Jamie Blake
Love, as everybody knows, is an unstoppable avalanche that you can try and hide from in a small cottage on the mountainside, but it will simply smash away your hapless wee house like so many matchsticks and sweep you away, on a thrashing wave of happiness and joy, over a cliff of desire to the bottom of a ravine of contentment and fulfillment. Jamie would rather avoid all that. Good luck! He shouldn’t have gone skiing on the Slope of Life during a Love Avalanche Warning. It’s all going to come crashing down on him faster than this shaky, overextended metaphor. But look at him! Trapped in some kind of mediaeval sewer with two gorgeous woman and a guitar and he’s still miserable. What hope?
Ravenrock Theatre presents Jamie Blake, an all-singing, all-dancing multimedia hoopla featuring beatbox girl Grace Savage and a passionate little cast that, with any luck, will descend every night into hopeless throes of love-making on stage. A musical orgy, that’s what I’m hoping for. All that imagery has got me stirred up.
Jamie Blake runs 22-23 April at the Cockpit Theatre, Gateforth Street, London, 020 7258 2925, ravenrock.org.uk, nearest station, Marylebone.
19 Apr 2011
Five actually pretty cool birds you can spot in London right now
Bird watching has a bad press. It’s perhaps second only to trainspotting in the list of male hobbies most likely to lead to accusations of anorak-wearing social misfittedness. This is most unfair. Birds are beautiful and fascinating creatures. Below are five species spotted this very weekend by the good people at the London Bird Club, from whose log I have shamelessly pilfered my information. What it shows is that you don’t need to go hiding away in a wood all day to spot some pretty cool wildlife. Just keep your eyes open, and you shall be rewarded, as I was on Sunday by the sight of two geese properly getting jiggy on Regent’s Canal.
Buzzard on Paddington Green
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The Latin name for the common buzzard is buteo buteo. So good they named it twice. Spot it by the white colouring on the underside of the wings.
Great Crested Grebe in Regent’s Park
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Basically a pimped up duck. Wikipedia says it was almost hunted to extinction in the 19th century because its head plumes were used to decorate “women’s undergarments”, which just goes to show that the Victorians were sexually depraved.
Peregrine in Greenwich Park
We call it by the mighty name of peregrine falcon. The Americans call it the duck hawk. Proof, if any were needed, that we’re better.
Kestrels at Stoke Newington Resevoir
On Sunday someone saw buzzards, kestrels, sparrowhawks and peregrines at this location just north of Stoke Newington proper. A veritable smorgas-bird, you might say.
Arctic Tern at East India Dock
The bird that flies 24,000 miles a year because it hates winter so much. You think your SAD is bad. This one is a rare spot, so be happy if you see one because next month it’ll probably be in Melbourne.
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19 Apr 2011
London agenda for Tuesday 19 April
1. Join the Death Drawing crew in resurrecting the art of drawing with a lethal injection of theatricality and curiosity as models get greedily messy with chocolate galore at the Victoria [Run Riot]
2. Watch comedy in a coverted West London toilet at Sketchersize [Flavorpill]
3. Buy something at the Original Art Fair [Time Out]
4. Learn some new tricks at Zero degrees of empathy: a new theory of human cruelty [Ian Visits]
5. Pop in to Orleans House Gallery [Tired of London]
6. Listen to exciting young poet, and former cage fighter, SJ Fowler as he launches his new book ‘Red Museum’ at The Lamb [Jon Davis]
19 Apr 2011
I am the Assassin by Dag för Dag
Bluesy, brother/sister duo “Dag för Dag release their debut album Boo on April 26th. Expect pounding drums and fuzzy guitars from the half-American/half-Swedish siblings, as well as some tender moments too. In an effort to wet the appetite they’ve released a free EP, entitled Releases. Boo will be available through Ceremony Recordings.
18 Apr 2011
Your name here: Mayor Boris hunts for cable car sponsor
He’s painted London’s streets blue after pocketing bankers’ cash – now Boris Johnson is looking for a big-name sponsor for his planned cable car across the Thames.
Work is due to start this summer on the link between the Greenwich peninsula and the Royal Docks, with London Eye developer Mace in charge of building the structure.
Already TfL has admitted its ambition to get the car up and running for the Olympics is looking shaky, calling it “an extremely challenging timeline for a complex project”.
But one thing is missing – the money. The cost of the scheme has doubled to £50m since it was first announced last July.
Now the naming rights are up for grabs as the mayor tries to get his plans off the ground.
TfL says it is hunting for “commercial partners who want to invest in the scheme in return for the rights to associated commercial sponsorship opportunities, including naming rights and branding options”.
The London Assembly’s Liberal Democrat leader Caroline Pidgeon said the cable car was “a great idea being let down by poor financial planning and a lack of openness”.
“The mayor must now come clean and state why as recently as July 2010 he was claiming the cable car would cost £25 million, but already its projected cost has doubled,” she said.
“Most fundamentally the mayor must explain to Londoners why just a few months ago he was boasting that the cable car would be entirely privately funded, but now Transport for London are set to fund all the upfront costs – possibly diverting money from other important transport projects.”
TfL says its costs will be recouped from “from a range of sources including the appointed commercial partner, fare revenue and sponsorship”.
Planning documents submitted to Greenwich Council in January suggested users with Oyster cards would be charged £2.50 for a journey, with others charged £3.50.
18 Apr 2011
London Word Festival: The Quiet Volume
The Quiet Volume by Ant Hampton & Tim Etchells at London Word Festival from londonwordfestival on Vimeo.
Sitting in Bishopsgate library I was asked to listen to the sounds about me, to those little noises which fill the quiet space but usually go unnoticed; the echo of footsteps, chairs scrapping across the floor, a throat clearing and the clatter of fingers on keyboards. A voice whispers in my ear, ‘for a place dedicated to silence there’s not much silence at all, after a while you think that it might be better considered as a place dedicated to the collection of sounds’.
This is The Quiet Volume, a self-generating, whispered, audio piece created by Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells and taking place in libraries throughout London Word Festival. Experienced as a pair, you’re asked to slipping on a set of headphone, pop an ipod in your pocket, settle on a chair and relax as you’re taken on journey into the deepest depth of the printed word and the blinding whiteness between them. It’s a 50 minutes piece and yet this engrossing experience feels as if it might have been as long as a century or as quick as a flick of the page; just like being absorbed in a great book, time here ceases to exist.
During the piece you’re asked to read, leaf through the books piled before you, listen to the whispering in your ear and interact with your fellow reader. It’s a disorientating puzzle, a trip down the rabbit hole of words. At times it feels as though you’ve being transported into a Jorge Luis Borges’s short story, and at others you find yourself lost in a crumbling cityscape. If this all sounds confusing, it’s because it’s an experience which resists explanation but craves contemplation.
The Quiet Volume is an intimate and beguiling adventure. An experience which asks you to consider just what happens when you read those little symbols on the page. If we have heard the final death knell for libraries, this is the perfect, quiet eulogy.
The Quiet Volume is at Hackney library 18 – 21, 23rd April and at Senate House Library April 26-28th, 30th, May 3-4th. For more information and to book tickets visit London Word Festival
18 Apr 2011
The Week in Books: Concrete, experimental poets to the King James Bible
SJ Fowler 7.30pm Tuesday 19th
This exciting, young poet launches his new book ‘Red Museum’, published by the small press, The Knives Forks and Spoons. He’s a concrete, sound and experimental poet and currently studying a PhD on the ethical locus of avant-garde poetry. However he used to fight in a cage as a professional mixed martial artist, so it’s sure to be an interesting evening.
The Lamb Pub, 92 Lambs Conduit Street,London WC1N 3LZ. £5
Jawdance 7.30pm Wednesday 20th
This spoken word night hosts stories, poems and poetic short films. If you have a sudden poetic rush of blood to the head there’s always the open mic slot at the end of the night.
Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA. Free
Book Slam 7.30pm Thursday 21st
One of the big guns of the spoken word scene plays host to contemporary literature giant, Ben Okri, Philip Wells and with music from Tanya Auclair.
The Tabernacle, Powis Square, London, W11 2AY. £10
Shakespeare’s Birthday – all day Saturday 23rd
Celebrate in whatever Shakespearian manner you fancy.
London Word Festival
Private View) – 8pm Monday 18th
An evening of music, photography and theatre, exploring the striptease trade, all happening in one of Hackney’s grandest Victorian strip-joints, Ye Olde Axe. Adults only I think.
Ye Olde Axe, 68 Hackney Road, Shoreditch, E2 8ET. £8.50
Man/Machine 7.30pm Tuesday 19th
A night of performances delving into the mechanical heart of technology, robotics and automation. Expect confusing and hilarious spouting from Paul Granjon, Ross Sutherland, Nikesh Shukla, Tamarin Norwood and music from FOUND.
??Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA. £10?
No Furniture So Charming 7pm Thursday 21st
As part of this year’s festival preoccupation with Libraries, tonight’s performances are devoted to the architecture of knowledge and the future of book borrowing.
Bethnal Green Library, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 0HL. £7
King James Bible Bash 7pm Saturday 23rd
If you don’t fancy celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday then why not celebrate the King James Bible’s instead. With music, art, literature and film, this is a different kind of bible bashing.
Stoke Newington International Airport, 1-15 Leswin Place, Stoke Newington, N16 7NJ. £8
18 Apr 2011
London agenda for Monday 18 April
1. Call up Ken Livingston and invite him and his newts to the Spring Amphibian Party at the Book Club [Le Cool]
2. Explore the enduring appeal of spirituality and the marketing techniques that drive religious theory into the mainstream at Do what thou wilt [Run Riot]
3. Hear streams of data transform into a series of bewildering composition by Ryoji Ikeda at the Barbican- [Flavorpill]
4. Go to Benjamin Franklin’s house and listen to Lady Joan Reid tell why literary Franklin matters [Ian Visits]
5. Drink at the Anchor Tap [Tired of London]
6. Gird ones loins for the Spill Festival of Performance [Time Out]
18 Apr 2011
Ken Livingstone under fire for Thames Gateway Bridge proposal
Ken Livingstone came under fire from Green campaigners today after he pledged to resurrect plans for the Thames Gateway Bridge in East London.
Labour’s Mayoral candidate said in a recent interview with The Scoop that he was in favour of building the river crossing scrapped by his successor Boris Johnson.
The comments have caused consternation amongst his allies in the Green movement who are opposed to building any new road crossings across the Thames.
The Green Party’s Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones said that building a road bridge would be a “mad mistake” that would increase pollution and planning blight in the area.
The Thames Gateway Bridge was such a blunder and Ken’s still talking about it. I really hope it’s not in his manifesto because we definitely won’t support that again. It’s just idiotic. It’s just such an old fashioned way of fixing a problem. It’s not even a solution, it’s a mistake. Essentially if you have something that creates more roads which it will then you create more traffic. That’s just the way it is. If it was a public transport bridge we would support it wholeheartedly because we want to increase public transport for people in London but that’s just not what it’s going to do. It’s going to create a planning blight area because nobody is going to want to live near a big road and it’s going to be very unhealthy for people who live down wind of it. It’s just a mad mistake.
Friends of The Earth also hit out at the proposal. Their London spokesperson Jenny Bates told us:
Bringing back plans for the Thames Gateway road bridge would be a backward step for Londoners and Ken Livingstone. Things have moved on since Ken originally backed the proposals when he was in power. He will surely want to reassess the pros and cons of the scheme before committing himself to such an environmentally damaging and unnecessary project.
In an interview earlier this month Ken Livingstone reasserted his support for the project saying that: “I’m in favour of building the bridge. It was always a nonsense that middle class people in West London have so many crossings but people in East London do not. One of the reasons you have got much higher levels of unemployment and poverty on both sides of the river in East London is because of the inaccessibility.”
Despite this, Ken has come out against plans by Boris Johnson to build a tunnel between Silvertown and the Greenwich Peninsula.
Jenny Bates of Friends of the Earth said that both Boris and Ken’s schemes would face fierce opposition from locals.
Mr Livingstone should be wary of angering the thousands of local people who fought the Thames Gateway Bridge last time from Bexley and Greenwich – and from Newham, where there is increasing desire to develop the area in ways that improve the local environment, rather than adding to its problems.”
You will be able to read a full length interview with The Green Party’s Mayoral candidate Jenny Jones here on The Scoop later this month.
18 Apr 2011
Cyclists' fury at TfL's Blackfriars Bridge plans
Cyclists and politicians from across City Hall are making a last-ditch appeal to Transport to London to scrap plans to remove part of Blackfriars Bridge’s cycle lanes.
Cyclists make up over 35% of all rush-hour traffic crossing the bridge, while cars and taxis make up just under 32%.
At present, cyclists entering the bridge southbound from the City can use a wide cycle lane alongside two vehicle lanes.
But under TfL’s proposals, the lane will be removed – and replaced with a third vehicle lane.
The plans have been highlighted by the Cyclists In The City blog, which says the bridge is being handed over to a “motorway design”. It is appealling to its readers to respond to a TfL consultation, which closes later today.
London politicians have also weighed in, with Labour assembly members Val Shawcross and John Biggs joining forces with Green mayoral hopeful Jenny Jones to criticise the plans.
Shawcross and Biggs have said the scheme will leave Blackfriars “ very unsafe “ for cyclists, while Jones said changing the arrangements on the bridge to favour cyclists would be ‘cheap compared with the tragedy and the expense of even one road death’.
Conservative Andrew Boff joined the furore yesterday, calling the plans “inadequate”.
TfL’s consultation on the scheme remains open until later today.
15 Apr 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
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