Life in the Kitchen

DSC_0004, originally uploaded by turoasaur.

we are begining to grow our own food, and finally being like Tom and Barbara.

When I say we, my role is obviously minimal, consisting of comunication with the plants, to ensure a healthy mind set before I eat them. L takes care of most of the rest.

I think they are lettuce?

you have to heart where you live

London rocks. I mean if you are floundering around for something to blog about (AND LETS FACE IT- Telling you about my dinner is not going to get me an audience!) then all you have to do is grab your camera and hit the streets on any given evening. I suppose you have to be in the mood for it, but I went out last night with the lovely L. and everything was blog tastic.

We went to the Cy Twombly exhibition at the Tate Modern last night. We walked over, and then under Blackfriars Bridge and I noticed this frightening sign.


Defo bloggable, think about it for a second... why do you need a licence?
anyway, This is our first time to the tate since all of the art has appreared outside the gallery...


We hit the bar as soon as we got there, a nice bottle of wine and we even had a seat on the river side, which is usually packed.





The exhibition was quite something. The first few rooms I felt assaulted! It was like the vicous slashings of a maniac, the scribbles, the thick pastings of oil, the plaster of paris sculptings, really did not agree with me. I was getting more and more anxious, I felt myself being wound up tighter and tighter with every painting. thankfully, the curators calmed you down with room 3, which was two huge complimenting canvases. I really enjoyed the last two rooms, the penultimate was emerald greens smeered over cream painted wooden boards. I found it looked very Japense, like a bush covered river. And the last room was the famous shots that are on the literature for this exhibition.

Then we walked down the embankment, found a strange garden dedicated to NZ plants! There even was Pohutakawa trees! And this (not native but popular in NZ) Plant; the red hot poker.To give its scientific genus name.


And as we were kicked out of this park for drinking, we sat in the Trafalgar Square, which I think is one of the strangly romantic spots in the city. I took these two photos that I really like.

This fountain was apparently built to stop crowds gathering in too concentrated numbers when protesting, as some of the biggest English protests took place here.




and this is just a photo I liked.

A Ducks Life

Early Sunday morning we levered ourselves out of bed, jumped on the bikes and made our way to Hampstead Heath with strawberries and yogurt in our stomachs. In the space between the clouds, the sun shone through. Though it was fleeting it warmed instantly.
Hampstead Lido is a lovely pool, 50 metres, (*which is large when trying lengths!)
Its cold though! 18 degrees, man oh man, took me a while to get in. And there were two ducks in the middle! just bobbing along, people still swimming, and the ducks just shuffling in their wake. Madness. Can you spot the duck in this photo?

Does anyone really care what I am having for dinner?

Come on London, its mid June for crying out loud. stop fucking rainging!
well its threating quite wildly out there now, with earthquake looking clouds awaiting. Although with Wimbledon just around the corner, we all should know better.

Anyway back to my dinner. Last night L. invented a completly new salad involving crazy beans, smoked fish and olives, so its my turn to invent something tasty and healthy. I am going to make chicken w/ tomatoes, asparagus and rosemary in little tinfoil parcels. should/could be nice. if you really want I will put photos in tomorrow haha.






ok, an hour to go til the football, and it looks like rain.

Ian Seigal hits the 100 club.

Hung over again! I plan not to go out tonight- "but its Friday>?!" I hear you say!! well shut up you, you're the last one I need to hear from, its people like you that make me wind up holding my head against pillows.

But last night was fun! woohoo! Out in one of the only sunny afternoons London has had for a while. Had a few beers on the bus (its illegal you know- as of the first of June- what-ever) the 94 from Shepherds Bush to Oxford Street. Then shoe horned myself through the human sausage maker that is Oxford Street. Grabbed a couple more beers and sent myself and A. to Soho Square. As is usual that place was packed. Its impossible for two men not to look gay in that square. Then off to the famous 100 Club. Looking at all the photos on the wall, its obvious how important this place is to the musical heritage of London. Its such a gem of history.

I was there for Ian Seigal. I love his dancing and snake boots.



