A Space Invader Memory from 2010

This cute little Space Invader used to live near Hoxton Square, alas no more. He’s gone along with pretty much every other recent invader in this area in something that, if tweeted, would likely be called #shoreditchspaceinvadermageddon. Or maybe something shorter. This trend of disappearing Invaders seems to be rapidly spreading across London, no idea the cause is ‘art lovers’ or Council officials ‘cleaning’ but either way it’s a sad loss to the modern landscape. So make sure you get out and find your local invader before it’s too late.

Why Hullo There, 2011. You’re Looking Mighty Fine.

Yes, for those of you who haven’t slept through the start of this year (thanks, iPhone) a big Happy New Year to you all! Just got back from a few days up in Edinburgh, enjoying my first ever Scottish Hogmanay celebration. Good fun, and I highly recommend a hike up Arthur’s Seat on New Years Day as a way to shift a hangover. Other key tips – bugger all happens on the Royal Mile at midnight, it’s all in the ticketed parties that happen on the streets below the castle. So a very very very big thank you to the lovely gentleman who just strolled over and gave us his tickets. You, sir are a true gentleman.

Before I move onto thoughts for 2011, the traditional review of 2010 is in order. Highlight of the year was likely the trip to Japan and Korea – an amazing whirlwind two weeks that gave a taste of two beautiful countries that has only whetted my appetite for more. Following quickly on from that was an unexpected visit to Israel. Most of this was spent in Jerusalem, a stunning city of amazing contrasts and well worth a visit – though you may want to avoid August heatwave season. Just a thought. Outside of travel 2010 has had some splendid gigs, from Flight of the Conchords, through Tom Jones and Robert Plant, to Charlotte Gainsbourg and Interpol. Union Chapel in Islington has become one of my new favourite venues, although the fixed up Garage in the same neighbourhood is really quite splendid too. According to my Lightroom I’ve taken roughly 20,000 pictures over this last year.. Flickr would disagree with that, having hardly seen any uploads in that same time for which I apologise and promise to do better this year. Honest. Other than that have been some lovely times with friends and family with many a good chat over a bottle or two of vin rouge. Oh, and I also grew a beard for the first time. I quite like it, so it’ll be around a while.

So onto 2011, what do I see for the year ahead? Fear not, this isn’t going to be a long list of resolutions, mainly because I’ll just look at my list for last year and then get stressed out about how many I’ve yet to do. Basically this is going to be a year of having fun, spending more time with friends and just getting on with stuff. There may also be a smidgin of more specific goals in there, such as right now I’m trying to go a month without wheat, but I just think there is just so much amazing stuff out there to try, learn, do and sometimes fail epically, as well as people to meet that there’s no time to lose. In summary, less telly. Well, at least until the new season of Mad Men comes on…

Merry Boxing Day!

In traditional fashion my post wishing you all a very Happy Christmas is a bit late… So Merry Boxing Day everyone! Hope you all had a splendid Chrimbo full of fun, family and food.

Boxing Day is always a bit of a strange one to me. Being British I’ve grown up with having two days off around Christmas, but having lived a good few years in New York I came to realise this was just us and our more friendly colonies (I’m thinking about you, Canada). Then again in the American world the very phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ is loaded with potential insult and hence the non-religious form ‘Happy Holidays’ is normally used. This bland greeting insults everyone in equal measure, no one group gets a big bee in their bonnet and everyone can continue with the business of loving one another and/or getting rich as appropriate. In America the only two day holiday is the non-religious Thanksgiving, sensibly always placed on a Thursday and Friday thus guaranteeing a long weekend for all. If only baby Jesus had had such forethought, but I digress.

Back to Boxing day and in Britain and there seems to be no real hard and fast agreement on what this is or how it came about. Even the ever useful Wikipedia shakes its head, asks for some more money like a disreputable Uncle and then deftly points us towards Snopes. At Snopes various possibilities are laid out, mostly involving some levelling of wealth between people of different strata of society – nominally from lords to serfs. So perhaps we should consider Boxing day like the Robin Hood of bank holidays, or to be more up to date a sort of ‘Tobin Tax’.

