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Westminster Cathedral Reflection [Flickr]

2009-06-11T15:41:33-07:00

Been meaning to snap that for a while now.

Madame Bee Sade

2009-05-31T21:33:00.004Z

Here we go, racing into June on a ray of sunshine. We saw Madame De Sade last Saturday, which was nowhere near the "torture" that the reviews led me to believe. One and three quarter hours with no interval is a long haul though for something so wordy. I can't imagine the cast will be sorry now that it's over though! Impressive set and costumes.

This Saturday we were in Henley-On-Thames, staying at Hotel Du Vin on the Friday night and walking off a dinner and large [if disorganised] breakfast to Shiplake. Sam had vichyssoise followed by chicken and I had pork belly [strangely encased in breadcrubs] followed by a fantastic cep and truffle oil risotto. It was a very warm walk to Shiplake. We had intended to go all the way to Twyford but the Thames doesn't go that way!

We got back in time to see Chelsea win the FA Cup and then got horribly drunk with Kev, his brother and his dad, before descending on karol and Kev's mum for dinner. Somehow we managed to drag ourselves away early enough to get up in time to see Anything For Her for free at the Ritzy at 11.00am this morning.

What a bizarre time to be in the cinema. The film is a must see though. It's tense, thrilling stuff. It is subtitled, being in French but stars Vincent Lindon and Diane Kruger and are very good and it's well shot.

AFter that it was back to The Railway for Bloody Mary's and newspapers in the sun before dragging ourselves home to let the full strength of our hangovers take their effect. To be honest I'm not sure I had fully recovered from the lack of sleep on Thursday night after Paul's unbirthday.

I had a photo included in a post of the plight of the bee at the Living: More Th>n blog this week. Which reminds me, I wish I had taken the Canon to Henley as there were loads of Red Kites on the thermals by the river. And we saw an amazing black and pink butterfly [or moth] on Twyford station that I'd like to have been able to identify.

Categories: Photography, Food & Drink, Travel, Theatre

See my flickr set: Henley-On-Thames

St. Mary's Church 2 [Flickr]

2009-05-31T12:59:40-07:00

steve.wilde posted a photo:

Apparently there is a plaque commemorating Dusty Springfield in the church yard but I didn't know that at the time.

Blue Boats [Flickr]

2009-05-31T12:59:06-07:00

steve.wilde posted a photo:

Lots of hire boats to be had if you like that sort of thing.

St. Mary's Church 2 [Flickr]

2009-05-31T12:58:31-07:00

steve.wilde posted a photo:

Had to Photoshop a shop sign out of this one.

Boats [Flickr]

2009-05-31T12:58:12-07:00

steve.wilde posted a photo:

Not sure how this numbering works... There wasn't anywhere near 69 of these boats.

Open House

2009-05-17T14:27:00.004Z

Blimey it's windy. And wet. We're thinking of going to see Synecdoche, New York at the Ritzy in a little while too. Still, we managed to avoid any yucky weather yesterday. We had Chris staying and took him over to Dulwich for the Artists' Open House. To be honest we spent more time in the pub actually. We met Jackie in the EDT at midday and then had a look at Neil Williams photos and Sally Crowley's drawings, in an Estate Agents! And then had more drinks in Liquorish, where there was more art, but we forgot to look at it.

Chris had mentioned that there was an event in Camberwell that he'd like to see so we popped on a bus and had a peek. It was an exhibition of Jon Bently's Liver And Lights books at the House Gallery. Not a big exhibition for what was supposed to represent 25 years work but good nontheless. Afterwards we went for snacks at the Vineyard, a Greek restaurant just around the corner. Wow! Just like being in Greece, apart from the weather. Got to go back for a full meal.

We popped into St. Giles Church as we were led to believe there was a Morris & Co stained glass window but reading the notes I think it came a cropper during the war and was replaced. Doh!

Right, I'm off to the cinema...

Categories: Art, London, Food & Drink, Film

The Real Food Festival 2009

2009-05-08T18:12:00.001Z

The Real Food Festival seemed a lot less busy this year, compared to last. But we didn't go on the preview night last year. All the same, there seemed to be less stalls. We still managed to while away over three hours there and we didn't go to any specific programmed events this year. Well, apart from stopping to watch Raymond Blanc rustle up a few things.

Going through our bag of goodies and leaflets here's a few things that stood out...

Starting with chocolate we have Choc Affair. Delicious choclates, aniseed, rhubarb, lime flavours amongst others. And Sam claims their hot chocolate sticks are tasty too. But no online store or list of stockists. The South Devon Chilli Farm make Aztec style drinking chocolate which I think I'll be trying. Their Orange Chilli chocolate was certainly nice.

L'Atelier des Chefs run various cookery classes, rather than courses and the Soil Association also have courses on growing your own food, animal rearing and cooking. If you have the space and time!

We tried a few organic wines and there were a lot of cider producers there too but Bramley and Gage make cherry brandy and strawberry liqeurs, very useful for a couple of cocktail ideas we have.

We bought a packet of Simply Sausages, Smithfield No.1 recipe, which we had with some free Jersey Royals we acquired and they were bloody marvellous. Talking of meat, the Well Hung Meat company supply monthly food boxes. I'm trying to work out if we actually eat that much meat at home to warrant ordering a box though. If you are a meat eater, then the Real Veal Company mail order might be of interest. If the idea of veal doesn't make you go all stupid.

Bien Manger is full of more tasty things than you could shake a... erm, whisk at! We had a nice chat with the lovely folk on the Pickled Village stand, where we stocked up on Bloody Mary chutney. Also had a chat with the chap on the Real Organic Foods Company stand, where we bought some of their Thai yellow curry sauce.

There seemed to be a lot of people selling pesto's this year. The Little Sauce Company and Stark Naked Foods both seem to be heading in the right direction to me. Some nice seasonal twists on an old favourite.

We did some parmesan, parma ham and wine/port matching somewhere but I forget where now. Sam said hello to a cute Jersey calf and there was a very bored looking buffalo as well.

