hello miss brown

Fin.

2009-01-28T13:27:00.001-08:00

mismatch, originally uploaded by kimberley-sarah.

Just a note to say I'm not going to be posting here any more. When I first started blogging I was quite keen to keep design-related posts and personal posts seperate, but as things have developed I've found they've ended up overlapping quite a lot. So from now on, all posts will be on itsnice.

The Most Depressing Day of the Year...

2009-01-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

...apparently.

Particularly so to know the world is now without Tony Hart.

Boo, world. Boooo.

Colourful & Wintery Shopping

2009-01-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

Lunch-time multi-cheese sustenance from Paul, possibly my new favourite Saturday lunchy type place. Good cuppa too.

Topographic Ice

2009-01-07T08:55:00.001-08:00

topographic ice, originally uploaded by Camilla Engman.

How weird is this?!

Polaroid Pogo Printer

2009-01-05T11:07:00.000-08:00

A Christmas present shiny toy. More info here again.

Lots of lovely Christmas things.

2009-01-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

Lots of exciting reading to do after my big pile of similarly shaped Christmas presents. New year's resolution number 1: actually read all of these. Even the ones with lots of pictures. I will let you know how they are (if I'm not the last person in the entire world to have read the 79 essays that is).

More info over here

Christmas decorations

2008-12-10T03:42:00.001-08:00

Christmas decorations, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

Unsurprisingly there is a lot of glass and mirror on my Christmas tree...

It's officially nearly Christmas!

2008-12-09T10:01:00.001-08:00

IMG_5441.JPG, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I've been neglecting my blogging a bit lately due to my job going COMPLETELY MENTAL but I'm back now.

Noticed these lovely ice patterns on my way to work this morning.

Gocco for Sale

2008-11-10T05:32:00.000-08:00

I'm selling my trusty gocco, if you're interested...

Fun With Leaves

2008-10-23T09:29:00.001-07:00

avatars myspace with Gickr

Kew in October II

2008-10-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

It was only when I started writing this post that I realised I've written about Kew in October here before - I think my photography's advanced a bit since then though (I like to think!). No bad thing - it is a fantastic time of year to go, just before all the leaves, well, leave.

A maple bonsai. I didn't know that was even possible. They had an oak one too, among others.

Tiny halloween lanterns.

Deadly Nightshade. Chris thought it looked "appetising". Hmm.

Fun with algae.

Of course it's not all bright colours and fun. Some plants are feeling fairly melancholy now the nights are drawing in.

ELBOW BALLOON EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD

2008-10-17T08:01:00.001-07:00

ELBOW BALLOON EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I couldn't help but think they released these a bit early in the song, and everyone got so over-excited by the fact there were LOTS OF BALLOONS!!!! they got completely distracted.

Colombo Street

2008-10-17T07:41:00.001-07:00

Colombo Street, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

This has been sitting on my camera card forever. I know it's spelt wrong but it still amused my tiny little Columbo-loving brain. I also spotted a street in Dorchester called Little Britain but was too slow to get a photo :(

Fraggle 8

2008-10-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. I'm panic-buying jumpers, the leaves are turning and it's acceptable once more to stay in of an evening and eat biscuits, so it must be Fraggle-time. This year, a week in Plush (what a great name for a place) in Dorset. We stayed in a sprawling old farmhouse on a working farm. The cows kept us company, waking us up with moo-ing at 5 in the morning and generally being smelly.

Bunty and Jo demanded more attention by trying to eat our conkers and throwing themselves at our feet for fuss.

Once we stopped pretending we had pets, we went to Weymouth for what turned out to be the last properly hot day of the year for yummy homemade ice-cream (two flavours only - 'coconut' or 'normal') and some good fish & chips. mmm.

I even went in the sea!

After an enormous restorative Sunday roast, the remaining few that hadn't had to rush back to London were left to wander around and generally fill time.

Over the course of the rest of the week we marvelled at how small Lyme Regis is...

...ate lots of scones (they went too fast to photograph), went to see the Cerne Abbas giant, and couldn't help but be drawn by Monkey World - really good it was too!

More France

2008-10-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

A busy 4 days with lots of wine, cheese, Wii Fit, river swimming and surprisingly no headaches.

