Dunk Hi'licous

Dunk'tastic, indeed our selection of Dunk HIs are wonderfully comprehensively good.

All great prices and all available instore and online here

I <3 Halo 3

Hi guys, What a horrible week I've had. My prelims are next week so it's been 5 days of excessive revision... Yawn! with a few games of Halo in between. Last week I said that my xbox wouldn't connect to live, but now thanks to my Very good friend Jonny Watters <<<< massive big up!! he sorted the problem and I'm back on line. I've been playing on and off for about 6 months and i have finally reached the rank of Major, which isn't that high but you get a cool badge. Sad I know but its addictive. So my blog this week is a tribute to jonny and Halo 3 for helping me get through this week.



This isn't a flattering picture of my main man, but it reminds me of Pedro from napoleon dynamite so its going up for a laugh. Below is Pedro.



Halo 3, the greatest game ever! Below is a montage made by a guy called Blunts, it shows a kill called a stick, this is when you throw a sticky grenade, and its sticks to your opponent, simple to understand but tricky to master. If anybody out there has an Xbox 360, Halo 3, and thinks they can give me a run for my money, leave a comment and ill give you my gamer tag.



Thanks for reading, Calum.

Travelling around the Rules

Recently, there's been a lot of basketball posts up here-shoes, pointless interview bits from me-lots. I love basketball, one of my favourite sports. 

I also undertand that the NBA is big business and in a big business, you want the things that make you money to be covered in the media lots. You want your product on highlight film. You want your products to become bywords for excellence and for must see viewing.

LeBron James, I think it's easy to say, is the best basketball player in the world right now. He is at such a level that he makes the Kobe's, Dirk's, D-Wade's, Chris Paul's etc of this world look ordinary. 

Look at this:

That is an utterly absurd piece of play. However, LeBron, not to criticise you (I myself only had a 14.7 points average in my 15 year NBA career) but you might want to watch this educational stuff.



My point is that there are rules for normal players in these massive sports leagues (Champions League, NBA, NFL etc) then there's rules for the stars-the Ronaldos, LeBrons and Mannings of this world. Heck, even Jordan occasionally got away with three steps.

This is a pretty well known fact, but is it right to put stars above the game itself?

John Martyn

Sad news that the great and Glaswegian John Martyn has died at 60.

From the Beeb:

Singer-songwriter John Martyn has died at the age of 60.
The folk, blues and funk artist was widely regarded as one of the most soulful and innovative singer-songwriters of his generation.
He was born in Surrey but grew up in Glasgow. He was appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours.
A statement on his website on Thursday said: "With heavy heart and an unbearable sense of loss we must announce that John died this morning."
The musican, who passed away in hospital in Ireland, has been cited as an influence by artists as varied as U2, Portishead and Eric Clapton.
He was regarded as a maverick within the music industry and battled with drugs and alcohol throughout his life.

Totally gutted. One World and Solid Air are getting heavy rotation for me tonight,

Mark

Bubblicious

I can't help but like Rex the Dog for taking all the best bits of the 80s and regurgitating them into a giant ball of awesome. His new single, Bubblicious, is definitely a winner and the video is undoubtedly a peach.

It almost makes you want to forgive him for his atrocities committed in the 90s under the JX moniker: catchy numbers like 'Son of a Gun', and 'There's Nothing I Wont Do' . Hard to believe its the same guy, but thankfully he's been able to go back in time and take the good bits from the 80s to undo some of the damage he did in the 90s.

If you like Bubblicious, definitely check out the new(ish) album 'The Rex the Dog Show', or if that sounds like too much of a commitment, download the 5 minute minimix recorded last year on Annie Mac's Radio 1 show.

Pedro

Fresh Carhartt

Last week, some fresh new Carhartt jeans dropped. We've got all sizes you can think of, 28-40 waist in 32 and 34 legs, so tall folk are now sorted.

Check the nice new Klondike Pant, £85 makes it the most expensive jean in the Carhartt range but the cut is amazing and the selvedge denim gives it that sleek look. Again, the quality is the hardwearing type you get with Carhartt, metal rivets at every stress point give it a classic streetwear look and keep them together for longer.



The Organic Jeans are a new touch too. 100% organic denim, so nice and eco-friendly, while being a tough wearing, fashionable jean. Check the site, nice price too!



Mark

Obama Sham

First up, sorry for the lack of a post last week. Thursday was my birthday, a grand old 22, so I figured I'd take a breather.

Now, ranting service resumes.


Obama. I am utterly disgusted with him.

Obama, he was elected months ago. He sat around on his hands doing nothing. So I thought, "Give him the benefit of the doubt, he needs time, even Jesus kicked it for thirty years before busting out."

Now? He was inaugurated on the 20th of January. What has he achieved since then?

Nothing. Nothing, I say it again, nothing.

He's been in almost 10 days and I'm still waiting.

Let me analyse this further. First up, there was the inauguration itself. There was no celestial beings descending him on a cloud woven from pure silk as promised, nor was there a talking burning Bush in sight, nor was there any confirmation he was found among the reeds on the banks of the Chicago River as a child. There was not even a lousy parting of the crowd at Mall of America for a finale.

