25.4.08

Steve (or is it a Russian dissident?), circa 1988/9, Chantry Point,





My wife was going through some of the old shit I keep in the house and one of the things that fell out was a contact sheet from the old days. Taken around 1988 or '89 the pictures are of people I was at college with, taken around the flat I lived in half-way up a tower block on the Harrow Road. This one's of Steve (who is most decidedly still around); there's another one of me and Guillaume (now in Los Angeles landscape architecting) and one of Jojo. I've no idea where Jojo is now.

19.4.08

Goldfrapp


Goldfrapp
Originally uploaded by Catfunt
Went to see Goldfrapp with the excellent Chris who'd spent the last month phoning up the Royal Festival Hall to see if they had any returns. Finally they did and we ended up in a box on the right hand side of the stage, hence the weird view in the pics. They was a multi-instrumentalist with a beard and lank hair dressed in baggy white shorts (he has his back to us in this shot) who seemed to do all the music despite the presence of a harpist, keyboardists and a small string orchestra. Biggest cheer was for 'Strict Machine' (maybe it's not called that but you know what I mean).

18.4.08

Asparagus at the plot


Asparagus at the plot
Originally uploaded by Catfunt
Our asparagus should be ready soon although the frost did get some of the emerging shoots. I noticed M&S was selling English asparagus today when I was in there buying pork (outdoor reared too) to go with some bean curd and the salted black beans I'm cooking at the weekend.

14.4.08

Pretty in the snow


Snow
Originally uploaded by Catfunt
As my wife says even Hackney looks good in the snow. Me, I like Hackney whatever the weather. Check out Snow White in the white snow. Yowsah!

9.4.08

You dig the tunnel I'll hide the soil: White Cube

I always imagine I'll write long lyrical posts like Andrew or Steve. In joyful anticipation I put the words, page and images together while riding the big bus from home down to Bethnal Green or Hackney, foolishly imagining I'll have the time at work to put these imaginings together. The reality is this, a picture by Harland Miller from the show he co-curated at White Cube and instead of poetry a series of bullet points:


    The show's based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe

    It's in the basement of Shoredtich Town Hall as well as White Cube.

    The Town Hall stuff is better.

    At first I thought having Poe in a dusty disused basement was too twee for Poe's work. Actually it gets the humour pretty well.

    The best work in the show is funny. The worst overly gothic.

    I once got a taxi in the 'seventies back to Chantry Point where I lived when I was very drunk. The taxi driver, a bitter bitter man, whose wife left him while he was in hospital had memorised the complete work of Poe while he lay there, wifeless and recovering. He said "It's what kept me sane" as he gripped my hand through the small money hole in the glass partition. He patently wasn't sane and had lost the plot a long time ago. He insisted on reciting the poems as proof of his feat. I remember he did The Raven and Lenore. He recited them at high-speed in a flat monotone like someone reciting the times tables. I've always imagined setting up an audio book label where cab drivers read the world's greatest literary works in a gruff "If I had that Ken Livingstone in here I'd give him a piece of my mind" monotone.