1112th
May

Long time no see! (write/post/read/etc) I’ve been pretty busy over the past month as my table at the London MCM Expo has been confirmed, so I’ve been making lots of jewellery, sending off new designs and coming up with exciting ideas. I did have a minor setback, where I accidentally ordered a design sheet in pink instead of red, so I now have a load of pink Star Trek engineering insignias. Luckily all the other designs work just as well in pink, so I just need to reorder the insignias in the correct colour.

There have been so many public holidays over the last few weeks and I have spent them lazing about in the sunshine in parks, having BBQs and going to house parties. I will do a big photopost soon to recount my adventures.

There have also been lots of gigs which have all been awesome. I went to see Tim Minchin at the Royal Albert Hall on the 28th April, and although I was late arriving I luckily only missed the first two songs. It was the same show as at the O2 Arena last year, but to be honest I had forgotten half the new songs already so it was still just as funny and captivating. The show was being filmed for a DVD which was exciting, and I had seats that were really close to the stage, so maybe I will be able to spot myself!

The next gig was one I had been looking forward to for most of the year; Death From Above 1979 at the Forum. Due to some last minute spare tickets I ended up going with some friends, which really made the experience even better. We got there early and bagged some nice places on the railings behind the pit so we had an awesome view without getting squashed. The crowd were hands down the most mental I have ever seen at a gig, and the amazing thing was they kept going from the first song to the last. You could literally see the steam rising off the mass of bodies. DFA played pretty much their entire discography, bar two or three tracks, and kept the talking to a minimum. It was exactly the comeback it needed to be, just the audience and the band connecting over the tracks that have made them such a cult favourite over the years. I highly anticipate their set at Reading Festival, along with their inevitable future tours and hopefully a new album too.

Turn It Out
Dead Womb
Going Steady
Too Much Love
Cold War
Black History Month
Go Home, Get Down
Little Girl
Blood On Our Hands
You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine
Pull Out
We Don’t Sleep At Night
Romantic Rights
Do It!
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You’re Lovely (But You’ve Got Lots Of Problems)
Losing Friends
If We Don’t Make It We’ll Fake It

Coincidentally, while I was at the DFA1979 gig I managed to blag tickets for an intimate Friendly Fires show on the Monday. God bless Scarlet Mist! It was at Heaven and was a small warm-up gig to preview their new album, Pala. I was confident it would be amazing as their self-titled debut was one of my favourite albums of 2009 and they had always been great when I had seen them at festivals. Luckily it lived up to my expectations and we danced away an hour in the sweaty arches of the venue with no cares in the world. The new tracks sounded great and they had a ridiculous light show full of lasers, spinning colours and confetti to accentuate the carnival atmosphere. They ended on Kiss Of Life which elicited a loud cheer from the crowd and we all shook our hips along with Ed before it was time to leave.

Lovesick
Blue Cassette
True Love
On Board
Chimes
Skeleton Boy
Show Me Lights
Live Those Days Tonight
Hurting
Jump In The Pool
Pull Me Back To Earth
Paris
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Hawaiian Air
Kiss Of Life

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111st
Apr

On Tuesday I went to see Patrick Wolf at Koko (my 200th gig!) as part of his Lupercalia tour. It’s supposed to be promoting his new album, but as it’s not actually due out til May this tour feels pretty much the same as the gigs at the end of last year, with the fans only being familiar with the two singles ‘Time of My Life’ and ‘The City’. Although it had an almost identical setlist to the Bloomsbury Ballroom show, I much preferred last night due to a more responsive crowd and the inclusion of the seldom-played ‘To The Lighthouse’ and ‘Godrevy Point’, the latter being dedicated to Patrick’s father who was in the audience. Patrick also revealed to us that he chose that particular venue as it was where he met his current boyfriend, and described it as “love at first sight”. It was a decent performance, not the best I’ve seen, but by no means the worst, and I particularly enjoyed the more up-tempo rendition of ‘Who Will?’ and the remixed Hard Times. I have a feeling I’ll enjoy the newer songs once the album is out and I’ve had a chance to explore them more, as at the moment they seem in stark contrast to the older, more melancholic tracks. All in all it was a good night, and I have managed to bag myself tickets for his exclusive show at the Garage in May so there are plenty more Wolf gigs in my future.

Armistice
Time of My Life
The Bachelor
Tristan
Who Will?
Together
To the Lighthouse
Godrevy Point
Accident & Emergency
House
The Bluebell
Bluebells
The Libertine
Slow Motion
Bermondsey Street
The Magic Position
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Hard Times (remix version)
The City

It was my payday yesterday and I celebrated by doing what I do best, spending lots of money! I bought myself a Tate membership with a guest pass, so myself and a friend can go and check out the exhibitions and then go to the members room for a drink afterwards. It lasts for 15 months, so even if I only go and see five paid exhibitions in that time, It’s already worth the cost. We’re going to start by going to see the Gabriel Orozco exhibition at the Tate Modern next week, and then there is a Miró exhibition opening soon as well.

I also paid for a flight to France in May to go and visit my friend for a Queens of the Stone Age gig. It’s currently my only holiday this year (excluding festivals) so I’m quite looking forward to it. I’m considering going to Dublin in August for my birthday but nothing has been confirmed yet. My Glastonbury ticket got paid off too so now I just have to book the time off work and wait for June!