If this man had any decency, he would have at least walked through the 2 million strong crowd so that a chosen few could touch his technicolour dreamcoat and anoint his hallowed head.

So here we are, ten days in and...what? Day one, the minimum he could have done is cured AIDS. Maybe he could have ended all war, but I was willing to wait for that-it's a new job after all.

What has he done? Closed Guantanamo Bay? Ended CIA secret prisons? Unveiled a stimulus plan of $800billion plus? Pathetic.

A metaphor involving bread, wine or fish would be passable at this point. He couldn't even be bother overturning the table in Congress and declaring how it was the house of his father. Didn't even walk on the Michigan Lake.

Honestly, you ask for a passable saviour and what do you get? Pull the finger out Obama-it'd better be one that raises the dead and cures leprosy at twenty paces.

Ciao,

Mark.

Coraline trailer

I predict big things for this film.


Fraser.

Update: Kanye West x Louis Vuitton High Top Sneaker

Heres a quick update on the Kanye West x Louis Vuitton shoe I posted the other day.
Strappy!





Fraser.

Mr Officer.

Imagine this in Glasgow?
oh wait, that would never happen.

Fraser.

New Nikes

Hey up, received some new styles of Nike, a few hi-tops, cool Mogan Mid and a sweet dunk lo, all of them are online and instore.
Prices are as usual, cheaper than anywhere else, what else do you expect

New Penfield Bags

Heres a sneeky lil preview from 'Bread & Butter 09' of the bags that the label will be releasing later this year. Similar to the Pendleton fabrics, Penfield went out and dug deep to create their own fabric and pattern. The outcome is an authentic range of messenger bags and backpacks, featuring the new fabric.
They have a nice native american classic feel to them.


Fraser.

Eley Kishimoto Instore

Landed instore today is the much awaited Eastpack range, designed by Eley Kishimoto, there are 3 styles, a classic Eastpack Backpack, a useful Messenger Bag and a funky lil sidepack.

Morrissey - I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris

February 16th new studio album "Years of Refusal" by Morrissey is out.
"Years of Refusal" will be Morrissey's first studio album since 2006's UK #1 "Ringleader of the Tormentors".

Stirling, Albert Hall - May 4th
Dundee, Caird Hall - May 5th
Glasgow, Barrowland - May 7th
Glasgow, Barrowland - May 8th
Liverpool, Empire - May 10th
Birmingham, Symphony Hall - May 13th
Great Yarmouth, Britannia Pier - May 15th
Cambridge, Corn Exchange - May 16th
Hull Arena, - May 19th
Hartlepool, Borough Hall - May 20th
Salisbury, City Hall - May 25th
London, Mile End Troxy Ballroom - May 26th
London, Brixton 02 Academy - May 28th


Fraser.

Chewbacca

Got the store a lil piece of Art, was surfing online and noticed that Andy @ under the kitchen sink had finished a new piece, this one is the chewbacca one, the original is now hanging instore and the block mounted version will be avialable for sale ASAP.

Next time you are in store, have a look and let me know what you think.

KANYE’S LOUIS VUITTON SNEAKERS

So Kanye West fancies himself as a designer? Well here's his first bash at it with with a pretty solid low-top one-toned 'Dune' inspired shoe. Apparently the man himself says they will be reasonably priced and you'll get your moneys worth, but having window shopped at the flagship LV stores in Edinburgh and Manchester and the concession in Selfridges in London, I won't hold my breath for their price tag!
Still pretty fly but, and there's atleast 5 colourways to pick from aswell.


Fraser.

Maisie Moo

Maisie is the shop dog, regular visitors will know her as she jumps up on them as they enter, new visitors, just give her space and she'll come to you when she feels comfortable.

This is maisie breaking into the last photoshoot for som attention, she got bored and wanted clapped, taken for a pee and her dinner.

I Hate Technology.

Hi guys, this week i have not alot for you. My scanner won't scan, my Internets playing up and my xbox doesn't connect to live now! So I'm not chuffed with technology as a whole right now. I can't get any pictures on, so I'm going to have to entertain you with YouTube videos. Here's the Stompdown guys doing what they do best...





Thanks for reading, calum.

Nike Landed

Today we received our first Nike Spring drop, in this delivery are these 3 colorways of the Elite shoe, they are a great lightweight summer shoe.

Price is only £45, as usual, we are there with out pricing, cheapest in the city, but a great shoe and 3 great colours

Slam at Subculture

Yes - thats right people! I'm sure some of you did a double-take right there, but sure enough, the heads of the Glasgow house and techno scenes are colliding this weekend for a rare one-off event. From the Subculture blog:

In nearly 15 years of Subculture, Glasgow's legendary techno duo Slam have never played at Sub Club's flagship Saturday Night.

On Saturday 24th January however, Slam for a special one off will be treating us to
their take on house music going up against Subculture's own Harri.

The most memorable set I ever heard Slam play was when they played a house set at the top of the stairs in the Arches Bar at Pressure a few years ago. I haven't heard them play this kind of gig since, and with Harri on the decks as well sparks are sure to fly this Saturday!