Now I'm off the bed to get rid of the cold that someone has very kindly given me. So much for the old catch it, kill it, bin nonsense then!

Categories: London, Food & Drink

St. Ives

2009-05-06T09:10:00.002Z

We spent last weekend in St. Ives to see the Ben Nicholson exhibit at the Tate before it closed. As is always the way on bank holiday weekends the weather was pretty overcast until a few hours before we were due to catch the train. But I got some photos in on Tuesday morning on our short walk along the coastal path, which is looking pretty battered after the recent floods.

Sunday night we had a fantastic meal at the Alba. I had the terrine of confit chicken and duck, brandied grape chutney and Sam had the steamed Fowey mussels in Cornish cider, apple and cream to start. Followed by Cornish navarin of lamb, cannellini beans, rosemary dumplings for me and mackerel in mango and coconut with steamed rice for Sam. With a bottle of Fairview Viognier and a selection of cheeses. All overlooking the harbour.

So we visited the Tate on Monday morning, which also included the bonus of seeing the Luke Frost works after his year as artist in residence at Porthmeor Studios. Which added a nice line of progression as Ben Nicholson formerly had his studio in the same place. Odd things Nicholson's works. He seems to have spent many years gathering other peoples styles, magpie like, before coming out the end with a style of his own. Probably not the best atist to have emerged from the St. Ives scene but an important mover and shaker.

As it wasn't the brightest of days on Monday morning we thought we'd catch the bus over to Penzance and see if it was any brighter there. Sam hadn't visited Marazion, Newlyn or Mousehole before. The 17B took us through Marazion to Penzance and we walked to Newlyn and Mousehole from there. By the time we reached Mousehole though we had to jump back on the bus to get back to St. Ives in time for our meal at the Porthminster Cafe.

With an even better view than last night, overlooking St. Ives Bay and Godrevy lighthouse, Sam had crispy fried squid with citrus white miso, crispy shallots and black spices. I had a carrot and fennel soup, which was very warm and a bit too large. Followed by pan fried local plaice fillets with hand picked Cornish crab, celeriac remoularde, roasted pepper salad and sauce verte, while I had the fillet [except there were no fillets left so I had to have a different cut] of Cornish lamb, sweet potato, grilled feta, pea and spinach puree with olive tapenade. Which was very good but I think the Alba had the edge this time around. We might have been a bit knackered from the walk though. It was a very early night but with the ridiculously steep walk up to the Porthminster Hotel first.

I finished Margaret Wertheim's excellent Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet on the journey back to London. Which an analysis of the geography of space, exploring the changing concepts of both physical and spiritual space from the Middle Ages to the present day. Could do with a post Facebook update though.

Categories: Art, Photography, Books, Blogging, Food & Drink, Travel

See my flickr set: St. Ives 2009

Two Week To Catch Up

2009-05-02T18:32:00.013Z

Whoah! It's May already. better have a quick round up of the past couple of weeks. The 18th was the day before Jake's birthday and what started out as a quiet family lunch turned into a bit of a bender. So the 19th was relatively sedate.

Friday the 24th we met Kev & Karol and took advantage of the free tickets to the London Print Fair that Eyestorm had sent us. Unfortunately we left it a bit late in the day and the Royal Academy were being really strict about no bags but really shit at running a cloakroom to stash them in. The queue was huge so we split up and went round in pairs while the other pair minded the bags. Consequently we didn't have that much time and there was a lot to see. The Vinyl Factory and The Multiple Store a worth a mention though.

Saturday was even further north of North London than our previous couple of forays. To Southgate for a wedding reception. Sunday was another lunch, this time in Sanderstead, that got out of hand and finished up at closing time. My trip to the dentist to see the hygienist on Monday was even more unpleasant than normal with the resulting hangover. Mind you it had gone when I came out, but I still gave yoga a miss.

Wednesday, we went to see John Rogers film London Perambulator, followed by a panel with Rogers, Andrea Phillips, Iain Sinclair and Will Self, at the Whitechapel Gallery. More on that later. There were drinks in the bar afterwards but we were starving so popped round the corner for a curry at excellent Tayyabs.

Thursday was a dismal performance in the Railway's pub quiz. Dropping from second all the way through until the last round when we finished 5th.

Friday we had a few snacks in the Cambria before nipping round the corner to see the adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's Choke at Whirled Cinema. I had forgotten a great deal of the novel so can't say if it deviated too much from it or not but there are great performances from Sam Rockwell, Kelly Macdonald and Anjelica Huston. I enjoyed it a lot... and the cinema. Whirled is in a railway arch/artist studio complex by Loughborough Junction station. It only seats 60 and was, surprisingly, not full. Maybe everyone was away for the weekend.

Choke [DVD] [2008]

Today we ventured north again, but only as far as Camden this time. To see the Withnail and Me and AC/DC photographic exhibits at the Proud Gallery. We stopped off at the Hawley Arms for drinks in the sun on the terrace first. That fire was the best thing that could have happened to that place judging by the look of it now. Proud is a great space. I must look into putting something on there. We had a nice lunch in Solo on Inverness Street too, then a quick look round the market before heading home for an early night. We have to be up early tomorrow to get the train to St. Ives to see the Ben Nicholson show at the Tate. Hopefully I'll get a seat with a plug socket so that I can use my laptop on the way and type up some more about the London Perambulator. The battery is knackered.

I've had approximately 30 downloads of each of my samples on SoundCloud but haven't seen any remixes yet. Either they're taking their time doing remixes or more likely using them in their own tunes.

Categories: Music, Art, London, Photography, Food & Drink, Travel, Film

Links for 2009-04-30 [del.icio.us]

2009-05-01T00:00:00-07:00

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Links for 2009-04-22 [del.icio.us]

2009-04-23T00:00:00-07:00

SET JAPAN

Post 500

2009-04-17T19:54:00.003Z

Well, look at that. This is my 500th post.

