rashbre central

flickr: i'll wait before forming an opinion on this one

2013-05-22T11:09:00.001+01:00

flickr's changed.
I'm not sure where the seagulls appeared from.

I added a cupcake. Subtle?

Evernote with Moleskine

2013-05-22T10:45:00.000+01:00

When I'm in meetings and need to take notes, I tend to use a small paper notepad. If I'm working remotely on a headset, then I'll type directly into a laptop, but it seems rude to put a big piece of technology in front of me when I'm talking face to face.

I know this attitude is changing, and there's use of laptops, Blackberries, iPads and so on in most meetings, but they can also mask an escape to email or other disengaging activities. We've all seen those sessions where everyone has the lid opened on a machine as a kind of plastic shield to hide behind.

Of course, the direct input to a machine has its place. Maybe in a lecture setting or for a notetaker in a facilitated workshop. The key for me is that the technology shouldn't be an inhibitor to the engagement with the session. I'll use a phone as a notepad sometimes or handwriting on an iPad through Notability.

Because I tend to revert to paper for basic note taking, I thought I'd try the newest version of the Moleskine notebook, which has been my weapon of choice for years. It's small and even smaller when using the thin cahier version.

An obvious factor is that the notes are saved on paper, rather than into electronic storage. I therefore use it as a short term scratch pad more than for longevity.

My experiment is with the newest version of these little notepads, which have dotty lines and a camera friendly contrasty paper. It lets me make notes and snap them with my iPhone, straight into Evernote, which then decodes my handwriting and makes it searchable.

My handwriting isn't usually as big as the example above, which I've done for this blog. After I'd snapped it into Evernote, I typed 'coincidentally' as my first search term, and Evernote found it straight away. Text searching of handwriting - perhaps useful?

I'll see how I get on.

Further example: Searching for "eve" on the page finds "event" and "evernote"

Digital Shoreditch #ds13

2013-05-21T22:43:00.001+01:00

I spent some fun time at Digital Shoreditch today. It's running for a couple of weeks and has attracted plenty of sponsors, being only a phone's throw from 'Silicon Roundabout' just to the north of the City of London.

This area of London had a branding makeover and its official name is now 'Tech City', with most of the offices inhabited by digital startup companies.

Set in the old town hall, yet firmly facing the future, Digital Shoreditch is a good way to look across what is happening and to sift out the real stuff.

The discussions featured the telematics of life-streaming and explored the ways commerce intercepts the shared information. A kind of Moore's Law of rapidly expanding shared personal information. A trend until it bends.

At the core, the mobile phone is the personal device. Ages ago it replaced the cigarette for fidgeting, but then it grew eyes and ears, now it knows where we are, and what we are doing. No wonder it is the subject of innovative commercial attention.

Add the cheap commoditisation of GPS chips, so that constant location data for an individual and fixed location data for 'things' creates a basis for commercial linkages.

Unsurprisingly, beer-ordering fridges tower in the examples, at odds with the large groups who still won't trust online grocery ordering.

Of course, the organisations around the Silicon Roundabout are figuring out behavioural ways to make it all compelling, rather than the trickery of today's opt in/out tick boxes. Appeal to the head and the heart. Tell a story. Get interaction over content.

So Digital Shoreditch is waving its virtual flag for the Big Data/ Cloud based/ Visual Discovery/ Near Field/ Lifestreamed/ Always On environment.

Sure, it doesn't all work reliably yet (the recent near-field double-payments are an example), but it's clear that we can expect accelerating innovation from these methods of business.

...and things to make it look good

2013-05-19T23:09:00.001+01:00

I hadn't really planned any cycling today, having just completed a range of achy leg trials - I should see the final results tomorrow.

However, the weather was fine in the morning, so an amble around a few smaller roads seemed like the right thing to do.

When I returned, I noticed a new software update for the little bike computer. It's quite amusing that the bike now has as much computer power as a car from a few years ago.

I'm sure this puts me into a strange cycling category, compared with the people whose bike technology stretches to a basket and bell to ring.

are they off their trolleys?

2013-05-18T11:11:00.000+01:00

Like many, we get the main grocery shopping delivered, using one of those online systems. If we miss a couple of weeks they sometimes send us a polite reminder with a small gift like free delivery. One of the companies already offers free delivery anyway, but their web-site isn't as easy to use.

There also seems to be a race by the remaining 'non-players' among the big supermarkets to get into the game, such as an announcement by another chain that it is starting a service.

