hitono

Ah, so that’s where it is… (Taken with Instagram at...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 04:43:19 -0500

Ah, so that’s where it is… (Taken with Instagram at Session HQ)

Virgin Mary #1 : ‘The Standard’ Notes: OK....

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:57:41 -0500

Virgin Mary #1 : ‘The Standard’

Notes: OK. Does nothing to hide lack of booze content. Needs more “wh-ammo”.

Method: Built in highball. Stirred.
Limited ice. Garnish.

Ingredients: TJ, Worcestershire sauce, S&P. Lemon. 4-6 Cracked ice. Celery.

Improvements: May consider celery salt. Also perhaps lime instead of lemon?

The joy of Christmas (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 07:18:59 -0500

The joy of Christmas (Taken with instagram)

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… (Taken...

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:39:49 -0500

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… (Taken with Instagram at Covent Garden Market)

Ooosh! (Taken with Instagram at O2 Arena)

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:59:11 -0500

Ooosh! (Taken with Instagram at O2 Arena)

Blog: Session launch ACNE Studios

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:19:32 -0500

Blog: Session launch ACNE Studios:

sessiondigital:

Session is delighted to announce the launch of a new improved pan-European Magento Enterprise store for one of Europe’s true fashion innovators - ACNE Studios.

Trading this iconic Swedish trend setting fashion brand across eight European territories, ACNE turned to Session for technical…

(A chance to burn the uX manual and wallow in the aloof joy of the uber-cool)

eCommerce the saviour of high street fashion

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:15:18 -0400

eCommerce the saviour of high street fashion:

Quite a grand title admittedly, but what’s the point of selling luxury goods online unless you use the channel to delight and surprise customers, as part of a crosschannel strategy…

Rioting. Why are we surprised?

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 04:10:27 -0400

Is it any surprise that this anarchy is tearing the heart out of inner cities?

We’ve got parents who fundamentally disrespect any authority, teaching their spawn how to disrespect authority (either at school or the police).

This means teachers avoid teaching in inner city schools, quite rightly, so the standard of education deteriorates to a militaristic and confrontational state.

The kids prefer truancy to school - and the parents say nothing.

Any rioting is just an extension of a vicious circle with no control.

The only route left is heavy punishment for anyone involved (to deter further rioting) but that in turn is proven to store up more of an issue for later life - so the courts will avoid custodial sentencing.

So the kids will (in their eyes) effectively get away with it. Something they’ve been doing their whole short lives… When all it took was a parent to do THEIR job properly.

Think it’s bad now, just imagine when these little criminals grow up.

It’s depressing, but a sad truth of this greedy world we live in.

Blaney Buffet for 5 (Taken with Instagram at Rising Sun Pub)

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:36:36 -0400

Blaney Buffet for 5 (Taken with Instagram at Rising Sun Pub)

The Blaney Buffet (part 1)

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:36:00 -0400

Part One: In Harmony

The bountiful fayre to be had in a pub is a wonderful thing. As a pub frequenter myself I’m besotted with the differing array of fluids to enjoy and savour. And I do. Often to excess.

Over the years I’ve come to learn that some pub goers are not satisfied, like I am, solely with this liquid gratification. They want more. More than the wonderful beers and wines. Something solid, something that refreshes the parts not even beer can reach… They want sustenance. Food.

I see food as a necessity rather than a pleasure (but then again I am the size of a jockey). Food to me means time. Time to debate over. Time to cook. Time to eat. Time to pay for. Time that gets in the way of lovely beer.

Time is something that pub enthusiasts often lack. A quick pint does not include food. A beer after work is not a meal after work. Yes, some pubs do serve meals, but we all know they’re mostly untrustworthy, reheated and a nightmare logistically (seating/paying etc.). Frankly, unless you go to a pub specifically for a meal then you’re going to be a): an irritant and b): disappointed.

However we all know that for some, food is important and worth leaving the pub for. What? Leaving the pub? Yes, I know, some people can descend to such a ravenous state they are prepared to commit such a heinous act.

So, in answer to this I have honed a formula, a solution an invention that centres around the tolerable end of pub-based sustenance. Snacks.

Hailing from Leicester - the spiritual home of the crisp - I’ve built up an appreciation for this potato wonder over the years and learnt to work with it as though it were a tool. Although flat, its allure is deep; a majestic beast, available in a cornucopia of flavoured goodness. Yet I’ve witnessed it consumed at such a pace that says nothing for the care and attention with which it is crafted. Frankly crisps are too damn edible, too simple to grasp, they need a counter-balance. A juxtaposition to halt the ravenous crisp gluttony…

Arise the peanut.

Peanuts, although small, are densely packed with flavour, essential proteins and stuffed with brain-boosting Niacin, making them both a perfect partner for the crisp - and any pub quiz. Moreover, like a mouse to an elephant, their diversionary scale will unsettle the advances of even a rugby-player sized paw as it descends on a crispy banquet, locked in a potato frenzy.

Crisps and peanuts united in harmony. Sating the hungry (but not spoiling dinner). Keeping drinking at the forefront of pub activity… Together. The Blaney Buffet.

…Not satisfied with Part One? Get a pint (some crisps and nuts) and meet me back here for “Part 2: The Formula” (coming soon - when I’ve finished it)

London you look damn fine this March morning! (Taken with...

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:05:24 -0400

London you look damn fine this March morning! (Taken with Instagram at Waterloo Bridge)

Two legends beaten by age… Not class. (Taken with...