Despite my carefully prepared timetable I decided today that I wasn't going to finish all of the assignment for the OU course, that I'd just procrastinated about anyway, and that I really don't have the time for it at the moment, so it's going on hold for six months while I get a few other things out of the way first. So, free of that responsibility we promptly decided to go out!

First stop was the Cy Twombly, Roses exhibit at the Gagosian in Kings Cross. It consists of five large pieces consisting of four panels each bearing three roses and stanza's from Rilke's poem cycle The Roses. Rose IV works the best for me but they need to be seen as a whole to understand the theme. Memento Mori. The transcience of life...

I'm wondering whether to go back and get a catalogue now. $80 according to the website, but it was very nice and I didn't dare ask how much it was at the time. The gallery let me take photographs on the understanding that they were for personal use only and not to be used on a blog, so I haven't, but plenty have. Just do an image search for Cy Twombly Roses on Google.

After a brief stop to check out Konstam, in Acton Street we headed off to Rivington Place to see the Liminal exhibit. I had a bottle of Proof beer, which is produced by Meantime Brewing, in Konstam, which was very more-ish but we had to move on and the reataurant had finished it's lunchtime service. We'll be going back there though. We sensed good things about it judging by the cooking smells!

We got the tube from Angel to Old Street as the rain was beginning to fall and in my experience the walk up City Road is a bit dull at the best of times.

Liminal was a bit of a disappointment but then we missed a whole room as it wasn't really well signposted and I didn't bother looking at my leaflet, in the low light of the first room, to realise we hadn't yet seen everything. Ah well, my loss... possibly.

Much as I appreciate these multimedia installations I do find they generally come across as a sort of proof of concept for something that could be eventually done better, with some sort of purpose. Apart from Ghosting I didn't feel it really engaged me at all. Maybe I should go back again when it isn't raining and I'm less soaked?

After that we were hungry so we popped along to Song Que, just around the corner in Kingsland Road. It's a very popular, and rightly so, Vietnamese restaurant. One of many in the area, which I didn't notice having a high Vietnamese community otherwise.

We both had Pho. Sam had a spicy beef one but I couldn't decide on what type of beef to have so settled for chicken! Before that we had pork balls and beef ribs, washed down with Halida beer. All for under £30. Bloody marvellous and warmed me up a treat after the soaking I had got on our aborted walk up Kingsland Road to check out Gillett Square. We'll have to do that another day, when the sun's out.

Categories: Art, London, Food & Drink

Links for 2009-04-16 [del.icio.us]

2009-04-17T00:00:00-07:00

Xbox LIVE

Happy Eater

2009-04-15T23:33:00.002Z

Well, that was Easter then. Had I been fasting in any shape or form for 40 days and nights then I would most certainly have made up for it over the Easter weekend. So here's a quick round up of why I should be on salad's for the rest of the month!

Entertaining Sam's folks we had lunch at the Rosendale, West Norwood, on Friday [beef and ale pie and mash - top meal of the weekend], dinner at the Cambria, Loughborough Junction, on Saturday night [jerk chicken, plantain, sweet potato mash and rice & peas - Good. But no better than that really. Mind you, everybody else had ham, egg and chips which was very good and enormous!].

We had Sunday lunch, with all the family, at the Exhibition Rooms, in Crystal Palace, [roast beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pud etc. Tasty, value for money] and then lunch at the Devonshire, in Balham, on Monday [red Thai chicken - Very Good, as ever].

Burp!

Categories: London, Food & Drink

Don Leave Me This Way!

2009-04-15T22:55:00.008Z

Just back from seeing Don John. Kneehigh Theatre's reworking of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Or Don Juan to you.

It's on at the Battersea Arts Centre until May 9th before it flies off to the USA so get along to see it quick. Unfortunately there were quite a few empty seats and as tickets are only £10 it's a great opportunity to acquaint yourself with some good theatre on the cheap. Get there early enough and you can order yourself some 70's grub as well. Black Forest gateaux, scampi and chips etc. The bar is reasonably priced too.

It's set in the UK during the miners strike and powercuts of the 70's with original music by the onstage band. The music evokes the period touching on punk, ska, dub as well as incorporating some originals by way of the picket line's transistor radio; and some Mozart too.

Some of the cast, Alan, Nobby and Derek mostly, appear to have taken the 70's thing to heart, slightly over-acting as if out of a sit-com of the time. At least I think that was the reason! Most of the set is made from transport containers, which could do with a bit of oil as the scene changes were a bit noisy! But maybe it gave it a sort of Crossroads feel. The lighting is impressive though, with a neon crucfix and mirror ball's amongst other things.

I've not seen anything else at BAC but the intimate size of the venue adds to this performance. The ensemble is quite big for such a performance, with the band onstage and the chorus/dancers, so they utilise the aisles as well. It gives the whole thing a bizarre church hall feel which works really well with few boundaries between cast and audience. In fact the audience get a chance to dance with the cast post "curtain call". Some of the above may sound critical but they aspects that I think all added to the show, whether the cast/crew intended them to or not!

John is played by Gisli Orn Gardarsson, who directed the Vesturport production of Metamorphosis that we saw at the Lyric last April. Carl Grose, who plays Alan, is also working with Vesturport, again along with Nick Cave, on a production of Faust that I look forward to seeing.

We popped into Sugar Cane before the show. A rum bar on Lavender Hill. It was quiet, being early on but there's a vast array of rum to be sampled! I had a Mongozo Coconut Beer first though, which is nice, but probably wrong and one is enough.

The food was good too. Jerk Chicken wings and barbecuded pineapple, bacon and cheese skewers. The wings are well worth the money, but they are a bit stingy with the bacon on the skewers. Actually three skewers is pretty stingy in itself.

Categories: London, Food & Drink, Theatre

Dullsville-On-Sea

2009-04-14T23:30:00.014Z

Bexhill-On-Sea isn't very exciting, to put it mildly. We only went to see the Susan Collins Seascape exhibit...

Well, and the De La Warr Pavilion that is housing it. But we took a little stroll east and west of the pavilion afterwards and didn't find much else to amuse ourselves with.

