Tracy Chapman (Hammersmith Apollo) 16/12/08

Anna and I went to a marvelous performance by Tracy Chapman tonight, a courageous solo effort given the enormous venue. But even on a bare stage in plain clothes, the obviously shy Tracy (even after 20 years of performing!) was instantly captivating, beginning with a bold a cappella on domestic violence, before moving through a repertoire of honest soulful songs marked by guitar changes and occasional commentary.

Setlist:

Behind The Wall

Baby Can I Hold You

Sing For You

The Promise

Mountains O’ Things

Save Us All

America

Across The Lines

I Did It All

Subcity

Fast Car

House Of The Rising Sun

Give Me One Reason

She’s Got Her Ticket

Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution

Encore:

Bang Bang Bang

Say Hallelujah

South Bank Xmas markets

Apparently these things are here all the way from Cologne, bringing Londoners nothing but the finest Schinkenwurst, mulled wine, jelly lolly Schtroumpfs (aka Smurfs), and touristy crap. Still it's nice to see so much activity from our apartment window, and even the London Eye have gotten in on the act by wrapping their engine room up in a big bow.

Some fine beach art. Apparently the sand is a sign that the Thames is becoming less polluted. It's part of its 'self-cleaning' ecosystem, so hooray for that!

Caught up with Jan (who is now on her way back to NZ alas!) and Kyle and had another look at what the markets had to offer before going for a wander (and a beach-comb) along the Thames, and finally stopping off for deliciously-expensive cocktails at the Oxo tower.

December round-up

We've been pretty active the last few weeks. I've been working steadily on the spy film I shot exactly a year ago, plus filming new art events for my documentary. Plus we went and saw Dylan Moran doing stand-up at the Brixton Academy: I've now seen all three cast members from Black Books in person!

We took a long route home afterwards, and ended up catching the Tube at Stockwell station for the first time. This is where an innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot by police as a suspected terrorist in the wake of the July bombings. There is a small, and very moving shrine by the entrance.

Otherwise we've had a few nights out with friends. Popped down to Croydon to visit Andy, Megs and Ollie again, caught up with Jan (who is leaving for NZ soon...), played some rigorous Twister with friends from Anna's work, and had a nosey around our local Xmas markets and took in the Press Photography exhibit at the Royal Festival Hall with Wes and Mon.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (Troxy) 30/11/08

Setlist:
Hold On To Yourself
Dig Lazarus Dig
Tupelo
Weeping Song
Nature Boy
Red Right Hand
Midnight Man
Love Letter
Right Out Of Your Hand
Moonland
Mercy Seat
Deanna
Call Upon The Author
Papa Won't Leave You Henry
Get Ready For Love

Encore:
Into My Arms
Nobody's Baby Now
Hard On For Love
Stagger Lee

Art Spiegelman and Posy Simmonds (ICA) 24/11/08

A wonderful discussion between the authors of Maus and Madame Bovary, on their respective work, the legacy of MAD comics, and the influence of countless other comic writers and artists. Matt Groening was in the audience!

Waterloo Snow

To be fair, this looks more impressive than it was - but it's still exciting to see a little bit of snow in London, and we never thought it would make it this far into the city centre where the ambient temperatures are higher...

Tis the season to be jolly...

Party time at Ewelina's!

Dog, Ross, Wes, Ewelina, Anna...

Eerie...

Night shift

Left a party at 3am, and spotted this guy doing a sterling job of nightwatch security...

Mercury Rev (Shepherd's Bush Empire) 13/11/08

Setlist:

Snowflake In A Hot World

October Sunshine

Holes

Black Forest

The Funny Bird

You're My Queen

People Are So Unpredictable

Frittering, Tonite It Shows

Tides Of The Moon

Dream Of A Young Girl As A Flower

Opus 40

Encore:

Goddess On A Hiway

The Dark Is Rising

Senses On Fire

"The Prisoner" walking tour

I've been meaning to do this since I arrived in London, but it's a once a year event, and I keep missing it! But at long last, I attended David Lally's walking tour of London filming locations for The Prisoner. I suppose this consolidates my place in the upper echelons of fandom, but I have to say it was really quite thrilling to stand...

In the corridor where Number 6 delivers his resignation at the start of every episode (a car park underneath Marble Arch)...

And outside Number 6's house at One Buckingham Place.

Films...

Still keeping the film-making dream alive in London... I recently shot another exhibition opening for France 24 news, plus conducted a few more interviews for my London street art documentary. My friend James hosted a short film night at the Coach & Two Chairmen in Soho, where I played old favourite, The House of Raging Women. (Interestingly enough, I put this on YouTube recently, and it's already had 1,800+ views!)

Heather Nova (Shepherd's Bush Empire) 13/10/08

I was priviliged to catch the first gig of Heather Nova's new European tour, to support the release of her new album The Jasmine Flower. I've been a fan since I was about 16 - she was one of the first musicians that I independently discovered, I had her first album on cassette tape, and I snuck out of school one lunchtime to go meet her at a signing in a Queen Street music shop. She played one gig in New Zealand back then, and never again in 12+ years. One of my many-vaunted advantages to living in London - you get to go to these kinds of amazing concerts!

So it was a great night, with an excellent setlist and a talented band. Of course I would have liked to hear more songs, including a couple of personal favourites, but it was a pretty good spread from her many albums, and I had a few emotionally charged moments.

