I went to see Hurts play at Union Chapel last week, as part of Mencap's Little Noise sessions. They were wonderful: haunting, elegant, emotional - as arresting now as the first time I saw them.
- Kate Bush meets Liza Minelli
- Marcella Detroit meets Robyn
- Enya meets Roisin Murphy
- Dolores O'Riordan meets Enya
- Enya goes to Florence (with the Machine)
Ergo: amazing.
Adrian, USA
Friday, November 05, 2010
Whilst reading the article on the nomenclature of American towns, I got to wondering about places with my name. It turns out there's quite a few Adrians in America, stretching all the way from New York to Washington.
On the nomenclature of cities and towns in the United States
Monday, October 18, 2010
I recently found an article from 1885 on JStor with the exciting title On the nomenclature of cities and towns in the United States. It sounded fascinating - I've always wondered why certain cities in the USA were so named.
I was thinking about places I've seen on maps, places like Malta, New York, Zurich, Kansas or Lebanon, Oregon. I imagined fledgling Maltese, Swiss or Lebanese immigrant communities founding new towns and making new lives in a new land.
The actual reason is much more prosaic. Early railway companies and postal companies basically picked names at random or from long lists of places (maybe listed in almanacs)
The article speaks of certain parts of New York state with classic names like Ithaca, Syracuse, or Troy, so named as "a pedantic surveyor-general of the last century took ancient names, at random, out of a classical dictionary to scatter broadcast over this new land".
Years ago, I read Sweet Liberty by Irish writer Joseph O'Connor (brother of Sinead). In it, he travelled around the US, visiting nine towns and cities called Dublin. But despite finding something to write about in each place, he found very little connection to Ireland.
Practically all of Europe is accounted for: from Armenia, Wisconsin to Lisbon, Ohio, from Athens, Georgia, via Vienna, Missouri to Oslo, Minnesota.
These places are not named in the ways we might first think... but they could be, and that's what's brilliant.
What is in Albania
Thursday, October 07, 2010A few weeks ago, during a holiday in Corfu, I went on a day trip to Albania. We took a ferry to a town called Sarandë and a bus to UNESCO archaeological site called Butrint.
Butrint was very interesting - a huge site, dating from Roman, Greek, Venetian and Ottoman times.
London to Corfu, from above
Sunday, September 26, 2010I took these great aerial photos on a flight from London to Corfu, passing over France and Italy.
And on the return night flight, we passed over Paris - spot the Eiffel Tower in the left lower middle ground.
Map pictograms: the world as washing
Thursday, September 23, 2010How to advertise washing machines to me: add a world map made from clothes. I found this lovely image in a Latvian magazine.
Map pictograms: Georgia
Tuesday, September 07, 2010It's probably fair to say we don't see many maps of Georgia printed in the UK. So I was intrigued to see these maps in The Economist magazine - advertising Georgia as a business opportunity. Whether you agree with the attempts to westernise Georgia or not, the maps and landscapes are stunning.
Sending postcards to museums
Friday, August 20, 2010Last year, when I went to Norwich, I bought some snapshot sets at a second-hand market. I had never seen such things before: little envelopes in which were several snapshot photocards. "How novel," thought I, "I'll buy them!"
I bought sets with pictures of: Shetland, Amsterdam, Niagara Falls, San Remo, Norway and Vienna.
A year later, I have looked at and admired these sets quite enough - but what to do with them? I don't want to just throw them away (that would never do), and charity shops don't seem worthy enough - so I hit on the idea of sending them to relevant museums.
This is a bit foolhardy: museums generally have lots of things in their collections, more than enough, and possibly don't need items they have not solicited. On the other hand, I'm intrigued to see which museums might like the sets. And, so...
I'm sending the Shetland set to the Shetland Museum.
The Amsterdam set go to the Amsterdam Historical Museum.
The Norwegian Maritime Museum receive the 19 images of Norway's coast.
