Old Commonwealth Institute on High Street Kensington.

Lithuania takes over the Tabernacle kitchen

Called in to the Tabernacle this afternoon to find the aesthetics of the kitchen improved considerably by a trio of Lithuanians preparing Cepelinai: a traditional dish.

I'm hanging around for the tasting.

Bicycle Shrine and westbourne Park Road Latin Dog.

cheesecake.

I'm researching cheesecake this month.

Et in Arcadia ego. Idle Bakes.

I don't know who is responsible for this blog but it tastes like arcadian bliss. click HERE

Kingsland Butchers leave Portobello road & Home deliveries.

Sadly kingslands have gone. I don't know the reasons for the departure but it leaves us without an affordable good butchers. You need to re-mortgage the house to use the butchers up the road (I'm not going to name them, they ain't getting any free publicity from me).

The good news is that Kingsland Edwardian Butchers will continue to do home deliveries in the area twice a week; Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call them on 01932 241815. Or visit their Website HERE

Suspiciously, Elvis spotted in Notting Hill again.

Is he recording again. Basing Street Studios. One time home of Island records.

 At Founded & co, Portobello Road

 Is Elvis nesting in the area. Or perhaps a present for the mystery blonde.

I spotted him leaving this Boutique Hotel in Colville Road. W11

I bribed the concierge for this picture.

Portrait of a poet dying before his mother.

Do not let me die yet

I need another ten years at least

I'll cut a deal

I'll destroy that painting in the attic

That painting of my mother.

suspiciously Elvis in Notting Hill

Suspiciously Elvis is at the Tabernacle W11 on Friday evening. Here is a taster.

A crazy week in Portobello.

It has been a busy week. Last Wednesday was Gus Robertson's (razorlight) birthday party at the Portobello Gold. It was a suitably rock n roll affair with a hint of the Viper Rooms about it. Good to see Gary from the Rotten Hill gang and Legendary Club man Gaz Mayall. Especially good to bump into my favourite actress Honeysuckle Weeks who was absolutely glowing in the late stages of pregnancy.

                                           Photos: Marie Elena Ely

I popped into the Castle further down the road to catch James Simmins and friends playing there. Another good thing.

Friday was a little bonkers. I called in to the Westbourne Studio's to catch Wade Bayliss who is putting on a weekly thing there with his band. I managed a rendition of the rock n roll poem with trombone solo which was a pretty interesting experience.

Then on to Delphi's birthday party at the Retro Bar, 50 Bosworth Road North Kensington London W10 5EG [map ] Where Adam Masterson was playing as well as the birthday girl herself. delphi's set was fantastic and full of energy. A lovely night in an interesting new venue.

Delphi

Saturday Night was Loco Cabaret at the Grand Union W9. Great fun. Did the rock n roll poem Video HERE, with a band comprised of Roger Pomphrey, Jonno, James Simmins and others. It was a little on the crazy side. The rest of the acts were great including a virtuoso performance from 'Fishslice' accompanied by Paul Browse.

All in all a great week.

Charli Clark at The Muse at 269.

The Muse is a cafe/bar/gallery on Portobello Road, it was one of  my locals when I lived in the road, It's a great little place. Check it out.

The gallery is showing the work of  Artist in residence Charli Clark until the 17th of this month. It is very very good and full of humour. a mix of video installation, site specific performance stuff, photography and more. GO AND LOOK!

The Muse at 269
269 Portobello Road
London W11 1LR

Poetry is the new rock n roll. Live at loco Cabaret at the Grand Union W9.

Portobello sights: The blue door #1

Rusty in Portobello, pink skies and pies.

My old mate Rusty McGlint has flown in from New Mexico for a few days. I took him to the Tab for a beer. On seeing the gingham tablecloths in the courtyard he burst into tears. 'What's up rusty' I asked.

'It's the tablecloths' he said. 'Remind me of Lula Mae's gingham chaps and handsome homemade pies. I miss that woman bad'.

He put on his pink shades to hide his teary eyes. curious, I asked to try them on. Wow who needs drugs.

Mangrove, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon in Hyde Park.

