This diorama was based on three of my sister's favourite pop songs. 'Walk On' is by U2 - she has these words tattooed on her ankle! 'Learn To Fly' is by Foo Fighters and she loves the video especially (any excuse for Dave Grohl and chums to dress up!). And that little bird sitting on the fence is a reference to 'Blackbird', her favourite Beatles song.
All images in this post (c) Kristen Bailey 2010
* SONG OF THE DAY: Juliana Hatfield - My Sister *
Lauren Laverne has got herself a book deal with Harper Collins. She'll be writing a teenage fiction trilogy about... a fifteen-year old girl who wants to be a successful rock star!
I loved Kenickie sooooo much. Their debut album 'At The Club' was such an important record for me! Kenickie were cool in every way - the music, the lyrics, the outfits, the one-liners, the attitude (a member of Kenickie was always good value on Never Mind The Buzzcocks).
Lauren was my favourite, and I'm so glad she's ended doing TV and radio. She's stylish, funny, smart and a breath of fresh air compared to many other female presenters. A true original. Well played, punka.
I love the 'paint chart' striped dresses from House of Holland's Colour Me Happy collection - here embellished with Swarovski crystals and worn by Little Boots at Glastonbury...
...and here by La Roux in her video for 'Bulletproof'.
It's such a great design idea you wonder why it hasn't already been done. I love that he's taken the theme onto the tights too (and taken care to position the white bands at flattering points).
I hadn't been a fan of Henry Holland's previous stuff (I'm sure he'd be gutted to hear that...), but I love this. So simple but so striking and colourful. Well done sir!
1 Sept 2009 - EDITED TO ADD: Look, you can get the tights for a tenner!
* SONG OF THE DAY:
Robot shoes (c) Kristen Bailey 2009
Wandered into Schuh this afternoon and spotted these wonderful robot-themed shoes (by Irregular Choice). They're too high for me AND they're £70, but I'm still glad to see shoes like these on the high street.
These sparkly boots are cute too. They make me think of the principal boy in a pantomime! I think they'd look good on Little Boots, who is a very stylish girl.
Back in September 2001, Plums and I went to see Bjork at the ENO. It was a fantastic night - even better than we'd imagined. For part of the gig Bjork was wearing a bright red Alexander McQueen dress with a sequinned bodice and feathered skirt. It must have had bells sewed into it, because you could hear them every time Bjork jumped and landed - she was her own percussion!
A few weeks later, wondering what to do for Plums' birthday, I was in Primark and spotted a little doll with long black hair, wearing a red pinafore, for £1. So I bought her, sewed sequins on her top and feather trimming round her skirt (and bells under it!), cut her hair and sewed a tattoo on her arms. And she went off to live with Plums.
She came back to me recently for a little TLC - the passing years have not been kind to the feathers! So I've tarted her up and got a shadow box from IKEA which I've lined with silver holographic paper and painted black -a little home to live in where her delicate costume will be protected.
As Anne at I Like has pointed out, it TEN YEARS since The Bowlie Weekender - the music festival at Camber Sands Pontins in April 1999, curated by Belle & Sebastian. So here's a pic of me and The Blonde dancing in our chalet!
Bowlie veterans Orynthia, Tom and Petunia are building a fansite, and are asking for photos - better get scanning...
* SONG OF THE DAY: The Who - The Kids Are Alright *
Images (c) Kristen Bailey
A lovely songbird from my church happened to mention on Facebook the other day that she wanted 'multicoloured wings'... so I've made her some - mainly in the hope that she will get me a free ticket when she makes her debut appearance on 'Later...' ;)
Listen to Anna Joy Deuk's Sweet Sounds on MySpace.
* SONG OF THE DAY: Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch - I'll Fly Away *
I spotted this paving stone on Grand Avenue in Hove. T'internet informs me that this was made by the Adamant Stone & Paving Co of Aberdeen. According to The Maven's Word of the Day:
"Adamant comes ultimately from Greek adamas which was first an adjective meaning 'invincible' -- it came from the verb damao meaning 'to tame or conquer' -- and then became a noun meaning 'the hardest metal' or 'anything firm and unyielding'. It was also applied to the hardest gem known to the ancient world. The Latin adamas had the same meanings as the Greek word and was eventually transferred to the diamond (which is a variation of "adamant"). "
I remember being at primary school one day doing a reading test, and next in the list of words my teacher was getting me to read to her was 'adamant'. I thought it was a trick question - what was the name of that bloke on Top of the Pops with the white stripe across his nose doing in my reading test?!