Admittedly it was a very overcast day, and we did give the local museums and smugglers trail a wide berth, but there wasn't a lot else to do.

The gallery is also showing a small colllection of art by young, local artists. The most notable of which, by a long way, is Jasmin Spires Never Alone photographs. Claiming her work is inspired by Juergen Teller and Wolfgang Tillmans we spotted an affinity with Nan Goldin in her work as well.

We passed several interesting looking places, on the round about route that the train takes to get there, though! Our train went to Haywards Heath, where it split in two and we continued to Eastbourne, where we then reversed along the coast to Bexhill in slightly less than two hours!

During which we passed Glynde, Pevensey Castle and what looks like a Red Phone Box graveyard. I think that link must be it. We whizzed past it on the train!

So that was our day. About six hours travelling in all for a three hours by the sea and an ice-cream... And the only chip shop we saw was shut.

I made the mistake of adding my photo before I wrote this so Zemanta has taken over the formatting before it got a chance to suggest any more links. A feature of it I have yet to take to. It doesn't need to lay out your images.

Categories: Art, Photography

See my flickr set: Bexhill-On-Sea

Enigma Trails

2009-04-13T10:31:00.004Z

Enigma: Originally uploaded by jonwild

The tangent's you can go off on a random click huh?

I came across this image via a tweet by Dr Sue Black. It's of a sculpture by Stephen Kettle, a slate sculpture artist, and is of Alan Turing. The sculpture is at Bletchley Park.

Stephen has also made sculpture's of Sidney Frank, a philanthropist who made his billions importing and promoting Jägermeister and Grey Goose vodka.

His interest in aviation gave rise to him commissioning Stephen to sculpt a likeness of RJ Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire. Mitchell's story was told in the 1942 film The First of the Few and the Home of the Spitfire is the Solent Sky Museum in Southampton...

Anyway, it's great photo!

Any Eggscuse

2009-04-05T22:49:00.004Z

Hmmm, Javascript 1 vs The Pub 2 this weekend I think.

I got quite a bit of work in today but we were seeing Trev off this afternoon. Actually, we also saw him off on Friday evening too, along with a belated Viv birthday event, but little Amy was poorly so Viv had to leave before we even got there, so we had another go on Sunday... And, all in all, it's been a bit of a drunken weekend...

Anyway, it's almost Easter and I'm hoping we'll be off to see the Susan Collins Seascapes exhibit at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-On-Sea over the holidays. Check out the Film And Video Umbrella link too. I was thinking of a day out to look at Whitstable over the break [photographically of course] but that will keep.

I should also be finishing a shed load more of my course work as well but we'll be seeing Don John at the Battersea Arts Centre, and hopefully popping to the Cy Twombly exhibit at the Gagosian [followed by lunch at Konstam], Liminal at Iniva in Rivington Place, Ian Davenport at the Alan Cristea Gallery and Picasso: Challenging The Past at the National Gallery.

Unfortunately having tickets for Don John means I can't make it to see Polly Scattergood at Cargo on the 15th and her album is all I am listening to at the moment. Other than the Friendly Fires album I haven't heard anything else I've liked as much yet this year.

Anyway, see you after the eggfest.

Categories: Music, Art, London

Just A Quickie... Don't Mind Me!

2009-04-01T23:03:00.002Z

I'm just trying to fathom out if my Twitter Feeds have returned or not, so I'll see if it tweet's that this has been posted. But, while I'm here...

Would you wear your Twitter Feed? I'm not sure that I would, but I have thought that wearing your Last.FM Scrobbles might be a talking point.

Hurrah! My Viewty is on it's last legs and turning itself off randomly. Despite three more months of the ridiculous contract to go surely 3 can give me an N96 in it's place now, so that I can use QR, GPS and what have you.

I seem to be torn between Delicious and Evernote these days. Not knowing which to add bookmarks to. I tend to opt for Evernote, but then I'm not tagging things consistently. I need a day to sit down and consolidate things. Maybe keep Delicious for more professional links and Evernote for personal/more frivolous stuff?

Anyone tried Twine? One of a few things I've stumbled across lately. Sprout Builder is another, as is Exhibit.

That's enough for now. More after Easter.

Categories: Web, Blogging

Links for 2009-03-31 [del.icio.us]

2009-04-01T00:00:00-07:00

Mozilla Labs: Weave
Sprout Builder
Create living content.

Links for 2009-03-29 [del.icio.us]

2009-03-30T00:00:00-07:00

Beginner's Guide To Ruby On Rails: Part 2
How-To | Smashing Magazine

What Le F!?!

2009-03-27T22:49:00.007Z

Weird! Just got back from matter and it's still today!

We arrived at 7:00 as instructed to see Etienne De Crecy, supposedly do a 2 hour set. Two hours into "Le Wait" Etienne appears up some scaffolding with a white light projected on it. Not an auspicious opening to a set. And I put off having a piss for 30 minutes to avoid missing that!

Things did get better though. The sound evened out, the lights got more adventurous, the crowd went pretty mental and it all got fluffy and nice. But we did only get an hour. Admittedly we could have stayed until 6:00am for the rest of the DJs on the bill, but we were under the impression that we would get 2 hours of live set. And, well, frankly we didn't. So, Etienne... Next time leave the scaffolding at home or play for longer. But thanks anyway. We chose to come home. Check out my wobbly phone vids over at You Tube.

Last Saturday we got over an hour of The Overcoat, at the Lyric Hammersmith, by the Gecko Theatre company for considerably less dosh. Although there was no option to stay all night dancing afterwards. A lot more work went into that production than Etienne's I can tell you. It's worth an hour of your time if you can get there too. It's a physical, polyglottal mime in French, Spanish and errr, some other languages! Whether you are familiar with Gogol's tale or not is neither here nor there. The whole cast are very impressive but you have to hand it to Amit Lahav for the concept and his star quality.