Finally Tatty Devine had £10 off their name necklaces for April Fools Day, so I bought one at long last. I never bothered before because I had a whole host of other (cheaper) name necklaces and I could quite easily make my own acrylic ones. I finally caved into the temptation though at the lower price and got a purple necklace spelling out ‘Evilduck’, my nickname. I figured I have so many necklaces with ‘Amy’ on them that it was time for a change!

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1114th
Mar

I’ve been a blog writing machine over the past week! I have been quite bored at work, I’ll admit.

I have big exciting news; my Ai ball jointed doll has been shipped. Luckily his clothes, wig and eyes arrived earlier last week, and I bought some pastels and sealing spray at the weekend for his faceup. Since buying him in January I’ve slowly been purchasing various items of clothing, accessories and art materials and now I have pretty much everything I need. I estimate he will arrive sometime during the week (depends on how long customs keep him) so I can get a good start on him at the weekend.

Another tidbit of exciting news, the creators of Tatty Devine have signed a deal with Virgin for a book on how to make your own jewellery. It’s not out until October but it sounds like the perfect thing for crafty jewellery-DIYers.

I watched Girl Walks Into A Bar on Friday, and was pleasantly surprised by it. It was very funny in places and slightly reminiscent of a Tarantino film with the mysterious, punchy dialogue. I enjoyed how the plot linked the main characters together, but I do feel that some of their individual stories were not resolved very well, simply ending with a tacked on line from another character. All in all it was a pretty good film and definitely worth watching as it is free!

Youtube Channel

On Sunday I finished Supernatural Season 2 and I think I enjoyed it more than the first season. The arc was more interesting and it had some brilliant individual episodes (like Heart which had me bawling, and Tall Tales which had me crying with laughter). I’ll move onto the third season this week, which is slightly shorter due to the writers strike so it shouldn’t take me that long to finish.

Afterwards I watched Howl, the experimental biopic of Allen Ginsberg starring James Franco. It is made up of scenes from the obscenity trial on ‘Howl and Other Poems’, faux-interview footage with Ginsberg (Franco) during the trial and animation to accompany the poem. Despite the hodgepodge of formats it was still quite interesting, and I think the animation was particularly effective. My problem with the film was that it was too short and didn’t touch on each subject enough. They could have gone into more detail about the trial or Ginsburg’s life, but they didn’t. It left me wondering what the point of the film was.

Next Monday is one of the most exciting days on my music calendar; the lineup of Reading Festival is revealed. Rumours are certain that Muse will headline the Friday, The Strokes on Saturday and My Chemical Romance on Sunday, but any news on other bands or stages has been scarce. I’m hoping for some Death From Above 1979, Blood Red Shoes and The Kills. Luckily I’ve only got one ticket to buy in the general sale as everyone else bought theirs in the presale last year. It’s always a stressful hour trying to connect to the rubbish Seetickets servers.

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1110th
Mar

Yesterday Tatty Devine had a special 24 hour offer for free postage on their website. I’ve had my eye on the newly restocked Arghhhhh necklace for a couple of days, and this was the push I needed to buy it! It’s one of those pieces from an older collection that I loved, but never got around to buying before it sold out. I’m so glad I had the second chance to buy it.

It was Pancake Day (as well as International Women’s Day, strange coincidence) on Tuesday, which meant getting out the eggs, milk and flour, and a big jar of nutella of course. My brother tried to take charge (having been a pub chef until recently) but his efforts just ended in a half burnt/half undercooked greasy mess, so I took over with my expert pancake skills. The best recipe I’ve ever used was one my old French housemate taught me, which involved copious amounts of rum and leaving the batter to sit for about an hour. Sadly we had no rum and not enough time so we had to just make do, but they still turned out pretty well. I left the flipping to the others though as last time I tried that, the pancake just ended up on the floor.

This week for some reason, the Triforce necklaces have been selling like hotpancakes. Good thing we restocked them recently! Maybe February is when all the Legend of Zelda fans were born.

This Friday sees the premiere of the worlds first feature film made for release via the internet. ‘Girl Walks Into A Bar’ is an 80 minute comedy that follows strangers in ten different bars across Los Angeles and how their stories connect over the course of one evening. It features stars such as Josh Hartnett, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson and Zachary Quinto, and is released for free on Youtube on Friday 11th March. Check out the trailer below, I think it looks like it will be great!

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114th
Mar

This year I want to try and get away from the internet stores and sell some of my jewellery in person. As nice as the internet is, it gets a bit lonely sitting in my jewellery-making basement with only a computer and a post box for company (plus a hoard of plastic toys). I am thinking that some conventions would be a good place to bring my jewellery to the masses, as there are a lot of geek-based items and the bright kitschy bits will probably appeal to the convention crowd. The next big one in London is the MCM Expo in May, so I’m going to book myself a table and start stocking up on supplies! I’ll have to sell about 25-30 pieces of jewellery over the weekend just to cover my table costs, but even if that doesn’t work out it’s still a fun weekend. They usually have pretty good guests and I’ll go dressed up for the fun of it, plus I’ll drag along a friend to help me out.

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