I had a great day yesterday with Matt ArtPix at the first Southend Vintage and retro fair.
This Sunday 9th March, it's something different: The Crook Log Antiques and Collectable Fair in Bexleyheath! The stock will be slightly different this time, as I will be bringing along some rarer books and oddities! For ore details and pictures of the stock I will have on my stall this Sunday, head to the Arcane Publishing blog! I sometimes become a stallholder and attend fairs and markets with my partner and Arcane Publishing designer Matt ArtPix . Our first event of 2014 is taking place THIS SUNDAY on home turf in Southend! I will have a few copies of I Am a Muse for sale at the event and will be promoting my next novel, The Book of Thoth. For this fair, we will be concentrating on classic cinema and icons, as well as fashion, here's the stock of second-hand books I will have with me at the event!. Then Sunday 9th March, we will be in Bexleyheath in London, more details soon!
2014 is the year we start trading in London more often! Yesterday, I attended the press briefing for Village Green 2014 at Metal’s beautiful HQ, Chalkwell Hall in Westcliff-on-Sea - about 25 minutes walk from my house, lucky me! The briefing was led by Metal’s Managing Director Colette Bailey and Sean McLoughlin, Senior Producer; they were ‘assisted’ by well-known comedian/actor/cartoonist - and local - Phill Jupitus, who gladly posed for the assembled photographers... He has performed at Village Green himself, and he has also worked with Metal on several occasions. He actually purchased the first two tickets himself at the press briefing! Below are Phill Jupitus and Sean McLoughlin (photos: yours truly) Village Green has become one of the most important events in Southend’s cultural and artistic calendar; last year’s headliner, Wilko Johnson, attracted the national press to Chalkwell Park – and I hope they will come back again this year, because I strongly believe that the work Metal do in the area deserves wider coverage. Arts organisation Metal have been running the event for six years now, and it has grown bigger and better every year. This good-natured celebration of arts and culture is truly for everyone, aged 0 to 110 - and a few well-behaved pooches! There’s music, of course – spread over several stages and including classical, folk, world, hip-hop, rock, indie, electro, etc. as well as an art and craft market, workshops, live visual arts, cabaret, comedy and spoken word, film – with a cinema provided by the always excellent local company The White Bus who also run the fab Southend Film Festival – and performance artists including stilt walkers, acrobats, jugglers, etc. Want to get a taste of what the Village Green experience is like? Watch this lovely little video of last year's event! It is an exciting experience for all the senses: you can listen, taste, look, watch, participate, make, try things out… There is even a whole day (this year, it will be Friday 11th July) for local schools to have their own mini-festival on site: Village Green: The Next Generation. New for 2014 will be the Kid’s Village, a whole area of the park dedicated to children and families and allowing them to get involved in loads of different activities. The Metal team also revealed some of the headliners who will be gracing various stages on the day – they are in talks with some more headlining acts, but couldn’t reveal anything as no contracts had been signed with them yet. So far, have been confirmed: Scottish singer Eddi Reader – she had a hit in the 80s, “Perfect”; hip-hop duo Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip; New York ska band The Slackers, Londoners Man Like Me, Sheffield indie band The Hosts, the world-renowned Philadelphia Boys Choir, popular local band Youth Club and also local, the extremely entertaining Goldmaster Allstars . Also confirmed are four visiting visual artists from Shangai who took part in the prestigious Liverpool biennial. Now, we are coming to the controversial bit: Village Green has been a free festival until now. Because of its growing success, audience numbers reached 30,000 last year, and costs have gone up at the same time as funding of the Arts has been drastically cut. This year, an entrance fee of £10 per adult (plus booking fee, as the tickets are issued via an agency) has been introduced. Children 0-10 go free, and 11-17 are £5. At the press briefing, I really got the impression that deciding to charge an entrance fee had been quite a difficult decision to make for the team. But this is the price to pay to keep this event going, and we should be grateful for it happening at all. Now, I could probably write a 10-page essay about the importance of art and culture in society, but it probably wouldn't change anything. I could also write another 10-page essay about how wrong it is to think that anything creative (music, books, art, etc.) should be available for free all the time. It involves a lot of work and costs. As we were reminded in a short promotional video during the briefing, a big part of Metal’s work is to get schools, children and teenagers involved in and inspired by the arts and culture. Throughout the year, they give Southend children the opportunity to come into contact with artists and their work, as well as getting them to create and express themselves. I think about the kids who have attended and will attend Village Green and realise how lucky they are. You never know, it might ignite a spark in some of them... And also, would you like to live in a town where nothing happens? Culture puts towns and cities on the map and improves them, makes them alive. Southend is lucky to be so close