Here is an addictive number countdown cut with a lot of patience from films.

ministry

Live at the Forum, 27/5/8. Was a good gig, dispite the first set from the newest three albums, and I didnt even know it was them playing!
then the first encore was hits, NWO, Breathe, just one fix, Thieves and So What, which is below. I mean it was awesome! Then we left but the next encore they played covers including the doors, ZZ Top and what a wonderful world.

a muggy london day- where is summer?

This week is lagging even though its a day shorter! where is the justice?

I have found new blogs of note today and have entered them over there in the land of blogs and other sites you should visit before you die.

In other news I am reading Michael Chabon's "Kavalier & Clay", and although not yet a third of the way in, I am very excited with it. Being the third MC Book I have read this year (!) I am a fan! READ HIM! And of course the cover art is excellent in this new =WARNING SHAMELESS PLUG WITHIN= format by HarperCollins.

Long weekend!

woohoo! not that I have had such a long week this week!
Minehead was awesome, just the best time, watching bands, hanging out at the chalet, waterslides, more bands. pretty cool.

Highlights were ghostface killer and silver jews. good fun.

I burnt my mouth so took a couple of days off getting better, and here i am on a Friday before bank holiday haha.

I am off to the Ministry gig on Tuesday. Thats going to Rock!

I will put some pix and videos up when we add them to you tube. the ones on at the moment have awful sound quality!

out

off to the parties tomorrow

ALL Tomorrows Parties.

Minehead. Tomorrow. Party. Tomorrow. Minehead.

How exciting is it going to be? pretty damn exciting.
The gig starts and ends really really well. Constantines first and ends with Envy.

Soon enough- great song, the video is obviously fan made but I like it.


and to end, Japanese hardcore band Envy


and heres some of those crazy NZers...

falling down...

Sun floods the desk as I type these words. May bursts into its second week with sun and smiles and job interviews.

Just heard this for the first time, and as a dedicated Scarlet fan thought I would highlight her debut single.

I think its pretty awesome.
Of course if you dont know the original it should sound like this.


So really no comparrison between them, but scarlets does have a low fi attractiveness...

Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music people don't talk

Went to the Vaudeville theatre last night, watched Importance of being Earnest with Penelope Keith. Awesome. She is great, the others were cool, theatre is just fun.
And I love the old buildings, and ordering your interval drinks, and how they have boxes for the stubbs of everyones tickets so to easily tell if a seats been double booked. Magic.

oh I took a photo of the roof, but bloggers not letting me post.
will edit it later, coz I am sure you are keen!

come back and check!

Hey- its FRIDAY!

23 April 2008. London.

23 April is always a big day in my family. Hayds birthday yesterday- Happy Birthday bro! Nicks birthday tomorrow- again Happy Birthday bro!
And today is a special day as well. Friday is of course ANZAC day and I am not sure to go to the service or not?! I would like to because its always good to make an effort, it is on my bike ride to work and I haven’t seen the Paul Dibble statue yet.



I don’t want to go because- its too early! I will have to be at work an extra 2 hours early, its always borringly christian (as if the church isnt responsible enough for encouraging them to go fight for the motherland in uh, Turkey) and L. is planning to make ANZAC biscuits! YUM! Which means if I want to see the service I will miss the cookies!

apologies for relying on wikipedia a bit heavily there. Pictures of buscuits to follow.

Here is some art for sale at the Animation Art Gallery that I want to buy. One is affordable at only a hundred quid, and one is a bit much for me thank you very much at four hundred. But oh well!

Midlake

So good this band is (have turned into yoda!)
Very good tune this, just turn it up and sit back!

ATP Ear Feast

Soooo, with All Tomorrows Parties looming above us next week, we have fully charged up with Nitrus and listening to a whole lot of new music. I thought I would share. So the above band is Beach House.

The Below is Jens Lekman..

lamentable

Oh why, oh why wont those pictures load? hmmm, well if you care enough you can double click into them I think. let me know if you cant. I loaded them directly from flickr, so maybe I wont do that in the future.

I bought my guitar in the weekend. how exciting! so much fun you know, relearning ac/dc - iron maiden licks. using words like licks as a noun.

back!

There is something about holidays that makes it very difficult to hook back into the blog. is that just me? I bet if I had a lap top this would not be an issue, but say- going to NZ with their relativly slow internet speeds often leads me to check the emails, facebook and then arseblog, then get the hell off it. however I am constantly using the camera etc, so there is plenty of stuff to blog. How interesting is other peoples holiday photos though? I find them interesting, but do you? well too bad if you dont chuck, here is a couple i just thought of.

