Author: Matt Hobbs

Film: There Will Be Blood

Finally got around to watching this brooding masterpiece of a film last night. For some reason I’ve always gotten There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men mixed up in my head, purely because they were on at the cinema at the same time. There is absolutely no relationship between the two movies, one being about a slightly psychopathic oil man in the earliest days of prospecting, and the other being about a man on the run from a psychopathic killer. Oh wait. Guess there are some similarities after all.. both are great movies but as dark as anything, ‘No Country’ is a Coen Brothers movie in the style of Fargo without the humour so don’t expect light watching with either.

There Will Be Blood is a real powerhouse of a movie. Daniel Day-Lewis takes the lead as an oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, who works his way up from the bottom through his own hard work and cunning, yet still acknowledging that only one in twenty prospectors ever strike big. Along the way he loses a lot of compatriots, and makes few friends, being unrelenting in his pursuit of oil success. After achieving some early finds, he is approached by a young man who tells him of oil on his farmstead in return for money. Plainview visits the farm and finds the boy’s twin brother, Eli Sunday, a fanatical Christian played with creepy genius by Paul Dano. Buying up the farm and the surrounding area, Plainview grows his empire – facing loss and gains along the way, within a circle of his own self-created loneliness.

There is no redemption in this movie for the principle players, just dark drilling into the human soul and psyche. The beauty here lies in the cinematic vistas of early oil fields, and the starkly wonderful soundtrack by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead fame. There Will Be Blood is a must see movie, but have a cheery follow up film as a follow up – for us it was The Triplets of Belleville, a quirky French animated movie about one Grandmother’s quest to cheer up her Grandson with surreal consequences. Very enjoyable.

The Amazing Union Chapel Double Team

Last week we got the chance to go see two very different bands on consecutive nights, both at the same venue – the Union Chapel in Islington. Having never been to this venue we didn’t quite know what to expect, other than it has a small capacity of only 800 people which is one of my key requirements for seeing any band these days. We did bump into some folks at Nina’s birthday party who said it was amazing, and that we should sit up on the balcony rather than fight to get in the downstairs pews. Yes, that’s right, it’s all seated but there are no reserved seats. I was loving it already, as someone who feels that real fans who are prepared to get in line early should always be rewarded (in exactly the same way that airlines don’t reward you when you check your bags in early… why are they always the last bags out? I digress).

On entering the chapel, with its front tower currently shrouded in scaffolding, you have no sense of the size of it as the ticket desk is in a cramped entrance way, but head to the left or right and up the stairs to the front balconies and the place unfolds like a Tardis till you come onto the cavernous, yet somehow intimate, performance space of the chapel knave. We sat right on the front pews, at the front up by the stage – just a few metres away from the performance. The side angle isn’t ideal, but the closeness is wonderful, plus you get to sit and rest your arms on the stone ledge in front of you. From this vantage point we could see everyone crammed into the pews below, much closer than us but arguably a lot less comfortable. Looking up you see the other balcony pews all around, and the lofty roof above in all its ornate glory. What a place to see a gig.

First up was Iron & Wine, featuring the soulful southern croonings and skillful guitar of Sam Beam. I’ve been a fan of Iron & Wine since an encounter in Fix years ago in Williamsburg, but this is the first chance I’ve had to see him in action, and it was worth the wait, especially in such an amazing venue. Beam started with a totally acapella rendition of one of his songs, which entranced the audience from the get go. Then he moved onto solo guitar, before being joined by a single backing instrumentalist to fill out the parts on some of his more complex melodies. The playlist escapes me right now, but he did cover off most of my favourite tracks, at times leaving us almost in tears. An amazing singer and well worth a listen.

Next up was a slight change of pace, seasoned Welsh singer Tom Jones singing the entirety of his new album ‘Praise and Blame‘. Given the gospel leanings of his latest offering this was a highly appropriate venue, and from the moment Jones came out in front of his (mostly 50+) audience he set a lot of store by that with his between song banter. With his shock of pure white hair, the now 70 Jones still sets the heart racing on his fans, though no knickers were (perhaps thankfully) thrown, and his voice swept teh rest of us along – the man can sing. Another great gig, only slightly let down by his decision to play any classic Jones songs as part of an encore, instead repeating one of his earlier Praise & Blame songs.

So a great week for gigs, and another new favourite London venue located. One of these days I might start actually loving London.. who knows.

And as a brief re-cap of what I’ve been up to in the last month or so since the last post.. There was a brief trip to Israel that was absolutely stunning (some pics here) – Jerusalem is a must see, followed by a long weekend in Barcelona over my birthday. In between those we fitted in a very lovely canoeing trip down the River Wye, which didn’t result in hypothermia for a change, but did result in a broken exhaust for the second time this year. Ah, car ownership. Pip pip.

Classics: Treasure Island & Vertigo

In the middle of getting ready for an imminent work trip to Israel, I found time to attack a couple of classics from different media; the book Treasure Island, and Hitchcock’s masterpiece of film, Vertigo.

