wind beneath my wings

Wingsuit loic jean albert and friends , Amazing flight... from Xmicky on Vimeo.

Jesus, sometimes you see something that you really really want to do. Here I sit at my desk typing and surfing, listening to metronomy and looking out the window, or watching tv. these guys can fly!

why dont you stand.

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

These guys took one Ben e King tune to street performers all around the world, and made their venue a studio, mixing their voices together. Its pretty excellent.

Brick Lane on the sunniest Sunday ever

Brick Lane, the curry isnt as nice or as cheap as Tooting but on a Sunday in April, with the heat beating down and the streets crowded with smiley people, its a good place to hang. We took J and B down for their first time, and although we didnt get a salt beef bagel because of the queue, it was still a worth while trip.



It reminds me that I have 2 days to realise my SoFoBoMo project that after 5 misfires I may have decided on "the art of selling in a recession". If you havent heard me dribble on about this before, the idea of SoFoBoMo is to create a photobook containing 35 photos in 31 days. The theme is completely up to you, but of course thats half the battle to try and get a satisfactory one that is interesting enough not just for you to want to take photos, but for others to actually read.

Tonight is Manchester United v Arsenal for the Champions League. I am heading down to the Junction to watch it with low expectations and high hopes...

Weekend Photos; wires N7, old clothes and new bells

Friday night, just before I headed home, I nipped into an office space that I heard a lot of banging happening earlier in the day. Just to check it out. There lay a huge collection of wires and plugs. Like the innards of some beast the life line of the modern office.

On Saturday we went for a walk in the sunshine, I saw a colourful door that leads to a Columbian restaurant;



An optomistic child looking forward to the FA Cup semi final with Chelsea, and a man with a moustache;

Then we went and looked at a second hand clothes store L. likes- i got bored and started taking photos;






Then on Sunday we went to Epping Forest with a few friends, it turned into a miniphotoclub. The idea was to go and find a carpet of bluebells. Apparently we should go next week. I did find a bunch though, right next to a rubbish bin in a carpark.



We even used the compass!

These are the native English bluebells. You can tell by its bent stem, with each bell on one side of the stem. The more aggresive Spanish blue bell has a stronger stem, and the bells fall on all sides of it.

Spring breaks through

This weekend I got over Arsenal losing in the FA cup by eating L.'s Portugese Custard Tarts.

L. uses a vodka bottle as a rolling pin. I made some bloody marys with this blackcurrant vodka, but i do not recommend it.



Yummo!

Easter Plans in London

Easter, Easter and what to do? Chocolate and hot cross buns? church and finishing Lent? No red meat? Passover? Or just enjoying some well earned time off!

I think if you are in London, the number one plan is just dont listen to any weather reports, and have plans flexible enough to swap between a sunny and rainy list. But in case you dont have your list ready, or maybe some holes in their somewhere, have a check of mine...

Friday there are some organised fancy Kites flying on Hampstead Heath and while you are up there, check out this pub. It is where Ruth Ellis shot her boyfriend dead, and the bullets are still embedded in the wall. This may be a lie, but the bullet holes are still there. It also has a four pint rating from fancy a pint, which means one must try it.

If you wanted to combine art and musicm then head to the southbank for free perfomances of Ujino and the Rotators. He calls them sound scupltures, which sounds cool! This is on Friday and Saturday.

Then for Sunday, the Lock Tavern has some cool djs and calls it Sensible Sundays!

Or maybe you want to spend your way out of this so call recession, and take advantage of all the amazing art out there?

For a Full list of Easter Egg hunts

OK, the rest of my list is sectioned up so just have a browse.

Photo Ops

Aren't birds brilliant? Regent Park has daily tours of the bird life that hang out in the gorgeous gardens, especially the Herons that rest in their ponds. Herons walk really slow, but fly really fast.

Walking club offers a wide range of walks this weekend.

Football on Hackney Marshes http://www.hackneyandleytonfootballleague.co.uk/

Bricklane bike polo Every Sunday 1pm, corner of Brick Lane & Shacklewell

Spring at Kew think bright spring bulbs, and avoiding the children hanging out by the farm exhibition.

harness horse parade (?)

The "why would I ever go south of the river" walk


Things I havent done yet and it could be a chance through the weekend

Treasures of the black death!

