Area Codes

I really like maps. I know it's a fairly strange thing to like, but I just do. They are brilliant for wrapping paper or wall decoration, and navigation. In the most recent Creative Review there is an article about strange maps. For more go to: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/ They are really good.




This is a map published in 1833 by Carey & Hart, and is drawn by Joseph & James Churchman and IW Moore. Here America is represented as an eagle/dove.

I think this one is the best. In Ludacris' song he claims to have lots of 'hoes' in differing area codes which basically means he is a SLUT. Here Stephen Gray has actually made a map penning all of Ludacris' claims of having different 'hoes' in different states. I think it's brilliant.

Pulling Muscles

When I procrastinate from doing work or in this case revision I tend to dance around my room for hours. I think my personal best is six hours straight to Beyonce which was my designated essay writing time. I tend to dance around my room also when I get in from a night out. I have a bit too much energy and generally need to knacker myself out to sleep. I somehow manage to pull muscles. For example I have 2 Beyonce muslces from attempting some of her dance moves and a Wham! muscle in my foot from falling over dancing to Wham!- I'm Your Man. In a few words, I am an absolute idiot.

As a child I did gymnastics for years. I could do all sorts of crazy flips and body shifting shapes. I was rather talented at Rhythm Gymnastics which basically means you run about with a piece of ribbon. I used to take my hobbie home with me and make up routines to anything in my parents music collection. The Best of Belinda Carlisle Volume One has a seperate routine to every song and a home video exists where myself and my sister Imogen are dancing around to Runaway Horses, except I keep pushing her out of the camera frame and telling my mum to watch me. Exhibitionist? Probably? Anyway. I made up this routine to Summer Rain when I must have been about 5. I just tried it. I have pulled a muscle in my leg from doing the splits. It hurts. ALOT.

I JUST Love Hip-Hop

I'm currently in the midst of exam period. I handed in two essays last week and am now currently covered in green and blue felt tip as I attempt to learn a whole module for an exam next wednesday. Great. I've spent 4 or 5 hours making colourful notes on nominalizations, Boyle, and drawing pictures of science apparatus.

What is getting me through this is the INSANE playlist I have made. I love hip-hop. I JUST LOVE HIP-HOP. I think my love started back when Coolio-Gansta's Paradise came out back in the 90's. I remember sat on rainy days in a holiday house in Devon with the Slovakian opere (spelling?) watching MTV Bass and it being on repeat. I love the drum beats like in N.Y State of Mind by Nas, the dirty basslines like Hip Hop by Dead Prez, the lounge bar style-ness of stuff like Feelin by Q-Tip, and the clever clever rhyming and metre like in records by Pharoahe Monch, Immortal Technique, Notorious B.I.G, and so on. I think this is why I constantly attempt to rap my life. EG "Jumanji, Jumanji, I quite like Jumanji but not as much as Jurassic Park One". Or whilst trying to write an essay I came up with this; "I bought a cheese selection what a bad idea, see I'm dairy intolerant and now I'm plagued with the fear (of being ill). So I made some soup, to keep out the cold, only written 100 words today this essay is getting old. Minestrone. Brap. My day in rap." In fact. My whole time at middle school, I was rubbish at competetive sport so was placed on the side lines because I was loud. A girl from my year made a video and all the shots are of the other girls playing netball and hockey, maybe even tennis and the only shot is of me rapping on the side lines.

The video attached is currently my favourite hip hop track. It's Life from Phi Life Cypher and it's called Call Me Money. The best line is "hard to gain and easy to lose like an anorexics waist".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGrjkDi4uEc


My essential Hip-Hop artists are: Notorious B.I.G, De La Soul, Roots Manuva, A Tribe Called Quest, Life, Phi Life Cypher, Eric B & Rakim, Foreign Beggars, Jehdi Mind Tricks, People Under The Stairs, Cypress Hill, Del Tha Funky Homosapien, Lords of the Underground, Skinny Man, Jehst, Poisonous Poets, Jurassic 5, Boogie Down Productions, Gangsta, Dilated Peoples, MOP, Beatnutes, KRS-One, Lanu, The Roots, Mantronix, Dj Format, Mf Doom, Danger Doom, Nas, Dirty Diggers, Slick Rick, TM Juke, Public Enemy, Everlast, N.W.A, The Fugees, The Pharcyde, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Meyou, Q-Tip, Ice Cube, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Immortal Technique, Pharoahe Monch, Lotek, Ugly Duckling, Wu Tang Clan, Mos Def, Cunninlynguistics, Masta Ace, Murs, Cannibal Ox, Souls of Mischief, Dr Dre, Snoop Dog, Mobb Deep, The Cool Kids, Big Daddy Kane, Big L...

Club Jodie

I really struggle with my degree because it is not only boring, but there is no room for creativity. Instead I spend hours sticking pictures I like into my sketch books or making friends birthday cards. Here is a card I just made. It's young whipper-snapper Jodie's birthday night tonight and we are throwing some shapes down DQ at Club Pony/Suckerpunch. She likes Club Pony so I have made a Club Jodie poster/card for her birthday. It's based on the actual poster for this night, but it's a much wanker version. Infact you can see how bad I am at drawing. I just like the glitter nose bleed. The Glitter Glue writing looks a bit dodgy and I am concerned that it will not dry in time, and you can't actually see that her hair is coloured in purp. (abbreviation or abbrev for purple)

I'd like to thank John Peel for his FabricLive 07 for getting me through the trauma of going out to buy prit stick in this Sheffield rain weather. 'Needle in a Haystack' by The Velvettes=YES.