Beaded felt star (c) Kristen Bailey, 2009
Happy New Year! I saw it in with a mug of hot chocolate in front of Jools' Hootenanny. It was bluddy great this year - Annie Lennox, Adele, The Ting Tings, Dizzee Rascal, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and a band I'd never heard of but loved (five years ago I knew about indie music, now I haven't a clue!) - The Hold Steady. I could have done without Duffy's three songs though - really don't see what all the fuss is there.
Today I went into town to see if any Christmas bling was in the sale at Paperchase, one of my favourite shops. It was my first Christmas living on my own, and I only had a tiny tree and a few decs, so I bought a three-foot glittery green tree and a box of mirrorball baubles. It's against my upbringing to pay full price for decorations before Christmas, and it troubles my crafty conscience to buy what I could make, so these two purchases are 'allowed'!
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And these machine-knitted lovelies were going for a song in Homebase, so cheap it wouldn't be worth making them myself. I'm going to sew a few more baubles on the trees and recreate the reindeer in felt so next year I can have a team of them pulling my Christmas cards across the wall! |
I was busy with Christmas presents all the way through Advent, so it's only since then that I've been making myself a few bits. First off I wanted to use some vintage turquoise nylon and silver lurex yarn I found in a charity shop in the summer. That's being knitted into baubles. I knew I wanted a beaded felt star to put at the top of my tree - I'd had a drawing in my sketchbook for ages - and finally I've finished it (see top of post)! Ain't it pretty?
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I'm thrilled skinny that Rick Astley is back in the spotlight at the moment, however bizarrely it has come about! Rick was my first pop love. For Christmas 1987, aged thirteen, I got my first Walkman, and Rick's first album, Whenever You Need Somebody (on cassette of course!). My feelings for Rick were fairly pure - I was a late bloomer - but I did have his double-page pullout poster from Smash Hits on my bedroom wall. He's obviously taken this unexpected attention in good humour - he's just made a surprise appearance in the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in front of millions of TV viewers (see above)! What a thoroughly bloody nice bloke... and he doesn't seem to have aged in twenty years! |
Poster for the Hacienda's Hallucienda Monday night slot. © MoSI
Via 24 Hour Museum:
"The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester is hosting an event designed to capture the memories of clubbers from the Haçienda."The Museum's exhibition Fac 51 The Haçienda runs from 3 April–30 June, on Tues and Thurs from 10.00am–4.00pm. Urbis will also be running a Haçienda exhibition from 19 July 2007.
* SONG OF THE DAY: A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray *
A great day out today has really lifted my spirits. Good company, a change of scene, some culture, some shopping and some good food have done me the world of good.
Sarah, the Blonde and I went up to the Big Smoke to see the Kylie show at the V&A. I'd already seen it but it's free and they wanted to go so I didn't mind seeing it again at all. Lunch at the V&A wasn't cheap but at least the £7 sarnie the Blonde and I bought to share for economy reasons turned out to be huge and delicious.
Then we snuggled on a Surrealist sofa in the foyer...
Then off to Tottenham Court Road to lose myself in the wonders of Paperchase, and on to Oxford Street Topshop so Blonde could enlarge her sock collection and drool at anything with skulls on. I picked up a couple of David Shrigley cards for my wall - this one cos I've always loved it and this one to make me smile in the face of necessary medication. And, one trip to Schuh later, the Blonde had happy feet.
We headed over to Wardour Street (having warned Sarah about the loos) for lovely Thai food, but stopped off first at Soho Square so I could see Kirsty MacColl's memorial bench - every other time I've looked for it the place has been too crowded, so it was lovely to find it and have my picture taken sitting on it.
After dinner there was an unplanned stop for a crepe before getting the bus back to Victoria, very very full and completely knackered... but happy.
Gold lamé hot pants worn in the 'Spinning Around' video, 2000 © V&A Images
Yesterday I was mostly lost in Kylie world...
See also:
Telegraph, 28/01/2007: Creating Kylie - William Baker
YouTube: Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around
Get Closer To Kylie with this snazzy little interactive on the Kylie section of the V&A Museum's website where you can examine some of her stage clothes in more detail. The Kylie exhibition opens next week.
I get to go to the press launch for work (yes - I'm so lucky, lucky lucky!) but it's bound to be a crush, and I've also booked to go again with the Blonde and Sarah at the end of March. This should be an altogether more civilised visit, as we plan to include Thai food in Soho (taking care in the loos) and sock shopping on Oxford Street in our schedule.
