Day 90: Gremlins 2: The Shoe Batch

A cautionary tale in today’s installment of the 365-day charity challenge…

Three simple rules of purple Vans. Never expose them to bright light (because they’ll fade). Don’t eat kebabs after midnight when you’re wearing them (’cos you’ll be pissed and you’ll end up getting garlic sauce stains all over them). And never, ever get them wet because…

…Well, Gizmo can tell what’s coming!

Purple Gremlin alert!

(BTW, in case anyone thinks I’m cheating and wearing the same purple Vans I wore way back on Day Two, those were Vans Vulcanized trainers and these are Vans Eras… and I prefer them, to be honest.)

Gizmo is courtesy of my good friend Helen, who completely coincidentally had already tied a purple bow around his neck. This particular little Gizmo’s actually been an internet star before; he featured in this video created for SFX a couple of years back… See if you can spot anybody else you know in it.

Loved putting that video together! Ah, those were the days.

They say you can prove anything with statistics, so today either is or is not a quarter of the way through the challenge. Because it’s the last day of March, which is the third month of the year, so on that level, I’m a quarter of the way through. On the other hand it’s day 90, and 90 times four is only 36o… five days under a full year. Damn you February for being so short and giving me false hope.

So how am I feeling (nearly) 25% of the way through the challenge? Well, it’s certainly taking up more of my time than I expected. I’m pretty certain I will complete the challenge, because as the year goes on I’m actually being offered more and more trainers (could still do with  more, though… hint, hint). But keeping the photos and blogs interesting is time-consuming, and I know already that if I have three “second gear” days in a row, then hits and donations fall off. I think some people reckon this is an easy challenge, but over the course of this year I reckon I’ll have put in many, many more hour than anybody training for a marathon.

Admittedly, I’m well onto the way to hitting the £1,000 target, but I know how many people are checking out the Blog and the Tweets every day. If a quarter of them donated £5 each, I’d easily hit over £2,000 by the end of the year. I appreciate every donation I’ve had so far, but I hope people who haven’t donated yet appreciate why I’m doing this.

It is a hugely worthwhile cause. Alzheimer’s research is seriously underfunded, partly because Alzheimer’s is one of those illnesses that it’s all too easy to turn a blind eye to because a lot of don’t have to face it until late in life. It’s an illness that sucks the life out of the mind in a slow, cruel way, robbing a sufferer of the things that make them them – their memories – and leaving their families with a living ghost to cope with; an decreasingly recognisable echo of a loved one who demands constant attention while growing ever more incapable of giving love – or even understanding – back in return.

So please, if you haven’t donated yet, now is a good time. I believe I’ve proven that I’m committed to this, and that it’s a constant, daily effort, not something I can knock off in a few seconds. So a bit of support would help make the fact that I’ve got 75% of the challenge left to go a little less daunting.

Sermon over.

Spent most of the weekend proofing pages of Comic Heroes and watching the entire series of Hemlock Grove for review. Odd show. The oddest thing  not being how the guy playing Peter looks about 15 years too old to be at High School, but why everyone keeps calling him “hairy” or “hirsute” when I’ve seen more hairs in a Little Chef cheese sandwich than he’s got on his chest. Also, the werewolf transformation is very impressive – with the wolf kinda bursting through Peter’s skin – but you are left wondering what happens when he transforms back… which handily always happens off-screen.

See you in April…

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £620 (cheers to Charlotte Martyn!)

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

 

 

Day 89: Shoe To Beam Up, Scotty

Welcome to the latest Trek in the 365-day charity challenge

Mothers’ Day, and I did think of doing a list of science fiction and fantasy’s most famous mothers, but got as far as…

…and decided perhaps that wasn’t the best way to mark the occasion (though award yourselves geeky bonus points if you can name all four and which TV shows or movies they come from).

So, instead, today’s on-loan Saucony runners (the first Sauconys I’ve worn in the challenge) feature in a completely non-mother-related Star Trek photo instead.

And in case you didn’t know Saucony is pronounced like an affliction common among middle-aged five-a-side players – Soccer-knee.

Anyway, happy Mothers’ Day to all mothers out there! Wonder if any of you got trainers as a present? Only if you have very odd offspring. Like me…

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £600 (made it thanks to Rhian Drinkwater, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to add to the total!)

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

 

 

Day 88: Shoe Ya Gonna Call?

Velcro versus Marshmallow in the latest installment of the charity challenge…

Although I’ve so far avoided the obvious “Doctor Shoe” headline in this challenge, the shoe/pun was too irresistible not to use for a Ghostbusters-themed photo (Stay Puft Marshmallow Man courtesy of Jordan Farley… not that he actually knows he’s been kidnapped).

