open house London

For those of you who haven't been to London- the Lloyds building has a mostly aluminium alien feel to it, with its exoskeleton type lifts that ferry suits up the sides of its building and the feeling that you really can't just go in and say hello, that stands in the city of London proudly, mostly inaccessible.




Except once a year. When London opens it's doors to the public, who usually queue for streets, and these days with their canons, sonys and ngati Nikon at hand. That was this weekend just passed! hey- who am I not to grab my camera and q with the rest of them!



L. and I were constantly amazed at the history of the place, despite its ultra (80's) modern exterior. The Adam room for instance had been bought in auction and moved twice, (by the same firm- 200 years apart!). A quick note on Lloyds- they underwrite insurance companys, and pay out when they have to pay out huge sums.
They paid out for the Titanic!!

(open this photo large and you should be able to see the entry!- They still operate this loss book, which is still written - currently by this guy!- with a quill!




You have to keep reminding your self that its a place of business, a busy marketing floor with people negotiating insurance prices, and even through the tourist-murmur song you could hear the ghost chatter of a thousand voices ringing through the sound of coins piling up > bullion even!!


Historically- when a ship would sink- they would ring the bell once- (i hope this is right)- and when they found it again, they would ring it twice. Now days this bell is rung mostly as a mark of two minutes silence for a catastrophe. David here rang it for Sept 11th.



It is a lovely building, and its a fantastic time - I guess i wish that I went to more, but if you were to go to one, then it wasnt a bad one to do.

And realise youre living in the golden years

Sitting around drinking wine and listening to music. Pretty much sums up the last 20 years of my fantastic life!

This time around, I was drinking this wine from this shop I visited. It gives free, (yes Londoners- FREE!) wine tasting evenings. The shop keeper was really enthusiastic, and though she needed a bit better help than the actress with one hand in bandage, it was a really fun night with a whole lot of new zealand and australian wine. (pinot, pinot)


And while we sat around and drank this lovely drop- (that score very well on our tasting notes); we also listened to this tasty album.

sometimes even music, is no subsitute for tears

Went to the Lexington On Tuesday night to see our favorite Alabama son, who was in excellent humour and great voice, Mr Dan Sartain. He rocks that old guitar of his, and thrashed his way through his old songs in a rush to get to some new stuff.
Held a request session, which I think is an indication that he is a bit bored with it. Nick Cave does that stuff these days, and then when someone asks for something that havent prepared, he has prepared his one liner "sorry, cant play that... its got too many chords in it". hardy ha ha Mr Cave.

The venue is great, upstairs downstairs, though it took long enough to get through the queue, which I think subtracted from the buzz of the room. Once everyone had formed an orderly queue it was if they could not bring them selves to dance. like those people who survive a plane accident only to suffocate in their seats, waiting for someone else to make the move.
It had a dance floor, and a mezzonene floor for those of us, who perhaps have trouble seeing over others heads.

Beers from cans at 3 quid.

Pretty good night.

get back into blogging tember

How useless have I been? Neglecting you, my three readers? Apologies for sure.

Its all going to change, I need to change my routine, but there is so much coming up! So much more for you to check out when work is slow. but as you know, its all been going on in the last few months, sad things and happy things, but now its back to blogging.
Which is always a worrying thing to say because then if I dont- its the last thing in the blog advertising my own lies!
haha

anyhow, here is Lets Wrestle!
They were good, and despite what I said that night, the album is awesome, so go get it!


There are a lot of things to look forward to, including Dan Sartain this Tuesday, the return of photoclub this Sunday, Tattoo convention the following weekend, Londons film festival and last but not least, a new blog called Steak Club, where we go around to peoples recommendations of the best steaks and eat them!

YES!

worlds first projector camera

I think this is as big as polaroids would have been when that first came out. You know those times, you are away somewhere away from your computer with yr buddys, you are getting a bit bored of them and you dont know how to encourage them to disperse so you can get a little alone time in with your current squeeze.
Well, just whip this little bugger out and you can have a slide show anywhere! The Nikon s1000pj (catchy!) is billed as the first camera with a built in projector!
It promises pictures between 4 and 40 inches. resolution probably needs to be seen to be believed, or at least blogged- but hey, this is one camera gimmick I am all for.
Get one soon!

best live band i have seen for ages!

Fight Like Apes!

Saw them at Latitude festival, and I loved it. L and I are going to go over to Berlin in September to see them! Hopefully R. can come to, and how about you?

looking back

This should have been posted a long time ago. It's our representation of Ruth Ellis killing her husband outside the very pub she did it. If you remember, the bullet holes are still there. This was done on the anniversary, but I don't know why I haven't put it up yet?

John Landis is the Man- dis!

Midnight movies? are you mad? That means a night bus home! That seems far more frightening than some giant American werewolf prowling the town... However when I was told that John Landis, director of Trading Places and Blues Brothers would be there, I had to go. I mean had to.

And it was a pretty successful event, Mr Landis shook hands posed and signed with a rather tired looking smile, then he gave a cool question and answer thing with Empires Kim Newman. He mentioned that he had sold the rights to Dimension for a remake of AMWiL, that he was pretty pissed off when he heard that the howling was being made, and that we should go and watch the new version of AMWiL because it had all been made up for blue ray, and that it looked amazing. The makeup for the wolf looked even better in HD. He then seemed to remember where he was and said that he hoped this was a good print. It wasn't. The whole thing had a yellow tinge to it, but it was the first time I had seen it on the big screen, and its even better than the first time!

