PIXIES @ Field Day

Yesterday Mitch and I headed to Victoria Park for Sunday's edition of Field Day. I had but one solitary goal: to see Pixies perform live. I think it's fair to say that I'm a pretty big fan but before yesterday, I'd never seen them live and had kind of written it off as a, 'that'll never happen'. But there in East London, surrounded by fellow Pixies fans, amidst cigarette smoke and flying red stripe cans, beneath one of the most spectacular sky scapes, a dream was realised and it was awesome. Wave of Mutilation, Gouge Away, Debaser, Bone Machine, Mr Grieves, Here Comes Your Man, Monkey's Gone to Heaven and of course, Where is My Mind? to name but a few were all there. Within half an hour of them playing I'd heard 5 of my all time favourites. So, so good. Plus, it was a gloriously warm and sunny day, I drank craft beer and ate churros which all amounted to a bloody fantastic Sunday evening. Hope the sun was shining where you were too!

Degree Show One at Central St Martins

Every year I intend to visit the graduate shows in London and finally this year I did and brought my lovely friend Alex along for the ride! For those who aren't aware, every year UAL (university of arts london) Central St Martins opens up it's doors for a week for the general public to have a looksy around their students' final pieces for both BA and MA courses. Last weekend included work from the fine art, photography, art & science and moving image courses, as well as a couple more.

Some of it was really cool, some of it v.thought-provoking and some of it I just didn't really get, but I think that's ok when it comes to art. It's such a subjective subject; something that speaks to me might not speak to someone else and visa-versa. What is important, I think, is that we try to look at as much new stuff as possible - it's gotta be good for our brains to be exposed to new positive experiences. It's always interesting to see how other people think and how they choose to represent those thoughts in a physical form. Plus, this is a completely free show, always a bonus in my opinion (especially the weekend before payday).

Sadly the Degree Show One is now finished but the Degree Show Two is coming up next month! I'm particularly looking forward to this one as it features all the work from the textile, graphic, jewellery, ceramic and product design courses. Should be good!

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I was absolutely rubbish at recording the names of the students who's work I photographed so I've just done some research and found some of them. Apologies for my ineptitude. 

Untitled 11 (bubble wrap and paint house) Yasmeen Sabri (FINE ART BA) 

Lab No.1 - Theo de Gueltzl & Octave Marsal (FINE ART MA)

Lab No.2 (etching on perspex) - Theo de Gueltzl & Octave Marsal (FINE ART MA)

New Street_London+Seoul+Oslo+Lisbon,2014" - Yeonok Jang (ART AND SCIENCE MA)

Left: Stabat Mater (chicken wire and aluminium horses) - Tess Dumon (FINE ART BA)
Right: see below

Glitter Box - Vera Bohl (ART AND SCIENCE MA)

The reluctant (35 pages of 'The Reluctant Dragon' in glass jars) and the dry ice piece both - Boris Raux. His pieces were all based around smell. He even had a piece which was scratch and sniff! 
(ART & SCIENCE MA)

Woodberry Down (bricks, coloured yarn and graphite) - Holly Owen (ART AND SCIENCE MA)

Left: Matter of the Heart (oil drums) - Jean Baynham (ART AND SCIENCE MA)
Right: Foucault pendulum - Roderick MacLeod (ART AND SCIENCE MA)

Paris Dakar - Ophelia Finke (FINE ART BA)

Lonely by the sea - Christine Donnier-Valentin (PHOTOGRAPHY MA)

The screen prints of Rebecca Price (ART AND SCIENCE MA)

white hart lane

On Monday I went to watch my first ever live football match. Thankfully, it wasn't a league game - I don't think I could've handled the stress. Instead, it was former Spurs captain, Ledley King's testimonial match.

I had no idea what a testimonial was so in case you're also in the dark...it's like a big old send off match when a player retires. I think the money from ticket sales goes to the player's charity of choice. The current Spurs squad were pitched against a team of King's choosing all of whom had to have played for Spurs at one time. Excitingly this meant that a lot of the old greats (I say old, I just mean that I actually remember them from World Cup games) including Teddy Sheringham and David Ginola (who at 47 was still looking pretty damn fine) were in attendance. There was also a spattering of more recent Spurs players (that I recognised) - Berbatov, Crouch and Scott Parker.

As the pitch was just full of ex and current Spurs players the atmosphere was superb - everyone was in high spirits. I got to sing all the chants - not one of which was rude. I had it in my head that it'd be really foul mouthed but Mitch pointed out that it was a friendly game and that we were sitting in the 'family section'. The spectators did get a mexican wave going round on both levels which was cool and the actual football was pretty fun too. In the first half all the players bundled King and he was awarded a penalty; in the second half one of the linesman gave his flag to a spectator so he could have a go; even the ref had a bit of a kick about at one point!