We bought some very yummy wine from 'The Wine Woman' at her beautiful vineyard, met with much approval by Ravioli, who apparently mysteriously adopted them, having already decided that yes, he would live here.

The other vineyard we visited was Monbazillac, which apparently is very highly regarded for it's desert wine. It was very nice. The Chateau was beautiful, almost ridiculously stereotypical.

Stunning views from here too...

Next day, Sarlat, with it's ginormous market-hall (ex church) doors...

Lots more on Flickr.

A Long Weekend

2008-09-09T14:45:00.001-07:00

IMG_4719, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

...on the banks of the Dordogne. I'll write more later. Just love this picture!

See the rest on Flickr. See where we stayed here.

It's growing!

2008-08-29T14:12:00.001-07:00

Mr Tomato, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I am notoriously good at killing plants. But this one's growing! Hooray! So is the little peony, althouh it is possibly the tiniest shoot I've ever seen, I think perhaps it's getting intimidated.

My Weekend Disappeared

2008-08-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

I lost my weekend to Katamari, pretending to be Slash (badly), and The Book of Lost Things (funnily enough). Labyrinth was in there too but I have to say, it was a bit of a let-down, although an odd parallel to the book, as both feature the same riddle. Odd.

Summer Swirls Card

2008-08-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

Summer Swirls Card, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

Getting to grips with my gocco printer a bit more now. (By the way, if you get this for your birthday, act surprised. And happy.)

Soggy

2008-07-07T13:01:00.001-07:00

Soggy, originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.

I think we can safely say my new raincoat is merely shower-proof.

Moscow

2008-06-11T05:32:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun on my whistle-stop trip to Moscow. I was with work colleagues and we only had two full days there, but wow did we cram a lot in! Lucky for us the contact we were going to meet with was happy to help us get around so we did have a guide for some of the time. She even took us to the Cafe Pushkin for a traditional Russian dinner complete with vodka. We were also lucky enough to be staying in the opulent Ritz Carlton hotel which was an experience in itself. I'm not really a fan of reproduction antiques and gilt, but when I have a shower like that in my house I'll know I've made it. I am cursed to be eternally disappointed with every bathroom I'll ever use now.

The architecture is fantastic, although you do find it interrupted by giant lit-up logos at night. On the whole though it's a very beautiful city.

Of course St Basil's Cathedral is amazing, so difficult to capture in the picture just how beautiful and colourful it is - it shines, even on the grey day we went. The walls are covered in orange and blue patterns and the domes are just so joyous. The story goes that once it was finished, Ivan the Terrible blinded the architect so that he could never design anything better for anyone else.

A quick run around the Kremlin and a visit to the beautiful armoury where we saw a whole host of royal dresses, thrones and carriages (including Catherine the Great's 16" waist - eek) and Peter the Great's throne. He was crowned jointly with an older brother to share the throne, as the older brother was 'feeble minded'. But Peter was only a child at this point, so there was a special compartment in the back where the older sister would sit, and whisper to Peter what he should say.

The bell was a replacement bell for the big tower in the Kremlin, and was still cooling in it's cast when there was a city fire - the cold fireman's water got poured all over it and it cracked.

We went to see the ballet in the Bolshoi's secondary, smaller theatre, because the main one is being refurbished. Nevertheless it's still a beautiful building and well worth seeing - even if you're not really a ballet fan (like me!) it's not difficult to appreciate it once you're there.

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was another highlight, and one that really stuck in my mind. The building you see is what was rebuilt in the 90's, after the original was demolished to make way for a giant socialist monument, only for the site to be turned into a giant outdoor swimming pool when that project was halted.

And of course, you can't go to Moscow without buying a fantastic souvenir...

or perhaps a slightly less fantastic one (unless you still love The Scorpions)

Lots more photos on Flickr.

The Raconteurs

2008-05-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well I know I've got a bit of catching-up to do here, including my trips to Russia and Croatia, but for now I just wanted to tell the world (well, all 3 of you that ever look at this) how great The Raconteurs were the other night. The new stuff sounds like a great step forward, although it seems to be less of an equal balance between Jack White's and Brendon Benson than the previous album. They had a very atmospheric, simple backdrop of tree branch silhouettes coupled with some slightly over-theatrical curtains, which I thought represented them pretty well.