• Where: The Sub Club, Jamaica Street, Glasgow
• When: Saturday 24th January 2009, 10pm to 3am.
• How Much: £5 b4 12, £10 after.

See you there!

Pedro

Sonic Boom

Part of me says this dude has too much time on his hand but being a massive Street Fighter fan a largerr part of me says 'Genious'.

Rising Prices Kikstyo RIP

The pound is shot to hell, 1 for 1 with the euro, $1.4 against the dollar, not so long ago it was $2 to the pound, it wont affect most people, but you are going to see price rises, any goods bought from the states, Japan, China & Europe will rise for sure.

Montana paint is now 30p a can dearer this month, Monster Paint is now 10p a can dearer, Kid Robot toys are now £ for $ ie where a toy is $50, its now £50, whereas before it was £35, tough love.

So the first casualty is Kikstyo, got my delivery this morn, looked at the invoice and had to send the delivery back, a real shame but when a t/shirt moves from being a £35 to a £50 T, its the end of the road.

Not the brands fault, not the middle mans fault, not my fault, the T is the same price in yen as it was last year, just converting to £'s screws it, so with a heavy heart we have had to drop Kikstyo till the pound recovers, when that will be is anyones guess.

Kikstyo where my fave brand, who doesn't love a cute lil jap girl half naked, end of.

Glasgow people - Ivory Blacks tonight!

Come down and dance.
Buy merch from me, whatever....


Fraser.

Hello My Name Is

On Friday, we will take delivery of our new Hello My name is stickers, 60 x 80mm so bigger than the current ones.

We have 5 varieties, Japanese, Spanish, French, German & Plain Old English, from Friday you can get them here.

I <3 Nike (part VIII)

NIKE SNOWBOARDING X ARBITO - DANNY KASS PRO MODEL BOOT




Nike Snowboarding and Arbito have joined up to create these colorful new snowboarding boots. The boots feature Arbito’s colorful graphics. The medium on which the colorful graphics are applied are on the Danny Kass Pro Model boot. Very awesome!


Fraser White.

RON ENGLISH IS CRAZY!

"Abraham Obama"




Fraser Clinton.

BROKEN ANKLES!

Following on from Fraser's post of the new Kobe's from Nike, here's a follow up commercial.

BROKEN ANKLES!!

Mark.

Censored

Photographer Jeanyves Lemoigne.




Fraser.

Stencil Layers

Hi guys, This week is about stencils. Above is a Bush stencils, and the different layers. This is an excellent example of the process to making you own stencil. I found this on a website, it's not my own work but it's awesome. Fat Buddha will be Doing stencil gear soon so check the website or come in store.

Thanks for reading, Calum.

Shaqtastic

Watching Shaq play the other night, I was reminded how good he was back in the day. Totally dominant on both ends of the court, utterly unstoppable. He literally went through people for dunks, slapped shots from all angles and for a 300+pound guy, he had nimble footwork in the paint.

Now, most of the time barring the other night where he had 27 and 10 and looked like '01 all over again, he huffs up and down court and looks ancient. 

However, his patter remains outstanding. Over the years he's collected a fair array of very, very funny quotes. Check, and be reminded at the Diesel's witty prowess:

And then getting bammed up something awful:

Excuse my freakin' French,
Mark

Say YES! to loud music!

Just got this from the notorious house-music evangelist Chef DeParty, and thought it warranted a repost. Help us keep live music loud!

It seems the government is thinking 'what better way to start the New Year, than to take another God given right away from everyone!’

Yes that’s right the Government are trying to pass legislation to force all entertainment venues to have noise control limiters fitted. This means the end of live music, nightclubs etc as we know it! No more oversized collection of speakers, no more massive F1 and Turbo stacks, no more throwing club nights the way we want! I'm sure I'm not speaking for myself when I say that when I go to a club, the last thing on my mind is being able to stand in front of the stack with a cup of tea, chatting about Antiques Roadshow - I wanna actually hear and feel the music the way it should be heard!

Please, please, please, take a minute to sign this petition. This is just one more thing to add to the list that the Government feels that they should be in control of. It won't take long to sign up, and please hurry as the cut off date is 23rd January! STAND UP, AND BE HEARD!

Once again: CUT OFF DATE: JANUARY 23rd 2009!!!

If you like live music, and want to make a stand, then please sign up!!!

• http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoNoiseControl/

Cheers,

Pedro

People of Edinburgh - Studio 24 tonight!

come hang out and dance!


Fraser!

"£15,000 a week for Stevie Crawford?!!?"

This was the famous pronouncement of my friend Tommy, upon reading that Dunfermline dud Stevie Crawford was paid £15k a week to miss chance after chance and consider a good season to be 7 goals in 40 games. I seem to recall Tommy's voice climbing octaves as he repeated the astonishing idea.

Now, Kaka-considerably better than Stevie Crawford, we can all agree on that. Is he worth £100million and £500k a week? Look, he can do things like this:

Okay, yes, fake. But he can do this:

So debate for the day-justify that amount of dosh. Market value suggests that, yes, Kaka is worth a ridiculous amount to a club. But half a million a week? Even if Man City's shirt sales go through the roof they'll never cover that. Not even scrape it. 

