Papermash

http://www.papermash.co.uk/

Check out this beautiful new shop - the tags in particular are lovely lovely and perfect for Crafters, appreciators of pretty things and stationery afficionados.

Thierry Bouet

I've just been reading about this Parisian photographer, Thierry Bouet, whose work I thought was pretty interesting. He's recently produced a body of work documenting newborns within their very first hour (really arresting, funny images but frankly young babies leave me cold).

Another series - 'One Euro' - depicts plates containing food to the vale of a Euro - three fried eggs; a quarter of salami; four squares of chocolate; nine strawberries.

Notably, his bio refers to him as 'Mr. Bouet' - so traditional!

A Sunday morning at the Barbican

I've just been to see a screening of a new film documenting the creation of the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio at the Barbican.

The film follows the orchestra's founders, Mario and Agostino, as they approach immigrant residents in the Roman Esquilino neighbourhood, to find musicians from all over the globe. The search is initially both relentless and fruitless, until an offer of a concert forces them to step up their search. The result is a multinational orchestra comprising of talent from India, Cuba, Senegal, Hungary, Tunisia and Brazil amongest other countries.

Set against a backdrop of Berlusconi's sometimes xenophobic Italy (to put it mildly), the film was really touching and inspirational and the perfect Sunday morning alarm clock.

Afterwards I checked out a hippy dwelling by the Barbican river, part of their current Radical Nature exhibition. The steward inside seemed quite the antithesis of her utopian surroundings, where one was invited to rest, shelter and drink a nice cup of hibiscus tea. Perhaps she wanted all the tea to herself. Never one to deny myself a cup of the brewed stuff, I made sure that didn't happen.

Newsbite

Today the national press published one of those stories that has been appearing in print probably since Gutenburg; Jesus' face in a Marmite lid.

The family who discovered the saucy marvel said couldn't believe their eyes when they saw it.

I remember a kitschy little shop in my university town, where you could buy a piece of toast with JC's face burnt onto one side.

I also very much enjoyed the recent coverage of HM's Customs & Excise dispute over McVitie's classification of Jaffa Cakes. VAT laws state that tax is applied to chocolate covered biscuits, but not cakes. "The Jaffa Cake is a biscuit! Pay the damn tax!" HM said. "It's a cake! It goes hard when stale when a biscuit would go soft!" retorted McV's. "Hooray for cakes!" said the judge and promptly ruled in favour of the defendant. Then the entire court enjoyed the lovely 12" Jaffa that had been created especially and lamented about the complete waste of time spent on such a trivial and costly debate.

City of Dreams: Vienna 1900-35/ Philharmonia Orchestra

Tonight I went to see the Philharmonic play at South Bank. Love, love, loved it.

This is the second classical concert I've seen in a month (and indeed my adult life), and there is nothing sedate about those bad boys. When the players are in full swing - and I'm on the edge of my seat - I imagine they could start thrashing their instruments about the stage like Pete Townshend or something. The string section look like they're wildly masturbating their bows on the strings, and conversely, like vibrato butterfly fingers too.

And I love how the instruments have their own personalities; the violins (who I think are the schizophrenics of the ensemble; dramatic staccato vs. soaring waves of string), the patriarchal double basses, the naughty oboes (in my opinion the orchestra's raised eyebrow), the dignified horn, and my favourite; the elegant cello (who always sounds a little morose).

I'm learning a tiny bit about classical music on each visit. This time I learnt I don't like Berg's Violin Concerto but I do like Mahler's Symphony No. 6.

I also learnt that Orchestral Viewing Etiquette differs slightly from Cinema Etiquette, or even Theatre Etiquette. This was imparted to one friend who received some of the coldest evils I have ever witnessed from a fellow audience member upon opening her Haribo.

My friend and I speculated about the relationship between the principal viola and the Conductor (definitely some shagging there), and felt a bit sorry for the man on the gong who only got to gong twice during the entire 79 minute performance.

Plus any show marketed with a Klimt painting gets my vote.