Given that this new entrant has also made its stores attractive (at least around our way), then this all seems to be a slightly awkward business model - build friendly stores but then get people to shop online.

First the town centre empty, then the reduction of shopping malls and then the decline of individual stores?

Artist Lori Nix has been working up this theme, and has a series of very compelling dioramas illustrating some of these effects, although I can't help thinking that at least in the USA, the reality is already catching up.

Tesco now has 5 dark stores in the UK (just for online) and apparently the biggest online market share, Ocado is on-line only - popular but with apparently small market share (although a lot of vans around our way), Asda claims a third of the market and then Sainsburys with around a fifth of the market. It's supposed to double in size over the next five years, to around £11bn, which would be around 7 per cent of the £156bn supermarket shopping turnover in the UK.

It's already noticeable that if I go into one of the big stores around our way I now have to dodge the extra large carts used by the staff shoppers operating on behalf of online customers.

So a few days ago I witnessed an interesting exchange in store, which I paraphrase:

Shopper to staff member : "Hello, here's my list. I don't suppose you could run around and get this for me?"

Staff member to shopper : "Er, no, we don't do that."

...perhaps a portent?

deep breathing exercises

2013-05-17T09:09:00.000+01:00

I'm having a go at this trainerroad cycling thing, during this week.

It's not the same as pootling around the neighbourhood, but an interesting experience nonetheless.

I think around 1,000 people started; there's around 330 left by now. My own charts of progress are below.

By this point, I can feel my legs hinting that they'd like a day's rest, as well as an unexpected occasional urge to take a few extra deep breaths.

The little spiky charts tell me that I have a couple of days of further effort ahead.

Lichtenstein @ Tate

2013-05-16T19:46:00.000+01:00

Oops. A few days without any blog posts. So much for ten minutes per day with a photo.

I'll have to make do with a catchup post today, and it's another one from a gallery.

I first saw the famous Roy Lichtenstein 'Whaam!' picture many years ago when it was on display in what is now the Tate Britain. I think the gallery was still simply the original Tate Modern at the time.

I think the Tate owned Whaam! and along with a few other landmark modern pictures like the almost all red 'Eve' by Barnett Newman, some of the Mark Rothko's and even some of the Jackson Pollocks, it created some striking ways to observe art.

Then I saw a few more Lichtensteins in New York, probably at the Whitney. Something that doesn't always seem apparent from the pictures is the sheer size of some of the paintings.

The artist studio pictures and the bedroom 'interior with water lilies' seemed massive and surprisingly intense the first time I saw them and indeed the Donald Duck picture hanging on the wall in the artist studio is pretty much a full size replica of the original painting.

Although Roy Lichtenstein is known for the comic style pop pictures, I found the hybrid ones of Picasso and other artists in Lichtenstein's style to be particularly interesting, along with the triptychs showing deconstruction of a picture through various stages.

The show at Tate Modern finishes at the end of the month, but is well worth a look, providing a unique assembly of Lichtenstein's work and a chance to step through the development of his style.

As he said: "I'm interested in what would normally be considered the worst aspects of commercial art. I think it's the tension between what seems to be so rigid and cliched and the fact that art really can't be this way."

an impossible girl and the sky is calling

2013-05-12T15:45:00.000+01:00

The sky was calling from early this morning.

First, before breakfast with a clear blue sheen. I cycled in the bliss of a fine day. Then, a short pause for coffee and an onion bagel, as the sky whitened to a slight edge of drizzle.

It's strange what can flick through the mind on a bike ride and I found myself pondering the bagel circle of crumbs from yesterday's Doctor Who episode.

Not so much the 'Who is Clara?' part, which everyone else is already on to. Check out the astonishing number of Clara Theories.

I'd need a theory around Clara wearing a lot of Roses, being spread across many time periods and having double heart-shaped motifs.

No, I was intrigued by the 'Impossible Girl' reference. Some of us spent a good chunk of a journey to Newcastle listening to 'The Impossible Girl' recently.

We'd started with the daily ditties recorded one January, and then moved onto a separate whole album.

The same Impossible Girl had sent me a brown envelope with her album and as I'd opened it, sequins and stars had fallen from it.

So, how does it all join up?

Yesterday's episode of Doctor Who was written by Neil Gaiman.

He of American Gods, Neverwhere and Stardust, among others.

