saw the Monsters of Folk on tuesday. felt like an age since i last went to a gig (though i think it was only late summer, Tindersticks), i finally get to see the inside of the Troxy. it was good, there is more to write later maybe.

went drinking last night with current and former office colleagues. one of the good things about this place is the comraderie and genuine affection the workers have for one another. although it takes some getting used to and has definite downsides regarding personal/professional boundaries etc. glad to see some old faces, but was super-tired all day, and 3.5 pints later was ver drunk. ah well. don't feel too bad today but a mild hangover is indicated by my lack of disposition to do anything, and frequent typos.

some of these are good: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/openletters/

and, my painter friend is in this show, at orbital comics, ends on monday: http://www.dansemacabre-art.co.uk/dm_london2009.html go see it.

now, to work out how to get to Longstowe tonight, and Burwell tomorrow. should i try and get a lift, or just accept that there will be a lot of cycling tomorrow (Longstowe-Cambridge-Burwell-Cambridge)...?

i like this project: making useful and fun stuff from the Olympics site bright blue hoarding as the contractors are taking it down. http://superniche.org/2009/08/24/the-blue-fence-project/

also - a chance (if more tickets appear) to see the Kingsway subway, on until 8th November. http://measure.org.uk/measurenews.html

saw 3 exhibs last week:

Sarah Oppenheimer and Yuko Shiraishi at Annely Juda, very quiet when it's not a David Hockeny show... the piece of gallery floor, lifted, shaped, cut for views, looking a bit like some high-tech stealth aircraft, was rather good, wedged into the gallery. and a small maquette unfolded flat in a frame, showing the skeleton (although it was flat against the wall and looked like it should have been lifted away, like its life-size version). The Space Tea House was alright, in a way it should have been better, but it was in an airless gallery, isolated, when it seemed like it should have been installed on a rooftop (Annely Juda has some fine rooftop views) with the damp grey sky occuppying its wirey thin frame.

Castellani Flavin Judd Uecker at the Haunch of Venison - occupying bits of a ground floor wing and upstairs. i like the way those minimal installation pieces blur into the gallery - the round glassy CCTV camera in the corner, and the old lighting tracks in the ceiling, all getting absorbed into the work, no edges. There was a funny inbetween windowless room - just a small lobby between two other rooms, with open doorways into each - with green fluorescent tubes diagonally arranged on the wall (must've been a Flavin piece) which had the rather entertaining effect of making the rooms either side really pink. even when you know! brain - stop trying to white-balance the green! amazing really. and there's a funny little ping! when you leave and see out of the window and everything is normal again.

okay, lastly, Rosalind Nashashibi at the ICA. much better than i was expecting - good little incidental moments. a big room downstairs with a projection room in the middle and projectors facing 3 of the walls. peering into the projection room, what appears to be a leak or incidental reflection of the side projection, overlaid with the light coming through the fan bit (stripey), it must've been deliberate, a proper projection and a little one going the opposite way, but i couldn't work out or quite see how. starting with the glass window right infront of the projection lens tilted at about a 45degree angle though, perhaps. and the other two projectors played alternately, and while the other one played you could sit on the bench facing the non-projection - just a white rectangle painted on the grey wall, and watch the colours of the rectangle shift and change with the reflected light from around the room. Upstairs, an absolutely genius piece - so simple and perfectly executed. 16mm film of a woman, mostly seen from behind, walking around Southbank. not continuous, nicely edited, and with sound. plays as a continuous loop (here's the genius bit) on two projectors, projecting side by side. they weren't protected so it was as fascinating to watch the film wind diagonally across from one to the other, as to watch the projected film repeat perfectly and inevitably , never catching up, side by side. near the beginning there's a bit where the film judders and the projector rattles - must be something to do with the sprocket holes out of line - and of course it does it a few seconds later on the other projection. dunno why but that especially pleased me... worth seeing.