There are much better written reviews here and here.

Elbow

2008-04-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

Elbow's show last night was fantastic. The new songs sounded great live, particularly enormous, and a sprinkling of older ones went down really well. Guy Garvey's stage presence adds to a great experience too, dedicating songs like Newborn; "two of our band have recently become dads again, so to celebrate, here's a lovely song about a romantic death". It was a treat to see Richard Hawley come on to do The Fixer; a great song, really dark, and he sounded brilliant. I think Guy Garvey felt a bit inadequate with his maraca next to Richard's outfit and big red guitar though... You can see their shapeless blobs right here! The NME has it's usual incisive report; "Hawley walked on stage and played guitar and sang with the band." It's like you're actually there experiencing it with them isn't it.

Very Yummy Udon Noodles.

2008-03-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

Method...
1. Cut up some chicken.
2. Chop some vegetables - preferably including bok choi, broccoli, onion, plus whatever's lurking in the bottom of the fridge.
3. Heat some oil in a wok.
4. Stir fry the chicken, and maybe some prawns if you have some. Or squid. mmm.
5. Add vegetables and stir fry until lightly cooked.
6. Add some udon noodles with some oyster sauce.
7. Cook.
8. Eat.

Fried Curried Chicken Legs with Sauce

2008-03-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Chicken legs 10
Onions 3 oz
Tomatoes 1lb
Ghee (or butter) 3 oz
Yoghurt 5 fl oz
Garlic cloves 4
Ginger 1 oz
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Cayenne Pepper 1 tsp
Fennel Powder pinch
Garam Masala 2 tsp
Juice of 1 Lemon
Coriander 1 oz
Water 5 fl oz
Salt to season

1. Finely chop onions, garlic and ginger.
2. Wash and finely chop the coriander.
3. Cut the tomatoes up, skin and de-seed.
4. Dry the chicken legs and sprinkle with salt.
5. Heat the ghee (or butter) add the chicken legs and fry until golden brown. Remove from the ghee and keep warm.
6. Heat the ghee (or butter), add the onion, garlic and ginger paste, fry until onions are soft and golden brown.
7. Reduce the heat, add the cumin, turmeric, coriander powder, cayenne pepper, fennel and a dash of water, cook for 2 minutes.
8. Stir in the tomatoes, yoghurt, and half the coriander.
9. Increase the heat to moderate, add the chicken legs and remaining water and bring to the boil. Turn the chicken legs in the sauce, sprinkle with garam masala, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
8. Sprinkle with lemon juice and the rest of the coriander to serve.

We served it with some chopped vegetables cooked in lots of butter and garam masala, and some basmati rice. It went down pretty well when it was our turn to host Tuesday dinner :)

No Country for Old Men

2008-02-18T05:55:00.000-08:00

Intense is not the word. I was hiding behind my scarf. It's a fantastic film, absolutely beautiful, but I found the lack of information a bit frustrating by the end. It's very matter-of-fact, and you don't feel you get to know the characters all that well. But then again they don't get to know each other all that well either. Javier Bardem is great in it, really unsettling in a grey area between cold efficiency and total psychopath.
No Country for Old Men

You haven't missed much...

2008-02-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

Yes! I am back! No more bloggy neglect. (Promises promises...)

Anyway, quick run-down from New Year to Milk;
- bought a decent camera finally. Hooray!
- went to a very nice wedding. Ceremony at the beautiful Bhaktivedanta Manor, and afterwards a little tent in the garden.
- read Eating for England: The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table by Nigel Slater, which was nice, if a little repetetive in places, and made me very hungry for teacakes and scones, amongst other things...
- found some exciting milk (see post below)

Well I'm sure there's more but the list would definitely get less and less interesting so I'll leave it at that.

Happy-Cow Milk

2008-02-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

I thought this new Calon Wen milk was a bit of a no-brainer. Happy cows, intelligent packaging, and a very cute cow drawing on the front. And if you weren't convinced then the ECO! ORGANIC! ETHICAL! RECYCLE! plastered all over it should sink in eventually. I'm feeling so smug now it's even stopped me moaning about free range chicken being sold out everywhere after all the scary TV that's been on lately. (Everyone's been buying free range eggs for ages! When did people stop associating eggs with chickens?)

