Now at tikichris.wordpress.com

Hi. I’ve decided to consolidate my personal blogging activities and have started a wordpress blog, tikichris.wordpress.com. Anything that I might have posted here at The Adventures of Tiki Chris will now be posted there. Same goes for content that I might have published at ontoTravel or ontoLondon: it will now be posted on the new site. I'm not doing away with these old sites - just not actively posting on them anymore. Indeed, I may find some need to publish content through them in the future.

For off-the-cuff mobile blogging, I’m keeping my Tumblr blog, tikichris-to-go. If you haven’t checked it out yet. I hope you will, I have a lot of fun with it.

Thanks so much to regular followers of this blog. It means a great deal to me to have had you “tuning in” these past few years. I look forward to continuing the journey with you!

Sincerely,
Chris
- Facebook - Flickr - LinkedIn - Tumblr - Wordpress -

Non-Blog Christmas: See You in '09!

The Tiki Chris blogs are on hiatus while I enjoy some holiday cheer with family and friends. My ontoLondon Daily Photos will continue the rest of December and I'll probably post a few on-the-go bits every once in awhile on my mobile tikichris to go blog. Aside from that, I'm gonna lay low for the next few weeks. See you next year!

Trouble Accessing the Tiki Chris Blogs?

If you've been trying to access any of my blogs (including 5 Good Reasons ... to be Happy) only to see a nasty “Internet Explorer cannot open the internet site,” the problem seems to belong with Sitemeter, which I use track my web stats. I've just removed Sitemeter's tracking code and everything now seems to be fine. Let me know if anyone is still having trouble viewing the blogs.

Here's a link to the One Project Closer post I happened upon that helped me to figure out what the heck was going on with my blogs:

Sitemeter Crashing Web Sites Using Internet Explorer on August 1, 2008; August 2, 2008
Posted by: Fred
One Project Closer
August 1st, 2008

Tens of thousands of publishers use sitemeter to track their content, including thousands of bloggers. The result: sitemeter takes down the internet? not quite.. but its pretty amazing.

Read the complete Sitemeter Crashing post at One Project Closer.

Offline

The Tiki Chris blogs are on hiatus while I go have some non-blog fun. However, ontoLondon's Daily Photos will continue to be posted during the break. See you in a couple of weeks!
























Image courtesy of caspermoller's photostream on Flickr.

ontoLondon - ontoTravel - Tiki Chris

31 Days of Spooky London Photography (31DoHM07)

Over at ontoLondon, I've dedicated each London Daily Photo for October to some of the more Halloween-y things about town. A number of the photos are by one of my favourite London photographers, Emiana. Click here to see all the daily photos.


Photography by Chris Osburn © 2007

Halloween Skull Mask Project is part of the 31 Days of Halloween Madness 2007.

D*Face Interview for whitehot

Chris Osburn interviews D*Face
by Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
July 2007









A spot had been spied, and the only way to hit it was around the outside of a stairwell that had steel bars, in a cage-like structure covering it. To get to the spot, you had to shimmy along the outer railings which overhung the frozen canal, then up a few flights of stairs. Fine on the way up, but coming back down with paste-covered frozen hands was another story. Climbing around and along the railings, each shimmy made my hands slip further and further downwards to the point I was hunched up in a near ball-like posture and had to take a leap of faith for the canal wall.

Click here for complete interview.

Cyclops Interview for whitehot

Chris Osburn interviews Cyclops
by Chris Osburn (with photography by Marta Abalau)
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
May 2007










I like painting on the street because there's more democracy. You can just do your thing; you don't have to pay for gallery space or be curated or any of that. You just do your thing, where you like, how you like, and then it's out there. You haven't been paid and anyone can fuck it up or be inspired on the way to work by what you've made. And, once it's up, that's it: It doesn't belong to you any more.

Click here for complete interview.

One more dank u to Rotterdam

While I'm doling out the thanks to my newfound friends in the Netherlands, I also need to say thanks to David Zee, owner of the fantastic Tin Tin's Latin Jazz Cigar Bar, for introducing me to Ron Palma Mulata and for just being a cool bartender/owner of a brilliant bar.

I also want to say hi to comedian Kees Torn, whom I met at Tin Tin's. Thanks for making me laugh my ass off and for turning me onto Oliphant cigars (I went out and bought some the next day)!

Look for more about my Dutch adventures in upcoming issues of Tiki Magazine. Check my ontoTravel blog in May and June for photos from my visit to Tin Tin's and beyond!

Photography by Tiki Chris and Jeroen Pannekoek © 2007

I'm a "Top Blogger"

Since January, I've been blogging about London for Hotels by City, a hotel booking website. Well, I didn't quite realize, but um I've apparently been blogging a lot for them. So much so that it earned me their "Top Blogger" award for Most Active Blogger. I have a feeling that I won't retain this title very long as I think other duties are gonna drag me away from the Internet for a few weeks in the near future. Anyway, it's a pretty cool site and seems like a decent organization to write for (they're super nice and very responsive to me).
























Click here to check out my Hotels by City blog.

SWEET TOOF interview for Whitehot Magazine

Chris Osburn interviews SWEET TOOF
by Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
April 2007















I got into it after watching a film called “Style Wars” by Henry Chalfant, also “Beat Street” and the book Subway Art are to blame. When I started I was into letter forms and characters. Years ago it would be skinny cap tags; today, it’s fat cap. When I started, the paint was thinner and today the paint can cover most surfaces. I still do the odd letter form piece, but now I’m more interested in what I can get my teeth into … also working with cut outs and paste-ups.

Click here for complete interview.

South London Pacific's Vintage 'n' Retro market

Although I'm not a regular reader of All Women's Talk, I thought it worth mentioning this post about South London Pacific and retro fashion:

Retro clothes and cocktails at South London Pacific
Posted by Abi
All Women's Talk
March 23, 2007

[The] Hawaiian-themed Tiki bar ... has recently started to play host to some of the UK's most talented retro designers and vintage sellers, and they'll be holding their next vintage and retro fair on 1st April.

Click here for complete post.

Latest ish of NUDE Magazine

NUDE Magazine is a pretty good read. I'm especially enjoying the just released Spring 2007 Issue 10 for two reasons: it features a cover article with photos of Space Invader as well as a great, in depth interview with London-based illustrator/architect Michael Murphy of DESIGNinBLUE.

Back to the Future
by Ryan Crabbe
NUDE Magazine, Issue 10
Spring 2007

I still believe that great architecture has the ability to feed people's senses in a very positive way, and by saying 'great' I don't necessarily mean big. Great architecture to me is thoughtful and intriguing and has an effect on the subconscious through its regulation and manipulation of spaces.











Space Invader: all out art attack
by Anne Bowles
NUDE Magazine, Issue 10
Spring 2007

Forget bird flu: there's another much more benign virus being spread through the streets of the world's major cities, by a Parisian street artist who goes by the name of Space Invader.













Click here to purchase the latest copy of NUDE Magazine.

Pun intended?

I wonder if the writer of the BBC article about "a childless couple who are advertising on London buses for an egg donor," was being cheeky when entitling the story, "Dozens of replies to egg donor ad"?

Kon Tiki screening + live music at ICA

I'd hardly classify Tron Jensen's music as tiki, but it's pretty good. In fact, Tron's debut album is dedicated to the memory of Norwegian scientist and explorer, Thor Heyerhahl, who, In 1947, crossed the Pacific Ocean on a balsa wood raft, named the Kon Tiki, in an extraordinary bid to prove his theory that the Polynesians undertook the same feat over 1000 years before.

Anyhoo, here's an opportunity to catch Kon-Tiki on the big screen. See you there!

Tron Jensen Live + Kon-Tiki
Thursday
March 29, 2007
8:00PM
ICA
The Mall
London SW1


Dedicated to the memory of Norwegian scientist and explorer Thor Heyerhahl (featured in the Oscar winning 1951 doc screened at this event), Tron Jensen's new LP 'Ocean' is a triumph of both influence and reference for the fisherman singer songwriter. Blending blues, folk and rock, Jensen’s passionate, raspy voice plays homage to the great man. In 1947 Thor crossed the Pacific Ocean on a balsa wood raft, named the Kon-Tiki in 101 days to prove his theory that the Polynesians undertook the same feat over 1000 years before.