to London, and if it keeps up the good work, it could economically and socially benefit from the interest generated by events such as Village Green. So really, what is £10 for an adult in that case? I have bought my tickets and I am looking forward to discovering new artists. Let's hope the weather will be on our side! To get more info about how to buy tickets and the various ticket options, line-up and the event in general, head HERE. Metal will be keeping everyone up-to-date with the line-up etc. on social media, so go to their FACEBOOK or TWITTER ACCOUNT Old Spitalfields Market is a brilliant place to be every day of the week. We were back there specifically to buy a piece of jewellery from Lelong Designs, who create pieces inspired by the 20s and 30s, Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles - my favourites! I am not usually big on jewellery, but their stall is simply wonderful and I had to try and concentrate on the task at hand: purchase something to add to the back cover of The Book of Thoth - the cover itself is very minimalist, and we thought adding something completely different at the back would work well. Matt ArtPix, the Arcane Publishing designer, helped me choose between some Egyptian-inspired pieces or some insect jewellery. In the book, one item in particular plays an important role in the story: a dragonfly pendant. As Egyptian imagery is already well represented throughout the book - on the cover and inside - we decided to go for the wonderful dragonfly brooch above, which looks very, very close to the jewel I had in mind. And it is very, very wearable, isn't it? I had a little chat with the stallholder and was thrilled he agreed to have his work on the back cover of my book... Of course, credit will be given where it's due! I also HAD to make a detour and buy some tea on the Yumchaa Tea stall. Honestly, they are the best teas around. I knew I was going to a gig in the evening, and yet, I still bought three bags of tea and carried them around the whole day and night. How Rock'n'Roll is that? OK, I admit it: I can be a terrible snob from time to time, and I refuse to set foot in your average cinema like the Odeon, for example, ever again. People eat, talk, check their phones, fidget; their attention span doesn't exceed two minutes... It just spoils it for me. So we've decided to only go and see films in "civilised" surroundings, like the Curzon cinemas and the Barbican Centre. Below is a picture of Cromwell Tower opposite the cinema at the Barbican, pure Brutalist style! Talking about Brutalism... There's a great programme on at the moment about Brutalist architecture: Bunkers, Brutalism and Bloodymindedness, presented by the impossibly cool Jonathan Meades. It is absolutely bonkers, with Mr Meades's very, er, original presentation style. I'd love to get the script; it's wonderfully written in a rich, kaleidoscopic vocabulary... And it's very inspiring for me, with visuals close to what I'd like to achieve with my fourth book. We went to see the not-very-critically-acclaimed The Monuments Men. I've never seen any movie with George Clooney or Matt Damon, so I have now. Clooney has some kind of Cary Grant, twinkle-in-the-eye thing going on, and Matt Damon is... err... a bit bland, perhaps? I liked the movie because it had a sort of old-fashioned charm you don't really find in modern movies - I have always been a lover of classic cinema me, from the 20s to the late 50s. Also, it is rare in a mainstream movie to have references to art and its importance in our society. True, the movie doesn't go very deep into any of its topics, but I never go to the cinema to see movies making deep and serious social/political points - I leave that to pseudo-intellectuals. I haven't been to the cinema for ages, and then bang, several films turn up all at the same time! I also want to see Only Lovers Left Alive, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Under The Skin, and they are all out in the forthcoming weeks! When we stepped into the Lexington on Sunday, we entered a parallel, beautiful, lyrical world. I have already written a little bit about cellist and "looper" Jo Quail - when she supported Rasputina in November. It was a pleasure to see her play again - and it was even better the second time! Not only is her music truly mesmerising, but watching her play is fascinating. Music inspires me and has always played an important role in my life, but the process of creating music and playing it is a complete mystery to me. To witness the alchemy practised on stage by Jo was simply awesome. And her music is definitely otherworldly. On Sunday night, we were treated to a brand new, not quite finished piece - temporarily called "DD" - the music note I hasten to add - a "baby" track that still has quite a lot of growing up to do according to its creator, although it sounded pretty grown up to me already! We continued our journey into a realm of magic and shadowy beings with the excellent Seventh Harmonic (for some reason, my computer refuses to open the website on either Chrome or Explorer, which is a real shame!). Sunday was their new singer Liza Graham's first gig with the band, and if she looked slightly uncomfortable at the beginning, this changed pretty quickly as she literally beamed as the set went on... Jo Quail joined the band for their track "Winter" and added a layer of cords to the already rich ensemble. Experimental, dark and seductive stuff indeed... Daemonia Nymphe do know how to put on a show. Costumes, masks, ancient Greek instruments - made especially for them by craftsman Nikolaos Brass, and a dancer. On Sunday, they were presenting their new album, "Psychostasia".
