Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

A perk of working from home is the ability to make a nice lunch. Winter blues call for warming soups and the good old Campbell’s Condensed always goes down a treat with some crusty white doorsteps. But shock horror today! The label had changed and slapped over the classic red and white band was an ugly swatch: “Soon to be Batchelors”.

Batchelors will only ever make me think of grim, salty, dusty cup-a-soups that my mum subjected me to as a kid, not the lovely thick and creamy Campbells that Makes Double. This is a soup tragedy!

So many icons of 20th century culture are being swallowed up, rebranded, rebooted, renewed — and often to the detriment of the product in question. Will there be anything left for us to remember in ten years? Twenty?

Luckily, further investigation reveals that Batchelors won’t be changing the recipes and as they haven’t actually bought the brand, we might yet see Campbells on the label again in 2013.

I wonder by how much this will increase the value of Warhol’s classics?

• Beautiful photographs of forgotten “sound mirrors” built in the First World War as a low-tech precursor to RADAR
• Amazing pictures of bouquets frozen in liquid nitrogen then shattered
• Limo see-saw

It’s a new year: what better time for a lick of paint around here? The old design was never finished and I never really liked the literal interpretation of ‘pale movie’: monochrome images of some of my favourite films. So they are gone: dumped down the virtual swanny.

The new theme is still straightforward, but instead of a lighter background, I’ve opted for something more sombre. The focus is the large, randomized background images which capture ideas about loneliness, alienation, dereliction, decay and obsolescence; themes that I’ve always been interested in and will be exploring over the months to come as I try to improve both the subject matter of my posts and my writing style (I’ve been accused of being too wordy and too dry). While this is part of my style, I really want to develop language that’s more colourful and compelling, so stay tuned to see if I manage it…

Oh, and Happy New Year, etc.

About a month ago, I visited the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton for the first time. A beautiful picture house, it was originally built in 1910, refurbished in 1954, closed in 1976, re-opened in ‘78 and finally refurbished and extended in 1994. It reminded me a lot of my favourite cinema haunt back home, the Duke of York’s in Brighton. Indeed, both are part of the PictureHouse chain and are maintained with a philosophy sadly lacking in most commercial ventures these days.

Anyway, I went to see Once with my new girlfriend, having heard only a little about it, but intrigued by the idea of a heartfelt modern ‘musical’ acted by real musicians. Ninety minutes later, my tears said it all. Read more »

The other day on the way to the ICA, I walked passed a young Daniel Radcliffe clone: about 13 years old, short brown mop of hair, small round glasses and that particular cheeky grin. He was ambling past me with something written on his black t-shirt in bright white type. Closer inspection revealed a phrase, something like “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not Harry Potter.”

It raised a smile on me that in turn received a big smile from Potter #2 as he wandered by. It’s a cute self-knowing bit of personal propaganda which I’ve taken to heart. I will soon take delivery of my own anti-promo: “I am not the milky bar kid.”