And married to Amanda Palmer. Amanda Palmer's friends and accomplices include the sisters sometimes known as Vermillion Lies comprising Kim and Zoe Boekbinder.

Here's them all together performing that ironic tune "What's the use of wond'rin' ?" - it could almost come from an episode of Doctor Who.

And now the Impossible Girl part - well that's Kim, who is just about to release a new space based CD - the sky is calling. Catch a track from it here - although it's not due out until mid June.

And to reinforce the connection here's a clip of the Impossible Girl playing ukelele with Amanda Palmer in -er- a restroom (don't ask).

the sniper in the brain

2013-05-11T16:10:00.000+01:00

Chatting with a friend at the National Cafe provoked the idea for a new project. It's something that I'll need to fit in around Proper Work although it has a good sense of fun about it.

Then later a different friend asked me to get involved with another off-piste project, and a small group of us are meeting London on Monday evening to start making plans.

And there's already a third collaborative project underway.

When I look at what they each are about, 'Project One' is very zeitgeisty - of the now, 'Project Two' is predictive of future outcomes and 'Project Three' is more retrospective. Kind of Past, Present and Future.

There is also a Project Four, but I think three taps to pull are sufficient for the moment. Not to mention the various half-finished novels lurking on the hard drive.

None of these ideas are even faintly related to my Proper Work, nor domestically inclined like the imminent remodel of the 'music room', yet these projects all have great potential to entertain.

I also realise that Projects 'One' and 'Three' are in areas where I have interest, but very little experience. Whole new learning curves.

Next week I'll need to decide how much to pursue, dependent on time clawed back from the day job.

I'm almost two years into my revised working model now and fortunately it seems to be providing me with some good space.

around the globe

2013-05-10T20:00:00.001+01:00

A few of us had got together for an early evening drink. A venue selected between a couple of the London railway termini, to help the commuters among us get away afterwards.

There's countless pubs in central London, but it's surprising how certain ones get referenced and used as landmarks as well as known for their various uses.

Close to where we'd picked, there's a good selection of well known ones.

There's the Anchor, which is a good pub to sit outside, to watch the Thames go by on a sunny evening. It was used in one of the Mission Impossible films and featured Tom Cruise sitting drinking outside.

It's just along from The Market Porter, which is a massively popular market-side pub with people spilling onto the pavement. Despite being busy, there's a fast service, and a good selection of beers. It's another easy place to meet before heading off somewhere else. A standing up kind of pub, also seen in TV series, particularly cop shows.

Then there's The George. This is an old coaching inn with a Shakespearean history. It's got a galleried timbered appearance and nowadays is owned by the National Trust as a historic building. It had to be rebuilt after it was burned down in the Great Fire, so the version that is there now probably dates from the 1677 rebuild. More a place we'd go to in a larger group.

The Globe is mainly a locals' pub, and like the Market Porter, it is adjacent to Borough Market. This one was used in Bridget Jones and in the movie Bridget lived in a flat above the pub.

We'd all arranged to meet just along from this stretch, but applied one of the rules. The 'More than two pubs along' rule. That's the one related to where we were all working. The nearest pub to an office is the one for quick drop-ins. The one after that is for quieter conversations.

The 'third pub away' has two advantages. Less chance of conversational accidents and the geometric progression of possible pubs dilutes unexpected co-incidences.

There's another more complicated rule about pubs with suspicious names. Like the 'Slug and Lettuce' or 'The Barrow Boy and Banker'. But maybe that's a rule to save for another day.

AxME at the Tate

2013-05-09T19:49:00.000+01:00

I've listened to Ellen Gallagher on Radio 4, and she seems good humoured, interesting and engaging.

I found it tougher to appreciate her artwork in her huge AxME exhibition at the Tate Modern. Maybe it was the sheer scale, or perhaps the need for me to have more of an understanding ahead of the viewing?

The show is still very new, and weirdly I thought I could smell fresh paint or paste as I walked in and noticed the walls covered with what looked like the fine lines of Gallagher's own drawings (Yes, I did sniff the walls - a first for me).

A large proportion of the work related to important African-American topics. Slavery, finding identity, social pressures and insecurities. I could get the idea, but at times it felt overwhelming. Maybe that was the point.

I looked at a painting called Oh! Susanna - which was reflective of the original slave song. Of course, the song became a folksy standard via Stephen Foster and the painting depicts the make-up eyes and mouths once used to caricature black minstrels in American popular culture. These carnival-like miniature eyes and mouths then popped up again on another range of paintings showing further arrangements related to a similar theme. I think there was an important message about subjugation and its universal adoption, but ironically also a risk of the same theme's dilution by over-use.