The 'Mangrove' Steel band is off to Hyde Park to play on the bill with Arcade Fire and Kings of Leon.

keeping cool on Portobello Road.

Chris Malcolm has been in the area for ever. His new business 'Founded & co' has not. It is at 253 Portobello Road and is cool. Clothes, accessories, shoes, music, art, literature... You know all the essential stuff. Check it out. More HERE There is a sale on at the moment too!

The Countess Alex Zapak. I told you she was a star.

 Performance Artist, singer, theatrical storyteller, fairytail punk and Fantastic woman has just won the TFL Art below prize for June.  Her image is plastered on every tube station in London for a month. check it out and remember her name.

well done alex. You are a star.

Sexual assault by Portobello Road gallery owner.

A sad tale of a Notting Hill art gallery owner sexually assaulting an artist in public has come my way.

There were witnesses to the assault which took place a couple of days ago. I shall be writing much more on this matter.

I have asked the Guy in question if he would like to put his side across... He ain't answered yet.

What this is doing however is drawing out of the woodwork, on facebook, the kind of guy who says: "The place for this is the courts, not facebook". Perpetrators of this kind of assault on women love the courts, it is another opportunity to further humiliate their victims. When the courts address the balance and start recognising victims as victims and stop allowing public humiliations at the hands of sociopaths will be the time to use their system.

It is a man's world.

Crossrail portal at Royal Oak.

Alex Zapak live at the Tabernacle. Not waving but drowning.

Alex was stunning. Nicholas Roeg was in the audience and thought so too. a brilliant night.

Countess Alex Zapak

Performance artist Countess alex Zapak is putting on a free show at the Tabernacle tonight.

Elvis spotted in Powis Square, Notting Hill.

Elvis is alive and well. I spotted him in Powis Square yesterday going into the house that was used as the location in 'Performance' the cult 70's movie starring Mick Jagger and Anita Ekberg. Sorry about the picture quality but I had to move fast.

















Suspiciously Elvis is performing at the Tabernacle on July 8th. should be fun.

The girl with the horse in her hair.

Performance Artist and storyteller The Countess Alex Zapak brings her fairytail Punk to the Tabernacle on Thursday evening. She is probably as mad as a box of frogs but interesting. I have not seen her show, I have however seen videos and talked to Alex and am looking forward to this.

Notting Hill could do with an injection of Avante Garde, Dadaist creativity.


http://www.tabernaclew11.com/whats-on/gigdetails/23-jun-11-the-girl-with-the-horse-in-her-hair-part-i-fairytail-punk-tabernacle/

It is a free event. The fb page is here:
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=220585207963199

The best smelling shop in West London.

Local chef Mark Richardson impersonating Travis Bickle at the spice shop in Blenheim Crescent W11.

ICON TACT.

Icon Tact. Bob West.

Bob writes:

It's constructed from a series of hand made faux messiahs in plaster around the edges.  An actual external solid wood frame,  The main image is on a separate board, canvas covered and slightly uplifted to sit proud of the framing device.  The main panel is a montage of bits.    There is a small upturned, hand painted postal box for jewellery in the bottom left-hand corner beside the central face; a fake looking relic on the other side made from nails and bits of gnarled leather and at the top right-hand side, obscuring the crown a little, is another applied 'thing' figure with a tin insert.   The central figure is surrounded by what are to me rather archetypical characters making hand gestures that crop up a lot in my work.   The worn down nature of the thing is a key element; lots of scratched surfaces and purposeful ageing - care worn and enticed.  The main figure has brass  'eyebrows' from an old gas mantle.  It's mostly painted in acrylic with household emulsion - although I am tempted to say 'household emotion' which has a better ring to its echoing tones.

Is it my imagination or is the figure at bottom left holding a severed head.What's that all about then?

Kate Bush - Rocket man.

How to identify a fairytail punk.

How do you identify a fairytail punk? You look at her boots of course.

There will be much more on this subject at a later date.

Who is the Fairytail punk?

This is the Fairytail punk.

more later.

Portobello Art Gallery and what's going on at the Westway Development Trust.