This is a picture of the central plateau, a land of mountains and heather, and a stretch of road running like an artery between north and south.

This is the four square man. A face you can trust. The thumbs up of the convienence shopper.

this is when I caught about 7 snapper, one eel and one shark.

And this is me and my brothers but three Kauri trees.

But that pretty much sums it all up, other than the wedding but hey, its not really that sort of blog. check out the family one soon, we will be all over that.

Anyway- along with the snow it seems that the thames has been so redeveloped that now sea horses are growing along its shores! how awesome is that?

MasterChef Thursday

I might ban myself from reality tv shows. I am just getting too emotional with them, as some smug producer plays with my feelings, like I am a puppet to their cathrode ray tube strings.
Last night it was MasterChef. I mean its not as lame as it sounds. We had three contestants, all with good cooking ability and each had learned so much in the journey through the programme. Each with dreams of opening their own kitchen.

Emily was full of creative inventions but also youthful pretensions on food as art, “composition of the plate” etc. She had the world ahead of her, and even getting to the final was a great achievement for an 18 year old.

Jonny wanted to serve up food with saleability, and his ideal kitchen, it seemed to me would not need a Gordon Ramsey make over, as he was after serving up food the customers would want. He also was a single Dad, and tugged at the heart stings the most. I wanted him to win by the end of it, however he did not.
James won it, and to be honest his dish at the end deserved to win it.

So that was my main event of the evening, other than tacos- and I am pleased to say, because I found James so unlikeable, and John Torode some sort of coke fuelled Geronimo spinning wilder and wilder out of control with ever increasing adjectives, I didn’t cry once.

Bloglist

So dinner was unfortunately postponed tonight, so I am at a loose end. M. rang though and he and G might come round. Thats G with a G and not a J. they wont be long but it will be productive.

But I want to have something finished tonight. I have to do some text on NBOT and then thats finished I think.

Then I will begin the backing up of all our photos onto dvd. There are an awful lot.

oh I printed out some photos the other day. its wierd that feeling, going into the shop to pick up your photos, and then pick up some hard copy! How very 80's!

quick you tube dump

Freeze! I love this stuff- unfortunately its improv "actors" but thats what makes it so good, I also love the ipod dancers but this actively freaks people out.




and here we have knowledge city. Could you wish to come from a less naff city?

V Day

L brought me this fantastic book of short stories!!

the raising of the great whore

Spring in February is a scary concept. Without jumping on any global warming band wagon, it is something that I am experiencing for the first time. Sure I have only been in the northern hemisphere for 7 years, but still this is the loveliest warmest days that usually appear in April. So what does this mean? Will it be a long drawn out heat fest? Will I be loathing the heat of May? Will August be droughts, water bans and trips to Norway?

The very real effect was a fantastic bike ride into work today. Regents park was glorious, the sun was rising over those amazing buildings that flank the park, and the fields held a veil of fog against them, with people walking their dogs amongst their dewy grasses. Oh for a camera- I thought. I will bring mine tomorrow, but of course tomorrow will not be the same. Lets hope though!

So there was a fire in Camden the other night, and I didn’t even know about it. Bearing in mind it is only half an hour walk from my house, is pretty lame of me. It reminded me of that song…

“Black or white turn it on, face the new religion
Everybody's sitting 'round watching television!

London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial 99999”



So the guy who put this on the mighty you tube thinks it might be the great whore of babylon burning mentioned in revelations and many reggae songs.
so hes not that paranoid

The days are getting longer.

A song for the summer?

LEGO!

I guess you have heard that lego is now 50 years old! I know! but with such a simple and productive item you knew it would kick off. And in many ways is the start of the consumer age, with plastic beating mechano... sigh. I wasnt born at this time, lets get that straight. I did get a big bucket of lego from older cousins though. that was AWESOME>

To commerate (he says, straightening his tie and getting back to the subject) the anniversary they have a cool art deco set going. I want that cinema!



and because lego is not all about gimicky cheap shots at an audience who will buy anything just because it reminds you of your child hood


and just because I get a bit carried away sometimes

a way of life that calls for another way of living.

