Monday 25 March 2013

Just Desserts

Last week it was poetry and opera, this week it’s been about dessert...

I took LB out for another adventure last night, only this time I didn’t have to drag him. Probably because it involved three courses of adventurous eating all in the name of pudding.



Another find, another pop-up, After Hours Dessert operates on the premise that the two best bits of any meal are the drinks and the sweet finales. And so that’s what they do - just the cocktails and just the dessert. Hello, friends.

Thursday 21 March 2013

Poetry in the pub and an opera in a warehouse

I still haven’t been to Sadler’s Wells or the Royal Ballet or the Royal Opera House and I can’t remember the last time I saw a play (as in, I literally can’t remember, but I’m vaguely convinced it was 12 months ago give or take six) but London being London, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been out getting cultured.




Last Thursday we joined my friend Jenny for a night of poetry, spoken word and comedy at the Roebuck pub in Borough. It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that I had to guilt LB into coming along but even he had to admit afterwards that it had been mostly great and only occasionally awkward. The event is called Bang Went the Gun and it has quite the cult following. And for a night of poetry, it was pretty raucous. As the compere said in his opening salvo, this is the poetry event for people who don’t like poetry.

Thursday 14 March 2013

Pae


We had a new exhibition open at the gallery last night – an installation by the American artist Pae White. I’m a bit smitten.

Pae White, Too much night, again, 2013. South London Gallery

Tuesday 12 March 2013

First Thursday Fail.


Casual research, typically conducted over a glass of wine somewhere suitably shabby or hipster or both, has led me to the conclusion that those that work in art are, for the most part, pretty shit at seeing art when it’s not en route to your desk or a meeting.

The exquisite Pae White en route to my desk...
Making the effort to see art for fun and/or cultural stimulation and/or intellectual enlightenment can be hard work – it’s rarely casual. By definition I don’t think it can be. At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself for nearly five years now to explain the fact that I’ve never once been to First Thursday.

And you’d think First Thursday would be a breeze – the first Thursday evening of the month, late night openings across east London, booze, conversation en masse, a bus from Whitechapel Gallery if you’re organised enough to book in time. But I’ve never gone. I think because if you’re going to make the effort to see art – which, you should – then don’t dress it up with distracting temptations like booze and conversation.

Thursday 7 March 2013

Casual tourism...

...Otherwise known as Life on the Monopoly Board.

Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery by night
So much about London drives me absolutely insane and a large part of that is the gall to be so completely insanity inducing one minute, and just so insanely in-your-face impressive the next.

Take today.

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Some thoughts on art and other things


Swings and roundabouts. Last weekend I left the house once (for chocolate). The weekend before I was out and about all over the place. 


I was actually working last Saturday, overseeing the production of a short film for work, part of which involved orchestrating and participating in a walking tour around some of the lesser known art spaces in Peckham.