Portobello Art Gallery is a 'pop up'  underneath the Westway on Portobello Green (half way between Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove). It is open until Sunday and although small contains some interesting portraits painted from photograph by Jon Cartwright . It is well worth a look if you are in the neighbourhood.

http://www.westway.org/trustnews/trustnews/11-05-23/Westway_Community_Festival_11th_-_19th_June_2011_Its_a_Celebration.aspx

Brick Heads,

Currently on show in the Tabernacle W11 gallery space.

Notting Hill Views.

Ladbroke Grove.

Portobello road 

The Cow. Westbourne Park Road.

Pigeon post.

this is a very early rough draft. Just notes really.


A song for last year's wife.

This spring

a pigeon scratched a rough nest

on the ledge outside the kitchen window

The ledge where you grew parsley and mint

and the scarlet geranium you nurtured from a cutting

taken on a drunken walk home

from outside the neighbours house.

The pots have gone

the herbs long dead

the geranium fell to the basement last winter

leaving space for the rough nest

in which a pigeon laid a solitary egg

It was not a good nest

I scolded the bird for such slapdash househusbandry

but we watched over that egg

as I fed her seeds and crumbs

and fretted with her.

On the third day

a jackdaw took the egg

there was nothing I nor the pigeon could do

a jackdaw took the egg

save make accusative stares

a jackdaw took the egg

I did not take the egg and I could not save the egg

she did not take the egg and could not save the egg.

but I think we equally cared for that egg

until we decided to blame each other for it's loss.

I have not seen the pigeon since and I have let the pigeon go

but the egg still haunts me.

Kittens in nature. This blog hurts.

I am well known for my lack of enthusiasm for anything remotely kittenish.

The following arrived via twitter from Philippa Perry:

Kittens in nature
On a spring day
Come through on twitter
and ruin my day.

He finds a reason
As soon as he can
To hate little kitty
Although he's aman.

kitty must bear
The brunt of his blame
All of his misery
And much of his shame.

Thank you Philippa.

Pepe Francis MBE.

Congratulations to Pepe on the award of his gong for services to Steelpan music. More HERE

Bookslam. Jon Ronson, Hannah Peel and Francesca Beard.

I invariably enjoy Bookslam. It is refreshingly unpretentious and laid back. Last night was no exception. I was interested to hear Jon Ronson on his new book on how to spot a psychopath and pleased to be both amused and enlightened, I know he was selling a book but it didn't feel like he was selling a book. He looked like he was enjoying himself too. the event included a 'signer', the first time I have seen this at the Tabernacle. He added an extra dimension to the narrative and was a welcome addition to the proceedings, adding an element of theatre. the Psychopath Test is out now published by Picador.

Francesca Beard writes the kind of narrative poetry I like and is very comfortable to listen to. good fun too.

Hannah Peel was an absolute delight, her intelligent narrative songs delivered cookily (this is a compliment) and happily accompanied by a guitarist and intriguingly mask wearing keyboard/percussionist. I was enchanted by the music box she played for a couple of songs, she later informed me that she makes the paper reels herself with a hole puncher. I liked Hannah Peel a lot.

hannah's debut album 'the Broken Wave' is out now.

Good fun.

A passion play at the Tabernacle W11.

Tuesday evenings meeting at the Tabernacle was a roaring success. Turnout was impressive, no doubt helped by the 'Reclaim the Tabernacle' flyers doing the rounds prior to the meeting. It was certainly passionate but at the same time constructive.

After an introduction from Shabaka (Carnival Village) a lively Q&A took place with a few grudges aired as well as some valid concerns from the community expressed, resulting in various ongoing discussions as to the use of the space. After a difficult couple of years the Tabernacle, under the Aegis of Shabaka, Chris Scholey and his team, now has the opportunity to move on to become an all inclusive centre for the community.

Gossip on Portobello road. Pizza East and The Tabernacle.

It is a shame when yet another local pub closes down to be reincarnated as a trendy 'destination'. this has happened recently to the Fat Badger which once occupied the corner of Portobello and Goldbourne. It is now called Pizza East Portobello.