Oh- and with free cocktails!

snaps

well, so much goes on doesnt it? here are some photos from last week. Catch a glimpse of King Henry the 8th as he cruises down the Thames. See the latest protests about Hillsborough. And look at what might be the last photo i ever take in Ravenscourt Park

Please put down your hands, because I C U

Beck has a cool idea. He has bought together music friends to come into his studio and re record one randomly chosen album in one day. Then they release a song a week on this website (follow the link)!

The first album is the classic Velvet Underground and Nico. How exciting is that! The first song is the Sunday morning, which is the first song in the album, so it could be (and should be) in chronological order. It was also the first single from the original.

I guess this album has been in my life for 20 years, and you know how it is with these sorts of albums that you start off loving the hits, "waiting for the man", "heroin" etc, but then maybe you thrash those songs too much, and its the other ones- the slow releasers that stand out in the end. So not taking anything away from any of the others, if i was to choose my favorite from this album it would be ... "I'll be your mirror"

Down the Buffalo Bar.

Lovely eggs rocked the buffalo bar last week, superb. and so very friendly! Great merchandise sprung out of their travelling suitcase that I walked away with a t shirt, a handstitched badge and a signed disc.

Zoey Van Goey were very good live, a variety of classy singers, swapping instruments with some really good tunes to boot.

giant bumblebee attacks west London mall

ha ha, mall.

morning walk through the park

So with the queen throwing down her new alotment I thought I would share more pictures of Ravenscourt Park
I mean, if you were to write a blog, you would chuck flower pictures all over it right? Right?

New Blues Venue Opening today!

Live blues venues in London are scarce, which is odd as there are blues all around these days if you believe the papers.

Blues is an odd genre of music I think, it can be amazing, or it can be elevator music. Lets hope with 3 floors and a W1 postcode Charolotte St Blues comes up with the goods!


Tomorrow night at the Buffalo Bar these guys will be playing and I will be there! come along do. Now they could be a one hit wonder, but what a hit!

Albert and Pearl have their record swap night on Friday as well, you pretty much take records you don't want and swap it. sweet.

picture update

Heres some pictures I havent shared yet about the last couple of weekends.
Enjoyed Hampstead Heath with a few friends. The place was packed but we managed to get a couple of really good spots.


C&A gave me a reflector and this is my first go at it. The lovley L. poses here first under the warm golden reflector, ...

...and here under the natural light of the silver!


I enjoyed dusk on the Thames with some old friends,




We watched our friends 10KM run for A Safer World, around central London. Although gruelling looking, it also seemed like a lot of fun, and a great way to raise awareness for their charity.

Weekend Roundup: June 6th and 7th

Hey, its still spring lets take the rain on the chin and the sun on our backs. There is still a bunch of stuff to do…
I thought I would throw some weekend ideas your way.

Saturday

Pirate time! Its that simple folks, get yr timbers shivered at the golden hynde lunchtime.

The strain looks amazing, its like vampires but forget everything you have heard about them except they are evil motherfuckers. Guillermo del Toro signs copys at Forbidden Planet

NZ Play Scotland at the Oval, hey its 20/20, hey it might rain, just do it anyway!

Saturday night’s featured party relives the roaring forties! Dress up forties glam which is always nice!


KK Outlet have a display of passive aggressive notes, pretty funny stuff actually, originated from this website, you probably know it.

Crafters unite! It looks like a great crafternoon in Borough if you want to learn how to pompom or make finger puppets, and I know you do!

Ukulele orchestra supplying the score for silent films…

Although it’s likely to be raining, grab yr brolly and learn about London. As part of the ongoing Story of London festival a whole lot of blue badgers will show you around at history you hadn’t noticed yet… also involved is Carnaby St with some sort of sales and model mods walking around for some kind of "sorry you missed the 60's" thing.

Love London, love your planet festival is hippytastic you know, in a totally London way!

The Bagel end of Brick Lane is holding what looks to be a fantastic day of street art, international graffiti artists- music and general excitement - get those cameras ready!

There is a slow food festival on the South Bank this weekend, although you should be across the many free things they are offering over the spring.

Sunday

I know it’s at the end of the line, but that’s all I know about it! Upminster also apparently has a windmill- this is having an open day… (one of the finest examples of the smock windmill remaining in England)

Of course there is still bike polo

If you are checking out the meeting of styles then also head over post bagel to Rough Trade, that has two wristband gigs going on
Including Broken Records, who are about to release their album through 4AD and Mockingbird wish me luck both very good hangover tunes! (Also The Drones play on Monday)

Streetfighter IV play offs! Juno in Shoreditch- fiver to join you could win a grand!

If you haven’t been to the Wellcome Trust yet, you really should, along with the usual tours of this obscure and varied collection they have a discussion about London Life and Death this Sunday.

Have you been to Somerset house yet? There are plenty of reasons to this year, including an amazing film festival (under the stars!) that includes a double bill of Pan’s Labyrinth/ The Exorcist, The Mars Volta and this weekend they are opening their doors to the public.


This includes access to the cool bits you only see in films like “the duchess”.

The British Museum has an interesting talk about the history of the museum


Camden Oxfam is getting a facelift, check it out