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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
Terry Gilliam’s latest magnum opus, featuring Heath Ledger in his fateful last ever role, is opening tomorrow in cinemas across Britain. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a beautiful gothic fantasy set in modern day London. The story revolves around the mysterious Doctor Parnassus who has the skill to guide your thoughts to reveal your inner imaginary world. Parnassus was once a monk who made a deal with the devil for long life, and many other deals and bets since then, one of which involves the soul of his first child due at the age of 16. Parnassus tried to prevent this by never having a child, but (un)fortunately he did – a daughter played by the sparkling Lily Cole. And so the scene is set for the story.
As Parnassus and travelling show troupe try to save his daughter’s soul they come across Tony, played by Heath Ledger, hanging from Southwark bridge. They save him and he, in turn, acts to save them – or does he? All is not clear as Tony’s character evolves. Along the way Tony finds out about Parnassus’ magic mirror that reflects your innermost mind and enters it himself – and it is here that Terry Gilliam’s genius saved the movie when Heath unfortunately passed away – every time Tony enters the mirror he becomes another actor; Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all take up the reigns to play the mirror Tony and to great effect.
Go and see this movie. You won’t see much press about it as Terry Gilliam is one of the most talented Directors in the world today but his movies never sit comfortably in the ‘blockbuster’ genre and so marketing departments seem to give up in despair – instead he makes us pay attention to the wonders he creates on screen and use our brains and imaginations to full effect. Parnassus sits with Gilliam’s classic fantastical movies; Time Bandits, Brazil, Baron Munchausen and the Brothers Grimm – all wonderful flights of fancy and visual feasts. More info on the film and a larger copy of this wonderful poster can be found here.
Black Francis in Action
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
I have to admit to not being a huge fan of The Pixies, even though I know most of their songs through cultural osmosis. So the thought of seeing them play just one album, albeit their seminal album Doolittle, all the way through had me slightly apprehensive. Thankfully this apprehension proved misplaced, as we were all in the capable hands of some of the finest alternative rock musicians in the world.
Rocking tunes, amazing visuals, and my first proper mosh in way too long made for yet another great gig in a year of great gigs. What the band lacked in between song banter, they certainly made up for in energy and precision, delivering hit after hit to an audience that lapped it up and just wanted more. The more in this case being a smattering of Doolittle B-Sides and a couple of classic hits off the album. Wonderful. Plus Art Brut were the support, could it be any better?
If you can get a ticket to tomorrow night, the last of their four sell out shows, then go – you certainly won’t be sorry. Otherwise just click for more photos of The Pixies in action.
Hmm.. seem to have been a bit too quiet on the ol’ blog-o-sphere this month! This I attribute to not having anything witty or insightful to say. Apparently my Mercury is heavily retro-graded according to my ever helpful friend Paula. Possibly I’m just recovering from an epic August full of weddings and other fun stuff.
So, a brief update on the month so far: we’ve wandered around many areas in North London to try and work out where to live next. Hampstead was very nice but stupidly expensive, but the heath is lovely and you can swim in the lakes as long as you don’t mind catching something! London Fields was lovely but stupidly expensive. Stoke Newington had a nice park, and was only ridiculously expensive – notice a trend here? Living in London may have its upsides, but cost of living certainly isn’t one of them. We also went along to the London Twestival, which was great fun – most of which was had doing craft making small Twitter style birds. Ah, bless.
This last weekend we saw the ever wonderful Massive Attack at Brixton Academy last friday, where Martina Topley Bird did a stunning beatbox version of Black Steel. Then Saturday was a day full of family nephew related fun around London, followed by our first trip to Buttoned Down Disco which was highly enjoyable.
Sunday we braved the many thousands of other cyclists at the London Skyride. It’s a wonderful chance to cycle round car free streets in central London, but I have to say it feels less safe cycling round with little kids either wobbling around left and right or zooming through small gaps than it does with cars! That and the somewhat OTT corporate sponsorship from Sky and the highly un-environmentally friendly rubbish, plastic bags, etc generated by the free giveaways. Bio-degradable bags, anyone?
Other than that I are mostly be running a lot. Or was at least until last night, when my knee gave out going past the Houses of Parliament. So another fitness regime has bitten the dust.. for now!
The Happy Couple
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.
Well the last wedding of the summer is over – so it’s a big congratulations to Chris and Cecilia (aka Mr and Mrs Child)! And also a big thank you to them and their families for organising such a splendid wedding-fest.
There are a few more photos up here.