The trainers are a pair I picked up a few tears back in a cheap trainer shop (you know the kind of shop I mean… where the staff all have massive bellies crew cuts and look like the only sport they ever indulge in is darts). I was due to play squash that night, but had forgotten and was wearing a pair of trainers with black soles (there are big signs outside the squash courts we use saying NO BLACK SOLES – I always imagine the floor will turn electric if I step on court in a pair of Nike Dunks, leaving just a smoking pair of trainers behind).

So I picked these Lonsdales up for a fiver… and I’ve probably worn them about twice since (this being the second time). Well, you know how much I hate Velcro fastenings and these have not three but four on each trainer. They’re like failed cycling shoes. Oddly, they don’t look half as bad in the photo as they do in real life. Though I do feel I ought to be wearing trackie bottoms to complete the look.

Great to have made the £600 mark before the end of March, but I still reckon I have a lot of lurkers out there who are enjoying the daily photos but not put their hands in their pockets yet! So come on – cough up!

See you tomorrow.

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £600 (made it thanks to Rhian Drinkwater, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to add to the total!)

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

Day 87: Stoke Me A Clipper, It’s Lace Rimmer!

Holographic plimsolls in today’s installment of the 365-day charity challenge

 

Arnold J Plimmer meets Lace Rimmer and it looks like his hard light generator has gone on the fritz as a result. He always was worried about paling into insignificance beside his more heroic double. It must be a galling experience to learn that you’re the evil twin…!

Honestly, you wouldn’t believe how long I’ve been trying to think of a Red Dwarf/trainer pun, and this is the best I can come up with? Kinda like the photo though.

Has to be  brief blog today (I seem to have been saying that all week) because the Comic Review deadline isn’t going particularly smoothly. Not panicking yet, but give it a couple of hours!

But today is also pay day here at Future, so you can rest assured I’ll be nagging people for sponsorship. That old, “I’m waiting to see if you can actually achieve this challenge first…” excuse is wearing a little thin!

See you again tomorrow.

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £585 (come on, let’s get to £600 before the end of March)

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

Day 86: Terminator Sole-vation

It’s Judgment Day. Have you seen these shoes?

Come with me if you want live a geek life. But you probably knew that already.

Planning to have a big Terminator day on 4 August (don’t tell me I need to explain?) but as I picked up this great little Terminator toy in The Lanes in Brighton at the weekend, and today’s trainers look like something left over from the ’80s, I could’t resist a bit of naked Arnie action (erm, if you get my drift) sooner.

The shoes arrived mysteriously on Monday, packed in an “Emiticon Pets” box and sent to “Dave Gold”. Turns out that one my most avid followers. Zoe, had ordered them on eBay and got them sent straight to me, so she was as bemused by the wacky packing as I was.

Never heard of Twisted Faith as a brand but some Googling suggests it’s a Debenham’s label. I don’t know whether the Emoticons Pets box has Derren Browned me in some way, but they really look like kids’ trainers to me, the cheap ones mum would buy in Asda for little Spike before he’s old enough to demand that wears expensive Nikes like all his mates, because otherwise he’ll become a playground outcast, shunned and spurned by the school trainer police.

But hey, thanks Zoe, that’s the spirit of this challenge. I’ll wear anything. My street cred means nothing to me and it takes me a day nearer to my goal.

Speaking of which, remember those offensively green Zoot running shoes from early in the Challenge? Another even more offensively green pair of Zoot running shoes made their way into the Cycling magazine’s freebie box this week. Guess who’s got them now. Have your sunglasses at the ready.

Comic Review day so must get on. See you back here tomorrow, which, for my Future Publishing pals is pay day. So I will be nagging the surprisingly high number of stingey gits I know here who haven’t sponsored me yet! YOu have been warned.

 

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £585 (come on, let’s get to £600 before the end of March)

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

Day 85: Flaming Trainers And A Massive Fail

Flame on! A quick fix to a massive fail in today’s charity blog…

Nobody told me there’d be days like this. To be fair, nobody knew I’d be doing a year-long charity challenge to wear a different pair of trainers every day for 2014, take a sci-fi-related photo of me wearing them and then write a blog about it. Because nobody thought I was that mad.

Today’s pic is a quick fix because the photo I had planned really wasn’t working. It would have worked if I’d had the right camera, access to Photoshop , a laptop that doesn’t crash every five minutes and the decent lights that I use for indoor stuff. Unfortunately they’re all at work – an 8-mile cycle away – because I forgot I had a doctor’s appointment this morning and didn’t bring them home last night.

I did try Plan A. Because these Nike’s look like they’re wearing little DayGlo orange jackets there was a whole Misfits vibe going on.

FAIL!

 

So, you get a Human Torch reference instead.