Toast. Is there anything that smells as good in the morning? Its like Leonard Cohen for the nose.

Anyway, there comes a time whenever I do things like this that I begin to doubt myself, begin to think,- well why update when I haven’t done anything? Well I think the reason is only to document, and when life doesn’t involve bigger happenings, there’s no need to belittle, the already little happenings.

So, lets see. Would have blogged about Morrissey, had he not suffered from a throat infection, postponing our concert. But better pulling out than giving a substandard performance I say, but imagine if you travelled in? We checked in the morning what time it started, and found out that it wasn’t on. Good old internet! In the dark old days we would’ve just turned up for a big sandwich of disappointment.

I went to the Tate the other day, but missed the LB exhibit because there were three of us and the card will only let two in. I saw the crack though. And its pretty cool! As mentioned earlier Juan Munoz starts this week, so cant wait for a bit of that.

I don’t like to finish books on the tube. You are left with a finished book weighing down your man bag, and it doesn’t feel that you are giving the words the attention they deserve. So I had two books I had to finish as well as two 2000AD comics I hadn’t finished (but for lack of time, I don’t mind finishing comics on the tube). So on Sunday I sat down and finished Lords of the Bow and Mister B Gone both quite great, but ultimately unsatisfying books. The first is foremost an in between book, that so often happens in a trilogy. It’s a stepping stone between the page turning excitement on the first one and is full of presentiment of the third instalment, which I fear is going to be a sad story. Oh its about Ghengis Khan if you didn’t know. Cool. And the second, though a nice neat little story, lacks the bite that say “the yattering and jack” welds – a random example of how Barker has handled the life of a demon before.

So the end of one book only means a start to another, so I have indeed started two books! They both have started off with intriguing but dry ideas. The one I have bought with me, (and is noted at the foot of the blog) is about one mans forty *(warning- pun alert) plus career at the Natural History Museum. I am enjoying the first few chapters, and makes me want to go again! So look out for some photo shoots in the summer.

Anyway I will leave you here with one of the greatest scenes of 80’s Cinema.

Tate Visit

here is the famous crack in the floor for the uni lever series. will they keep it? or fill it back in?

Here is a sneaky picture taken. I know they are too dark, but thats a part of the new style.
dont you know.

FRIDAYYYYYY!

Ok, so I am sure I am not alone with this feeling of excitement of another day of work passing. And of course there are two whole days off as well. oh yeah!

so still no photo of the week. instead I shall leave this video with you!
I am amazed that there could be a tiger in the long grass scary! and then the jump of that tiger is like 12 feet plus! mean.
oh back story is this is the gvt who have been told there is a tiger lurking around and has killed. They blunder in with the dart gun but miss! Which pisses off the tiger....

Link Tag.

Ever find a good blog, and then follow the links with blind faith because the source site is good? Then continuing through? It can be good fun, a great way to find new music (something I am sorely in need of), new artists, cool sites and gifts (don’t tell me you don’t remember Valentines day?).

I thought I would try one out and record all the interesting things I find. Yes I know this is a way to fill my own blog by using other peoples content, but hey- its about coverage!


First stop,Fabulist is always worth a visit. Nothing stands out though so I use this as a springboard, and arbitrarily choose the last link…

I haven’t seen this blog before, nice format and layout, but I am here on a content caper, so I look around, its like a radio station idea with play lists etc. I check out The Deirdres who are pretty awesome, in a kind of moldy peaches cutesy way, and I feel it might be 2 months too early for this kind of musical colour. A far more wintry sound are bye!
But on with the treasure hunt…
Although the site is in Spanish the best blogspot name so far is fuck me I'm twee
Continuing with following the last link I find
Who introduce me to a London based label… Forward marching onto another great named blog Alex loves you and your silly pop songs, although suffering from blog name envy, I am pleased to see a NZ link to the flying nun label, and even some Verlaines, (a NZ band who were a few years ahead of my own uni times, when being a student seemed… cool… in a sardonic, flirting with heroin, “oh its always grey in Dunedin” kind of way…
Ok- after that nostalgia, which was actually a pretty good record and video, I find
unpopular which lived up to its name, because I didn’t like it! Not only that but it was a dead end, with no external links! How rude. But that’s lucky coz even I was getting bored with this post.
Bugger, seemed like such a good idea to begin with.

art attack overcompensates for no photo of the week

It’s a wet and grey Tuesday, for all that’s worth.
Its hard to maintain enthusiasm for anything more than snuggling into a bit of dvd action. Talking of which I watched some of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the lost Ark on the weekend. Quality. Getting ready for the release of the latest Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Skulls are cool. And so is Indy! Bring it on.

So you will notice again I have failed to do a photo of the week, but I have you may have also noticed, re designed the blog! So its kind of a picture as well. Very good.

Lets have a look about town hey?
Five days left until the end of the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at the Tate Modern.

I must say I haven’t seen it yet, so will have to go this week. It also means I have not seen that famous crack yet either. But soon come.

Even though its sad to see LB go, 2008 is an exciting year for the tate. We have the Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia exhibition opening from 21st Feb-26th of May.



Spanish artist Juan unoz 24th Jan- 27th April is really exciting! Hopefully there are the eerie Chinese laughing men…


So I drank last night, but it was for good reason, at "aint nothing but" bar in Kingly street, which is really nice. especially since I am looking for guitars, and it gave me a chance to listen to the sound of les paul, fender strat and fender telecasters, which helps a bit. I must say the les paul tone was quite cool, and the telecaster muffled sound was great also. But I think *(as I cant afford a real les paul) I will stick with the jackson-ibanez option. but I am going to test drive the epiphone anyway.

a splash of colour, a dash of sound.

Maybe its because I have relatively small ones, it doesn’t take long before the pain of my last tattoo fades and I start thinking about the next one. The way I have set them out leaves my left arm as the most likely spot for it, and ideally I think it should have a little colour, and be on the triceps area. I am liking this young ladies work from Romford.(!).


She also makes jewellery


Do you know I am also in the market for a guitar? Well I am. I actually aim to have an entire bands worth of equipment. I will get my bass from NZ in March, and this guitar and amp, then next year the drums and a keyboard. I know! Like whitesnake, except, due to my ethnicity it might be blacksnake. … Anyway, here are my top guitar



Well this week has given us the welcome news that some UK airports are relaxing their hand luggage rules. Frankly I think this rule, and the liquids rule are knee jerk reactions to some flaky “intelligence” which may or may not be relevant in air security. Anything can be used as a weapon these days. I was travelling through Singapore last year and the security made me throw away my bottle of Laphroaig because it was not in a sealed bag. I tried everything, checked if they could put it in a sealed bag at Changi airport, tried unsuccessfully to post it “we cant post whisky”, but nothing was doing. So I stood with the customs officer drinking the whisky from the bottle chatting to him about how could they not let me take it, when the seal wasn’t broken (until now), and they can see its whisky because I am drinking it! Oh well.

Arsenal V Tottenham tonight! Always a good game. But slightly worrying for Arsenal fans because we always field young players (think Randall, Fabianski and Traore. But its good news that old RVP is back on board, and our not so secret weapon Eduardo cant be in any better form. My pound is on 3 nil to the arsenal, Eduardo first goal. (66 to 1 at Paddy Power).

God it’s a nice day out there isn’t it?

pic of the week

Here is a pic I did for NBOT which is a good start. so though not strictly a photo, its a good start hah.

January is a funny month

They took down the Christmas tree in Hammersmith today. It lay on its side already looks like gutter trash. I wonder what they do with it. “they shoot horses don’t they?”

January is a funny month isn’t it? The enthusiasm about the holidays is over, the year rears up at you, until it can look a bit daunting (I am thinking like a woolly mammoth staring down from atop its two hind legs), and nothing really to look forward to until easter comes, and the ground softens for harvest.

But fret not! There are still cool things about the start of the year. One can begin planning all the fabulous things that one can do in winter and beyond.

Yesterday I added that Klimt site, did you check it out? Well that got me thinking and I have found this photographic interpretation of his works.

How cool is that?



ok, so not really drinking this month. And tonight is the biggest test of them all a Friday! Then tomorrow is an even bigger test! A Saturday! Then Sunday is the hugest test of a Sunday with an Arsenal game!

Ok, I know I haven’t made a photo of the week, but I guess I have some time.