Little Italy at the Islington Museum

Shunt

Geffrye Museum

Markets

North African and Arabic foods
slow food market (and easter egg hunt on Sunday)
Wierd farm market


Gigs

Friday and Saturday at the Buffalo Bar includes the usually awesome twee as fuck

Friday at the Camden Barfly(can be on the guest list for Arrows for Love so let me know

Monday at Rough Trade

Full List of all the big gigs in the city

Grindago go will be good in Bethnal Green
Sleepy Sun (with Fuck Buttons DJing) Sunday should be pretty cool as well.

Film

And God Created Woman 11th and 12th
The 400 Blows various times
Nighthawks Various
Stop Making Sense 9th and 12th
I for India Five pound Mondays!
Tony Manero Five pound Mondays!
Point Break and Top Gun double bill
Let the right one in starts on the 10th.

Lets not forget that the Arsenal play wigan away this weekend, so keep your ear to the radio!

Happy Easter everyone! Cheers Jesus for all the chocolate. Now lets dance.

Friday Fry Day

I sit in my empty office early Friday morning, and I can hear bird song coming in through the windows. I would say the sweet sounds of the thrush but I have no idea what they are. Not pigeons, magpies or starlings. But I just read about a photography competition held by TFL.
Here the London underground is encouraging commuters to take photos of birds within a five minute walk of a tube station. Hey, it’s something to keep in mind right? The competition finishes on the 31st of May.

In other news, today in history the ice cream Sunday was invented, using of all flavours in this fair planet- Cherry? Quite an interesting story in the end. I love ice cream sundaes, and ice cream sodas.

Its another lovely day in London!

April May in Film (London)-

So as I said in the last post, more cinema is the order of the day. I am still training on the Hitchcock films (so far we have watched sabatuer, shadow of a doubt and rope) but no matter how comfy the couch, dvd's are not the same as cinema.

Here is my outlook for the next two months.
BFI
April 9th Stop Making Sense
April 11th And God Created Woman
21st April Special Mention! Cool Hand Luke with a discussion with George Kennedy
37th April Breathless

Prince Charles Theatre Monday Double Bills!
April 13th Point Break Top Gun Double Bill
April 20th Highlander Mad Max 2 Double Bill
April 27th Little Shop of Horrors, Rocky Horror Double Bill
April 28th Special Mention! Seven Samurai!
May 11th Wierd Science, Ferris Bueller double bill

ICA £5 Tickets on Mondays!
April 3rd-9th Tokyo Sonata
April 10th-30th Tony Manero April 10th Q&A With the main actor
April 10th, 11th & 18th Kandahar
April 10-13th I for India

Sci Fi Film Festival
30th April Special Mention Hardware with conversation with 2000AD legend Kevin O'Neil
3rd May Anime All Nighter!
2nd May Star Trek All Nighter!

More updates to come, but when you start looking into it, London has an awful lot of films showing at any given time.

Birthday Blog

I hit 34 on Monday and had a great time doing it. L. made me eggy crumpets with bacon and maple syrup oh yeah, she also bought me cool shoes, a party cd and the excellent Joker graphic novel. B bought me a great t shirt, R some delicious wine, got phone calls from the family and then out and about in London.

Went to the bar in the Hilton on the 28th floor, with amazing views and delicious wines...



Then China Tang, which was amazing! Now, I did want to jump on my soap box a little bit here. London has some great places to eat and drink, and it has some mediocre places to eat and drink. I bought a bog standard pint of peroni last week for £4.05! They had burgers on the menu for a tenner. China Tang offers a set lunch at £15 pounds, which was a basket of dim sum, some noodles with meat and a glass of wine. Sorry there are no photos but this was a delicous lunch a large glass of wine and a fantastic ambiance. All I am saying is be careful with your pound. Don't settle for flat beer when it is expensive to buy.




Anyhow, we then caught a double decker bus over to the BFI had some more wine, there was a gay/lesbian festival on so everything was booked out, but I bought two tickets to Stop Making Sense, the talking heads film. Then we bought some cream charges headed home to drop some stuff off and went to the cinema to see the Watchmen for the second time. It is still a great film on the second viewing and I am pleased I got to see it again on the big screen before it finished its ciruclation.

I want to watch more cinema, and I think it was a resolution earlier in the year. But watch this space!