Is it not also a total slap in the face to ordinary working folk who want to go see a game? Some Premier League games are now £80 an adult for an average seat. For a father and son to go to the game, it could be £120 in tickets, £25 travel etc. What about food at the game? Shirts, scarves, season tickets? In the current economic climate is it really fair to ask fans to dig deep to support these ludicrious transfers and wages?

Or is that just the market? Is football like art, in that it doesn't bend and sway to economics? Or is it just that the gulf between the elite clubs and everyone else is now to big to mend? Inevitable answers-European Superleagues, less small time football, ruining of the game.

Till later, ciao,

Mark

HMV buy 14 Zavvis

The end has pretty much come for Zavvi as it starts to get broken up and sold piece by piece.

HMV has snapped up 14 of them and also some music venues like the Hammersmith Apollo, well woop be doop for HMV.

I never realised that when Richard Branson sold Virgin to the management buyout it had just made a £48 million pound loss, the use of the word sold implies that they gave him money to buy Virgin, but i've looked really really hard and can find no mention of the figure.
This leads me to believe it wasn't really sold but more like given away, with Richard Branson agreeing to underwrite a certain element of future debt.
To be fair none of the past 9 months could have been anticipated but the wounded animal has limped as far as it can go, and now it dies, boo hoo.

September last year, the board announced that they had managed to stem losses by £10 million and where making good progress, i'm not a mathematician by any stretch of the imagination but that means you made a loss of £38 million, down from £48, bugger, yes £38 million.
That should have been a big warning to everyone that things were not rosy.

BUT, Richard Branson can still use the line that no Virgin business has ever failed, i still don't know how he managed to get NTL to buy Virgin and re-brand all to Virgin.
Shrewd guy, read his book and hes good, quite admire him, starting an airline and knocking lumps out of BA, high 5 for that.
He wrote a great letter to all his cabin crew that were considering striking for more pay, the letter was great, will find it and post it tomorrow, but he managed to get the cabin crew to agree to shut the F**k up and get back to work.

Feckin unions, i hate them.

Rogue Status R.I.P.

Rogue Status has been a staple at Fat Buddha since we openend, our best selling t/shirt has been the Gunshow t, in all its incarnations and many varied colourways.

It has been the longest standing part of Fat Buddha, but after selling hundreds of them, we have decided to let Rogue Status pass gracefully to a better place.

Great li'l brand and one that has done a great job for us, but with our policy of letting some brands go this year, Rogue Status is one of them, sorry to see it go

Best Game on the net

THe best game on the net must be this version of Connect 4, i am the official Doherty household Connect 4 Champion, allcomers welcome to challenge me.

Play it here

Good Advertising Campaign

Cool advertising campaign, find out more details here.

Primark Uses Slave Labour (again)

Once again Primark is caught with its pants down, buying stock from suppliers who use illegal cheap labour, flouting the minimum wage and using migrant workers.
Primark must know about it and only every take action when its on the front page of a sunday paper. People must realise every time they shop in primark, they support them, do yourself a favour and shop elsewhere.

Primark is conducting an investigation into one of its key suppliers after an undercover probe found illegal immigrants were being employed at just over half the minimum wage.

The value fashion chain said it would investigate Manchester-based supplier TNS Knitwear after The Observer and the BBC conducted an undercover investigation into practices at the garment firm.
TNS Knitwear supplies 20,000 garments a week to Primark and workers were caught on camera admitting that they were working there illegally. Some were allegedly being paid as little as £3 an hour.
Another supplier to Primark, Fashion Waves, was investigated and found also to have illegal workers employed.

Work conditions in both factories are claimed to be poor and in breach of health and safety regulations.
A spokesman for Primark said: "Primark was informed this week that one of the UK factories from which it buys some knitwear has allegedly broken a number of UK employment, tax and immigration laws.

"Primark is conducting its own investigation. Once that investigation is completed, it will decide how to proceed. Meanwhile, Primark has handed all relevant information passed to the company over to the relevant enforcement agencies so they may take action."
He added: "We are extremely concerned about the very serious allegations made against our supplier TNS Knitwear and against TNS's unauthorised subcontractor, Fashion Waves."

Sketching.

Hi guys, this week as been a busy one, back to school and its the run up to the prelims, I've had two tests and everyone's upping the pressure to get through the course. So this has meant that i haven't been painting(sadly) but i have managed to fit in a few sketches here and there. for example on the train to work, and in between maths homework and geography. Yawn! I'll stop moaning and put some pictures up. There all kinda different and they're words i don't usually write, but i hope they influence or inspire you. Above is the word EXPO, no idea where the name came from, but it's pen, felt tip and a highlighter for the 3D.

Above is my usual, NON2. It's coloured pencils, fades from yellow to blue.

Above is EAC, strange one again but i like the fill, which was a green felt tip and a yellow highlighter.

Above is CEAL, a Snake, and the face of a monkey. all done in pencil.

Above is 271, it was done in pen, 3d with a cool effect, strange angle as it was a scrap piece of paper on the train.

