11/2/2012 Ignite Books Gala Night - London MonarchLast Monday was the Ignite Books Gala night at The Monarch in Camden, London. The mini tour is the second one organised by indie press Ignite Books. Last April, the publisher celebrated its first release, Joolz Denby's novella The Curious Mystery of Miss Lydia Larking and the Widow Marvell. At the time, I had written a little report HERE. This time, Ignite Books were celebrating the launch of Joolz' stunning new novel, Wild Thing, which I have reviewed HERE. The book has been available on the New Model Army shop since December 2011 but is officially released - i.e will be available on Amazon (HERE), on Kindle, maybe even in bookshops(?) on February 14th 2012. Ignite Galas are intimate, beautiful events full of warmth, poetry, prose and music. South-London poet Peter Hayhoe started the night with his bitter-sweet texts about the realities of love in the modern day. Find a little video of his stuff HERE. Then Steve "Spot the Poet" Pottinger, Ignite Books co-founder, read a few of his excellent hard-hitting, politically flavoured texts. Some of them like 13th Floor and Five a Day are available to read on his WEBSITE. Accompanying Joolz and Steve was Mik Davis, former frontman of the now defunct New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack and his Utopian Love Revival bandmate, drummer Calum. Then Joolz came onto the stage, filling the room with her unflinching charisma. She started with The Black Dahlia, a new text that has given its name to Joolz's new spoken word album (which has been written and produced by Mik Davis who accompanied her on stage for this track). We were also treated to Smoking Joe and to The Wolf Girls of Midnapore (taken from the wonderful Spirit Stories album), the real story of feral children which would eventually inspire Wild Thing. As Joolz has admitted, it is not easy to choose an extract of Wild Thing for a reading without revealing too much of the story. But even the short extract she had picked for us came to life thanks to her wonderful skills as a storyteller and raconteur, her rich voice following all the nuances of the text. There is nothing I'd love more than have an audiobook version of Wild Thing read by Joolz. This was an enchanting evening put together by people fired up by their passion for words, music, art and freedom from the claws of corporate-sponsored "culture" . Oh, and I got a gorgeous out of print (1986) collection of Joolz's Poems... And thank you to Steve Pottinger for giving me a lovely Ignite Books mug... Perfect accompaniment to my freelance working day!
2/2/2012 Tipsy TwentiesAll things 20s seem to have come back into the collective consciousness... Better finish The Book of Thoth, then!
My partner in crime Matt ArtPix has finished his 20s collage as part of his Dazzling Decades series and will be selling them at shops and fairs in the forthcoming weeks and months... Cards, posters and framed images... It's... The Tipsy Twenties! (referring to the Bright Young Things and flappers good-time seekers of the time...). Once again the collage is made of images coming from ephemera from Matt's own collection! More about it on Matt's blog HERE You will recognise in the background a slightly tweaked version of the logo he has done for me for this very website! Do you have (loads of) money and are looking to buy a property in France as well as doing something for Art? Then Jean Linard’s ”Cathedral” might be the one for you!
Located in the very sought after central region of Sancerre - an area very well-known for its wine and local food and popular with English people and wealthy Parisians - it is a truly amazing place and could be an ideal B&B and art gallery… Linard was a very well-known, eccentric French artist (his art is part of ”L’Art Brut” or "Outsider Art") and passed away in 2010. His home, the ”Cathedral”, is under threat. The page on the estate agency website is HERE (English version): The Facebook campaign that has been launched to save the place is HERE I have found a blog in English about it HERE Wonderful photographs of the place, inside and outside (but text in French) HERE |
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