Talking of hours spent in other locations we saw the Iain Sinclair and friends Hackney event on the South Bank the week before last. I was just expecting a night of Iain Sinclair, but we got Will Self and Michael Rosen among others too. Unusual but oddly moving for what was basically some local history about an area I know very little of.

Has the new 118 247 ad ripped off Magical Trevor? No, look, he's in it! About 12 seconds in, 2nd from the left! But without his magical hat... I prefer the original lyrics though.

I've just been drawn away from my typing [It is now tomorrow BTW] by Jake pointing out what he initially thought were planes approaching City Airport. We're on the flight path, before they bank right, normally. But it's too late for that by now and they were going the wrong way. And there were far too many of them. Also, they were rising from the ground somewhere around Dulwich Wood [I'd guess]. But it's too dark to say for sure. I can only guess they were appearing from somewhere near Dulwich College and travelling over the Horniman Museum.

There's a red light on a distant mast of some sort and they were all, and I mean twenty or more of them, heading towards that before fading into the distance. Quite randomly too.

By the time I'd grappled with two cameras and tried to get a reasonable shot... then dug out some binoculars for a better view... they had stopped. That's what always happens with "UFO sightings" isn't it?

I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for them... But it was bloody weird if you ask me! I'll re-assess the possible directions in the morning. I'm baffled I have to say but hundreds of other folk must have seen them as well.

STRANGE LIGHT UPDATE: Thanks to Nichola, who suggested they might be Chinese Flying Lanterns. Which is highly likely. Probably a wedding going on over that way. Thank the Lord for that. That was very weird. Good aren't they? I've never heard of them before! They've only been around for 2000 years, so it's hardly surprising!

Categories: Music, London, Theatre

Links for 2009-03-26 [del.icio.us]

2009-03-27T00:00:00-07:00

Redmark
the easiest way to mark up a design and track revisions
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Links for 2009-03-24 [del.icio.us]

2009-03-25T00:00:00-07:00

CloudMade - Make Maps Differently

[Almost] Sping Affordable Art Fair 2009

2009-03-13T22:44:00.006Z

Another night of over doing the free vino at the Affordable Art Fair has made for a very long day today, but I've deciphered my notes and what follows is a list of artists and galleries that caught my eye. A majority of it being abstract but with a few more graphic artists than previously, or so it seemed to me. Nice to see a few faces, that we've met before, again. So, in no particular order...

Olivier Lile on the Dima Gallery stand, Moira Huntly at the Marine House in Beer, Kelly Washbourne at Will's Art Warehouse, Trevor Woods on the Aldeburgh Contemporary Arts stand, Charles Harrison at Woodbine Contemporary Arts, Francis Elliot with the Transistor Gallery and Jean Usher on the Penley Contemporary Art stand.

The Open Space Gallery had three. Katy Brown, Kaisa Karikoski and Daphne Turner and The French Art Studio also had three with Alban, Jef Aerosol and Claire Fahys. Then there was Dan Bennett on the Artstar stand, Edouard Buzon at Galerie Enviedart, Laura Jordan on the Gallery One stand and Sean Alexander at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery.

It might have been affordable art, but the Masons Arms, opposite Battersea Park Station is ludicrously expensive. Over four pounds for a pint of Peroni!

Don't forget it's Pi Day tomorrow.

Categories: Art, London, Photography

Scripting Randomness

2009-03-10T18:08:00.011Z

It was Javascript overload at the weekend but another assessment is due in a week and I've got to get those hours in.

I would have been drinking Whiskey with Chris all last weekend if he hadn't been taken poorly on the way to London and had to retire to his sickbed.

He's OK now though. Got to warm chicken and rice thoroughly though or you are going to see it again!

Saying that, Chelsea are on TV tonight and I'm off to football with Trev tomorrow. Then it's the Affordable Art Fair with Kev on Thursday, visiting my Sister on Saturday and Off to see Iain Sinclair talk on Tuesday week.

Still, that leaves me Friday, Sunday and Monday for Javascript doesn't it?

I see Futuresonic comes round again in May. Shame it isn't on in July, when we're in Manchester for Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna because I doubt I'll be able to make it before.

There's a lot of events coming up this year that I wouldn't mind seeing though...

Beaufort 3 in Belgium. The Kandinsky Retrospective and the Great World of Andy Warhol in Paris. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today and Glenn Brown, both at Tate Liverpool. Ben Nicholson In England & Luke Frost [Artist In Residence] at the Tate, St. Ives and Waiting For Godot at The Theatre Royal, Haymarket [If I can get an overpriced ticket!]. Must add some more links to those bold bits when I get a moment.

It seems that you can now get O'Reilly e-books to read on your various devices. I can't bring myself to get one yet. I've got a mountain of books still to read as it is and reading is "non-screen" time isn't it? It does sound like a positive move for research if not leisure.

I got three seperate e-mails extolling the virtues of different mini digital video cameras today. Zi6 or Flip Video or the Vado HD? I didn't even want one until then! Darn you advertising.

I was quite interested in the Handheld Megadrive until I saw that ToeJam & Earl isn't one of the 20 pre-loaded games. The fools.

While I am being seduced by advertising I saw these Moogerfooger FX pedals on the Underworldlive website. They look fantastic... but at a price!

There are some not very revelationary facts in this Famous painters copied photos post, but the examples are very good.

It looks as though I have just about missed the piece at the Hungarian Cultural Centre but Patrick Heide still has a Károly Keserü exhibit on. One of many things I would have seen if I could have dragged myself to the Kinetic Art Fair the other week.

Is Awdio likely to broadcast anything I want to hear? A different take on streaming music, but it's still staying in isn't it?

That's the end of that little ramble... The photo above is the view from the Aqua Brasserie, where we stopped off for a bottle of wine on Friday night and sat outside pretending it was warmer than it really was!

Categories: Music, Art, London, Photography, Books, Food & Drink, Travel, Theatre

March Erratically

2009-03-03T21:09:00.004Z

Today was the first day of March that I have stepped outside, if you don't count scurrying in and out of a cab after the 23 hour bender that was Kev & Karol's joint Birthday party. And it's shit out there.