These aren't my best work but its what I've done this week, and i hope you like them. I want to finish this post with a big thanks to the person that left a comment on my last post. Great advice and I'll keep it in mind for my next painting session.

Thanks for reading, Calum.

The only Recession proof Business

In this time of doom and gloom, companies from everywhere are posting losses its good to know that there are some companies out there that can buck the trend and show an increase in sales, not like the following few.

Alexon (AXN.L) Clothing Like-for-like sales down 10.5 pct in 23 weeks to Jan 3

Blacks Leisure Outdoor goods Like-for-like sales down 3.9 pct in 6(BSLA.L) weeks to Jan. 3

EBTM (EBTM.L) Online fashion Net sales at online retail division down 33 pct in December

House of Fraser Department stores Like-for-like sales down 1.5 pct in 5 weeks to Jan. 3

John Lewis [JLP.UL] Department stores Like-for-like sales excluding VAT flat in 5 weeks to Jan. 3

In this time of despair, who can prevail, the mighty GREGGS, Like-for-like sales up 5.3 pct in 4 weeks to Jan. 3.Everyone loves greggs, steak beak, sausage roll, yum yum bubble gum, good to see that the whole unhealthy eating thing doesn't put people off

Zavvi to close 22 stores

Zavvi is to shut 22 of its stores with immediate effect after it fell in to administration before Christmas.

The closures mean 178 employees will lose their jobs, on top of the 69 members of staff who were made redundant at head office at the end of last year.
Administrator Ernst & Young will keep the remaining 92 stores open and implement further reductions on already discounted products, with 20 to 50 per cent off across all product lines with effect from Friday January 9.

Ernst & Young said it is still attempting to sell all or part of the business as a going concern and has received 60 expressions of interest.
Ernst & Young joint administrator Tom Jack said: "Despite record consumer demand since Christmas it is no longer possible to support continued trading across all of the Zavvi stores. Unfortunately the current difficulties faced on the UK high street seem to be discouraging retailers from investing in a significant number of new stores.
"However, we intend to continue to trade the remaining Zavvi portfolio with a view to selling all or part of the Zavvi business as a going concern. So far we have received 60 expressions of interest, which we continue to actively pursue. We are extremely grateful to the staff and management at all stores and the head office for their fantastic support throughout this difficult time."

Ernst & Young said it is working closely with the Insolvency Service's Redundancy Payment Office and Job Centre Plus to provide support and advice to all employees made redundant, including a fast track process for paying redundancy entitlements.

Zavvi is pish just now, that glasgow one must need to take in some amount of dough to keep going, wanted 3 CD's last week, Zavvi had none of them, HMV is looking pretty good these days.

8 for '08

Happy new year everyone! Hope you've all recovered from the excesses of the holiday season and are roaring full steam ahead into 2009. 2008 was a good year for me, the highlights being able to see Carl Cox play at Burning Man at probably the best outdoor venue on the planet, Opulent Temple, and getting to see the Inland Knights, Jay West and DJ Mes play right here in Glasgow at Fiasco.

Before I get right into 2009, I'd like to pause for a minute and have a quick look back at whats been happening online in the world of house music over the past 12 months. Here’s a rundown of 8 of my top podcast / online mixes from 2008, in no particular order.

These mixes pretty much sum up what I've been listening to the past year, with Frankie J, Mes, Youngman, Bobby & Klein keeping it jazzy and jackin', Gavin Burrows, Oliver $ and HiJack dropping fat, glitchy, electronic sounds, and Groove Armada playing one of the sets of the summer, kicking off their new Wonderland night at Space in Ibiza.

You should be able to download all the mixes, which I highly encourage..!

1. Frankie J – Spatula City Fall Mix 2008
2. Joey Youngman – Live @ HAWT 1 Year Anniversary
3. DJ Mes – Live at Fiasco 28-11-08
4. Gavin Burrows – Welcome to Eaglesville Promo Mix
5. Oliver $ – Bodytonic Podcast 018 – July 08
6. Bobby & Klein – Miami WMC 2008 Promo Mix
7. Groove Armada Essential Mix – Live at Wonderland, Ibiza 13-06-08
8. HiJack September 2008 Mix

If you like the mixes, then most of them you can subscribe to either as podcasts or as blogs to get the latest updates. Enjoy!

Pedro.

Don't Be Evil

That's the motto of all-powerful, Internet megalith that is Google. In even looking up the stock for Google, it was best to use Google. If I had trouble opening a bottle of Irn Bru or piercing the plastic on a carton of juice, I'd probably use google. They'd inevitably find a solution.

Google Maps, Stock, Mail, Video, Store, Shopping, Earth, Translate, Labs, News, Codes, Catalogues-the blog I'm writing here is powered by Google. Oh, and it's a search engine as well. Apparently.

This is simple market economics-Google is better at providing these services. They provide faster, more efficient services that work and, ergo, people use them. Ergo, more people use them than any other brand doing the same thing.

This level of total dominance is hard to spot in many other, particularly emerging, new tech, markets. Yes, there are massive companies that loom over most industries, but Google has almost total control over a huge swathe of 'public' space.