Covert Filming

Beyonce and salad cream are my life. I think she is incredible. I love her album I Am...Sasha Fierce. It's insane and I love it so much that my blog is called I Am...Bonnie Tyler. Bonnie Tyler being my alter ego?? This is a bit of covert filming I did in a kitchen of my friends singing, nay SCREAMING 'Listen' from the B-Day album/Dreamgirls soundtrack. We sound like a collection of alley cats in a garbage can. It's horrendously out of tune, screechy and deafening.

I am currently trying to co-ordinate Beyonce: The Ballet. It's going to be a number of Beyonce moves which I have mastered after spending hours dancing to her music, with demi-pilets and skipping.

Two Three Year Old Girls Threw Up Some Glitter

I LOVE ARTS AND CRAFTS. In a BIG way. If I could i'd spend my whole day making things. Trouble is, like a small child I get so excited that I have to take nap breaks. This is an example of my arts and craft genius. Amy and I made this card for our friend Big Bad Bernie for his birthday. It's a magical garden complete with a gold-fish, magic apple, starbucks coffee stirer fence (with a pig sty as an entrance), a Unicorn and other exciting things like a bridge guarded by a parking attendant. It is like two three year old girls threw up some glitter.

Bussage's Creative Dream Team

This is Ty my friend. We went to primary school together from the age of 9 or 10 and tried to initiate a school reunion over the Christmas period. It didn't really work out. I think the members of Mrs Attwood's Class of 2000 are still traumatised by the 1999 Nativity Play. Boys covered in blue singing a song which is actually about being gay...odd school? YES. Back to Ty: He is probably the best graphic designer I have EVER met. He is such a talented advertiser, illustrator and general creative thinker. I looked through all of his work over the break and didn't realise he was that good. Even his typography and I think typography is a bore-off. He is currently in Barcelona doing a semester out there at some art/design uni. Ty has literally taught me everything I know about illustrator and trends in advertising. We can always be sure that we will have great chats about creative stuff. And mental off the wall ideas about life and art.

I'd like to show you his website but it's "under-construction". Instead this is his favourite designer: http://www.emilkozak.com/

Emil Kozak writes: Imagination can defy gravity and bend time. I like this alot. I think life wouldn't be worth living without imagination.

In this picture we are at Big Chill and we are a mess.

"Are We Living Below the Poverty Line?"

I live in a flat of 10 students. It is generally always loud. Especially when there is a fire alarm or building work happening directly under your head. Like every household, we have our problems. We never have any loo roll, clean cutlery or plates and we have a severe lack of condiments.

Bigger, Better, More Productive

Here is my proudest work...BIGGER. Thanks Ty. Last blog URL is http://iambonnietyler.blogspot.com for interesting blogs about killing cows, and other fun stuff.

Supermarket Picnics

I discovered this bottle of cider next to some paracetemol in Tesco's of Ecclesall Road one night. That was the night I almost wet myself laughing. It reminds me of being a kid and eating packets of crisps whilst wondering the aisles with my Mam when I was a kid on school holidays. LONG. It also reminds me of being 13 and liking cider...so much so I once drank some underneath a desk at school. This was the school which if caught drinking you could get expelled! The next day I definitily needed the paracetemol.

Do people actually just walk round supermarkets drinking oversized bottles of piss?

Then again. I did once sit on a milk shelf in Vietnam eating Oreo's and drinking chocolate soya milk. I was bored of Big C, which is like Asda on Speed if you can imagine that. The next week, myself and best friend Will decided to actually stage a picnic after the milk shelf experience. We got dressed in 'picnic clothes' which basically meant that we looked like dicks. We freaked out when they took our picnic blanket at the security checks as you enter, and thought that the security guards were all wathcing us. We secretly shovelled some bread and cheese into our mouths. Hidden behind some beer crates. It was rank. In the picture we are very sweaty after a power cut and both have terrible hair.

Start Caring 2010

I had another blog before with my best friend Amy but we both forgot the password. Mainly we are idiots and didn't write it down. Here is the second.

The word 'resolutions' (like 'promises') scares me especially the words 'New Years Resolutions'. Instead of this, Amy and I have created Start Caring 2010. It is mainly a way to get us to care about our degrees. This has been something I have personally struggled with because I don't want to know about sociolinguistic patterns, science writing or Welsh Language decline. This project is to make me go to lectures, seminars, read more and generally take an interest in linguistics. I promise to start caring...soon?

Essentially Start Caring can be applied to anything in life, eg Start Caring 2010: Recycling? or Start Caring 2010: Dolphin Friendly Cat Food? or Start Toning 2010? or Start Appreciating Your Mother 2010? or Start Caring About Your Future Career 2010? Literally Endless. The beauty of it is that a New Years resolution has to be started in the New Year. Start Caring 2010 means you have a whole year to do it. MINT.

I did the logo all by myself on illustrator with the help of Ty. Perhaps my proudest moment other than when I won a whole school talent show for singing Britney Spears- Sometimes. Unfortunately I have no technical ability and somehow when saving the image of two kittens (Amy is on the left, I am on the right) sat on a book, it got really small. If anyone can solve this for me...i'd like that.