I think it's pretty ugly. I also think it's ugly to the point where I really like it. Figures. Tomorrow it shall be mine.
Today I hit up this place for brunch, with the esteemed DK. I've been to Princi for lunch before -great pizza, great salads- but for brunch MY GOD. The baked goods kick some serious you know what. The cannoli was out of this world and I heavily recommend trying it (at 80p a piece can you really say no?) The restaurant's fairly casual, has a wonderfully modern interior, quick service and is very reasonably priced for Soho (£8 for a hearty portion of pizza and salad). It's canteen style service is one which ensures you never have to wait too long, and it somehow manages to feel luxurious (like one of owner Alan Yaus' classier joints), while being affordable and a culinary delight.
I also made a trip to the Alison Jacques Gallery on Berners Street to see the Saul Fletcher exhibition. I wasn't too impressed at first. Given the critical acclaim the exhibition had received so far I found Fletchers paintings to be very GCSE "abstract" self portrait. Pfft "assemblage". The photographs are what have been used to advertise this show to the public, and they were what drew me to the exhibition. It is in them that you'll find the depth of matter that makes visiting this exhibition worthwhile- they're claustrophobic and I suppose illuminate the idea of a photographs ability to capture (as in trap) not only an image, but time. The subjects are captured in the frames, as though in little decaying photographic prisons.
Looking at the photographs in a series, as they are presented in the gallery, you become very aware of time passing which leads onto the installation pieces in the next room very well. These installation pieces are all of wood, cardboard, aged brown matter- branches and birds feet and "bodies" hanging with claws gripped in the air.
Aging, entrapment, reminders of fleeting mortality, decay...not exactly an uplifting exhibition, but worth popping into if you're killing time in the Oxford Circus area.
Also today, I went to one of my favourite spots in London, on the hunt for a ballgown (I have loads, and yet no floor length ones, sigh) I took to Grays Antiques. I prefer hunting for clothes for events in places like Grays and Alfies because you don't find three year old H&M dresses being sold off as vintage and the elderly ladies and gentlemen who sell to you are genuinely passionate about the history of the pieces they sell, not having seasonal trend pieces. Grays is also the best place to buy old books in the whole wide world. Biblion in Grays Mews is my idea of heaven. Check out some of the selection here. Short of the British Library Biblion is the closest you can get to holding first editions of real worth in the capital, and maybe if you're lucky (and loaded) owning them.
Finally, I got home and found myself to have a whole load of emails from Brooklyn bands. I don't know where or how, but at some point I've been added to some sort of hipster mailing list. Weird. So some bands follow...
Unfortunate name right? Why choose the same mythical (OR ARE THEY?) creature as the single most successful new indie band of the last few years to share a name with? Is it something to do with Google searches? In any case the band are in some ways quite similar to the Vampire Weekend, but also sound a fair bit like Stars. Essentially they are a mellow hipsters wet dream. So cool they're not even from Brooklyn. No. Really.
I have a confession. I sort of wish I had an excuse to dress like a 1940's folk singer. All the time. Pin curls. Red lips. Day Gloves. The whole she bang. I don't think it's that much of a bad thing. Rory did it on Gilmore Girls. It looks awesome, but I don't do it at the risk of looking as though I'm in costume twenty four seven. Whenever I'm vintage shopping in Stables I feel a surge of joy when old time folk comes on and I kind of wish I had been able to visit Storyville and dress like this. Devil In a Woodpile make the kind of music (along with some heady blues and jazz) I imagine to have been played in the famed down and out district. It's not trendy new folk, and it's certainly not ground breaking, but for generation envy this music is perfect.
Iron & Wine part two. I find the songs inexplicably heartwarming and dreamy. Not dreamy as in the same way I describe the Jonas Brothers (swoon) but Sufjan style dreamy. Music for muggy days for sure.
The Hood Internet love her. Sold yet?
Like a heady young Karen O striding through an especially 70's Bond theme tune.
I like this bunch a whole lot.
Pains-esque, but with totally indecipherable vocals. Enigmatic and sunny. Think 'Here's Comes Your Man' era Pixies instrumentally and you've got it.
Words cannot describe how weird this band are. Pumping a totally out there combo of pys-tribal pop I can't compare them to anyone, all I can say is that in all their weirdness (like the dress at the top of the page) they end up being confusingly wonderful.
A couple more things, yesterday I also went to Satsuma (only because Taro is shut between 3-5) which was kind of blah and overpriced (£12 for a tofu steak bento, while at Taro it's about £6 and about a billion times better) and SNOG, to which I am addicted. I had a Classic Natural Frozen Yogurt with chocolate chips and coconut flakes and it officially rocked my world. I also saw Exlovers play (also Wild Palms who did not please my ears at all), who were pretty rad on their faster songs.
Tomorrow brings a trip to Alfies (the ballgown hunt continues) and a Lemuria gig at the Fly. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a trip to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition too, as next week new shows open at the Tate (Futurism!) and the graduate shows continue at The Truman Brewery, making for some exciting times approaching. Not to mention these awesome shows in the not too distant future:
(thanks to Time Out for the above exhibition descriptions).
Get Busy. Keep Busy.
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