the carpet weren't rolled out

Dance Umbrella's 2007 season started yesterday, with a blend of pay-for and free contemporary dance events around the capital over the rest of the month.

http://www.danceumbrella.co.uk/festival.html

(Whether you’re a dance fanatic or a Bob the Builder fan, this one is for you. may just be the ultimate tagline. How can anyone not want to know what the piece that refers to is like?)

Only last night I found myself lost by the station called King's Cross

In the middle of November, the Eurostar switches from Waterloo to St Pancras station (and soon there will be Stratford International making it even easier still for me to get to France - hurrah!) To celebrate there's ten day's worth of pick-and-mix arts events based around the Kings Cross area - performances, exhibitions, films, walking tours - and most of them look to be a) interesting and b) free. The festival's called 'Arrivals' - worth a look, methinks.

(Also, re the lyrics that title this post, new Pet Shop Boys video, Integral - one of the blue background blurs is me, and that's Senate House looming behind the double helix. If there are any of 'my' students reading this, they should recognise the underground tunnels and a particular CCTV shot as well.)

oh no he didn't!

There's something quintessentially English about Punch and Judy (foundations in Commedia dell Arte not withstanding), and while it ought to be appreciated in it' natural habitat, aka the seaside, Covent Garden's not a bad spot either.

The Punch and Judy Fellowship's annual festival takes place on Sunday 30th September In the North Piazza of Covent Garden Market, London WC2 From 10.00am until approx. 5.00pm.

oh so intricate

Advance Warning - London Film Festival

London Film Festival - 17th October to 1st November - opens for public ticket bookings on the 29th September. With showings for so many acclaimed films, some that would not otherwise get a UK screening , and many of them attended by the people involved in making them, from actors and directors, to producers and stuntmen it's o surprise that events during the festival sell out quickly. If you see something that appeals amongst the hundreds of films and events on offer - don't hang about!

There are also a number of more public events, including screenings in Trafalgar Square on the 18th and 19th October, including a screening of Hitchcock's ‘Blackmail’ as well as archive footage showing 100 years of London, from top-hatted Edwardians through swingers in 60s Soho up to nearly-now, all set to piano accompaniment.

he doesn't look a thing like Jesus.

Having fallen over it on Monday, and then had another quick skim on Tuesday, I still went and spent my lunch break taking another stroll around the Lomographers WorldWall that's currently taking centre stage in Trafalgar Square.

I first heard of the lomo phenomenon about five years ago, and I still think it sounds basically groovy. Not quite groovy enough for me to rush out and buy one of their cameras, unfortunately, although the fantastic colour saturation that even the most basic of snapshots takes on is very tempting.

But they're right - just holding a camera makes you look differently. My current project is a 365 - a photo a day for a year. I haven't had time to upload them in months, but I have been taking them. Every day. And I'm not bored yet. The world's full of so many moments that can be beautiful if you look at them from the right angle.

The LomoWorldWall is in situ till Saturday - both the images and the display are great, and well worth detouring to visit.

He drinks a lager drink, he drinks a cider drink

This came up in conversation * over the weekend : SIRC's Passport to the Pub. It's a little dated now - pre smoking ban and extended hours - but the core material's not far off the mark. (I've worked bar jobs - yes, the invisible queue really does work.)

NB. This piece forms the foundation of the (obvious) chapter of Kate Fox's Watching the English, which has equally been lapped by legal changes, but is equally light reading and, I think, basically right more often than it's basically wrong.

* in the pub, as it happens ...

our house

As always, London Open House is a cruel temptress - there's far more that I want to do than the laws of time and space will allow, and as I will mostly be spending the weekend helping people *move* house, I've had to restrict myself to only pre-booking one thing (a guided tour of the main Stratford Olympic site).

Still, the Flikr riches that will no doubt bloom after the fact may cushion the blow.

it's not the end of the world

Imperial Wharf Jazz Festival - I'm going to be at a wedding the other side of London, probably listening to the bestman's speech right around the time Babyhead are playing... Other people should clearly go and enjoy them for me.

(While I try and re-arrange my Friday night so I can fit this into it. The Tate Modern people have such very nifty ideas sometimes.)

we could be heroes

Earlier this week, one of my students asked me to recommend a film that I thought was the most accurate representation of contemporary London.

This is the point when I realised that my first answer was going to be Shaun of the Dead, and the second one was Dr Who. Given that zombies and aliens do not play a major part in my daily life, this may say more about the sort of films and tv I watch than the city in which I live...

