The Year of the Lady - 2008

I have to say I do love this time of year - I feel sick from eating too much chocolate cheesecake and extra thick cream, I can't beat Slash at the Guitar Hero battle, I'm debating whether to take a dress back I bought in the sale (which is all frou frou and looks like something Sarah Jessica Parker could get away with - but you could 3 SJP's in this particular size dress). Ultimately it's the fact I don't have to get up to do the day job, and I can stay up as long as I want and do dumb ass stuff, and even watch Citizen Kane into the early hours of the morning.

Really this only means I will end up contemplating this years media fantasticness, so hear is another end of year list (my 2nd annual one and yes of course, it's late).

And as for the next year I look forward to more offerings next year from Jack White, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Graham Coxon and finally the new Courtney Love CD.

*2008*
My yearly round up has seen a predilection for gigs, very few films, street art and the rise, rise, rise of handmade crafty goodness. Looking back on my 2008 has seen a lot of female fantasticness - new music and fantastic shows to promote it - Goldfrapp, Grace Jones, Madonna, Martha Wainwright, Bjork, Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Joan as Policewoman, Ladytron and Cat Power (she was something else). I don't know whether it is something in the stars but these ladies left the guys in the dust when it came to putting on shows and producing great albums.

GIGS
All No 1. Grace Jones - Meltdown
Alison Krauss & Robert Plant - Cardiff CIA
Cat Power - Colston Hall
Madonna - Cardiff Stadium
Martha Wainwright - Colston Hall
Joan as Policewoman - Thekla

I really can't put these in a 1 - 6 order as the 1st first 4 shows completely blew me away. Each one of them had the sense of drama, the art of putting on a show or just the right touch of light and dark when needed. I've been going to gigs since I was 12 and I really don't recall such a profusion of energy and that leaves you with your mouth open, and knowing you experienced something rare and beautiful.

MUSIC
Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
MGMT - Electric Feel
Ladyhawke - Paris is Burning
Friendly Fires - Paris
Tricky - Puppy Toy

Mostly on my playlists have been - Martha Wainwright, Goldfrapp, Joan as Policewoman and all of the above.

FILMS
I'm going to struggle with this. We didn't see a huge amount of films this year, and what we did were predictable block busters.

1. Dark Knight
2. Sweeney Todd
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Sex and The City (not a great movie, just nice to look at if you love fashion and clothes)
5. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (not a great movie, but lovely to reminisce)
Special mentions go to - 'Be Kind, Re Wind' (when I returned this DVD to the library, they told me the previous watcher complained it was possibly broken as the screen was flickering alot in black and white - aww bless). 'The Orphanage', and 'In Bruges' (good performances, abit overly talky but quirky and with a British-style enough for the Sexy Beast fans).

RIP in my inspirational lovelies xxx

Eartha Kitt
Bettie Page
This post is dedicated to my beloved and partner in crime x

Giant knitting balls, Friend & Co and the Croft

I'm so behind on my blogging, I've decided to blog some easy pix and very recent ones.

Pictures are from the last 'Friend and Co' gallery exhibition last Wednesday, which had some special local guest work, Mr Jago, Inkie (although late with his submission), 45RPM etc. Having been to a few mediocre street art events (which will remain nameless), we think a few choice pieces is better than flooding the venue). It was also good to see Geoff handing out the mince pies and mulled cider (yummm), and we had a lovely chat with Mr Jago, who has a whole lot of stuff going on next year.

I submitted and bought a cute little skull painting from Dave Whittle, who's work seems to appear all over the place in magazines and videos but you wouldn't know it.
Great giant knitting balls of fire! Part of John Lewis' christmas display.
Also, some nice work going on at the Croft. We like a bit of font work.

Bag a Bunny

Love, love, love this idea. Carry a bunny in your bag. Need an extra carrier - bunny turns into a bag. Japanese genius! $55 from Greener Grass Design.

**As Seen on TV**

Mini Moss and Roy have landed on our screens. This picture is from the first episode, and it's great to see my two Lucky Fighters popping up in the cabinet of the IT Crowd's office (in Channel 4 10.00pm).The IT Crowd is one of our favourite comedy programmes (written by the wonderful Graham Linehan - he of Father Ted), so we are as chuffed as mint balls to have our Lucky Luchies in the third series.

Winter Dog Days

Coping with the winter! Run around!

Ladytron - Academy

The wonderful support act Asobi Seksu - who sounded liked they swallowed the back catalogue of My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins.

