The last crusade

I indulged in a little Slam based archaeology yesterday. After a few hours of white spirit induced asphyxiation and finger nail bashing we uncovered the glass beneath many years of sticker application. Now you can look through the door..



Can you believe there was nothing worth saving? Dan asssured us he has one of the OG Slayer logo Slam stickers at home so that may make it's way back to center stage. The back off the door housed Seth's favourite and that is all that remains of the door as it was..



If you look through those freshly uncovered panels of glass in the first picture you'll spy the pillar. This is what's inside it this week, a load of new Fuct shirts..









The Ice Cube one is my favourite. Some more made it in but didn't make the pillar. They have their own cubby hole just next door. Check them out..









They're all pretty good right? You can order them here..

http://www.slamcity.com/store//index.php?cPath=37_116

During my bit of digging at the door Henry moved some stuff and uncovered another piece of Slam history, it fell on him in fact. He was inadvertently naused up by the "nause box". I'll introduce you..



Pizzer created it I thought but i've just been informed that it was Mark Jackson. If you spend time in this city regardless of how tolerant you are something will end up nausing you up. You take the thing that has annoyed you, write it on a piece of paper and pop it in the nause box, the idea being that it has been placed in here so as not to clutter up your thoughts anymore. The nause box received heavy use at one time, if I had to put one thing on paper and place it in here today it would be people with umbrellas. I had a look in the nause box, it was intercepted on it's journey to the cylindrical file. Many pieces of nause have been lost but here is what was left in the nause box prior to it being filed forever...R.I.P



I can file my nause on the alley from now on anyhow. Brent who was part of the glue which held the warehouse together has now embarked on a DJ career....



If any of you kind readers want to do me a favour please add Jake's Alley as a link on either your blog or site or myspace, whatever it would be much appreciated. Peace

Wildlife!

I'm not talking about the Cameron Crowe film but it is a banger so watch it if you haven't already. I'm talking about the birds and creatures we find in England's wooded areas. I am fortunate enough to see the countryside every so often and have just got back from staying in Elveden Forest out in Suffolk. One thing which stoked me out the most was getting to hang around with the ducks. They were everywhere and weren't phased by human presence whatsoever. One came right up to my brothers shoe and started pecking at his shoe laces, there was a squadron of ducklings following these birds about too. I know that is the wrong collective noun but have just checked and found that I should have called it a clutch of ducklings. Squadron sounds far more dramatic. The point of this story is that basically it was a treat to have nature at every corner. Here are some pictures of the ducks..








During my collective noun investigation I also found that turtledoves when found together are referred to as "a pitying" of turtledoves. Over the weekend I saw some rabbits, a robin, a wag tail and a peacock. I also saw some ducks mating which was violent if I'm honest and a little harrowing. That night my brother ate duck, the circle of life! When I got home I received a picture of a dead squirrel from Jackson and a movie which leads up to the picture, I saw some lively squirrels while I was away however..





The dead squirrel picture and last nights post of French as a dog reminds me of a story. Many years ago when Massey was filming Portraits and working at Slam with Toby and myself a squirrel entered their lives. If any facts are wrong I apologise, this is the story as I remember it being told when I returned home. Toby, Massey and French were sitting in the local Harvester one day getting some food as it was raining outside. French needed to buy some cigarettes so he ran out of the restaurant to get to the local shop. Sprinting French scared a squirrel which ran into the main road and took a good knock from a passing car. Mortified by what had happened French picked up the squirrel and took it back to see what the others thought. The squirrel was placed in a box and returned to Cawdor crescent from where the RSPCA were called. The squirrel was breathing but not really up to much. A worried Toby gave the squirrel a little poke to stir some life into it, this worked. The squirrel bit him hard on the finger! It was later collected by the RSPCA and lets hope brought around to a full recovery. Toby washed his wound and returned home to Pinner. That night he was playing guitar and felt the muscles tense up in his neck. Having visited hospital he discovered our furry little friend had given him lock-jaw! Some medication cleared it up. Best not to touch these little fellers is the moral of this story, they could be dangerous!

Just got home!

Thanks girls!
The blog is again fully operational so no need to fret. I'll fill you in on my weekend in the next day or so. This just dropped in my inbox from Mr Massey and there's more to come from Jay..



It's a canine French! I bid you goodnight

The weekend..

has arrived for me. I'm going away tomorrow for a long weekend to Center Parcs with my brother. Can't wait, it's going to be a good break. Much of the time will be spent in the spa I imagine but i'm sure we'll carve out some time for the slides..



Unfortunately this means the alley may well be barren for a few days so apologies in advance go out to Vinyl Richie, Shier and all regular viewers. I may scope out possible uploading opportunities at the internet cafe there or I may remain horizontal in the spa instead and do it when I get back. The alley got a record amount of hits yesterday so don't let a little down time put you off, perhaps instead use that time recommending the blog to all your friends.
Toby's show at the store was a success as I expect the party which is going on as I type was too. Lots of people turned up and lots of beer got drunk, downstairs CBG productions, B block and NY revisited got a playout.