I had heard that the place was heaving the minute it opened. It is, but not necessarily for normal reasons. Pizza East is part of the Soho House chain. The Electric in Portobello Road is also part of this chain. when Pizza East opened the Electric closed for major refurbishment and memberships were transferred to Pizza East up the road.

We can safely assume that the majority of people using the new gaff at the moment will transfer their attention back to the Electric when it re-opens. I'll review Pizza East then.

The TABERNACLE in Powis square is holding a public meeting on Tuesday evening at 7.00 pm. The meeting is intended to set out to the local community the plans and aims for the Tabernacle in the years ahead.

There is a flyer going around demanding that the place be reclaimed for the community and calling for the meeting to be used as a rally. The flyer is anonymous. who is behind it? Is this another case of a small part of the community taking it upon itself to 'speak' for the community as a whole. I shall be interested to see if the 'Reclaim the Tabernacle' group is a fair representation of the Spanish, Portuguese, Somalian, Irish, Sri Lankan  etc etc members of the community. I have a feeling it will not be.

I'll report back on the meeting with an update.

After the poets convention.

Hey Susie remember me?

May I have my jacket back

You borrowed it last night 

While sharing a cigarette outside

With the tall Hungarian poet.

I didn't see you again.

Had he been a better poet

He would have wrapped warm words about you.

Removing the need

For you to borrow my jacket

Or for me to write these words.

Gil Scott Heron. 1949 - 2011. He died too soon.

Last night I met a young poet thirty years my junior. She and I had seemingly nothing in common save poetry yet we found one common reference point: Gil Scott Heron.

Maybe for her it was about his skin colour or his role as, if not father of 'rap' then certainly the man who planted the seed that gave us Hip Hop. He gave us something of a meeting place.

If Gil Scott Heron had not existed I would not be doing the work I do now. Two poets have inspired me: One, Brian Patten, gently spoken English romantic, urged me to write. Gil on the other hand urged me to experience life, get out there, taste it all, feel the bad as well as the good, the rough and the smooth, holler at injustice and then bitch about it and then write.  Gil didn't have an easy life, troubles came his way and troubles inspired and informed much of his work. troubles were his muses. Thanks to Gil I now experiment with involving musicians in my poetry, I experiment with sounds. His later poem: 'where has the night gone' is the saddest thing I know and 'I'm new here' reliably assured me that , no matter how far I'd gone, I could always turn around.

He lived long enough to see the revolution televised and the pointlessness of 'Whitey on the moon'. He live long enough to see a black president. He lived long enough to see a resurgence of interest in his work and his words.

But he didn't live long enough.

Gil, youv'e gone too far this time. Too far to turn around.

I deleted your name out of pure joy.

I deleted your name out of pure joy

I wrote it on my school books for practice
I created new typefaces to suit
I wrote it on album covers to read as we hippliy listened
I wrote it in amateurish embroidery
on my first denim jacket
when a hells angels motto would have easily sufficed
I wrote it in snow
In weedkiller
In paint stripper
I wrote it in haste
and at leisure and in stables and with the lawn mower

with my fiinger on the dust of white vans

I wrote it in imaginary sky writing
looped the loop at the end of the 'L'
I tattooed my dreams
And wrote 24 hour one word lyrics
in shy places.

I wrote it.

Then I deleted your name out of pure joy

When you noticed.

Tony Butcher Photography at the Tabernacle.

I reviewed an exhibition of Tony's photographs at the Tabernacle some months ago. At that time his show focussed on the body; obviously a subject he enjoys.

Currently on show in the Tabernacle gallery is a much broader demonstration of Tony's eye and Tony's art. Street art, Provence, Californian excess, the body and even babies in a box come under his scrutiny and his lens.There are 'plays' with focus that scream impressionism and there are monochrome studies to die for.  A triptych of Brighton skylines is mesmeric in it's power; two horizons teasing you with the absence of a third. 

If I had the money two of Tony's images would be hanging on my wall now.

Do make an effort to see this.

Lager and lime. A journey to Bukowski.