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T05:46:00.001-08:00

All the best for 2008. I hope you've all eaten as much chocolate as I have. I've been rather busy lately working and Christmassing but things will be back to normal soon, I promise. If they're not I might explode a bit...

Random Day Off

2007-11-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Rose tea, McVities plain chocolate digestives and Frasier repeats.

Bollo's Audition

2007-11-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

Brilliant.

Cat Alarm Clock

2007-11-17T05:14:00.000-08:00

My friend George sent me this ages ago and I only just got around to watching it, and it really made me laugh...

Circle Line (ish)

2007-11-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

We braved the infamous Circle Line Pub Crawl (warning; offensive design) in celebration of Richard's 30th on Saturday, which was lots of fun until we flaked quite rubbishly. Richard seemed to like our t-shirts, which I was quite relieved about, but of course I was scrutinising the printing. I think I should've made the superman bit purely block colour and it would've printed a bit thicker.

It just so happened to coincide with The Lord Mayor's Show which was interesting, although I'm not sure I'd bother making a special trip to see it without the distraction of a pub crawl. But then I'm not hugely into marching bands or unidentifiable fancy dress (despite what some of you may have seen on facebook). We had a nice leisurely start in Westminster's The Red Lion (?) and on to Embankment's cute Ship & Shovel and Temple's cavernous Walkabout, in between taking some photos of the bands and floats preparing to start.

Then on to The Blackfriar at, erm, Blackfriars, lunch at Wetherspoons at Tower Hill, a slightly scary place in Aldgate, a gin bar at Liverpool Street, a 60's concrete box at The Barbican, The Castle at Farringdon, O'Neills at Kings Cross, and our final was a really nice place around the corner from Euston Square, but fairly inevitably I can't remember what it was called. It had nice beer though.

Who did this creepy child grow up to be?

2007-11-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

Seriously, this must've been Photoshopped, right? I mean that's a SCARY child. Mind you, bit of a scary grown-up too.
See this one and more here.

Sightseeing Weekend

2007-11-09T05:56:00.001-08:00

Mom, Dad, Any, Mandy and Vicki, originally uploaded by ant217.

We had Ant's parents, sister and her boyfriend over to stay last weekend, and as Mandy and Andy had never had a proper walk around London before we took the opportunity to do lots of touristy things. We did possibly underestimate the sheer distance we were going to be walking but it worked out ok, with a pub stop at the Tattershall Castle along the way and the goal of a curry at the end of it. So after a quick run around the Science Museum we jumped on a bus to Green Park, had a nice Autumny walk down to Buckingham Palace, on to Trafalgar Square (where we saw lots of people protesting to keep the NHS free, whilst standing outside pubs drinking and smoking... hmm) Whitehall, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, the pub, a walk along the South Bank down to Tower Bridge, and a curry. Phew. I feel exhausted again just typing it. It was really nice to see everyone at once (not to mention unusual!) and we didn't even get told we should be buying a house too many times. And Chris was nice enough to help fix my poorly car which had seemingly had an argument with it's clutch cable. All made up now.

Idlewild

2007-11-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

This week I got to see Idlewild play a fantastic gig for the second time. The first time was when they were touring their second album, nearly ten years ago, and it was my first gig (I think!) - it was a bit shoutier than their more recent albums but then I think I was too. I got to Wolverhampton Wulfrun with my friends in time for the doors to open at 7pm, and I think we were a bit confused by the fact they didn't come on 'til gone 9. I still have the t-shirt I bought too, although I think it might be right at the bottom of one of my wardrobes with a lot of other things I don't wear but don't want to throw away, like my V99 t-shirt and my bright purple Garfield t-shirt with 'Florida!' on it (should probably point out that that's quite a bit older...).

But anyway, back to the subject, they were fantastic, and as they're now touring their Greatest Hits (hope that's not an omen - apparently more to do with their parting ways with Parlophone before making Make Another World) they played a huge range of stuff, some which I'd forgotten I even knew, as my Captain and Hope Is Important cassettes wore out, oo, about 8 years ago and I never quite got round to replacing them (rubbish I know). And I'm pretty sure they played it better than they did last time. They do seem to have evolved into almost 2 bands now though - one that's more connected to how they started, more, well, shouty, and one that's a bit more... Virgin Radio I guess. They do both really well, but I thought they just looked like they were having far more fun jumping around shouting. And they even brought their own little carpets in order to make the jumping around (with no shoes on) a bit more cosy. Which is nice.