Spyros Giasafakis and Evi Stergiou, the core members of Daemonia Nymphe, have worked for film and theatre (in particular The Theatre Lab Company), and it shows in their taste for the subtly dramatic; they also know how to surround themselves with talented musicians, and joining them on Sunday were among others Tanya Jackson (whom I had seen perform before with the Mediaeval Baebes) and ex-Dead Can Dance member Peter Ulrich - I still remember reviewing his fabulous album "Enter The Mysterium" years ago, so was particularly chuffed to see him there! Also present was dancer/model/actress Denise Moreno. Hypnotic, evocative and full of Ancient Greece's rhythms and flavours, Daemonia Nymphe's world is infused with myths and legends and carries the words and stories of Hellenic literature. This is dark, ritualistic, spellbinding music, plucked from ancient times to speak to the soul of modern audiences. To conclude, I would just add a word or two about the audience. Everyone should be proud of themselves: attentive and respectful of the silent/quiet bits in the sets, holding their breath at the end of each song before applauding enthusiastically. It was just a pleasure to be there. I have heard so many negative things recently about acoustic/quiet sets being completely spoilt by drunken idiots, blasé crowds speaking over artists and heckling... Well done, everyone. Last Saturday, we spent another great day in London. There was an exhibition we wanted to see and we had a gig in the evening. As usual, we ended up doing a few detours along the way... We were making our way to GRAD in Little Portland Street when we thought it would be a good idea to go and have a quick look at the BBC Broadcasting House just a few streets away. We got in to have a look at the Art Deco reception and the lovely security guy gave us a flyer for the tours organised there - this is a new attraction that launched in April last year. Just opposite Broadcasting House, you can find the imposing and rather fabulous Langham Hotel. Quick literary diversion here: the hotel was popular with writers such as Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle - whose Sherlock Holmes stories The Sign of Four and Scandal in Bohemia are partly set there! - and Oscar Wilde... It was then a short walk to Little Portland Street and GRAD (Gallery for Russian Arts and Design) to see their fabulous little exhibition "Soviet Posters of the Silent Screen". The gallery is not big, but we still managed to stay ages. The exhibition is free and really, you should go! (It's on until 29th March). My partner Matt ArtPix has written a great little blog about it, so go and have a looksie. Of course, I adored it; the 20s are my favourite era, and I am fascinated by silent movies. We sat down and watched the absolutely wonderful 1925 film "Chess Fever" in its entirety. And you're lucky: I have just found it on YouTube, so you can watch it too! - Warning: contains cute kittens and a killer actress who rocks the 20s look beautifully! I am hunting for a perfume, but I loathe the usual fare on offer in mainstream shops, especially as women's perfumes are mostly floral and "fresh". I don't want that rubbish: I like heavy perfumes, with wood, patchouli, spices, neroli, that kind of thing... In Covent Garden, I came across a shop that made JUST what I'd been looking for - with a seriously vintage/heritage twist and marvellous bottles to boot: Penhaligon's. I adored their Elixir one, but there are too many amazing concoctions in their collection! Have a look at their website, it is fascinating and real treat for the senses... Unfortunately, I simply cannot afford their prices... I might get tempted by their £3 samples one day! Talking about heritage, we also spent a bit of time in the very chaptastic shop Thomas Farthing on Museum Street, a stone's throw from the British Museum . Their cloche hats are lurvely and I was tempted to steal all their nice vintage wooden crates for my Arcane Publishing stall! We made a short visit to the venerable institution that is the British Museum to pick up flyers for the next big exhibition I absolutely have to go to: Vikings: Life and Legend. Then we were off to the Islington O2 Academy for some choons... I have written about Red Sun Revival and The Eden House before - read my review of their gig at The Lexington HERE. We didn't catch RSR this time around but were in for co-headliners And Also The Trees, who play very rarely in this country. Elegant, atmospheric and poetic, their music took us far away from our urban landscape. The Eden House are one of my favourite bands and their set was as good as ever, albeit a little bit too short for my taste... I always want more of their beautiful music! This Sunday, we are doing it all over again, with different places and bands... So that's another blog coming your way next week, then!
All pictures on this blog by Matt ArtPix (apart from "Elixir" photo from www.penhaligons.com) 7/2/2014 Editing, music, bliss...The editing of The Book of Thoth is well under way... Today, my work is fuelled by music - I am listening to the fabulous The Eden House ahead of their London gig tomorrow - I absolutely cannot wait! I am also looking forward to seeing And Also The Trees, whom I have never seen live. I have reviewed The Eden House's concert at The Lexington last year HERE and therefore will not do a full review of the gig this time around, but I will most certainly try and take pictures... I have also written a review of their new album Half-Life HERE. Here is some footage from the Lexington gig: 20/1/2014 Out and aboutI am going abroad for a week to do a bit of market research for Arcane Publishing and also to (maybe) stock up on some great ephemera and second-hand books for Arcane Publishing's forthcoming vintage and antiques markets.
I will be taking draft 2 of The Book of Thoth with me as there is a hell of a lot of work to do on it... In the meantime, my partner in crime Matt ArtPix will be trying out a few typesetting ideas for The Book of Thoth. When I come back, things will get incredibly busy: draft 2 of The Book of Thoth, freelance work, preparations for our first markets, a book review to write, some gigs, art exhibitions and theatre... I wouldn't have it any other way! 13/1/2014 First dates for 2014!Hurray! Arcane Publishing now has new dates on their events page!
We are still in the process of looking at various events around London and the South-east! We will of course keep you updated. Do check Arcane Publishing's events page regularly for more dates! In the meantime, come and say hi - and maybe buy a book or two - at the following events: We will be at the Southend Vintage Fair, Chase Sports Centre, Southend-on-Sea; I will be sharing a stall with my partner Matt ArtPix. Then the following week, I will have my own stall at the Crook Log Antiques and collectables fair at the Crook Log leisure centre in Bexleyheath. At those events, Arcane Publishing will be selling a great selection of second-hand and vintage books - some rare! - and of course, copies of I Am a Muse. I am just about to finish the first draft of The Book of Thoth. I am beyond myself with excitement, as I cannot wait to work on the second draft and whip this monstrous manuscript into shape (I have been working on this first draft since the first half of 2011! I am really looking forward to 2014: we already have loads of great gigs, a music festival and plays lined up. I hope to publish my second novel, The Book of Thoth, in December - Matt ArtPix should take over the typesetting for this one, and he has already produced some awesome ideas to add some quirky bits all through the book... we'll see how this goes, but it is exciting! I will also work on the promotion of Arcane Publishing and my second-hand book selling venture... But I'll also be reading a lot - my "to read" shelf is an ever-expanding monster -and I am really looking forward to new books by two of my favourite authors: Sarah Waters and Michel Faber. Sarah Waters's The Paying Guests will be published in the autumn, and is set during the era that fascinates me the most, the 20s! I am still hoping that the movie of The Little Stranger, her previous novel, will be made - it was optioned for film a while ago but no news on that front yet... The Paying Guests synopsis below: It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. Talking about books made into films, I really want to see Under The Skin, based on Michel Faber's novel. I love his books and writing style - and he seems to be a very interesting guy - and I am very intrigued as to what they've managed to do with it. And it's got Scarlett Johansson in it, and yes, I think she is a very interesting actress. Under The Skin is out in March but will probably be shown in two cinemas in London so I will have to pay attention so as not to miss it. It was announced last week that Faber's next book, The Book of Strange New Things, his first novel for ten years, will be out in November next year. I have to say that the subject matter is not really my cup of tea - books about religious belief are a complete no-no for me - but I do trust Faber's writing talent to turn it into an incredible read. Watch the trailer for Under The Skin below - cracking soundtrack, I'm sure music-obsessed Michel Faber would approve! I do hope that both authors will be promoting their books (and film) in London and do talks, I'll be first in the queue!
