Carruthers Ten Years On: September 2012

September 2012 was when I finally lost interest in the Carruthers blog. The Riddle Of The Sands came to its natural conclusion and I managed a couple of posts using photos that I took like in the old days: Snake Bake and Charge!, neither of which were particularly impressive. I clearly intended to do more and something got in the way.

Carruthers Ten Years On: June 2011

June 2011 saw the Carruthers blog reach 1100 posts.

There's a pretty good run of posts here: Branded, Shedloads, Borderland, Trunk, Word Up, These Are Happy Plums, The Harsh Light Of Day, Style Over Substance and There's No Other Way.

Carruthers Ten Years On: February 2011

In February 2011, the Carruthers blog reached one thousand posts. The month featured more index posts, more 're-mastering' and YouTube videos of the movie, Duel.

I quite like Baked.

I took the photo for Top Floor whilst stood outside the Courtyard Theatre during the rehearsals for the Behind The Bike Shed festival. You will notice that the blaze seems to have been isolated to one flat and in the wake of Grenfell Tower disaster and the subsequent demonization of firefighters by the Conservative Party who cut their resources this seems very significant. The accompanying joke was meant to refer to the notoriously buoyant and cutthroat London property market. Now it's hard not to think about the previous residents.

Carruthers Ten Years On: November 2010

November 2010 on the Carruthers blog saw it reach 900 posts.

I quite like this one about Frida Kahlo and the photo for this one, while this one about Trainspotting reveals one of my personal bugbears.

Carruthers Ten Years On: August 2010

August 2010 on the Carruther's blog saw post on pests of the week five, six, seven, eight and nine.

Of the other posts, I quite like this one and this one.

Black Squadron Too

I've trawled through posts that I drafted but for some reason didn't get around to posting. I plan to rectify that over the next few months.

I took this photo for Adam and Joe's Black Squadron. I have no memory of it or the stimulus they provided to inspire it.



For those intrigued, here's an explanation of Black Squadron.

Carruthers Camera #30

Here's five more photos that I took for the late Carruthers blog:

In What? was taken in the gift shop of National Media Museum in Bradford.

Endgame was taken through a charity shop window in Cheshunt.

Lens Tens is a shop window dummy in Wood Green.

Shattered is in Central London near Covent Garden.

I cannot remember where Napkin was taken. Well apart from, you know, on a table.

Carruthers Camera #29

Here are five more Carruthers blog photos that I took:

Style Over Substance was taken near Denchworth in Oxfordshire.

There's No Other Way is a fantastic sign in Skipton in North Yorkshire.

Leonardo Da Vinci Says... it in Caledonian Road's tube station.

Tea With Daren is a slightly odd lingering sign painted on a wall in Cheshunt.

Sticking with Cheshunt, Babybox is a terrifying view through a charity shop window.

Carruthers Camera #28

Five more Carruthers blog photos that I took:

Borderland is a photo of Monmouth Street in Central London. I always forget to check whether it's usually like that or whether it was during some Anglo-French festival.

The Trunk in Trunk is in a park and Word-Up was a coach that tried to drive around said park, but instead almost took a U-Turn, followed by a thirteen point turn and then reversed the wrong way down a traffic-filled one-way street.

Why Aye? is a shot of a Bounds Green billboard advert and surrounding view of North London.

These Happy Plums were some graffiti on a temporary hoarding in Southwark.

Carruthers Camera #27

Another five photos that I took for the Carruthers blog:

The Eighteenth Hole was the front door of a posh flat in Dalston and is indicative of just how much area has changed over the last few years.

The establishment pictured in The Harsh Light Of Day is opposite Farringdon tube station. I have never seen it open.

I took And The Children Shall Lead on south coast of Dorset.

This Weet Paint sign was outside an expensive Islington house. Initially, I mocked the signmaker and as it turns out I did so entirely unfairly because 'weet' is a Chaucerian English word meaning wet and I'm certain that the painter knew that.

The postbox in Post Poultry is in Grove, in the south of Oxfordshire. Despite my derision of the spelling, I hope that dogwalkers heeded the message of the sign, because nobody deserves to have their workplace/packages/correspondence showered with urine.

Carruthers Camera #26

Five more photos I took for the Carruthers blog:

I took Branded in a discount shop in Bradford. I was asked not to take any more photographs, but thankfully not until I had taken all that I wanted.

Neighbours was taken in Bounds Green, North London.

Placed was taken Islington, North London in a back street off Holloway Road.

There's No Business... was taken outside a brilliantly-named shop in Southgate, North London and that's my reflection. Sadly I don't think it's there any more.

High On The Hill was taken in the borough of Camden, on Herbal Hill, EC1 in London, although I suppose you could have guessed that.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Dave

We watched Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes the other day. I liked it. The story is a great reboot of Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes and the story of the first ape who learned to say "No", it asks interesting moral and ethical questions about animal testing, features excellent CGI and there are great performances from John Lithgow, Freida Pinto and the motion-capture cast playing the apes.

In other news, the DVD case made me want to do this:

Carruthers Camera #25

Here are five more photos that I took for the Carruthers blog:

Railing Failing was taken in Central London somewhere.

I took Liners at the end of nearby Earlham Street. I don't know what it was: cocaine, anthrax, sherbert.

Smoke Joke was taken further down Shaftsbury Avenue.

During the Bound's Green graffiti epidemic, I took Rape Is Bad. There must be a story there.

Danger Of Death is an empty void in Turnford with some (presumably) fraudulent signage.

Carruthers Camera #24

Five more photos that I took for the Carruthers blog:

Revenge was a spectacular piece of graffiti that appeared in an alleyway in Bounds Green in London.

Judgement was taken further along the same alleyway during the same spate of very odd graffiti.

; was taken during the March For The Alternative.

Another piece of graffiti although somehow not as objectionable as those above, Aliens Have Landed was taken between Turnford and Cheshunt.

Sticking with the graffiti theme, here's Taken, which struck me as more considered than any of the others that littered Bounds Green.

P Is For...Photography

Here's my sixteenth post for the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge, P is for... Photography:

I run another blog for a comedy group that I'm part of called Mr Carruthers Presents... and I've taken a variety of photographs for it. I've posted a hundred or so on here before with explanations.

Carruthers Camera #23

Here are five more:

Mobile Home was taken on a camping site near Lulworth, in the south of England, and is just the sort of upmarket dwelling that accompanies posts related to our Estate Agent sketch.

I took Nice Fufu in a supermarket on London's Holloway Road, and is single entendre enough for a post concerning our Sex Therapist sketch.

Slips, Trips And Falls was a very safe (and empty) expanse of pavement near London Bridge.

It's self explanatory where I took In The Garden Of..., the street is just off Holloway Road, sounds far prettier than it looks and perfect for another Estate Agent post.

Special Eyes is an opticians in Forest Hill, South London and fits our Glasses sketch pretty well.

Carruthers Camera #22

Five more photos I took for the Carruthers blog:

Skip It was taken in quite an inhospitable art installation in Southwark.

Segregation struck me as funny whilst walking through Manor House in North London and Baked was taken further down the same street.

Top Floor is clearly a horrific sight taken by the box office door of The Courtyard theatre during the Bike Shed festival.

This photo of a Mug was taken whilst temping nights in an office. The pathetic nature of its passive aggressive tiny rebellion office humour appealed to me.

Carruthers Camera #21

Five more photos that I took for the Carruthers blog:

Window Shopping is a ripped covering of ASDA's window in Southgate, North London.

I took East Meets West while out walking with Mark and Brogan on a camping holiday.

Curry Favour was the eclectic menu at the Indian restaurant we ate at on the same camping holiday.

The sign featured in Buy With I was mounted near Seven Sisters tube.

Back Seat Barber was taken outside a hairdresser in Islington, sadly no longer there.

Carruthers Camera #20

Five more Carruthers blog potos that I took:

Trash Talk was taken in Hammersmith on the way back from a rehearsal for The Tables Turned.

Free Cameras was a conspicuously empty glass case in the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Swannage is a photograph of a piece of artwork by Kim who works at Caledonian Road tube station in London. I met her once and she was very embarrassed that I liked her efforts.

Bin Bomb would have been taken during another rehearsal period for the New Factory Of The Eccentric Actor on Torriano Avenue, but I forget which play the rehearsals would have been for.

Greenbelt is one of the many derelict houses on Bowes Road, near Arnos Grove tube.

The Face(s) Of Evil

I've mentioned Big Finish on here before. They are a company for whom I have a lot of affection. I've included several of their efforts when writing These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things and failed to interest them with a proposal for a script and a short story that I wrote.

So when they requested that people send in photographs of screaming faces for the cover of a sequel to a Doctor Who spinoff called Graceless, I duly obliged. I recently discovered that my fizzog is one of those pictured below:

Can you see me?

If it helps, the original photo is here:

Yep.

Graceless II is available here.

Carruthers Camera #19

Five more Carruthers blog photos:

Wood Green gave me four of the following photos. Firstly Safety Signage in the car park of a supermarket.

Caught Red Handed is a photo of a house on the same street and became an Estate Agent post.

Around the corner from the supermarket, Nappy Trash is another in a long line of bin photos.

And further along, Baggy was taken in a flower bed on the edge of a park and ended up in a Drugs post. Unfortunately, you can barely see the cannabis leaf printed on the plastic bag.

Bucking the trend, Test was taken in Southgate, was perfect content for a Glasses post and one that I missed the best possible joke for. I should have commented instead on the tiny writing at the bottom of the sign.