Fork Handles

If there are any regular readers of this out there on the interweb, then maybe at least one of you can recall my bigging up of the Sir John Soanes Museum a while back.

I had good reason then to give what little kudos I have to offer to this oft forgotten London treasure and I have even more reason now...

As if the Museum itself is not amazing and atmospheric enough, there will now be extra-super-special candlelit tours of the house.

A house that features collections ranging from Neo-Classical sculpture to Egyptian Antiquities to glorious timepieces. All this within the walls of a beautiful and historical building in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Taking place on the first Tuesday of every month from 6pm - 9pm and at the absolutely spiffingly good price of FREE.

Make sure to arrive in good time as this kind of thing tends to lend itself to the great British sport of queuing...

Music For Your Faces!

 

 I've been lagging a little with my sporadic digests of lyrical, rhythmical and, indeed, musical delectations but with the new season upon us and after a weekend of opening all the windows and blaring out the years first King Tubby, it seemed appropriate to pick up the aural baton once more and cover it in advisory post-it notes of what I have been feeding my ears recently.

The Books - The Lemon of Pink.
The Books have been around for a little while now yet their experimentations always manage to sound fresh and innovative. This is a beautiful song, from the album of the same name, that incorporates some old-style country vibes into a wonky, beguiling and heady mix. A perfect accompaniment for any sunny day.

The Hot 8 Brass Band - Sexual Healing.
Now this is by no means a new tune, having been hardily blasted out and celebrated at the Hot 8 Brass Band's much talked about Cargo gig. Hailing from that boiling hotpot of jazz, New Orleans, this band were propelled into consciousness after Hurricane Katrina and Spike Lee's subsequent documentary When the Levees Broke, featuring them. This is a cover of the Marvin Gaye classic that, in my humble opinion, puts the original in the shade. All blaring horns and soulful, hiphop basslines.

Little Dragon - Twice
Hailing from Sweden and fronted by a Swedish-Japanese singer. Sounds like my kind of band already. This is the first track from their recent eponymous album and although the album has it's peaks and troughs, this is one of the most beautifully elegant songs I have heard in a good long while. The music video ain't bad either...

Susanna and The Magical Orchestra - Enjoy The Silence.
Unwittingly, I seem to be following a thread here. Another band of Scandinavian origins and another interpreted cover song. Susanna and The Magical Orchestra seem to make songs that run for no-one. Time seems to slow and grow and every note played or sung is deliberated over and perfected. This very personal cover will bring you a whole new dimension to the Depeche Mode classic...

Lambchop - Up With People
This will, undoubtedly, be extremely familiar to some of you already. In fact, I know it is. However, this is one of THE summer soundtracks and if I can turn just a couple of those unaware of it's presence, over to the genius of Kurt Wagner, then it'll surely put an extra half inch spring into my step today. Oh, yes...

Hackneyed History

Photography by George Best

A bit of a local one for local people this one, but fascinating to all if you are around my hood on Saturday morning.

The St John at Hackney Churchyard and St Augustine's Tower are a bit of a Hackney landmark and by far and away the oldest building in the area having originally been part of a church built there in the 16th century. If you really want to kick it old school then there has been a church, founded by the Knights Templar, on this site since the 13th century.

Having relatively recently received lottery funding to renovate and re-open to the public, it is now possible to take a little tour and find out a little bit of history to something that one might otherwise idly and ignorantly stroll by.

This Saturday, there is just such an opportunity as local historian Sean Gubbins will enlighten on the myriad of society over the centuries buried in the churchyard, as well as a climb up the miniscule stone stairs to the top of the tower where a frankly spectacular view over East London and way beyond awaits...

Saturday 27th March
11am - 1pm
FREE

Wild, Wild Food

Having last year spent some time in a beautiful Ardeche forest right in amongst the beauty and bounty of Mother Nature, a life spent living off the fruits of one's labour and lands is something that appeals greatly to me.

Well, now it seems as though lessons on such things can be learned among the oases of green spaces that this huge city contains. Our East End neighbours in Tower Hamlets are running a series of events in the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, with one particularly catching my eye.

On a Saturday afternoon there will be a Wild Food Walk around the cemetery where one can learn about what is there to just pick and eat and to reach down and do so.