Ice Cream Season is Over

So L and I were talking last night about the price of the cinema.
Now she loves to go to the cinema, and I am not so keen on it. Not because I don’t like film, I really do, but I am not a huge fan of blockbusters, with their explosions and lame one liners, and if you go to these multiplexes its so expensive and when people are on their cell phones or what ever I get irate! So we rarely go, unless of course there is something L really wants to see, or there is something at the ICA or what ever.

However it is a bugbear for me the cost of the cinema for families in London. I mean I know you have to shop around, but at worst events- if we were a family with more dollars than sense and paid cash fares from our house into Leicester Square £4 an adult, and 2 pounds a child, lets imagine we have three. So that’s 14 pounds to get there. The best seats for 2 adults and 3 children at Leicester Square Odeon are £80:25 (incl. £3.25 handling fee). And we all know how expensive coke and popcorn is at the movies? About £6.25 for a large coke and popcorn? Now I know I have gone to extremes to prove an obvious point, but that’s over a hundred pounds to see “I am legend” and with this sort of outlay families today are better off buying their coke in sixpacks, their popcorn unpopped and sitting around the computer where they just downloaded it for free.

Oh well, who would have kids anyway? People who recycle and worry about the airmiles of their wine, and then have children?

Now for some art
Contemporary



Traditional and perhaps website of the day.



and a fellow blogspot colleague, who I admire greatly and really wish I could make one of my journals look half as good as these ones!

Buy less, Drink less.

I shall join the lines of fresh faced people, armed to the teeth with good intentions and resolutions. The above being number one and two and the third being "Do more".
As always there is a list of things I want to do, both small and big, and I am a bit afraid of writing them down, lest I get to the end of the year and have not done them…

But one of them that I can write and put out there is to tidy up this blog somewhat. I will write more, and have at least one photo of the week up here. I will link more often and be slightly more personal about things- don’t worry! Nothing ridiculous just a record so at the end of the year I can look back and think- this is what I did, this is who I saw etc.

So with this in mind I will do a quick list of highlights of 2007.
Going back to NZ was a massive highlight. The best gig I saw was a tie between Prince and Against Me! Which are impossible to distinguish between as one is the music of my youth and one is a completely new phenomenon that I have been lucky enough to discover. I didn’t see enough films to have a best of other than the white diamond by Herzog, which though old, I saw it this year. Best Art exhibition could be Gilbert and George or How we are :Photographing Britain. The best book I read was (historical) Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson, and (contemporary) Wolves of the Plains – Conn Iggulden.

But I have to really struggle to remember these things, that’s why I am going to be more vigilant on this thing.

Things I want this year. More money! A promotion; to get fit; become an artist; print out photos; cook a duck; bike to work more; get my license; get my jeans fitted; go camping.

All easy things to do I think you will agree.

Ok, that’s the first one of the year. Happy 2008 guys! Year of the rat
A leap year. And despite the doomsayers from the city with their miserly bony handed predictions, you can read it here first that it is going to be an awesome year full of life, being grateful for what we have, enjoying what has gone before, and making the first steps in ensuring the future is as we would want it to be.

Winter, Christmas, Old Age and other things that creep in the night

A light drizzle settles on this side of London. Crisp droplets, not thick enough even to settle my hair, but it brings a certain mood about the place.

I have final cut finally at my disposal. So last night I mopped up the last of my project I was working on in imovie, (last things finalised tonight) and I might even try to get it on the blog. Then I can start working on Iain's wedding the movie. oh yes, buckle your seat belts for that my friends.

As Winter comes in (slouching and in a entirely disintersted manner), I think its time for some art. Dont you? enough with going out and seeing people, and more making pictures and videos. Want to join me? here are some ideas.

here and here

great news. Oh, here is a picture of something that I meant to place here ages ago. what do you think? It perplexes me, do I like it or loathe it>?

American Country Music

Three bursts of fantastic american music.

First up, now this is too long for most of you, but man its worth it and it shows what an amazing tool the old you tube is. Leadbelly )(ledbelly)( was so cool he sung himself out of prison 3 times! How cool is that?


ok, so this guy is too cool too. Prison song to a prison, but makes you wonder where all the brothers at?


and because those two posts have made me slightly depressed I thought we should go out with the two names that make country music what it is, and the best thing is its the eighties as your parents knew it, without the coke and the bullshit (sorry Freddy, you know I always love you)

sexy er, sex toys.

