An Appointment with Fear

The charming Mark Gatiss is on Desert Island Discs talking about his love affair with horror and this prompts me to make a quick note about a copy of Michelle Paver's book Dark Matter which I bought a little while ago and carried it around in my bag with the intention to read it on the plane on a recent super short blink and miss it 2 day trip to Oslo. I've just got round to it and wished I read it earlier. Deliciously frightening and a perfect companion to have of an evening with the longer nights drawing and All Soul's Day shortly upon us.

The horror, the horror...

Just home from the horror of an 8am morning team training session start in Brighton - praise be that the workshop didn't end with the 'drumming in harmony' finale as was initially promised. Thankfully that was scrapped due to a 'regrettably small budget' (note: for once having no money ends in a positive result!). Oh, here's a photo of a nice bit of topiary going on in Kensington Place as I dashed it home this afternoon to the train for London Bridge.

Hats Off...

Had a bit of major tidy up this morning and and trying to pack up items to protect them moth damage over the Winter months. Here's another one of Sally-Ann Provan's hats before it disappears into its hatbox storage for a little while.

The Black and White Barometer

As the Autumn chill kicks in this lazy fellow is the best barometer there is - one hint of cooler weather approaching and its off to sleep for at least 7 hours or a 12 hour stretch if it's also raining, of course.

Luxton Lake

Tina Spangler's short film about Luxton Lake - check out more of her short films. There's an especially nice one of her giving a tour of her renovated Luxton Lake home.

Richard Tuschman

Feeling fuzzy from jet lag Friday eve but managed to attend the private view at the Dreamspace Gallery, Old St, EC1 organised by Millennium Images (as Richard was one of the judges). An open competition for photographers to submit work on the idea of book jacket images. The overall winner announced that evening was Richard Tuschman.

Spring Street Vampires

Last day in town and eating pizza on Spring Street and the unmistakeable shock of white hair sported by Jim Jarmusch strides by at noon in the unusually warm, but welcome, October sunshine - aching to take a photo but decide against it. Apparently John Hurt and Tilda Swinton will be feature in his next film which is vampire themed. Talking of vampires, this reminds me to make a note and find 'Nadja' by Michael Almereyda (produced by David Lynch) which is languishing in the cupboard which I haven't seen for a while. Just watching 'Rumble Fish' and had forgotten how good the soundtrack by Stewart Copeland is...sure that is on vinyl in the cupboard too, somewhere.

Photo Credit: Jim Spellman

Jacques de la Villegle

I've had a long term big adoration for Jacques de la Villegle - '122 rue de temple' (1968) is installed at MOMA. Tate Modern also holds his work.

Caught in Fluxus

My eyes (and wallet) popped to see it now costs a mammoth $25 for entry to MOMA so I was hellbent on venturing into every corner of the building to get every cents worth. Bless UK museum prices in comparator. Willem de Kooning was the main exhibition - a gorgeous visual feast. However, for me, the best gallery in MOMA is always the area dedicated to Fluxus.

A Little Bit of NYC Rabbit

Arrived in NYC on 1st Oct after a delay from Heathrow due to turbulence from hurricane Orphelia over New Foundland and then a lengthy tailback from JFK Airport trying to get to Broome Street, Lower East side - which we later found out that evening was due to the Wall Street protestors trying to make their way on to Brooklyn Bridge so we took a walk down Broadway to Battery Park to check out for ourselves what was going on. A walk back to Soho for something to eat in Wild Ginger and we got a sighting of the tall figure of Sam Shephard going about his business on Mercer Street.