Band:

Heather Nova: vocals, guitar, keyboards

Berit Fridahl: guitar, backing vocals

Bastian Juel: bass, backing vocals

Geoff Dugmore: drums, percussions, Cajón

Setlist:

Ride

Heart And Shoulder

Blood Of Me

Motherland

All I Need

Not Only Human

Heal

Walk this World

Fool For You

Redbird

Beautiful Storm

Maybe Tommorow

I Wanna Be Your Light

London Rain

Island

Like Lovers Do

Winterblue (with lyrics from Don Henley - Boys of summer)

Encore:

Paper Cup (dedicated to Heather's parents, who were in the audience)

Renegade

Second encore:

Every Soldier Is A Mother's Son

Lisbon

Had a work conference in Lisbon, which was a nice treat. I've not travelled for work before, and I hadn't been to Portugal yet, so that's two new things for the price of one. We were inside the conference room at our hotel for 95% of the stay, but I did manage to at least walk around the local neighbourhood and have a lookee-loo. 

Lisbon is a curious blend of normal cityscape and derelict building sites. I passed many abandoned and boarded-up estates, even on main commercial streets. Here's a typical example:

A quiet moment in the park... The sun was a welcome switch from London skies!

Of course, being so close to Spain, Portugal boasts delicious tapas! I also had some excellent mojitos when we went out for dinner. One of the places I ate was a converted convent, where the menu was supposedly the same as what the nuns would prepare for their charges.

Work colleagues (trust the Aussie to be causing trouble...)

London staff ratio is 4:1 women to men. What a hardship!

Cheney

Not everyone's a fan...

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Took Dad to see this at the BFI just before he and Mum left the UK. Was amazing to see a high quality print on the big screen. As when I first watched the DVD release of Director's Cut, I noticed a lot of extra detail I'd never seen before. Such an incredible film...

Also dovetailed this with an interview with Michael Deeley, producer of Blade Runner, Deer Hunter, Italian Job and others.

Got to meet him afterwards at a book signing.

Farewell to Mum and Dad

Packed in a busy last week with Mum and Dad. No sooner than we arrived back in London, Dad and I rushed off to a performance of Spamalot, the Monty Python musical. Was great to finally go, because I've passing the venue just about daily since living here! It differs quite heavily fromMonty Python and the Holy Grail, but it's an imaginative show that manages to send up the whole range of theatre cliches. We had to sneakily eat cornish pasties during the show, because we hadn't had time to get food since landing at Heathrow!

The following morning, Dad and I also had tickets to see the Ian Fleming exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, For Your Eyes Only. This was a superb exhibition, and a must for fans of James Bond. What stood out was the range of documentary material they had on display - school reports, letters of recommendation, even early drafts of James Bond novels with editor's corrections. Truly fascinating. They also had a neat little display of props and constumes from the films, which was an unexpected little treat.

We had a good look around the museum afterwards, and the other displays were also very high quality. Of note, the Holocaust section, and a special covert intelligence area that mirrored what we had just learnedof Fleming's wartime experience.

Dad celebrating the downfall of the Third Reich:

We also saw a Q&A session with some war veterans, which was very interesting and, at times, quite moving.

A piece of the Berlin wall:

During the week, I met M&D for lunch in Seven Dials, where I took them to my favourite veggie restauran, Food for Thought. Even Dad enjoyed his tasty meal, depite the lack of meat. The four of us also went to the movies to see Tropic Thunder, which was a good laugh, though (sorry!) not really to Mum's taste, I don't think.

Dad and I also had a lad's night watching Blade Runner on the big screen, while Mum and Anna went to see Mamma Mia!. 

East Europe tour - Prague

Prague (Praha) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic (once one half of Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia). At its heart it is a charming example of Old World European architecture, with cobbled lanes, cathedrals, gold-tipped towers, and bridges criss-crossing the Vltava River. The historic town centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

We arrived mid-day by train, and successfully navigated the Metro system to our hotel. This was a wonderful art nouveau building, with botanically styled light-fittings and stairwells. 

Met Mum and Dad who had been there for a day or two extra, and then began a very spirited walk into town lead by an enthusiastic father! We passed a lot of interesting tourist shops, filled with merchandise printed with Mucha and Klimt paintings, Matroushka dolls and dozens of odd and varied puppets:

The Old Town (Staré město) square, framed by the Jan Hus monument, gothic Týn Church, the Estate Theatre (where Mozart's opera Don Giovanni was first performed) and the famous Orloj astronomical clock:

Over the Vltava river lies the exceptional 14th century Charles Bridge. I climbed one of the bridge's towers and took a few panoramic photos:

The historical Jewish ghetto, with several well preserved synagogues. One is now a holocast memorial, with the names of local Jewish families painted on the walls (including a Wetzlerova):

 This abuts the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe:

We also visited the Old New Synagogue (Czech: Staronová synagoga), Europe's oldest active synagogue. It's rumoured to be the resting place of the famed Prague Golem.

As well as the Spanish Synagogue, a highly ornamented building of Moorish style:

Prague Castle is the biggest ancient castle in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is an interesting complex, with several art galleries and historical rooms - not to mention terrific views of Prague:

Also on site is St Vitus Cathedral, which has splendid stained-glass windows by Mucha, the art nouveau artist. We also paid a trip to the Mucha museum, which has an excellent collection of his famed posters...

Frank Kafka grew up in Prague, and I made sure to visit a few of the sites where he lived (including one that has been converted into a pretty average museum):

We had a very nice dinner out one night, plus an outing to a nearby concert hall to watch a cheesy, but very entertaining performance of classical and opera (no doubt by jaded music students):