I’m always taken aback by the scale of the Carnival. After extensive analysis and in-depth interviews with thousands of revellers, my vote for best soundsystem goes to Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues. And if offered my very own float by some sort of reckless, misguided charitable foundation, I’m currently taken by the idea of having everyone in 3-piece suits and trilbys, twirling brollies and singing along to Singing In the Rain while being sprayed from above.
I took some pictures with my low-res phone, and will attempt to transfer some of them to my computer later. Meanwhile, Londonist has helpfully picked out some goodies on Flickr.
Just keep breathing. In your own time.
These ferns have been doing it for around 400 million years.
Another phenomenal, uncompromising, blues-and-beyond set from Sam Beer last night, and another miraculous escape for his long-suffering guitar strings. His full throated voice and passion are easily big enough to take London, if London would only pause long enough to pay attention. Next time you pass a poster pushing Craig David or somesuch, remember: here’s the antidote.
For further sources of properly grounded musical inspiration, if you’re within reach of London and can escape the herd and gravitational pull of the Carnival, try this on Sunday at Cargo.
I dedicate this one to The Man Who Fell Asleep. He’s quite funny, arguably. (Thanks, Tom)
Extra: Another found Rothko, courtesy of File Magazine.
Ah, grimmer than grim weather all day long, and then suddenly it lifts, and all is yellow, orange and gold on grey. A huge rainbow appears, with one foot in Battersea Park, and the other in Shoreditch. The whole show lasts at most 15 minutes.
A pleasant word, I find, both hard and soft, no-nonsense but evocative. I took this the other day, reminded of equivalents in Iceland and Kentucky.
This is Beverley, who likes to spend her free afternoons telling the people of Peckham, Camberwell and Brixton all about Jesus. When I mentioned that it was hard to hear what she was saying, she explained that her loudhailer batteries were running low, and besides, people sometimes ask her to turn it down, and she doesn’t want to aggravate anyone.
Reports of a radio intercept implicating the Tamil Tigers in Friday’s assassination of Kadirgamar (the Foreign Minister, a Tamil, once a barrister in the UK), just as a possible instruction to the killers is spotted in a Tiger newspaper. Reactions to the event reveal something about the states of mind of those looking on.