Thursday was a bit mad too, playing pool and getting trashed at Namco. But Friday was far more civilised. Dinner at the The Avenue in St James's Street. Not only great food but some nice artwork on the walls too. I had a white bean soup followed by pork belly with beans and chorizo. Sam had gravalax followed by chicken. We shared a creme brulee and a Sauvignon Blanc.

Despite being very attentive to start we did seem to get forgotten later in the meal and our bottle of wine was tucked away out of sight with our glasses empty. But to her credit when we asked if there was any left our waitress was mortified and a glass of fizz each appeared after the meal.

The current exhibition is a selection of oil paintings by Lynn Parotti. I was particularly taken with Breath [15/20] from the Inagua series.

I spent the daytime, Saturday, working on my stop frame video idea that I made a vague start on some time back. 25 frames/second at 135bpm makes for a lot of images for a tune over 5 mins in length. It's going to be a while before I finish but I'll have it up at Vimeo when I do.

Oh yeah. I also completed the first of my assignments for the Client Side of Application Development course this week. Hopefully we'll be getting down to something more practical next, like some programming.

Categories: Music, Art, London, Food & Drink

Eat, Art, Out

2009-02-22T11:48:00.002Z

Blimey, that week shot by. We have been out every night though... Yoga Monday, met Trev for beers on Tuesday, went to see April Ashley talk at the South Bank on Wednesday, 20|21 Art Fair at the Royal College Of Art on Thursday and caught up with Tony on Friday. Then spent all day Saturday finishing a new tune with Kev [to air at his and Karol's birthday party next weekend].

Not the way to getting an assignment ready for Tuesday is it?

Still I did get quite a bit done on Friday and I have caught up with a lot of folk this week. And my Notecards from Moo turned up. Five day turnaround and a very good job they are too.

The 20 | 21 Art Fair was a bit of a disappointment. The layout of the place wasn't great and it was way too hot in there to really enjoy. I didn't see anything much that took my fancy apart from Alban at the French Art Studio stand. His pieces are kind of hyperrealist Pop Art constructs... I think! And Oliver Winconek on the David Lilford stand. urban art on canvases.

What was the Botanist in Sloane Square called in a previous life? It's gone way up market since I was in there last. It looks great but the service was bit hit and miss in the bar and of course it's not cheap. Pulcinella on Old Compton Street is good value for money though.

Categories: Art, London, Food & Drink

Welcome To The Organisation

2009-02-16T23:06:00.006Z

Lots of course work to catch up on tomorrow, so I must try to get these distractions out of my system. Notably comparing DropBox and SimplyBox.

DropBox is pretty much just online storage that syncs files between your various computers, but with browser access if you're on a machine that doesn't have the client installed. Having just bought a 16GB USB key I'm not sure I'm really in the market for this. 2GB storage is free, 50GB is $9.99/month. SimplyBox, though, seems to be halfway between DropBox and Evernote at first glance, but I'll be putting this to the test by getting my online searches for The Client Side of Application Development activities, that I should be doing tomorrow, organised.

I'm also pondering what I am going to use my Tikitag's for. Sorry, their called Touchatag now apparently. Probably something sad like organising my groceries! They have added QR code recognition now as well as changing their name.

Should I bother looking into Spotify? I'm not sure I really make enough use of the sharing/social networking side of Last.fm really, so it does seem like it might be a waste of my time. Especially if I get hooked to it!

I never remembered that Lost Dream from the other day but I did have a strange one on Saturday night. It must have been the curry... It involved a game of poker outside a pub with over sized wooden playing cards. A long walk alongside a river with a lot of tributaries. Then a bright yellow woman, shaped like a lemon, with a tiny lemon shaped pout, who was promoting, surpise surprise, lemon flavoured beer!

We had a curry on Friday night too, in Drummond Street, before the train journey from Euston to Lichfield. This time in Zeen, which I assume is new? Or maybe we have just never noticed it before. There is only a doorway at street level, but it does have a bright orange sign. It smelt new inside though. Good food. Sort of a Northern/Southern India mix. Reasonably priced and they do meat dishes, which is unusual in Drummond Street.

I passed the shop front above on Swallow Street on my back from yoga. There's nothing else in the place but that neon sign. What's that all about then?

Categories: London, Web, Food & Drink

Cold [War] Snyder

2009-02-11T23:15:00.000Z

Just got back from a surprise good night out! On a Wednesday as well!

We went to the Private View of Sean Snyder's Index at the ICA tonight which, to be honest, I wasn't convinced I was going to like. But, free drink and that, I thought we should give it a try...

And it was fascinating. I wasn't even expecting to see video installations, just photographic material, but I was disappointed when "Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars" ended. The M&M's factoids etc are worth it alone!

Drawn from documentary material from the Cold War to the present their short bursts suit our attention deficit generation to the ground. I like the fact that Snyder is re-working his own back catalogue so soon and re-thinking the material he has gathered. It's on until April 19th. Give it a try if you are in the area.

I bought one of those £2 boxes from the hayvend.com machine in the bookshop on the way out as well... Need to find out more about them before I pass judgement I think.

I also revisited moo.com today, with a view to promoting my little Digitalia book, and I must say the site/concept has come on leaps and bounds since I last landed there. They must be up there as one of my favourite, so called, Web 2.0 ideas so far.

Whoah! I better go to bed. Finally get the crown done on all this root canal stuff first thing tomorrow morning. Might as well be a little lively even if I am hungover.

Categories: Art, London, Photography

Lost Dream

2009-02-08T11:16:00.010Z

Damn. I dreamt what appeared to be a whole novel, or was it a short story? last night. And as I woke I dreamt that I had dreamt it and it was all so easy to recall. Now I am awake and grasping for some idea of what it might have been about.

Was it an original plot or something recalling real life events? I vaguely recall some sort of investigation, IT and a locality that may have been real as there was a map of some sort when I was recalling it and I could see all of the locations marked in the one place.

