Stuart Curran

If you ' re feeling down...

Watch this video - I guarantee cheerfulness. It's become a crutch of mine lately that never fails to lift my mood.

So long Mark .. thank for all the faces

I was really saddened by Mark Speight's recent suicide. Our kids have grown up watching him on SmARTeenies and I remember when I first saw him years ago on Scratchy and Co, looking like a kid-friendly Max Headroom. He had a real presence on TV his whole demeanour communicated a sense of irrepressible fun. Maybe it was the silly faces. It would be trite to resort to cliches of the clowning exterior belying unhappiness in his personal life. I don't think anyone would fared any better than him given the circumstances he had to endure. We shall miss you Mark.

“Non-fiction” by Chuck Palahniuk

I have never read any of Chuck Palahniuk's fiction apart from the infamous short story "Guts". I think that put me off. Most people probably know him as the author of Fight Club and a lot of the writing in Non-Fiction makes reference to the book, the film and sudden circus of fame Palahniuk found himself immersed in.

I will definitely read some more of his fiction now though as he is a great writer who subscribes to a simple writing styles in order to express the bizarre and unbelievable in a pure unadulterated way.

Whether he is talking about a combine harvester demolition derby or the tragic murder of his own father, Palahniuk is a truthful and poetic guide to humanity in decline.

I have never read any of Chuck Palahniuk's fiction apart from the infamous short story "Guts". I think that put me off. Most people probably know him as the author of Fight Club and a lot of the writing in Non-Fiction makes reference to the book, the film and sudden circus of fame Palahniuk found himself immersed in. I will definitely read some more of his fiction now though as he is a great writer who subscribes to a simple writing styles in order to express the bizarre and unbelievable in a pure unadulterated way. Whether he is talking about a combine harvester demolition derby or the tragic murder of his own father, Palahniuk is a truthful and poetic guide to humanity in decline.

Walt works in mysterious ways

It was announced today that the last of Disney's original golden age animators, Ollie Johnston, has passed away. Earlier today, before I discovered this fact, Chas left his 60-year-old copy of "The Art of Walt Disney" on my desk to peruse (he reckons it's worth about £3,000 having seen another copy go for that amount on Antiques Roadshow). That's a pretty weird coincidence don't you think? Yet another example of that wellspring of blog posts called synchronicity.

Call of the Combine

The woman's voice on the tannoy at Brighton station is eerily similar to the voice of the Combine Overwatch Dispatcher in Half Life 2. (If you don't know what I'm talking about here is a compilation of the in game audio). I keep expecting her to switch from announcing that the "18.05 to Lewes will depart from platform 8" to instructing a Combine Police Unit to "Inoculate. Pacify. Expunge. Clamp. Contain. Administer. Sterilize." I seem to have an obsession with tannoy voices - don't know why that could be.