Official site
myspace
wiki

Kew in October

2007-10-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

It's feeling properly Autumnal now, so going to Kew on Saturday was a bit different to usual (although in a good way). It's even more beautiful at the moment than normal, and it helps me to exorcise that feeling I get at this time of year when I want to run around taking photographs everywhere I go (so I took about a zillion). I thought these little trees looked a bit like hearts with their red leaves. Aaah. How lame of me.

James Blunt Funny Shocker

2007-10-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

I'm so confused now.

Deck-Chairs in October

2007-10-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed a lazy walk around Hyde Park on Sunday on an unusually hot day for October - T shirt weather! It was great, the Park looks beautiful at the moment with the leaves just starting to turn, although it was a little bit odd to see people sunbathing on deckchairs amongst brown fallen leaves.

Learning New Things

2007-10-13T15:14:00.001-07:00

Dog on a bike, originally uploaded by Sailing ( Ronn ) "El Viaje".

I'm learning how to put my website together. Something new! Very exciting. I'm quite tired now though (blogging at gone 11 on Saturday night? loser!), so I'll keep it short and sweet. Surfice to say, it's going to be very simple, and it's going to take me aaaaages. So you won't see it for a while. I think I'm (slowly) getting it though. I love how instant it all is, something which really frustrates me about working in print (or really, working for print and then sending artwork away and seeing the results a week or two later). So short of going out and buying my own printing press - something I would LOVE to do but I'm not sure either my landlord or my boyfriend would be particularly pleased about as it would pretty much completely fill any remaining space in our flat (before promptly falling into the flat below. Then the flat below that.) - this is as instant as I'm going to get really. If you don't count polaroids. Oh, well, you know what I mean...

The Apples

2007-10-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, I know the whole bands doing unlikely cover-versions thing is getting a little tired now, but this one really is completely amazing. I you like Rage Against The Machine, and you like trumpets, you'll love The Apples.

Buy/Listen here. (And is that really a comment from Mark Ronson?)
theapplesmusic.com
myspace

DJs With 60 Years Experience

2007-10-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

The weekend saw an impromtu trip home for some yummy home cooking, force-feeding of cake and a (slightly) cheaper haircut. Lucky I managed to kind a Toni&Guy hairdresser who didn't have terrifying hair herself (although she did have fluorescent pink nail-tips).

It's always a bit like walking into a little time-warp going back to Cannock. I don't think I've heard as much dance music all year as I heard this weekend. And it's not just the bars & pubs - even down to over-hearing car stereos, walkmans and in every shop and, well, hairdressers. My small collection of entertaining club/bar flyers has been somewhat extended though. Perhaps I'll have to turn it into a flickr group now that I have all of 3. Apparently a DJ with 60 years experience is something worth advertising! It was great to catch up with S, and overall quite a fun night out (it's a lot easier to have fun there when you know you can leave again) apart from perhaps the odd intervention of a guy who seemed genuinely confused that we were having a nice time and even, yes, laughing. Now he was fairly drunk (or should I say, "tu-be faaairr, 'e wuz a bit drunnk"), but nevertheless it did make me feel a little bit sad, that he was so obviously so frustrated and bored by the place and yet it didn't seem to have occured to him to leave. Poor, strange man. Oh well, at least it will be quite amusing for my friends now that I'm once again over-pronouncing all my vowels.

Feist

2007-09-29T06:29:00.000-07:00

Feist's gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire the other night was really fantastic. Not the best venue for a 'standing still' kind of gig (if you're in the stalls, anyway) as it means you only really get a view of the ceiling unless you're 7ft tall. Which I am not. But the sound is great in there.