Saturday 20th March
13:30 - 15:30
Tower Hamlets Cemetery
FREE (or optional donation)

Secret City

Although most representations of London are of the sprawling metropolis, the hectic non-stop pace, the constant buzz, the real beauty to our capital lies in the mysteries of history and the hidden treasures that lie beneath.

I've lived in this city for 30 years and every day I discover something new, something that feels like only I have discovered and I now have two other paragons to add to this ever-growing list.

The first is a guided walk through the Hidden Gardens of the City. Taking you on a route that is oft-restricted and hidden to the public face, this promises to be a little element of our city that only a few are lucky to peer at...

Every Wed 1:30pm until 31st March
£5 donation to Cancer Research and Oxfam

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This second one, I have to admit was news to me too and has since piqued my curiousity to such an extent that I will be using some of my precious holiday time to explore. If any of you should also be so piqued, let me know when, and we can embark.

Under neath London Wall, still stands the remains of the Roman's military fort. Rarely accessible, this will be open to the public as part of a curator-guided tour on 3 dates through February, March and April. Nearly 1900 years old.

That's bloody old, that is.

FREE

Thursday February 11th 14:00 - 14:30 and 15:00 - 15:30

Monday March 8th 14:00 - 14:30 and 15:00 - 15:30

Thursday April 22nd 14:00 - 14:30 and 15:00 - 15:30

I'm A Ramblin' Man...

For some reason, for which I am yet to fully comprehend, the oft forgotten and maligned walking tour sprang to my mind this week and I thought to include some in this weeks cultural digest.

They cover our beloved East London and will enlighten and entertain whilst bringing to life the rich history and culture of this part of the world. All for a little monetary donation and the use of ones pins.

Run by the Museum of London as part of this years EAST festival you can find out what the East End used to be like before Cantaloupe and Cargo...

The Perfect Hangover Cure

So. It’s January. You’re back at work with memories of the festive period as fresh in the mind as the bastard behind the eyes still lingering this morning. 

Fear not though. We live in a city that continually offers the plink-plonk-fizz of the Alka-seltzer of cultural remedy and, even as the first solar flare pierces the horizon of 2010, opportunity abounds.

Let’s start with the old-old-school.

The British Museum is playing host to an epic exhibition on the Aztec ruler Moctezuma, whose name roughly translates as “he who is angry in a noble manner”. Ultimately, he was the fall guy to the Spanish invasion but the legacy of the Aztec’s ritual and architecture is revealed in exhibits being seen in the UK for the first time ever.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/all_current_exhibitions/moctezuma.aspx

As I know you all enjoy getting your own hands dirty, to tie in with this, the British Museum is hosting two one-day Mexican sculpture workshops with the ceramic artist Tiburcio Soteno.

These will take place on Friday 15^th and Saturday 16^th January from 11:00 – 17:00 and cost £30 or £20 for concessions. Very limited places so book soonest.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/january/mexican_sculpture.aspx

The Host Gallery is, well, playing host to an affecting show from photographer Rena Effendi.

In her first UK exhibition, her images highlight and explore the lives of those living on and affected by the 1700km long BTC pipeline that flows through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Tuesday 12^th January also sees the gallery as the setting for an evening conversation with the artist herself.

FREE

Flipping over to the contemporary, place-to-be Berlin art scene, SilberkuppeRooms Without Walls take over the Hayward Gallery Project Space with their exhibition. Usually an independent contemporary art space in Berlin, the group use this opportunity to reflect on the collective cultural scene in the two decades since the fall of the Wall through the medium of pop and art.

FREE

In the main Hayward Gallery, in a slightly less free exhibition is a 50 year retrospective of Ed Ruscha, an important figure in both the pop-art and beat movements.

Tickets are a tenner although there is a sneaky little two-for-one offer here.

Sticking with the Southbank Centre, that loveable scamp and one man vocal orchestra, Shlomo is still Artist in Residence.

His long running Music through Unconventional Means series continues with the Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra.

Working with one of the most exciting UK composing talents, Anna Meredith, Shlomo will be performing the Concerto alongside a full orchestra made up of parts from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment and Philharmonia Orchestra.