This Guardian article raised many questions to me. What was a fairly stupid, crude yet innocuous video has sent this writer off on a storm of worry. However, the comments posted by users (oh, the irony with this story!) are far more interesting.

Now, I really dislike a lot of the Guardian. I think their sport is very in depth, I think a large portion of their arts coverage, while London-centric, is very strong and their scope of news is very broad. They are still a bunch of unwashed, whining hippie Liberals that I have little time for. And they really can't edit-spelling helps in a nwsepaepr.

This article brought up a few issues. Google, most certainly, is terrified of treading on any government's toes. They seem to fail to understand that they are the type of organisation that has a chance to end the silly notion of nation states-they naturally undermine the outdated and irrelevant concept of borders. Yet they toe the line on all of the little idiosyncratic, xenophobic bollocks that nations like Turkey (sorry, have I insulted Turkishness?), Thailand (sorry, did I insult your silly little monarchy?) or China (sorry, did I insult your ridiculous political system?) Check out Mr Graeme West's post for more clarity on this issue of borders on the Internet.

Filters and censorship are high on the agenda of the 'democratic' free world states like the UK, US and Australia right now. For obvious reasons, the major industrial states, China, US, Germany et al, consider the Internet to be the most dangerous weapon against them. They're not scared of terrorism or invasion or resource struggles-they're terrified of the ability to disseminate information about these subjects to a wide audience for free. The Internet can undermine governments and expose them for the dangerous, corrupt liars they are. (Just a sec, I think Hazel Blears is at the door. And she's brought friends with guns!)

Google, if it considers itself to be 'not evil', should start standing up for free speech. They should refuse to bite the bullet from these governments even it hurts their business interests. They are bigger than just a company, or at least could be.

But the article at the Guardian exposed another flaw with all this-accuracy and the quality of journalism. Sadly, for journalists, the Internet has exposed that many of them are not only not every good, but that there are better people out there. And they write comments in the blog posts after journalist's columns.

A poster called RogerINtheUSA threw this out there:

Except that the folks at Google, which owns YouTube, didn't see it that way. Within a couple of days, they had taken it down for an unspecified violation of YouTube's terms of use

The Guardian, apparently to make Google seem more arbitrary, does not state the reason the video was taken down.

A few instants spent following the Guardian's link finds this:

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Howard Owens, GateHouse Media's director of digital publishing, has responded to YouTube's decision to remove the Beverly Citizen's controversial video of the "Horribles" parade.

According to Owens, YouTube acted after receiving a complaint from someone whose face was visible in the video. Apparently YouTube has a privacy policy under which it will take down a video at literally anyone's request.

further checking finds

Statement from Howard Owens, Director of Digital Publishing, Gatehouse Media:

GateHouse Media has been using YouTube as its primary video hosting provider for several months and weve been in the process of finalizing a partnership deal with YouTube that would give us more technical features, better branding and a revenue share on advertising sold.

When we discovered that the Horribles video had been removed from YouTube, I immediately e-mailed our key contact at YouTube and asked him to investigate the issue.

His response was that the video had been removed over a privacy complaint.

In my reply, I questioned the assertion of privacy. The parade was a public event. There is no privacy issue.

In the follow up e-mail, we also learned that there was alleged death threat against a woman in the video.
http://home.wickedlocal.com/2008/07/15/youtube-pulls-the-plug-on-beverly-parade-video/

So there you go. He's a better journalist than Dan Kennedy, because he did what journalists are supposed to do-check facts. The level of accuracy on the Internet is a major issue; it's all very well us all pushing for total freedom to say or show anything on the net but if people are going to be libelous, liars or just downright lazy, then there's no point because it completely invalidates the point of the Internet.

What will it take to make Google wake up to all of this? Probably the threat of curbing their business-regulation. What will make the Internet much more useful, in terms of accuracy and value? Vigilance.

More lighthearted stuff to come...

Mark

Pooch

Pit bull comprised of various colorful Air Max 90s including the CMYK, Carnival and King of the Mountain models.

Sit boy.

Fraser x

Ron Asheton

I'm a big fan of The Stooges: sad to see that guitarist Ron Asheton has died.

From BBC News:

The Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton has been found dead at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Asheton, 60, was an original member of the rock band fronted by Iggy Pop in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
His riffing featured on hits including I Wanna Be Your Dog, No Fun and Down On The Street.
Police sergeant Brad Hill said there were no signs of foul play, and the musician's death appeared to be from natural causes.
He said officers discovered Asheton after being called to his home on Tuesday by an associate who had been unable to reach him for several days.
The band - which also included Asheton's brother Scott on drums and the late Dave Alexander on bass - are on the shortlist to enter the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this April.
Split and reform
Formed in 1967, The Stooges were not well-received by critics or fans in their early days but their records, especially 1973's Raw Power, were a key influence on punk.
A tour in support of that album was overshadowed by Pop's heroin addiction, and the group disbanded in February 1974.
Pop went on to score solo hits such as Lust for Life, Real Wild Child and The Passenger.
Asheton, meanwhile, acted in a series of low-budget horror films in the 1980s and 1990s.
He was also ranked as the 29th greatest rock guitarist by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.
By this time Asheton, his brother Scott and bassist Mike Watt had started playing as The New Stooges. The Stooges officially reformed, along with Iggy Pop, in 2003.

