A Journey Back To Innocence

Malik Isaac Taylor 1970 - 2016 "Straight from the heart, I represent hip-hop.." - Phife Dawg I woke this morning to the sad news that Phife Dawg, founding member of  A Tribe Called Quest had passed away. I hadn't really considered myself a big fan of ATCQ until this moment. I say that because outwardly I'm more vocal of other artists, but their influence on me is undeniable. Trailblazing and iconic are words often used to describe the group and their contribution to hip-hop. I was moved by the Rapaport documentary  Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest ,   and you can bet I'm able to rap along to every track on The Anthology . Our generation has lost another seminal talent, my thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans. I've been planning on  writing a music post ever since Kanye West dropped (read: fumbled) The Life Of Pablo , but after all the attention that garnered I figured I'd keep building before s

Exploring lust, love and appreciation of the female form, Paramour brings classic literature to the modern conscience, telling stories of illicit love through evocative imagery. Having discovered the work of Glaswegian born artist Nick Smith on Instagram, I believe it was 32C that caught my eye, I learned of his debut solo show Psycolourgy  that featured re-worked images of iconic artworks the likes of  Mona Lisa ,  Son Of Man ,  Van Gogh, Scream, Campbells Soup  and  Girl With The Pink Earring.   I was then delighted to read on  VNA  that he is returning to the  Lawrence Alkin Gallery with opening night already upon us.   I find his pixel art fascinating in the same way as work by the Miaz Brothers whereby only when standing back can you see the image clearly. And yet Smith's new body of work entitled  Paramour offers even more. Inspired by erotic literature  Paramour  employs Nick Smith’s signature ‘colour-chip’ methodology, combining modern nudes with excerpts from the

My (American) father's side of the family are descendants from Wales and Ireland. My (South African) mother's side are descendants from England, Scotland and Holland. With that kind of pedigree you'd think the blood in my veins would be 100 proof. And yet I have a general dislike of the taste of most alcoholic drinks, not to mention a low tolerance threshold. That was until last St Patrick's Day when I gave a pint of Guinness another chance and now it's my drink of choice. Following that I also discovered I could take shots of Jameson without immediately vomiting. (That's only happened on my last Birthday after getting through an entire bottle.) This post isn't just about my capacity (or lack of) for alcohol, it's about St Patrick's Day. As the one national holiday that is celebrated in more countries around the world than any other, St. Patrick’s Day is the day when everyone wants to be Irish .  This was certainly true of my teenage se

"Socks, they are a serious business." No, really. Why would your consideration for socks be any less significant than that of the rest of your outfit? I'm on record as having previously said I didn't fully comprehend the whole sock trend (nay phenomenon) but that wasn't entirely true. But I honestly didn't know there were rules to wearing socks. Growing up socks weren't of any obvious importance and just something your parents bought you. Family photos show that mine were predominantly basketball socks which looked great paired with cowboy boots and cut off denim shorts, and were also ideal for catching snakes with at the creek. Well I did grow up in Texas in the late seventies after all. Then I moved to the UK and as I got older socks became something more to consider, especially as they now came out of my hard earned paper round money. Into my teens and Argyle socks better known as diamond socks by the ' chuffers ', were the most pop