This Sunday 20th, at 8pm, Bridge Street
http://www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk/films/2009/silents-on-the-streets/

just saw this: http://www.corsicastudios.com/index.php/july-2009/101-super-furry-animals-warehouse-party-ii

tomorrow night, for a tenner. was planning on having a fairly quiet one but...

the last couple of hours have been tedious. there's been too much to do this week and very little of it's been done, so i thought i'd stay a little late, but i've just been staring into middle distance and feeling tired. ho hum. a little update and then a final burst of productivity and then chucking out time...
tuesday night went along to the opening of the Hannah Barry gallery's summer sculpture (and other art) show. i was at their painting exhibition a few months ago and Sven, the co-owner, got chatting and said i should come to it. he was unusually chatty and friendly for a gallery owner... they've made quite a name for themselves in the last year and a little bit since they've been open, with reviews in the FT, outpost exhibition in the west end (2 doors along from Annely Juda), a showing at the Venice Biennale this year (the "Peckham Pavilion") and more good review. both notably young (25 and 30) they seem to just have loads of reasonably talented friends, connections, and aren't afraid of just doing stuff.
so, the show, it is "Bold Tendencies III" and it is on the top 2 levels of the carpark in the Cineplex on Rye Lane, Peckham. Very good indeed, a single scruffy lift (packed with visitors) takes you to level 6 (it's actually only the 2nd floor - they number the half-levels and start from ground) to a dark concrete car-park, with only one car parking there tonight, but dozens of nice-looking bikes looked to every available drainpipe and railing (you know the ones, retro or actually old and reconditioned, racer or touring, that mostly boys with skinny jeans and interesting but not ridiculous hairstyles and plaid shirts ride - oh wait, everyone's in plaid shirts this year) and the occasional security guard in a dark, smart suit. the visitors are all sort of flowing up the ramps towards pieces of gently glowing art, or groups of friends and acquaintances. the low concrete ceiling and plain half-height wall frame the views of a big artist-occupied warehouse across the railway line, and peckham in the sunset on the other side. My favorite piece in this dark space was a big loop of 8mm film projecting (business card sized) a sea view against a concrete column. a metal pipe played the sound of trains from the direction of the railway, but it was a small tape player stuck to the end. Piano wire stretched across vibrating gently, glimmering slightly in a carfeully placed light (how long before someone walks into it though). Big paintings and a bus stop style light-box. Even a small bit of white-walled-gallery installed (Andrew thought he recognised the work from the Camberwell degree show). local kids and older gallery visitors and lots and lots of art students. Circling up the ramps again to the very top, and the art is pretty much inconsequential: it's the top of a carpark, it's summer, there's a sunset happening and a couple of hundred kids hanging around noisily. there's even a bar, very nicely built in timber with a red canopy like the Rialto fish market, but it's too busy and they've run out of beer. the kids the kids, they are all good-looking. is like being on the set of Skins (not really but a little bit). Andrew said "Even the ones who aren't good-looking are good-looking. I don't know how they manage it."
If you're in the area, check it out. it's on til end of September. i think i'll go back, i'm curious whether it will be busy or not.
i noticed it a lot that night but i've been noticing lately that my person-recognition seems to be malfunctioning slightly. i think i recognise everyone, or that they look familiar, or like someone i know. Familiar strangers. maybe it has something to do with commuting where you do see the same strangers day after day, but it might be more than that. i even think i know people in adverts, is a strange feeling.
i was halfway up to kingsx and i was tired, i decided to stay over in london. realised too late that i had left tickets for the next day at home... so did a bonkers run up to cambridge and back down again in the morning before work. gah. i thought i would have more sleep than that.
so yesterday, it was back to hyde park, to see the Tindersticks and the unlikely return of Big Star. i was just heading there when my sister texted - she was on her way to see Take That at wembley! blimey. apparently on my recommendation (even though i've only seen them on TV). anyhoo, she hadn't thought to tell me, eh, but i was heading for a rather more sedate evening. oh, i've woken up a bit now, better do some work for a bit, more later...