In August, The Stooges had all their original equipment and touring gear stolen. This included all the original amps, cabs etc that Asheton used when playing those scratchy, Ramones-meets-jazz style riffs.

I'm gonna crank Fun House up nice and loud now.

Mark

Addict Clothing, gonna go bust this year ??

I heard a rumour last month about Addict going bust one point soon, didnt sound like it couldn't happen and id guessed as much from looking at recent ranges.

3 things have confirmed that they will go bust, here goes.

1 - Never seen so much Addict Clothing in TK Maxx, i know they have been using it as a dumping ground for ages, but im talking tons of shit in TK Maxx, complete size breaks, complete colour options, whole styles, loads of jackets.

Why is there so muh in TK Maxx, simple, Addict only order what retailers pick, so that way they dont need to guess the market or sit on excess stock.
People always cancel orders but the level of stock they dumped into TK Maxx indicates far worse problems, talking lots of cancelled orders, either from retailers going bust or more likely retailers realising the range is poor, doesn't sell and they cancel the order.

2 - Scanned 35 retailers i knew from recent times as Addict stockists, half werent doing addict and the rest, couldnt work out how much was just old stock they had lying around, so thats roughly over 50% of wholesale accounts dropped the brand.
ASOS, must be one of Addicts biggest acounts have the whole range at between 50%-70% off, they dont redue by that much unless the stuff is not shifting as much, they will drop Addict next season for sure, when they do, thats a huge chunk of your business oot the windae.

3 - Received the Catalogue for Autumn Winter 2009, good looking book and up to Addicts usual standard, they have always had a great name for producing excellent catalogues.
Delve into the catalogue and its the same as every other catalogue from the past 3 years, same styles, same terrible knitwear, same poor shirts, stupidly priced Denims and the usual copies of pieces from the Carhartt range.
I went through it to see what i would order for the store, a C-Law T, She one T and that was it, Addict have never managed to get ladies right, it is to put it mildly shit, the denim range was great at one point, then the prices went stupid and never had a pair since.

So thats my 3 reasons for Addict going pop.
Its hard enough out there, check our customer testimonials to see how well we treat our customers, Addict could not ever do that as they regularly treat their wholesale customers like shit, this is first hand experience.

SMUG, work from show

Following on from yesterdays pictures of Klingatrons work, here are some images from Smug, a Glasgow Graffiti artist, when it comes to Photo Realism, he must be up there with the best, nicer guy you couldn't meet.

Would like to have posted some other images from the show, but cant seem to find any, so no offence to the other writers present.

Klingatron work from Show

Found these images on Mattscat Flickr, from a recent show at the Studio Warehouse in aid of raising funds for the Princes Trust, This is some of the work by Klingatron, Glasgows best Stencil Artist, go online and see his work here, if you feel a bit more generous, you can purchase his stuff here.

I got myself and Big Al from Sneakerthings a Klingatron Bear T/shirt each, for the prie of £10 they are great value for money, Beefy T so good good quality, so buy one.

http://www.klingatron.com/
http://klingatron.bigcartel.com/

Christmas Day Graffiti Part 2.

Hi guys, just an extra few pictures that I took but couldn't fit in.

Above is an experiment a I tried, instead of blending the two colours, I tried to drip the purple to the pink... Didn't really work.

Above is a different fill I tried, I use the same technique alot in my sketches so I decided to try it out with a can.

Above is a star that I was trying to do, the black paint beneath mixed with the pink so the centre isn't very good, but turned out not too bad.

Above is a can of krylon. It's old school, but good paint, and for such a light colour it covered pretty well, was given a whole box of this for free from Big Al from Sneakerthings

Thanks for reading calum.

Art For SALE, Mattscat

What do we have here, what we have are some Canvas Pieces from Mattscat, check out his Flickr account here.

These prints will be online this week and are available instore now, Mattscat work is well known around the glasgow area, especially his stickers which seem to be everywhere, one you start spotting them.

They will be sitting alongside the works from Under the kitchen sink and the banksy prints, check them out here.

Hang up

Fraser Mart

Always on Time

Well,Happy New Year everyone.

Hope you had a good one. Hope you Spent it with the ones you love.

Like to mention the guy that was selling the Big issue at merchant city at 3 in the morning.

Hopefully you sold loads,you deserved it as it was bloody freezing...

See You all Soon

Stephen

New Year,

Well,

Happy new year to you all and hope your new year went with a swing, house parties tend to be best and ours was no different, friends up from England and we ate drank and were very merry, wii bowling and Singstar on PS2 always gets the party started.

If you dont live in Scotland, come here next Hogmany and see how New Year should be celebrated, so the hangovers should have subsided by now and it will be back to work soon.

Good year ahead and glad to see the back of 2008, peace to you all

What will the administrators do?

Came aross this really informative article on the wonderful BBC News, as usual well writtten and will answer a few questions, full artile is here.

