Space Invader invaders The Outsiders gallery, London.

Space Invader currently has a show at The Outsiders, in Soho. It’s not quite as epic as his 1000th Parisian Invader show earlier this year – but you can get Invader waffles.. Mmmm. There’s also a cool video of the artist at work in the basement along with an invaded disco ball. Or you can drop a cool £5000+ to buy an official alias on one of his many works. Hint: It’s getting close to Christmas and the show’s on till Christmas Eve… Click here for a few pics.

And extra Invader bonus.. he’s also put up a few new tiled beauties around London while here for the exhibition. There’s a big one outside Lazarides gallery on Rathbone place (see below) and also a few down in Brixton according to Street Art London. Huzah!

Spin forward to today, and the whole of England, if not the world, is heading towards a real sea change. Arguably one of the people who really put the ‘terror’ in the ‘war on terror’ was facing his own trial of sorts. Rupert Murdoch and his son, answered questions from British MPs regarding his newspaper’s apparent repeated and callous disregard for the law in the pursuit of a story. The owner of the biggest propaganda machine in the US if not the world, Fox News, sitting front and center as the story himself. This may not seem like much, but the number of influential people this looks to be impacting is fascinating and disturbing. It shows that with our modern, connected, social media rich communication there is no way for a story to be kept under wraps, under the control of media cartels who only seem to answer to their bottom line not the public’s best interest.

So as I got ready for my usual run along the Thames Embankment this evening, I thought maybe I should avoid Parliament. Stay away from the melee. Then I realised that this was a moment in history that I did not want to miss. One of those times you remember always and tell your grandchildren about. As I ran through the crowds gathered around the streets, and the media tents brightly lit on the lawn, I could feel the sense of excitement and anticipation. A buzz as people saw the moment happening, when a brighter future emerged.

Last night we went to see the long absent Tom Vek play his ‘coming out’ gig at Heaven, and boy was it worth the wait. To a crowded room packed with happy hipsters he rolled out hit after hit, winding the assembled throng to a fever pitch of dancing happiness culminating in his latest single ‘A Chore’ to rapturous applause – helped by the girl from the video (or lookalike) fronting the song at the start.

Last time we saw Vek play was at a small venue in Montreal in 2006 – to only about 50-100 people and supported by the wonderful The Duke Spirit. It was a great gig, even with Vek having to play drums on most songs as his drummer had left in the tour. This time, the band was in full force and we got to enjoy Vek front of stage, his angular, skinny frame bouncing out the beats to his slices of beat driven indie genius. The sound was amazing, the light show simple but effective. Vek himself seemed to start off a bit nervous, but as he played his hit songs the crowd got increasingly excited and Vek got more relaxed and chatty. Classics such as “The Lower the Sun”, “Nothing but Green Lights” and more kept the crowd moving, and the songs from his latest album fared just as well. Even if I have to admit to not really knowing them (yet) they certainly got my body moving.

Thanks for a great night, Tom – and please, don’t wait so long till we see you again…

Full Set Listing

1. C-C
2. World of Doubt
3. We Do Nothing
4. If You Want
5. Lower The Sun
6. Hold Your Hand
7. Someone Loves You
8. Nothing But Green Lights
9. Aroused
10. I Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes
11. Seizemic s-Leisure Seizure
12. Too Bad
13. A.P.O.L.O.G.Y
14. A Chore

Last night, Montreal friends Sunfields played the last night of their two week UK tour at The Windmill in Brixton. It was a great gig, in a great *very* un-London feel venue, and I’ve uploaded some photos here. There’s also a video floating around of their lovely, catchy new song Kiss Shy (we expect proper release soon, please…) recorded on the first night of their tour.

It’s been splendid fun seeing the lads over here doing what they do best – play great music and get drunk in their smiley, friendly Canadian manner. Just wish I’d been able to get to some of the non-London gigs. Until the next time though – whichever country it is this time – bon voyage, chaps.

A few weeks ago Gerard Smith, the bassist from TV on the Radio, died from lung cancer age 34. I found this out in New York, sitting in the flat of my friends who live above Union Pool – the very place I’d first seen TV on the Radio play with Gerard in a small, intimate, sweaty and fun filled gig. Sad news at any time, but especially so in that situation, and my thoughts immediately turned to his friends, family and bandmates and the shock of someone dying so young.

Like most TV on the Radio fans, I never knew Gerard as anyone other than a member of the band, playing wonderful music that made us smile, dance and sing. but one moment will stay with me that I wanted to share. In July 2009 TV on the Radio played Brixton Academy, shortly after playing a more intimate gig at Shepherds Bush. In coming out from the plastic cup strewn hall, we found a crowd of people gathered around a t-shirt vendor on the street. The t-shirts, bad knock offs of official merchandise, were laid out on the ground to catch happy fans on the way out of the gig. What made this scene so different from every other time, was that this time two of the band members themselves were helping sell the t-shirts. Jaleel and Gerard were laughing, smiling and trying to convince their fans that these were the best t-shirts ever much to the enjoyment of everyone around, especially the t-shirt vendor. A beautiful moment. Gerard, sorry the photo isn’t worthy of it, but the memory you left is one of the very best. Happy travels.

