I finally finished off a roll of film in my Fisheye last week and I just got the developed photos back. There’s a nice selection of New York pics and various ones of my friends. Here’s a couple of the best.
Airport ceiling
Times Square
Converse store
Top of the rock
Brother
Double wall
Me!
I went to see Richard Ayoade’s directorial debut, Submarine, on Friday at the ICA for the latest Ultra Culture Cinema instalment, and good times were had. To quote the free zine we got inside, “I saw it two weeks before it opened, and got a free custard cream chocolate bourbon in the foyer”. It’s a coming of age story set in Wales, about a boy who struggles with his feelings for his unromantic girlfriend and tries to prevent his mum from having an affair. It was truly a beautiful film, full of laughs and touching moments and the melancholic soundtrack by Alex Turner fit perfectly. My friend was most pleased by the free bottle of Irn Bru she got given for being Scottish. I would definitely recommend that everyone see it anyway.
I have realised that my 199th gig has been and gone, which means my next will be my 200th! Currently it will be Patrick Wolf at Koko, which is a pretty awesome 200th gig in my opinion.
At the weekend my friend decided to have a Mexican-themed party as we were poor and didn’t want to go to the pub. We probably ended up spending more money on tequila and sombreros, but it was so much fun. There were stick on moustaches galore, tequila-filled water pistols and more chilli than you can shake a pinata stick at. Here is a selection of photos from the night.
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.
The new blue acrylic pieces are now for sale in the shop! Featuring the Star Trek medical and science insignias, and an awesome TARDIS (which I really want to keep for myself, but alas there are only two at the moment). I have also restocked the Triforce necklaces.
I’ve created a Twitter and updated the Facebook page if anyone would like to follow them.
This week I started my new job so most evenings I’ve been too tired to do anything productive. I’ve started watching Supernatural after many many people recommended it to me, and my god is it ever addictive. I’ve gotten through half of Season 1 already with Season 2 ready to watch afterwards. It’s a nice combination of “monster of the week” episodes with an overall arc for each season, and it’s very funny and interesting. Pretty much like Buffy but with two brothers hunting demons instead of slaying vampires. There are currently 6 seasons so it will keep me occupied for a couple of months at least.
This week my gig outing was quite special as we went to the NME Awards Ceremony at Brixton Academy on Wednesday. We went last year and had a great time in the pit so we decided to go and queue early in the hopes of getting pit passes again. It was worth spending a few hours in the cold as we managed to get our hands on the precious yellow passes. We watched the celebrities arriving while we were waiting upstairs, and after an amusing incident with Nikki from Big Brother we got led downstairs and into the standing pit at the front. There was free beer available so we snagged some and found a place in the middle. The standing pit at the awards show is always tiny; we were stood at the back of it and there were only about 4-5 rows of people in front of us. They also take away the barrier so you are literally right up against the stage. It’s a great place to see some really big acts perform.
Angelos Epithemieu was the host and mumbled his way through the awards, most of his dry in-character observations going over everyone’s heads. There weren’t a lot of surprise wins and the most amusing thing was watching the bands get more and more drunk as they stumbled up to collect their awards. The bands performing included My Chemical Romance, Hurts, PJ Harvey and Crystal Castles who were a nice surprise, and the atmosphere in the pit varied depending on whose fans you were stood nearest to. The big moment was Dave Grohl receiving the Godlike Genius award, and after a rambling acceptance speech The Foo Fighters took to the stage for their set. Usually the winners play a set of about 4-5 songs, but Dave announced that they would be playing a 2 hour set. Most of us just laughed it off, but as the songs kept going and going, we realised he was true to his word! They played their new album in its entirety and then followed it up with a selection of their hits. We actually had to leave before the end in order to make our last tube home.
It was a pretty epic night anyway, and being a few metres away from Dave Grohl was definitely an experience.