A later addition to the show was an amazing window sticker applied by Rob and Toby..



Toby has really gone to town in his most ambitious show yet, it's up for a while now and more shows are being planned for the coming months so hopefully there'll always be something of interest on display for you.
Jayo had some fun with the face in the hole website. Not sure if this is any good..



hahaha, it's Neil "Marilyn Manson" Chester and to sign off this post today..



Dan "Pinochet" Callow! Good right? He's made some more, I'll save them for a later date. Enjoy the weekend

SHOEBAG

Our bagel chomping friend Toby Shuall has emptied his brain everywhere and you need to come and see it to believe it. There is a man made of leaves in the window!!



Here is some existing evidence of Toby's mind on the wall in front of me..



He's bloody everywhere! he's on the Gonz's shoulders behind me!



The show is in here now and the opening party is here tonight at the shop then it's going on for a party at the Macbeth in East London. You are cordially invited to both events..



You can check out some of Toby's fresh Suburban Bliss garms while you're here, he has his own rail..



They're available on the online store too, peep them here..

http://www.slamcity.com/store//index.php?manufacturers_id=41

I'm going to give you a little teaser of what you can expect to see downstairs







They are pretty amazing and there are loads more, Toby is running it, he makes jewellery too. You've never seen him skate? Are you kidding me?



That is enough gaying off about Toby for one day however you have to come down tonight and check the show out and then bug out to the musical selections made by Winnie Wootah Whitter, Will Bankhead and Mr Shuall over in the East.
Another lover of leaves paid us a visit today namely Mr Will Ainley. He gave the shop a CD, one of the many mixes he makes. Pure reggae flavour..



He's named the mix "Mi house bun down"



This is because the first track by Nezbeth is about his house burning down, what a bummer. See you all in here later.

Refused entry!

Charlie walked straight in but muggins here was left outside. I'm sure the bouncer remembered me as the guy laughing while Nugget mooned him last time we were there. "How long till we get in?" asked Jackson, "to be honest mate you're not coming in!" was the reply. Scumbags! Bouncers are the worst. Charlie was putting this in everyone's pocket yesterday, Jackson was rocking it for a bit whilst doing some mail order..



His old board is haggard so he's set up a new one. Asked me to find the skinniest board with the most tapered tre flip tail so I found him the Marcus Mcblunted, the plastic piece was weaing off the old trucks so those are new too..



The story above is only partially true but that any of it is may surprise you. Jerome from Shiner dropped a copy of a rollerblading mag in with Rob's box. Imagine our shock when we found out that Yap's been leading a double life!!

target="_blank">http://www.slamcity.com/JAKES%20ALLEY/davidyap.html

Every year Seven Dials make a guide to shopping in the area. This year the cover of that guide is our shop front.



The only person to get back to me after the heads up on that face in the hole website was Massey. He was stoked on it and sent us this sick picture of Adrian French the Extra Terrestrial..

All quiet...

on the Western front as far as DVD's go. We have a re-stock of the last batch of Traffic VIA so if you haven't got your hands on one now is the time. It's £5 and it's amazing. Another good DVD which is recent is the Baghead Flats one made by Ben Powell and Rye Gray form Sidewalk magazine. We had a premiere of it here in the shop...



This too is £5. Starring Doug Mclaughlan, Ben Grove, Josh Young, Jason Brown, Danny Beal, Andy Scott, Joe Lynsky and Mike Wright. It's well worth a watch, come and pick them both up!

This website isn't much fun, you definitely shouldn't check it out..

http://www.faceinhole.com

You can do stuff like this..



and like this..



There's a lot of options on there so give it a bash. I had a good Nando's last night, Magee has given me the heads up on what their Vietnamese branch is like..

Surf's up...

Wind it in Luigi!

There's new Diamond stuff in. Check it out. We have two hooded sweats. The Shine on print. The first one is a San Francisco giants colourway....the black and orange. Here's the front..



We brought you the rat acquisition yesterday, this picture has a gun acquisition from a Mobsters and Molls party many moons ago. It's merely being looked after. It's got a back print too..



They did a New York one too in the yankees colourway...navy and white. Danny chills in the hooded zipper with the kingpin hammer..



This has the same back print. Shine on....



Here's some of the gold dust I neglected to bring you yesterday from the Slam night.



These guys were loving it. It's quite possible that birthday boy was loving it the most!!



The Oasis set brought a serious strain on. A Cates board showed up. Showed you the Death team board covered in holograms. This is highly reflective too and has a Scanners graphic on it..



The man signed us the nose too! The Slam Playas are staying up this end. Come in and buy it, it's £39.95



It's yours, pay us a visit. Luigi just told me that DJ Cosmic Wind blew his mind!
Those bosses have been paying us visits. This guy was here first thing this morning! Gareth's been rocking the flameboy hat he found..



Last thing...word on the street is that....