petescully - @ 20six.co.uk

when saturday comes

Alors, je suis de retour, considerez ceci...
Beckham has landed. Rather, The Beckhams have landed. LA Galaxy unveiled goldenballs this week, along with a brand new kit and badge, club colours, in fact pretty the only thing they haven’t done is rename the club ‘Beckham Soccer Club’. It’s all very exciting now, but I have a feeling this will turn out to be a bad move for Beckham, maybe even for the MLS. And maybe for Posh as well – recently recalled into the Spice Girls team, she may find the long commute between Hollywood and Abbey Road seriously affects her singing voice.
Incidentally, the author of this BBC article apparently has no idea who Beckham is or what year it is, bizarrely believing David was a teenager in the 1970s, saving up his cash for the latest Abba album. It also implies that the Blind Beggar pub is in Walthamstow, when it is miles away in Whitechapel. Come on, BBC, you can do better than this hackneyed twaddle.
And it’s new football kit time of year. I’ve been following all the new kits on this site – there do seem to be a lot of clubs switching to Umbro these days, don’t there? Umbro is seeing a resurgence. What I’ve noticed most this year is the way they’re all being marketed: 125^th anniversary here, centenary there, Celtic are commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions, Northern Ireland are celebrating 25 years since they were in the 1982 World Cup (which wasn’t even their last time there). Best of all, Arsenal have a new white away kit, marketed not as the ‘we-wish-we-were-Spurs-now’ kit, but the ‘Chapman’ kit, enticing people to buy it by associating it with their 1930s manager. Shameless.
Changing sports to baseball, this week San Francisco hosted the All-Star Game, American League versus National League. I saw some of it, on TV of course, it was quite fun, my wife tried explaining some of the rules to me, the fly-balls, the bases which can and can’t be over-run, all of that confusing fun. The most fun was reserved for the guys on the little boats in the bay, waiting for a home-run ball to come splashing their way (and from SF Bay to e-bay). There was even a little bulldog swimming around in a lifejacket. The thing I liked the most, though, was the poster for the event, a classic style.
Oh man, while I was out sketching in Sacramento last week, I lost my mechanical eraser. Listen, I had had this thing for about 18 years, it was my favourite sketching item and I just knew I’d lose it someday. I clip it to my bag or my shirt or wherever, I’m very lax, but I’ve had it since I was about 13 and managed not to lose it. So I have bought a replacement, and it’s just not the same.
I still managed to do some sketching this week:

15.7.07 02:58

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july on campus

copic multiliner, watercolour, moleskine; lunchhtime today, and a bit of yesterday, but started quickly and lazily lunchtime friday, yes i was very slow considering the length of my lunches but at least i ate before drawing (don't want greasy fingers all over nice moleskine paper now do we). Yesterday I did the ink and the green paint, you see, before the whistle blew, so i scanned it to look at later for reference. I quite like the starkness of the green and white version. See it below, on the flickr place.

18.7.07 07:35

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move over david

Considerez ceci:
Never mind Beckham. Something else has finally arrived, albeit slightly different. Pepsi Max, as anyone who knows me knows it’s my favourite drink, is here in the US, known however as ‘Diet Pepsi Max’, with all the same shit as in the original, zero sugar, plus the addition of ginseng, meaning I can also wash my hair in it. Pepsi Max! Here in America!
Never mind Beckham. They (the mysterious ‘they’, who make things happen) have remade the Bionic Woman as a new series, and starring as the bionic lass herself is…Zoe Slater! Off Eastenders! There we are, watching the TV, and a preview comes on, and there she is. She’s supposed to be ‘involved in a near-fatal car accident’ before being rebuilt as an android…I really hope this accident takes place new year’s eve, outside the Vic, just for old times sake. I wonder if Dennis Rickman will show up as the six-million dollar man.
Never mind Beckham. Tomorrow is Harry Potter Day, and downtown Davis is having a big feast of activities in the run-up to midnight, when the books will be released. I saw the latest movie, Order of the Phoenix, twice already – the first time, I really enjoyed it, but I couldn’t help but notice all the things that were missing or different. The second time, I enjoyed it a lot more, because I was watching it as a film.
Never mind Beckham. I bought the new Art Brut album recently, “It’s a Bit Complicated”. I’ve followed them for years now, and I was worried that a second album would not, could not, live up to the punch of the first. This second album, however, doesn't even. I can see what they’re doing, and musically they’re more accomplished (not always a good thing), but the themes are a bit tired, a little samey, there is none of the rough-and-readiness of Bang Bang Rock'nRoll. Whereas their first album seemed effortless, on this one they just didn’t make an effort. I’m still a fan.
And finally, never mind Beckham, here in Davis, in the middle of July, it RAINED! I remember this time last year, sweltering in the ridiculous central valley heat, thinking it would never be cool ever again. It was about 115 F…this week it was in the low 80s, and it even rained. I read in the paper that the last time we saw rain up here on July 18^th was in the days of the Gold Rush. I didn't live here then. And nor did Beckham.