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:05:32 -0400

Two legends beaten by age… Not class. (Taken with Instagram at Prestbury Park, Cheltenham)

"I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion…I..."

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:04:36 -0500

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion…I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate…all those…moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain…time to die…”

- Roy Batty, replicant (Blade Runner, 1982)

Note to artworker: Until evolution gives us compound eyes,...

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:39:09 -0500

Note to artworker: Until evolution gives us compound eyes, something still has to be out of focus.

Remember remember.

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 05:28:00 -0400

I’m not a big fan of bonfire night y’know. In fact I have a deep dislike for the ‘celebration’.

Now i’m not being a fuddy-duddy here poised to complain about kids buying them and throwing them about, nor am I an animal lover ready to defend the sensitivities of domestic pets… no I’m just irritated that from the first time i watched my Dad launch a rocket from a milk bottle in 1982 right up to this day, I’ve been aware of the same warnings, the same rhetoric, the same atrocious facts and figures coming out year on year.

If they’re that bloody dangerous… stop selling them in Tesco!

In fact, if they’re that bad just stop selling them to us altogether. No-one really cares, everyone is woefully underwhelmed, plus they’re expensive and “not as good as the ones we saw in Disneyland/Clapham Common/The Millennium/Mum’s 40th”. It’s not like they’re worth the money or incredibly lucrative for the economy. Frankly I doubt we’d even notice.

I mean smoking got banned (good riddance) was highly taxed (kerching) and it took years of research to prove that was harmful. Now I’m not a Doctor but even I don’t need to conduct a costly research programme to show the effects of a lit firework. You’ve been telling us for decades “they’re dangerous, be careful”. We know, like drink driving, like binge-drinking, like crossing the road… I don’t need the Green Cross Code man to explain me the dangerous mechanics of holding a lit missile. I get it.

Don’t worry, we won’t think you’re being a Nanny state, but please just ban the sale of them to the general public, promote large-scale displays and then for God’s sake just shut up about it.

"Creativity: The best ideas are the simplest, and the simplest ideas come the quickest… but..."

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:19:53 -0400

“Creativity: The best ideas are the simplest, and the simplest ideas come the quickest… but hold on, how do the quickest/best ideas end up the cheapest?”

- Me.

Quick. Go and frame it.

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 08:04:15 -0400

Last week we noticed a bloke lying on the ground outside our office. Assuming he was a drunk we stepped over him. Turns out, according to The Mighty BBC, he’s a celebrity (good job we didn’t usher him on).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11677462

The best bit about it all is, as he left (shuffling off as he does) we found he’d left us this tiny little gem on the pavement…

We’re popping down now to pick it off.

Death of the Fat Cap

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 05:17:00 -0400

Have you looked at looked a graffiti? By looked, I mean, suspended your conscious disgust at its ugly presence and actually looked at it. Focused on its shape and colour, looking at it without any construct of social-oriented do-gooding.

It’s rubbish. Absolute rubbish… But it didn’t used to be. What’s happened?

At this precise second I’m at Vauxhall station. 10 years ago the walls on the Lambeth side were covered in colourful, impressive, creative forms etched in spraypaint. Now they are a drab chocolatey brown, paling into boredom compared to the technicolour show they now cover.

Who decided the graffiti had to go? Did you? Because I didn’t. I liked looking at the artwork. I appreciated it for its artistic talent.

Therein lies my point. Artwork. The grafitti of my youth was impressive, difficult to master, well judged and colourful. Yes there were the obligatory crap tags and poorly executed ‘throw-ups’, but they were universally frowned upon for their immaturity and lack of skill. However, if someone created colourful art it was respected and not tagged over. Even ‘the yoof’ could suspend their geographical conflict and appreciate its intrinsic worth.

Surely kids nowadays haven’t changed so significantly that the hamfisted daub outweighs the ability to create colourful artwork. Youth culture can’t have changed that drastically? Even Rembrandt in The Warriors (who was crap at fighting) was kept in the gang for his creativity with a spraycan.

Sadly I think its demise is more systematic, more sinister in a way. It’s been obliterated, nullified or rather ‘cleansed’ - covered over by whitewash and brown, chocolatey paint.

You see whilst I am annoyed at this cleansing, I can’t help see the intrinsic hypocrisy as with incredible, almost laughable irony, the spraypainted graffiti of young rebel Banksy sits in galleries and the homes of the rich, who would erstwhile shoo him away from their walls.

It’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad and - worse still - sadly indicative of modern ‘acceptable society’ - or of a Government who (and I know they’re new in) would dearly love to see perfectly clean walls around the country and are intent on raising the tuition fees for universities (and art colleges) to such an extreme level that those from impoverished roots haven’t a hope in hell of getting a proper artistic training.

Basically they may aswell go and tag on garden walls in monochromatic extremis because that’s all they’ll ever achieve. A dramatic statement I admit, but what I lament for is the art of future Banksy’s, inspired by him to create on the only canvas they have. But with every squirt the authorities and acceptable society closes in, erasing their vain attempts at creativity.

The result? The walls near you bearing remnants of monochrome, trashy bubbly glimpses of youth culture trying to express itself. Before it gets erased and neatly boxed into a label marked ‘anti-social’.

Feliz Dia de los Muertos!

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:10:44 -0400

Feliz Dia de los Muertos!

Apprentice being filmed next door. Look it’s Karen Brady! http://twitpic.com/338xp1

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:10:44 -0400

Apprentice being filmed next door. Look it’s Karen Brady! http://twitpic.com/338xp1