When art meets girl masturbation you know things might just work out in this kooky little world, Jamie Hewitt who should be best know for his 2000AD work but is ultimately famous for the gorillaz and tank girl has come up with these rather modest sized vibes.

music new to me

Thought you might like a little bit more music Today, firstly the great Panda Bear have a good summery track here. How good is London today? This place rocks when it wants to hey? But so does panda bear,


And then a little bit of NZ Music to calm us down a bit- The shocking Pinks


And now to wake you up a bit, a little bit of dance hall!

Music for Manic Mondays (not the bangles)

So you want to play guitar? This nifty little site shows when to diminish your sevenths and when not to. We all need a little helping hand! This site takes you through the pop songs you might want to busk to make a little bit of crack money, the songs might be a little passe I know, but its quite a good tool.

Hope you had a good weekend, to get us started in this week I thought I would share something old and something new. Here is the coolest commercial around at the moment, and even though I am beginning to hate commercials like never before, I will give credit where credit is due, look how he feels the music. Oh yes.



And as for something old, this little gem harks back to the days when time was so limited in television programmes that you couldn’t waste it summing up earlier story lines that were “previously on…” so the deft approach was sum the whole series up in the themesong! Take it away boys.

caribou, native fauna and you.

starting this tasty day with a fruit salad and yoghurt. was biking to work and saw M&S so just parked up and went inside. to hell with work I thought, may as well take a little time in the morning to enjoy the sunlight.

and a ham salad for lunch yum, hungry already!

The question of the Weekend looms before me, the rugby world cup starts so that should be fun, a friend from work has a party, another friend wants us to go down to their house (Tooting) and the weather is meant to be fab, so a BBQ is not out of the question. Sounds nearly like summer doesnt it?

Went to Bardens or Bar Dens if you like ;) last night. What an odd venue, though I do appreciate the unorganised nature of it, it was rammed and stinking hot. All gigs smell now, but no ventilation really didnt help. I fasioned a fan from a flier and if it wasnt quite as effective as any one elses its mainly because of the material, not my fantail design.
you can hear the New Zealand Fantail here.

The band were cool, but the vocals were (purposely?) low. But two drummers are always appreciated.

sunny days,

Sun is shining on a London frozen by its striking tube. Its not a whole strike with three lines open, but its chaos on the streets if you believe the bbc. I might bring my camera tomorrow and get a couple of shots of the hordes angrily signalling to taxis already full. It certainly gets a Londoners blood up having to wait to get to somewhere.
I biked, as did L. pretty good going really.
Anyway long time no write? not much to say unfortunately. I did go to prince twice, put the gig on youtube and goty over 10,000 hits! I was a superstar. But then it got banned for legal reasons. Wierd him giving away those cds and still stinging people on the tube. oh well.
Also went to sonic youth, and I can still leave this on the net... so here you go, click wildly please!

youre here and its now, so stretch out and wait

so long no blog! Been up to a few things, saw Dali and film, saw that Herzog doco, went to the mango room in Camden (its a great Carribean Restaurant if u are around Cden) had some friends around etc. and saw these two fantastic gigs!

The mighty datarock, do you know them? they are so good.


and the fab-u-lish Against me. these guys tore the roof off the 100 club.

Intrepid Fox

Went to the new intrepid fox yesterday. For those not from London its one of the only Metal pubs in London, (as well as the crow bar and that new one in camden) but it had closed its doors in Soho, and opened them in the odd location of St Giles.

In the olden days this was the very limit of the london city, which had banned lepers, so the St Giles church would let the lepers live within its walls, burying the deceased in mass graves just all around the area. (They also grew wine down in the present day Grape St).
Many of the condemned from Newgate Prison were led past mocking crowds to their death upon the gallows where Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street meet. As ghosts cannot find the people they would like to haunt if they are burried at the cross roads, this intersection is also a mass grave.

So between these two sepulturas (if you will), or necropolis, is the new Intrepid Fox. A pub where it is the norm to be heavily tattooed, long haired (if yr male) and scantily clad (if you are not), where it seemed almost entirely dressed in black. I think this is one of my favourite pubs at the moment, and think if you like a bit of metal or goth, you should visit.