Heather Loves Jelly

Lianne La Havas & Willy Mason - No Room For Doubt

2011-11-19T07:00:00.001-08:00

Lianne La Havas and Willy Mason.
Yeah, Willy Mason! Perhaps I'm pedestrian but Where Humans Eat was my first and last Willy Mason experience, at the tender age of 16, until this Lianne La Havas true gem. True diamond.

I'm listening to Oxygen as I type, it really is worth all the hype that it had in its day.

Willy Mason - "Oxygen"

I'm a Big advocate for the free download of a gig in LA of Lianne's, it's personable and really really good. from here: http://www.liannelahavas.com/

And on a footnote, on the subject of the lyric 'pieces of me', do you think they were aware of the reminder it would bring to their listeners of Britney or Ashley Simpson? I hope so.

Alpines - Night Drive

2011-11-13T09:29:00.001-08:00

This is lovely:
<p>&amp;lt;a href="http://alpines.bandcamp.com/album/night-drive-ep"&amp;gt;Night Drive EP by Alpines&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;</p>London duo Catherine Pockson and Robert Matthews. Pop-y and electro-y and warming. Produced by Craig Silvey who's CV can proudly claim the likes of The Coral and The Magic Numbers.

David J. Roch

2011-09-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

I first heard David J. Roch play in 100 Club sometime last year. It was about the time that serious questions were being asked about the venue staying open. I'd never been before, and was very excited to go to a place so monumental and steeped in so many artists' history. Needless to stay it hasn't closed, and I've been back several times. David was supporting Andy Burrows, I Am Arrows. It was a great gig and I remember leaving thinking that the supporting acts were a brilliant fit and that I enjoyed them.

I have been on David's email list since and enjoy reading his updates and look forward to opening them when I see he's sent another. Mostly the notes consist of gig dates, which happen, for the main part in London or his homestead of Sheffield. Of late, he has started offering guestlist and free tickets via the email portal too. I can't find a email subscription page, but his Twitter page is just as informative I'm sure. http://twitter.com/#!/davidjroch.

I haven't seen David live since the first time, though I would very much like to. Today I revisited his music and rediscovered how much I like it. Bones, for example, is so dreamy and beautiful. Lyrically, it is stunning, and evokes such vivid imagery, 'these bones held in place with skin'. The pace of the song is such that you can really appreciate the lyrics. There's a clever little bouncy, humming guitar underneath to keep it rhythmic, and at about two minutes in there comes a tinkling glockenspiel which splits the record in two parts, the first observationally emotional Whenever you leave, you pull them tight and choke my heart., the second is questioning and more defensive and sad, 'Why can't you be kind, once in a while to me?'.

Here is him on Soundcloud. http://soundcloud.com/david-j-roch/tracks

Don't judge me before you watch this. Muppets new trailor.

2011-09-16T12:36:00.001-07:00

Oh wow

seriously.

GIRLS - Father Son Holy Ghost

2011-09-10T02:43:00.000-07:00

I saw a guy at Secret Garden Festival last year who had a Girls t-shirt and since then I've really wanted one but can't find one anywhere!

I'm listening to the album in full on The Guardian website and have just discovered Vomit, the hole gorgeous six minutes of it. A slow, melodic and calm build up that reminds me a lot of Sonic Youth. There's a big powerful chorus dotted through melancholic then powerful verses, a touch of In Rainbows in there maybe. Big guitar. Calm again before this amaaazing gospel voice comes in, it was a bit of a shock the first time round to be honest, but I love it on the third listen. Download for free from their Facebook http://www.facebook.com/GIRLSsf?sk=app_151079988301527

Iceage New Brigade

2011-09-10T02:03:00.000-07:00

Are these kids the most exciting band to hit punk? Or are they stupid? Iceage are on the rise from Copenhagen. In the class of The New Way of Danish Fuck You, also including Sexdrome, Scavenger Brats et al. Apparently this name was originally meant to be The New Wave of Danish Fuck You but someone spelled their tattoo wrong! Fail.

I watched the video for Iceage's New Brigade after having read their interview in NME yesterday. The main gist of the interview was that the band are a group of young, polite boys who don't really want to talk to anyone. NME bribed them with beer and cigarettes.
Watching the video, this feeling of their desperation to grow up continues, it's trying to be fucked up and scary, except it's all shot in the daytime and the closest thing to crazy (hello Katie Melua ref, wasn't expecting that) they get to is a gammy finger being pointed at the camera. The KKK references, according to the NME interview, are meaningless. I'm sure these kids aren't racist, they are trying to shock their audience which is really really hard to do. I get why they're doing it but it's come out a little naively and i don't think enough effort has been put into it in order to pull it off. Opinions welcome.

Having said that I think the record is wicked. Angsty and detached and just a bit cool, much like a Danish teenager.

Iceage - New Brigade from iceage on Vimeo.

James Blake and Bon Iver - Fall Creek Boys Choir

2011-09-02T17:01:00.000-07:00

Best collaboration ever, James Blake and Bon Iver make Fall Creek Boys Choir. The first time I listened to this, I got nothing, after some perseverance, I'm now on my sixth or seventh playcount and couldn't tell you how amazing it is.

Oop, make that eight.

Rainy Boy Sleep - Reading Festival 2011 - BBC Introducing Stage

2011-09-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

Muse were incredible, MCR and 30 Seconds were insane, but also really really enjoyed this, Rainy Boy Sleep on BBC Introducing Stage with RSVP My Letter and Ambulance.

Probs too wide for my screen that.

Lana Del Ray Video Games - Jack Kerouac On the Road

2011-08-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

Is everyone enjoying Lana Del Rey as much as I have been?

I've been reading some Jack Kerouac recently, mainly because Alex Turner put On the Road down as his favourite book on an NME interview a few weeks ago. Lana Del Rey's Video Games is based only in one city, LA, but I like a continuitive theme through reading and listening. I haven't finished On the Road, but LA is where Sal meets Terry. They have fantastic adventures.
Lana's view and the view of the LA that I have in my head from Sal Paradise make a wonderful juxtaposition.
On a separate point, over the last few days, I keep seeing the term 'beat' used, which must have originated from Kerouac's 'Beat Generation'. Whilst I don't pretend to be anything other than an average Londoner, it does does make me wonder what TfL are on about when they put up adverts saying 'If you're reading this, you're on our beat'.