20 photographs of San Remo go to San Remo's Museo Civico
Beautiful photographs of Vienna go to the Wien Museum
And finally, the twelve photographs of Niagara Falls go to the Niagara Historical Museum
The French Vogue for bumbags
Tuesday, August 10, 2010How I love the French fashion for wearing bum bags! They're a very useful accessory, of course, and spare the shoulders the ache of a rucksack. And, apparently, they're the height of fashion, with this full page spread I spied in French Elle. It's delightfully endearing that something that went out of fashion in the UK and Ireland remains so in France and other European countries.
And fact fans, in South Africa, the bum bag is called a moon bag. How interesting!
Small Spaces @ V&A Museum
Friday, August 06, 2010I went to the V&A Museum last week to see Small Spaces, an exhibition of seven small structures built by architects in the V&A's galleries.
It was fascinating. I love small, cosy, cute spaces so the whole idea appealed to me.
The structure I had most wanted to see was a tea-house by Terunobu Fujimori. Raised up on four spindly, tree-branch like legs, you climb a little ladder to enter the teahouse. Inside, the ceiling is covered with tiny pieces of charred wood arranged in a parallel pattern with a simple tea-set. It was utterly charming.
Architects from Mumbai built a structure based on in-between spaces in Mumbai which become home to people in the city. They live in the cracks of the city, between, say, a warehouse and a factory, covering above with a the ceiling of sheet metal and making a home.
Norwegian architects built a four-storey walk-in bookcase, made of smooth Scandinavian wood with two in-built seats covered in animal furs. I wanted to stay there all day reading. Another staircase structure had lots of nooks hidden behind curtains. Climbing it was like my own mini-drama: what would be behind each drape?
In addition to the structures, models and drawings of structures that were not made were on display. I loved an Austrian architect's structure which would have had people walking on grains, with small pools of water around them and gently swaying stalks of wheat and barely suspended from the ceiling.
I also loved a structure in which you lie face down on the floor in a dug out groove, with a small screen under your eyes which shows someone else's viewpoint as they walk around the museum. It was a real shame this was not built, I really hope it will be.
The exhibition showed how architecture affects us all, making us smile, making us unhappy, and inspiring our curiosity.
Caroline Irby's A Child from Everywhere
Monday, August 02, 2010I went last weekend to see Caroline Irby's A Child from Everywhere at the V&A Museum of Childhood.
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| Juan from Chile, by Caroline Irby |
In her project, photographer Caroline Irby found children from 185 of the world's countries who are now living in the UK.
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| Nadine from Egypt, by Caroline Irby |
14 of these photographs are on display at the V&A until the end of August, accompanied with films and short interviews with some of the children.
Happily, the films, made for Channel 4 can be seen online here, and all the photographs, taken for The Guardian, can be seen here. Additionally, these articles on the project from The Times and Junior magazine make interesting reading.
Chinese art at the Ashmolean Museum
Monday, July 26, 2010On Friday, I went to Oxford for the first time, spending some time at the Ashmolean Museum. The Museum's vast collection of objects is shown off wonderfully by the new extension to the building which brings light, brightness and freshness into the Museum's space. It also has some lovely undulating staircases.
Museums are usually vast: vast spaces - so many objects, so much to see, explore, learn. I'm always drawn to small, discrete spaces. At the Ashmolean, my favourite gallery was the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Gallery of Chinese Paintings, a lovely wood-lined, split level gallery showing Chinese painting and art through time and artefacts relating to painting, calligraphy and illustration.
The first 'painting' I saw wasn't actually a painting, but a papercut by Bovey Lee. I love the delicacy, intricacy and sheer attention to detail in these papercuts.
The calligraphy and implements on display were equally beautiful, fascinating and ornate. Imagine all the images made by these tools through time. All the images below come from the Ashmolean's online collections website Eastern Art Online.