20.7.07 06:51

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tahoe blue

I'd never been to Lake Tahoe before, but we went today - a long way there and a long way back. The first thing that struck me was the absolutely amazing blue of tahoe - i really wanted to be able to just capture it (through the magic of photography, we did so, but I wanted the capture the real brilliance of the blue in paint - I don't think I really caught it, but it's as close as I could get. It was really quite gorgeous up there, though the town was a little touristy; south lake tahoe crosses the state line, so no sooner have you passed the sign that welcomes you to nevada are you bombarded with casinos. Our coach continued on to zephyr cove, however, where we spent the day just sitting beside the lake (under the shade of the trees, of course), i painted (and it seemed to take hours) while my wife read the new harry potter (it was my turn on the way home). There were a lot of people at the lake, partying students, a couple of weddings, watersportists, it was very busy. But so blue, so so blue...

22.7.07 07:09

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woodbridge, and a wooden bridge

watercolours; got humid, more humid than we like in davis. The picture above is of a little nature area called woodbridge, in south davis, just a short walk from where i live. There are the most incredible bright red dragonflies that hover around there, by the creek, as well as various birds of prey and, at night, hundreds of bats. But I just drew a couple of trees, because they sit still. Below, today's lunchtime sketch, down at the arboretum again, another of those wooden bridges.

25.7.07 05:12

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the smoking gun

The Disney Corporation, I've just heard, are going to be the first studio to ban images of smoking in their movies. Now while I am all for smoking bans, I'm not entirely sure how you can be affected by second-hand smoke from a cinema screen. However I can see what they're doing - they don't want to glamorize it, especially to younger viewers. Fair enough. They'll have to edit out the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. But to ban it completely...it does seem a very big move against artistic freedom, I'm not sure how I feel about it. So why don't they ban depictions of people being shot?
I was thinking this the other day while watching TV (I think it was a movie; I rarely watch TV these days unless it's a quiz show or travel show, or football with Mexican commentary), and I noticed that the swear-words had been edited out (with anomalous moments of silence), and yet the random bloody shooting of people remorselessly by what were being portrayed as normal people, not psychopaths, was absolutely fine for these sensitive viewers. Watch a guy have his guts blasted across the living room wall, you can even smell the lead, but you can't hear it when he says 'fuck'. Heaven forbid. It's one of the famous seven banned words on American TV. Obviously, you hear someone saying fuck, you'll want to tear down society, whereas watching the casual use of guns, that won't affect you. Just a thought.

26.7.07 06:52

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purple's republic

another lunchtime sketch on campus, this time near tercero hall, one of those trees with dark purple leaves.

26.7.07 06:55

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another day in the city

Went down to san francisco again yesterday for another day of exploring and sketching; started off in downtown/nob hill, where at the sugar cafe on sutter i had another enormous brownie (they make 'em big here) which lasted all day, while i sketched the italian restaurant opposite. then I bussed over to the marina, where i spent the rest of the day, idling around the palace of fine arts (see above) and along the shorefront of the bay. It was sunny, but thankfully cool, a little windy but not too bad. I really like the marina area, a nice place to spend the day. My sketches are below, on the flickr pages.

29.7.07 23:45

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purple's republic another lunchtime sketch on campus, this time near tercero hall, one of those trees with dark purple leaves.
26.7.07 06:55	Permalink / 2 Comment(s) / Comment