Calvin Harris and Kelis - Bounce Music Video

2011-05-15T00:24:00.000-07:00

THIS IS GOING TO BE TRACK OF THE SUMMER.
Calvin Harris does this well, the timely release of Ready for the Weekend had the same effect. This is the new video for Calvin Harris's newest track, Bounce featuring Kelis. Annie Mac played it on her Radio 1 show the other day, I reck it'll be storming up the charts in the coming weeks.
I REALLY recognise the actor in the video, but I can't place him. Looks quite like Matt Smith I thought.

Brother covering Katy B, Katy on a Mission

2011-05-14T23:39:00.000-07:00

Brother seem to be living their lives by the rule of 'all PR is good PR' but prove that they do have talent in this Katy B cover:

Tom Vek - A Chore

2011-04-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I had never heard of this guy before today, but stumbled across this today, listened to it this morning and the video (directed by Ollie Evans of videos from Klaxons, Foals, Noisettes, Gossip) the song and the girl/guy in the video haven't really left my head since. What do we think?
Apparently set to do well in 2005, Vek disappeared. Until now, where I and his 26000-odd views in the last 3 days have rediscovered him. Perturbingly mind-catching.

Arctic Monkeys - Don't Sit Down 'cause I've Moved Your Chair

2011-04-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

So this is the new Arctic Monkeys, Don't Sit Down 'cause I've Moved Your Chair. Personally I've found, much like Kanye, the Arctic Monkeys have moved in out of being cool and not so cool. They're definitely on the money here. Everything seems to remind me of The Doors recently, but there is a definite melodic drone to Alex Turner's lyrical madness that requites itself to Riders on the Storm and L.A. Woman in general.
Put some aviators on, add a little barely American swag and "wear your shellsuit on Bonfire Night" then we're all good. Bloody love it. Point proven by the fact I've been listening to it on repeat all day.

http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/

Ulterior Black City Black Rain - New Music Video

2011-03-31T05:46:00.000-07:00

This has been in my head for ages and the video for Ulterior's Black City Black Rain has been unveiled today. It's meant to represent London as they see it (apparently pretty gloomy). Directed by the Turrell Brothers.

Heather Loves Jelly Playlist - Primo

2011-01-15T03:25:00.000-08:00

First (of hopefully more) Heather Loves Jelly playlists. Heather Loves Jelly - primo 150111
I hope you like it.

Secret Garden Party’s Lost Lovers Ball at Battersea Power Station

2011-01-14T03:12:00.000-08:00

I love festivals. Where else can you go, act like idiot for three days, listen to your favourite music, generally act a bit silly and only surround yourself with your friends? I’ve been to a fair few and Secret Garden wins by miles. There are the most beautifully random installations that manage to live in their environment without being pretentiously placed at all but are there to be enjoyed.

I got a bit excited when I found out about The Lost Lovers Ball which the company are holding in February. They’ve managed to get hold of Battersea Power Station (my favourite building in London ever) and are making use of their time there with three nights of activity.

For £50 you choose one of these three nights (11th, 12th or 13th February) and prepare to entertained by some of Secret Garden’s most delectable entertainers including Bearded Kitten and Tax Deductible, as well as some of the best of the talking and debating stages, people like Guerilla Science and The Forum. Get tickets here.

If you know anything about SGP, then it will probably be that you will look really out of place if you aren’t dressed up. I don’t really ‘dressing up’ is really the right term for these chaps though. It’s more a sort of alternate persona that you have to adopt when you’re there. It’s the same escapism as the festival. Except this time, I can walk home.

For good measure, and because I could never get enough of them, here are some of my photos from SGP10.

H.A.M Kanye and Jay Z

2011-01-11T12:54:00.000-08:00

Long awaited and highly anticipated. To be completely honest I hadn't heard about this until last week but what is there not to be excited about in a Kanye West and Jay Z collaboration?
H.A.M is the first single, dropped today, from the forthcoming album Watch the Throne. The whole album will be released in March. It's a big space to watch, but I've got my eyes peeled. Apparently they recorded the whole thing in a week. So much swagger they don't have to spend time on it to make it hardcore.

CHERYL comes to London. No not that one.

2011-01-05T06:01:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of events companies in London. I like events nights, if you find a good organisation that hasn’t got too pretentious yet, then as a rule, they are well-un by people whose main ambition is that you and your friends have a good time. That’s definitely not an invite that I would turn down.

My first experience of an events company in London was from The Last Tuesday Society. I really enjoyed the first masked ball in October 2009, then spent a really fun Near Year with them, my friends and some wonderful folk music at Liverpool Street, from there I’ve been to nights at the V and A, twice to their private club just off The Strand and others that are all as memorable as each other; they’ve done a bloomin good job and I’ve enjoyed every minute.

On The Handpicked Collection blog I posted an article a couple of months ago for events for Halloween. I ended up going to another Last Tuesday event, but second on my list was the more vulgar and frightening night organised by the Torture Gardens. This events company made it big with that Halloween gig and now it doesn’t seem as weird that normal people want to go to a night that fuzzes the border of mad party with bondage, freaks and ‘scenes of a sexual nature’. I suppose the only way is up after the abundance of parties that are to be had in the capital. How else to make something different?

Maybe it’s just good marketing. This month sees a transaltlantical force from CHERYL. No, not that one, and she’s got the wrong idea anyway. Chezza C may be leaving her Geordie roots for the American Dream, but this events company is making the much appreciated hop to our side of the pond. Originally starting out in NYC, they’ve recently hosted events in MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum.

CHERYL EUROPEAN TOUR 2011 from CHERYL on Vimeo.

‘The dance party that will ruin your life’ is coming to The Star of Bethnal Green. It sounds like a good night already, the website is full of strong images and the past events look brilliant. But mostly, I’m pretty curious to see if the New Yorkers have what Last Tuesday have, what Torture Gardens have, what an underground club in Soho has or what a gay club in Vauxhall has; some ingredients are blindingly obvious, good music, reasonable entry and drinks, but the best ones have an organised leniency and interesting surroundings. Last Tuesday has beautiful venues; in Adam Street you have to walk down about four flights of tiny stairs and bend under archways before you get to another big beautiful room with huge arches that run under the street. A bitch if you’re a smoker, I’ll tell you. Another company, Planet Angel, had an art gallery showing works by whoever wanted to exhibit. Half of the exhibitors were dancing to dubstep in the next room.

Cheryl is coming to London and I’m excited to see what they’re bringing!

Cheryl Saturday 22 January from 10pm.

Tickets are £4.00. Go to the fb for more info here.

Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes

2011-01-04T08:03:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!
As usual I have far too many unrealistic resolutions, one of which is to take further advantage of exhibitions etc. in London. So far (one weekend in) it seems to be going well.
Running from September until the end of this month at the V and A is the Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes. This is how i chose to spend my morning of the bank holiday Monday yesterday. Unfortunately, the usually dodgable 'No Photography' rule was rather strictly enforced and my grainy BlackBerry shots are nothing special of which to speak. I've used the ones from the V and A website instead. Thank you very much.
Diaghiliev (1872 - 1929) it seems was a bit of a character. Some of the first material to see on entering the exhibition are quotes from his contemporaries noting his qualities as a human being. Most along the lines that he is brilliant but 'terrible'. It appears that he was a difficult person to work with. He had many areas of expertise, philosophy, sorcery apparently and most famously a business and incredible creative for his dance company.
The exhibition is laid out chronologically, beginning with 'The first seasons'. This first room was the one i spent the majority of my time in (perhaps because at this point i was unaware of the five following rooms). I'm a sucker for hand stitching, and the costumes, created by the Russian-born Leon Bankst are phenomenal. There are lots of cultural influences. Some of the incredibly detailed handmade costumes looked nearly African with bright colours and what could be batik markings. Bankst also shows his sketching and painting ability with beautifully detailed costume designs and Egyptian and Arabic paintings using similar colour palettes. i don't really think Bankst had enough credit shown to him in the exhibition. Artist, set and costume designer - frankly sounds like a lot of work.
Another room which I loved was that containing the construction method and finished product of the backcloth for The Firebird; a 1913 production from the Ballets Russes.
It's huge, and looks a wee bit cramped in the triangular room the V and A have given it. The construction diagrams in the preceding room are just as fascinating. It's created in columns, first on large, scaled down but intricate and accurate drawings. The colours again remind me of spices and Arabic culture with the bright golden onion domes, reds, oranges and browns. These are translated magnificently onto the huge backcloth in the next room.

This image is from Little Design Book.

Hari Deakin AKA Mihke

2010-11-13T07:26:00.000-08:00

This stop motion video was made by my gorgeous friend Hari. She is one of the loveliest and most fun people i know. The video's pretty cool too.

Crystal Castles doing The Cure, Not in Love - Robert Smith

2010-11-02T05:24:00.000-07:00

I love this. I saw Crystal Castles live at one of the festivals over the summer. Alice Glass, admittedly a bit of psycho, put absolutely everything into her performance and it was incredible to watch and be part of.
Take classic pop The Cure song and punch it through a wall at Crystal Castles and this, epically, is what you end up with.

Daft Punk & Tron: Legacy

2010-11-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a bit excited about Tron:. One of the longest awaited sequels in film history, the new electro-power movie follows the original 1982-er starring Jeff Bridges. This time round, Bridges is there again, along with Michael Sheen and Olivia Wilde, as is a big budget and some potentially mind-boggling 3D effects.

BEST of all though, is the new Daft Punk dance tracks. The soundtrack is going to be released on the 22nd November. I was just listening to Zane Lowe and apparently the French duo also have roles in the film too.
This is the theme:

The is going to be released on the 26th December in the UK.

Brother - a band off of Slough

2010-10-31T10:05:00.000-07:00

I like this. It's the return of Gritpop with lashings of unashamed cool kid swagger from Brother. Zane Lowe has tipped them, and played the first single Darling Buds of May twice this week on his show.

Jessie J

2010-10-26T05:24:00.000-07:00

This is Jessie J - Radio 1 have just added this, Do it like a Dude, to their playlists so I predict we'll hear a lot more of her shortly. Head to her MySpace for more songs. Her voice is amazing in the more acoustic videos too.

London

2010-09-27T01:48:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling pretty London. Right now, sitting in Starbucks, reading Dazed, Radiohead is lurking somewhere in the background. iPad is sitting on top of my half read Sunday Times Style magazine. It's started raining outside and King's Road beautiful people have pulled out their beautiful umbrellas and are continuing to look beautiful. But they don't really look like they're enjoying it. My caramel machiato has never tasted so good.

I've seen a lot of effortlessly cool today. Red loafers, butterfly graphics on big canvases under arms, camel coloured jumpers, tweed suits and riding boots pedalling bicycles, anoraks with espadrilles, well worn Churches brogues, satchels over Levi's, green trousers with cardigan. I love a man in a cardigan. And I love umbrellas.

Checked shirts, the return of the Mohawk, Breton stripes, old lady with leopard print umbrella, McQueen skulls, KRSC, handle bars with tassels on,studded cuffs, sherbet lemon knitted vest. Sunglasses under umbrella? No, that's just illogical. Fred Perry sporting jacket, navy with yellow stripes, cable knit cardy, the Chelsea boot in it's original setting. Court shoes with grey knitted tights, red bandana, green hair, elbow patches, stripy blue socks. I fucking love socks, they're the most underrated article of clothing.

Cotton hoodie under jacket, flares, cut off trousers, rolled up trousers. Sunday Papers and BlackBerrys. Indiana Jones hat, Desigual prints, sandwiches, chunky silver chains, cigarettes, woven colourful handbags, red lipstick, red polo shirt, cake.

100 Club Oxford Street - I Am Arrows, Sketches, David J Roth

2010-09-24T02:03:00.000-07:00

I went to 100 Club on Oxford Street last night for the first time. Sadly, I also heard on the same day that it might be closing soon.

I went to see I Am Arrows, Andy Burrows’ band, who I’ve been going on about for a while now. Two bands were on before them, Sketches and David J Roth. They were both amazing live, I hadn’t heard of either of them before.

My photos aren't very legible but I like how they came out for the I Am Arrows shots.

So this is Sketches...

And then David J Roch...

Then loads of people came out of nowhere for Arrows, it was brilliant! Such a good atmosphere, I had a really good night.

The Very True London Word

2010-09-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

I am subscribed to The London Word, a lovely blog with lots of articles about reviews of things in London. A post flashed up today whacking the nail on the head exactly for me and countless others, I'm sure. It's all about how living in London, you feel this irrational urge to read every single book ever written, dance at every gig ever played, ponder every exhibiton in every museum and just generally aspire to be the most cultured person on the planet. The point, made very well by Paul McGhie, is that if we're running all over London sucking up as much culture juice as possible, there's no time left to enjoy anything, which was probably the object of the excercise in the first place.