Previous conversations about London-ish films have brought up:

Notting Hill (Hugh Grant et al clearly inhabit some sub-set of London which I do not)
Sliding Doors (ditto)
Alfie (fails the contemporary clause)
Snatch (fails the accurate clause)
Four Weddings (fails both the contemporary and the Hugh Grant clauses, although it's the best of the RomComs that are not RomComZoms.)
Clockwork Orange (fails the contemporary clause)
28 Days Later - (potential future, so fails the contemporary clause)
Children of Men - (ditto - although it is brilliant)

So I turn the question over to you. What film do you think is the most accurate representation of contemporary London?

But down in the underground

Tube Strikes. Again. Although, actually, this time I kind of support the cause - PPP always was a horribly bad idea, and I'm all in favour of bringing the contracts back in-house. Just not of this course of action. Bob Crow is a thoroughly obnoxious guy, and since the whole round where they were striking in support of people who were drinking on the job, the RMT's reputation is far from shining. (It may be a different matter if the other TfL unions come out as well - the TSSA especially, and they are threating too, if the pensions thing isn't resolved.)

Still, I'm fairly sure the RMT aren't going to accomplish anything with this apart from making several thousand people's commutes nightmarish, confusing tourists, and denting the retail industry. Most of us have travelcards so TfL already have our money, and it's not like coming in by other routes is any *cheaper*.

My usual 50 minute journey was well over the two hour mark this morning, and I'm in the deeply irritating position of needing to renew my annual travelcard this week, which means queueing up to pay TfL well over a grand for a service that's not currently running ....

in the middle of our street

Thanks to my friends and relations getting themselves hitched at a prodigious rate this autumn, I don't have any free time this week to go and enjoy / take part in the E17 Art Trail. (runs from now till the 9th), and I think I'll have about half a day free over the Open House weekend (15 &16th Sept), which is nowhere near enough time to take advantage of their generous offerings...

Good job I adore the friends and relations involved, really :D

it's not over, not over, not over, not over yet

I was running errands in my lunch break today, and tripped over where they're setting up for the last of Covent Garden's Night Markets for the year. I wasn't all that impressed when I went to the first one - I've been spoiled by Borough Market. I was expecting not having to get up early on a Sunday morning to balance out any reduction of choice, but that turned out not to be the case.

Nevertheless, I might have popped back this evening to the grab some good cheese on my way home if I wasn't going to France tomorrow...

If you're in town and in the area, go, taste, enjoy, indulge, but if you're not, I don't think it's really worth a special trip.

Come and hold my hand

Several folks at my workplace, myself included, subscribe to a police public information bulletin list for central London. Obviously, we're signed up in case there's a major event, but (fortunately) most of the messages are pretty mundane - RTAs and road closed for events; that sort of thing. And sometimes they tell a story.

7.01 pm - Missing : Liverpool Street British Rail Station 6 year old Black Child wearing Blue t-shirt with scooby doo motif blue shorts any info to BTP Liverpool Street Station
9.15 pm - Update to child missing from Liverpool Street Station: the child has been found safe and well.

It's a big city, a big station, and one small child - well - thanks be for happy endings.

go out and do something more interesting instead

I've had a few days off work recently, to host a friend who was visiting London for the first time. It's always such a blast to show people around, and have an excuse to do the more touristy stuff that most of the time I'd never get to do.

In recent days I have (on alphabetical order)

Been both up and down the Thames on both banks at different times of day and night, and agreed that it is always fantastic.
Been defeated by Old Dutch Pancakes
Been underwhelmed by the London Mithraeum (which is always better in my head, and even then not a patch on San Clemente)
Caught the sun.
Climbed St Paul's.
Climbed the Monument.
Crossed *almost* all the bridges.
Explored the Guildhall.
Failed to understand why the Worshipful Company of Cutlers have an elephant. (Wiki says it's the ivory connection - and that they're guessing.)
Found a bat at the Globe.
Gone up Tower Bridge for the princely sum of 25p (as one of the attendants said to his colleague - much closer to it's value than the usual price of admission)
Loved my city a lot.
Not strangled any tourists in the British Museum .
Not wanted to strangle any tourists in the V&A.
Peeked inside any number of churches.
Petted Samuel Johnson's cat.
Picked favourite giant guitars from the array down by City Hall.
Sung 'Like a Virgin' loudly to Queen Elizabeth I, in the National Portrait Gallery. (amongst other things - as part of the Sing London festivities, before anyone wonders!)
Taken lots of photos I haven't sorted out yet.
Visited Kew, and lost all track of time.
Walked half all over London (we're both inveterate pedestrians, and walking is a great way of seeing things in passing.)

(My guest also toured the Tower of London and brace of Royal Palaces on her own, as well as attending service at Westminster Abbey.)

Yup - I am still in love with this place!

another brick in the wall

I still don't understand how anyone can live in London and not develop a certain amount of love for architecture. My inner architecture-geek says: this looks so cool!


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