It’s a shame today’s shoot is a not very satisfactory botch job replacement, because the trainers themselves are among my favourites of the year so far. They’re a pair of Nike Roshe Runs, a style which is currently very hot amongst trainers snobs; you’re supposed to wear them with skinny jeans and roll-ups that end half way down your shin and no socks. Sadly I don’t have the skinny legs for the skinny jeans.

They’re unbelievably comfy, the lines are classically simple and they retain a strong and instantly recognisable silhouette no matter what colour combination they come in. They usually retail at a ridiculous price, but I got these on eBay for £28. I’m allowing them in the challenge under the “I would have naturally bought these in a normal year” anyway clause, and they won’t get sold on. Hey, my charity challenge – I can bed the rules.

 

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £585

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

Day 84: Monochrome Monsters And The White Sole Boy

A visit to Mockingbird Lane today as the charity blog pays tribute to black and white sci-fantasy movies

Herman Munster makes a cameo appearance in Blog 84 because… well, I haven’t got a Boris Karloff Frankenstein’s monster action figure. So what could have been a moody, monochrome homage to ’30 horror films looks instead like a tribute to Carry On Screaming. Oooooh, what a lovely pair… of white plimsolls.

Had them for years. Only ever wear them with black jeans in a self-conscious attempt to look like an ageing hipster. But despite the fact they’ve probably only been worn eight times in 10 years (it’s not often I self-consciously attempt to look like an ageing hipster) the soles are so incredibly worn out that walking on the office carpet is currently a bit like Dancing On Ice. That’s what you get for buying plimsolls in a Pound Shop.

Anyway, computer was quickly fixed yesterday. The problem? A stone in the socket. Well, at least I don’t bore the IT lads with the same old problems. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that blog from Brighton beach, eh?

Lots of exciting Sole Of Sci-Fi development; I currently have about 11 pairs of on-loan trainers either in the post coming my way, or to be posted imminently! I’m also arranging my most extravagant photoshoot yet, to take place at the end of April. I need some more Golas for that and another pair of yellow trainers form that one.

Anyway, while we’re in a black and white frame of mind, here are my top 10 favourite monochrome sci-fi and fantasy films, in no particular order:

 

Night Of The Demon (1957)

Spooky, psychological horror featuring the original Death Note. And you know what? I don’t even mind the monster at the end. I know it was forced on the director, who wanted a less on-the-nose finale, but when I was a kid watching this for the first time, the monster worked for me! These days, though, I will admit that a simple fluttering piece of paper that seems to have a life of its own is a lot more scary.

The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)

Decades before The Godfather 2 showed the masses that sequels didn’t have to be inferior, director James Whale had proven the point with this blackly comic masterpiece.

20 Million Miles To Earth (1957)

The first of two Ray Harryhausen films in this list, simply because I’m a huge Harryhausen fan. And the Ymir is one of his greatest creations, with loads more character than King King (which some of you may be shocked to see isn’t on this list; it nearly was – consider it an honorary number 11). The scenes of the Ymir hatching from an egg and wiping its eyes in the glare of the new light are amongst Harryhausen’s best bits of animation.

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

Mainly love this film because, subtextually, it’s about a giant lizard that wants to shag a lighthouse and is rudely interrupted. Harryhausen liked the number 20, didn’t he?

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

Best. Movie. Robot. Ever. The FX of the saucer landing are pretty damned impressive too. And while the message is worryingly akin to US foreign policy (we’re right because we have bigger weapons) at least it tries to have a pacifist message.

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

The film that spawned a zillion Doctor Who stories. British sci-fi horror at its pipe-smoking best.

Nosferatu (1922)

You can accuse me of being deliberately trendy, but I genuinely prefer German director FW Murnau’s unofficial rip-off of Bram Stoker’s vampire tale to the Todd Browning US-made official Dracula (which I think is actually a bit dull). Max Shreck’s Graf Orlok is one of the most iconic horror images of the last 100 years.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

The film that made everyday objects alien and scary. Never been completely sold on the ending – which some critics praise as poetic and lyrical, but I just put down to not knowing how to end the film and writing an existential monologue to cover up the fact – but the journey there is filled great effects and set pieces, and a wonderfully touching star performance from Grant Williams.

The Thing From Another World (1951)

 

Usually dismissed as “not as good as the remake” which is fair comment, but it’s still a highly effective base-under-siege movie.

Metropolis (1927)

Wow. It’s still visually impressive nearly 100 years on. Okay, the story is a tad incoherent, but as with Blade Runner, its the world that’s created here that is the true star.

 

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £585

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

Day 83: Thundercats Gooooooo–la!

A very brief ’80s animation-inspired blog today due to technical reasons…

The reason Sbarf’s looking so worried here is because at any minute he might just blink out of existence. As I write this the battery my Mac says that I have 18 minutes of power remaining (and remember – I need to pimp the blog on Facebook and Twitter too) so today’s blog is a race against time.

