Spitalfields City Farm and Brick Lane

For the poor folk who grow up in the London metropolis and never get a chance to visit the countryside, there's the delightful "City Farm". They're a little moth-eaten, certainly, but there are lots of nice animals like pigs, horses, goats, chickens, and even guinea pigs!

Since we don't have any pets, this was a nice opportunity for us to recharge our animal batteries. Afterwards we walked back into Spitalfields for a bagel, passing the shoe tree...

Lots of local graffiti...

And an interesting piece of performance art in one of the many Brick Lane art galleries (a man wearing watermelons)...

Nine Inch Nails / Mew / Jane's Addiction (The O2) 15/07/09

That's not the order they played in, but it's the order in which I love them! Poor, wonderful Mew only got a 20 minute or so set, but they sure made the most of it - throwing out some awesome new tracks, and great versions of old favourites.

Mew setlist:
New Terrain
Introducing Palace Players
Repeaterbeater
Special
The Zookeeper's Boy
Am I Wry? No
156

Jane's Addiction setlist:
Three Days
Whores
Ain’t No Right
Then She Did…
Mountain Song
Been Caught Stealing
Ted, Just Admit It
Oceansize
Stop!
Jane Says

Nine Inch Nails setlist:
Now I’m Nothing
Terrible Lie
1,000,000
Heresy
March Of The Pigs
Reptile
The Becoming
I’m Afraid Of Americans [David Bowie cover]
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
The Fragile
Non Entity
The Big Come Down
The Downward Spiral
Wish
Survivalism
Down In It
Metal [Gary Numan cover] with Gary Numan
Cars [Gary Numan cover] with Gary Numan
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
Hurt

Enjoying the heat

Well, we were the last couple of weeks anyway. This week has been thunder, lightning and even a few seconds of hail.

June round-up

It's all becoming a blur since I started doing video commissions for the Babelgum website. I work all day at Yahoo!, and either go out and film afterwards, or come home and edit into the wee hours. This process has so far yielded two videos, one about The Great Cake Escape, and another about the London Street Pianos (Anna has a cameo in this one).

In between, I saw an interview with Nick Cave (of the Bad Seeds) at the BFI; completely forgot about and missed an interview with the cast of Torchwood (though I did catch a glimpse of the exquisite Eve Myles afterwards...); attended an interview with author A.S.Byatt at The Guardian headquarters, in which she spoke about Possession, her Booker prize-winning masterpiece, plus I spoke to her afterwards and got her signature on a first edition copy of The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye; submitted my film Cut-out to the London and Venice film fests; dressed up my friend Darren in a Mozart outfit and wandered around City of London at night to play the piano outside outside the Royal Exchange buildings; Anna and I visited The Southerner, a Speights pub near the Royal Courts of Justice that was set up as part of last year's promotion (there was a whole pub shipped from New Zealand by sea, alas this is not it as the Council shut down the original); went to the original Twinings shop on The Strand, opened in 1706 and now the oldest trading premises in the City of Westminster, and bought some Irish Breakfast tea; and last night Anna and I attended a dress up party to celebrate July 4th - US Independence Day...

Update: Just met director Mike Figgis! I was down in Trafalgar Square to film the opening of the new artwork for the "Fourth Plinth", and he was there filming too. Neat! Also filmed Mayor Boris Johnson and artist Anthony Gormley.

Tracy Chapman (The Roundhouse) 25/06/09

Setlist:
America
Sing For You
Baby Can I Hold You
Something To See
Say Hallelujah
Smoke and Ashes
Another Sun
Save Us All
Lovesong
I Did It All
The Promise > Save a Place for Me
Fast Car
Our Bright Future
Telling Stories
Give Me One Reason
Talkin’ Bout A Revoloution

Encore:
She’s Got Her Ticket
Behind The Wall
Subcity

Mike chillin' out in London

THURS

Walk to South Bank, Westminster

Westminster Abbey

Lunch in Leicester Square

FRIDAY

Natural History Museum

Science Museum

Wallace & Gromit exhibition

Harrods

British Library

St Paul's / Summer Ale

SATURDAY

Borough Markets

Crossbones Graveyard

Tate Modern

Yo! Sushi

SUNDAY

Soho, Flat White.

British Museum

Darren

Met R&N and friend back down in South Bank

Anna's Odyssey

Latest updates first:

• 17 June: Back in London.
• 15 June: Had another busy day in 35 degree heat. About to go to dins.
• 15 June: Tour concludes in Istanbul.
• 15 June: Had a very busy day - did the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cistern and Bosphorous Cruise. Now staying in Hotel Empress Zoe.
• 14 June: In the nation's capital, Ankara, we visit the award winning Anatolian Civilisations museum, before heading back to Istanbul. Overnight in Istanbul.
• 14 June: Ugh, 11 hour bus to Istanbul. 5:30 am wakeup.
• 13 June: Marvel at the lunar landscape of Cappadocia through Goreme Valley, the fairy chimneys, an underground city and more. Overnight in Cappadocia.
• 12 June: I'm on a bus watching Trkish countryside go by. Might have a Turkish bath tonight.
• 12 June: Travel the ancient Silk Road, passing several Caravanserais and visiting Sultanhani Caravansary. Along the way we also visit Konya, where we take time to tour the Mevlana Museum. Overnight in Cappadocia.
• 11 June: Pamukkale is pretty cool - just like the pink and white terraces would have been. Am very tired. 9 hours tomorrow to Cappadocia.
• 11 June: Tour the magnificent white calcium terraces of Pamukkale, followed by the ancient city of Hierapolis. Overnight in Pamukkale.
• 10 June: Carpet thing was cool - saw silk coccoons unravelled.
• 10 June: Guided tour of Ephesus and a visit to the Temple of Artemis. At the carpet village, learn how the carpets are made by hand and what determines their value. Overnight in Kusadasi.
• 9 June: Made it to the hotel and have had dins. Off to Ephesus tomorrow.
• 9 June: Arrival in Turkey. Overnight in Kusadasi.
• 9 June: Only just managed to get on ferry - lady screwed up our tickets. Raa!
• 8 June: Last day in Samos. Taking ferry to Turkey tomorrow. Off to beach for swim - it's very hot.
• 7 June: Just having dins with Alex. Had a pretty quiet day today.
• 6 June: Alex is trying to drag my butt out, but I'd rather be reading.
• 5 June: Guess what? I'm on a beach. One with beautiful green mountains behind.
• Made it to Samos - have just gotten up after finding Hotel Helen at 7am. Samos is green with terracotta roofs - looks like Italy.
• Having dins in a cute Naxos taverna on The Kastro. Watched a beautiful sunset next to the Temple of Apollo on the water.
• Catching overnight ferry to Samos. Going via Naxos so Alex can see the town Until then will be at beach in Ios. Looking forward to Turkey, because have had enough of beaches - hard life I know.
• Now on Ios. Patchy wireless, so no photos. They were energetically touted to stay at a hostel caled Margheritas - hopefully not dodgy. It's on the hillside overlooking the the village. Alex dragged Anna up another hill somewhere.
• Moved to Naxos.
• 27 May: Flew to Mykonos.

Random picture 4

Ross and Viv invited me to a birthday party for one of their friends, which involved dressing up in 60s gear and hitting an odd RSA/burlesque club called the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. They have a popcorn machine staffed by an unconvincing, but friendly, tranny.

Random picture 3

Andy and Megan invited us to join them on a pleasant countryside work near Meapham, itself near(ish) to East Croydon. We had a wonderful time ambling through paddocks, woods and fields of wild flowers. The day was a real scorcher, and I may have even had an English tan afterwards - for a few days that is... 

Jean Michel Jarre (Wembley Arena) 22/05/09

A pretty awesome show, though I think more could have been done to give the audience something to look at, considering he's a one man band, and usually perched behind a keyboard. The stand out moments were therefore when he came centre stage to play... the laser harp!

Setlist:

Industrial Revolution 2

Magnetic Fields 1
Equinoxe 7
Oxygène 2
Rendez vous 3
Oxygène 12
Souvenir of China
Magnetic Fields 2
Oxygène 5
Oxygène Variation III
Equinoxe 4
Equinoxe 5
Chronologie 6
Chronologie 2

Encore 1:
Oxygène 4
Calypso 3
Rendez vous 2

Encore 2:
Oxygène 4
Industrial Revolution 2 (outro)

Metric (Electric Ballroom) 19/05/09

Anna and I were perched behind the sound desk, and I got a sneaky photo of the onscreen setlist. You can see a couple of extra songs that were rehearsed, but alas not performed...

Setlist:

Twilight

Help I’m Alive
Satellite Mind
Handshakes
Gold Gun Girls
Gimme Sympathy
Sick Muse
Empty
Front Row
Dead Disco
Stadium Love

Encore:
Monster Hospital
Live It Out

Random picture 2

Went to farewell Selina and Anthony, who are heading off to Australia for the rest of the year. They were staying with some friends, Nick and Caroline, who also happen to have a few guinea pigs - Anna's favourite!

Random picture

My sleep disturbed, I wandered out to the balcony to see what all the noise was about. Thinking there might be a football match on, I was instead greeted with the sight of a million and one women marching through the City of London in the dead of night!

UPDATE: They return! Clearly a charity run, and perhaps they had been doing some dress rehearsals?

Romeo and Juliet at the Globe theatre

Highgate Cemetery

A Pair of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I had a wonderful opportunity over the bank holiday to meet two legends in the field of comic books - an encounter never likely to take place back home! Gosh! Comics, a reputable little store opposite the British Museum, had writer Alan Moore (AKA God) and artist Kevin O'Neill in the shop for a signing of their latest creation, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910. 

Despite arriving nice and early, there was a considerable queue, which just happened to move at a snail's pace thanks to the generous amount of time the duo put into each visitor. What a swell pair of gents!

Here they are - Alan of course hiding behind the tremendous beard. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect from Mr Moore. Famously outspoken about the villainous side of the comics industry, I thought perhaps he would be quite an intimidating fellow. But I was thrilled to find that he is an absolutely splendid fellow - very polite, engaging and friendly. I enjoyed chatting with the pair for a little while, and getting signed copies of League, Watchmen and From Hell (my personal favourite, and probable pick for best comic book of all time).

The coolest thing about this picture, other than the fact Alan was munching on chocolate biscuits at the time, is that it was taken by Hayley Campbell - daughter of Eddie Campbell, artist on the aforementioned From Hell!

It's also not hard to smile for the camera when she's behind it. ;)

April round-up

Anna and Ewelina under the Millennium Bridge. Nick and Ewelina joined me for a spot of beach combing. I've turned up a couple of nice carved pipes recently...

Me with Ernest Borgnine at the BFI. He's amazing for a 91 year old!

Tired tourists sleeping outside St Pauls :)

Anna overlooking the Tower Bridge, just outside the Tower of London: