Rock Porn

I've just updated my smokeback site, with a few new drawings. There is a Posterior View of the Cranial Nerves  and a Anterolateral View Of The Inner Ear to tickle your fancy.

The real treat is however, I have retired my one arm manikin and have a new model , "Latin Rock" which is a piece of Hematite I picked up from Mt.Revelstoke in Canada. Whats interesting about Hematite I hear you cry ?  Well lots actually, but taking a guess at my current readership of this blog, I think you will appreciate this little fact

In 2001, Egyptian government archaeologist Zahi Hawass was the first to enter a previously undisturbed tomb, believed to be that of an ancient regional mayor, in the Bahariya Oasis below the town of Bawiti. Upon entering the burial chamber, Hawass discovered a booby trap consisting of 8 inches of finely powdered hematite dust covering the floor and sarcophagus.^[ When disturbed by a tomb robber, the sharp, metallic dust was intended to become airborne and irritate the skin, eyes and mucous membranes, eventually causing lethal siderosis if exposed for long enough. The archaeological team was forced to retreat and don full body suits and respirators in order to confirm the identity of the mummy. Hawass cites the ancient Egyptians' experience with powdered hematite as a paint pigment as proof that they were aware of its irritating properties.^[6]

Now onto the Porn, here are some photos from a cheeky photo shoot I had with Latin rock earlier today.

Phwoooarrrr

Coorrrrr!

Naughty!

Sluurrrrpppp

and Im spent....

Beauty and the Beast

following on from approaching Leeds from the east
I attempted the same from the west this sunday gone, however the weather was not on my side and I cut short my walk which meant I did not get as many photos as I wanted.

Approaching from the west is a pleasant contrast to the previous walk and it was nice to see lots of people using the path and there was abundance of wildlife to be seen en route, including this fella.

Shortly after passing him was when the heavens began to open and instead of walking directly back along the canal path, I decided to cut off the corner and walked through the suburbs to get back to the centre on doing so I passed the former site of Leeds International Pool.

The Pool was built in the sixties and as local legend has it, the architect John Poulson who five years later would be up on corruption charges, didn't factor in the width of the pool lining, thus making the pool one inch too short for international competions.

There is a great write up and urban exploration photos up here from January 2008 and some more of my own photos from Sunday are in my THIS IS LEEDS set on flickr

Leeds Victoria and Hunslet Mill

Went for a walk last sunday along the canal heading east into the city of Leeds. Firstly, boy does it stink and a lot of the tow paths were closed, so a fair chunk was spent walking around souless industrial estates.

Did however come across this place which from what I have been reading was the Victoria and Hunslet Mills.  The site is quite large and the black and white image below shows what it would of looked like in the fifties

I found the B&W image on the 28DaysLater site, which has a thread that gives a bit more about the history of the place and some inside photographs.   The Photographs I took up are up on my flickr account