Bust's Craftacular - London

Bust Magazine are hosting their first across the pond 'Craftacular' in London on Dec 6th from midday until 11pm at the St. Aloysius Social Club in Euston. Very exciting!

I was very excited to see Made by Milla will be hosting a workshop too, to keep the South West massive visible, and I'm hoping to be there in some form too.

Sweeney Todd

It’s cold, it’s dark in the evenings this must mean it’s time to get the DVD collections out…
I’ve finally got Carnivale Series II, so I’m feeling dark and macabre, and so to finish a dark Sunday afternoon what better than toast, hot chocolate and Sweeney Todd (with all the extras!). This is so far my favourite movie of the year, so with one month to go, I’m starting my 2008 review early.

I’m so pleased I saw this in the cinema, because the attention to detail is quite something. The title sequence is classic Tim Burton, which lays the ground for the delights of blood dripping in the most creative and beautiful of ways. The costumes are just divine, leather coats made in Italy especially for Mr Todd, and straw embroidered lace tops for Mrs Lovett – it is worth watching the extras to see the detail and effort Colleen Atwood brought to them.

I’m sure you know this is a musical, and Cameron Macintosh is certainly not my cup of cha, but a brooding and dark Johnny Depp totally took my mind off the ‘cor blimey love a duck’ singy thing after the first 5 minutes, and then you are immersed into the world of throat cutting barbers.

Something a little bit special in this movie is the light and dark shades of the movie, (please see seaside picture), so please don’t dismiss this movie - Tim Burton is the master of macabre and grand guignol!

Just an excuse...

Happy Halloween!

I love this time of the year! Skulls, Day of the Dead, blood splattered windows. Or is that just my house fully decorated.

Here's some fantastic pictures to celebrate as shown on the wonderful photographique vintage blog Susi a
Ed Wood's leading lady!

Goldfrapp

Now that it's too cold to leave the house, it's gig season. At least I don't have to put the heating on when I'm at a gig (bahhh humbug). And the first one for me is Goldfrapp at the Colston Hall. She was all 'hey nony noo' and aran jumpers, with this album. And the audience certainly represented this with very few people being under the age of 45! The backdrop was fencing and school fete bunting.

On a style note, her accessories were pom poms - very similar ethos to Bjork earlier in the year. So I will be getting my wool out and doning some fluffy balls soon.

UpFest at the Baccy Factory

I'll be posting more images soon

Opening of Gallery 8 - Friend & Co

We've been to about 5 street art events this month, and as I've mentioned before, I'm quite behind on uploading my blog pix, so here's one we went to last week.

It was a cold dark autumnal evening, and the gallery is big enough to hold around 3 people at a push. It's a possibly the smallest gallery ever, but it's quite adorable. It's on the site of an old shop that used to sell garden pots on a Sunday morning and has been empty for many years. Geoff Barrow (he of Portishead) told us he bought the shop 2 1/2 years ago, and didn't really know what to do with it. Rather interestingly he told us he's not a very 'visual' sort of person, which is interesting as he part owns a gallery! It's the facade to a new venture selling prints www.friend-and-co.com.

And here's.........Grace!

I have seen some truly fantastic shows this year and one of the highlights was Grace Jones. (I’m so behind on my blogging pictures that I’m just going to have to drip feed them in the wrong order).

What has prompted this particular piece is the purchase of Grace Jones tickets at the Colston Hall (front row!). I can’t tell you how excited I am about seeing her again. We saw her at the Massive Attack Meltdown experience in the enormous symphonic hall they have, and I thought it was going to be a dull affair as we were up in the gods of the balcony, but she truly rocked the place. She managed to connect to every aspect of the audience, with her many many hat changes, and some signature John-Paul Goude style backgrounds. She also treated the front rows to some very scary leaping into the audience moments with very little on.

The introduction of the show was the very dark ‘corporate cannibal’ video (which I urge you to watch), where you were forced into the darkness she can turn herself into. A black and white simplified morph of an image, with a Massive Attack style backbone. And when she finally appeared onstage she chatted to the audience as if we were long lost friends and you couldn’t help but wonder why she hasn’t been doing this for the last decade.

The last time I saw her was at the Brixton Academy while I was at college, where she appeared over an hour late, and then sang to backing tapes. She kept her traditional changing of outfits and walking down an over exaggerated staircase, but the show lacked something. But her presence is something you never forget.

Roll on January!

Corporate Cannibal

Moss and Roy

These have been made for our new BF's Moss and Roy, so have subsequently been christened with their names.

Please love us! We'll fight for you!

