Rollerboy

I am not sure quite how I discovered this picture from Old Bike, an online bicycle museum, but it made me giggle so much that I had to keep a copy of it to share with you. The photograph is from 1905 and shows an amusing early form of bicycle crossed with rollerskates. His outfit is truly the crowning touch. He’s only missing a pair of mustachios. 

Mad Dogs and Englishmen With Long Legs

In celebration of socks today, I bring you Sir Raymond Longlegs. I know you have never heard of him, but it doesn’t actually matter who Sir Raymond was. What matters is that this is an amusing remnant of my past that I came across last week. It made me giggle so much as I remembered how an old flatmate and I so marvelled at Sir Raymond’s excessively long legs that we had to celebrate the fact by pinning him to the wall. I snapped a photo of it and sent it to her friend with the question, “Do you remember him?” She certainly did. Really, how could one forget?

Artless Collage

I’m not a U2 fan at all, I must confess, but I do rather like this collaboration between Bono and model/photographer Helena Christensen. The pages are torn from BlackBook, and can be dated back to 2005 or perhaps 06 when Ali Hewson and Bono launched their label Edun.

The pair photograph one another, with Bono painting original lyrics across his photographs and subsequently penning a poem to Helena. The pages are assembled as a spontaneous collage. Messy handwriting and paint keep the spreads fresh and artless (pardon the pun). It’s a bit like drawing stream-of-consciousness style. 

Click on images below for larger versions.

Lazy Sunday

Aah, my favourite day of the week. Quiet, peaceful, relaxing Sunday. These two photos are all about lazy summer Sunday afternoons, but end-of-winter Sundays can be almost as nice. There’s a drizzling mist outside, but inside it’s warm and cosy. If I’m feeling really introspective I might put Arvo Pärt’s album Alina on the stereo and maybe even write a poem or two. And when the sun peeps out in the afternoon (here’s hoping), I might go for a stroll around the Botanic Gardens. Bliss.

Photographed by Hugh Stewart for Follow Me, October 1990

A Tribute to Malory Towers

I love how awkward Darrell looks here, walking smash into Mam’zelleIn winter 2002, the Australian label Gorman printed a series of promotional cards that were inspired by Enid Blyton’s book series set in the English boarding school Malory Towers.

I came across them in the store Fat, and grabbed them up in gleeful joy, laughing so much over Darrell’s awkwardness as she smashes into Mam’zelle, and Mary-Lou’s deliciously hideous black eyes.

Mary-Lou looks fabulously sulky and surly with her hood drawn upIf you are familiar with Blyton’s series, you will know that most of these girls were good little girls who suffered through the usual trials and tribulations of teenage angst. They either learned their lessons well, and went on to become sensible, dependable young women that England could rely on, or they came to a bad end. This disagreeable and uncertain future was usually reserved for those whiny fat girls who didn’t like sports, or the ones obsessed with becoming an actress and wore far too much makeup.

What I love about the Gorman cards is that they totally subvert Blyton’s bright-eyed and bushy-tailed storytelling (don’t get me wrong, I adored the books when I was 13), and these girls look altogether cooler and smarter than the original models. 

Innocent mischief – if memory serves me, these pellets made one of their teaches sneeze endlesslyWhat is that nogoodnik Mary-Lou up to here?Gorman’s Winter 2002 campaign