vivienne westwood

A few minutes to spare today, as I passed the Vivienne Westwood exhibition, so I thought I'd stop in for a look. As I arrived, I was the only visitor, although by the time I left it was getting busy.

Westwood designed the emblematic punk rock era clothes, but as one looks at this extensive collection, it is evident that it takes real effort and design to look so casual.


There's layering and tailoring from the most raggedy punk anarchist clothing to the well behaved and highly tailored love jacket of her later work. Fascinating to step through the eras of Pirates and Protestors, through Regency and Victorian tailoring ideas all the time evident that this is the work of a thoughtful seditionary.

sounds of a city

Another city today and have been listening to the sundry sirens and background noise.

I suppose I'm used to London and perhaps didn't expect so much 'blues and twos' activity around here. From where I'm staying there is a sort of natural 'bowl' and perhaps the sound is just carrying around within it. Individual sirens seem to go on for ten minutes whilst moving around the area.

Either that or there's more emergencies here per hour than I've experienced in other places. Its actually early morning when I write this and I've had sound from sirens, drunks, sirens, loud revellers at 2am, more sirens, dawn.

Tuesday will be fun.

Gershwin

A foot-tapping afternoon, as we found ourselves at the Royal Albert Hall, partly via the 452 bus route. A performance of Gershwin tunes, ably danced to by the English National Ballet. Our tickets were for the Grand Tier, and it turned out that we had a box with a great view of the central stage and also the orchestra, and also some nibbles and bubbly waiting for us before we took our seats.

There seemed to be a 'bit of a do' going on in the room next to us too, after initially spotting Lucinda from the Apprentice in a strikingly pink beret with a supporting and well co-ordinated ensemble. Then Rachel Stevens, Paul O'Grady, Maureen Lipman and a few others from show biz, who also seemed to be enjoying their own champagne reception.

A slick performance, with great energy from the cast, from the dancers, through the musicians and even the amusingly manic conductor. The show comprised entirely Gershwin numbers, all recognizable from famous films and mainly accompanied by ballet based dancing.

After this Sunday afternoon performance, we headed to Manicomio just off the King's Road for Gnocci and a dash of red wine.

pollen

Figured out that there must be a high pollen count. Need antihistamines.

Laura Marling in church

"Cross your fingers, hold your toes, we're all gonna die when the building blows". We're part of a loyal group of followers watching Laura Marling singing, in church, on Friday the 13th, that "You're no God".

A simple plan, to meet before the gig, which somehow had a couple of us drinking on the pavement outside the Red Lion behind the church and the others dining Italian in Piccadilly.

Anyway, we all met in the line and were able to link ourselves with the tickets. St James is the church with the little market outside it most days, across the road from the Royal Academy and le Meridien. The queue of people snaked outside of the church grounds and along part of Piccadilly.

Inside, the pews filled fast and we moved from downstairs to the gallery where we grabbed seats with a pretty good view. First up was the accomplished Mumford and Sons, which is a separate band formed from parts of the group that accompany Laura Marling - confusingly it was billed as Melody and Me, so maybe its one of those collectives with rotating band members? Harmonies, plenty of varied folky instruments and a strong five number set. Short pause before a second support band, with plenty of enthusiasm although perhaps not quite the same musicality as the first group.

Laura had been sitting out front for the first act but had sidled into the backstage area during the second act and sure enough, after a short pause for candles to be lit, Laura took to the stage beginning with solo acoustic numbers before being joined by a varied selection of band members.

I've listened to 'Alas I cannot swim', Laura's first haunting album, quite a few times, and found the live versions both precise but still suitably different from the album. Laura's lyrics are quite dark and suggest a life which has felt death's breath and a few unusual encounters. The album is a sort of song cycle with an emotional arc in it like an 'olden days' concept album.

One can't help thinking that the themes of relationships, death and crossings simply provide an initial slightly buried "X marks the spot" from which to project forward other themes in later work. A few new tracks in the set suggested that there's plenty of ideas musically and lyrically in what one assumes to be a busy mind.

Overall a good example of a performer and friends who can just play and sing live well without too much electronica to aid them. An interlude about walking around a graveyard in Birmingham added to the intrigue of some of the lyrics and reinforced my thoughts of a negative image of Emily Strange.

Laura seems to spend time inside her songs when on stage. Aside from the between song chatter, she sings in a manner which often looks to the floor rather than to the audience. The songs are strong, but its not always easy to tell the demeanor of their enigmatic singer.

Here's a fabchannel version of the recent Paradiso gig in Amsterdam.


