DJ Shadow: The Less You Know The Better
The Entertainer Originally published in the Stool Pigeon As first Glastonburys go, DJ Shadow’s appearance at Worthy Farm last month didn’t have the most auspicious build up. Not only was he performing at a John Peel stage ankle deep in the worst kind of slop – not only did his headline slot coincide with Friday...
Surfing In Bangladesh
Breaking Bangladesh Originally published in Huck At 4pm on my second day in Bangladesh I wake from a jet-lag slumber in a paint-peeling, fly-infested hotel room in Cox’s Bazar. I flip on export strength Indian MTV as I dress, marvelling at its garish adoption of western norms – the ads for skin-lightening creams, the reality...
Kiteboarding In Egypt
Riders On The Red Sea Originally published in the Time Out Adventure Guide There’s something appropriate about our kiteboarding instructor’s nickname being Goose. It’s more than a mere facial resemblance – his beady eyes and broom moustache certainly recall Maverick’s dapper but ultimately doomed wingman in Top Gun, but it’s the tongue-in-cheek way he runs...
Cypress Hill
Pot Shots Originally published in the Stool Pigeon Like most habitual dope smokers, the only party I can recall from the last twenty years is the one at which I puffed my first ever joint. Even then the details are hazy: I remember the host, Jim Walsh, arm-wrestling his pretty blonde girlfriend over a surfboard....
Sebastian Horsley
Narcissism And Neurosis Originally published in the New Statesman, photography by Spencer Murphy Three months ago a photographer friend and I met with Sebastian Horsley while researching a book on outsiders in British society. We arrived at his Soho flat to find him hanging out the first floor window, exchanging innuendo-riddled pleasantries with a woman on...
Part2ism
Cardboard City Originally published in Modart Your mum would love Part 2. Biodegradable graffiti? She’d probably call him a ‘thoughtful young man’ and bake him some ginger biscuits. But as usual, she’d be missing the point. His new breed of disposable urban art – the aptly named Part2ism – may be removable without the need...
Gonjasufi
Desert Storm Originally published in the Stool Pigeon There’s so little known about the dystopian warrior poet Gonjasufi that research is all but impossible, and I’m forced to email Warp Records after our chat to clear up a few points I never got to raise in the interview. What is his real name? How old...
Arthur Boyt
A Moveable Feast Originally published in Huck, photography by Spencer Murphy With white hair poking from the brim of his blue woollen hat, scalpel in hand and glasses pushed to the bridge of his nose, there’s something of the surgeon about Arthur Boyt as he looms over a pheasant lying cock-necked on the table of...
Bode Miller
Rider On The Storm Originally published by the Church Of London Despite being on first name terms with the world’s best skiers and knowing most of its best slopes better than his own back yard, in April 2011 Bode Miller found himself shunting down the scrappy, unforgiving runs of Cannon Mountain in rural New Hampshire...
Indoor Climbing
On The Ropes Originally published in Time Out Newcomers to the aptly-named Castle Climbing Centre regularly get the fear with their feet still firmly on the ground. First there are those gothic towers looming over Green Lanes: add a little lightning, and you’ll be waiting for the bus driver to turn around and make you...
The Gaslamp Killer
Gaslamp Killer Shining Light On ‘Overlooked’ Los Angeles Originally published in the Stool Pigeon Anyone who caught The Gaslamp Killer’s set at this summer’s Brainfeeder session in London’s Fabric will have witnessed a performance as mesmerising for the eyes as for the ears. GLK moshed his trademark mushroom of curls, screamed obscenities into the microphone,...
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
Savage Grace Originally published in Google Think For more than half her life, 64-year-old Sue Savage-Rumbaugh has waged a tireless campaign to break the language barrier separating humans from bonobos – great apes native to the Congo, and with which humans share 98% of their genetic makeup. Her work has taken her from the language department...