Nat Johnson live review

Early december i used my last annual leave to have a long weekend in london. I always enjoy spending time in london, there's always plenty to see and do. This time i was keen to check out the new exhibition in the turbine hall. Shibboelth is a huge crack that has been created in the actual fabric of the hall floor. It's an incredible and novel idea, the name of the piece taken from a passage in Judges where the gileadites use the word to distinguish their enemy, fellow israelites, but from the tribe of Ephraim. The inability of the Ephramites to pronounce the word correctly resulted in their execution. A brutal biblical story that leaves 45k dead. A term that since has been come to use a means of differentiating between types of people, here the crack represents the cracks and divisions that arise in society. Cracks that are set up as stumbling blocks to make life harder for those who are different. It's a powerful message, and a popular piece of work. Plenty of other interesting things to see in and around the tate modern. Sunday afternoon I had to run to catch my coach home, just arriving at the platform on time. The journey was delayed and i arrived back in sheffield later than anticipated, but just in time to get to the red house in sheffield to see nat johnson's debut gig. The lead singer of monkey swallows the universe is currently pursuing some solo work during the indefinate hiatus. Despite the songs being very new, it is clear that with a bit of nurture they will grow into songs of beauty. She has a rare talent in making music that contains that je ne sais quois which sets it way above the rest. Teletext deemed my review worthy of publishing, a rarity for a debut gig review to be published i'm sure.

my photos of london dec 07
photos of Nat's gig

central st martin's

London again, this time just for the day on the train. I went down to see the final year degree show at central st martins. HC was exhibiting her final year piece which was the main reason i went along. However, i really enjoyed browsing all the displays. Spent over 2.5 hours there was so much to see and investigate. A number of the pieces seemed to be influenced by construction. Either by items discarded, or by structures themselves.
One such piece had a small space you could climb and squeeze through which was fun. The process of construction in shaping our surroundings. It was amazing to see so many inovative ideas, so forward thinking and vital. Such a change to the mundaneness of everyday life, it's great to see that there are people who are experimenting and trying new things, whilst i spend days bored at work tapping on a computer. Unfortunately cos hc was part of her installation, cos it included performance art I wasn't able to chat about some of the pieces with her. After browsing i found myself a coffee shop to sit and write some of my book, i seemed to hit a bit of a roll, which is good. I have all these scenes in my heaed, it's all about interpreting them onto the page, it's not straight forward.
In the evening i met up with cem and we enjoyed yo sushi, I was particulalry amused by a young girl sat opposite who was attempting to stick a noodle up her nose, until her mum intervened.

More photos in my st martin's flickr set

london weekend and mstu

Leading up to June I'd been feeling a bit down, probably cos in another world I'd've been travelling to canada to spend time with v. Instead I'd decided to try and keep myself busy, which i think i've done pretty successfully. This weekend I took the opportunity to visit hc in london and see monkey swallows the universe live at the Spitz. Arriving around mid-day, i'd got a fair amount of time to kill and wandered into green park to read in the sun. Nice and relaxing, i'd arrange to meet hc around trafalgar late afternoon, so wandered over to see if i could find a nice coffee bar nearby. Arrived at trafalgar and noticed that there was due to be a free palestine march. It sounded interesting so took a seat on the steps outside the national gallery and awaited the arrival of the march. I'd happeded to be sat next to a group of knitters, who apparently meet up in random locations around the city to knit. There were a couple of guys too - how metrosexual. One of them was knitting with a pair of huge needles, about a metre tall. It seemed to be attracting considerable attention.

Eventually the march arrived and a number of seakers addressed the crowd. Some were much better than others, I must admit some of the speakers that were addressing us as comrades and encouraging us to support the freedom fighters were not using the most tactful of language. It's such a shame a week after the event to see the political turmoil that has enveloped the state of palestine. A coalition of democratically elected governers is overturned because other countries refuse to deal with Hamas. It makes a mockery of democracy. And the embargos enforced on the palestinian authorities is one of the main issues to lead to the conflict and in-fighting that only serves to ridicule the ability of the palestinian people to govern themselves. What a situation.

As the afternoon wore on I looked down to see that I was beginning to turn a bright shade of red, so i swiftly made for the shade and awaited hc.

We headed out to liverpool st station and got something to eat before making our way to the spitz. It was absolutely roasting hot in the venue, and we were in time to see the first act. They were pretty poor, playing chaotic rock that followed obvious progressions from loud to quiet. Yawn. Then it was mstu who again put on an absolutley fabulous gig. Nat's vocals were particularly passionate and the new songs hint that the new album will be just as good as the debut. Finally, shady bard, the headline take the stage and wow the crowd with their orchestral indie rock. Songs about the environment, reminiscent of 'we love life' by pulp. Good stuff.