My Top Ten Video Games

After reading about Charlie Brooker's all time favourite videogames, I've been inspired to put together my own list. Same as with Charlie's list, here are my own choices in order of chronology rather than rank. Head Over Heels, ZX Spectrum (Ocean) This was an inspired game for the ZX Spectrum that combined great graphics, challenging gameplay and quirky characters in a way that defied the limitations of an 8-bit game world. I'm sure there was a bug in it though, in common with loads of games of the time, as I just couldn't get past some of the levels. I still enjoy playing this today on an emulator and it's lost none of it's appeal. Gauntlet, Arcade (Atari) I used to play this all the time when I was at University, usually on a Wednesday afternoon when I should have been in a Politics lecture along with my fellow skivers as the arcade machine had space for up to 4 players. The game itself was a never-ending Moebius strip of 2D dungeon destruction that gradually wore you down and exposed the idea that ultimately, there was no point in your character's ceaseless struggle against overwhelming odds. I wouldn't be surprised if it accounted for a few suicide attempts amongst regular players. Super Mario Bros 3, NES (Nintendo) All Mario games are good but this one stands out for me mostly cos Mario could fly if you got hold of the racoon suit. This was the sort of leap in gameplay that was equivalent to something like Portal nowadays as it meant that Mario's platform world suddenly grew exponentially (at least that was the illusion created and further enhanced by a copious drug intake at the time). Street Fighter II, SNES (Konami) This was the ultimate "back-to-mine" game and the starting point of most Saturday nights as everyone piled round my flat with their carryout for some prolonged beat 'em up action. It was the first time I remember feeling real physical aggression from playing a videogame - I would punch the armchair repeatedly every time my friend Elfie's Dhalsim beat my Blanka. Goldeneye 007, Nintendo 64 (Rare) I never owned a Gamecube but spent enough time playing this to agree with those who regard this as one of the best head to head shoot 'em ups ever. Better than the movie as well in my opinion. Wipeout, Playstation (Psygnosis) Still the future of racing. A combination of insanely fast antigravity grand prix, amazing graphics from the Designer's Republic and a soundtrack of the best electronic music of the time including Chemical Brothers and Orbital. I was working in a Sony Centre when this came out and we had it hooked up to a 40" projection TV and home cinema system at the back of the store. I can remember the first time I tried racing the final ice track and thinking there is no fucking way any human being could react quickly enough to win this race. But win it I did, eventually. Metal Gear Solid Playstation, PS2 (Konami) Possibly the coolest game ever, carrying it off with unapproachable style even in it's daftest moments. Who can possibly forget the sort of head-fuck moments when your game console starts addressing you directly telling you to unplug your controller in order to defeat a telepathic baddie (MSG) or that you should just wake up and stop playing (MSG2), like you were plugged into the Matrix or something. Half-Life, PC (Valve) A fantastic plot, written by a genuine scifi author, which combined with some amazing game physics to make this one of the most immersive games ever and one that you had to keep playing till the sweaty, sleep-deprived end. Also responsible for a sequel that was as good as if not better than the original. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, PS2 (Rockstar) It's amazing to think that no one was able to create something that had so much fun with an amoral fantasy world until the GTA series came along. Learning the lessons of Wipeout before it, they also added a killer soundtrack of well chosen classic 80's cuts that had everyone rushing to buy the soundtrack of the game thus proving that a videogame could be as big a franchise opportunity as any Hollywood movie. I was at college with the guy who did the graphic design for the game, Stuart Petri, and can remember seeing his name as the end credits rolled, thinking - "you lucky bastard". Ico, PS2 (SCE) From a beast to a game of such mysterious beauty and elegance that you had to put down your controller every so often just to wipe away a tear of joy.

Emotionally Strategic: Peter Saville on Design

Peter Saville is the Creative Director for the City of Manchester with a brief to inform and influence the future direction of the city. Of course he remains best known for his work with Factory records. In the previous interview of the evening, Vincente Todoli said that his epiphany came during a visit to the Venice Biennale in 1976. He said it was like seeing the the a world of black and white in colour for the fist time. Saville used exactly the same analogy to explain the rise in the cultural importance of album covers in the 1970's. This was the only visual medium at the time exploring ideas that meant something to young people. That's why people have such strong memories and lasting affection for his work and album artwork in general. It was like suddenly having colour in a hitherto black and white world. Saville was asked, perhaps obviously, what he thought of cover art today in the age of the ipod. His answer was that "its just different". Nowadays we are assaulted by imagery on a daily basis and there are so many routes to the visual expression of an idea. Historically what has made his work stand out was the fact that he has always embraced this notion of convergence in the visual arts, understanding that the same visual codes apply across mediums can make for interesting synergies. Summing up his approach, Saville said that his work is based on radar of what he finds everyday to be interesting. It's then a matter of deploying these general interests in the context of the particular design brief. "Emotionally strategic" was his concise yet mysterious description of his approach. Saville's initial employment as a graphic designer was explained by Tony Wilson's famous statement, that Factory Records had never made a single decision based on profitability. Turning up Wilson's door as a young graphic design student full of ideas, he just wanted to be part of whatever this thing was that was happening in Manchester as punk proceeded to reset people's expectations of what could be achieved. With it's roots in this hunger and honesty, Saville suggeested that the rise/fall/rise of Factory's most famous musical offspring, Joy Division/New Order, was perhaps the "last true story in pop".One of Saville's most famous album covers was that of Closer by Joy Division. The funereal image on the sleeve became infamous after Ian Curtis took his own life just before the release of the album. This is all now part of popular music folklore but it's interesting to hear the real story from Saville himself rather than just the synchronous events of legend. Artists always know how they want their first album to look, Saville explained. They have usually been saving ideas for this moment for most of their lives. This was true of Unknown Pleasures as the band handed Saville a folder full of stuff they liked including the famous star scream image. Once they are established however, the commercial pressures mean the that when it comes to deciding on the cover of their second album, they no longer have the time.The band had been sent to Saville's studio in London by Rob Gretton, their manager, to discuss the artwork for the second album. Saville showed them some stuff he was interested in at the time including a book of photography by Bernard Pierre Wolff. For the first album, they had chosen a scientific image, yet this time around they picked out a neo-classical photograph of a tomb in Italy. After Curtis died, Saville expressed some misgivings about the album cover as this was his area of responsibility. Tony Wilson's response was typically along the lines of "dont worry - it's just art". On Ian Curtis himself, Saville also offered his own thoughts. He believes that Curtis had "less filters" than most when it came to editing his experiences and coping with the pressures of the world. It also transpired that the he was being prescribed some "brutal medication" for his epilepsy that must have further debilitated the fragile state of his consciousness.(Interestingly enough, the phrase "yes its in the mind" appeared on the screen behind Saville during this part of the conversation. I'm pretty sure it wasn't planned - clearly the man just naturally attracts synchronicty.) The recent death of Tony Wilson was also a topic of conversation. Saville considered him to be a kind of "proto David Frost" - someone who should have had a distinguished career at the BBC but who instead opted to remain a big fish in the small pond of the North East. Wilson was such a larger than life character that Saville said he was the "last person I would imagine to die". One of the most interesting revelations of the evening was that he once worked with Wham. Apparently, they asked him to help them change their image from guys in dodgy leather jackets to something a bit more sophisticated. He found them to be incredibly nice people especially since at the time, he had been pretty much banned as a sleeve designer by record companies on account of the fact that he was always late, too expensive and wouldn't do what record executives asked. He realised George Michael was something of a prodigy when he went to their recording studio to get the final sleeve notes for the cover of Wake me Up Before You Go-Go, his first Wham project. He couldn't believe that the Phil-Spector-type wall-of-sound was the work of one chubby greek kid until Michael convinced him that the correct wording was to be "written arranged and produced by George Michael". George does what he does really well was Saville's final word on the matter. To say that Peter Saville does what he does really well but that feels like damning him with faint praise. It was a rare privilege to spend some time in his company. Many thanks to Johnno and Gary at Designate for organising the event - one of whom was suitably rewarded by wining the top prize in the raffle, some original wet proofs of the Unknown Pleasures album cover, signed by the man himself.

