TRELLICK TOWER

Crapsurf report from Sennen cove

Ain't the interweb amazing! I will now be showing the Crapsurf video reports live on this blog. 

Jan, dripping and Crapsurfer.

Jan called round this morning. I awoke to find him nervously eyeing the vacuum cleaner.


Neither of us was inclined to switch it on.


I made him breakfast... Hamburger, egg, sauteed potatoes all cooked in beef dripping. Traditionally this ensemble requires baked beans but neither of us could be arsed to go downstairs to the shop so we did without.  Jan said:


'Apparently there are millions of unfortunate people in this country who do not have a corner shop underneath them.  How sad'. 


He went on to thank me for the splendid meal; the likes of which the politically correct will never taste. Poor fools.


I do sense however that beneath his veneer of jocularity Jan is not feeling well today.  He is after all very old and should be taking things easy.


Today I became a Crapsurfer.  http://www.crapsurfer.com/

By the way. If you don't know how to spell a word just put a capital letter on it and the Spellcheck thing will leave you alone.

Cobden crap. Taurus Trakker plus the POWA at the Inn on the Green.

No Joseph. that is not how to do it! you have to become a rock star before you start behaving like one.


I don't normally do negative reviews; they are mean and unnecessary, I usually just don't mention crap acts and arseholes..... Until today! And this is not about Joseph Dean Osgood it is about the Cobden Club!


I pitched up at the Cobden last night to see Joseph perform at his album launch, now remind me, what is an album launch? Oh yes! It is a marketing device for a record company and it's product.... Joseph is the product.   what do I do?  I review stuff, not many readers but a few thousand all the same. I had let Joseph know that i would like to turn up and that I'd puff it.


Neither the Idiot goon in the silly hat, nor the raddled ex rock chick at the Cobden would let me through and then asked me for a fiver to get in!  I would have happily paid full price Joseph but I was insulted by the five pound thing.  The fact is that the Cobden  has had it's very short day!  I shall not go back there and will not miss it and its stupid pretensions.... The cobden WAS a working men's club once upon a time. Now it is just full of Wankers.


As I told them.... I'll go and review something else.  


I went to the Inn on the Green to see  some friends perform and to see a band called Taurus Trakker... Brilliant, free, good fun, cheap beer, good people, many surprises including Murray Lachlan young turning up (we shouted at each other about filming poetry during some loud rock n roll). Roger Pomphrey (the POWA( silly name)) is a pretty mean guitarist, Kevin Petillo on drums (a rare example of a very good American) looks just like Side Show Bob would look like if playing drums and the bass player Herman (I met him at Port Eliot when he was playing with Bess Cavendish) is the coolest dude I've ever seen, when I die I'm coming back as a tall thin black guy with long dreads and a bass guitar, bet I get lots of girls!  


Made some new friends (hi Tracy, remember me!(she is cute)) and am resolved to go back to the Inn on the Green soon... I hadn't been since Howard Marks Bored me to tears there years ago!


So anyway. Long thing short.... Cobden; pretentious, awkwardly placed, idiots in the lobby, over the hill and rubbish....  Inn on the Green; great place, atmosphere and well worth going to!


Joseph Dean Osgood?  didn't get to see him perform so I have no Idea how it was....  You decide.


I'll decide about the Cobden!   SHIT!

Taurus Trakker and the POWA at the Inn on the Green. W11.

It is going to be a busy evening; I have to go to this... Kevin Petillo (single handedly makes Americans alright) and Roger Pomphrey are in the POWA.  Come along and check it out! 

Bonkers but brilliant!