Below is a list, that I have unashamedly swiped straight from his article, of suggestions of things to do to help us all out and discover what you really enjoy.

Make a list of the things in your life that give you the most pleasure – be it gardening, modern art or spending time with your family – and focus more of your time on that
Learn that you don’t have to be doing something all the time. Book a night in your diary every week just for you, when you don’t go out but go home and spend some quality time alone, doing nothing
Keep a thank you diary, where you note down the positive things that happened to you each day
Discover something new about the area where you live. You might realise that you don’t have to venture as far to experience the hidden gems of London as you might think.

Read the full article here.

Dakota Fanning, The Runaways and Tatum O'Neal

2010-09-01T01:41:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the not-so-little star as of late. Dakota’s new film The Runaways is out on the 10th of September and we hear it might be a bit of shock to those who still picture her as the small blonde child who seems to keep running into aliens (War of the Worlds) and is BFFs with a spider (Charlotte’s Web). Not that we at Handpicked, are quite up there with those who saw it months ago at Sundance, but from what we gather Ms Fanning is phenomenal as the 15-year-old Cherie Currie, a member of the The Runaways (breakthrough all girl band of 70’s fame, all underage and controversially human-cannonballed into an American tour unsupervised at very tender ages) alongside her fellow Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart who plays Joan Jett. When my copy of Dazed got to me earlier this month, I didn’t recognise Dakota on the cover. It’s a beautiful shot by Mark Segal (and a horrible Blackberry photo of it by me):

I watched Paper Moon a couple of weeks ago and its not often that a reasonably slow paced, black and white talkie obviously made on a budget draws me in but it really is a gem of a film. I mention it now because Tatum O’Neal who was 10 years old when cast as Addie Pray in the 1973 film now portrays Cherie Currie’s mother in The Runaways. Tatum O’Neal remains the youngest person to win an Academy Award. In Paper Moon she starred alongside her father Ryan O’Neal; she was heavily affected later in life by fame. Sadly there were lots of controversies regarding her father abusing her when she was young which he firmly denies. She also dated Michael Jackson in the late 70’s. Now having slightly disgraced herself (for want of a kinder term) it’s interesting that she was cast in this film with very current young actresses and a $10 million budget.

Thinking of the similar fame that Tatum O’Neal and Dakota Fanning have been subjected to in youth, is it likely that Fanning will go through a rough patch as O’Neal did? Is The Runaways the beginning Fanning’s rebellion? I hope not and I very much doubt it. Dakota, born Hannah Dakota Fanning, comes from a family with strongly grounded Christian morals and also from a very planned childhood. Her parents supported her talent, sending her to auditions and relocating the family to Hollywood, showing not only that she went down the path of formal auditions but stage school and proper training too.

With some speculation and very little proof, I doubt that Tatum O’Neal would have had such a structured background. The daughter of thespian parents, she would not have had her roots as firmly planted and it was probably easier to go off the rails in the 70’s and 80’s without too much hassle than it is today.

At sixteen, Dakota is ready to launch her adult career and step out of her child star roles and from where I’m standing, she’ll do it with style.

Here is Tatum O’Neal looking lovely with her father Ryan O’Neal at the premier of The Runaways in LA earlier this year and then below is the same pair from Paper Moon in 1973.

Images courtesy of www.zimbio.com and Diaro de Bizzarices http://diariodebizarrices.blogspot.com.

David's Lyre - Tear them Down

2010-08-30T03:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a good bank holiday, still a full day of debauchery to go. Need some good background music today. Below is the official video for David's Lyre Tear Them Down and then after that is David's Lyre playing English Roses for The Mahogany Blog.

Octopus Rooftop Pool Hayward Gallery

2010-08-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

It’s a funny season summer. To be honest you’d think that people might get bored of talking about the weather, or bored about talking about how much we talk about the weather. But no, never us Brits. We’re always to hot or too cold, too wet, too dry, never happy unless we’re talking about how we could be happier.

To round up to my point, what do you think of this weather?! There are still lots of things going round in the city which have high hopes of sunshine and could not be held in winter time, but only the Great British Public would spend £11 on a ticket to an exhibition and head to a rooftop pool with overhanging clouds and dubiously heavy rain.

Nevertheless, I really quite fancy it. Perched atop the Hayward Gallery, sits an octopus shaped pool at the heart of the Ernesto Neto exhibition. The £11 gets you into the exhibition but if you feel the sudden urge to jump in a pool you will have to pre-book by calling 0844 847 9910. The exhibition lasts until 5th September.

Why not?

Cineroleum, Kensington Palace, Loud Tate, Hungamunga and a beach at Whitechapel

2010-08-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

Maybe it’s because I had a week off last week or maybe it’s just that everyone feels the August weather is betraying us, but it has been a long week. This morning I got into the office at 8:50 and no one was in. After a thoughts of apocalypse and ‘the end is nigh’ had passed I checked my calendar to find that, yes, indeed, it is still Friday and not the weekend yet. See, our office is usually, without fail, a hub of coffee-making, cereal-eating and thinking-about-working activity by at the latest 8:45 every weekday.

At the end of a long week, nothings better than a productive weekend. Here are some things going on this weekend...

The obsession of pop-up shop culture is still going strong. If you throw ‘pop-up’ in with the word ‘derelict’, you get a definite East Central kind of feel out of this one. That’s where you’ll find me on this, the opening night of Cineroleum. It’s a hand-built pop-up cinema on Clerkenwell Road; the brainchild of a group of local young artists and architects, the cinema is showing a choice of wonderfully selected films. Tonight is Rebel Without a Cause, unfortunately but not surprisingly sold out, there are more on over the rest of the weekend (also sold out) and then a combination of The Long Goodbye, Night of the Living Dead and The Third Man make up some of the rest of the showings over the next three weeks. I love this page of their website showing the construction of the petrol station turned cinema. Tickets are only a fiver, click here for more info.

Kensington Palace this evening anyone? The much celebrated and well received Enchanted Forest Exhibition is holding a bit of do this evening. It finishes at 10pm (good pre-party for going out elsewhere), it costs £12.50, you can dress up like an idiot, run around Kensington Palace spying on puppet shows and participating in fun frolics then take your mischief elsewhere.

Another event that we’re super excited about is the Loud Tate Festival, at, believe it or not, the Tate. If you head south of the river on Saturday, you should find frolicking somewhere near that rather large red brick chimney, a free festival aimed at those who enjoy a little bit of art/culture/music. The frequenters are predicted to be young and free, so bring your skinny jeans and high tops or turned up chinos and espadrilles, down with the kids man.