barlett show on friday night. dropped and lost my railcard, oyster card and an access/ID card out of my railcard holder cos i kept fiddling with timetables etc. all replaceable but costly. didn't make it to springsteen tribute night.
slightly rubbish and tired saturday, although i did manage to help my mum with some stuff. failed to get to abigailb's party, apologies once again.
sunday carried too much stuff down to london, stood around in hyde park all afternoon, saw the Gaslight Anthem, James Morrison (felt a bit sorry for him but he did his best to 'rock'!) couldn't be arsed with standing anywhere near the front during the Dave Matthews Band, and to be honest they were still pretty annoying from further back, then watched a very very tiny Bruce Springsteen play a storming 2 3/4 hour set. kicked off with London Calling - class!
legged it up the stairs at Borough tube station this morning, a little out of breath at the top but ok - this is an achievement as i used to do this everyday and not be much out of breath at the top and lately haven't been able to without feeling like it is extremely hard going and wanting to stop halfway up.
on the other hand, the gig was over by 10, i am at work and i am Very Tired.

hmm i was eating dinner last night and managed to stab myself in the lip/cheek with my fork. it slipped and hit a tooth, which means it went through my lip/cheek and hit a tooth. i now have a small hole in my face which wasn't there this time yesterday... oh well. i think i'll live. spectacularly bad tool skills though.

in other news, there are GIGS coming up! yes yes, The Boss no less on sunday, in hyde park, preceded by a tribute night on friday - Play Some Pool, Skip Some School, Act Real Cool - in highbury that i'm gonna try and get to. i dunno anything about this little label but it might be nice: http://www.wiaiwya.com/
then back to hyde park on wednesday 1st for the Tindersticks supported by Big Star. Big Star! blimey i thought they were a band least likely to... i'm kinda tempted by Regina Spektor on the monday but after Bruce i don't think i'll manage it.
also, it's end-of-year season starting already last week (i missed london met cos i stupidly had in my head the first day of the exhibition for the opening, not the night before... ) then, open studios in july. there may be some hecticness.
saw Dengue Fever last week which was a retro-pop treat.

also i was grumpy over the weekend. i was pretty chirpy last week, the iron seemed to be working, then went out on friday night for a friend's birthday, moderate dancing involved, night bus home, spent all of saturday feeling wrecked and grumpy. just disappointed i guess. i mean i do feel much better, but still not everything's right.

saw a modern english translation of the Magic Flute last night, part of May week stuff so all students and recent students. pretty good, all in all, although the Queen of the Night had a sore throat. Felt rather sorry for her in her big solo, she looked like she was suffering a bit, but just about managed to pull it off, albeit squeakily. Papageno and Pamina were particularly impressive. The 'bawdy' comedy didn't always work quite right in the setting (most of the audience were in DJs), and the audience didn't quite know how to react to the tongue-in-cheek chauvinism, but it might feel better when they take it on the road... now i have various tunes jostling for space in my brain.

http://www.cambridgebeerfestival.com/summer/

anyone going?

Seventies-retro Cacharel/Liberty-print collection. sigh
Liberty fabric sale. cottons "only" £20/m down from £28/m...

nudged by pseudomonas's post - where is there good to eat / take tea in Cambridge? (actually, what is there to do generally, new post needed...)

has anyone seen Spring Awakening? the posters on the underground looked interesting. looked at the website, not sure about it all...

i was thinking of going to Latitude. check those headliners! it just sounds nice and will get to hear lots of stuff i haven't heard before.

exhibitions i must make effort to see before they close:
recreation of Corb's Cabanon, RIBA, til 28th. mon-sat til 5, tues til 9.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year, NHM til 26th. open til 5.50. (advance booking)
Mythologies, Haunch of Venison, til 25th. Burlington Gardens, M-F til 6, Sat til 5.
David Ward: Slow Time, Kettles Yard, til 10th May. Tues-Sun til 5.