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/14007130

Richard Wilson with Anne Bean & Miyako Narita- In a Crumbling fort that no one visits http://vimeo.com/14007130 About this video: "Richard Wilson, William Raban and David Cunningham are part of ninety collaborators that have been commissioned by Matt's Gallery, London, to contribute a film to TAPS: Improvisations with Paul Burwell. TAPS will be taking place at Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London on 17th, 18th and 19th of September, 2010. "Paul and I once journeyed 22 hours from Lowerstoft to London in his boat, stopping for a rest at the Red Sands Forts. He spoke excitedly about the possibilities of sounds and explosive actions performed at this remote spot 6 miles out at sea". Paul Burwell was infamous for his exuberant fusions of fine-art installation, percussion and explosive performance. He was a staunch advocate of, and passionate participant in, all forms of experimental art. TAPS: Improvisations with Paul Burwell, realised by Anne Bean, Robin Klassnik and Richard Wilson embodies his prolific practice. Over the course of three days TAPS will combine film, installation and performance, portraying layers of interpretation from more than 80 invited collaborators, in response to Burwell's poem 'Adventures in the House of Memory'. The poem arose from improvisations by Anne Bean and Paul Burwell in preparation for William Burroughs's Final Academy at Ritzy, London in 1982, where improvised words were written on huge sheets of flash paper which were ignited as they were sung. The poem was the last recorded Burwell work two months before he died in 2007. The body of collaborators have responded to the poem by each creating a short film or audio work as a new collaboration for, about or 'with' Burwell. Fragments of each collaborator's film or audio work, now make a collective totem in a two screen, one hour composite film interpreted and edited by Anne Bean and Chris Bishop. This resulting work resonates with the poem's innate episodic chronicles, as slivers interleaf together, and runs continuously throughout each day. The film is shown as part of a screen installation constructed by Richard Wilson. By adding its own sounds and actions, this structure becomes a part player in the final act of the last evening, during a performance by Ansuman Biswas. Live performances form another layer of exploration, echoing the sense of inter-connectivity created by the installation. Each performer encompasses a practice that reflects the context and ethos in which Burwell worked, improvising within the framework of the poem, film, installation and space at Dilston Grove. The performances will take place at various times during the event. A publication with an essay by David Toop and drawings by Paul McCarthy, published by Matt's Gallery, will be available free to visitors throughout the event. TAPS is supported by a Legacy: Thinker in Residence Award to Anne Bean. Legacy is a collaboration between the Live Art Development Agency and Tate Research, financially assisted by Arts Council England and the Live Art Development Agency. Legacy acknowledges the outstanding bodies of work of two artists who have influenced the development of the Live Art field by supporting them to think about the legacies of performance in art historical contexts and examine the processes and challenges of archiving live work. The Legacy recipients are Anne Bean and Tim Etchells. Further information thisisliveart.co.uk/ Anne Bean is an Artsadmin artist. For further information or visual material please contact Matilda Strang at Matt's Gallery - E info@mattsgallery.org, T (020) 8983 1771"

Forward this email to your friends and family so that they can see it, too.

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LOVE,

Ealing Studios TV

http://www.ealingstudios.com/EalingStudios/tv_home.html

Gratuitous photograph of woman's chest, Medium Rare and poetry.

I was at the Tabernacle last night for 'Medium Rare' and saw this t shirt which just screamed to be photographed so I plucked up some courage and asked: 'Please may I photograph your chest'? The young lady in the shirt told me all about it but I've forgotten the details... Never mind.

I have been asked to blog on the tabernacle web site; reviewing and previewing Tabernacle events as well as having a good look around the place.  you will find me there soon:  At which point I will tell you how last night went.

Auteur David Petch came over yesterday with his magic camera; we filmed a few poems at the Cow... hopefully they will be up on youtube soon!

Joseph Dean Osgood. Album launch at the Cobden Club.

Clash.Toby Mott. Medium Rare.

 LOUD FLASH, BRITISH PUNK ON PAPER, THE MOTT COLLECTION 24 September – 30 October 2010.

PRIVATE VIEW
Thursday 23rd September 2010
Private View 6-8pm

LOUD FLASH, BRITISH PUNK ON PAPER, THE MOTT COLLECTION
24 September – 30 October 2010

Haunch of Venison
8 Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3ET
020 7495 5050

MEDIUM RARE

The Lexi Cinema.

Without doubt one of the coolest cinema's on the planet!   http://thelexicinema.co.uk/

Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene

Bayswater Childrens Centre.

