the bestest present ever

So I did it. I finally booked my ticket to Iceland. I'm going for a week (in a week) and I can't wait but you know what sealed the deal? Bjork is playing her first gig in six years in Reykjavik on Monday week and I'm going to be there. I'm. Going. To. See. Bjork. I'm so excited I think I wet my pants a little when I booked the tickets. This time next week I'll be cozying up to some Icelandic cutie waiting for one of my all time top five female idols to blow me away.

going on a banksy hunt

So the last week I have been hitting the galleries pretty hard. There are heaps of exhibitions on as per usual and I've seen some inspiring work.
I caught Damien Hirst's latest show 'New Religion' which was shown in a church. I've always loved his work and his latest exhibition was no exception. It showed how society has transferred its faith in, well, faith to science, all of which I completely agree with.

I checked out a punk fly poster exhibition. These things are never a good idea for me. I always end up moping about awesome shows I've missed. Apparently I missed ESG last year dang nabbit.

The Harry Thubron show which was full of over priced mediocre collages. Doing this type of paper work is fine and yes, some pieces were beautiful but they were fairly bland tonal pieces which didn't warrant the £3000 price tag. I've seen some of his work in the Tate and have tried so hard to like him but to no avail. Speaking of all things pricey, I also caught the Banksy exhibition. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I love graffiti artists (fyi Twist is my favorite graf artist of all time) and am happy to see them recognised on a grander scale but Oh. My. God. I don't think I've ever seen a stenciled canvas be sold for just under $200 000AUS (apparently he sold a piece for £200 000 in December which is around $500 000AUS) Not to judge but the guy who bought it certainly didn't seem like the type to appreciate it for what it was, rather he wanted to have it to say that he owned a 'Banksy' (which is painfully uber cool with the Sienna Miller types in this town) Who knows, I could be completely jealous and wrong but I sort of think that Banksy sells them at those crazily inflated prices as a bit of a joke on the rich saps that can afford to buy a stencil for such a price. It reminded me of an incident I witnessed before I left Oz when I went to see The Stooges. I was watching as Jim (I refuse to call him Iggy) paraded around the stage like a cock in front of all his hens, knowing that he could fuck as many of them as he wanted and have them do as he pleased. Mid set as if to prove his point, had all the young hapless fools singing 'Now I wanna be your dog' 'with' him. Proving indeed that the masses were in his control. Sort of like Banksy. Since being here I've been on a mission to find my favorite Banksy stencils. There are 114 known pieces in the city (of course the annoying thing is that like any graf art, they get removed pretty soon after they have been put up) and yesterday I found one of my favs on the streets of London for everyone to view. That same stencil was in the gallery for sale for a mere $100 000AUS (not that I would complain if anyone bought 'Gangsta Rat ' for me) Do these rich socialites not realise that THEY are the punch line here?

oh and by the way, does anyone know where the 'maid' stencil is at the moment? I've tried 3 trails for it in Shoreditch and Waterloo that all ended up cold. I heard rumours of it in Camden....
There are a few Banksy rat shots up on my flickr

have a little patience

I'm fulfilling my duties as an ex-pat backpacker and becoming an English teacher in a few weeks. I got sent some pre course assignment work and have to find the past perfect continous tense in this sentence

"When Gary Barlow left Take That he didn't know that Robbie Williams had been planning a solo career for months as well"

illuminating coldcuts

Tuesday night Leanne and I went to see Coldcut. The 'gig' got some bad reviews but I kind of enjoyed it. Although the crowd was always going to be hard to please. When you get a bunch of electronica kids with sci fi geeks and 'artiste' types in the one room, you can't please 'em all. First off let me say it was much more subdued than I expected. I knew it was going to be an electronica tribute to Robert Anton Wilson's 'Illuminatus' but I still thought it could have been kicked up a notch. The couple in front of me fell asleep (well, the girlfriend fell asleep. The boyfriend kept giving Alan Moore metal horns everytime he came to speak. I love Alan Moore and I'm a million shades of geek but that was too much, even for me)

Visually I love Coldcut. They always have a really interesting blend of graphics and use techniques that surprise the viewer and keep you waiting with baited breathe to see what they will use next. They had segmented the show into 4 parts and often layered Wilson being interviewed over the stream of consciousness and his theories.

Being honest I have to say that Ken Campbell was a disappointing speaker. Being THE guy who turned Illuminatus into a stage production I thought he would have had some great tales to tell over the mellowed beats playing in the background, but alas no. I would rather have listened to my mother regale me with tales of her latest adventures in the local gardening store.