Despite the absolutely shitty weather, all the players seemed to be having a whale of time. As did I :) King received an all-mighty applause at the end and rightly so. I read up about him afterwards and he really sounds like a decent bloke not to mention a stellar defender both for England and his club which he's been loyal to throughout his entire career.

Although I've watched a fair few rugby games at Twickenham, I think I've been converted! If Mitch asked me to go again I'd be more than happy to return to White Hart Lane.

Reading & Seeing 17

Frank
Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) is a bit of a loser and wannabe musician who's seriously struggling to write a (decent) song. A chance encounter and random offer to stand in for a visiting band's keyboard player sets him off on a bizarre journey into the somewhat conflicting realms of creativity and fame. Most of the band dislike him but not Frank (Michael Fassbender). Former psychiatric patient and perpetual wearer (even in the shower!) of the papier máché head, Frank sees potential in Jon and insists that Jon stay with the band to record their album. It's a rather odd little film, in part inspired by Chris Sievey's comdey persona Frank Sidebottom who wore an oversized, blue-eyed, black haired papier maché head, but this Frank has his own story entirely. It's rather amusing in places but also terribly poignant particularly as it looks at the link between genius and madness. The cast is stellar and the music, unsurprisingly, is a v.strong presence throughout the film - the closing number in particular is bloody brilliant. A gem of a movie, definitely worth a watch.

The Wind Rises
The latest animation from Studio Ghibli tells the story of Jiro who, due to his near-sightedness, cannot become a pilot so instead endeavours to design and engineer them. Throughout his career there are ups and downs, all played out against a recognisable and troubled historical backdrop. Intermingled with world events (earthquakes and the onset of war) is the delicate love story between our protagonist and Nahoko, a girl he saves in the earthquake and is reunited with by chance some years later. The animation is utterly beautiful - the reflections in the water and the dappled light coming through the trees is so perfect. I loved Jiro's dream sequences and his conversations with Italian engineer Gianni Caproni, I also liked the way Jiro would be talking to his team of engineers and then envisage the plane above them, taking flight with the wind blowing all about them. Talking of wind, and aeronautics actually, Mitch and I have been working our way through the Studio Ghibli films and flight, planes and nature seem to be a common theme. The Wind Rises is tragic yet beautiful, something Hayao Miyazaki does rather well, too bad it's the last film he'll make.

He, She and It (1991)
Set in the not so distant future, earth is a scarred husk of a planet largely thanks to the effects of global warming and war. The human race still exists but it's fragmented. Depending on their status, people either live in the protected (and privilaged) domes of the multis - gigantic companies which run everything; the glop - a sprawling sector, home to most of the remaining population and rife with gangs and crime; or the free bases - self contained towns which are run and protected by the citizens that live there, independent of the multis. Although many animal species (and people) have died off due to the sun's strengthened radiation, one thing that has remained, and has only become stronger is technology. The Net (cyberspace) is at the heart of life in this new world. It's where people from all walks of life can communicate with each other. It's also the primary source of entertainment and information storage. As you've probably guessed, this is deliciously SF. The actual story follows Shira an ex-multi employee who returns to the free town of Tivka to live with her grandmother (and expert security software programmer), Malkah. But the talented Malkah has been working on another secret project, a cyborg. A cyborg built to resemble a human - physically and emotionally - but with the strength and stamina of a machine and it turns to Shira to socialise it. It's been described as feminist fiction and I can see why, the female characters steal the show, particularly Nili - a scout sent from an all-women community cut off from the rest of the world. Although the women have their flaws, the male characters (aside from Yod, the cyborg) are weak in more ways than one. It was great to read about some really meaty and gritty female characters and something which I need to do more of. I've got Beyoncé in my head now.