Kylie © Darenote Ltd 2004
Woo hoo! KYLIE: The Exhibition, which I posted about in Feb, is coming to the UK! It's on at the V&A Museum in London from 8 February - 10 June 2007. And (unlike many of the big blockbuster exhibitions) it's going to be FREE!
And into the sea goes pretty England and me
Around the Bay of Biscay and back for tea
Hit traffic on the Dogger bank
Up the Thames to find a taxi rank
Sail on by with the tide and go asleep
And the radio saysThis is a low
But it won't hurt you
When you're alone it will be there with you
Finding ways to stay soloOn the Tyne, Forth and Cromarty
There's a low in the high Forties
Saturday's locked away on the pier
Not fast enough dear
And on the Malin head
Blackpool looks blue and red
And the Queen, she's gone round the bend
Jumped off Land's End...This Is A Low, Blur
It dawned on me the other day that I haven't posted in weeks. Why? Because I couldn't be bothered. I can't bothered with a lot of things lately. I have an unwelcome guest, who hasn't been around for a few years but is back and sapping my energy, appetites and motivation, making me withdrawn and unproductive. Thanks, Depression - how long were you planning on staying?
And yet... I have been moved to post by My New Favourite Thing: the Shipping Forecast teatowel which the fragrant Mr & Mrs Ison bought me on their hols. They know how much I love maps (and map scarves and map teatowels), and I'd also told them about my fondness for Blur's This Is A Low, whose lyrics were inspired by a hanky printed with the shipping regions map, a Christmas present from Alex to Damon,. I'd mentioned how many years I'd been looking for such a hanky, in vain. I have very good friends.
This Is A Low is one of those atmospheric, ambiguous songs you can project your own feelings on. It's perfect when I need something which has substance but doesn't require much effort on my part for it to minister to me. It soothes me in my melancholic moments - as does listening to the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4 - poetry, both of them.
The artist Mark Power has taken photos in each shipping forecast region - view them on his website, or there's a book available.
Also:
YouTube: Blur perform 'This Is A Low' at Glastonbury in 1994
Pete Gofton aka Johnny X (c) J Xaverre
Went with The Blonde to see new romcom Confetti on Sunday. Imagine my shock when, in the final scenes where the couples have their wedding reception, I spotted Johnny X from Kenickie (aka Pete Gofton, aka brother of Lauren Laverne, aka J Xaverre) playing in the wedding band!
The film itself was a pleasant enough way to pass a couple of hours but I won't be rushing out to get the DVD. Some the soundtrack choices were great though - including the joyous One Love by Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Ron Sexsmith's Tomorrow In Her Eyes, which hadn't heard before.
BBC Collective: J Xaverre: Pop folktronica from Sunderland
Empire: Confetti review
Channel 4: Confetti review
BBC: Confetti review
Golden Rainbow Miniature Book © 2006 Dennis Yuen
Dennis Yuen at CaiLun has come up trumps again with this gem - I look at this book and I want to put my Kylie CD on! Click on the pic to get a closer look.
My first Spring Harvest - quite an experience. Am still exhausted! Being an evening person, I didn't make it to any of the morning 'Big Start' worship at the Big Top, or any of the morning teaching/debate. I tended to rise later, watch the Big Start on the chalet telly then spend the morning wandering round the exhibition stalls in the Skyline, or out in Minehead. I took in a few afternoon seminars, and loved the evening celebrations in the Big Top - especially on the Sunday - taking communion with thousands of people was a very moving experience.
Highlights:
* Going to see the effervescent Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda.
* 'Discovering' Mark Greene of the LICC (London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) - I already get the LICC's daily emails, which are usually really interesting - but I hadn't heard of him. I went to one of his seminars (on integrity and evangelism in the workplace), which was great, and really enjoyed the talk he gave at one of the evening celebrations. He's intelligent, funny and speaks in a language I can understand - and makes realistic suggestions for ministry and evangelism. Hurrah! (See Amazon: Thank God It's Monday by Mark Greene)
* The worship songs led by Graham Kendrick - including some new ones I grew to love.
* Going to see Adrian Plass ("Evangelist: Someone who has only had problems in the past.")
* Seeing Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury give a lecture and later on be interviewed by Ian Coffey in the Big Top. Apparently his family love watching The Simpsons and his kids enjoy My Dad's The Prime Minister (he fears they see parallels with their own lives).
* Spotting Daniel Bedingfield in the wings of the Big Top just before Steve Chalke announced him and telling my friend (who hearts Daniel), who got terribly excited and tried climbing over the seats. (She later received a text from her bemused husband, enquiring, "So, how was David Bedington?") Daniel was there to help launch the Stop The Traffik campaign against human trafficking, which has been planned to culminate on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. He also led us in singing Refiner's Fire (Purify My Heart).
