Duchess of Malfi: The Revenge

Having had such an amazing time at the ENO/Punchdrunk production of The Duchess of Malfi last week we decided to go and do it all again… Was it any different the second time around? Yes, but it lost something in the repetition, the innocence and excitement of the unknown. That said, it was great to follow the Duchess (the excellent Claudia Huckle) around to try and follow her story.

The highlight for me this time was being one of the first people into the building and the intense sense of dread walking around an almost pitch black set, with rate fellow spectators as they emerged from the gloom. In one room where the dry ice machine was on overdrive I had to just stop walking for a bit, it was so unnerving. There was a room on the ground floor I didn’t even enter it was so dark. Eventually other audience members joined me, and at this point the wonder of seeing the bit players come out to lead us all towards the main action took over. Slow dances broke out across the set and eventually the principle singers emerged and the story started. You really started to appreciate the artistry of the stage management, with the lights in areas dimming and intensifying to help draw you towards particular areas, or move you away so for diversionary tactics.

Following the Duchess did lead to some overlap in what I’d already seen, however there were still so many new experiences along the way to be head. Being in the pitch dark as lightning flashes illuminated the Duchess and her brother, a bizarre birth scene with digital baby. Seeing the Cardinal ‘abduct’ a female audience member and give her a solo performance in his room was at once chilling and elicited some jealousy. Being almost knocked over by the Cardinal’s assistant as he ran through the set caused me to swear out loud. During the finale one of the mourners draped themselves against me for a while which was unnerving. There was still more I missed, the secret schoolroom inside a cupboard, and the cardinal’s story, but again it was a superb experience being so close and intimate with talented performers, and one we were glad to repeat. Roll on the next show.

Oh, and as an aside this is apparently my 1000th post on this blog.. Cake anyone?

Albion and Avalon

My lunchtimes in Shoreditch often involve a wander to Conran’s Albion Cafe, where they do the most splendid double pack of sandwiches for only £4.50. Quite reasonable. One of these lunchtimes I plan to enjoy a proper sit down lunch, so watch out for that review in a future episode. The cafe is connected to a bakery, full of nostalgic English fair such as pickles and biscuits that remind you of teas spent round a wooden table in days when screens were a rare treat not a constant immersive experience. Well worth a wander.

Albion, the caff, is situated on the corner of Boundary (such a wonderful word) and Redchurch Streets. Redchurch Street is an up and coming street linking the trendy zones of Shoreditch and Brick Lane. Every time I walk down there some new gallery, boutique or coffee shop is opening and the foot traffic is constantly increasing. Since we’re looking for an area to buy in, it strikes me we could do well to look to these areas that exist between already popular areas – as the upswell of growth for new, interesting places amongst those on a tight budget makes sense. London house prices are ridiculous at the best of times, and right now are the most resilient in the country by a long way.

On Shoreditch High Street sits another shop called Avalon, and for some reason these words both caught by eye today. It turns out they have some commonality. Both begin with ‘A’ for a start. Both also refer to islands; Albion is the oldest known name for Britain, and Avalon is a mythical island from Arthurian legend – the place where Excalibur was forged and Arthur was taken to recover from his wounds. The actual location of Avalon is, like Atlantis (another island beginning with ‘A’), subject for some debate with some people believing that Glastonbury Tor could even be the correct location. Although not an island in the traditional sense, the Tor does rise from the landscape like an island.

So what does this all mean and why did my mind fix on those two island words today? I’m still hoping to find out. Answers on a postcard please to the usual address.

Cool Stuff: Brosmind Army @ Kemistry

A happy lunchtime find – Kemistry Gallery currently has a show on by the quirky Barcelona based Brosmind Studio, called Los Canotiers. The ‘Brosmind Army‘ comprises a number of limited edition ceramic characters, modelled after the terracotta army in China. Each ‘platoon’ consists of 50 characters and is named after their particular headgear, in this case the ceramic boater hat, or canotier, that each character wears. By rotating this hat, you rotate the face the soldier presents to one of three different expressions.

The show is on until 31st July, and you can even purchase the handmade, limited edition sculptures. A pure white ceramic canotier, in a limited edition of 50, costs £290 each. For those of feeling a bit more flush you can go big, for one of the 9 platinum coated characters, priced at a cool £420. Very tempting.

A New Day, A New Dawn

Welcome to a new chapter at MattHobbs.com. Hello there! Expect much the same as before, except we’ll be brought to you by the wonders of WordPress rather than the classic goodness of Blogger. What does this mean to you, my readers? Well pretty much nothing will change, the site stays the same other than in the way it looks. My posts will still be here, you can click on links to go elsewhere and so on and so forth.

Oh, there is one thing some of you may need to change – if you use a feed reader to read my posts then you’ll need to update it to point to the new feed otherwise you won’t get all my posty goodness. Sorry about that.