She played a little bit of Broken Social Scene but pretty much stuck to her solo work. 1234 predictably brought down the house - and I suspect that quite a number of the audience were only there to hear that one song - and at times you could have heard a pin drop between lyrics. The balance was much the same as on the album - mostly fairly simple, honest, somewhat downbeat songs punctuated with a few more upbeat songs, so it didn't get monotonous. My Moon My Man is still definately my favourite song though, it has a great video too (albeit owing a little in inspiration to OK GO);

The point where she invited a random audience member on stage to play the piano did seem a little odd, although it all became clear when he went on to read out a really sweet poem ending in the line, "Lauren, will you marry me?" at which point I think the audince made the most noise it did all night. She said yes... a suitably romantic highlight to a captivating gig.

website
myspace

Lameness

2007-09-27T11:29:00.001-07:00

The History Boys

2007-09-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

The first quiet weekend for months, time to buy a winter coat, counting the weekends 'til Christmas - it must also be time to start DVD-ing again. The first of this year's Autumn/Winter film fest was The History Boys, adapted directly from the play by Alan Bennet. So needless to say it was great. It was really really great. And isn't the poster lovely? Obviously it's for the play rather than the film (which had a garish lime green, fish-eye lens concoction) but as it's even the same actors I think I can get away with it.

Fraggle 7

2007-09-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

On BOATS! Yes, boats. Very romantic idea, not quite so in reality - bunk beds, cold piddley shower, days of breathing nothing but diesel. Ah, the open canal. But at least I didn't have to do my hair. It was nice to spend lazy days sailing through countryside, although a bit odd that we all kind of split up for most of the weekend - I'm used to Fraggle being 1 giant free-for-all. There were so many of us (27) that we had to heve 3 boats - 2 10-berth boats (namely the 'party boat' and the 'sleepy boat') and one super-luxurious 6/8-berth one that was brand new. As this was the only one to have a decent shower I absconded on Sunday morning to steal it, only to get my comeuppance when that boat made me feel very seasick.

Saturday was pirate day, which was hilarious for a little while, and then we kinda forgot what we were wearing and wondered why people on passing boats were looking at us funny. I was quite pleased with my glamorous sequined eye-patch. Kinda 'Vegas-pirate'. Yarrrrr!

All that fresh air and beer meant we were all pretty rubbish at up-keeping the party-boat's reputation and sloped off to bed not too long after midnight. We did try though. Katy and I even had plans to stay up and watch the sun come up - genius idea! Until we realised that was about 7 hours away and, well, we were kinda tired... We did have lots of fun photographing rude symbols drawn with my torch first though.

Rachel and I were the only girls on our boat (of 11) so we did have a bit of 'boy-smell' to contend with - funny how if you get 9 blokes together in a confined space, even if none of them smell individually the space will still smell of SMELLY BOYS. And I think Rachel found herself with a slightly dis-proportionate amount of cooking duty (sorry Rachel - I did have to clean the whole boat Monday morning if that makes up for it) but that was no bad thing for the rest of us with a feast of Penne Ala Sausage. We were all very glad we hadn't gone to the pub.

Sunday lunch at a nearby pub - obviously Hungry Horse pubs cater more for the 'quantity' and less for the 'quality' (although the Sticky Toffee Pudding was great stodge) and I did feel myself turning into a bit of a snob when the table next to us was filled with 3 teenage mums; one of them had a little boy with her that must've been about 7, and was really good actually, although that was a small miracle after being around those 3 all his life. After a long-winded conversation about their respective beat-up/make-up relationships, the conversation turned to who each of them was planning to beat up next and why ("she was well givin' me evils") and then finally their choice of vibrator and how long they lasted until they 'burned out' (??!!). All in front of the little 7 year old boy. Who then desperately throws some food on the floor in a bid to get some attention. Which he doesn't. Scary and sad.

Small But Perfectly Formed

2007-09-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to see Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan at the British Museum.
It was a small exibition but fantastically beautiful. It was a really nice group of pieces actually, enough for a 'wow' factor but restrained enough not to be over-doing it, as if saying "we're really proud of these pieces, but of course there's a lot more where that came from". Which I've no doubt there is. A place where creative and craft skills and pure hard work are rewarded as much as concept and delivery, Japan seems to be really good at nurturing its artist community, designating the most accomplished Living National Treasures.

I found the Kimono/textile artists particularly inspiring. In a short interview one of them explained that he had considered what he could do with a kimono to make it different, more special. He realised that he shouldn't change the simple shape because that is part of why it's special - if you change the shape once then you will change it again and again striving to make it better, and it becomes like any other clothing. The simple shape of the kimono lets the textile speak for itself. Texile designs are produced by various laborious methods, including woodblock printing with a 2" square block, dyeing individual strands of hand-spun silk and then weaving together to create complicated (and perfect) geometrical patterns, and stencil dyeing, all done completely by hand.