Similarly with a series about hair and wigs.

Vintage repurposed advertisements about changing a racial identity. Original editorial exploitative of racial insecurities. Emphasised by the artist showing the new adapted and aspirational hairstyles in yellow plasticine. I got the general idea, but there were then so many versions of it (hundreds?) that I almost didn't know where to look.

In another room, there were what at first looked like a range of empty frames. I was alone in the room (which also had a large metal framed structure in the centre) and wondered if I'd accidentally strayed into an area that was still being assembled. Then I saw someone else looking. The picture frames did contain careful paper cuts and effects applied across the canvas.

Another room had huge black canvases, with carefully arranged cutouts of wigs, lips and other forms pasted on, seemingly forming other larger shapes and all encapsulated in a black film. I could understand that these pictures required effort to view effectively. Stand in front and they go shiny black. Stand to the side and you can only see a part of the work. The scale was huge, there were clear thematic connections between works, but by now the repetitions were somehow causing me to disengage.

Occasionally there was a picture that stood out as a more accessible work. The Egyptian Abu Simbel temples, adapted with African faces, and an Afrofuturistic spaceship arriving, probably landing with a jazzy Sun Ra soundtrack. It still had the 'eyes', but there was a whimsical and mythical quality that stood it apart.

All along it was making me wonder about this artist's process. Maybe the repetition of themes was emphasising the scale of the situations being depicted? Maybe it was obsessive? Maybe it was trying to make sure the viewer would not forget? Perhaps it was a curator's challenge to find the right filter?

I'm glad I visited, it left a strong impression, but I can't help thinking it might be a case where less could have been more.

under construction

2013-05-08T11:01:00.000+01:00

Back in the Smoke today, along the South Bank for a meeting.

The daily changes of London sometimes sneak up and it's when I'm with someone from out of town that I notice it more. Along the lines of "Gosh, isn't the Shard tall?" or similar comments.

The Shard's restaurant has just opened, but my main picture today is of the new configuration as the Cheesegrater and the Walkie Talkie building start to mask some of the views of the Gherkin.

For many years, the old Nat West Tower (Tower 42) dominated this part of the skyline, but then the Gherkin appeared and a few other buildings were chopped down to make room for a new series of taller blocks.

The above picture is one I took a few years ago, when an area on the edge of the City was being flattened.

There's similar re-developments across the river in the mainly low-rise area around Nine Elms now, with the planned arrival of the new American Embassy zone and already there's a couple of new tower blocks well under way, just along from the site being cleared for the Americans.

I sense a few more Shard-like structures are emerging.

A brief diversion to Stanage Edge

2013-05-06T11:40:00.000+01:00

When I'd planned my original route through the Peak District, I'd marked a few places to visit, which included Mam Tor and Stanage Edge. I was alone for this part of the journey, but decided it would still be fun to get to the top of both locations. I've got the regulation "I'm at the top" pictures from both places, with me holding a camera at arm's length.

At Mam Tor it was still early enough for me to be the only visitor, but by the time I reached Stanage, the climbers were beginning to arrive in numbers.

Stanage is a gritstone escarpment, where the top of a fold in the rocks have been eroded akin to the top of a hard boiled egg being sliced away.

It's also on the route of an old road called the long causeway and is one of several notable broad stony paths across the area, once used by Romans and pack mules, nowadays bridle paths and used by hikers.

she did whatever she wanted with his things and his paintings

2013-05-05T22:32:00.000+01:00

A visit to the BALTIC during the weekend, to see Marcin Maciejowski's exhibition.

It's a kind of mixture of new painting derived from other works such as photos, magazine items, posters. I've seen a couple of his party scene pictures before. They are really quite striking.

There's other sets which take a look at fashion, celebrity, politics - some don't include the faces, representing a substitutability of form in some situations - like his series of faceless red carpet people.

It seems appropriate to view these pictures, reflective of half remembered mental snapshots, during the weekend when the gallery also allowed photography.

So below, my own (found) creation from the same gallery.

Hidden Power.
(rashbre)
Masking Tape, Plaster board, emulsion.

one cubic metre of beauty

2013-05-04T19:45:00.000+01:00

We visited the Fabrice Hyber 'Raw Materials' exhibition today. It's bursting with ideas. A quick one above is called "1 cubic metre of beauty" and is made of wood, metal, plaster and YSL Number 1 beauté lipstick. It's part of a larger piece and the show includes several big themed sections.