Sunday i appreciated the warm weather, browsed the tate modern before arranging to meet a myspace friend. Passing st paul's i decided to pop in and say a prayer. The sung eucharist had just started, so i took a seat near the back and listened to the pomp of the ceremony. Not my usual thing high anglican worship, but nothing else would have done in this magnificant venue. The architecture and paintings are incredible and with the bombastic sounds of the organ vibrating through the church you can't help but get a sense of the awesomeness of god. Something that is easy to forget when sat around tables with coffee chatting, which is my normal worship preference. I also liked the fact that there were people coming and going at the back of the church, some to get a free look at the architecture, others to perhaps pray or sit in on the service for a while before leaving. It gave fluid nature to the worship, strange in a venue that follows such a rigid formal worship. Of course those who wished to take an active participation in the service could be lead to the front of the church by one of the nuerous ushers.

Finally met up with ys in shepherds bush and enjoyed mint tea and some food at a little arabic cafe before going for a walk through st james park. It was a lovely day and interesting to meet someone who is also a big fan of music.

A few more pics in the flickr set

travels with v

It was strange to see v at the airport when I went to pick her up. Waiting expectantly in the arrivals hall, the door periodically opening with showers of people as planes landed. The arrivals board indicated that her flight had landed and that the passengers were awaiting the baggage, five minutes after the board revealed that baggage was available then the doors opened with v at the healm. It'd been about 6 months since I'd last seen her, and now in 3D, which is far better than the small 2D screen of the webcam that had been our means of communication. I was really pleased to see her again.
We exchanged presents and spent a few days around sheffield, meeting friends and family and also going to see a few movies. The bizarre, Perfume: the story of a murderer, directed by Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame. A stroy line so strange and twisted that it left you leaving perplexed. However it was infinately better than the dire the holiday, reminding me why I detest romantic comedies that are neither romantic or funny. When was the last time that Surrey experienced significant snowfall between christmas and new year? Still it amused v that I would be willing to accompany her to such a film.
We spent a few days of the new year in Prague, which is a very pretty and quaint city. It wasn't too cold, but an icy wind made it feel very chilly as we wandered around the city. Public transport from the hostel to the city was cheap and efficient. We saw many of the historical sites, churches that looked like something from Gormenghast, interior decor that, though beautiful, often lifted high some man or other, often some saint or bishop and sometimes in a pose that was quite oppressive, eg standing on top of someone. I find this style frustrating, male and power centric, detracting from my understanding of my christian faith. The changing of the guards was long and dull with few choreographed moves, I'd have preferred some mock sword fights at least! All backed by a brass band leaning out of windows playing a tune similar to the Thunderbirds theme, but in a different key.
We did enjoy a stringed performance of Vivaldi and Mozart, there was some violin maestro dude who was very good and we applauded heartily at the end. He bowed and left the stage, we continued the applause and the backing string players took a bow and left. We continued clapping and the maestro dude re-entered, excellent an encore I thought, but alas, he had returned merely to hold aloft his violin and take a further bow. It's not like going to gigs!
Food and drink was very cheap provided you kept away from the touristy areas, though both me and v felt that czech food left little to be desired. Little wonder there aren't chains of czech restaurants outside bohemia! We did find this lovely tea house where we spent some time drinking strange asian teas and doing sudoku.
After Prague we went to London for a night for my friends 30th bday, travelled by coach which cost us less than a return to town on the tram! Great to see my friend and also to have a day to spend in london. We visited the tate modern and enjoyed the slide installation, riding the larger slides, which I actually found quite scary with the fast twist and turns. Also amused by Merde d'Artiste and other works on display. One of my favourite museums. Had lunch in London's longest bar near paddington station, then to Harrods, then straight out of Harrods as we could barely move through the hoardes of shoppers. A quick view around the science museum before some yo sushi and the coach home.
Prague photo set
London photo set

London calling

Went to London yesterday as i had to attend a training course for this document management system we use. It was a fairly brief, but very useful course held at their head office. I'd got the directions to the venue, but when I reached the correct road I scouted up and down it about twice but could not locate number 18. Perhaps, I thought, you have to know the correct brick to tap with your wand to make it appear, a bit like Diagon Alley. However, after I rang up it turned out that the street I was on actually carried on on the other side of the crossroad. Taking advantage of being in London I decided to do a bit of wandering around after the course, calling in at the National Gallery where they had a nice Cezanne exhibition. There was also a Hockney exhibition on in the portrait gallery, and upon entering the gallery I executed a perfect 180 degree turn upon reading the entry fee, £9! Wandered around Oxford Road, first time I've seen it lit up for Christmas I think, not that impressed. Met up with C for a meal and a chat, it's always good to meet friends, we went to yo sushi, which I enjoyed. Trying to intercept food items as they flowed around on the conveyor belt. Late train back and I've almost finished reading my book, if only work was like this every day.

Monkey Swallows the Universe and other tales

It was the company golf day and I was granted half a day leave to avoid it which I used to travel to london. Went on the coach and it was a very grey journey, rain and spray and i began to wonder to myself how uncool I would look traipsing the streets of this chic city in my pac-a-mac. However it was a wasted worry as the sun sprang into action as we arrived in london. made my way to the hall of residence which I had booked for a night's accomodation in angel. This was chosen due to it's location, being just about 1 mile away from the Buffalo Bar which was my selected destination for the evening. After some fish and chips I made the bar for about 8:45 in time to see the majority of a set by the mary epworth band who I quite enjoyed. A kind of country tinged music, but with some really fine strong vocals. After the set I met john earls, who edits planet sound the teletext page that occasionally prints my gig reviews.