Hooray!  An imaginitive piece of British Architecture is slowly emerging 50 yards from here... It is great! And quite fitting that a childrens centre should look like it was made from sky coloured plasticine by an enthusiastic 5 year old. I am a little early photographing this (should really wait for the fences and rubbish to go) but it was such a lovely sunny afternoon! Well done I say!

 

Roof tomatoes.

Feeling rather smug having been picking tomatoes on the roof.

Melanie Wilson. Sound artist!

Melanie is a 'sound artist'.  I love that definition.  check out her website:
http://www.melaniewilson.org.uk/

I nicked the following from the serpentine Gallery website:


Melanie Wilson is an award-winning writer, performer and sound artist, based in London. She makes performances, installations and sound walks that live in theatre and cinema spaces and in the street. Her solo work includes 'Simple Girl', 'Iris Brunette', 'Mari Me Archie', ‘The View From Here’ and 'every minute, always' and has been presented nationally and internationally. She has collaborated with Rotozaza, Coney, Clod Ensemble, Shunt, Chris Goode, Boilerhouse, A2, Peter Arnold and Abigail Conway. She is currently a BAC Supported Artist and her work is produced by Fuel Theatre.www.melaniewilson.org.uk




she is performing at the Serpentine Gallery on Friday:

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2010/06/park_nightsbecky_beasley_and_c.html

I started listening to her site out of curiosity this morning.... It is great fun!

Crockers 'spite' fence.

I found this on the San Francisco geneology web site:http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hgoe75.htm




Famous Spite Fence Has Outlived Its Purpose.
Built Around Small Lot by Charles Crocker Because Owner Would Not Sell to Him.
"FOR SALE" signs have been placed by real estate agents on the lot on Sacramento street, near Taylor, which Charles Crocker surrounded with a high spite fence twenty-six years ago because the owner, Nicholas Yung, refused to sell the property to him at the price Crocker offered.

This fence is the most famous memorial of malignity and malevolence in the city. Thousands of persons have gone up Nob Hill to view it since its erection in 1876. Crocker has long been dead, but his heirs have preserved this testimonial of rancor. Yung went to the grave in 1880, but his offense of fixing his own price on his own residence was never pardoned by the Crockers. The fence has been an eyesore to them as well as to everybody else, but they have kept up the feud and sought to hide the ugliness of the lofty barricade on their side of it by covering the boards with ivy and other greenery.
The fence cost about $3000, but Crocker was a millionaire and did not mind the expense, and he had the satisfaction of driving the Yung family away from their home. Their house was boxed up and the sunlight shut out, and Yung was compelled to move the dwelling to another lot which he owned on Broderick street. The tall fence destroyed the value of the Sacramento street lot, which for about a quarter of a century has remained unused and unsightly. Mrs. Rosina Yung, widow of the man who incurred the deep displeasure of the Crockers, had a considerable estate and preferred to keep the cooped-up lot rather than sell it for the trifle which she might have been able to obtain. She died in last January and bequeathed the property, which has been appraised at about $80,000, to her daughters, who are Mrs. C. D. Postel, of Alameda, Mrs. O. J. Kron of San Francisco, Mrs. Frank Church of El Paso, Tex., and Mrs. John Kelly Russell of San Jose. In the course of administration the sale of the property belonging to the estate has been ordered.
When the last lot has been sold to someone not of the Yung blood it may be that the Crockers will drop their legacy of hatred and let the inartistic monument of resentment be torn down. Perhaps they may conclude to buy the lot which they wanted so badly.

Things that make Jan Nieupjur cry: No.1 Leonard Cohen. Alexandra leaving.

Jan called in today to wish me well and share a bottle of cheap Spanish rose; he swears by it, cheaper than a pint of beer with a kick like a nun he says... I quite concur!

Anyway Jan uncorks the bottle (real cork, I like that; class) and squirts us a couple of glassfulls.

'I don't know how they get the cat to sit on the bottle'!  Says Jan.

I take a sideways squint at my glass as I try to get the first mouthfull past my natural gagging instinct.  

'Jan'. I say. 'Jan, this is almost undrinkable'!

'Yes.' He replies.  'But it is potable.  get it down you and stop moaning!... Why man you are in tears!.'