There's a cloud and elemental section in another area, including a tin shed which, if you open its door, creates a gale force wind. Another wooden shed is filled with rain, thunder and lightning.

Behind the main display area is another area of ideas, hung on multiple washing lines like so many sheets. Or a couple of long corridors filled with partly completed sketches. An invitation to browse the evolving raw material ideas of a fertile and creative mind.

ambient chilled motorway driving

2013-05-03T09:49:00.000+01:00

What with this being a Bank Holiday weekend, I'm now pleased to be sightseeing ahead of many of the motorists who will be hitting the road.

It wasn't all plain sailing though. There was a vehicle fire on the motorway which held me up for a long time.

I was one of the motorists not breaking the law during the incident. There were hundreds more who decided that they had important places to visit and so they would use the emergency lane on the motorway instead of staying in line like the rest of us.

It started with just a couple of foreign-plated vehicles (Romania and France), and then in minutes had turned into a complete flow. As a side note, I notice that some foreign plated articulated lorries also seem to be using the outside lane on 3 and 4 lane motorways, which is prohibited for those that read the highway code.

The emergency lane is really for emergencies, such as breakdowns, or in the case of a fire on the motorway it is so that service vehicles can get through quickly.

This was a case in point, where the extra lane just became a traffic jam of law-breakers and effectively blocked the access to the emergency site from the fire, police and ambulance services.

In the picture you can see an incident vehicle to my left trying to get past a row of cars which have all decided to use the emergency lane. It took them about 10 minutes to pass just three or four cars to my left and at one point they had to get out of the vehicle to direct traffic back onto the legal part of the motorway.

No spring lambs harmed in the creation of this post.

2013-05-02T17:41:00.000+01:00

I'd better explain. The road signifies my meandering route during Thursday, on the way to meet with blog friend Debra. I decided to make my journey to the north a diagonal one through the Peak District, so that I could stop off on en route for a visit.

Our little group had arranged to meet - as usual to sort out our real names, and to go to a certain pub, which I will describe as idyllically in the middle of no-where.

That's when we found the interesting element on the menu. Turn away faint hearted or vegetarians. It was Lamb Henry. OK, I thought lambs were kind of 'Lamb 47', but this did add a different dimension. The waitress wasn't phased and when we enquired she explained that Henrietta was also waiting in the kitchen. That was until she gave the real explanation, which I won't provide here - although it is easy to google and comes with mint and rosemary.

So here's a picture from my wandering around the Peaks - Please note the spring lamb in the picture is fully functional.

And then, when I arrived at my next more northern hotel stop, I was slightly surprised to see the complementary shampoo and conditioners.

They seemed to be trying to tell me something.

the square mile

2013-05-01T11:22:00.000+01:00

I could tell it was a posh do by the filled triangular pyramids of champagne and wine glasses stacked up in the entrance area. And as for the geometrically structured canapés! Well...It slightly surprised the wine-waiter when I asked for 'something non-alcoholic' although he produced some chilled fresh orange juice from under the counter.

It was the opening of a new exhibition at The Ark and I was there meeting a couple of friends, one of whom was exhibiting.

My question was whether it felt like 'being on duty' when it was an event like this, but I was told 'it depends'. My own experience is that it's far more demanding to be an organiser and not even get to try the canapés.

It turned out that this show had been organised by others, so it was a question of turning up and being relaxed, rather than having to hover and orbit. My friend's last show had been at another gallery where she was an organiser and much more 'on duty' making sure everyone was greeted/spoken to/schmoozed with and so on.

Instead, we could move freely around admiring and critiquing the works on display.

It was mainly hung work rather than sculptures, and had a variety of mainly abstract themes.

As this was the private view, there were a fair few of the artists around, so a certain care was needed before making pronouncements. I'm not sure what the official distance is, but most artists would stand at least 10 metres from their own work, and often would have a varied but somehow tell-tale dress code that helped them be identifiable.

There were some fine pieces on show, and some good and interesting ideas.

I enjoyed the show, and must admit to even acquiring an artwork to eventually be hung in rashbre central. Of course, for the next seven weeks, it remains on display at the Ark, with a little red dot beside it.

strung out on lazers and slash back blazers

2013-04-30T21:17:00.001+01:00

We visited the David Bowie event at the Victoria and Albert during the weekend. The V&A have done a good job and judging by the queues it's probably bringing in plenty of first time visitors.

