Image Dump 14/100th Post!

Some villagers constructed a monument to my 100th post

Hey everyone, so here's the image dump I've been promising for the last couple of days. Plus this post is a bit of a milestone, it being my 100th post here on The Sandman Files.

It's been fun doing this blog, and I'll keep it up at least for the next few months. I can't be sure that I'll make it to 200 posts, but only time will tell I guess. I just wanted to say thanks for reading along, no matter how long you've been visiting the site.

I'll definitely be updating my twitter account as usual, so if you find the blog postings get a bit scarce, check up on me over there.

And if you've got any feedback or requests of what you'd like to see on the blog in the future, just leave them in the comments, or send me an email, at sandman.84@hotmail.com

Thanks everyone!

(This last one is for @sharjah on twitter)

Street Art in Tehran

Found this great post over on the bad banana blog yesterday. Just some examples of some of the cool street artworks that have been seen in Tehran over the past few weeks. There's more over here.


Also, if you're on twitter, I highly suggest you follow the author of the bad banana blog, Tim Seidell. You can find his account here. Here are some examples of his tweets:


Anyway, check out his blog for more great stuff. That is all.

I'll be back later today with an image dump...

Mixed Bag

I just thought I'd quickly post up some of the stuff I've been looking at over the past few days. Firstly, here's a track from Mos Def's new album 'The Ecstatic'. The track is called 'Supermagic', and it's the opening track on the album. I'm so glad that the album is great, Mos has always been one of my favourite musicians. I'd really encourage everyone to check it out:

Second, here are some shots from Dina Goldstein's 'Fallen Princesses' project. These have been posted on a few different sites, so you might have seen them by now, but I thought you all might enjoy them. Dina has taken princesses from Disney movies and put them in real life, real depressing situations:



And lastly, I'm sure everyone is seeing how Twitter is involved in the current developments over in Iran. I've posted about Iran's nation of bloggers before, but it's just stunning to see how social networks are circumventing the mainstream media, and getting the world to take notice of what is going on. For live updates on major stories, check out The Huffington Post, and read this great article on the different ways that the mainstream media and social networks have responded to the crisis here.

I'll probably post an image dump later today, so stay tuned for that as well...

Don't call it a comeback

So, obviously I haven't written on this blog in ages. Call it laziness, call it lack of inspiration, call it being busy with other things, the reasons are many and varied. Mostly it was the laziness thing though.

I just thought I'd put up some stuff to let everyone know that myself and the blog are still alive. If you feel like you're not getting enough of my luminous personality, follow me on Twitter, here. You know you want to. I mean, where else can you find out what I had for breakfast? Nowhere, that's where.

So here's two videos that I'm posting for different reasons. The first is a music video created by one of my favourite illustrators McBess. The music isn't that great, but the video itself is stunning.

And the second video is from musician Wavves. This guy makes really lo-fi stuff that shreds your ears a bit, but still manages to sound great. The video itself is pretty rubbish, so it's essentially the opposite of the McBess video above.

So, enjoy the music, and follow me on Twitter. I'll probably post something again tomorrow, but then again, maybe not. (I'm trying to build suspense. I doubt it's working.)

Image Dump 13

The day I tamed a unicorn

Here's another image dump. Some would say it's the best one yet. Those people would be correct. I mean, look at the image below; who even thinks of this stuff? If anyone knows what movie that is from, please send me an email or leave a comment below. So awesome.

And if you're mildly interested in my blog, follow me on Twitter, here. I post more on Twitter than I do here nowadays, and I'm much funnier over there. Promise.

Swine Flu & Censorship in the Middle East

POST UPDATED BELOW

So today seems to have been a pretty big day in the Middle East.

Firstly, 18 American soldiers stationed in Kuwait have been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, aka 'Swine Flu'. There's more details over on the BBC website, if you're interested. I thought it was an interesting fact that apparently there have been 12,022 cases of H1N1 diagnosed, but only like 80 have resulted in death. So obviously the whole thing is getting blown out of proportion.

I was talking to a friend earlier, and he said that if the H1N1 virus is in Kuwait, then it's here in Dubai. What do you guys think? Would the government try to suppress any reports of a Swine Flu outbreak? Or would they be open and transparent about the whole thing? Only time will tell I guess, as it looks like this thing is inevitably going to come to the UAE at some stage.


And secondly, Iran has blocked Facebook. Click here for more information, again from the BBC. The timing of the ban is interesting, with the elections coming up in June. I posted about this really interesting short animation about bloggers in Iran a month or so ago. It really surprised me that Iran has the third largest blogging population in the world. I also stumbled across an interesting article written by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek about global misconceptions of Iran.

The whole blocking websites thing is pretty pointless really. I've written before about the fact that certain sites like Flickr are blocked in the UAE. And while this is frustrating, there are widely-known ways around the blocks (which I won't mention specifically, they're not that hard to find). I hope that this is the same for people in Iran, and that they can continue to use the interest without censorship.

If anyone is visiting this site from Iran, leave a comment below, and let us know what's going on over there..

UPDATE: As Alexander has commented below, the UAE has confirmed its first official case of H1N1, or Swine Flu. Gulf News has more info. Apparently the patient is a tourist from Canada, who arrived on a recent flight to Dubai.

So far, the relevant authorities have been forthright with the information, which is clearly the best approach. Let's hope that the Canadian guy (or girl) in question gets well soon, and that this thing doesn't get out of hand, like it did in Egypt.

Snatch & Star Wars Mash-up

This is genius. If you don't like colourful language, don't press play..

And speaking of Snatch, if you haven't seen the trailer for Guy Ritchie's new Sherlock Holmes movie, check it out here, immediately. It's face-punchingly awesome.

In Praise of Chris Ware

Just saw this great animation by illustrator Chris Ware. It's the story of Quimby the Mouse, make sure you keep watching until the very end:

I don't really know much about his stuff, but I'm looking forward to seeing more. The music is by Andrew Bird, for those who are interested.

Enjoy!

Image Dump 12

The day I met Nixon.

Wow, a dozen image dumps already?! Obviously you'll all have noticed that I haven't been posting stuff on this blog as much lately. I just haven't seen that much interesting stuff out there to talk about really. So it's the world's fault, not mine!

Plus I've been on Twitter most of the time. You can follow me here. Please do.

So without further ado, on to the images that interested me this week...












How cool is that last guy? He's like Dave Hasselhoff with Tom Selleck's moustache and Mad Max's outfit, combined with a guy from one of those bad property ads on Jumeirah Beach road..

In Praise Of Marc Johns

Lately I've been seeing a fair bit of the work of Marc Johns around some of the design and visual arts blogs. Marc's work reminds me of some of the stuff done by the guys in the Royal Art Lodge collective. Marc has this really cool skill of merging naive imagery and style, with a pretty oddball sense of humour, which is great.


Marc is definitely my kind of illustrator, by which I mean he keeps things simple, while maintaining a skewed view of the world. It also helps that his stuff is tinged with this melancholy humour that is a really nice touch.


If you like Marc's stuff, you can check out his website, see more of his work on Flickr (if it's not blocked in your country), follow him on Twitter, or buy his book, which definitely looks like something I'm going to pick up next time I'm at Kinokuniya (if they have it).



I could seriously look at Marc's work all day. In fact, I think I might do that

Flashmob Sing-along

So they've made a follow-up to the flashmob dance that they did in London a while ago, I posted about it here.

This time they handed out 2000 microphones to more than 13,000 Londoners who had gathered in Trafalgar Square. Just stunning stuff. Enjoy:

Did you see anyone you know? I miss London so much..

New York Advertising Takeover

A pretty cool thing happened on Saturday in New York. Apparently over 120 illegal outdoor advertising sites were taken over by artists, and used as al fresco canvases for amazing design and artworks. There seems to be a problem in New York (and other cities presumably) with media companies installing outdoor advertising without council or landlord permission. These companies then make money from companies that are advertising on these illegal media sites.

So in response to this, a bunch of artists and designers, led by a guy called Jordan Seiler, got together and whitewashed 120 of these illegal sites. When they were done, they painted on these newly-claimed canvases with designs of their own. The results were quite spectacular:



It's always great when a group of people can come together and have a positive impact on their city. Hopefully all of these artworks are preserved, and the corporations don't just plaster more ads on top of them. And let's hope that the law doesn't get involved and charge anyone with 'destruction of public property' or whatever. I've always thought that when you treat street artists like criminals, they're going to produce work that looks like it was done by criminals (ie tagging, and quick scribbled designs). But if you respect their work, and recognise them as artists, then they'll create work that makes any given city a more beautiful place. And that can only ever be a good thing.


For more pictures of the "New York Street Advertising Takeover" as they called it, click here and here. And to see Jordan Seiler's site, click here.

Oh and p.s. sorry for the lack of posting this week. I've just been busy with other stuff and, well, lazy..

Cool Dubai Blogs & Gig Guide

So I've been looking around for cool blogs that are based in Dubai and the rest of the Middle East. I'm thinking of starting a little blogroll on the side my page. Obviously there's no shortage of blogs that talk about social issues etc in Dubai, but I'm looking for something a little different.

I want to find people who are really interested in the artistic and musical scene here in the Middle East. These sorts of blogs aren't that common.

So far, the best blogs I've found have been the following:

discoballbreaker
Apart from just having an awesome name, this site, focuses pretty heavily on the regional and international music scene.

avantcaire
Mostly about music, and a bit of art, this blog covers stuff from all over the region. It's a good way to keep up with what is happening, and what events are coming up.

MBAs, Media & The Middle East
This site is run by a guy called Shebab Hamad, who works (or owns?) at the 50 Degrees C store/space at the Souk Al Bahar. It sometimes focuses on more general social things about Dubai, but it's also got some cool stuff about the local art scene.

five green
This site is run by the guys/girls who owned the five green store. I'm not sure if the store is still open, or if they've moved locations or whatever, but there's always some cool stuff on the site. It doesn't get updated too regularly, but check it out anyway.

That's pretty much all I've found so far along those sorts of topics. If you know of any other cool sites in the region, or if you're running a cool one yourself, leave the address in the comments, or email it to me at sandman.84@hotmail.com

Also, does anyone know of any good gig guides for Dubai? The Time Out Dubai site never really has anything interesting, and searching on Myspace for gigs is always pretty useless. Is it just the fact that no-one that interesting ever comes to Dubai? Or is it that we're lacking a decent site or publication that will let people know what's on? I'm asking the question because apparently New Young Pony Club played in Dubai a few weeks back, and I had no idea that they were in town. I would have loved to go an see them, but never got the chance. So does anyone know what the best way to keep up on these shows is?

As always, leave a comment if you have an answer or an opinion...