Click here for more information.

Artist Profile: CEPT

Artist Profile: CEPT


I've had the pleasure of meeting with London street artist CEPT on a few occasions over the past several weeks. He's a cool guy and an inventive, prolific artist. Growing up in Northern Wales and moving to London, his story of "small town boy moves to big city to pursue passion" is certainly relatable to me.

Making London's cityscape more visually interesting for more than a decade, CEPT's graffiti may be spotted throughout East London, most notably on Sclater Street where his large "Art is Dead" mural demands attention and respect.

Such prolific work creates a lot of empty spray cans. So what does CEPT do with all those used cans? This resourceful artist converts them into FM radios ... or spradios. I got to play around with one of these gadgets. They're a very clever idea and really fun. The button on the top of the can serves as the on/off volume nob and the lid as a earphone holder.















CEPT is also a fine artist and printmaker. His paintings and prints are available to view (and to purchase!) at his site, spradio.com. His work has shown at a number of shows, including the recent HOO WOT exhibition.
























Thanks to CEPT for providing many of the images seen in this post. Photography by Tiki Chris © 2007 and CEPT © 2007.

Nature’s CCTV Cameras (or Chris Osburn interviews Dscreet)

I recently got a gig writing for whitehot magazine of contemporary art, a monthy online magazine. Here's a link to an article I wrote for them about London-based artist, Dscreet.

Nature’s CCTV Cameras (or Chris Osburn interviews Dscreet)
by Chris Osburn
whitehot magazine of contemporary art
March 2007










When painting owls in public spaces, Dscreet aims to have passers-by feel as if they are being watched by the very paintings they notice. According to Dscreet, “Owls are like nature’s CCTV cameras … a projection of my own paranoia.” Interestingly, Dscreet’s projection of paranoia is at once cheery and stern. His owls are large and colorful. Their unflinching (and unblinking) gaze creates an eerie presence that demands attention. To see them evokes the suspicion that a magic realm of wonder exists – even amid otherwise urban landscape.

Click here for complete article.

Wondering why you can't get into Mahiki?

This might have something to do with it:

Tiki in Hackney

I happened upon this tiki while roaming around Hackney last month. It was for sale at the Mexican Shop at the Hackney Farm. Click here for more info about that day and the farm.

Photography by Emiana © 2007

Z Shed (Z07.21)

Last week while heading over to the Hoo Wot opening, I happened upon these gruesome paste-ups on Old Street:

Photography by Tiki Chris © 2007

Learn more about the Z Shed on the Z Shed MySpace profile.

Zombruary 2007 is sponsored by Tiki Racer.

Prince Harry et al at l’esculsivo Mahiki Club

Wow. Rich and powerful people at Mahiki. Even the Italian papers are taking notice. Thanks to Emiana for pointing me in the direction of these articles.

Harry out on the town... again
By JAMIE PYATTand TOM REILLY
Sun Online
February 08, 2007

[Prince Harry] ... arrives at trendy Mahiki nightclub in London’s Mayfair with 15 pals including Guy Pelly and ex-girlfriend Natalie Pinkham. They meet Madonna and hubby Guy Ritchie in club. Glamour model Dita Von Teese and Big Brother’s Donny Tourette, from punk band Towers of London, are also present.

Click here for complete article.

Principe Harry, notte brava con Madonna
Dallo stadio alla festa in discoteca con la popstar: la nottata del giovane Windsor (annaffiata dall'alcol) raccontata dal Sun
Corriere della Serra
09 febbraio 2007

Alle 22 Harry lascia il terreno di gioco e un’ora e mezzo dopo, presumibilmente rimandati i commilitoni in caserma, si presenta all’esculsivo Mahiki Club insieme a 15 amici tra cui la ex Natalie Pinkham (la fidanzata Chelsy Davy è impegnata in un lungo viaggio); tra gli altri clienti Madonna con il marito Guy Ritchie e la modella Dita von Teese.

Click here for complete article.