After a Saturday night I plan to spend at Cargo, there’s a choice of two on Sunday. Two city festivals, Hungamunga and the Beach at Whitechapel. The first is £10 a day and from what I hear is £10 entry, once in, there are DJ’s, live acts, burlesque shows, paper mache, drawing, painting, knitting and sewing with all the materials provided free of charge. The latter, the now not quite so weird idea of a beach in the middle of the city, takes place near Whitechapel High Street, is free and includes the following: beachcombing for holiday novels, a rockpool of authors’ epigraphs and literary volleyball. Interesting. And free – even better.

Vampires Suck Trailer

2010-08-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

Why we forgive Americans.

The Wanted

2010-08-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love a bit of manufactured modern-day boyband action? Check out my March prediction. The Wanted were named Number One this week. Here's their excuse for the hotspot.

Noir Magazine

2010-07-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

I like the look of this one. Noir Magazine is launching on August 8 online and will printed bi-annually as well as having a special for LFW.

Unfairly, I think a lot of these magazines are put into similar classes purely because the thing they in common is their individuality. Again, as a generalisation, they all have massively clever and creative people working and imagining them creating beautiful, up to the minute articles, artwork and ideas. I love these types of magazines, like ANother and POP. It's such a treat when they arrive in my letterbox.

Noir will be available from MagCloud (a brilliant place to find similar material) and I'll be stopping off there shortly.

Secret Garden Party 2010 - until next year

2010-07-28T06:04:00.000-07:00

My festival season is officially over. It really is quite upsetting. Secret Garden was amazing, one of the best weekends ever. I finally got to see I Blame Coco live after all my agitation, the atmosphere and free spiritedness had me feeling like I was born 30 years too late and I have discovered (and my friends agree) that I would make the world’s best groupie.

Here are some photos…

This is was floating in the lake and they set the fireworks off in it on the last night. All the paper burnt away leaving just the frame. I think the people got off first too.

This is the view from the top of the bank looking over the lake towards the entrance on our first night.

Fancydress in its prime, me and two friends on the Saturday night.

This is Marina and her Diamonds on the Friday night.

A pretty shocking photography display of the Gorillaz.

And these are just a selection of the photos I took of I Blame Coco. They were brilliant.

Grizzly Bear at Latitude 2010

2010-07-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed these chaps at Latitude. They were the final live act that we saw at the weekend and they put on an amazing show. I think I first heard of them through the Twilight soundtrack. Not sure, can't remember.

Rob Sheffield Talking to Girls about Duran Duran: One Man’s Quest for True Love and a cooler Haircut

2010-07-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

This popped up this week. Rob Sheffield is a music journalist, most famously for contributions to Rolling Stone and this, his second book, was released last week. His first book, entitled Love is a Mixtape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, was released in 2007 (your Wikipedia knowledge is as good as mine on that one).
Hopefully, you’d expect someone who has made a big name for himself as a journalist, and a music journalist at that would be able to make a book interesting and a good read. That’s not a build up, I haven’t read it yet. I’ll let you know when I have. Here's the link to Amazon, where I'll be going once I get paid.

And here's a picture from Wikipedia, just show them a little love.

Secret Garden Party!!

2010-07-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

Ah I'm so excited! I'm off to try and find a Unicorn horn in my lunch break today. Here's Gorillaz Sound System Festival Rehearsal, its been preparing me.

Slow Club, Yeah So

2010-07-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

Just up my alley. An alley full of simple melodies with nice lyrics and a song with a lovely story. Tastefully straight forward.

Latitude Festival 2010

2010-07-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

I got back from Latitude on Monday after a glorious, culture rich festival but a hellish journey back. Usually, I would be prime candidate for promoting public transport but a 3 hour wait, two trains, two tubes and a bus with a rucksack about three quarters of my weight has put off a little.

Not to linger on the negative though, I feel like we really took the best advantge possible of all that was on offer at Latitude. Kevin Bridges, Josie Long and Russell Kane were my top picks from the hours of time spent in the Comedy Arena, four music stages with Florence (a great set, beautiful costume and the whole crowd singing happy birthday to her little sister Grace), Vampire Weekend (I had forgotten how much I loved the first album, they were brilliant live and embarrassingly, I knew aaaall the words to every song), Rodrigo y Gabriela were absolutely captivating, I couldn’t take my eyes off them, The XX, I wasn’t really a fan of before but the performance was amazing, honestly absolutely flawless and the atmosphere was probably one of the best of the weekend. And then talking of atmosphere, my friend wanted to go see The Feeling (not top of my list, bit boring and mainstream) but they were just so happy to be there and had the whole crowd singing and dancing, it was a really happy set. Here are some photos I took, Florence and the Machine, The XX and Vampire Weekend.

The big downfall of the festival for me was the I Blame Coco set (which, if you click here, you can see I’m completely obsessed with). I arrived, after a certain amount of persuasion with a friend who hadn’t heard of her, in good time and we were busy making our way to the front just as Lissie were finishing off their set. They finished off and loads more people moved in and just as we were feeling a little smug about our front row spots, the organisers came on stage and told us to move out the tent. Not cool. So off we went and waited for 20 minutes away from the stage whilst they tried to prevent the tent from falling down. They then came to tell us that it would take up to an hour and a half before the band would come on. Reluctantly we left to go watch something in the Comedy Arena and made our way back an hour later to find out we’d missed it. I’m really quite sad that I didn’t get to see her. I did take this photo whilst she was standing outside rolling a cigarette waiting for the tent not to collapse though. Best picture of a van I've ever taken. And she is playing at Secret Garden so all is not lost just yet.

I Blame Coco Playwright Fate

2010-07-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

I did say yesterday that I thought Quicker would be my favourite song that could well appear on the album The Constant but I think I like Playwright Fate EEven more. Thats how fickle I am. Just give me some new music and I will inevitably love it. It also looks spookily like the club venue I was at two weeks ago Shunt under London Bridge (bloody brilliant by the way) and I am hideously embarrassed that I am putting these onto the Internet myself but only as a point of comparison, I swear. And, its only the tame ones.

Again, either no one has put a good version on Youtube or I'm just too technically retarded to find it (very likely the latter) but I just found another site so if you are reading this then please click this link to hear Playwright Fate by I Blame Coco. It's immense.