While we’re here, let’s talk about how even more irregular my posting has been of late… Blah blah blah. Yep, the standard refrain of the lazy blogger. To be honest if you want regular, well crafted web content you’d do well to check out my friend Mau as he weaves a fine set of words about life, music & photography life clockwork. For more regular (albeit shorter) words from me you may want to pick up my twitter feed, @ultrahi.

Kate & Ronan Go Latin!

Cat Mask Amy
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Saturday night was an epic Latin-fest at Kate & Ronan’s house to celebrate their imminent trip to South America for a year. A great party, as these pics show, and as always.

We’ll miss you! Have a splendid time.

Plus ça Change (Blogger: 10 years on)

Many, many years ago I signed up for a young web service to host this blog. In fact it was almost ten years ago – or will be in a week. This service, Blogger, was the de-facto standard for web-log (or ‘blog’) hosting at the time – far and away the leader in a young market. A few years later Google bought them out, and the team who created it went on to other things. Wow. Time flies.

Now Google has decided that they can no longer afford the development effort to support how I, and I assume at least a few other people, and FTP publishing of blogs is being discontinued as of March 26th this year. Bugger. So this means at some point in the nearish future this blog will be moving over to a new platform, most likely Wordpress. Yes, I could magically host the domain on Google’s hosting but part of me doesn’t like the thought of everything I do being on one, increasingly monolithic provider (Microsoft, anyone?). That and I prefer to maintain more control over what I can and can’t do with my blog and self-hosting Wordpress is a way to do that. For now at least.

So it’s with a slight tear in my eye I big ‘adieu’ to Blogger. You’ve served me well for many, many years and for that I thank you.

Anish Kapoor @ RA

Anish Kapoor @ RA
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

We managed to catch the very end of Anish Kapoor’s lauded show at the Royal Academy last Friday. Even more luckily we got in thanks to my Dad’s membership card which meant we didn’t have to queue round the courtyard to see it (even with extended 11pm closing). Popular chap this Anish Kapoor!

The show was amazing, covering a span of Kapoor’s work from his early years through to pieces that were commissioned just for this show. The saturated colours Kapoor favoured in his early years were back with a vengence, as well as amazing mirrors, rusted pieces, exuded ‘worm casts’ and a new leaning towards wax that means that the pieces are constantly evolving as the show runs on. Most amazing of all these was an immense, red ‘train’ of wax that moves almost imperceptibly slowly through three galleries. Stunning. You can see more pics here.

I Love Barcelona (and Marmite)

Hate / Love Marmite Wall
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

We’re just back from an impromptu short trip to Barcelona. Our plan for the week off had been looking round London areas to move to, but the Great British weather had other plans. So as a result of a hangover (good to see you, TIm) and easyJet we went from getting up at 10am with no plans to being in lovely, warm Barcelona at 7pm. Splendid.

Barcelona was wonderfully relaxing. Eating great tapas at Set de Born in the evenings. Walking along the beach in the sun. Slow, languorous breakfasts at Kasparo. Comfy designer chic at the Soho hotel. Getting lost in the old city. Perfectly perfect.

We even enjoyed our virgin easyJet experience – something I’d been dreading with some of the stories you hear. Now we have some easyJet ‘tricks’: do internet check-in to get on the plane quicker to choose your seat, their unlimited weight carry-on policy means you only need to pre-buy a single hold allowance if you want to buy wine, and bring some food, books & other entertainment. That and the check-in at Barcelona airport is miles away from the main T2 building (at sector C), which in itself is confusing to get to from T1 (you have to go downstairs to level zero to get a connecting bus) – but the BCN aerobus is cheap and quick.

Barcelona photos will be uploaded soon(ish), especially as Lightroom now has a release candidate that supports the wonderful Canon S90, but in the meantime enjoy this wall of stickers from the pop-up Marmite shop on Regent Street. Mmm… marmite.

Space, Invaded (NYC Map Stylee)

NYC Space Invader map #2
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Huzah! I finally have my own New York Space Invader map thanks to Mister eBay. Now if only I’d won the other three auctions for Perth, LA and Cote d’Azur as well… bugger.

Happy Octoberween Everyone!

At this time of great joy and happiness, the BBC has a piece on the ever expanding influence of Halloween – a festival that Americans have taken into their hearts. The Beeb also asks whether Halloween has gotten too commercial, something that has been worrying me more every year.

This year I saw my first shop selling pumpkins and masks two months ago! In summer!! Is nothing sacred anymore? When will we get back to Halloween’s roots – as a time of scaring and egging of houses? As a time when small children eat enough sweets to be sick? Instead, big business has made it another opportunity to up the bottom line. Shame on you corporate world! Can’t you stick to ruining Christmas with mass consumption?