Farewell Farm Breakfast....

....Ed, after a month with us at 69, leaves this weekend to return to Paris. We went to Hackney City Farm for a final breakfast together. Au revoir Ed, ce t'ait tres bien.

Cute....

The real winner at the World Athletics Championships....

....I present to you, Berlino the Bear:

Fronts & fabric....

Lightening strikes twice....

....Usain Bolt has only gone and claimed the 200m WR, after already capturing the
100m earlier this week. Truly, truly incredible.

Masked ball....

....Liam, Ed, Doug and I brought a whole new meaning to the term, 'Poker Face', as the card game descended in to giggle fits.

Grizzly Bear, Koko, 18.08.09....

....Richard & I went to see Grizzly Bear play live at Koko, Camden on Tuesday night. We both really enjoyed it. I was struck by Ed Droste's voice, (I rather lazily used the comparison technique and placed him somewhere between the Morrissey / Jeff Buckley range).



I was also amazed at the vocal talent within the whole group - duties being widely shared on almost every song. Lastly, the spectacle was added to by the fantastic lighting of the set. Moody, melacholic deep reds and greens silouhetted the band as they sang beauties like this:


Grizzly Bear, 'Cheerleader', Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington, IN

Mad Men returns....

....James's blog has alerted me to the arrival of series 3 of Mad Men. I'm sure it will take a little while longer to get over this side of the pond, but it will be worth the wait. Mad Men is one of the most beautifully cast, styled, written and shot TV programmes in a long time - the opening credits alone are a thing of wonder:

MAD MEN MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE from tr3nt3trois on Vimeo.

69 welcomes Le Crutch....

....Monsieur Edward Crutchley has taken advantage of the traditional Parisian August shut-down, by being our guest of honour at Goldman Close for the month. Despite already being here for 2 weeks, we managed to finally get around to welcome drinks, that spilled out in to Shoreditch with friends.


Cheers


Eurgghh. Babycham?


Old college pal Richard Phoenix, with birthday smiles....


...and fresh birthday tattoo


Ed & Liam strike a pose


Richie & Doug follow suit

J & C's place

....Last week Cli invited us over to dinner. A lovely dinner it was too, but an even more lovely flat. Apologies for piss poor photos courtesy of my mobile.

Wild Thing....

....Remember the classic children's book, Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak?



Well, Spike Jonze has got a hold of it and turned it in to, what looks like, a fantastical and visual spectacle. I can't wait.

A little bit quick!...

....So Usain Bolt just went and smashed the 100m World Record again - 9.58secs. Erm, incredible.
Also incredible, 4 minutes after the end of the race, a poor quality clip was posted on youtube:

Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton....

....The latest show at the Whitechapel, of the same name, is a curious one. As in, I'm curious to know how they ever came to grace the walls of such an acclaimed gallery.


Liam Gallagher

Peyton is a contemporary artist, who paints portraits of famous people and those that have influenced her. Sure, some of her small, intimate paintings are arresting - using luminous colours where flatter tones would normally appear. But I can't help but feel that it is the subject matter that has taken her to such dizzy heights, rather than her painting ability. At first I thought that she was a music scene schmoozer, mixing with the likes of Liam Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker and Kurt Cobain......but in fact she hasn't met any of them. Their portraits are created not from personal sittings, but cuttings from newspapers. I think I drew these types of wishful portraits when I was seven.


Not a musician, but David Hockney

For me there is nothing new here. No 'new news', as we say in advertising. There is a small amount of interesting mark making and use of colour, and lots of average portraits of average musicians. But hey, the Whitechapel is free!

Face Paint....

....Alicia's mum, Wendy, has got back in to painting recently. Here's one example - a young Morgan, (Alicia's brother), in all his cheeky glory. Great stuff.



UPDATE!
As I posted this, Wendy happened to ring me and we got chatting about an updated version of Morgan, with more tone. Alongside that, she's also completed portraits of Audrey Hepburn, George Orwell and Alicia with a late-nineties fringe(!) I'm rather liking the simplistic, monochromatic style.

Socialist & Exhibitionist....

....I managed to mix culture and company very well this weekend. Starting on Friday at the Smithfield Tavern, friends gathered at the launch night of Shing A Ling, where Red is one of the DJs.



It ended up being a late one, culminating in 9 friends in a Volvo estate, several loaves of free bread and an involuntary snooze amongst company!




To make myself feel better, I dragged myself along to some galleries yesterday. I started at the Wellcome Collection, to see Exquisite Bodies. A small but perfectly formed collection of anatomical wax models that blur the line between education and fairground horror. Lovely.



I visited two more exhibitions showcasing illustrator cum designers: Anthony Burrill at Kemistry Gallery and Richard Hogg at Concrete Hermit. Neither seemed to have a great deal on show, but what there was I quite liked - Hogg's humorous prints tickled me, whereas Burrill's were more simplistic, using acid colours to shake them up.


Burrill


Hogg


Later on, the vulture followed the culture as I joined friends, (all formerly of Newcastle), for dinner to belatedly celebrate Robin's birthday. We went to Little Bay - a frequent haunt of mine and although good, new owners, (I suspect), and an altered menu, took a little getting used to!

Ed's birthday dinner....

....Mr. Hoadley, work & TBC colleague and some time rugby aficionado, turns 25 tomorrow. He celebrated with dinner for a paltry 30 people. Ida, in Queens Park was the spot, and good it was too. Cheers.


The spot.


Ed & Jim Hoadley with Joe.


Tucking in.


Popping out - a homemade birthday card of some pedigree.

No smoking....

The beautiful and the 'Dam....

....Of course I refer to Alicia and I as the beautiful. Hmmm. This weekend I saw 'Lic for the first time since she left for her 6 month internship in Eindhoven. Despite flying in to that city, we made straight for Amsterdam, where Caz had kindly given us her flat for the weekend. Despite the Euro crippling our wallets, we had a great time - basking in very un-Dutch sunshine, gawping at the 'Pink Parade', (it was Gay Pride) and eating & drinking 'til we could no more. A photo slideshow at the bottom of the post, but a few highlights:


'Lic welcomed me in not-so-typical fashion, with a 3d name card. Genius.


Our not-so-trusty map.


Gay Pride in full swing.


2 women. One man. 3 identical Dutch perms. Nice.


'Lic inspects her gruesome burn.


Happy couple.


Ice cream heaven.

Burns, beards & kisses....

....I'm on my way to Holland.


My beard had officially grown over my lips. Time to trim ahead of visiting Lic.....at her command!


Lic sends over her burns courtesy of a jpg.


Real kisses guaranteed on arrival in to Eindhoven.