First up, Treasure Island, a book I can’t actually remember if I read when I was younger as the themes are now so familiar; pirates with parrots and wooden legs, buried treasure and heroic cabin boys. Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic is best read at a younger, more innocent age, yet maintains it’s ability to thrill even to us jaded older folk. A fun, lightweight classic but don’t expect anything too mentally challenging.

Then we have Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. As someone who watches a lot of movies I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I’ve not watched any Hitchcock films. This is something I realise I now need to rectify, as Vertigo is visually sumptuous, engaging with great acting from James Stewart, and a thrilling soundtrack. There’s also a classic early intro sequence from Saul Bass. The story follows Stewart, who plays a detective on retirement due to the onset of crippling vertigo which caused the death of a fellow officer. Stewart, for want of anything else to do, accepts a friend’s request to follow his wife, Kim Novak, who has been acting strangely and apparently is possessed by the suicidal spirit of a dead woman. Stewart accepts, and in carrying out his duties falls in love with the wife and things progress from there.

Although the film is now over 50 year old it is still a joy to watch. The speed of pacing may put off some viewers, but Hitchcock was well ahead of his time and if you’re not addicted to jump cuts then all will be well. Happily for me this now means I have the rest of Hitchcock’s back catalogue to watch as well. Splendid stuff.

The New York Drawings of Matteo Pericoli

Thanks to the Guardian I’ve just learnt all about Matteo Pericoli, an Italian who moved to New York in 1996 and started doing beautiful line drawings as a hobby while he worked as an architect. This hobby evolved into something more serious, and now Pericoli has a series of books showing skylines around the world. His New York views from famous people’s windows are my favourite though, showing a range of vistas from traditional NYC landmarks, through water tower strewn rooftop landscapes to just the windows of the opposite building. Pericoli has even won acclaim for creating the cover art The Beastie Boys ‘To The 5 Boroughs‘ album. Lovely, evocative stuff.

London’s Velib Bike Scheme Arrives

London Cycle Hire Bikes

Suddenly this morning all the empty London Cycle Hire bikestands are full (or semi-full) with spanking new bikes, along with intrigued Londoners staring at them. As of yet though I’ve only seen someone pushing a bike around, not actually cycling on one so no idea how they work in practice.

This is all very exciting, and now we just have to see how Londoners take to the scheme which has met with varying levels of success in other cities around the world. Hopefully it will get more cyclists on the road as planned and reduce some of the overhead on the city’s public transport, as well as helping to push London as a city for cyclists (we can but dream). As for me, I may sign up – even though I already have a bike – as we live in the central part of London it’s easy to just grab one, cycle to work and park it nearby. Then for any evening trips the same tactic can work without fear of bike theft and the hassle of locking them up.

Of course now we just have to see how the bikes survive the attentions of some of the more Neanderthal natures in British culture… from random destruction and ‘happy slapping’ to drunken cycling and urination. Excelsior!

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?

Punchdrunk vs. ENO – The Duchess of Malfi

Last night we went along to see The ENO/Punchdrunk co-production of The Duchess of Malfi at a remote office block in the east end of London. This was touted as one of the ‘must see’ events of the theatrical season in London, and caused the ENO’s ticketing server to crash quite horrendously when it went on sale – luckily I managed to grab four tickets in the melee, and now I really wish I’d gotten more as it was quite splendid.

For those of you not familiar with Punchdrunk, they formed in 2000 to create immersive theatrical experiences where the audience is expected to wander around, interact with the performance to some degree and to create their own relationship with the works rather than just sitting in a chair and watching. Audience members at Punchdrunk events are required to wear masks which helps to separate audience from performers, but also creates a wonderful sense of alienation. Instead of creating a single thread of narrative that unfolds on the stage in front of you, there are little nuggets of story happening all over the venue and your participation in this requires you to find and unravel what’s going on. To add complexity, Punchdrunk events are generally quite dimly lit and involve a lot of subtle set dressing that just adds to your confusion, joy and discomfort – to varying levels. And now onto last night’s performance, in which spoilers may be revealed…

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Favourite Films: Twelve Monkeys


Above: “I am the man who kills Bruce Willis” – the actor with the dubious and singular honour of killing Bruce on-screen is coached by Terry Gilliam”

Most of you will know about my mild obsession with Terry Gilliam and his amazing films. Gilliam’s movies are some of the most regularly re-watched in my extensive collection, along with those of the Coen Brothers and Christopher Nolan. All of them delight in visually stunning extravaganzas combined with off-beat yet engaging characters, and Twelve Monkeys is no exception.

Twelve Monkeys is Gilliam’s 1996 sci-fi time-travel confuso-thriller starring Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and Madeline Stowe amongst others. The basic story is based around the surreal French short film La Jetee, centering around a man from the future who has seen his own death as a child. In this re-telling our soon to come dystopian future has the remnants of he human race living underground, holding on after a devastating virus has killed most people. Willis plays James Cole, a prison inmate chosen to go back into the past to try and investigate what happened and ultimately retrieve a pure source of the original virus so the future/present scientists can create a cure. With me so far? Well there be spoilers ahead, so be warned.

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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.