I Blame Coco - Coco Sumner - Quicker and Self Machine

2010-07-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

I hope this is the next song that Coco Sumner releases after Self Machine (out on 12 July). It's called Quicker and I think I like even more. There are only three videos that I can find on Youtube and they are quite poor quality. One is below, here is a link to MTV Live sessions which is really good but I can't embed it. I'd recommend over the video below.

Her album, The Constant is released some time in August I think.

iPad

2010-07-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

So I've been meaning to post about myPad for a while now and the reasoni haven't is just because I don't really know where to start. Not the strongest opening sentence, i'll agree. Now I have the controvertial mix of my BlackBerry as well as the iPad, which I do have to admit is not particularly ideal. I don't have the experience of the iPhone to launch me into what I assumed would be the complete amazement of the Pad.
I must say that although have enjoyed it thus far, I do feel very novice still. It's amazing, dint get me wrong, I think it really is a beautiful thing and a massively clever thing to think so much out the box but still I'm not sure what Mac are trying to get at. I know people have been completely slaughtered for suggesting that it's just a big iPhone and I can see why, the 'experience' is completely different, the screen is incredible and these of use is so well thought out, but the are things that even I can say it is obviously lacking. The big one is a camera, it really feels like it wants one. Other things that I don't like about it are that you can't have tabs open just a load of different pages, I do sort of understand why because it would get crowded but it's just because I'm a tab overloader on my laptop, I like to have loads open and see what's there so I can come back to it later. The other feature that I dislike is the separation of all the iPod features. There is an iPod button on the home screen but then also different ones for the videos, iTunes and App store. Obviously I'm just being slow but I still click on iTunes nearly every time I want to go to my music. I haven't got to the stage where I've gone app crazy yet, though have got a couple cool ones. I love coloursplash and tweet flow is great but I went for Kindle instead of sticking with iBooks because it's much much easier to find free books on the Amazon equivalent to the on screen reader. Downside is that kindle is Linked to the American Amazon site so I haven't worked out how to get the benefits of all the books I've bought off the uk shop.
Having said that, rant over, I am sitting outside on a gloriously sunny London evening with miPad on my lap having watched two episodes of Boosh last night and my music has been on full throttle for the last fifteen minutes and I've got 88% battery left. I think that is rather impressive. I feel like a geek carrying it round with me and I would have an aversion to reading on screen books in public transport. It's a little too accepting of the Internet age for my liking.
I need to get used to it and I'm very much looking forward to the day that I feel that I am.

Secret Garden Party art Installations

2010-07-05T05:45:00.000-07:00

This all sounds terribly exciting. I’ve been doing a bit of Secret Garden Party website stalking and they’ve put up some of the installations that will be at the festivalo. Here are some that I have nicked straight off their website. I hope they don’t mind.

Great Little Place Event

2010-07-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

I've spoken about these lovely folk before, on Heather Loves Jelly and on the Handpicked Collection of Gifts Blog. Great Little Place find lovely little places all in and around London to go to eat, to play or pogo stick if you so desire. They are holding their first event of sorts on Thursday 8th July and it should be a lovely spectacle and a nice place to meet some nice people. The tickets cost a fiver (you can get them here) and there are only 50 of 'em so they'll probably be gone pretty shortly.
It's being held at a Three Blind Mice on Ravey Street (map it out here),it's smack in the middle of Old Street and Shoreditch High Street stations - it's a brilliant pub with pints of character and good beer.
GLP people have got some things on their itinerary for the evening, singer and pianist Holly Walker is tipping up, who I've never heard of but they assure me in the newsletter that she's the bees knees. They've got the Youtube video on their homepage.

Here's that ticket link again.
And do follow them on Twitter, @gr8littleplace.

National Pride, Murray Wimbledon and the World Cup

2010-07-01T05:35:00.001-07:00

It’s been a sporting month, hasn’t it? We were so so sure about the football, the ENtire nation had a wave, of frankly, completely unrealistic optimism. After all, the glory and pride of 66 is as thin as a pin, no one knows who any of those people are anymore anyway. Nobody is really talking about the fact that today’s ‘team’ have come crawling home with Wag tails between their legs. It was out of reach from the start.

Then there’s the tennis. We’re definitely going to win the tennis! Come on Murray! We all choose to ignore that you are particularly grumpy, English hating person because we love to cling to any possible glory we can muster. It’s this beast of competitiveness that explodes out of the Brits at any mention of sport bursting through our lion-tattooed chests and shouting down any Spaniard who might get in our way.

Labrinth Transmission #2

2010-07-01T01:21:00.000-07:00

Now this isn't usually my cuppa soup but this video is absolutely brilliant. Labrinth collaborated with Tiny Tempah for their song Frisky and I'm sure will end up somewhere on the charts if he isn't already.

Girls Ultimate Guide to Festivals - Essential Item Number 3

2010-06-30T02:07:00.000-07:00

As has been said before, after number one and number two, comes number three and this one I’m a little wary about.

I got this from work (Handpicked Collection – brilliant gift ideas, if ever the occasion arises), originally made by Bill Brown, it’s a lovely roll up mattress. I’m sure I’ll be the most comfortable person not in VIP but the fact still remains that even rolled up, it is huge. I had to get it home from work last week on two buses and it wasn’t really great fun.

I’m hoping that whilst strapped to a rucksack I might survive and actually fit through the train doors. Fingers crossed.

H&M Launch Online in September

2010-06-29T03:46:00.000-07:00

So H&M have announced that they will be launching online on the 6th of September. I don’t think I’d ever been on the website before today but I had great fun on their outfit maker...

The leopard dress looked amazing in a big Style feature a couple of weeks ago. It might well end up contributing to my festival wardrobe sooner or later.

It’s so surprising though that all these high street brands haven’t made the transition between shop and online. Working at an online retail company, I suppose I am a bit biased and apparently no one ever makes money out of mail order. But look at Asos – when Nick Robertson released the Christmas sales figures their site usage was up by 112% from the year before.

Topshop seem to have got it right too. I feed my shopping addiction via online channels. Topshop online and Asos are my main weaknesses purely due to their ease of use. Topshop had a bit of a revamp recently and I think the general change is for the better. I do think they need to be a more imaginative with their creativeness though. They are so creative in their styling, direction of models and range of design and designers that they could do with a wee injection of that into their website.

Asos is massively overcrowded and there is a lot of sifting through products to be done – the feature where you can see the clothes on the runway is useful but for some reason I don’t really have great expectations for Asos to be hugely creative. They don’t really need to be either; they’re obviously doing very well as they are, why change it?

