I Guess We Have All heard Of Carpooling,

if not it is a practice where two or more people going to the same place,

instead of taking a separate vehicle each, all go in one vehicle, saving fuel, wear and tear on the unused vehicles, not to mention saving the planet, as less pollution is made, although the engine of the pool car has to work harder to move the extra passengers,

and here is a point in case, how much harder did this engine have to work to move all of the passengers in it?

Name The Second Largest City In Arkansas,

here is a clue,

it is near the Oklahoma border,

and it is a fort,

 not exactly the setting you would expect for a major International street artists get together, 

 but that is what happened, this year and last,

 with The Unexpected, an ambitious local effort to bring significant public artworks to the streets,

funded in part by local non-profit 646 Downtown and curated by JustKids, the event is now in its second year and has brought over 20 artworks that transform old buildings, grain silos and store facades, the initiative has also engaged emerging artists from both the University of Arkansas and students from two local high schools who were invited to create their own murals around the city, and oh yes and the second largest city in Arkansas near the Oklahoma border where the art works are is called Fort Smith, not only are this years works on display but last years ones are also here.

Diana Went Shopping In The Market,

whilst I went to the aquatic store,

 Pattaya Pet Supplies, unfortunately there is a big sign as you walk in, 'No Pictures' which is a shame, at the aquatic store I have in the UK we do not mind photographers at all, it helps within the photographic community to spread word of my shop and where we are, also anyone looking at a picture taken there might ask where my shop is, so as far as I am concerned it is free advertising, but no pictures inside here so there it is,

looking towards Sumkivitt, the shop is on Thepprasit Road, 200 baht later and I was on my way home with 12 packs of frozen blood-worms for the fish,

 I played around in the spare room at home, we use it as a store room and it was getting a mess, also we wanted to remove the spare chairs for the outdoor table from the living room, the kittens were using them as a climbing frame and it was only a matter of time before the wickerwork will be damaged, then a call from Diana to say she was in Friendship, so off I went,

 next to it construction work was continuing, but I have no idea what will be there, normally on a project like this there are pictures, or I should say artists impressions of the finished project, but so far nothing,

 shopping finished,

 a stop for a ice coffee and tea at the rear of Friendship, 

 a cat nap for Mariana and myself, 

 who for some reason,

 finds sleeping on my lower leg,

 almost as good as her favourite spot on top of one of the speakers,

 as it is Friday off to the weekend night market on Thepprasit Road, 

 looking towards Jomtien cloudy skies,

 everybody is here tonight,

 one of the many sushi stalls that seem to be becoming popular here,

 looking inland grey skies,

 opposite the bar this evening a pillow and clothes stall,

 one of the feather ladies, hopefully I will be more successful than last week in buying a few peacock feathers for the kittens,

 the steelworks at this end of the market finished, 

 and just a few sections to complete at the far end,

 a few customers in the pet section,

 plenty of fancy goldfish in the aquatic store, 

 and a good selection of foods, but alas no freezer so no frozen blood-worms here,

 sunset over the market,

 not much to do now to complete this end of the roof,

 it is all looking good,

 and hopefully the next stage will be completed soon,

 looking inland grey cloudy skies as a group of shoppers looks around the market, 

 success! with help from the lady behind the bar 9 feathers for 200 baht, tomorrow once I have finished cleaning the kittens pool, it is surprising how much dust it seems to attract, and give the aquarium its water change we will see what the kittens make of the feathers, after saying our goodbyes to Brian,

 it was home where a delicious lamb stew awaited us, 

 then a big splash from the kittens room, 

 some one had fallen in the water! 

 it was Mariana,

 who soon dried out, 

 then a nice surprise, whist in Tesco Lotus Diana had bought a tub of rum and raisin ice cream from Swensens,

by now Mariana had dried out and was getting comfortable on the speaker,

whilst we settled down to watch The Bedford Incident, a gripping cold war drama where the determination of the captain of the Bedford threatens to push him and his crew to breaking point, to cool things off we then watched a few from Judge Judy and with that we were off to bed.

I Have Never Been A Great Fan Of Tattoos,

but these really caught my eye,

 the colours are so bright,

 and finely drawn,

 they are the work of Katie Shocrylas who creates tattoos that look,

 

 unreal when I think of some of the ones I have seen that appear just a blue smudge,

Shocrylas comments, “I have always loved the fact that tattooing allows you to make one-on-one connections with other people through images,” she tells TH-INK, “I think it’s a really unique way to make even just a small difference in someone else’s life, and being able to learn a little bit about their experiences by creating a piece of really personal artwork for them.” well they look nice, but for me I will stay au-natural.

Many Of Our Older Readers Will Remember Vinyl Records,

that seem to be making a come back,

 I will not get into the debate as to whether vinyl or digital sounds better, my ears are not good enough! but I do miss the large covers that the LP records came in, and since there has been a resurgence of the old-fashioned vinyl record album in the last few years the Stoughton Printing Company is ready to print new album covers, just as they have since 1964, founded by Jack Stoughton, Sr. the company carries on in the 21st century under the direction of Clay Stoughton and his brother Jack Stoughton, Jr.,

Jack Stoughton, Jr. stands next to his company’s first Heidelberg, I have not seen one of these Original Heidelberg platen presses working since I was 'banged out' after a 5 year apprenticeship at the printing company I was indentured to, leaving it in 1971, but back to the covers, on October 1, 2016, the International Printing Museum in Carson, California, will open an exhibition called “The Music of the Presses: The Stoughton PrintingCompany Vinyl Jacket Collection” as a part of its annual Los Angeles Printers Fair, the show will feature about 50 Stoughton record jackets, from the 1960s to the present, and will remain on view at the museum for several months,

if you want to read more of The Stoughton Printing Company and its history have a look here, as an aside I just had to post this video of an Heidelberg platen in action, the company where I was indentured had 4 of these,

plus 4 Heidelberg cylinder presses, and this is one at work, the central drum you see revolving weighs just on 1 ton in weight, also in the print shop there were others machines,

like this Wharfedale, kept despite their age because of the large sizes of paper they could print, and Shaws double sided disc ruling and perforating machines to name just 2, the noise when all were working flat out was deafening! it seems strange that the machines I was so familiar with and in some cases knew how to operate in the late 1960s are now only to be seen in museums and rare print shops, as lithography in the 1970s became a more popular or efficient form of printing than letterpress.