During yet another fabulous outing in London last weekend, we were able to see some astonishing art on display and listen to some terrific tunes... First to the imposing Somerset House, where Stanley Spencer's Heaven in a Hell of War is exhibited (free entrance!) as part of The First World War Centenary. All the paintings have made the journey from their permanent home of the Sandham Memorial Chapel - bar the gigantic The Resurrection of The Soldiers, which was displayed as a projection on the wall, as the original was painted on a canvas adhered to the wall of the high altar of the chapel. Most of the scenes show everyday life during the war at the Beaufort Military Hospital in Bristol - where the injured soldiers shared the building with mental asylum patients - and are fascinating and often humorous vignettes; some others depict scenes from the Macedonian front. There is a lot to see here, loads of little details. I was also very taken with the richness of the colours in some of the scenes and by the lovely, quintessentially English Tea in the Hospital Ward and Bedmaking. The exhibition is on until 26th January 2014. It was only a short walk to Trafalgar Square - for a little look at the Big Blue Cock there - no, I am not being rude - and I can tell you something: the two manky pigeons perched on the plinth were not impressed - nor was I, to be perfectly honest. I went to Vienna when I was very, very young, and remember not liking its monumental architecture at all... I do not know a lot about Austrian history and culture, but I am a massive Klimt fan, and therefore was not going to miss this. The exhibition is rather fascinating and is showing works from the Secession movement - concentrating on their portraits of members of the affluent, international and liberal middle-classes, who were often also their patrons. The styles vary enormously, with some works genuinely surprising in their boldness and originality - some of them unsettling, even. And I was so thrilled to see a few original Klimts at last! I really liked Oskar Kokoschka's work and his unique use of colours, especially in Portrait of Hans and Erica Tietze-Conrat below - the online images and even the prints do not do justice to the original, I'm afraid. Another favourite of mine: Erich Lederer by Egon Schiele. The young man looks like he is straight out of a silent movie. A quick stop for refreshments in the fast-disappearing Soho, and we were on our way to the Islington O2 Academy to listen to some music! Industrial band Ventenner were excellent, taking their influences from different genres and injecting a welcome uncompromising, misanthropic energy - think Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, Atari Teenage Riot among others... I will definitively keep an eye on them! Die Kur's singer Ays Kura looked thrilled to be playing in front of a sold out Islington Academy and his enthusiasm was infectious, even though their music was slightly too metal for me. It was good to see Inertia's Reza Udhin wear his Sophie Lancaster Foundation t-shirt and wrist band to play another energetic set from this hard-working electronic band - who were celebrating their 20th anniversary last year! Time flies... Time for yet another celebration: The Young Gods' 25th anniversary!
The pioneering post-industrial Swiss band played a fabulous set, with samplers as sharp and biting as ever - original member Cesare Pizzi is back and taking charge of them for this tour. I don't really know what kind of stuff singer Franz Treichler is taking to keep his youthful, dancer-like physique, but I'll have some of it, please. He just doesn't change, and still makes an engaging, charismatic frontman. As for drummer Bernard Trontin, he was on impressive form... |
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March 2024
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