I asked him what made him cry. He went to the record player and put the following on, saying: This is what makes me cry:

Beck - Loser

Have me washed and sent to her tent!

Some kind soul has introduced me to this video.


for some strange reason I am quite mesmerised by the young lady dancing; I had always assumed that this type of dance was unsubtle and all about 'big' actions and movements. I now know that it is about the tiny, subtle elements. I'm hooked!


Have me washed and sent to her tent!

I thought the devil wore black!

Last weekend, while bivouacked in my oxygen tent (o.k. that is the last reference to that event) I noticed a great deal of helicopter activity over Hyde Park.


It seems that I missed a visit from some kind of racist leader of a paedophile sect.


I thought we had laws to keep these people out of this country!


Oh! It is all right, it was only the pope.

Wake up and smell the coffin.

Photograph: David Petch

She leans in

then for one moment

supplements my weak breath

with hers

she whispers

Wake up and smell the coffin

A new Leslie Howard documentary. What did he get up to with Myrna?

I nicked this from the Guardian; as with all heroes the 'off duty' moments are by far the most interesting!

Leslie Howard personal film footage found by documentary-maker

Gone with the Wind star shown in private moments including being an affectionate father and flirting with actress

• 
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• Dalya Alberge
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 12 September 2010 16.22 BST
• Article history

Leslie Howard with Wendy Hiller in Pygmalion. Photograph: Ronald Grant

A British documentary-maker has discovered several hours of lost personal film footage of Leslie Howard, one of Britain's most revered actors and a matinee idol.

The legendary star of classic films such as Gone with the Wind, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Pygmalion in the 1930s and 1940s can be seen for the first time in five hours of home movies, described yesterday by one historian as "a treasure chest".

Howard, whose life was cut short when his plane was shot down in the second world war, is remembered as enigmatic and distant, partly due to his most famous role as Ashley Wilkes, the southern gentleman who resists Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind.

Now the discovery of his movies, made from the 1920s onwards, shows him in a new light – on film sets, flirting with actresses, goofing around with actors and dancing the soft-shoe shuffle. There are also tender, more private scenes, reflecting an affectionate father, whose two children brought out the child in him, clowning around in a swimming pool or on a sledge.

The reels, both colour and black and white, have been saved following their discovery by Tom Hamilton, who was making a documentary on Howard. The star's 82-year-old daughter, Leslie Ruth Howard (known as Doodie), had kept them in her basement since 1979, not realising that some of the reels had decomposed.

Hamilton recalled opening a case: "A sight and smell to chill the heart … pungent and vinegary – never a good sign when dealing with film."

He then spotted another box, which was filled with canisters in perfect condition. "I uttered a silent 'thank you' to a benevolent God of film," he said.  "As the first images appeared, I was startled by the visual quality, razor sharp with barely a scratch."

A married Howard can be seen on the set of Animal Kingdom, flirting openly with Myrna Loy, with whom he is believed to have had an affair. The mock romantic scenes with another leading actress, Norma Shearer, hint at further infidelities.

Hamilton said: "You get a sense of the real human being. He's quite playful and warm in a way you don't see in his films."

The footage includes a gathering on William Randolph Hearst's estate, where Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr play with a large dog, and a polo match watched by Hollywood stars Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and Mary Pickford.

Hamilton showed the material to Kevin Brownlow, the film historian, who told the Guardian: "It is extraordinary … a treasure chest."

Hamilton also tracked down Derek Partridge, who, as a seven-year-old boy, gave up his seat to Howard on a passenger plane from Lisbon to Bristol on 1 June 1943. The plane was then attacked by the Luftwaffe and all 13 passengers were killed. Howard had been booked to fly later that day, but was anxious to get back. As a VIP for the war effort, he had priority and the boy was taken off.

Among numerous conspiracy theories over his death, some have suggested that the Nazis thought Winston Churchill was on board. Others believe that Howard was working with British intelligence. He certainly played an important role in the war, with his weekly radio broadcasts and films such as Pimpernel Smith and The First of the Few, a tribute to the Spitfire. The Nazi propaganda broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw claimed on the programme Germany Calling that Howard was on a Nazi death list.