* Comedian Joe Fisher ("He's funny nearly everyday...") and his Splendid Sweaters slot.
* Asking for a cup of tea and an Eccles cake at the lovely cafe in Minehead's pretty Blenheim Gardens and being charged £1.25.
(L-R) Daniel Bedingfield singing in the Spring Harvest Big Top, Blenheim Gardens cafe in Minehead
Ooh! Via I Like, I hear that the fabulous Alison Clarkson ('Betty Boo') is back on the pop scene - performing rather than just writing for other performers. She's teamed up with Blur's Alex James and the single WigWam is out on April 3. I can't wait to hear it - Binky The Doormat has an mp3 here.
Here's the video, directed by Dom Joly and shot on London rooftop top with band dressed in animal costumes. Blimey missus, you are looking fiiiiiine!
More:
Planet Boo: We love Betty Boo we do we do
The Guardian: Paws and rewind
Popjustice: Is this the greatest logo of all time?
Londonist: Comeback'o'rama: Welcome Back To Planet Boo
IndieLondon: WigWam - Betty Boo meets Blur's Alex James
MySpace: Wigwam
Click on the images for larger versions
Found two lovely sparkly diamanté brooches for 50p each in the Sussex Beacon shop on George Street, Hove yesterday. It's been a while since I've been on a charity shop run (trying to economise even in the small things) but I've got the taste for it again - and since I've got trips to Galway, Manchester, Wakefield (and so Leeds and Bradford) and Minehead planned, I hope for rich pickings!
There are pictures of some of my other charity shop finds on Flickr.
"It doesn't matter how much money we get, we'll always be attracted to things that are spangly and shiny, and I'll always look like I've just fallen over."
Emmy-Kate Montrose, Kenickie
Until 7 May 2006 at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (something tells me I won't catch this one)... Kylie: The Exhibition - over thirty of Kylie's costumes (including the white muslin dress from the I Should Be So Lucky video and yes, those gold hotpants). It's touring from the Arts Centre, Melbourne (the exhibition draws from over 300 items donated by Kylie to their Performing Arts Collection).
"What I imagine people will want to see is the wear and tear, the ingrained makeup after fifty shows, where the audio-pack rubs – these are the things that for me, bring costumes to life."
Kylie Minogue
The exhibition also includes photographs, costume designs and audio-visuals. A free podcast tour is available - it's meant to be used while walking through the exhibition, but maybe I'll try listening to it whilst browsing the Arts Centre's online exhibition, or by finding each outfit, as it's mentioned, in my Kylie: La La La book.
We went to see Kylie's Showgirl gig at Earls Court the week before she announced she was suffering from breast cancer. She was amazing - I'd never been to a huge stadium pop concert before and it more than exceeded my expectations. It was camp and colourful and glamourous - feathers, sequins, diamante - the whole shebang! (I'd love to be involved in styling costumes for a show like this.)
She changed outfits about eight times, the sets and lighting were stunning, the dancers were fantastic and - blimey - Kylie can really sing! I don't mean that nastily - it's just not what she's famous for - but she's got a great, strong voice. My favourite bit was near the end when she got the whole of Earls Court duetting with her on Especially For You - our half of the lyrics appearing in lights behind her.
Sydney Morning Herald, May 16, 2005: Behind the feathers with Team Kylie
The Offical Kylie: Showgirl site
BBC, January 13 2006: Kylie cancer treatment continues
Help fund free mammograms at the Breast Cancer Site
Smash Hits is no more.... The Guardian's Alexis Petridis raises a cup of milky tea and a cream horn to its memory.
My fave pop stars at time were Rick Astley (look - he's hardly aged at all!), T'Pau and Alison Moyet. The Blonde and I would split the cost of a copy, read it and then chop it up for pictures and song lyrics. This caused arguments when a picture of Rick was on back of a pic of Bros - the Blonde's faves (along with New Kids On The Block - she liked Jon).
I remember being intimidated by the look and tone of the mag when I first started reading it - the strange phrases they'd invented and the amazing, irreverend use of photos, captions and layout seemed so knowing and cool I felt I wasn't in on the joke. But I grew to love it. A background of baked beans? Blee!!!
See also:
The Guardian's Culture Vulture: Byeeeeeeee!
Google Images: Smash Hits cover
The White Stripes (c) Cakeyvoice
How fab. Cakeyvoice has knitted The White Stripes (and a LOT of zombies, too...).