1. Pre-heat the over to 180c. Chop up five large onions into large pieces and lay over the base a flat, over proof pan.
2. Score the rind of the pork belly lines 1cm apart, you can ask your butcher to do this for you as it’s pretty tough going. Luckily for me my local butcher (the amazing Ginger Pig) were one step ahead of me. Lay the pork belly over the onions, then pour oil over the top and rub in sea salt and crushed peppercorns to taste.
3. Put the pan in the lower part of the oven for 1 hour, then remove and baste the pork belly. If there’s not much juice add some water.
4. Continue cooking at 180c for another 1 1/2 hours, basting every 15 minutes. During this time, peel the potatoes and start them boiling near the end of the cycle if you’re having mash.
5. Rub 2-3 teaspoons of honey over the rind and put back in the over at 200c for 30-40 minutes. At this point you need to baste every 5 minutes or so keeping an eye on it to make sure the rind doesn’t catch fire or burn.
6. Remove the pork belly and cut into reasonable size portions and serve over the potato, with the onions & juice over the top.

Mmm.. delish. Also more of a winter dish than a balmy spring night light meal, but in my defence it was quite cold at the market this morning when I decided to try it.

Today has been a fun day, with a dash of gallic flavour. C’est bonne, ca.

Around midday we headed down to the Secret Cinema at Leake Street, the tunnels underneath Waterloo. As usual with Secret Cinema we had no idea what film was going to be shown, just general instructions on what to wear (50s/60s European with a white scarf) and where to turn up. I knew that Secret Cinema involved re-enactments of the film around seeing the film itself, but not much more than that. So, looking a lot smarter than usual for a Saturday afternoon, we rocked up to Leake Street to find a large queue of people entering, and lots of soldiers herding people along, all talking French. I was ‘lucky’ enough to be singled out by the soldiers, and made to stand with my hands against the wall as my identification documents were confiscated. Then after some minutes myself and the other detainees were taken to a dark room, followed by an indoctrination talk with spotlights in our eyes where we were asked to sign out name as belonging to a terrorist organisation. Even knowing that this was all an act it was pretty unnerving, especially when a planted audience member was taken to one side, beaten and thrown in a prison cell to be tortured. Magnifique!

Eventually all us detainees were allowed into the main area, which consisted of a fake souk, food stalls and a bar offering white russians. Could the movie be the Big Lebowski? Perhaps not. After negotiating with someone in French at the casbah I had some new fake identification, one French and one Arabic, with instructions to get a new stamp from a man round the corner. He greeted me as a fellow revolutionary, hugging and showing me his suitcase bombs then giving me a stamp for my French fake ID. My limited Arabic was ignored, thankfully he helped me anyway.. shukran. Then it was off to the Air France counter for a one way ticket to Paris, before that was later blown up and we were suddenly herded into the cinema proper. Finally the film started, it was the 1966 black and white French film, The Battle of Algiers, telling the tale of the Algerian revolution as the French tried to suppress the Algerian freedom fighters/terrorists. Although an old film, it was incredibly relevant to modern days and highly engaging. Good show, even if it wasn’t my original movie guess of Brazil.

I love events like Secret Cinema and suspect we will see increasing numbers of this sort of thing as modern media struggles to keep up with our changed attention spans and home cinema systems. Last week in New York I was lucky enough to see the new Punchdrunk show, Sleep No More, a dark, dance extravaganza set across five floors in three warehouses that I highly recommend you check out as they’ve extended their run till June. Although a very different beast, the high art of modern dance versus the ‘lower’ art of cinema, both events engage you in a similar way – you have a very unique experience, that generally equates to the more you put in, the more you get out – as opposed to normal media experience that is just a passive ’sit and receive’ transaction.

Punchdrunk are particularly good at these engaged experiences, creating dark, cavernous spaces with literally no clues as to where you find the actual show. You can walk around for the entire time and see no performance at all, just fellow spectators where masques. Then suddenly you find a performer who you watch and follow as you choose. These performers could just be walking along, or suddenly they could do the most amazing dances up walls, or get naked in a techno rave or just grab you and look at you intently then run off elsewhere. How you react to the performance is up to you, but the more you put in by following the performers – sometimes running up stairs at a quick pace (so glad I’ve been running more recently) – the more you get back by finding strange hidden rooms and wonderful experiences that stay with you. In my head I have this image of a sea of masked faces watching one of the performers disrobe and stand in front of a bathtub that will likely stay with me the rest of my life, a scene that likely few other people have as opposed to the exact shared images of every movie or stage show. A Punchdrunk show is an experience I recommend to everyone without exception.

However in the absence of any more engaged experiences today, the French theme continued with the biopic Gainsbourg, a movie about the troubled musical genius, Serge Gainsbourg. More good stuff and highly recommended, especially si tu veut pratiquer ta francais. Et maintenant, bonne nuit a tous. A demain.