Fortunately, we already had access so skipped the line, which had those Disney style vanishing angles to conceal its true length.

The show was originally opened by Tilda Swinton, who described Bowie as an early muse. As she said, "The image of that gingery boney pinky whitey person on the cover with the liquid mercury collar bone was - for one particular young moonage daydreamer - the image of planetary kin, of a close imaginary cousin and companion of choice."

Indeed, an influence for part of a generation, with his frequent changes of gear and perspective. The main exhibition has a wide range of costumes, photos, posters, records, videoa performance extracts and a guided headphone experience. I enjoyed spotting things like his original 12 string guitar tucked away on the corner of an exhibit.

The exhibition is split into various eras, from the Anthony Newley like early mod period, through Ziggy, America, Low Germany and beyond.

I found some of the smaller items fascinating too, like the early written outline for Ziggy Stardust, sketching the storyline that became the album's concept.

Dana Gillespie was there and she was an early friend of Bowie. She lived across the road from the V&A in Thirloe Square and her parents' basement became 'The Bunker' where early Bowie collaborators including Angie Bowie met. She had a vast range of stories, including some best kept as memories.

The show is called 'Davie Bowie is' and on the last wall of the show was Paul Robertson's periodic table of Bowie.

Not a bad metaphor for this art who fell to earth. Here's "Heroes".

a chorus of human static

2013-04-29T10:43:00.000+01:00

I was putting away some of the artifacts from the weekend's varied events.

Bizarrely, today saw the addition of belated Easter Eggs to the collection. I know where they will get filed.

But first I'll wind back to cover Friday evening's space invader style landing in a nearby market town. Performance art, involving towering metal tripods and rotating drones of sound, both continuous and pulsating, creating interactions and musical eddies which varied by location and height.

The trance inducing installation was digging holes in the fabric of time and space. An ambient chatter of humans formed an eerie backdrop to the strange machines which surrounded us as we'd emerged from a nearby Italian restaurant.

Breakfast in Mayfair

2013-04-28T16:25:00.000+01:00

An early start in Mayfair today, in a fancy apartment that falls out onto Piccadilly. An ideal opportunity for a stroll around the still deserted Green Park. The City of London can be quite deserted on a Sunday, whereas this area should still, by rights, be busy.

So it surprised me that the morning brought a sleepy start to the tourists, giving an initial tranquility to the streets and other public areas. Piccadilly with only three cars in sight is a rare view, especially on a sunny morning. Even the area around Eros was quiet, although a few were posing for the statutory photographs.

As I drifted into a sleepy Chinatown, the hoards of tourists started to descend. Another half an hour and everything will have reset to normal.

I circled back, ahead of a rendezvous at 11 o'clock. As I passed Eros again, it was already busier, with groups beginning to congregate to be taken on walking tours or bus rides around the centre. It is a strange zone here, with many sets of people on different orbits, intersecting but often unaware of the wild range of possibilities within a one or two block radius.

For me, the last few days have been pretty arty, although my next proper work project was supposed to kick off on Monday. I've just heard that there may be a delay, which gives me time to get involved in another fun project that's been on my mind.

More later, as they say.

Man Ray Portraits - National Portrait Gallery

2013-04-26T11:51:00.001+01:00

Another blog post sitting unfinished was my recent visit to the Man Ray exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It runs through to the end of May. I've been a fan of Man Ray's photographs for a long time, but I think this is the first time I've seen a whole collection together.

There's some wonderful portraits on show, and a remarkable collection of inter war year Paris people photographed by Man Ray.

We see many of his buddy/co-consirator Marcel Duchamp (he of the subversive 'fountain'). There's a very young Ernest Hemingway, from the time when he'd just published his first novel. A wistful bobbed-hair Iris Tree, Salvador Dali at 24 years old and developing his moustache, a suitably ruffled haired Yves Tanguy. There's a beautiful and caring series of the apprentice photographer Lee Miller.

Oh, Plus Picasso, Wallis Simpson, Aldous Huxley, Virginia Woolf, Coco Chanel, Joan Miro. The list and indeed the co-operations go on and on.

The exhibition's limit to portrait photography gives a chance to drill into the emerging techniques.