It started with an innocent twitter strand; @1755Dictionary had mentioned lager and lime in a tweet, I had commented and away it went nowhere. We did briefly discuss snakebite, Watneys Red Barrel and worthington E (Imagine walking into your local and saying: 'I'll ave an E please').

Lager and lime was the drink of choice for a lot of my teenage peer group. I suppose the juvenile sweetness of the lime cordial cut the adult alcohol. We were kids. We were living on the wild and dangerous side of underage drinking but we were kids... We craved sugar, E numbers and       snogging.

Yesterday, with nostalgia weighing heavily in my heart, I went to my local 'Gastropub'  (I will not name names but it knows where it is) and ordered a 'Lager and lime' for old times sake.

the Albanian barman fed me a crusty look, sneered lazily at the dusty bottle shelf and then shaking his head tried to sell me a bottle of Sol with a lime fraction cramming the neck.

Readers. I declined.

Today I had better luck. I ventured into the Tabernacle bar in Powis Square W11, and, catching the eye of Mark Richardson, the head chef, enquired as to the likelihood of obtaining a Lager and lime.  'Pint?' Said Mark. One eyebrow raised. 'Pint'. I replied. Eyebrows levelled as if with a spirit level. Under the watchful eye of Christopher Scholey, the General Manager who is renowned for his uncanny knack of being where the action is, Mark proceeded to pour a silken strand of piss coloured beer into something resembling a vase finally topping it off with a handsome dollop of cordial.

What followed was truly cinematic. Beads of condensation, the tears of my youthful minds eye, trickled down the glass as it stood before me. I was Attenborough in Ice Cold in Alex, I was Crocodile Dundee. I was Kane face to face with rosebud. Et in Arcadia ego.

Looked better than it tasted though. Too sweet.

On the way home I decided that one Lager and lime does not make a swallow, popped into the offie, purchased 8 different varieties of lager and a bottle of cordial (not Roses though, they didn't have Roses in that bottle decorated with embossed dogrose of my youth). I completed my journalistic preparations with two sausage rolls and an apple strudel from the brilliant bread stall on Portobello.

Now.... 6 pints later I can confirm that, yes, indeed, lager and lime improves with quantity. I am however not improved by a gallon of fizzy beer. Reaching for a volume of Bukowski poetry at pint 5 was a mistake too. Oh where is that schoolgirl now, green bowlered and green tighted, who led me to the land of snog armed with nothing but an illicit under-age lagerandlime and a map of boundaries to be breached.

Anyone remember Rum and Black?

Carnival Comedy Club.

Here is another gem in the Tabernacle/Carnival Village calendar.

Comedy nights can often be painfully unfunny, there are too many mediocre or worse comedy events in London resulting in a lot of barrel scraping. Some modern comics seem to think that it is fine to mock the afflicted or just swear a lot and the job is done. None of this is the case with Carnival Comedy.

I had not been before and knew very little about it.

It was rammed, not an empty seat and many people standing. I sensed that the audience were old friends of the event and there was a carnival atmosphere. Organiser and compere Geoff Schumann is a natural performer and a very funny man who likes to involve his audience. If you are of a shy nature I recommend the seats in the shadows. The acts were consistently good, non insulting, happy people come to share their joy. Fridays full line up comprised of:

Felix Dexter
Maureen Younger
Auria Styla
Martin Wyatt
Wayne Rollins
Axel the entertainer
Variety D

Carnival Comedy Club is a regular feature at the Tabernacle with a strong line up of acts.I heartily recommend you check it out. Book tickets though to avoid disappointment

Carnival Village venues host a rich mix of entertainment – the familiar and the surprising – from music, dance, film, theatre and exhibitions to arts events and workshops throughout the year. All exhibitions and some events are free!

Carnival Village Favouritesinclude comedy’s coolest jesters, poetry, spoken word and talks from the wise and wordly, to Caribbean jazz, oral culture evenings and the London Calypso Tent music spectacular.

Carnival Season presents a multi-arts spotlight on the period around London’s biggest street event, whilst a festive satirical panto also caters for your best-loved traditions.. 


Full Carnival Village listings and calendar can be found at: http://www.carnivalvillage.org.uk/