Category: Misc
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Exhibitions
Here’s a picture that doesn’t feature the portrait of anybody at all, but that I took outside the National Portrait Gallery. Over the weekend I went to two utterly unrelated exhibitions that have recently opened in London. The National Portrait Gallery has the Taylor Wessing PhotographicPortrait Prize – an exhibition of around sixty photos from…
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At The Front of the Queue
Remember when you were little, and there was always the annoying kid who had everything? He was the person who’d completed their Panini sticker collection before we’d even stuck in the free pack that came with the album. He had Bigtrak or a ZX81 even when he didn’t really like computer programming? He got a…
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Tanguera
Having read the Londonist review of Tanguera last week, and been vaguely intrigued by the tube posters, on a whim I went to see this tango inspired piece at Sadler’s Wells this evening. It’s wonderful. It’s a 90 minute simple story told via dance, with several songs, about a young French girl arriving in Argentina…
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Tate Britain
Three exhibitions. One Tate. That was what I visited today at Tate Britain – a museum that I must admit I’ve not been to as much as I once did. Certainly not since Tate Modern opened. Today I was specifically going to visit the Rude Britannia exhibition and also catch Fiona Banner’s “Harrier and Jaguar”…
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Event Cinema: Price, Comfort and “Security”
On last Friday’s Five Live film review programme, with Colin Patterson sitting in for Mayo and Kermode, there was a long discussion about event or location screenings of films. The discussion involved Fabien Riggall of Secret Cinema, and David Cox from Film4. They were talking about their respective outdoor screenings. Secret Cinema has been running…
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Observed #1
A couple are kissing passionately alongside a train that’s about to depart from platform 8 at KIngs Cross sometime around midnight. Another couple, hurrying towards platform 11 observe the scene and discuss it: Her: “Aah. They’re in love.” Him: “No. They’ve only just met this evening.” Her: “No – they’re definitely in love.” Him: “You’re…
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The Spawn of Satan
Sorry. I’m going to return to an evil that I’ve talked about before. What bedevilment do I mean? Why – the standard “ear buds” that come with Apple’s products. Look – I know I can sometimes moan about Apple. They have their closed systems, their sometimes bloated software (iTunes – I’m looking at you), and…
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Magnificant Maps
Have I mentioned before how much I love maps? Oh yes, I have. The latest exhibition at the British Library is Magnificent Maps which opened on Friday. It shows off an enormous range of maps, from a Roman era floorplan engraved on a rock through a reproduction of the Mappa Mundi (recently commissioned by the…
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6 Music Campaign
I’ve not been into Fopp for ages so it was very interesting to see their default till message.
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River Sounding
I visited River Sounding over the weekend – the audio/video exhibition by Bill Fontana at Somerset House. He’s recorded audio and shot video along the full length of the Thames and then used it in an installation placed in the Lightwells and Dead House beneath Somerset House’s courtyard. There are lots of little rooms and…
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On Volcanoes
If things had gone to plan this week, then I could currently be driving a rental car from Los Angeles to San Francisco by way of various national parks. This was after I’d taken photos of a friend’s wedding. Sadly, things didn’t happen that way, and instead I’ll be back into work this week. What…
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Discarded Toys and Books
Yesterday I was out in a local country park, and came across this sorry sight. Aside from wondering why someone felt the need to dump all their unwanted books and toys in a ditch rather than, say, a recycling bin or even a regular dustbin, I thought this was a bit of a sorry sight.…
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Moviedrome
We really are lacking in decent regular TV programmes about cinema. I noticed that Film 2010 has just ended its latest run, and I’m not sure whether it’ll be returning for a final run before Jonathan Ross ends his tenure at the BBC. While I’m sure that someone – Mark Kermode? – will take on…