Situated in the heart of Philadelphia and only a short walk from the City Hall, is the Space 1026 gallery and workshop.

It's not an 'official' gallery as such, but more of a collective space used by artists, although even their own website seems confused as to what they actually are:

Space 1026 is a community - a creative community - not an institution.

Or you could try and pull some postmodern shit and say Space 1026 does not exist; but then you‘d have to do some explaining to the mice that eat our leftovers every night.

Space 1026 is not a collaboration! Yes it is! No its not! Yes it is! Exactly.

Whatever it is, we popped in to say hello and have a look around and found a friendly bunch of artists inside.

Anyway, here's some photos.











More Philadelphia pics here:: Philadelphia photos. More to come soon!

Labels: philadelphia, photos

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Some photos from my Christmas trip to Porthcawl, on the south Wales coast. It was chuffing freezing!


The lighthouse, which dates back to 1860.


Lifeguard's lookout tower.


The 1930s Pavilion.



This luxury development may have impressed the Royal Society of Architects in Wales, but the locals have remained unimpressed, dubbing it it 'the bottle bank'. :)

Labels: porthcawl, seaside, wales

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We were on Box Hill this weekend and there were some lovely, super-expensive, drool-inducing road bikes with state-of-the-art gearing and featherweight frames, but this was the one I *hearted* the most:





I got chatting to the fella and he said he'd got the 50 year old petrol-driven 'Mini Motor Gearless Cycle Outboard' engine from eBay, and it had successfully powered him to the top of the hill.

In true Brit eccentric style, he was also building five other bikes at home (including one for his girlfriend who had arthritis and couldn't pedal any more).

He had to drive the bike over to the licensing place to get it registered (it has a 50cc engine running hand-mixed two stroke fuel), so it has a numberplate on the back and a tax disk on the front too.

The bike's motor runs against the rubber of the back tyre and apparently hits around 18mph max, notching up around 250 miles to the gallon.

I love it!

Labels: bicycle, box hill

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Close to the southern outskirts of London, Box Hill stands on the North Downs of Surrey, overlooking Dorking to the south-west.

Named after the box trees on its steep southern and western flanks, Box Hill occupies around 490 hectares of wooded downland and is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation.

With the New Year's hangovers still hurting, we took a bracing walk around the top of Box Hill:






Pile on!



More walks here: urban75 walks

Labels: box hill, surrey, walks

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Happy New Year to my handful of readers!

We had a ball last night at the Offline NYE party with two great bands, loads of beers and some fabulously drunk DJing. Here's a few photos:









And my favourite...




:)

More photos here.

Labels: bands, brixton, offline

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I love walking around deserted, out of season seaside resorts, so here's a few pics from my trip to Coney Beach Pleasure Park, Porthcawl in south Wales...

Labels: seaside, wales

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Some photos from a brisk - nay, chuffing freezing - Boxing Day beach walk on the south Wales coast.

The weather was fantastic and the gale force wind sure sorted out my hangover!

Labels: photos, wales, walk

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I've stood on these terraces man and boy, but with a soon-come move across the road to a shiny, corporate friendly box, I thought I'd grab a few photos of the Bob Bank at Cardiff City FC.

I was there to see  the mighty Cardiff City crush Plymouth Argyle 1-0, on an icy cold late December afternoon. I loved it!

Labels: cardiff city, football

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By gum it was freezing cold, but I still managed my traditional Christmas Day walk up Graig Llanishen, to the north of Cardiff.

Here's some photos:

Labels: cardiff, photos, walk

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Well, that was a blast. We had the electronics whizz Anchorsong playing live on our lovely new stage (yes! a proper stage!) with the fantastic Danny Fontain and the Horns of Fury headlining. I can't remember what time we finished, but boy oh boy  it was a mighty long night o'fun!



















It's a real pain packing away all the millions of sound system cables at the end of the night, but with this cute kitten chasing after every lead, it almost becomes fun!

Labels: brixton, gigs, offline

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There was certainly no Christmas cheer for workers at Woolworths this year with the news breaking that all 807 stores would close if the business remained unsold by January 5th, 2009.

