Almost-Amos Skateboards

Amos has designed a series of skateboard graphics for Almost which I think are now officially out there, somewhere. There's an In-Crowd character for each pro.

Next up....Silver.

Thanks to all those Gold members who pre-ordered the KK cushion from the online store. Right now we can still get our hands on more of the production run so we will offer these to Silver members from this weekend.

If we can get any more after that we will offer them to everyone a week later. More news on this next week.

The King of Soft Furnishings

After a quiet 2009 we kick off what promises to be a busier 2010, with a stuffed fabric homage to the undisputed King of the world of Amos.

The King Ken Cushion has been produced under license by our good friends at Säck und Nolde. This 40cm x 35cm original Ken-grey cushion is available in a worldwide edition of 400 pieces of which the Amos online store will only get a small percentage. So I'm afraid it's back to the days of tiered membership! Gold members will be able to pre-order from this weekend. The store hopes to ship these early March. So if you are a Gold member and your living room couch needs a bit of livening up....

The Awesome Snow Ken and Friends...

Built by Richard Gennard (and Family?) during the recent UK cold snap.

Cheers!

The Story of Festivus

The Great 2009 Winter Solstice Mystery

Being the ungodly heathens we are at Amos (although it is well possible that JJ may find the Lord in the near future), we like to send out Winter Solstice greetings on December 21st, as this is the shortest day of the year and the turning point before we start the rush to Summer (or Winter if you are based in the Southern Hemisphere). This time of year affects us all and its existence cannot be denied, so it would seem right to mark it with some form of celebration. But this year there has been some confusion as to when the Solstice should be celebrated. The Druids, usually reliable keepers of solar time, could not decide amongst themselves. Here in the UK a bunch turned up to celebrate at Stonehenge (or Henge as we affectionately like to call it) on both the dawn of the 21st and the 22nd of December. The Gregorian calendar is out of synch with the solar calendar so they decided the Solstice should be celebrated on the 22nd. Yet, according to astronomers, the earth was furthest away from the sun at 17:47 on December 21st. So what decides when the Solstice should be recognised.?

After some research we have concluded that if the sun sets AFTER the actual Solstice, the Druids choose to celebrate on the following dawn (the 22nd in this case). This is despite the fact that this year there were fewer hours (9 hours and 43 minutes) between the actual Solstice and the dawn of the 21st which occurred at 08:04, than between the solstice and dawn on the 22nd which also occurred at 08:04 (14 hours and 17 minutes). Surely there is some Druid convention that comes into play here? And what of other pagan religions? When did they celebrate the Solstice? Any clarification on when we should have been celebrating the Solstice would be much appreciated.

In the meantime (and somewhat belatedly) seasons greetings to all, whatever your spiritual or philosophical inclinations.

Teenage Filmstars - Physical Graffiti

Discovered these guys recently. Totally missed them at the time. Ed Ball is a genius. This is my absolute favourite tune right now. Madness.