Click here for more photos of Kyoto

Ah, the sudden flurry of uploading strikes again. This time for the amazing Japanese city of Kyoto, home to geisha and temples, plus it ranks highly on quality of life and when you visit you’ll see why. Unlike nearby Tokyo, Kyoto mostly stays low to the ground, a few stories high. There are fast moving major streets, but people and bikes take priority on the back roads – and even bikes stop to let people and cars past, there’s something you never see in London. All of which combines together to make an enchanting city that is well worth a visit.

The first day we got in from Osaka on the shinkansen high speed train to the bustling Kyoto Station, itself somewhat of a design icon. Like most people I have to take a moment to rhapsodise on the Japanese train system.. especially being British. Trains turn up on time, even slightly early. Guards help you get on the train. There are markings on every platform to show you where the doors will be and people line up in them. They line up in them! Then when a shinkansen gets to a final destination you see a line of cleaning ladies, one for each door, waiting patiently to get on as soon as the train arrives. And the trains.. oh, so quiet, just the gently increasing whirr as it accelerates and the Japanese countryside flies past your window. Why can we not have this in every country? I digress…

As we were only in Kyoto for a night we left some bags at the luggage office, then jumped onto the clean, efficient subway system – after a the usual few blank stares at the ticket machine of course. Having checked into our downtown hotel, it was off into the streets to explore. Cute little boutique shops, cafes extended from record shops and quiet streets meant that Kyoto downtown is a highly enjoyable wander with plenty of design tidbits to enjoy.

A wall at Kyoto Castle

City wandering over, Nijo Castle [photos] was the next port of call. An epic walled fortress filled with beautiful buildings and plants. Then a short bus ride up to the bamboo forest, where towering bamboo plants are grown and harvested. There is a train ride that takes you up to the top of the forest, but be warned it doesn’t run that regularly so plan ahead.

Back into town and as the sun set we got ready to go for a Kyoto-ryori dinner at the amazing Fuya-cho Sanjo [photos]. Nestled off a back street, and with no obvious sign (you have to go into a courtyard off the street) you knock on the door and someone lets you in. Inside we sat at the counter watching the chefs prepare all the food – and settled back to enjoy one of the fixed menus. Sushi, stews and more came out – each course small, but perfectly formed. The chefs were chatty and friendly, trying out some of their English and keeping our sake topped off. Mmm… sake. All we really did was smile happily at the amazing food and say ‘oishi’ and that seemed to be keeping up our side of the bargain. Fuyacho Sanjo is on 310 Shimohakusan-cho, Fuya-cho, Sanjo-aguru Higashigawa (T 075 241 1100).

After some after dinner cocktails we walked down to the river, where the local kids gathered and drank in the gloom. This led us down to Pontocho one of the four geisha districts in Kyoto. The red lanterns adorned with birds, a geisha symbol, adorned all the doorways but other than that the street seemed like a quiet suburb, except for one solitary geisha who rushed past us as we neared the end of the street.

The next day we returned to the same street to see it in the daylight, getting an early start as we had to head to Tokyo later that day – the street was still quiet, this time glistening from a street cleaning in the early morning sun. We crossed the river to Gion, another geisha district, before walking up the hill towards Toji a towering pagoda that easily stands above the small houses around it. This area is the major temple walk within Kyoto and there is so much to see round there, from the serenity of the Ryozen Kannon War Memorial with its drawers full of cards listing the war dead, to the imposing red gates and white stones of the Heian Shrine. In between there are many small streets to walk around and explore (and get lost in), with little shops full of interesting trinkets such as kimono material and shoes. Next time I’m back there this area will get a full day to enjoy and spend time watching people go about their business, instead it was time to head to Kyoto station to catch another train for the final leg of the journey.. Tokyo!

Kyoto is an amazing city, one of our favourite parts of the whole trip to Japan and Korea. There is so much to see, from the culture of the Geisha and the temples, to the modern delights of design shops and restaurants. All this in a city that is walkable yet has an extensive subway system and likes cyclists. What more could you want? You can see the full set of Kyoto pictures here.

Pictures from Osaka, Japan 2010

Finally, some pictures from last year’s Japan trip. Osaka was the first town we stayed at in Japan. It wasn’t a planned part of our trip, but due to last year’s major event of this time – the volcanic dust cloud – we ended up in Japan over Golden Week. Sounds pretty doesn’t it, but it’s not a pretty experience for anyone wanting to book a hotel in Japan as Golden week is the one week in Japan where everyone goes on holiday. Literally everyone. So Kyoto had no hotels available and Osaka was the nearest town worth visiting on the way. Such is life.

Footnote: A year ago the volcanic dust cloud seemed like a major disaster in our lives. This year, tens of thousands of people have died in Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami and much of the country is still affected by this tragedy with many still missing. You can donate here if you want to help. In the meantime my thoughts are still with those mourning their loss.