a friend for a lovely lunch. Hampstead is a nice little part of town with really nice cottages and small lanes that wind around Mount Vernon. A proper Yorkhsire pudding. Hampstead Heath is a nice park with trails and a lake. It is also apparently cruising area for creepy gay dudes. George Michael apparently has been caught mid buggery here or something. Funny that people think of that stuff before the nice lake when you mention it.   

Took a walk over the London bridge and met up with Oliver Mcquitty by the Borough Market. Oliver is the Studio Manager here at Wieden + Kennedy London. When he came over to the states this summer, I took him out a couple of times and cemented a nasty hangover on him. Now it was his turn to return the favor. Spent the night jumping in and out of different pubs in Soho. Mission accomplished.