ASDA G21 Festival Parka, or wait, is it Louis Vuitton SS11?

2010-06-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

In my latest plight to be ultimately prepared both with amenities and fashion during festival season, I bought a parka on Friday. I tried doing it during a two and a half hour phone conference the day before but the work karma gods were against me. However, just after I placed my order from, wait for it, ASDA, my Vogue newsletter popped into my inbox and look at this!

So a cheap parka is my essential item number two. £18 from Asda is my first choice. Brilliant when it looks like a Louis Vuitton SS11 too.

This Music Business and some wellies.

2010-06-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

“2010, bang smack in the midst of political and financial uncertainty, and yet, Glastonbury sells out in 24 hours.” James Wilkinson – Figaro Digital Magazine (I read it for work ok - and yes, I’m still a geek).

It’s a good point though. I’ve talked before about how the great British public are spending selectively on their fashion choices and I think these two issues are roughly in the same ball park. Or at least in adjacent ball parks. Without repeating myself too much, there hundreds of studies producing thousands of results about how people are investing in their fashion pieces. There is less holiday time on offer because everyone wants to make a good impression on their job that they’ve clung onto through the recession by the skin of their teeth and no one can afford to go away anyway. A long weekend at a festival is the way forward.

Popularity of festivals seems particularly rife this year. Last year it really took off and lots of people who hadn’t been before discovered that when you go to a festival, normal rules of society don’t apply. This is the quintessential point that is making these same people return to them and what is attracting even more people. Society doesn’t apply. Where in the real world do you live in a tent, walk round with facepaint without seeming weird, where loo roll is worth its weight in gold and where you give out free hugs to anyone who takes your fancy? This wouldn’t deserve a first glance let alone a second at Reading or Glastonbury. People take their children and scrawl their phone numbers across their limbs; you wouldn’t do that in many other crowded places, would you?
So why wouldn’t everyone to get in on the action? The answer is that they do and we’ll all be out in force this summer – limited edition Hunter wellies and all.

Bringing my nicely onto my promise from yesterday. The Girl’s Ultimate Guide to Festivaling. Now I bought these babies a few weeks ago and thought they haven’t seen much action outside in the mud yet, I have wandered round my flat in them on numerous occasions. Well, I wasn’t going to let them sit there and stare £125 in my face. Wellies is an obvious one for festivals – never make the mistake of thinking that wellies are ugly and you’re just going to take some Converse or just a pair a flip flops. It will be a mistake and it will most definitely rain if you neglect to take wellies. Another snobbish point to make – fair enough to try and find some more original looking wellies, but the days of those ones with the roses and stretched skulls are well and truly over. They’re pretty gross and everyone knows they come from the garden centre.

Festivaling - Secret Garden, Latitude

2010-06-24T04:34:00.000-07:00

So I may have touched on the festival season a couple of times before (here, here, here and here. oh and here. But just to warn any poor soul who may be sick of it, I most definitely am not. I'm planning on doing A Girl's Ultimate Guide to Festivaling. It's going to tbe great, wait and see!
I was listening to the radio this morning as is the norm, and they wouldn't stop talking about how everyone will have an incredible time at Glasto and not to worry if you're not going because you can always watch live coverage on the tellie. OR if you really feel like you're missing out and really have very little to do with your time, please do click here to watch the live web cam. I couldn't think of anything more unsettling.
So in order not to annoy, I shall post all my festival preparations as they happen in the run up to the festivals I shall be attending. This way hopefully I won't come across to smug about my Great British Summer.

Fun starts tomorow.

Noel Fielding's Art Show in Soho

2010-06-23T02:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of Boosh, I watch it most nights before going to sleep. It's right up my alley - hugely ridiculous with stupid storylines that you can completely believe if you're in the right state of mind.
SO I'm defintely putting a date in my recently neglected diary to go and see Noel Fielding's Art Show on Greek Street. It starts on 5th July and my diary doesn't have to have much space to fit in the show as it's running all the way until 5th January next year.
Serge Pizzorno off of Kasabian has produced an original soundtrack that will accompany one of the installations downstairs in Maison Bertaux where Noel's Summer Art Show is being held.

Here's what he had to say about the exhibition:

"Summer looning, moon madness and Phoenician champagne. Works on paper, pastal burp-ups, art from Mike Fielding, the human mistake, shapes in the darkness and a live happening (masks provided). A tiger with Chlamydia, bin bag portraits and an animated installation with sound haystacks provided by Sergio of Kasabian. Guest of honour "the surrealistic mange tout".

Spark, I Blame Coco, Marina & the Diamonds, Pearl & the Puppets - Branded Music

2010-06-22T01:56:00.000-07:00

I must be going through a music phase at the moment. Next on my list of tunes to obsess about is Spark. She’s an eighteen year old East Londoner who prides herself on red lipstick and Elnett. Reminds me a lot of La Roux except Jess Morgan (aka Spark) is probably from Hackney Wick instead of Brixton (I make no secret of being a South London snob). In any case, that’s massively unimportant, I downloaded her free single ‘Shut Out the Moon’ (click here to do the same) which I do like but I think my favourite is ‘Scream’ which can be heard on her MySpace.

I find this trend of (especially female) artists labelling themselves as a band quite compelling. I don’t really understand what they get out of it. It seems to be a bit of a British thing too. Thinking about it the ones I can think of off the top of my head are all my favourite ‘bands’ of the moment; Marina and the Diamonds, I Blame Coco, Spark, Pearl and the Puppets.
What is it about? Does it give these girls a name to hide behind? They are all young and it could be a form of protection. I doubt it though. It can’t be an accidental trend. I think all these talented people come up with a name to create more of a brand for themselves. The producers have seen an opportunity and seized it. A brand sells more than a name, they can make it a catchier name and the brand can evolve into more aspects than just an eighteen year old girl. The brand is the collective noun for the set, the style, the genre of music and turns into adjective for describing all it involves.

Look at the term Gaga an enormous household name, it’s become a cliché to say, ‘that’s very Gaga’. It’s the same idea as these young British female artists, not just creating a name for yourself but creating a brand that producers hope will catch on.

Having said all that, very stupidly, the name of my blog has only just occurred to me in context with this. Why did I choose to name it Heather Loves Jelly? Because I hoped in the future it could have the option of being something more than just another blog. But I haven’t decided what yet. Watch this space ( ).