I am honest now, not a shouter,
I am reformed, forgiven and reborn.
And you're been busy but you've missed me
And I plagued you mind.
You will never go outside,
You will never go back to being blind.

I need shine, I need shine, I need shine,
Step away from my light, I need shine.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, laura, marling, laura+marling, church, london, stjames, piccadilly, alas,

convictions

An interesting day at the spin factory, with the resignation of Shadow Home Secretary David Davis because of the government win on the terrorist detention vote.

It looks like proper conviction politics, when a well regarded MP front bencher stands down and creates a by-election on a matter of principle. His point is about erosion of UK civil liberties and that the 42 day detention without charge becomes another example alongside cameras everywhere, the big DNA database and potentially a national identity card - "The database State", he called it. I see the Lib-Dems say they won't contest the seat when he restands for election in Hull. I wonder whether Cameron will offer Conservative party support for the election?

Its harder to read Gordon Brown's reaction to the outcome, with a win of the vote by 9 seats, despite a rebellion of his own back-benchers. There's still the House of Lords to traverse and possible scraps with the Judiciary. For Gordon this must be more about his leadership credibility as he counts the days to the summer recess.

Interestingly the small majority was finally swayed Gordon's way by the Ulster Democratic Party voters, who changed their mind just before the vote after a backstage session with Brown.

Everyone denies that there were any concessions towards the UDP. Certainly no money from central government to support the introduction of metered water in Northern Ireland. Certainly no concessions on the sell off at less than market rates of ex MoD security bases in Northern Ireland. Certainly no special treatment for Ian Paisley.

I'm sure Gordon wouldn't be using behind the scene tactics to force the vote his way at a time when his own credibility is on the line. He'd play it straight with his own conviction.

Wouldn't he?

hello viewers?

...as if.

hello campers

Continuing the mobility theme from yesterday, here's the latest version of rashbre mobile.

A trial run today of a popup tent for Glastonbury. This year, instead of tent poles and fibre glass thingies, its popup all the way. The tent in question is in a circular bag like a 95cm x 3cm pizza.

Unzip from the packet. Throw in the air and bazzong - an instant tent.

Don't get me wrong, I like proper backpack style tents too and have hiked around Europe with them, but for a festival moment, this has the advantage of instant deployment and only slightly longer take-down.

We trialled it today and had such fun we popped it into use three or four times. We wouldn't do that with a peggypole tent. Now, where's the wellies?

Okay, a popup tent demo from utube...[warning - these clips are quite addictive]

Technorati Tags: rashbre, mobile, glastonbury, popup, tent, camping, outwell

another me

I received notification today that I'm now part of the "me crowd". I can continue to be part of the mac crowd too, but when MobileMe arrives, apparently I'm already enrolled.

Of course, there's been rumours about this mail/calendar/contact/gallery integration service for a while, since the "me" domains were purchased by the company that looks after Apple's domain business.

I'll need to think about this one, because I try to keep my 'work' and 'play' computing separate.

I have a work phone and a play iPhone at the moment, so I wonder how tempting it will be to add 'work' Microsoft Exchange links when the iPhone 2 software appears next month?

I suppose .me gives me a way to have yet more identities if I want them. "We" shall see.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, mac, mobileme, iphone2, 3G, apple,

kite?

A leisurely cycle ride today around a few twisty lanes. Hardly a car in sight although the occasional waft of barbecues being prepared.

There's an area where I sometimes cycle which has a bit of a valley and occasionally I've seen a big bird of prey (big by London-ish standards) soaring around but never close enough to identify. It has a markedly large wingspan compared with most of the birds around here and is a kind of rich rusty brown colour with some white plumage.

Today it flew past quite close for a few seconds and I managed to make out the striking V shape of its tail, which makes me think its a kite - which I understand are quite rare in this part of the country. By the time I'd grabbed my camera from my backpack it had disappeared and although I briefly followed in the same direction I found myself in a field which had some sort of metal detector convention in progress.

Then, when I got home, I noticed a corner of another picture accidentally seems to have the same bird in it - and even another one at a much greater height.

Probably one of the worst photos I've published on here, but it gives me a challenge for another day!

tix

...but this is...

sitting pretty

So after the band, I spend an indulgent time sitting in a waterfront bar watching the world.

Sunshine, with boats and people bobbing by.

I'll admit to some blackberrying when I first sat down, but then I decided that I needed a little down time and awarded myself the chance to chill out somewhere pleasant before the hike back to London.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is pretty positive about Norway and the 'crinkly bits' and sure enough its a pretty country, especially on a beautiful sunny day. The snap is from the plane's window.