NDSM Wharf

The NDSM Wharf is a really cool place that has an old Shipyard building warehouse, which has been transformed into a skatepark and customised portacabins for 250+ artists. It's a really interesting/inspiring/random place to walk around if you are ever in Amsterdam.

Begin by asking questions

Question

The Big Questions dashboard widget is a free download from the people at IDEO and TED, that shows a new question every day to get you thinking. It's been around for a few years and it's a great springboard for exploring ideas and possibilities.

My magazine would be a mix of creativity, ideas, art, faith, design, culture, inspiration, technology and stories. Which is actually what I'd like this blog to be about. Here's to posting more more intentionally and more regularly. Call it my new school year's resolution. 

 

Peace in the Park

On Saturday Bry and myself manned the balloon stall at Peace in the Park, Sheffield. The idea was to get people to write messages of peace, attach them to helium balloons and release them all together at 5pm. After a few sketchy moments transporting them across a field under a net we managed to do just that. It all turned out a bit sony bravia...

Gil Scott Heron

Gill
On Saturday my friend Joe was djing at a pub called the west end in Sheffield and I went along. Every so often he and a few mates take over the place and play music they like, mostly funk, jazz and good hiphop. I noticed that a lot of Gil Scott Heron was being played, and that was the first that I heard he had died.

I only got into his music a few years ago after discovering some tracks on muxtape. His gravely voice, poetry and soulful way of telling stories really stood out to me. Hearing him talk in interviews you can tell that he was a man who had experienced a lot of life. I heard that on his last album "I'm new here" they kept the microphone on all the time and and many of his conversations ended up on the final record. He was poetic without trying, and there was a realness that saw through the culture of the day. He painted amazing pictures of broken situations and people he came into contact with. He was pretty broken himself too, and maybe it was all the drugs and stuff that caught up with him in the end.

I hope my voice sounds like his in 40 years, but I'm guessing as I'm a tall skinny non smoking white english guy it won't! I also hope I have a bit more hope, that when I talk of home I have something more positive to say than this.