Now, anyone who knows me knows I love buses... have spent years riding around on buses, fell for a band who wrote songs about buses, wrote a fanzine about them called Bus Stop (named after two favourite songs), have a Cardiff Buses bus stop sign propped up at home (rescued from a Cardiff pavement by a wellwisher)... so it made me smile to hear that a south Wales bus driver has spruced himself up for Christmas by having a mini fir tree woven into his hair.
And this Saturday (December 10th) is Bus Night on BBC Four:
"On Friday 9 December, the most famous bus in the world - the Routemaster - will take its final journey through the streets of London. BBC Four and Arena celebrate the transport icon.Preview clips include Jimmy Saville fixing it for a woman to drive a Routemaster on the skid pan and a boy gets to be a bus conductor, Blue Peter's Lesley Judd donning a London Transport uniform as she becomes a bus conductor for a day, and - my favourite - a clip from The Good Life, where Tom chases Lenin the chicken onto a Routemaster...'One and a cockerel for the next stop.'On TV, Robert Elms, the son of a clippie, presents an evening of bus programmes including a new Arena film, while on the website we've unearthed Routemaster video clips from the BBC archive."
I was dead chuffed to see that Laura Cantrell, one of my favourite singers, has renamed the stations and lines on the NYC Subway Map to pay tribute to her musical heroines (most of whom I'm ashamed to say I've never heard of) and flag up the free download of 14th Street, a track from her latest album, Humming By The Flowered Vine:
"This map places some the women artists I most admire along the subway lines of New York City, where I live. There isn't much organizing principle, other than the color-coded categories and the kick of seeing Rose Maddox's line crossing Hazel Dickens en route to Brooklyn..."
I love maps, and art made from or about maps. There's Simon Patterson's The Great Bear (1992), which I think was the first instance of someone renaming the stations on an underground map. (The title refers to the constellation Ursa Major, a punning reference to Patterson's own arrangement of 'stars'.) I also like JP 233 In CSO Blue, where he's renamed stars and constellations.
Then there's my longterm favourite Tom Phillips (see his 20 Sites n Years project), and Harry Beck, not a artist but a draughtsman - the man who designed the London Tube map. And ever since I heard about how Damon Albarn from Blur wrote the gorgeous This Is A Low by looking at the names on a shipping forecast map hankerchief, I've wished I had one (see item 80 on this page for a full explanation). It was from Stanfords in Covent Garden - one day I'll get round to going along to see if they still stock them.
Finally, I can't resist quoting some underground map-based innuendo from Friends (when they were all in London for Ross and Emily's wedding):
Judy Geller: Oh sorry we're late, my fault. I insisted on riding the tube.
Jack Geller: Judy? The kids...
Judy Geller: Jack, that's what they call the subway.
NYC Transit: Official NYC Subway Map
Going Underground: Geographically Correct London Underground Map
Amazon.co.uk: Mr Beck's Underground Map
If you happen to be listening to Radio 2 on Saturday lunchtime, don't miss The Flight Of The Conchords - improvised comedy starring Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, and narrated by Rob Brydon:
"Over six weeks, New Zealand's fourth most popular folk parody band attempt to crack the UK's lucrative novelty music scene with songs such as 'Frodo, don't wear the ring'. Despite the fact The Conchords did appear in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings (do an internet search of the word 'Figwit' if you would like proof) this song was not featured on the original soundtrack, partly explaining why the band left New Zealand in the first place."Best bit so far? When the band call Neil Finn to ask if Jemaine should or should not engage in a three-way with their only two fans...
KT Tunstall performing at the 2005 Mercury Music Prize (PA)
I am agog having watched KT Tunstall's performance at the Mercury Music Prize the other night. I didn't see it live but I was listening to it on the Mark Radcliffe show and he was chatting with her about how she'd performed without her band this time - though her performance definitely sounded like she'd had backing singers and percussion.
The video of the performance on the BBC site revealed all - the gal's got this tightly choreographed routine where she starts off doing a couple of bars of guitar, and puts it on a loop by kicking a box near her feet, then going on to do the same for handclaps, tambourine and 'ooh-oohs'. And she never missed a beat.
Maybe this is an old trick, but I've never seen it done before and am dead impressed! And I liked her frock. And her homepage reminds me of the set for Bjork's Human Behaviour vid...
* SONG OF THE DAY: KT Tunstall – Black Horse And The Cherry Tree *
Popped into the AKUS website and took a look at the video they've made for the achingly gorgeous Restless (from Lonely Runs Both Ways).
Unlike the song, it's nothing special - just Alison skulking about looking melancholy... in shoes she can't walk in, poor lass. Click here to launch the video (.ram).
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