Suffice to say Boxing Day is the day after Christmas and it’s another day off. That sounds good enough to me. In our family it’s a day for eating cold turkey, sampling festive spirits that may or may not be presents from the year before, and taking a long constitutional along the cold Norfolk coastline looking at baby seals. This year the seals were particularly cute and abundant at Sea Palling, and I believe my youngest nephew won the seal spotting contest with his, as yet unverified, claim of ‘a gazillion’ seals. Perhaps he’s angling for a job in the Treasury…

16 Shopping Days to Christmas

I’m old enough to remember the time when working out how many shopping days it was till Christmas required some thought. Now it’s just a case of how many days till Christmas Eve, unless Amazon starts doing Christmas morning deliveries of course. Would that ever happen? One would hope not, but then Sunday’s sacrosanct, shopping free self went the way of the Dodo many years ago and though I do love a Sunday shop, there’s part of me that wishes we still had that day of rest – albeit not for religious reasons. We spend so much time rushing about getting things done these days that forced rest and family/friend time sounds like a good idea to me. Plus it would be a positive step towards a global four day work week, something I’m very much in favour of.

On the subject of weekends, this one bought an early ‘Christmas’ present – a new fridge freezer. It always amazes me how over excited I get with every new domestic purchase these days. The tabletop dishwasher is still an object of adoration, small and perfectly formed. As soon as the new chill cabinet had settled down from its move from St Albans (two days of waiting) it was switched on and every near finished condiment from the the tiny fridge was transferred with loving consideration of where it would live in the new fridge equivalent of a luxury high rise. So much space! Having a proper freezer is the biggest excitement, with the thought of making food and freezing it rather than having to eat it the next day something of exotic wonder right now. Who knows what other joys await… perhaps a new mop?

And of course what post today could be written without acknowledging the sad loss of John Lennon thirty years ago. To commemorate this tragic event I struggled onto the HMV website to try and get tickets to see one of his last remaining band mates at the Apollo. No joy unfortunately, so it looks increasingly unlikely that I’ll see any Beatle in action before they all pass into history. Ah well.

Not all bad news on the band front though. Monday night say the splendid Autolux at the re-vamped Garage, now ‘Relentless Garage’ in Islington. This was courtesy of the ever lovely Amy who was over on a flying visit from LA with the band. The venue was hardly recognisable from my previous visit years back to see Sir Real hit the decks. Back then it was literally a black box, with low ceilings and chronic acoustics. Now, a new arched ceiling and splendid sound system has transformed the place – apparently the new owners found the ceiling hidden behind the low suspended ceiling when they took over the place and had to repair the roof. Good job! Then last night we saw perennial favourites Interpol at Brixton Academy, a smoke machine filled night full of dark indie rock and low lights. A highly enjoyable night, even with the epic chill of the bus ride home afterwards.

Wait. Does that mean I didn’t quite get through a whole post without mentioning how flipping cold it is over here for a change? Yep, England is finally having a proper winter, -2c across London for a few days and right down to -20c in other parts of the country. To be honest I’m loving it. Cold, brisk days are much preferable to the usual British damp. Now if only we could manage some of the glorious, sharp winter sunshine that makes New York winters so magical.

Recent Things of Note…

Yes, another post where I quickly mention all the stuff I’ve been up to but haven’t blogged about for various reasons (mostly time related). Today’s post is extremely lazy, so I’m going to do it in bullet point form… Guess who wasn’t an A Student in English?

• Saw Mike Leigh, talented director of some of my favourite films (Naked, Topsy Turvy) give a Q&A about his latest piece ‘Another Year’. The movie is wonderful and well worth seeing, just don’t expect Hollywood happy endings, and as for Mr Leigh himself – an interesting, creative and talented chap.
• We went to Toronto for a week. So got to hang out with Miette’s lovely family, enjoy a splendid Canadian Thanksgiving and catch up with lots of my favourite Canadian folks; Jason and his new band Sunfields play an excellent gig at the Dakota Tavern – plus they bought some St Viateur bagels (thanks, Phil!) , Jon who very kindly gave me a copy of his excellent graphic novel – The Executor, plus Mathew, Micah and Oscar – as well as seeing Micah’s new shop in the Junction – Russet and Empire. Well worth checking out if you’re in the area. Sad we didn’t get to Montreal again this trip, and felt a bit emotional as we flew over it at night on our way back to London. C’est la vie.
• Went to the excellent White Michief Halloween party. Great fun, but we need to up our costume game for next time we go.
• Finished reading Surface Detail, the latest Culture novel by Iain M Banks. Great stuff and I now find I have a hole in my reading schedule for something that keeps me as engrossed.

Sure there’s plenty more I’ve forgotten about.. and as I go through my backlog of photos I’ll likely blog more. That backlog is only about four years long now. Jeebus!

Brockham Burnfest 2010

Last night we partook of the annual burning man festival, you know, the one were we torch the effigy of a terrorist rather than the one involving lots of techno-hippies in a desert. As with last year we ventured out of the safe harbour of London down to the small country town of Brockham, home to one of the largest fires and firework displays in England.

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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.