We'd arranged to meet after I'd recommended mstu to him and he said that he'd probably go as there was another band he wanted to check out. He'd come to see the pocketbooks who were on next. I wasn't convinced, fairly average to me, girl vocals were either endearing or a bit rubbish, i tended towards the latter. You could tell it was an early gig due to confusion between songs and indifferent xylophone playing. The next band, however, were very good indeed. fanfarlo, based around a swedish singer songwriter who recently moved to london. A kind of avant garde rock style in the vein of arcade fire and clap your hands say yeah! I liked this a lot. Finally upstepped monkey swallows the universe and they did not disappoint. Their tunes won the hearts of the audience and even an encore was called for. John seemed to like it too, so hopefully there may be a review on a teletext screen near you!

Saturday was another gloriously sunny day and I spent a couple of hours wandering around the national gallery, thinking to myslef that it's great that some of my tax money goes towards making this fine museum free to all. I enjoyed browsing the paintings from the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th. As it had just opened there was plenty of time to admire works like 'sunflowers' by van gogh that are usually crowded out. Spent some time looking at the works of Degas, who is an artist I like a lot. Not sure exactly why, but I find his portrayals of women, especially the washing hair type scenes, really quite fascinating. I discovered a book about the artist in the museum shop and it was a mere £5 so I decided to invest in it. Met up with CEM for lunch and caught up with what we'd both been up to the last few months. Then we spent some time wandering around the galleries of the Tate Modern. Unfortunately they were in th emiddle of installing a new feature in the turbine hall. But there's still plenty to see, and it was busy too. Great that art like this is popular. It garners so many different reactioins tho, over hearing two blokes exclaim "effin' hell" when confronted by a canvas coloured grey all over amused me. I then inadvertantly wandered into an art piece, with these modern affairs you are never quite sure of the interaction allowed, but the piece of mirrored cubes I was wandering between to admire the reflections was strictly out of bounds, and if I'd approached from another direction I would've seen the 'do not cross this line' warning! It annoys me a little that you aren't allowed to take photos of some of these works, they just cry out to be photographed, and I'm sure it would promote some of these works. I tried to take a few sneeky pics, but always come out shaky, with not using the flash and all....

pictures of the mstu gig
pictures in and around london

Made in Deptford

On saturday me and v went to London for the day and had a really great time. We started our day browsing some of the shops in Knightsbridge where I tried to contain my shock at the price of the items on sale. Whilst walking around Harrods I realised that the coat I was wearing had a piece of gaffa tape on the sleeve, holding together a hole, hardly chic wear! Despite the prices, there were some very nice items for sale, and I was very tempted with the sausages on offer in Harrods. For lunch we met up with an ex-colleague of mine who worked in the same lab as me some years ago. It has been quite some time since I last saw Xinyu, so there was plenty to talk about, not least her rapidly growing children. She took us to see the Cutty Sark and also to browse round the Grenwich observatory, which I found incredibly interesting, there was some fine examples of precision engineering on display. Time, what a fascinating thing, and how we now take measuring it for granted these days. We took some really nice pictures too, including this one of me and v near the observatory. Next we met up with chris c and headed into Deptford for the made in deptford festival. As I mentioned earlier, the main attraction for us was 2-4 Brew. This was an exhibition of both video and paintings juxtaposed with each other, hosted in the artists own home, their living space turned into a gallery, it was a great idea. There is a picture of me next to one of the pieces in the hallway, sporting a pair of glasses which are part of the exhibition too. We then wandered around coming across a fashion show of many weird and wonderful outfits, making me think this place is full of crazy people and I like it! Meeting up with Helen to discuss her installation and generally catch up, we spent time in a cafe that was giving free knitting lessons. Suffice to say I was poor at this, getting all in a tangle that was the result of knitting with the loose end instead of the wool attached to the ball, it was a mess. Helen and v were pretty good at it, and chris was equally as inept as me. Another gallery/studio we went in actually belongs to steve pippin a turner nominated artist. He had converted this old shop into a piece of art in its own right, a sign on the outside states that it is called "mr pippin's opticians". The first floor has an undulating floor fitted, and you are led upstairs to various rooms, another room shows exposed ceiling struts with strips of wood woven inside giving the appearance of a flake or twirl chololate bar. It really was an interesting building, which also doubles as his studio. It was also great to see that a number of the churches in the area were getting involved in the festival, hosting some of the events. After a browse around some more studios, where I was tempted to purchase some of the work on offer, we all went to a pub called the Dog and Bell, which I must promote as being the best pub in London. Not only did it serve great beer and have a bar-billiard table (which I have no idea how you play) they also serve great food. However, we were cutting it fine for time and browsing the timetable we discovered that there was very little time to catch the train from Deptford to London bridge. The staff at the Dog and Bell very kindly packed my and v's meal into take away cartons, and we had 10 min to get to the station, which we made with about 90 seconds to spare. Finally getting in to St Pancras about 10 min before the train left, leaving us a little flustered, but the food really was delicious. There will be some photos upladed to my flickr sets shortly.