Hamilton's documentary includes the reminiscences of Howard's daughter. She recalls her mother's devotion to him, despite his affairs, his loathing for Gone with the Wind, and mutual irritation with Vivien Leigh over their line fluency. He hated that he had been made to wear make-up to look younger, and refused to attend its 1940 British premiere because he objected to the high ticket prices in war-time.

Hamilton also discovered that Howard gave up his profit share in Gone with the Wind to return to England in 1939, rather than remain in America.

The 90-minute documentary, The Man Who Gave a Damn, has been made in collaboration with Warner Bros and Howard's great-grandson, Alex Kiehl.

• This article was amended on 13 September 2010. The original referred to Leslie Howard's role in the war as inlcuding the film Pimpernel Smith, a tribute to Spitfire pilots. This has been corrected.

From a sick bed.

It seems that I am ill!

On Friday all was well, in the early hours of Saturday I was far from well. I have no idea what it is but it has crashed just about all of my systems; vomiting, headaches, muscle and bone aches, blood fizzing, teeth ache,short of breath, confused mind.


It has taken me a while to write this during a respite from the (Now almost constant) state of not knowing where I am or what is going on.


I have only slept fitfully and for short periods since Friday and always wake from panicked dreams.


It is to much to even go downstairs to the shop... I miss Nurse Caz even if she did try to kill me. At least she would have made sure that I was well before doing so.


Just thought I'd explain the lack of blog entries lately...

Murray Lachlan Young. It's not much fun being a rockstar don't you know?

Being a Dickhead's Cool

John Golding and Jimi Hendrix.

Uncle John and Hendrix in the same breath. Or in the same week... Cool.


Smoke on the water.


I'm knackered. I'm putting together an event in two weeks time which is giving me hell. 


If it works it will be brilliant... If not, help!


John Golding was a proper politician who believed in the people and worked for the people. check him out. He was my mothers brother, he looked after me when I didn't deserve it. 


Thank god he is not around to see Tony Blairs circus.


Next week we are celebrating Hendrix's death.... Hey John, scuse me while I kiss the sky! Now read on....

John Golding... Uncle John. Never to be bettered.

John Golding (British politician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Golding (9 March 1931–20 January 1999, age 67) was a Labour Party politician and Trade Union
 leader in the United Kingdom.

He was educated at Chester Grammar School, Keele University
 and the London School of Economics.
 After some time working in the Civil Service he took up a research job with the
Post Office Engineering Union.

Golding was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle-under-Lyme at
a by-election in 1969. He served in the governments of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan
, as PPS to Eric Varley as Minister of Technology, a Labour whip in opposition, and Minister for Employment.
 He was an outspoken opponent of Labour left-wingers such as Tony Benn and Eric Heffer,
 whom he regarded as idle dreamers out of touch with the working-class.

Golding was a key figure in the fight against the Militant tendency, and especially
 in mobilising moderate trades union leaders to exercise their block votes to this end.
 After his death writings of his about this were published under the
 title Hammering the Left: My Part in Defeating the Labour Left by
John Golding and Paul Farrelly (see below).

In 1986 he left Parliament (by applying for the Chiltern Hundreds) to take
up the post of General Secretary of the National Communications Union.
 He held this post until 1988. He had served as a member of the council of the
Trades Union Congress.

After he vacated the Newcastle-under-Lyme seat, the resulting by-election was
 won by his wife Llin, who held the seat until 2001; her successor in the seat was Paul Farrelly.

John Golding's most unusual claim to fame is that he once made a speech in committee
lasting eleven hours and fifteen minutes. It nominally concerned a small amendment to
 the bill toprivatise British Telecom. This filibuster was instrumental in delaying the
 privatisation until after the 1983 general election, but with Margaret Thatcher obtaining
 a massive parliamentary majority the privatisation was soon forced through. Changes in
 British parliamentary procedure mean that Golding's record is unlikely ever to be beaten.

[edit]

Hendrix lives.