I had been pondering the whole Psychogeography thing since Friday night, so that may have bought it on. Was Shun-Kin, in it's way, a "psychogeographic play"? With all the events taking place, layered in time, in the one location, all occuring on stage as if simultaneously?

It wasn't quite, but it was close. A fantastical plot for a novel or short story, it depends how much comes out, already lies dormant in a musty recess of my mind. Started over a decade ago, while I was living in Colliers Wood, which was very much two or more stories in the same location over many years. I had no idea what psychogeogrpahy was then. I had just become facsinated that a place so non-descript as Colliers Wood appeared could have had such a rich history. That and the archeological dig for Merton Priory that had resulted when the foundations were dug for a new Sainsbury's. I quite liked the thought of walking in the wake of a ghostly Augustinian monk while passing the Chapter House [preserved beneath Merantun Way] with my groceries.

As a child I had walked through Colliers Wood on my way home, albeit in a circuitous route, dropping off friends, in the rain, after seeing Live And Let Die at a cinema in Tooting. But not along it's streets. We walked the tracks of a disused railway. A railway that I later discovered my Dad had watched trains shunting along as a child from the end of the road where he lived. A railway that ran past the back garden of a flat that I would eventually buy thirty plus years later.

By then the track had been lifted and it had been turned into a little nature reserve with just a path where the track had lain. I had no idea that that railway had once run behind the flat when we viewed it. It wasn't until I went into the back garden and lifted my, then two or three year old, son up to look over the fence and he uttered the word "train" that I remembered. Why did he say that?

Strangely, according to Subteranea Brittanica, I now live a little further along the same line. Anyway, hopefully more of the dream will come back to me during the day. Jake, now 18, said I'd have nightmares if I had another piece of that Roquefort before bed!

Better get on with my studies now. The To Do list remains as long as ever despite my claims that I would plough through it yesterday. We did have a bracing walk through Brockwell Park, past the ghosts of the past weeks snowmen, though. Arriving in Herne Hill availing ourselves of the local greengrocers, bakers and butchers [where we bought some fantastic Merguez sausages]. Resulting in some hearty Oxtail soup, a butternut squash and Roquefort risotto and some nice fresh orange juice...

But I didn't do anything off that bloody list!

Categories: London, Food & Drink

Shun-Kin Through The Snow

2009-02-07T12:09:00.003Z

Sorry about the weeks delay in the writing and publishing of the previous post. It's that snow stuff. It created havoc in London for some reason. We walked into Brixton on Monday to find any public transport that was running. Well I say walked, it more like slid. But we got put up in the Marriott, County Hall on Monday night, which was nice but sort of threw the whole week out.

Last night was another visit to the theatre. Shun-Kin at the Barbican. Another brilliant Simon McBurney/Complicite production. Shun-kin is inspired by two 1933 texts by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki: A Portrait of Shunkin and In Praise of Shadows. This is the second collaboration with Setagaya Public Theatre. Performed by an entirely Japanese cast (many of whom performed in The Elephant Vanishes).

It's the staging that draws me to Complicite productions. In this case, no set, a few props, an ensemble of actors that work as one augmented by, puppetry, lighting and projections. It's in Japanese and the subtitles are on either side of the stage which means you need to move your head back and forth a lot the nearer you are to the stage but I got used to that. We were in row J so not too near the front and, despite a numb arse, the 110 minutes [without an interval] passed like a dream.

It runs until 21 February 2009 at the Barbican, London before moving to the Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo, 5 - 16 March 2009. Co-produced by Complicite, Setagaya Public Theatre and Barbican Bite 09 it won the Yomiuri Theatre Award 2008 and Grand Prize Award went to Simon McBurney for Best Director.

Oh dear. Just heard the new Lily Allen album. Bit of a one trick pony that one... And I'm not even sure what the trick is. Most of it sems to lurk just outside St. Etienne/80's territory, with the odd quirky parts that gave the first album it's charm. But it's all surface and begins to grate after a couple of tracks. Don't like it!

I am liking Paper Jam by Mistabishi, Leonid Rudenko's Everybody and Divinations by Mastodon.

Well, we seem to have a weekend at home for a change so I'm going to try and get through my To Do list today and start Week 1 [a week late] of my Client Side of Application Development course tomorrow, inbetween test-driving our new steamer, juicer and blender to knock up some healthy soups and juices. Feel in need of a few vitamins and it's the only weekend off this year up until mid-March, so better make the most of it!

Oh! and before you go - Observe the link to my first Blurb book of Digitalia to the bottom right. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Categories: Music, London, Web, Photography, Books, Theatre

I'm All Lear's

2009-02-01T11:51:00.007Z

That's January out the way then! Most of the past weeks' plumbing issues have dried up. A couple of visits from a clueless British Gas employee has the boiler working slightly better but still not perfectly, the sink is unblocked after a minor flood and the washing machine is limping on for the moment. Don't know what was worse, that or the two visits to the dentist I had to endure last week.

We went to see Rupert Goold's King Lear at the Young Vic on Friday. It's exhausting! Pete Postlethwaite et al are fantastic, although it appears the Telegraph beg to differ [see below]. Even the set and effects are breathtaking. Yes, it's true, as the Telegraph says, Postlethwaite uses a mic during a particularly tempestuous storm scene. But is that not to add the reverb to his voice? Or to further instil the "gritty northern realism" even further? Drawing parallels with working mens clubs? Maybe, maybe not... Maybe he just needs to project more, but the sound effects were bloody loud at that point.

The play is, of course, a full on three hours... But it shoots by once act two is under way. It's set in some random part of northern Britain at the beginning of Thatcher's reign; there are hints of the Toxteth riots and [I guess] the Falklands conflict, with some parts fleeting, mildly baffling and not entirely necessary. And of course a pretty high body count.

I never took any interest in Shakespeare at school and had to resort to reading a synopsis beforehand [and still had trouble remembering who was who] but I was gripped. Charlotte Randle [Regan], Tobias Menzies [Edgar/Poor Tom] and Forbes Masson [The Fool] were particularly impressive.

The Young Vic seemed a little overwhelmed by the crowds, the unreserved seating causing much herding by the staff right up until "curtain up". The milling around the auditorium doors beforehand blocked access to the toilets and bar as well. That said, someone did eventually come along and line people up properly. And the bar staff were very efficient all night.

I've just finished putting some sample "stems" to my old Ctrl U track up at SoundCloud, so that you can download them, create a remix, and drop your finished mix into my DropBox - See Bottom right. I'll be adding parts from a couple of other tracks from the Hyperreal And Supercool album in coming months.

January's listening habits have veered between the new Antony And The Johnsons and Animal Collective albums. Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion may be good but isn't all that I'm seeing people write it up as in my book. Whereas The Crying Light will come to haunt you without you realising it in no time at all. If I'm to hear a better song than Another World this year I can't wait to hear it. Bon Iver's Blood Bank EP has also had a few plays, easily surmounting the Emma, Forever Ago album for me. Particularly Woods, which does the Auto-Tune thing without all the fuss of Kanye West. Breathing new life into folksy accapella, like robots round a camp-fire!

Categories: Music, London, Theatre

Notes On Plumbing?

2009-01-25T19:49:00.004Z

Despite the plumbing trying to thwart my efforts to get things done I have had a result with the Wacom tablet at last. I booted my PC from Ubuntu, installed on my new 16GB SanDisk USB key and the tablet worked fine! I've now also installed Ubuntu Studio on my PC using Sun xVM VirtualBox before deciding whether to make the PC dual boot or not. Well I would be if I wasn't trying to figure out why the boiler won't heat the flat and water at the same time, what the hell is blocking the kitchen sink up and why the washing machine' has died a death full of water!

I happily migrated my Google Notebooks to Evernote on Friday... and upgraded so that I'm synchronised on PC and laptop. A very satisfactory experience I must say. It's making me wonder if I could wean myself any other Google Apps? Seems I'm not the only one either as this lifehack.org piece will testify. I can't see me being drawn away from GMail, the Calendar or My Maps but I'd consider an alternative to Google Docs. First glance at Zoho and it looks exactly the same to me! But I'll give it a try. It has a lot of other business tools such as invoicing and project management.

I bookmarked the Picto Browser some time ago in Delicious but had never got round to using it then I happened across a page using it, earlier today, and thought I'd give it a try. So, below are the photos I took at the Richard Serra exhibit a little while back. Assuming Blogger will let me embed it of course.

Categories: Art, Web, Blogging, Technology

London Leibovitz

2009-01-19T20:23:00.005Z

London Art Fair 2009, Annie Leibovitz at the National Portrait Gallery, Gordon's Wine Bar, Tacuba and Pom's back to Thailand Party are a few of the things that have kept me from my To Do list in the past week. Admittedly I did have yesterday, but I didn't get up until 5.00 and couldn't do much more than order a curry.

Rob & Nick Carter @ London Art Fair 2009

Crowds were a bit thin on the ground at the Art Fair but I saw stuff that had sold. Whether or not it was at the price expected I don't know and there were a lot of pieces I've seen in previous years on the same stands, hung in the same place!

Plenty of crowds at Annie Leibovitz though. Too many in fact. And the Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize. Not sure about that winner though. After that we felt we [myself, Sam, Cathy and Maggi] deserved lunch and popped down to Gordon's where we joined by Paul and sunk 5 bottles of wine before we had to dash off to Pom's party, which we didn't leave until 11 hours later and consequently I remember very little of. There was quite a lot of rain. I remember that much.

Gordon's Wine Bar was great. I've passed it hundreds of times and never been in. It's been there since 1890 and must look pretty much the same as when it opened. It's far bigger than you'd expect when you get down to the cellars, but watch your head if you're tall!

Tacuba was Friday night. Happy hour from 5.30 - 7.00 [I think] although we did manage to spend £60 between two of us in three hours. That did include three plates of various snacks. Not big portions but tasty. Good DJ too but we had to leave before we got to cosy and spent any more.

So what should I be up to? Well that Wacom tablet still won't install despite my efforts. Going to resort to trying to boot the PC from Linux on a USB key and see if that works. Not tonight though, still knackered and we skived off yoga. Tsk tsk. Other than that, remember The Milk is getting me things done. Looks like Google might make up my mind for me with my Evernote v Google Notebook indecision by discontinuing it. Or at least not developing it further.

Categories: Art, London, Photography, Food & Drink

What's going on with Google Maps... My Maps are worringly failing to load at the moment.

Keep Re-Installing The Tablet

2009-01-15T22:19:00.000Z

I've got myself a U3 SanDisk, which I have installed Evernote on but it still seems to want to synch with the web version rather than act as a stand alone. I want to instal Ubuntu on it and try to boot my PC from that to see if I can get this bloody Wacom tablet to work that way and use it with GIMP instead. Wacom have run out of ideas and suggest I contact Microsoft [yeah right!]. I've considered a couple of driver conflict options since... but to no avail. In retrospect I probably didn't need a U3 stick as I will probably lose that when installing Ubuntu.

My 1TB Maxtor turned up as well and I have my PC backed-up on that now so I can chance a few radical ideas to get the tablet working that I might have thought a bit chancey previously.

Failing that I may have to reconsider my idea of getting a Netbook and get something that will run Photoshop satisfactorily instead.

I guess Microsoft wading into the fray of "QR Code" development with their fancy, all colour "Microsoft Tags" might mean that it will be worth our while trying to pursue ways of using them productively. The Japanese, of course, have been happily using QR for ages but it is probably going to take the weight of Microsoft to get the West involved. Although I suspect the US have had the opportunity long before now once people get it into their heads that it's all Microsoft's idea then maybe it will all take off. I hope so. It will save me trying to decide whether to go with QR or RFID for any Augmented Reality ideas I might be pondering... And there is at least one.

Categories: Technology