Good morning happy Sunday and all that – thanks for popping back to the blog. Either later today or more likely early next week I’ll do my best to share some images and hopefully video too from some of the Strummer birthday events that took place yesterday so please stay tuned.

Strangely enough Joe’s birthday and the day after both seemed to hold some extra gravitas and I’m sure just by coincidence. Bear in mind I live somewhere where it might rain 20 or 25 times in the entire year, needless to say last night just an hour before I watched the clock flip over to Sunday and was reflecting on Strummer while watching ‘The Future is Unwritten’ the sky opened and we got a lovely hard rain coupled with loads of lightning which continued until the wee hours. Then when I awoke to watch a bit of football from West London, the cameras and audio feed returned to the ground (Craven Cottage – not far from Clash territory and right alongside the Thames) before the players were out for the second half. Playing quite loudly and drowning out the crowd chatter over the p.a. was ‘London Calling’ so even unintentionally the first song I heard today was of course The Clash.

Its been a busy and emotive couple of days on the blog so I thought I’d try something much lighter today, continuing the Joe Strummer theme but nothing to make you tear up or at least I hope not. I don’t have any tattoos but I think one of the only things I even half considered would have been something with a Clash logo – or perhaps Arsenal. Joe Strummer tattoos come in all shapes and sizes so I’ve selected six of the best for your perusal and for you to pick a favourite. Check out the ink below (click on each photo for a larger image):

	1- The Full Monty – cover your entire back in Joe
	2 – The classic Joe on Diving Board – Strummerville logo
	3- Jacket on, collar up – back of the leg
	4- Great likeness but perhaps shave your arm?
	5- I’m getting a Clint Eastwood feel here…do you feel lucky Punk (rocker)?
	6 – Great detail…but where on the body?

So those would be my top six, there were quite a few more but they range from average to pretty bloody horrible so now we need a favourite? Take part in the least pressure packed poll in Clash Blog history – which Joe tattoo do you like the most? You have time to think about this – results will be posted on Thursday Aug 26. I’ll then try and contact the owner of said branding and see if we can get a personal story about the body art. Also, accept my apologies for the poor aesthetic qualities of the tattoo alignment above…it drove me a bit html loopy if you catch my meaning.

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Good morning everyone. Before I go for bagels and pastries I needed a coffee and before I drank my coffee I found something to share. I know it just figures, right?

As much as I love the Velvet Underground I’ve never quite got on to the Andy Warhol pop art express train to cool conceptual art. Truth be known what little taste I have has always been limited to trying to absorb as much music as I could and I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a paintbrush after the age of six or so. Therefore I’ll send all Clash related art to you to be the judge and in the case of this mornings link it looks cool to me, is affordable and is a limited edition. Those three reasons might make it appealing to you I hope. I think I need to get myself one.

Simon Dixon's London Calling - more details below

It’ a pop art creation based on the famed cover to London Calling and while it doesn’t stray to far from the original it still unique. As you can see, me describing art is like your grandparents explaining sex so I’ll just give you the official blurb:

Simon Dixon uses classic 20th century images and icons as a base for his pop art creations, as this London Calling pop art print shows.

Of course, based on the classic Clash album cover, it keeps all of that detail, but flushes it with colour to look more like an original painting. The one pictured here is a high quality giclee numbered Pop Edition, sized at 12 x 12 inches and limited to 750 in total.

You can pick it up online for £40.

The link to his shop is right here – and they do seem to ship overseas….even better. I also spoke to Simon today, if you contact him via his site you can collect from him directly. Right then, time to get bagels and milk which incidentally might be the title of my first EP.

Still no license plate, we’re getting closer to driving around with just a Clash sticker on the back of the car. Another cloudy day in the desert and it makes a nice change and is a lot cooler too. I didn’t mind wearing long trousers and breakfast outside today, not normally options for July here. Still no word on the .5C/G US tour dates so perhaps we’ll need to get through the weekend. I know they won’t play here in Phoenix so Los Angeles or Las Vegas will be likely, although getting tickets for Los Angeles might be a bit tricky. Don’t you know who I am ticketmaster (or did they officially go away?) I’m from TheClashBlog….’the what blog?’ and thus the conversation will end right there. Off topic a bit but the British witch hunt in DC is getting on my wick at present. First BP (which incidentally is 39% owned by Americans – 40% British) are seen as the great Satan as if Chevron and Exxon don’t drill offshore and now we have the Lockerbie issue. Why doesn’t the senate/congress focus on domestic issues for five minutes and stop printing UB4os for a few months? We gave you language, baseball, Monty Python and The Clash – how about Washington DC says thanks and moves on! We did after all follow the blind leader(s) into Iraq. What next, an inquiry into Russell Brand and Ricky Gervais stealing work from less funny American comics?

I’m excited that you enjoyed yesterday’s post about ‘Clash shopping’ seems some of the items in question even sold out! How great is that…?

You probably recall our coverage of the frankly brilliant Ray Lowry London Calling exhibition at the Idea Gallery in central London. I’m excited to learn that you’ll now get a chance to see the exhibition in Manchester, New York and Tokyo. Following the huge success and endorsement from The Clash it’s very fitting that people outside of London will get an opportunity to see Ray’s work up close and personal. I keep getting these very strong signals that I need to relocate to New York or Los Angeles to be better positioned to do the blog….thankfully you’ve been great at giving me first hand reports from London. I’d be wandering around Manhattan with a digital camera trying to chronicle everything and never get time to do any paid work – so perhaps it’s not the best idea. So Ray Lowry: The London exhibit and auction created a lot of worthy attention being listed as The Guardian’s pick of the week and getting coverage in Mojo and the NME. featured in the NME and Mojo magazines.

The initial artwork was partially auctioned in London, so far raising some £20,000 for the Ray Lowry Foundation –the project set up after Ray sadly died to assist young artists. Only a third of the donated work has so far been sold so forthcoming auctions will occur at the new locations for the exhibition. Crawshawbooth (just North of Manchester) is confirmed – the details are beneath

‘London Calling’ exhibition comes north

Preview night – 22/07/10 6.30 to 8.30 pm Exhibition dates – 23/07/10 to 07/08/10

Opening times – Monday to Sunday 10am to 4pm,  Late night – Thursdays 9pm close

Admission – Free     Venue – The See Gallery, Oddfellows Hall, 1 Binns Street Crawshawbooth, Lancashire BB4 8AA

I’ll do some digging around to get details about the stops in New York and Tokyo. Thanks for dropping in, if you have any thoughts or questions please post a comment.