Alan Moore on the otherhand was brilliant. He first read from Masks of the Illuminati (the 'tripping' passages) and then read a poem that he had written for the night. He was so captivating he could have been sitting there telling us about his last excursion to the crapper but because he did it with such enthusiasm I would have been taking notes and blogged about his bowel movements. Maybe Alan did deserve the metal horns afterall.

please welcome to the stage 'insert name here'

So I have been talking to the band back home (i.e Sarah) and there may be a 'Changeling' reunion. Sarah is thinking about coming over and joining me and we have decided that our band name needs revamping. Apparently there has been lots of disbandings and regroupings since I have been gone. The Young Professionals are no more, however out of those ashes Spider Vomit has risen as well as The Beaches. Mum Smokes, as I've previously mentioned are together once more and are touring here in a month (coincidentally with Ian and 'Hate Rock Trio' whom I'm not the biggest fan of. Mostly because they have a similar sound to us and they got to move to Berlin first, dang nabbit)

We have decided we need a name that packs more of a punch, something people will remember. Here is a list of my top 5 new band names.

1. Kill Your Boyfriend (this is a fav of Sarah's although I think it makes us sound a little riot grrrl)

2. Well He's a Dickhead (one of mine. I think we may have some man issues that we need to deal with)

3.Psychatric Explorations of the Feutus with Needles (in honour of the Flaming Lips)

4. Machetti Killed the Radio Star
5. Something More Violent (I think this is my fav. It gets straight to the point!)

help tha police

start spreadin' the news.....

So a week into my shiate job and I packed it in. Refusing to be treated like a peasant for peanuts, I told my boss that I had a better job offer and was moving on. Needless to say the tight arse queen of darkness was less than pleased but I realised that it was unlikely that the situation would improve and I would end up even more unhappy than before I started there. I spoke to the parental units (who normally are not big on dishing out the useful pearls of wisdom) and they reminded me of something I had completely forgot.

I had planned to move to New York if it didn't work out here. And from where I'm standing the English cosmos are politely giving me the finger and telling me to bugger off elsewhere. So I am. Or so I hope anyway.... I'm in the process of applying for the visa lottery and am schmoozing up to the old designers who had once made a promise to me before I left that if I did go to the big apple, then they would hire me for the NY store and let me stay in their apartment until I found my own place.

I've decided to leave it up to fate and if I'm supposed to be in NY then I'll get my visa no probs and if not, well then I'll just stick to the bar jobs (its taken me a long time to realise that I'm only in my mid 20's and its ok to take a couple years out of my career life to work in bar jobs and enjoy myself) spend every last penny travelling and finally make my way home.

mysterious trains and design nazis

So, I had my first week at work........ and I've made a HUGE mistake. I had a choice between a job that paid much higher (as in close to $30 000AUS more) and this job (in where I have to get a bar job as well because I can't actually afford to eat more than 1 meal a day, let alone actually go out anywhere) The higher paying job was still in retail and I was desperate to try and break out of it. This new job with the design studio seemed perfect. Yes a big part of it was studio manager admin but it meant that I got to still be in a creative environment whilst I was deciding what I was doing with myself here. Okay to be truthful another lure to this job was that my boss said she wanted to sponsor me (which will be impossible to get if I was working in retail) and if I ever want to live out my dream of opening that gallery/store in Berlin, it would be a whole lot easier (and not involve a wedding) if I had a British passport, which I could of course get in 4 years if I got sponsorship. So I took the pay cut. I thought I was taking the high road and doing the right thing. Sacrificing money for the greater career good. I had a window out of the retail world I loathe so much. My new boss lured me in with promises of pay reviews in a few months and possible trips to Nigeria with her and I fell for it. She said that she ran her company to nuture new designers fresh from college and help them get the real world experience that they needed. It sounded so great.

And then I actually started there.

I have been completely thrown in the deep end. Thrown into the middle of a pool of snide graphic designing sharks. It'll be ok, I thought. Its just because you don't know any of the clients and you actually have no idea as to what you are supposed to do because its a small company and you are the only secretary/p.a/studio manager/researcher. As soon as someone starts explaining what you need to be doing on a daily basis, you will be fine. You work loooong hours (no overtime OR time in lieu) but you will be getting a pay review in a few months right? Looks like I was wrong about that too. I am also in charge of the wages and I'm getting paid the same as the newest designer who has been there 8 months. The designer who has been there the longest is only getting paid £4000 more than I am. Turns out this tight arse likes to see herself as the nurturer for young designers and then sends them on their merry way after 2 years because she like to keep the wages as low as humanely possible. The other girls are only surviving because they either live at home or with their partners who help support them. What do I do? This will more than likely be my only possible chance of sponsorship and if I give up on it, well then that means that I have no choice but to come 'home' in a year, if not sooner. Plus unless I find someone from the EU to marry me, I can say goodbye to opening the store in Berlin. On the other hand, I can't live like this. I'm about to start work in a pub as well on the weekends because I have to plus I'm moving to a cheaper shittier sharehouse in a few weeks. I'll end up really hating London if I stay in this job but I'll be losing so much if I let it go. I feel so overwhelmed and I don't know what to do......

On a completely different note, I saw these two this morning wandering around the back streets of East Londn near my place looking so adorable and lost they completely reminded me of the cute Japanese couple in Mystery Train by Jim Jarmusch