We've been regulars at the Woolies in Brixton for years, so it's a shame to see it go.

Here's some photos of the near-stripped store:

Labels: brixton

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Compare and contrast these scenes, seperated by a hundred years.

Electric Avenue, 1908:



Electric Avenue, 2008:



More: Christmas in Brixton, old and new

Labels: brixton, christmas

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More - many, many more - here.
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After watching the once mighty Palm become a pale shadow of its former self (no new phones on the horizon, developers leaving the platform and even the biggest fans fleeing to iPhone/Android/WM/Symbian handsets), I've been looking for a new handset.

Here's my thoughts on a wide range of high end phones, including the
Apple 3G, HTC HD, HTC Touch, Nokia N96, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, Blackberry Bold, T-Mobile G1 and Blackberry Storm.

The Android still excites me the most, but the G1 certainly isn't a looker...

Labels: phone

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I've spent an eternity mulling over the pros and cons of the latest batch of high-end digital compact cameras, so here's an article I've written looking at the latest digital cameras from Canon G10, Lumix LX3, Ricoh GX200, Sigma DP2, Nikon Coolpix P6000 and Panasonic Lumix G1 etc.





Check it out here: Searching for the ultimate digital compact

Labels: cameras, photography

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This is well cool: every Sunday in December, New York City Transit run a 1930s subway train along a regular route, so startled passengers might find this old beauty rumbling into their station.

It's a lovely old train too and it was a privilege to take a ride in such a fine vintage carriage.

Labels: new york, railways

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Some photos from my rainy walk around central London and Brixton yesterday...


Beheaded Belisha beacon, Atlantic Road, Brixton.

Named after Leslie Hore-Belisha (1895-1957), who was Minister of Transport responsible for introducing them in 1934, they can be seen all over the UK, Ireland and in the former British crown colonies of Singapore and Hong Kong.


Oxford Street.


Oxford Street trader.


Brixton Station Road.

Labels: brixton, london, photos

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Formerly located on Great Newport Street (by Leicester Square), the Photographers' Gallery moved to a new four storey site by Oxford Circus in December 2008.

We went along to take a look - and liked the new site a lot, and it makes much more sense to have all the galleries under one roof.

Although the food was up to the usual excellent standard (the home made cakes are sensational!), the cafe seemed a little short of seating space - so get there early to bagsy a space.

Labels: london

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The temperature inside the venue may have been bordering on sub-zero, but with a fine fare of entertainment on offer, things soon warmed up.

The bill included the David Goo Variety Band, the Actionettes, Shazia Mirza, Kitchener, Joe Cairo, Vic Lambrusco and the Dulwich Ukulele Club, and was ruddy amazing!

Labels: brixton, offline

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A few photos:














Loads more New York photos coming soon!

Labels: new york, offline

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A few photos from Soho...







Few more here.

Labels: christmas, london, photos

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Some photos from Friday's Offline club night in Brixton.

Labels: brixton, offline, photos

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You gotta love this one...

There's a fascinating exhibition at the British Library revealing Britain's "1,000-year struggle for our freedoms and rights."




A tour of historic struggles for freedom, there's over 200 iconic documents and objects on display including the well known - like the Magna Carta of 1215, and the 1649 death warrant of King Charles I - and lesser known documents like the hand-written minutes of the Putney debates, recording  the arguments between Cromwell's New Model Army and the radical Levellers.









It's free and well worth a visit. Finishes March 1st 2009.

Labels: london, photos

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I've finished posting up the photos from our fabulous walking holiday in north Wales.

Here's a few of the photos from the report. Check out the rest here.



View from where we were staying. Not bad, eh?




Most of the urban crew get ready for a walk to Llangollen.


Walking over the mountain to Llangollen.


Llangollen Railway.






We were lucky with the weather except on Sunday afternoon when it pissed down. So we went back to the bunkhouse and got pissed instead!


Walking over the Chirk aqueduct.


Through the long and very dark tunnel!


Heading home along a shorter tunnel....

Labels: photos, wales, walks

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There's been some fantastic autumnal sunsets around Brixton over the last couple of days.

Here's a few pics:

Labels: brixton, photos

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I love this thing: