Arsenal FC - new Emirates Stadium Artwork... @arsenal @gaygooners More artwork here follow this link ->

As you may know, Arsenal FC are putting new artwork up around the exterior of the Emirates Stadium from this weekend. And it looks fab!

 

The artwork has been created by Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller, artist Reuben Dangoor, and graphic designer David Rudnick and celebrates the club's heritage, culture and community.

 

There will be eight large pieces - each inspired and distilled from ideas coming from Arsenal supporters.

 

Seven have been completed so far, and one, called "Found A Place Where We Belong", will be completed in the coming weeks. This final piece will contain a large number of fans images. Including me!

 

Currently this final piece is represented as a photo-montage but the final version will be a graphic version. It's taking an hour or so to convert each fan photo to it's graphic equivalent - hence the delay.

 

All the artwork and videos about its creation are currently on display (until Saturday only) in a gallery in Islington. So, for those who can't make it to London or to the UK and want to see it all in copious detail, feel free to flick through the stupidly large number of photos I took this morning when I went.

 

As I left the gallery one of the curators said to me, "I'm not sure how many more people we'll be getting here today, but I doubt we'll have any as enthusiastic as you!" :-)

 

Old Leigh…

Lovely afternoon with Stuart, Sheila, and Kerry in Old Leigh.

Smiths singer Morrissey was in talks with the BBC to represent the UK at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest...

Good luck to PiL in their bid to represent Ireland. 15 years ago former Smiths singer Morrissey was in talks with the BBC to represent the UK at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. No really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6244153.stm

David Sedaris @ The Tabernacle : Review -> Warning: rude jokes!

(**Warning: rude jokes below**)

 

Last Saturday night Stuart and I went to listen to David Sedaris, that masterful man of letters, read to us at The Tabernacle in London's glitzy Ladbrook Grove.

 

Before the show we bumped into Iain in the pre-show holding pen along with his friend Steve. We might have queue-jumped too. Oh, the shame.

 

Sedaris is ostensibly Radio Four-friendly, and indeed we were attending a recording for his latest upcoming R4 show "Meet David Sedaris" (episode 50 as it happens), but he does have a potty mouth on him too.

 

So inbetween his usually drole musings for the radio on familiar bonding, politics, litter collection, book-signings, his relationship with his boyfriend Hugh, death, and insect disection we were treated to some pretty ripe jokes (see below). At the end the show he also gave us some readings from his diary and a Q&A.

 

It was great night out and we laughed alot.

 

And those ripe jokes?  Strap yourself in!

 

The first was a story he was told about some graffiti he saw in Los Angeles.

A daubing of BLACK LIVES MATTER on a wall had been doctored to add an extra O. 

So it read BLACK OLIVES MATTER. 

 

And these are from his previous readings...

 

A woman told him a story about going to see her gynaecologist.

Doctor: Madam, you have a large vagina. Madam, you have a large vagina.

Woman: OK, OK, no need to repeat yourself.

Doctor: I didn't.

 

Two women in a restaurant.

First woman: How's it going with your boyfriend?

Second woman: He's afraid of the C word.

First woman: Cunt?

(shocked pause)

Second woman: Commitment!

 

A man told a story of him and a friend walking past a tramp on a street corner.

The tramp pleaded to the passing men, "I just need an extra 25p for a cheeseburger."

The man's friend replied, "Have it without the cheese!"

 

A man and his son came up to David Sedaris while signing his books and the boy said proudly, "I've got a joke."

"Go on then", says David.

"What is nice on a pizza but not on a pussy?"

Rather shocked at the young boy's language David said, "I don't know. Mushrooms? Melted cheese?"

"A crust", said the boy.

 

OK, you get the picture.

Art of Noise (Revised) @TheJazzCafe @artofnoiseoffic "a night that was thrillingly inventive, reasonably danceable and full of interesting bits to laugh, love and dance to"...

Last night Darren, Paul, Simon and I spent a fantastic evening with The Art of Noise at The Jazz Café in London's glitzy Camden.

 

Not a band you think would necessarily work live, but it was an incredibly entertaining show. A full set of classics all remixed, reimagined, and revised along with brand new visuals.

 

We had a Moon landing, the monkeys in 2001: A Space Odyssey drummed out to a Beat Box, Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rocked, Prince vs Tom Jones had a mashed-up Kiss, Yes there was an Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Peter Gunn fired up Neil X's twangy Duane Eddy guitar, there were dreamy Moments In Love, at times we were Close (To The Edit), the doors got blown off The Italian Job, and Max Headroom called the s-s-s-s-shots. Hey!

 

There was no Trevor Horn, Paul Morley nor Anne Dudley but original engineer Gary Langan and programmer J J Jeczalik provided us with a night that was thrillingly inventive, reasonably danceable and full of interesting bits to laugh, love and dance to.

 

Who's Afraid the Art of Noise? Hey! Hey! Hey! Not me!

 

"Don't you know who I am?"

In late 1990s Shirley Bassey was at a check-in desk at Heathrow. A bit of a tense situation had developed about seat upgrades. No one was giving way. 

"Don't you know who I am?" says Ms Bassey finally. 

The check-in gives Bassey a pained look, and holds her gaze. A full 15 seconds later presses the tannoy button, "Check-in desk 14. Manager please. There's a little old lady here who doesn't know who she is."

Ben Jennings…

Ben Jennings is a political cartoonist. A very good one in my book. He are some of his good ones from the last 12 months.

Great to catch up with the gang yesterday for our annual New Year’s meal…

Great to catch up with the gang yesterday for our annual New Year’s meal. Obviously we raised a glass or two to those missing this time - but also we celebrated what we all have together and counted our blessings. ❤️

Late Darwin Award Entry 2022 ->

Just shy of midnight last night Kieran and I had a brainwave. We were going for a midnight dip. In the stormy sea. What could go wrong?

So we both legged it out of the Centre Stage pub on the Brighton seafront where we had been partying on a mission. It was raining hard outside, and the wind was wild. Undeterred we ran across the road dodging the cars, all but fell down the slip onto the pebble beach, and dashed towards the dark stormy water. We were really doing this. 

We shed our clothes as we ran and stumbled towards the crashing waves. The sea was foaming and surging menacingly. Just as we reached the waters edge and were about to throw ourselves into the freezing cold and perilous darkness a hand seized us both by our naked arms. 

“No!”  

It was Darce.  He had grabbed us. 

“NO!”

“You are not going into the sea!” 

We struggled a bit but he held tight. 

“I’m not losing either of you tonight” Darce shouted at us. He held firm. 

“No. You are not going in.”

Kieran and I looked at each other. We both looked at the sea. We looked at each other again. Fuck. Darce was right. We laughed at our stupidity. What were we thinking? We were standing there naked, wet, and cold in the driving rain staring at the raging sea - probably having just been saved from doing one of the most idiotic things we could have possibly thought of. If it’s any explanation, I blame the “it seemed like a really good idea at the time” that comes from 9 hours of heavy drinking after beating Brighton 4-2 earlier in the day. 

Realising we’d seen sense Darce let us go. 

Bedraggled, we pulled our clothes on and headed back up the beach to the pub just as the midnight fireworks were going off. We paused to watch. 

Then like drowned rats Kieran and I reentered the steamy bar room and laughed at ourselves. Few others did though. We were wet, cold and slightly ashamed of ourselves. 

We drank the rest of the night away being regularly, and quite rightly, scolded by Darce for being such Idiots. But he hugged us. We were his living, breathing, non-drowned idiots. 

A Darwin Award that so nearly was.