small ritual

fat christ

this theatre poster has been banned from the tube in case it causes offence, but it made me laugh because it [and the situation - an actor told he is too fat to play jesus] are the perfect illustration for this piece that i wrote years ago for grace. i wish i'd called the article 'fat christ' now ;)

in fact the original version of the article wondered more about medieval depictions of the suffering christ and 'man of sorrows' as aids to affective piety, which would have been derailed by evidence of good living in the style of friar tuck. which is a long way of saying, you feel sorry for him if he's emaciated but less so if he's fat. but as we've rediscovered the feasting and partyloving jesus in recent years, should we change our images of him to suit?

interior design

the relative lack of blogging or any other creative activity lately is because most of my spare-time energies have been going into sorting out my flat. my delicious links tell the story [of inspiration more than purchase, i should say!]. hopefully the wall panels will go up this weekend. then it will be finished enough to take some photographs.

in the meantime take a look at this marvellous 60s home. the stuff's mostly mass-market kitsch, but put together so well it's a design triumph. in this country one would call the national trust and ask them to preserve it for ever. the house is in los angeles, but almost every aspect of the interior is familiar to me from my childhood in england - clearly this idiom was universal. it brings back nagging non-specific memories - that wood wallpaper behind the dining table - who in my childhood had just that, and similar dining chairs too? my mum would know.

not on facebook

a t-shirt for me and jonny

new labyrinth stuff

1: sendsecret is a spin-off from the Peace Labyrinth running this weekend in Christchurch NZ.


well done to pete and joyce majendie and all their collaborators - i'm looking forward to the photos. it amazes me, to see that logo in use so far away and nearly eight years later.

2: speaking of which, there is a new site at labyrinth.org.uk. i had neglected it horribly once the tours were over in 2002 - the weeds grew around it - but then the proost relaunch this year broke all the merchandise links and i had to do something. same content, but a whole lot smarter, deframed and deflashed, with the online labyrinth incorporated.

[the splashpage of the original site was a way of dealing with the fact that it was three sites all hosted and run separately. the forum closed after the cathedral tours, the online labo was on yfc uk's servers, and the explanatory site on ukonline had become inaccessible to me - a dead site. the new one is all on yfc's server, to whom thanks]

and i've subtly updated the logo. the black line is now the *path* rather than the boundaries [ie the tape] - so it's the inverse of the original. should've thought of that at the beginning - the old one's tattooed on me now. damn ;)

peace labyrinth promo video

the straw-bales christmas labyrinth created by side door returns to christchurch this year - check out the promo video - it'll make you smile! great use of the stick people.

despair, inc

great t-shirts from despair inc. and they're on american apparel stock.

other stuff too.

via keep austin weird

pawnography

mike radcliffe is selling some amusingly naughty t-shirts

buy one get one tree

innocent drinks are running a tree-planting promotion on their large cartons - each carton has a unique code, go to their website and enter the code, and a tree is planted in a carbon-offsetting scheme by carbon clear. farmers are paid for tree survival and growth over ten years, rather than just seedlings planted, to give incentives for long-term benefits.

i'm suspicious of carbon-offsetting projects [lowering consumption is the only sure way] but this one came free with the drink, so why not.

a better bill

i really do like these designs for US dollar bills. if only...

more howies

so ade saw my post below and kindly said i should come in for a chat [and jonny's already had his coffee]

which reminded me to put the howies wardrobes photos onto flickr - now that there are no photos on smallritual.org i have to put all the old stuff on flickr to repair the blog archive links.

in moscow tomorrow until friday.