Not sure why the battery won’t charge; it was doing fine over the weekend in Brighton. But now I’m back in the office, the power cable juts seems to be having no effect at all! No matter what socket I plug it into.

It’s because it’s Comic Heroes deadline week. These things always happen on deadline week.

IT have been informed but they don’t start for another hour.

So, erm, here’s another photo to bulk out the blog a bit. I’m off to find a memory stick so I can transfer all the files I need for to-ay to another Mac! 12 minutes remaining for that and some social network pimping!

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £585 (thanks to Eanna O’Keefe for a big donation yesterday – will I make £600 by the end of March?)

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

Day 82: Star Wars Episode Three Stripes: The Pebble Alliance

I shot this photograph using the pseudonym “Project Blue And Yellow Harvest” (bonus geek points if you get the reference).

Still in Brighton, fighting alongside the pebble forces. This was shot just a few yards along from the Doctor Who publicity shot I posted yesterday.

Picked up the AT-ST (All-Terrain Scout Transport) in what can only be described as a second-hand superstore in Brighton’s famous The Lanes yesterday. I’m not kidding, the place as huge, and organised with military precision by staff who looked like they were protecting humanity from the oncoming zombie apocalypse.

I picked up a few toys that’ll be useful for The Sole Of Sci-Fi in the coming weeks, though I haven’t quite figured out quite how yet. Thought the AT-ST was a real bargain (actually still do) though I didn’t notice his guns were a bit droopy and without access to Blu Tack I had to kinda live with that for the photo. I still think he looks great, lit by the early morning coastal sunlight.

The trainers, also from a charity store (£4!), are a great pair of Adidas indoor sports shoes. Love the slightly see-through soles and the colourway is the business. I hasten to add, they’re not from a Brighton second-hand store. This place is selling really tatty old Cons for £15-£20 in The Lanes! I must be sitting on a fortune with my collection, all of which are in better condition.

The other thing I’ve noticed about Brighton is how randomly everybody walks. Some pedestrians seem to be possessed by a genetic imperative to swerve straight for you… on an otherwise empty pavement! I’ve never seen so many perambulatory near misses and collision. And this is the town with The Lanes – a bunch of narrow streets made narrower by all the cafés deciding they’re in Paris and spreading their chairs and tables out onto the pavements. It makes shopping in Brighton akin to trying to get out of Wembley Stadium after a particularly bad loss for England.

Yesterday I had a great chat and a mooch round a comic shop with top author James Lovegrove and spent the evening with wine and piazza and Godzilla-loving mate Tony Luke, getting very geek and discovering a great new  (to me) anime series called Attack On Titan.

Loving staying at The Grand too… Now that’s what I call a stairwell (taken from my floor up and down).

And here’s the view from my balcony (taken yesterday which is why the purple trainers are still on).

The Internet connection is also about 100 time more reliable than mine at home. I’m gonna miss this connection.

UPDATE: Confused now. Is it The Lanes or The Laines? There’s an area called North Laine, but the rest seems to be The Lanes…

See you tomorrow.

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £565 

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G

Day 81: The Mating Call Of The Crazy Purple Minion

It’s the sequel you demanded! Sort of…

I think this crazy purple minion has fallen in love with today’s Nike Bleachers. That sound he’s emitting can surely only be a mating call. “Fancy the one on the right,” he’s thinking, “but why do they always have to drag their ugly friend along with them?”

What is it with you lot and Minions? First I Tweet, “Give me some ideas for a photo with a yellow theme.”

“Minions!” you respond.

Then a few days later I Tweet, “How about a photo to go with some purple trainers?”

“Minions!” you reply.

Who says audiences don’t want to see the same thing all over again in a sequel?

Brief blog today. Off to Brighton at a ridiculously early hour of the morning. Might blog again later. From the Grand Hotel, where I’ve got a sea view room!

I was considering recreating the opening scene from Doctor Who’s “The Leisure Hive” for tomorrow’s blog, but the TARDIS prop wouldn’t  fit in my rucksack. Plus, only about three people would have got the reference.

USUAL SIGN OFF:

Current total: £565 

• Remember this is all for charity, so any pennies or pounds you can spare PLEASE DONATE BY CLICKING HERE.

• Follow me on Twitter to make sure you see what trainers I’m wearing each day.

• If you have any trainers you could donate (either on loan or old pairs you’re getting rid of) which are size 9 (ish – I can do anything from 8 to 10) contact me at dave.golder@futurenet.com so I can arrange collection.

• Please, please, please leave comments below! I’m after ideas for mini-challenges, future photoshoots and how I can find enough pairs of trainers!

Cheers
Dave G