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.

November in Paris

Last weekend we jaunted over to Paris on Eurostar for an Autumnal long weekend break, a chance to catch a breath in what’s turning out to be a very busy few months. Paris in the fall is always a mixed bag, as the continental weather can get pretty wet and cold but luckily for us the forecast torrential rain held off leaving just a few light showers in its wake. This trip we stayed at Adrien’s beautiful flat in the 10th, near to Gare de l’Est – a fortuitous coincidence as he had his own jaunt off to New York literally an hour after we arrived, so we got to share a brief breakfast before he headed out. A big thanks to him, as it’s one of our favourite areas comprising central location via the walk along the St-Martin canal. Magnifique.

After so many trips to Paris we tend to avoid the tourist activities, instead reverting to a mildly obsessive attempt to see every Parisian Space Invader. Thanks to a previous birthday present of Invader’s Paris invasion guide we now have some highly accurate maps to help us, and guide us around areas of Paris we would otherwise never go near. The stand-out this trip was a long strip of invaders on the edge of Belleville opposite a full-on street market that seemed to specialise in stolen goods and loud arguments and an ethnic mix that reminded me more of Jerusalem than anywhere else. The upshot of our hunt, was that we now know the first ever Invader is no longer there, and that M is better at spotting them.. winning 37 to 32 in new sightings. That puts us having seen about 100 off of the now 1,000 placed in Paris.. so plenty of opportunity to claw back a second frame there.

Other than Parisian street art, of which Invader is flanked by Shepherd Fairey and Faile but little else, we enjoyed some splendid meals. Brunch at Les Enfants Perdues was a set menu joy. Cafe Charlot provided good solid cafe food during the day and traditionally French service. First night we went to La Fidelite where the opulent packed surroundings was highly enjoyable, although my mild food poisoning from the cod was less fun – c’est la vie. On Saturday we went to Hotel du Nord and had a splendid time, highly recommended.

Food aside the highlight of the trip was a visit to Deyrolle, a French institution where you can buy all forms of preserved animals – from butterflies to polar bears and everything in between. Expensive to buy, but fascinating to wander round and proving that however many times you visit Paris, there’s always something new to find and enjoy.

Space Invader Japan Invasion Kit

Good news for all fans of Space Invader, he’s just re-opened his Space Shop with a wide selection of goodies. First up are the ‘Made in Japan’ Invasion Kits – IK_13 – made to celebrate his current show in Japan. They come in two flavours – 30 signed at €350 a piece (already sold out) and 150 unsigned at €200 each*. Get ’em while they’re hot!

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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 M’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!

Gigs: Robert Plant @ The Roundhouse

Last week we had the pleasure to go and see Robert Plant and the Band of Joy play at The Roundhouse as part of the BBC’s Electric Proms season. The crowd veered towards the older range, with some folks obviously not used to going to gigs (‘Are you going to stand there? You’re in our way.’) but that’s hardly surprising given the longevity of Plant’s success. Thankfully, Plant and the excellent Band of Joy graced us with songs from the entirety of his back catalogue; from excellent renditions of Zep classics (Gallows Pole, Tangerine and Rock and Roll being standout), some classic Plant solo music in the form of ‘Tall Cool One’, more recent work from Raising Sand and finally plenty of great sounds from the Band of Joy’s recent album. Overall we couldn’t have asked for more, other than perhaps a full re-formation of Led Zep but let’s not get greedy shall we.

For those of you in these fair British Isles you can see the whole gig tonight on BBC, or later on iPlayer. Not sure if you can see us in the footage… Enjoy.

And in other music gig news, we saw the excellent Yann Tiersen of Amelie soundtrack fame at Koko on Wednesday night. Have to say not a great fan of Koko as a venue, but Tiersen is an amazing multi-instrumentalist, with his violin work truly breath-taking.

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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Movie Fest: October 2010

A huge flurry of movies as part of a massive de-compress. Feeling too lazy to write proper reviews for all of them so here’s a brief summary:

  • Toy Story 3: It’s pretty amazing that the Pixar folks manage to constantly outdo themselves from movie to movie, but to have a trilogy of movies that just gets better and better each time is mind blowing. Just think how good Revenge of the Sith would have been if that was the case for George Lucas? Anyways, I digress. Toy Story 3 is beautiful and heart rending to watch, as well as being a kid friendly roller coaster of a movie. A must watch, if only for the Buzz Lightyear secret modes…
  • Ponyo: Another Studio Ghibli classic, the story of a goldfish princess who goes off an adventure and falls in love with a human child, causing havoc to the balance of nature. Beautiful animation style. A wonderful glimpse at life in fishing villages in Japan and a mum voiced by Tina Fey, what’s not to love? Well, the story is a bit derivative and the ending seems to just happen, so it’s not the best Studio Ghibli film ever but worth a watch.
  • My Name is Bruce: Bruce Campbell, star of the Evil Dead movies, stars as ‘himself’ in this send-up of B-movie stardom. A bit flat in places, if you’re a fan of Bubba-ho-tep (“everybody likes Bubba-ho-tep”) then this is well worth watching.
  • Prince of Persia: Great special effects, epic scenes and some of the worst ‘English’ accents you’ve ever heard.. even from the British actors. Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina I’m looking at you. The storyline is a hodge podge of revenge and mythology in the classic style of Tomb Raider, another game to film conversion. A six beer movie at least.
  • The Last Airbender: M Night Shyamalan has not really produced any classic suspense movies in a while, so I was interested to see how he fired up this new trilogy. The answer? Beautifully shot, with some great special effects, but none of the Shyamalan story magic.

Must spend less time in front of a screen…

Tim Robbins @ Union Chapel

Last night we headed down, yet again, to the Union Chapel in Islington. This time, we weren’t checking out beardedly soulful singers of Americana, or disgracefully growing old Welsh crooners – we were there to see the transition of a fine screen actor into a card carrying musician. Whether it is the post-divorce mid-life crisis tour, or the ultimate fulfilment of a childhood dream, Tim Robbins and his band put on an admirable show, with an excellent, but way too short, support slot from Kami Thompson.

Looking suave in a long coat, his grey white hair slicked back atop his child-like face, Robbins strode out onto the stage with his extensive band. His expression was a mix of nervousness and joy throughout the set, and that showed itself in his songs – with a set-list that seemed more ‘favourite songs on random’ than careful curation, veering between his own songs and covers. The Chapel was nowhere near full capacity, with the top balconies closed off and seats still free in the venue, perhaps it was a bit too brave to try a small medium sized venue at this point in a career, but those people who were there enjoyed the show to its full. The highlight of the show came too early, with a singalong to an old blues gospel staple that had the audience grinning gleefully. This energy carried Robbins through the next few songs, but at some point that seemed to desert him and the set peetered out rather than ending with a bang. With the encore, ending a song earlier would have helped us leave on a high – but these are all tricks that Robbins will likely learn as he faces more real audiences, as well as finding which songs his voice carries best. Camp Billie Holiday covers may not be an ideal to strive for, Johnny Cash was a good fit with some great harmonica and Tom Waits.. well, you need Tom’s voice as Scarlett Johansson already proved.

Overall, an interesting night but more ‘watch this space’ than a gig that everyone will rue missing. Either way, you have to give Tim credit for following a childhood dream with such gusto and obvious joy. Bless you, sir.