30 Kinds of Apples: Vincente Todoli on Art

I had a great evening on Tuesday listening to two very different personalities share their very similar thoughts on creativity. The first of them, Vicente Todoli, is the Director of the Tate Modern. The second Peter Saville, is one of the most influential graphic artists of the last 20 years. (He's going to be the subject my next post as I have too much material to squeeze them both into one, especially with my limited patience for wordiness). Both of them had been invited to talk at the Joogleberry Playhouse in Kemp Town.So firstly, Vincente Todoli. Despite being the main man at one of the most important and influential galleries in the UK, Todoli maintains that art is only his third love after first literature then film. To some extent he credits this with his success in his chosen line of work as it's easier to maintain objectivity if you are somewhat removed from your passions. This professional distance is also evident in the fact that he doesn't believe in "vision", artistic or otherwise. In part this is because of his own experience of vision and the semantic role this played in the repression of the Spanish people by the Catholic church under Franco. His lack of belief in other worldly excuses or justifications is also borne of a desire to make art reflect culture as it exists in the world around us, in the here and now. What seems to motivate him in place of vision are the analysis of artistic ideas and their place in contemporary societies. He was the driving force behind the recent crack in the turbine hall, or Shibboleth to give it it's proper artistic title. He believed that no other modern art museum would have dared consider staging this work and that this is where the Tate Modern can differentiate itself from those museums with greater collections of work. The fact that this is the work of a South American artist, Doris Salcedo, who is little known outside the UK is another hallmark of Todoli's tenure. He thinks that British art collections offer poor representation for cultures beyond the anglo-saxon world and that unless this is addressed, future generations will judge them as signposts of a culture that failed to embrace diversity. Todoli's love of diversity comes partly from his Spanish background. He mentioned the Spanish culture of Tapas, a meal made up of many different things that you like and some perhaps you have never tried. For him the concept extends to culture aswell as food and this was neatly summed in what was for me, the stand out quote of the evening. He talked about a favorite writer who he discovered also spent his time growing 30 different kinds of apples in his garden.

"Why would you go to a market where they only offer two kinds of apples when you could have 30" he asked rehtorically. "To me this is life, this is living".