Wheel

Wheel 2
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

This is one of Archie's latest Flash animations reduced to Quicktime so a lot of the detail is lost unfortunately but you get the idea. He's grasped the technology to make these in just a few hours and quite amazing for a 12 year old, but then this is aboy weaned on animation since he was a baby.
See it here!

Baffling Vlog and video bloggy.

Headcahe still from too much sun and fun at boot sale this morning over at Sutton Fields near Frodsham. I didnt get anything atall which is unusual. Maybe the headache didnt help. Hazel got lods of metal tins and odd bits and pieces for her blog and workshop. Archie did well too, with two old annuals for 50p - a Topper and Dennis the Menace.
Home to try and figure out how to put videos onto blog. Still not sure how its done despite watching several useful tutorials. Anyway, heres a link right here.

This is Archie on a strange old roundabout we found in a park in Frodsham last time we went.

New blog started today.

I must be mad i know but had a dream about a new blog last night and felt I had to act upon it. Its a version of Curios Thing that mail art contacts will be firmiliar with. I produced 20 or so over the years in limited editions of 100, and sent them through the mailways in exchange for similar publications and mail art etc.
It will be slightly different ofcourse to fit in with the blogging medium and hopefully evolve as it goes along. Hoping also that the comments will be written in the same spirit as the blog itself - so feel free to join in!
You will find it in the links section under a slab of stilton.

Fresh Milk!

Fresh Milk!
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

I only drink soya milk now but I don't feel any healthier. I still have butter on my bread though. I've tried all kinds of ertsatz butter and margarine but they all taste like axle grease or worse!
This collage was one for the new theme I started at Collage Kids on Frickr having grown tired of the ATC production line that has taken over for the last three months or so. I framed some of the best the other day and they look good as a set, and hang on the stairs so I can see them everyday.
I walked into town this morning - firstly to the bank and then to the library to take back the Planxty and folk CD's I had borrowed. I couldnt find anything else. No new CD's or DVD's in. So I bought a couple of cheap ones from the record shop that has a few bargain bins. I got 3 vintage sci-fi films on one DVD for two quid. One is called Planet Bandits and is a shortened version of a serial (which I've forgotten the name of) with Buster Crabbe made in 1939. Another is called Earth Vs. Flying Saucers made in the 50's.
Lots of people wearing Liverpool F.C. shirts and scarves in town celebrating their teams winning of the European Cup last night. A thrilling match at the end but I regret to say I turned the TV off at half time in disgust when they were losing 3 - 0 and AC Milan were running rings round them. O ye of little faith!
Weighed down with the papers and a large loaf I got the bus home.
Saw a mouse running on the garden path yesterday between the shed and the bird feeders. One that Treacle (next door's cat) is saving for a snack no doubt.

The Musical Baton

More CD's and a wax cylinder.
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

The "musical baton" has been passed from many people ( interesting to follow the links back) and now from Ilike to me.

Total volume on my computer
I have no idea how to find this information out? Why would it be of interest to anyone beats me!

The last CD I bought.
I rarely buy new ones but mostly get them from boot sales or charity shops. The last one I bought I think was this boxed set from the Booksale shop that I've featured some tracks from already in my blog. It's called Beautiful Country Memories on the Flex-Media label. £14.99 for 20 Cd's!

Song playing right now.
I can't type and listen to music at the same time but if I should stop I would probably be listening to the Planxty CD I borrowed from the library. Two sample tracks can be found below.

Five songs I listen to a lot or mean a lot to me
Impossible to narrow it down to five but for the sake of this blog will upload my current favourites which you will find below.

Five people to whom I'm passing on the baton.
Sorry, but I had to choose somebody!

1. Swapatorium
2. Searching For Blue Sea Glass
3. Sylvia Sometimes
4. Groc's Bloggette
5. Ed's Blog


The Fall (live) - Boxoctosis

Brian Wilson (live) - The Little Girl I Once Knew

Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts - Highway 61

Huey Smith - Free, Single and Disengaged

John Hegley - Pear Shaped

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

A day of mixed fortunes.