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| Porcelain brush rest |
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| Brass seal |
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| Calligraphy |
Look at all the Ashmolean's calligraphy objects.
Map pictograms: Ireland unwound
Wednesday, July 21, 2010Two tourism ads with maps showing Ireland and Britain in cord-form. The latter suggests that Britain's all tangled up (nice unwitting Girls Aloud reference) while Ireland's all relaxed.
Flag it up @ Hide & Seek Weekender
Wednesday, July 14, 2010On Sunday, I went to something called the Hide & Seek Weekender at the National Theatre. It was basically a whole weekend full of games. How ace.
The games were many: treasure hunts, chasing games, word games - all kinds of fun stuff that makes us think creatively about words, cities, places and geography. Very exciting stuff.
Sadly, I didn't have very long to spare so I had to choose the games I played carefully - the first of which was called Flag It Up. In it, I was given an envelope containing the name of a country and some facts about that country. My task: re-design its flag.
I set to my task with gusto.
I got Thailand, so started to think about Thailand as a land of beaches and temples. At the end of the day, all the entries were displayed without country names with the winner being that which most people correctly identified.
I don't think I won (I don't know which / who did) but all in all: amazing flag fun.
World Cup in London: Netherlands & Spain
Monday, July 12, 2010Or: Voetbal! Football with London's Dutch fans & Futbol! Football with London's Spanish fans
To watch the World Cup Final last night, I had planned to be with Dutch fans singing Hup Holland Hup! But with queues outside Dutch bar De Hems from 10am, it didn't look like I'd be getting in there.
In fact, nearly all of Soho was awash with red and orange yesterday - jolly fans all singing and dancing, wearing fun costumes and having a very good time.
In the end, me and two friends settled in Devonshire Arms, a bar where on one side there were mainly Dutch fans and on the other side mainly Spanish fans. The best of both worlds!
We placed ourselves firmly in the middle - I was rooting for both sides: Netherlands winning would have made me super-happy, Spain winning would have made me £135. Win-win all round.
The game was really not the most exciting, but the fans made up for it: chanting Ho-lland and Es-pan-a, sometimes breaking out into song.
As the game dragged on, their enthusiasm did not wane, but everyone was on tenterhooks until near the very end when Spain scored. Joy to the left of me, dejection to the right.
Once the match ended, the Spanish fans poured out onto the streets. A group of women went running past cheering and waving flags. Piccadilly Circus was awash was red and yellow, people climbing all the way up the Eros to celebrate, sing and dance. One man even dropped his trousers giving us all quite an eyeful.
And with the sights and sounds of Spain celebrates, I slipped away.
So that's the World Cup. From brilliant Brazilians to gallant Ghanians to surprised Slovenians and unhappy Uruguayans, it's been quite a show.
World Cup in London: Germany
Wednesday, July 07, 2010Or: Fußball! Football with London's German fans
I hoped to watch tonight's Germany -v- Spain World Cup semi-final with German fans. Vauxhall bar The Jolly Gardeners was super-full, however, with people reportedly queuing since 3pm.
So I joined other fans in another nearby over-spill bar. That bar too was packed to capacity, so I stood outside for most of the first half. One man emerged from within saying "Oh my days". It must have been quite exciting inside.
During half-time, I snuck in. What an atmosphere! The temperature was practically sauna-like, clammy with sweat and alcohol.
This didn't deter the German fans who were singing and chanting a whole variety of tunes. Sadly no blast of their recent Eurovision winner. Forshame.
One man carried around a replica of the Jules Rimet trophy into which he placed his beer. Nice. Another blew on his vuvuzuela.
But midway through the half, the bar fell silent when Spain scored. "Scheise", one man whispered.
Germany never regained momentum, though the fans did, cheering all the way, particularly "Auf Gehts Deutschland Schieß ein Tor" (Let's go Germany, score a goal).
But as the final whistle blew, and Germany lost, a man outside changed the chant to "la la la you're going home".
Oh dear.
Next: On Sunday, I'm going Dutch for the World Cup Final.
World Cup in London: Chile
Monday, June 28, 2010Or: Futbol! Football with London's Chilean fans
A Chilean flag was being merrily waved as I arrived at El Vergel to watch Brazil -v- Chile with Chilean fans.
The flag was soon tucked away, never to be seen again. The restaurant had long tables, all surrounded by folk eating empanadas and other Latin American fare.
It felt like a family occasion, almost like an episode of Brothers & Sisters. Hermanos y Hermanas, probably.
And just like Brothers & Sisters, the room had a matriarch, a game old lady who led the crowd in a chant of Viva Chile! Chile! Chile! She was banging on the table minutes later, and then the rabble rouser had everyone singing something that sounded like Pablo Chile-o!
But also like Brothers & Sisters, there was drama, with Chile attempting and failing to score, and ultimately, tragedy as Chile conceded three goals and crashed out of World Cup 2010.
Next: Football fatigue has kicked in, so it'll probably be a week until my next match for whoever it is in a semi-final.
World Cup in London: Ghana
Thursday, June 24, 2010Or: Football with London's Ghanaian fans
A vuvuzeula greeted me on my way to watch Ghana -v- Germany with Ghanaian fans in Gold Coast, in Brixton.
When I arrived there, the vuvuzuela was joined by whistles, singing, chanting and cheeering from the fans of Ghana - accompanied by a very long queue to get in.
Sadly, the queue didn't shorten, so I, along with lots of others, decamped to another bar three doors down.
The carnival atmosphere continued with cheering, chanting and lots of shouting at the screen. In the last half an hour, practically every pass Ghana made got a cheer.
Not everyone shared in the fun: one woman sat reading a copy of Reveal. Another applied her blusher when Germany scored. I admire her committment to glamour.
When it was revealed that, in the other match, Australia had scored, you'd think Ghana had actually won the whole World Cup such was the excitement. And with the final whistle, Ghana, despite losing, were going through ,to the cheers of their London fans.
Next: Taking a little break from football, I'm returning next Monday with a match featuring either Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Chile or Switzerland.
Scissor Sisters @ Brixton Academy
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
I went to see Scissor Sisters play the first of two gigs at Brixton Academy last night. I have been a fan of them since they first came to Ireland 7 years ago. It was so ace to see a band that were multisexual, fun, amazing live, and mixed up pop, dance, disco, rockabilly with all sorts of emotions and feelings.
I have to admit, I have reservations about their second album and some of the tracks from their new album. I feel I want to like them much more than I actually do. So I approached the gig with some trepidation.
Happily, I loved it. Jake and Ana's energy on stage is so infectious, so electric and so powerful that it is hard not to go along for the ride. Ana's wonderful asides and quips had me laughing and loving her as much as I ever did.
The highlight for me was new song Invisible Light which turned the venue into a pulsing, thumping disco full of dance, joy and elation. And that's the Scissor Sisters.
World Cup in London: Slovakia
Monday, June 21, 2010Or: Futbal! Football with London's Slovakian fans
Yesterday, I, along with Geoff, went to the Czech & Slovak club in West Hampstead to cheer along Slovakia.
Slovak fans had gathered there to watch the match, and tuck in to platefuls of home-cooked food. Schnitzels, stews, goulashes and big slabs of cheese covered in breadcrumbs were all being served up to the hungry and appreciative Slovaks. For our part, we nibbled on Pepe Chrumky, peanut flavoured corn puffs. Intriguingly yummy!
To be honest, I think the Slovaks were there for food not football. There was very little cheering or chanting - admittedly, their team were losing badly.
I met Peter, a Slovakian guy from my German language class, and he didn't seem hopeful of a Slovakia victory. Sadly, he was proved correct, but the assembled fans didn't seem all that bothered - dessert was being served.
Next: Honduras, if I can find any Hondurans. If not, Ghana.