The insolvencies of Woolworths and MFI present their newly appointed administrators with some tough tasks.

Dozens of staff from the two insolvency firms concerned are busily putting themselves in the shoes of the former management.

Their task is to try to retrieve something for the creditors - the taxman, banks, other lenders, and possibly even the unsecured creditors like suppliers and customers.
All that means dealing with staff, including making some redundant, running or shutting stores as appropriate, moving stock around, and assessing the levels of debts and the value of assets in the companies.

'On the hoof'

The administrators will be talking to creditors, suppliers, customers and, most importantly, trying to find a buyer for all or parts of the now insolvent businesses.

If you can't get enough information I'm afraid the only answer is to close everything down
Christopher Morris, former liquidator to collapsed BCCI bank
One of the UK's leading insolvency experts, Christopher Morris of Begbies Traynor, says all this can, not surprisingly, be very difficult to do.
"Sometimes you are lucky enough to have had a bit of a lead in and some time to plan the administration," he says.
"Other times the problems of the company come to a head very quickly - you go in with a zero knowledge base."

In some cases, plans have to made up on the hoof.
"Information gathering can be very difficult where you have low staff morale," Mr Morris says.
"You can get stocks disappearing, other company assets disappearing; you may get little co-operation from the management and if you can't get enough information I'm afraid the only answer is to close everything down," he warns.

Generating cash

Closing stores before Christmas when many make almost all their annual profit might turn out to be a mistake.

Stores may stay open to generate cash
However the administrators take over all the powers the now ex-directors had.
Bank accounts will be frozen by the creditor banks so new ones will be opened.

And, if possible, goods will continue to be sold while a possible rescue plan is formulated.

As Christopher Morris points out that will generate some cash for the firms in the short term.
"The one advantage when you go in as administrator is you don't have to pay past debts, or very few of them," he says.
"So all the suppliers would not get paid yet, so you have that cash advantage with money coming in from the sale of stock without having necessarily to make the matching payments to suppliers."

That money can then be used to fund trading for the time being.

Rescue or closure? The legal emphasis these days during an administration is on formulating a rescue plan.
Someone might find they have a shop but no stock, so there is no point in keeping it open

A key task for an administrator will be to identify the good (profitable) parts of a business and the bad (unprofitable) parts.

The aim is to find a buyer for the good bits who will then, hopefully, keep them trading.
The rest, typically, will be closed down and be sold for whatever residual value the remaining assets still have.

Making those assessments is not easy and can rely on the advice and experience of the previous management.

They may not be willing to provide this, which can make the whole process a long one.
But if an administrator thinks the situation is hopeless then immediate closure is entirely possible.
"If the thing is a goner it's a goner," Mr Morris warns.
"Sometimes under 'reservation of title' a supplier can come and simply take back their goods, so someone might find they have a shop but no stock, so there is no point in keeping it open."

Customers

With Christmas coming up, the administrators at Woolies and MFI may try to trade though the next month or so, turning as much stock into cash, moving stock from closed branches and depots to the ones that are still trading.
What about people who have paid for goods on deposit?

They will be entitled to collect their goods it they are in their name in the back of a shop or store, provided they pay up the full price.

But if the goods are not personally identified or have not arrived from a supplier, they may lose their money and become a creditor, or have some recourse to their credit card company.
A lack of trade insurance for suppliers has been one development triggering the insolvency of the two groups.

But Christopher Morris points out that that is not such a problem for administrators who wish to continue trading.
"If you supply an administrator with goods he is bound to pay you, so the question of credit insurance does not arise there," he points out.
"Liabilities incurred by administrators after their appointment take priority over everything else, so if you supply an order from an administrator then in all circumstances you will get paid."

Time wasters

Keeping an insolvent business trading is a very difficult task.
There may be endless things to deal with as regards the premises

"I don't envy them, it's a tough job, they will be working round the clock, very large numbers of people will be required at the start at least, one problem after another will be emergi
Morris explains.
Among them are time wasters.
"One problem you always get is inquisitive parties who purport to be interested in buying the business but who have not got a real interest," he says.
"You have to sort them out and deal with people who have the real backing and willingness to take on a difficult situation."

In some cases, would-be buyers have been aware of the situation and have been eyeing up the insolvent firm for a while.
In what is known as a "pre-packed" deal the businesses can be declared insolvent and then sold to the new owners in one fell swoop.
The publicity may also flush out interested buyers.

Landlords

Among the complicating factors can be owners of stores or depots; landlords who have leased the properties to the now bust companies.

There may be arrears of rent and unpaid suppliers of gas and electricity.
"There may be endless things to deal with as regards the premises," Morris says.

So what does he think is likely to happen to Woolies and MFI?
"I expect to see a limited period of trading, the closure of some branches, and hopefully a disposal as quickly as possible."

The unfortunate fact though is that in the middle of a severe credit crunch, potential buyers may find it impossible to borrow the money to go through with the deals, even if they think they are potentially profitable.

Happy New Year To All

...and a big thank you to all our customers of last year and all those soon to be customers this year. Have a great one and thanks for your support.

Mark

Happy New Year

Hello 2009
I've been expecting you...



Fraser x