Jimmy Hendrix died 40 years ago in a seedy flat in a seedy hotel just down the road. There are many myths, many stories about that night.... Only I know the truth, but there again I'm probably making it up.   However, on the 18th of this month the above event is happening in homage to the mans life and talent.

Be there and help kiss the sky!

Stress. The Event at the Tabernacle.

It's tough.


I'm booking acts and dealing with the trivial minutae that comes with that, I'm fucking about with the flyers and getting them printed, I'm looking for sponsorship and the obsequient snivelling that comes and goes with that, I'm worrying for Britain and Tony Blair ain't on my side...


I have a lot of friends and they all want door passes... Rock and Roll.


The joys of promoting an event.


How did I get myself into this situation?


The online ticket stuff is now up and running: www.tabernaclelive.co.uk 


Come to the show!   Be there or be square.

The Man.

London Underground.

The London Underground song.


There is a rich use of Anglo-Saxon English in this video... Do not watch it if you are prudish, squeamish, uptight, over 70 or a tube driver.  It is however an accurate observation.


Full Marks to the Amateur Transplants.

North East nightmare... The Olympics 2012.

last night was a nightmare...


Doing a 'reading' in a bar in North East London, simple enough you would think.


Think again.  It was pissing with rain as I travelled across town by tube followed by a ten minute drenching walk. Wet miserable and broke is a great way to start an evening.  Then I am told that there is a tube strike starting at 9.. pm. Which meant that no-one turned up for the thing - we had an audience of 6. Ouch. Andreas later described it as intimate.


It took me 2 hours to get back across town, once again in the pissing rain! including an hour long bus journey surrounded by idiots yabbering away on mobile phones.


Sometimes London is a joke, not a funny one, a sad one.


Note to self: Never again.


One thought arises: What is Boris going to do when the tube drivers decide to strike during the Olympics? Then there is the Terrorism that Tony Blair has brought to this country.


I will not be in London for that particular fiasco.

The Harrods of W2 and Conkers.

Savage weather is on its way apparently.

For those returning to school this week, there won't even be the consolation of savage grudge conker matches. According to the Campaign for Real Conkers, there is a shortage caused by the dismal August weather, when many fell early from the trees and rotted on the ground. Most of those still on the trees will not be ripe and robust enough for the sport when the gales topple them.

Keith Flett, the serial Guardian letter writer and a spokesman for the group, explained: "The conkers are nowhere near ripe enough yet and people won't be able to get their practice in. When you whack a conker before it is ripe it will crumble to bits.

Things to come... The Event 24th September.

Details to follow shortly.

Mike Edwards Killed by a hay bale. Eldorado of sorts.

As a young man I enjoyed the eccentricity of early ELO and am saddened by this news. I am also saddened by the fact that he had to be identified using youtube and photos... No one there.

Mike Edwards, 62, was a founding member of ELO and played cello with the group from their first live gig in 1972 until he departed in January 1975.

He quit to become a Buddhist and later changed his name to Deva Pramada because of his religious convictions.

Mr Edwards died instantly when he was hit by the bale which weighed nearly 700lbs.

He was driving along a road when the bale careered down a slope in a field and flipped over a hedge - smashing down onto his roof.

The circular bale is believed to have been in a steeply-sloping field beside the road when it somehow rolled and jumped 12ft to 15ft into traffic.

Police said the accident happened at around 12.30pm on Friday on the A381 between Harbetonford and Halwell in Devon.

Steve Walker of the Devon and Cornwall police traffic unit said they were trying to contact his family.

He said: ''This was a tragic accident and we have now identified the victim as Michael Edwards, a founder member of ELO.

''We have used photographs and YouTube footage to identify him but we now need help contacting his family for formal identification.

''We don't believe he was ever married and we have identified an ex girlfriend but she is currently aboard.

''We think he may have a brother called David in the Yorkshire area and we obviously need to contact him.

''Michael has no immediate family but we believe he may have taught some cello in Devon and would ask his students to contact us if they know of any relations.''

Mr Edwards had been living in Totnes, Devon. After he left ELO, he was replaced as cellist by Melvyn Gale.

I guess he has found his Eldorado..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bre3HF8_Vw&feature=related