#nofilter
Last week I went to the bloomsbury theatre at UCL to see three youtubers put on a live show. And those ladies were: Hannah Hart of My Drunk Kitchen; Mamrie Hart (no relation) of You Deserve a Drink; and Grace of Daily Grace. I confess I'm not totally up on my youtube channels but I'd watched quite of few of Hannah's videos and a couple of Mamrie and Grace's. My friend Alex (who's way more clued up about this stuff) got the tickets. Once we were in our seats I looked around at the audience and noticed that I was probably one of the oldest people there. However, as soon as the show started I knew that my old age had no detrimental effect on the crazy antics happening on the stage. It was pretty hilarious. I've not heard so many puns packed into an hour and twenty minutes before - those american ladies love their puns. They also (as you may have gathered from their youtube channel names) like to drink. V.silly and smutty as hell - a good show indeed. Here's Hannah's music video about a carrot onesie (featuring Grace and Marmie).

things we do in bed @ Danson House

Yesterday I took a train to Bexleyheath to see a mini quilting exhibition at Danson House, a big old Georgian mansion in the middle of Danson park. Novelist Tracy Chevalier has curated the show having become a quilting enthusiast thanks to her research about the craft for her latest novel. Things We Do in Bed focuses on exactly that. The exhibition was divided into 5 rooms representing birth, sleep, sex, illness and death, with the quilts in each one relating to the theme.

Birth
Grayson Perry's striking "Right to Life" foetus quilt is pretty disturbing but also v.cool. It was made in response to the American abortion debate in the 1990s. Also in the Birth room were two historical cot quilts. The quilting on the 18th C one was incredible.

Sleep
The star of the Sleep room was the quilt stitched by prisoners through Fine Cell Work, a social enterprise that teaches inmates creative skills (including needlework and quilting) and provides them with the opportunity to sell their work. Each patch on the quilt was made by an individual  and accompanied by a paragraph or so (written by the maker) to explain the design.

Sex
The most disappointing of all the rooms as it only offered one 'quilt'. I feel like much more could have been made of this room.

Illness
This and the death room were probably my favourites (not sure what that says about me). I think that because quilts are normally made for someone in particular and because they are quite time-consuming to make there's a lot of thought and personal story connected to them which is why the illness room was quite touching. I loved Sue Walters 'Unchained Melody' quilt as much for the beautiful fabric choices as the story behind it. She  made it sitting by her husband's side whilst he was in the severe stages of Alzheimers. I also really liked Becky Knight's quilt that was linked to her struggle with depression. It's v.cleverly constructed with actual stones trapped between layers of fabric (emulating the weight of her depression) and an outline of a person made out of painkillers. I say it all the time but I really like how many different forms quilts can take, it's such an expressive medium.

Death
Understandably it was all a bit morbid in here but the quilts were wonderfully creative. The coffin shaped tweed patch quilt was cool but sadly I didn't get a picture. Nor did I get a picture of the two quilts by Michele Walker which were particularly poignant. But I did take a picture of this 19th C widow's quilt which is beautiful.

We also had a look around the rest of the mansion which had recently-ish been restored to its former Georgian glory. My favourite thing was the Octagonal room, it had the most amazing carpet and wallpaper (not original but a fairly accurate reproduction of what it would have looked like). The oval staircase was also pretty special. Before getting back on the train my mum and I popped into the tea room - which was v.nice. A massive sandwich and a scone later we stepped out into the most torrential downpour. My feet got absolutely soaked on the walk to the station (damn converse) but the rain made the park, including the avenue of horse chestnuts, look incredibly green and lush.

It's a rather teeny exhibition but the price of the ticket does mean you get to wander around the rest of the house which makes the ticket price (£8) worth it I reckon.

So it's a pretty grey, chilly day but at least it's Friday, a Friday before yet another long weekend - yay!

the hunterian museum

Last Friday I didn't go to work, instead, I went to visit the Hunterian Museum at The Royal College of Surgeons. Not for the faint of heart (or weak of stomache) - the museum houses a huge collection of specimens: human, animal, inspect, reptile. Some of it is pretty gross but hey! gross stuff can also be rather fascinating. As well as the specimens, there's also information about the history of surgeons including how they learned about anatomy, the tools they used to 'operate' (terrifying) and the way in which surgery has evolved and changed over time - the stuff about sterilisation and early plastic surgery for WWI soldiers was particularly interesting. There's also lots about the museum's name sake, John Hunter, who was some what of a pioneer thanks to his "scientific" approach to surgery. The Royal College is only about a 5 minute walk from Holborn station and faces a pretty leafy patch known as Lincoln's Inn Fields. Plus, the museum is free and has lockers to put your stuff in.

Friday evening was spent with a v.good friend in a bloody fantastic pub in Surbiton. Recently refurbished, it has a seriously impressive ale selection and a v.tempting menu (I can vouch for the scotch egg and sweet potato fries - cutlery and condiments arrived in this holder which I thought was cool). Seems like West London is finally cottoning on to the idea of mirco breweries and ale pubs (huzzah!) - which reminds me, I reeeeally must to go back to BrewDog in Shepherds Bush soon.