The handling of focus and sometimes softness, a wide range of lighting moving to patterned overlays. Experimental tinkering with some of the prints. Pen markings. The famous violon d'ingres. Solarisation. Then there's the decision to 'come in close'. Quite a few of the pictures are very close cropped in appearance. Fortunately there's a few contact strips and test prints to look at and to see the decisions about which picture and how the final framing gets selected.

Something else struck me with some of the prints on show. Aside from some keynote pictures, others looked small in their frames. If you've seen the work in books or magazines, it will get a page. Sometimes you need to stand very close to really get the impression.

So here's my tip. Get the catalogue too. It's fantastic. Okay - its £25, but it's a superb rendering of what's in the show plus a good commentary and a section that describes more of the context of Man Ray's other art.

skip a dee doo day

2013-04-25T16:06:00.002+01:00

The 2013 decluttering season has started and the first skip of the season turned up today. Needless to say, it was soon filled and there is again a small walkable area in the garage.

A few interesting artifacts this time included:

The stripy sofa bed, which had to be comprehensively wrecked in order to remove it from upstairs. We really tried to get it out whole, but it just destroyed a wall again.
A lawnmower which hasn't worked for 3 years
The chassis from three computers, once stripped of their disk drives
A novelty musical keyboard which, if switched on, plays continuously because something went wrong with its circuits
A surprisingly large amount of cardboard and those bubble bags which need to be individually popped so that they don't take up too much room
The scam Italian designer gear I negotiated at the end of that run in London. That has gone into a charity bag, actually.
A few broken electronic devices
A whole lot of other bric-a-brac that I can't even remember, but not anything that anyone else would want.

Along the way I found an impossibly large collection cleaning products and painting and decorating materials. Crates full of it. I think I could start a separate business as a sideline. Of course, the reason for the surplus was because the prior purchases were all too well hidden in the chaos.

I also found the snow boots I was looking for a few weeks ago, and I'm wondering why we have quite so many pairs of wellington boots.

I've also encountered a few species of spider, including an enormous house spider that I decided to encourage to go outside. The garage wasn't big enough for both of us. The foolish thing has hidden under the skip, so I don't fancy its chances if it stays there when the truck returns.

Despite its name, it's one of those spiders that looks perfectly good 'outdoors', but isn't the type I really want in the house.

And now, I think I need a shower and a fresh change of clothes.

Life after Life - Kate Atkinson

2013-04-25T07:21:00.006+01:00

I've been reading the Kate Atkinson book that is in the pop charts at the moment. Without giving away secrets, it's the one where the main character Ursula is killed off in the first proper chapter. Then we get a recut of the same story, which develops further, until she dies again. And then a further story. Similar, but with necessary butterfly wing beats of difference.

The writing style exercises a variety of creative freedoms, building a storyline via a repeating process most succinctly described as similar to the idea in the movie Groundhog Day.

There's a big difference though, that the prior versions of living are not conveniently remembered, nor is a single actor the pivot for the whole outcome.

I found it quite like the development of a neural network, with a kind of adaptive learning occurring through each iteration of the story-telling. Less a deja-vu sensation, more a prescient awareness.

Of course, the process was having the same effect on both the character and the reader, and for me it was after about 15% of the novel that it really dropped into place. Altogether an interesting way to play a mind game through the story telling and characterisations. Also the way one understands some of the averted outcomes in the later variants.

The action takes place between 1910 and after the end of the second world war, beginning in a fair and pleasant English countryside. There's a range of often bleak scenarios that play out against this bucolic backdrop.

For me, the narrative had to be sampled across the varied outcomes and sometimes pieced together. Playfully, there are even a places where the author uses phrases like 'and so on' to illustrate that the reader probably knows a particular version well enough by now.

Altogether an enjoyable read.

My photo of the cover illustrates another reading point as well. This is a substantial hardback book complete with its single sewn in bookmark. Someone really working at the detail of the plot could probably use three of those markers to be able to compare and contrast the outcomes. It's heft can bulkily fill a bag or make a small weapon.

My own neurons firing, I consequently adapted my own approach to reading it, having learned during the first third of the book. If I wanted to read it quickly, to carry it around, I needed a compact solution.

Yes, I Kindled it.

I find I'm moving to Kindle for modern novels. For older books I'll stick with paper, and also for books with pictures, but for the simple printed word I think I've reached that cutover point to electronic distribution.

Get Britain Cycling

2013-04-24T10:08:00.002+01:00

CTC write-up here.
Report here.
Number 10 Petition here.
Write to your MP here.