Tokuda Yasokichi III - Bowl, 'Genesis' (Sosei), porcelain with vivid coloured glazes (yôsai), 1991. On loan from the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
This was beautiful - a coloured glaze bowl that apparently went wrong, so the artist then re-fired it at higher temperature and the stripey effect appeared - "a gift from the gods. Or an accident." Luminescent, and perfect. Perfection seemed to be a theme that runs through each and every piece actually. It's the only word for it.

I'm getting old

2007-09-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

I'm a member of Kew Gardens. Yes, really. Lovely scones.

A full 12 months in anticipation of when I finally manage to save up enough money for a lovely DSLR, and I will be completely obsessed with taking photos. More than I am now.

Oh no, I'm getting behind already...

2007-09-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

Well, 2 weeks ago now was George's surprise-ish birthday. It was a fantastic weekend - I actually managed to get her the frame she wanted, the weather was good, camping was manageable, and there was just generally a lot of eating, drinking and dog-fussing. The freebie tent Ant pinched from work stuck out a bit, I hadn't actually thought it through very well and only after pitching realised she was obviously going to know whose it was from half a mile down the road! Oh well, she seemed surprised....

V festival

2007-08-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend at V festival with Chris and Denise (and Anthony for a few fleeting moments). I'm still pretty knackered from camping so I'll keep it short. ish.

Foo Fighters - fantastic, always are. Odd that they started the set with Everlong though, I don't think the set was quite as good as this one at the Isle of Wight last year. But then again the hair was much much better. Swings and roundabouts.
Just Jack - I wasn't expecting to particularly like or dislike, but actually he was great. A brilliant opener, he got everyone dancing around and up for a party. Until The Proclaimers came on and completely deflated everyone again that is. Ugh.
Juliette and The Licks - otherwise known as That Band What Juliette Lewis The Actress Is In, were really really good. Very un-celeb-ey you can definately see why she made the jump and did it properly (unlike the cringey bands that Bruce Willis/Keanu Reeves/many more dabble in). She is very thin. Not normal thin - LA thin. With white latex trousers and a red sequined feathered-mohican headdress, she looked sort of Vegas-Military I suppose. Very striking and extremely bendy.
Newton Faulkner - lovely, a bit shy and fantastically talented. He's only had 1 single but I think he's going to be really popular. His cover of Massive Attack's Teardrop was a predictable crowd-pleaser but nontheless, somewhat breathtaking with his guitar-clunking skills.
Ghosts - zzzzzzz
The Wombats - great, energetic, playful, brilliant songs. They reminded me a bit of We Are Scientists, another hugely energetic 3-piece not taking themselves too seriously. It's nice to have some personality along with good songs. Surprisingly uncommon at times.
Mr Hudson & The Library - I only knew 1 of their songs but I liked every single one they played. Unusual and definately different from the glut of 'The..' bands. I'd definately buy gig tickets for these guys. Loads of them. And bully all my friends into going (so watch it).
Jet - dissapointingly dull.
The Hoosiers - only saw their acoustic set but they were good, not sure wether the 'cheeky chappies' routine will get a bit grating but we'll see. Love their single, a great pop song.
Plan B - not usually my cup of tea, wouldn't be rushing out to buy it but I can appreciate that he's a great artist, his performance was faultless and very engaging. Angry Young Man.
Cherry Ghost - zzzzzzzz
The Cribs - wasted guitarist/singer yet entertaining. Was he sick behind his amp at the end maybe? He crouched down behind it for no apparent reason.
KT Tunstall - is much smaller than I thought she was. Little and petite. Very good also.
McFly - got a lot of people dancing who I wouldn't have expected to (including myself), especially when teamed with Al Murray.
See it here.

I've never been a diary-keeper...

2007-08-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

...but I also have a frustratingly bad memory, so hopefully I'll be able to keep this up. Stay tuned to be bored by the minutiae of my life. And the interesting bits too. Sometimes.
You'll still be able to see design-related guff and pretty pictures over here.