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.

april pics

Some random pictures from the last month

1 // going for the pot

What with the World Snooker Championships on, and having watched a fair bit of the action, Mitch and I decided to play a game ourselves on friday night at our local working man's club. The drinks are cheap and the table is free.

2 & 3 // sunny brixton village

An afternoon in Brixton which featured a quick stop off at the Crafty Fox Market to pick up an awesome tee from Skev before one of The Joint's finest pulled pork burgers and a salted caramel ice cream.

4 // cloudy skies over battersea

5, 6 & 7 // bluebell carpet 

Yesterday, we went to visit Mitch's parents in Essex. For the first time since I've been going out with Mitch, he took me on a little walk in the woods behind his parents' house. This is what we found.

8 // waiting for the train at Elsenham

9 // shell collection

Discovered when I was clearing out some stuff.

10 // on the actual banks of the thames

A friend and I walked along the south bank to vauxhall. The river was so low that we wandered down the ramp (where the duck boat tends to sit) and admired the view.

exploring richmond park

Mindful of all the food that was consumed on Easter Sunday (pasties, cake, chocolate eggs) a walk around Richmond Park on the monday seemed like a good idea. We started off at the Petersham gate and headed to the centre of the park and the Penn Ponds - we saw a herd of red deer on the way :) At the ponds it started to rain but luckily it didn't last and it was boiling hot again by the time we reached the Isabella Plantation. One thing that I really love about Richmond Park (apart from the deer) is the variety of it. You'd never guess that the beautiful cedar trees, Pembroke Lodge, the Penn Ponds and the plantation were all part of the same park. Depending on what you want to do in the park - climb trees, go on a bike ride, have a picnic, walk the dog, watch the wildlife - there's different areas you can go to get the most out of your day. I can sense we'll be spending a lot more time in Richmond Park as soon as the summer arrives.

After Isabella we headed towards the Kingston gate and into the town in search of food. A Five Guys opened up in the Rotunda last month which meant I fiiiiinally got to try one of their burgers. Seeing as we'd been walking for 5 and a half miles we opted for the cheeseburgers with all the extras we were allowed. I now get what all the fuss is about. It was guuud. As were their fries! I might be a little more adventurous with my beverage next time as the drinks machine had Coke flavours I'd never even heard of. We finished the day with some playtime with Moriarty and a cup of tea in front of My Neighbour Totoro, which was super weird but cute. Hope you all enjoyed the long weekend!