Maida Vale Studios, London: There are about 10 different reasons why this blog post shouldn't exist.

Chalking in Maida Vale Studios in London is no small feat.

In fact, it probably breaks a law written somewhere about ruining old, amazing music places builts decades before you were born.

So, forgive me that I have waited a while before posting about my trip to the prestigious studios, which took place a little earlier in February...

And that my chalked messages are quite short (I didn't want to get picked up by the collar of my dress and thrown out. You can understand?)

Anyway...

This is Maida Vale Studios on Delaware Road in London.

It doesn't look too exciting from the outside, but it's home to seven BBC studios and, since 1946, has been used to record thousands of popular music, classical music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 6Music.

It's also home to thousands of unnecessarily long corridors which have no landmarks to help you find your way.

The solution? To pretend you stopped to take photos of the old photos on the wall. And to stare at them afterwards like you remember being there, and how great it was at the time...

I went to Maida Vale to work on a show that would be broadcast live from the building as part of a special celebration of BBC 6 Music...

For no less than The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show!

(Craig Charles when he's not lying on a studio desk next to a message I've just chalked/not in Coronation Street/not in Red Dwarf)

Everything is so SNAZZY

Well, sort of....

'WOW'

(I touch it some more after I have chalked to pick up some celebrity DNA on my fingertips)

Who knows what's inside...

I like to think it's someone mega famous' drums or something...

Heading back to the studio to avoid looking suspicious...

...to find nobody is here and that I can chalk on a speaker without getting caught!

'!'

Yay.

Where is everyone though?

Eh?

Ah.

Alice Russell who was in here just half an hour ago...

...and James Hunter who was our guest just before that...

Are now singing and dancing right here.

Look!

 

And listen.

(They were amazing)

***

Lego v Chalk

I've just spotted a video of a printer made of lego, printing out a picture of a pony. It has LEGO PEOPLE working on the top of it.

Can I make this work with chalk?

Watch the video and discuss...

NB - If anyone thinks this is possible, you have my whole bag of crayon-shaped chalks (sorry John and Becky) and the promise of eternal love, devotion and blackboards, to make it work for me.

***

Liverpool, UK: I found something cool behind my house...

Liverpool's Festival Gardens...

 

It was specially commissioned for the International Garden Festival four years before I was born, and was the centrepiece of the city's early regeneration efforts.

 

 

While I was dancing around my bedroom in South Wales to The Spice Girls in 1997, it fell into disrepair and was abandoned.

 

But then, those who loved the area and didn't want them to continue building houses and various other leisure pursuits on the land, set about restoring it again ten years later.

 

Here it is now (as I found it)...

 

 

'Look what I've found!'

 

 

 

A tiny house on a little stand...

 

 

...with a cool hut looking out onto a pond!

 

It's a Japanese garden!

 

...and it's very beautiful.

 

 

And, guess what?

 

Since I've been here...

 

 I've grown a bit!

 

 

Or not. Nevermind...

 

 

Wanna see something that is amazing, though?

 

...

 

 

I can't believe that this is behind my house!

 

'If only I was taller'

 

Just a little bit taller...

 

I'd be on top of that roof, finishing this blog post in style.

 

***

Hello February!

Hello!

How was your January?

Mine went past rather fast, so I'm starting my chalking posts for 2013 today.

Here's a song (and some slightly altered lyrics) for you to sing while I upload some photos from my trip to Liverpool's Festival Gardens...

I'll count you in, yeah?

Three

Two

ONE!

Lyrics

 

"You gotta chalk where you wanna chalk

Chalk what you wanna chalk

With whoever you wanna chalk with
You gotta chalk where you wanna chalk
Do what you wanna do

With whoever you wanna chalk with..."



Brynna, Wales: Christmas is over...

It's always a little bit weird going back to where you live and work after you've spent time at home with family at Christmas.

But I've decided that if it's true, that 'we should see every place as new', then every place is strange, and so familiar.

This is my doorstep at home...

 

 

And these are the new chalks I got from my brother and his wife in Wales...

 

 

Safe journeys back y'all.

Brynna, Wales: HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas one and all!

Some of my family decided to get me chalk-related gifts this year. Which is awesome.

What did you get?

Hope it was good!

 

***

Scouring the internet: Christmas chalking homework

It's really cold outside and it's really cold inside. The rain hasn't stopped since I woke up and I can't bear putting warmer clothes on because it would mean taking off a layer before getting to the good stuff.

So, here goes. Homework.

Of course, this isn't really homework, it's just me having a nose to see what other people are chalking/have chalked out there, so that by the time this gross weather stops and my camera lead reappears (hopefully somewhere really obvious like in my hand), I'll have lots of ideas for chalking experiments in 2013.

(It also means I can play about with chalk-related pictures from the comfort of my alien duvet covers. No raindrops in sight.)

Homework -20th December, 2012

Other People Chalking

  



Helen Levitt took this photo as part of a series of pictures aiming to document the lives of children on the streets in 1940s America.

I just like this. It reminds me of a book I've just asked my mum to get me called 'How to be an Explorer of the World'.

This doesn't look much like chalk to me, but I like the broken bicycle in the corner. I like to think someone tried to cycle across the tyres leaning against the wall, but that it went a little wrong about 90% of the way across...

This is what the BBC published this morning (21/12/12) in an article about how the people who believed the world will end today, are going to cope now that the world's still going.

I bet they're well chuffed.

I know how this looks, but it's not true...