Tickets are £20 or £10 for concessions

On the gig front, as usual, there is a veritable smorgasbord (love that word!) of aural delights to partake in…here is a little selection to swill around before deciding whether to spit or swallow…

Mozart’s Requiem at St Martin-in-the-Fields 8^th January

Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky by Candlelight at St Martin-in-the-Fields 19^th January

Buffy Saint-Marie at The Shepherds Bush Empire 30^th January

Four Tet at The Dome (Yes, as in the dive in Tufnell Park!) 12^th February

Philip Glass and The London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican 21^st February

Polar Bear at The Garage 2^nd March

The Gift of Gab at The Jazz Café 5^th March

Plaid and Luke Vibert at Koko 6^th March

The Bays at The Jazz Café 12^th March

Grizzly Bear at The Roundhouse 13^th and 14^th March

And one to consider in Spring when those lambs are a-leaping…

Handel’s Messiah at The Royal Albert Hall 2^nd April

Moving swiftly on to that bastion of trendy noisecore bands and fine film, the ICA, there are a couple of interesting celluloid additions.

That doyen of eclecticism, Jim Jarmusch, has a new release, The Limits of Control, and he of Being John Malkovich fame, Jon Malkovich takles JM Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning novel in Disgrace.

Another new cinematic release that has been hotly anticipated, not least in my household, is the Ian Dury biopic, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Starring the much underrated Andy Serkis in the lead role, this opens in cinemas this weekend including at The Barbican, Screen on the Green and The Ritzy.

A late recommendation, and I have it on very good authority that the new Mexican film Voy A Explotar (I'm Gonna Explode) is a bit of a cracker. I think it only prudent to take the advice of a source as reliable as this.
Showing at The Barbican, tonight at The Ritzy and at The Renoir.

January also strikes me as an excellently apt month to remind oneself of the experience of Waiting For Godot and we are blessed to be able to have the opportunity to see one of the finest actors around leading this. Magneto. Sorry, my bad, I meant Gandalf, of course.

Running from the 21^st January for 11 weeks.

In other more cosy theatrical surroundings, the Arcola Theatre is running a mini German season featuring their new production Innocence showing from the 6^thth January. There are the usual pay-what-you-can evenings on Tuesdays but also the opportunity, should you be young and fresh-faced enough (alas!), for a FREE ticket… – 30

Alongside this, between the 10^th and 17^th Jan, the Arcola Bar will be turned into a 1989 Berlin bar for an interactive recreation of the night the wall fell and the 15^th and 16^th will play host an evening of Kurt Tucholsky music, a satirist, writer, poet and cabaret singer of the Weimar Republic. These are both FREE.

Given my penchant for musical obsession and geekery, I am taking the liberty of including a segment with my current soundtrack to life.

Naturally, you also have the liberty of ignoring this but I can assure you that, as anyone who knows me can attest, I have impeccable taste in music… ;)

Fever Ray – Fever Ray.  The new solo project from Karin Dreijer Andersson of famously reclusive sibling electro duo The Knife. Dark, haunting and mesmeric. Get yourself lost in this.

Birds Demo – Kuryakin. Little known Swedish duo making beautiful music by exchanging samples through the post. It’s all about the Scandinavians…

Snowdonia EP – Mechanical Owl. This falls under that unfortunate moniker of ‘folktronica’. Despite that happenstance, this veers between tender indie and cultured electronica. With a bit of Stuart Murdoch-style storytelling thrown in for good measure.

Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know – Múm. One of my favourite bands, ever. Consistently innovative, always beautiful, defiantly intricate. Their new album hits the heights again after the only very good, rather than brilliant, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy. In case of emergency of never having heard Múm, follow these simple instructions.

1. Stop whatever it is you are doing right now.
2. Use Spotify to immediately fill this gaping hole in your life
3. Go out and buy this album to satisfy those long-term cravings.
4. And relax.

Cymande – Cymande. Depending on your musical leanings Cymande are either a band you worship or a band you have never heard of. A band from Birmingham making Rastafarian-influenced funk doesn’t immediately sound promising but even on the first listen to this album, subsequent artists who have begged, borrowed or stolen from them start to pile up in your head, from A Tribe Called Quest to The Fugees to DJ Yoda. Impossibly tight.

Although not on this album, to really put a bounce in your stride, and the roll into your stroll check out Brothers On The Slide. Fuck yeah…