Wagner as a boy.
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

At least it wasn't raining when we set out for the boot sale at Weaverham but later it bucketed down. Not much luck finding bargains and in desperation plucked an old Tommy Steele LP from amongst some old Guy Mitchell 78's for a quid at the last minute as we we leaving. Its pretty awful but quite rare I imagine. Its very scratchy though so quite hard to listen to. Its a soundtrack to a film he made in the 50's called "The Duke Wore Jeans" . The music was written by Lionel Bart I believe and is that mixture of shmaltz and west end show tune with a grudging nod towards rock 'n' roll. Bart and friends were certainly no Leiber and Stoller!
Hazel got a few metal bits and archie got a music stand that they wrestled with for 20 minutes to get folded into something resembling a music stand and not a vegetable strainer.
After we got home and had some tea and toast, Hazel went out again to take her Mom and sister who always get up later. They got a few cheap nick-nacks by the sound of it - as if they had room for any more!
Archie went over to James' house on his bike and Hazel cycled with him to see him safely across the busy road.
She came home to sew some samples to show the woman who in charge of the Shiffly machine (?) , which is a huge machine that can stitch up to 80 identical things from a pattern drawn by pantograph. It all looks like something Heath Robinson has dreamed up and therefor part of its appeal for Hazel I expect. It's in the MMU stitchery dept. or whatever it's called.


Planxty - The Good Ship Kangaroo

Planxty - The Blackberry Blossom/Lucky In Love/The Dairy Maid (reels)

The You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Topper from '67

artschoolsportsday67
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

I found some more annuals today from the same charity shop. Putting these away for Archie's birthday as he's had so many treats just lately. Also got a Beezer and another Topper from the 60's. This old photo was taken around that time in 1967 at the Southend Art School sports day. Here's the motley collection of staff and students who bothered to turn up. I was in the tug of war, as I have a photo of that somewhere, but don't remember any other events? The tossing the beret, the leaping over the easel, the putting the palette etc.
Went by Shank's Pony to town today and back. Found a new CD by Planxty in the library. I have a couple of their albums from the 80's which I still enjoy listening to. That Irish folk music never really ages. Some wonderful uillean? pipe playing on it.
I should have some Planxty lined up for the music file but have some strange frenchman singing a song in spanish instead!


Spanish song by a Frenchman?

This You Send It file is availble for seven days or until exhausted.

Archie on guitar

Archie on guitar
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

I keep promising some sounds files of Archie's progress with the guitar. So here are a couple I managed to dub onto some floppy tape in a cheap recorder so excuse the hiss. I tried the microphone in the computer but nothing seemed to happen although I was getting a reading on the doodah dial, so obviously the sound was getting in through the wires but finding a knot somewhere to bump into? Hope I"m not being too technical for you all.
Anyway, here he is with an old chestnut much loved by aging guitar teachers!


Just click on the word "chestnut" as it doesn't appear to be highlighted as it should be for some reason?
Here's another sample practice track with a little boogie-woogie.

Just click on the "boogie-woogie". Ah, highlight fixed - I left a couple of dots out somehow.

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Boot sale trail leads to Frodsham.

No boot sales advertised in the local paper so we decided to go for a drive over to Frodsham via Weaverham to see if we could spot any.
Luckily, about half way there we noticed a poster for one at Sutton Fields on today so we went there - past all the roadkill which included a poor badger with his legs in the air and two squashed squirrels.
The Sutton Fields boot sale is usually quite large and busy but only half the cars there today. I didn't find much but Hazel got a bag of metal gizmo's including a coin safe for threepenny bits, old sixpences and florins etc. Also a rack of grinding thingies for drills. Burring tools. I don't think she'll use them - they are more for show and will look good in the new workshop. Archie got a putter and some golf balls which he has belted into the undergrowth and lost as soon as he got home.
They are both in the garden now - pottering and burning things with the magnifyling glass. Archie is doing most of the burning. I used to do it when I was his age so I'm sure he will grow out of it and we are not encouraging a potential arsonist!
Fricr is up the creek again so can't add a photo today but will find some music to add. I looked through piles of scratchy vinyl today but didn't buy anything. I must be getting more fussy in my old age?

Jay Wilbur Band - Wah-Hoo

Jack Payne Band - My Brother Makes the Noises For the Talkies

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.


Here is Archie using the sun's healing rays to weld the body and legs back on a plastic soldier with a magnifying glass.

Unlucky for some.

The Austens
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

I'm always rather uneasy about the number 13 and Friday the 13th in particular. Typically no post today of any kind, not even a bill, so in a way that's lucky I suppose. Archie was feeling unwell with a upset tummy so he's had the day off. He's been watching the video of the Princes In The Tower that his history teacher urged them to watch last night on Channel 4. It looked terribly dull the bit I saw and he didn't seem impressed either.
Now he's cutting up paper and making some origami insects and animals.
Yesterday I walked into town and got some bread and slicing sausage for sandwiches from the health food shop. Not many other bargains to be had. I walked hom a again as nobody was waiting at the bus stop and I could do with the exercise.
Added the last of the novelty postcards to Flickr from the Jones family collection. The one above isn't one of them but a card I found at a boot sale recently with additional collage.
Have been catching up with the mail as I realised I owed letters and cards to quite few people.
Some more western swing from the boxed set I found last week I think-


Spade Cooley - Boggs Boogie

Paul Howard - Rootie Tootie

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Croco-dials.

Crocodile
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Just back from the boot sale at Hartford High School. I didn't find much, just a scratchy record of Tufty the Squirrel- songs, rhymes and stories. Tufty used to teach road safety in short cartoons back in the 60 and 70's.
Hazel got some old radio valves and Archie was in a strange grumpy mood, maybe because he didn't find any Beanos and Dandys? I found his some PS2 games to cheer him up.
The rain came down just as we were leaving so it was quite good timing for a change. It was bitterly cold too - more like October than May.
Hazel has gone to take her Mom and sister round the boot sale now the sun is back out again.
Time to go and sort through the postcard albums again. This crocodile card i made back in the 80's carved from a Dick Blick peice of rubber that someone sent me from the U.S.


Bill Haley - Yodel Your Blues Away

The Jones Archive of Epistolotory Fun.

Collaborative postcard - Bags
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

This is one example of the postcards we found whilst looking through the twenty or so albums that Hazel's Dad used to collect. Most of them are from holidays at seaside resorts in the 60's and 70's and others like this collaborative collaged card was from Hazel via Snowwhite Jung in the 80's. Many are those "saucy" seaside postcards of the Donald McGill variety and clones thereof.More can be found at Flickr.
Archie has been having fun catching snails - painting numbers on their shells with white ink and letting them go again. His scientific "study" of their movements around the garden is quite interesting to watch. They seem to have vanished into the herbaceous borders and undergrowth and so make a mockery of his graphs and charts he has devised to track them! Perhaps luminous paint would have been better?
It's been showery today so stayed in except for a quick dash to the paper shop. The Star Wars DVD given away in the Sun was very disappionting- only 35 minutes long. The rabbit enjoyed reading and chewing the paper.
Flo is now outside where she would have been at Easter had the conservatory been built on time. She doesn't like it much. Ousted from her cosy corner - she's banging her little furry feet.

All the fives.

Picnic under a tree.
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Not sure what significance that is but it's the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the new millenium and time for change! I didnt want to vote Conservatorys and no Greenhouse Party standing so left with the Dribbling Dummidrips. Not a great deal of choice really!
Yesterday I went into town and did some shopping. Found a mbira or african thumb piano in a charity shop which sounds like one of those old tin musical boxes with bits missing. It's added to my one string fiddle and the zither and all the other musical implements we are unable to get a tune out of!
The mac has been updated so now is more confusing that ever but has Garage Band on it which is baffling like most of the software. iphoto wasnt working as it should and not recognising any cameras plugged into it but after four hours of pulling her hair out Hazel managed to get it to work thankfully. It even finds the tiny Quicktime movies that we couldnt see before so that was a bonus at least. I would upload one to the blog but no idea how to do it. Will try again tomorrow.


Shelly Lee Alley - Women, Women, Women

Bill Mounce - Kickin' It Off

These You Send It files will be available for seven days or until exhausted.

Here we go round the Marbury bush.

marbury mere
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Also the trees, woods, dusty bluebells etc. But that was yesterday. Seems we missed a muddy boot sale over at Weaverham that wasn't advertised in our local paper. Nevermind, we went to two today to make up for it. The first was in the Kwik Save car park in town. I didn't find much really just an old Time/Life book about inventions which I think we have already so will use this one for collage material. Also a cheap PS2 game, Max Payne, where you run around New York shooting the bad guys. Hazel found some strange darning/cobbling needles in a round wooden box and an ancient light bulb with springy filament.
Then we drove over to the Slow and Easy pub where there was a boot sale near to Granma's house. It was getting quite hot by this time. I found a CD of old field recordings of prisoners and preachers etc. in the southern states of America in the 30's and 40's. Terrible crackly sound but some interesting songs for Boot Sale Sounds (see links). I didn't find any vinyl unfortunately. Also a 1973 Dandy for Archie but he already had it.
Afterwards we had a huge lunch at Gramna's house and collapsed on the sofa.( We pulled up some weeds and dandelions in Granma's garden and kicked a ball about until the lunch was ready.)
No need for a big dinner tonight as I am still full! Granma's sure know how to fill you up!
Hazel and Archie are in the garden doing things to snails. Hazel is reading the Sunday papers in her conservatory/workshop again.
What music shall we have today? Let me see....


Huey Smith - Rockin' Behind the Iron Curtain

Huey Smith - Somebody Put A Tack (In My Cotton Pickin' Chair)

These You Send It files will be available for seven days or until exhausted.