Hmmmm...cake

Have some cake on me - tis my birthday!

I found this lovely image on etsy, and you can purchase it here - Lesophie etsy check her beautiful photos of petticoats too.

Poor blogger

Apologies for being an absent blogger – and totally disrespectful to the faith of the blog (I bring shame upon my keyboard) but my procrastination tells me that ‘the daily grind’ has been absorbing too much of my time and energy. I hope to recoup over this bank holiday (and after Madonna’s tour opening night she-bang in Cardiff). Especially as I’ve got a load of Lucky Luchie’s to finish. One particular important one for a lovely Miss Eva, and two for Roy and Moss.

I’m so behind in posting pix, I’ve been to some amazing gigs this year, and I have some blurry charms to post and gushing to do. Hopefully when I get a moment.

Do you look at webmagazines? I’m not overly fond of them, especially if they’re of the kind where you have to turn the pages with a mouse (if you’ve got a slow computer, it takes ages). (Yes, Cheekbone Boosh zine, talking about you!). But I found a fresh little offering (http://www.smallmagazine.net/) which is full of lovely photography and illustratory goodness. If you’re part of the crafty/etsy circle of internet explorers you’ll know some of the stuff featured well. But the styling is quite lovely. Apparently its concerns are around ‘small design’ not just children just in case you were wondering.

Being Johnny Ramone

I love it when you accidentally stumble on an idea.

I found these all on FlickR. Just typing in one subject, and seeing what it brings. When you've cleared the obvious and dross of an idea, these were the more interesting pictures surrounding the search. I'm sure I've got one to contribute, but I'll have to go and find it (maybe I'll post later).
Photo by 'girl with the golden gun'

I love this photo, because you rarely see JohnnyRamone in a candid shot, he was immensely professional, and knew image was everything. He was a big horror flick fan, so I'm presuming this was taken at a horror fair (where I bumped into him once), as the ladies in question are actresses of this genre. Photo by Eddie Mika
A more interesting take on the Ramones cartoon image. Just cute. Photo by Cusco.

This is an insight to the Ramones before the show from the bassist's perspective. Alas Johnny has his back to us.

I love this photo it was taken on an Kodak Instamatic. A classic shot of 1979. Focus on the stylish guy on your left and the guy between Johnny and the fan (it's Monte Melnick - loving the face). Photo by EFSB.

We think this guy looks a little like the creepy coupe from the Wacky Races.

A sad day for Weston

A sad day indeed for us who have many memories at Weston 'Grand Pier'.

I have spent much of my childhood in Weston, and many hours nagging my poor parents to give me money so I could go on the helter skelter, or penny slides. A couple of summers ago I revisited the same amusements and felt like I was '5' again. We still go to Weston regularly, as the pooches love to run the length of the beach (the banner photo was taken there).

If you have ever visited Brighton and seen the demise of one of their beloved piers, you just hope that this will never happen to Weston.
photo by G Bloomfield

Mighty Boosh Festival

A wonderfully insane weekend. Dolly Parton on Friday night (who was fantastic - well she would be). And on Saturday screaming down to Kent at 85 mph to catch Peaches, Gary Numan, Har Mar Superstar, Jarvis and Robots in Disguise booshing it up at the Hop Farm with the Boosh boys at the end of the night. Fantastic!

Vince Noir and Howard Moon

(BTW, Mini-Howard is not my son who I have hidden away from you for the past 6 years!, he was with his father who was dressed as Bolo the Gorilla)

Lucha at the Expo

So pleased to see my little Lucky Lucha's arrive safely for the exhibition 'Crammed Organisms'. (He's on the right hand side next to the orange cat geezer.

To see the rest of the exhibition and all the good works they did, check out their FlickR pix.

BooshFest

Yay! Heading off to the BooshFest in Kent - A festival entirely devoted to the wonderful world of the Boosh. For one day only you can be 'the hitcher' or 'old greg' with his mangina (euuyueck). I think this is the first festival I've been to where it's entirely devoted to one idea, which everyone buys into (does going to a Wurzels gig count?).

So in short, with 3 weeks to go, and in my true Virgo way, I have a lot of research to do to find my outfit which involves watching DVD's - oh the hardship.

I've currently whittled it down to a 'zoo keeper' from the 1st series, an outfit involving a lot of silver, but with my figure I don't think this will be doing me any favours. Or a Mod Wolf. Any suggestions grateful received.

Naboo : "don't mess with the occult"
Noel: "I thought it was good for you!"
Naboo: "No, that's Yakult"