I Am Arrows

2010-06-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

New favourite band alert! Hello I Am Arrows, I can't remember how I came to hear about these chaps a few weeks ago but I downloaded the free single Nun (yes please and thank you) from their homepage and had it on one of my 'preparing for festivals playlists' and it really is brilliant. So that said, it appears below.

The frontman is former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows. The bands aren't alike at all, Burrows has written the songs and the two bands are in completely different genres. Arrows is very easy listening and nice, relaxed poppy kind of music (i don't do this for a living, excuse my pathetic attempt to describe music). It's a bit like a British version of Maroon 5 except much more talented. I'm enjoying it and i'm definitely excited about seeing them at Secret Garden.

Robyn Body Talk Part 1 - Dancing on my own

2010-06-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

I love this song. I bought the album off iTunes yesterday and its absolutely briliant. Only £5.99 too. Yes please. Here is the video for Dancing on my Own, the first single from the album.

Bindis for Festivals? or am I going a bit mad?

2010-06-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

I quite like these. With Secret Garden Party in mind (it has the brilliant theme of 'Fact or Fiction?') and after going to the Topshop Bandstand event this weekend (forgot my camera - and don't feel it justifies a post without photos of the beautiful event) I've gotten over the initial worries of wardrobe and have firmly now moved onto pondering the extras.

The Topshop event in Regent's Park had little tent dedicated to what I'd call 'Grown Up' face painting. They used beautiful jewels and pretty designs, not full frontal, all over your face bonanzas but tasteful and very cool little ideas. I just came across these bindis on avaa.com that launched in the last couple of days. They might do the job with a bit of help.

Laura Thomson Wins Graduate Fashion Week

2010-06-11T06:16:00.001-07:00

Laura Thomson of Manchester University School of Art took home the top prize from Graduate Fashion Week. Bet she's chuffed to bits. I love the collection, it's quite grown up in comparison to some of the teddy bears (Danielle Ferguson, University of Salford)and bondage themes (Bobby Charles Abley, Ravensbourne College of Design). Click here to read my last post on GFW.

Here are a couple of photos from the Graduate Fashion Week's Blog of Laura's collection...

Teddy bears from Danielle Ferguson, University of Salford...

Bobby Charles Abley from Ravensbourne College of Design likes bondage...

These are a couple of my faves from the show...

Amber Hards, UWE Bristol - I LOVE this, so elegant and feminine, she's created those shapes very cleverly. I think I'm going through a bit of a phase for this kind of thing. I bought the dress below from Topshop last week - its a beaut.

I love Naomi New from Northumbria University's fringing and structure. Very bold and beautiful. I imagine that the gals over at Bitching and Junkfood like this look a lot.

Sara Wadsworth, University of Central Lancashire with beaUtiful patriotic prints. Reminds of the new season Paul Smith bikini.

And the new Paul Smith bikini:

Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow

2010-06-10T03:04:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else embarrassingly excited about Robbie and Gary Barlow doing some music together?! Robbie left Take That in 1995 and the single ‘Shame’ will be the first time the two have appeared on record together since then. It will be released on the 4th of October this year. I haven’t heard it yet but its sure to be a goodie.

I Blame Coco Gig TONIGHT!!!

2010-06-03T02:57:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh i am definitely going to this tonight. I love Coco Sumner.
TONIGHT
Sanderson Predicts: I Blame Coco

Back with their latest round of musical fortunetelling for the summer months, the new Sanderson Predicts season is kicking off with an acoustic session from the fabulous I Blame Coco (and just before the next single comes out in a couple of weeks). So where would you rather catch your fill of up-and-coming musical talent: a sweaty, ‘edgy’ venue with a warm, stale beer? Or a sleek, sun-dappled courtyard over a few sexy cocktails? Tough call I know.

The Sanderson, 50 Berners Street, W1T 3NG. RSVP: sanderson.predicts@morganshotelgroup.com

Gatwick Fashion Week

2010-06-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

As if there wasn’t enough stress whilst travelling, now beware of Storm Models running hot your heels. Storm Models and London Gatwick Airport (yes, seriously) have launched Gatwick Runway Models search. They planted ‘bespoke model booths’ (fine print = portaloos) in the North and South Terminals to hunt down poor unsuspecting duty free shoppers and change their lives.

The sole reason I am a fan is because Lily Cole is heading up the flock and I think she’s really quite cool.

I’m sure this is most likely due to a recent increase in effort of self presentation recently. I seem to remember travelling used to be about trackies, jumpers and those inexplicable travel socks; now even if I head out of London for the weekend I tend to think about what I’m going to wear a few days in advance. Maybe I’m just vain. There are entire travel sections in Vogue and on websites dedicated to travel wear and how to look super cool when you travel. I do it, the rest of the world does it but why on earth do we bother wearing heels and tailored jackets in a small confined space when, to be honest, we’d all rather be in a onesie?

Is it to mock the silly airhostess in her navy pencil skirt with contrasting neckerchief and silly silly hat? No, probably not.

As ever, if you think it through enough, you can blame everything on the recession.

1. As discussed in a previous entry, people are investing in life long, expensive fashion pieces (for full details, please click here).
2. People are travelling less so a domestic flight between Gatwick and Manchester is now the equivalent to a week in the Caribbean.
3. No one can really afford to travel Club or First anymore but secretly believe that:
a) people may believe that because they are smartly dressed they must be travelling in Club or First.
b) if they dress smartly enough they might get upgraded. Well, you never know, do you?

So come on Lily, give us a real reason to dress up for the airport.

Gatwick Fashion Week runs from August 5-8. Google it. Here's some more info.

Sound of Excellence - Something for a rainy Tuseday

2010-06-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd drop a line about the Sound of Excellence in Camden that's happening today. If you haven't got anything on and find yourself with nowhere to go on the Northern line at about 7.30pm then stay on until Camden town and pop along to Proud Camden on Chalk Farm Road. Here you will find a plethora of unsigned acts singing and performing their little hearts out for the big hitters in the music industry. Hear 'em before anyone else does. Oh, and here's a map.

Elephant Parade 2010

2010-05-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been anywhere near London in the past month then its very likely that you’ve seen an elephant or two lurking near a famous spot. I’ve become a little obsessed with them and have taken photos of them wherever I spy them and have kicked myself when I see one and I am cameraless. As a general rule I don’t like taking photos in public in London hence why a couple of the following photos look like they've been taken whilst on the move – it makes me feel like an embarrassing tourist when I’m not. But these elephants have left me shameless.

Here are my snapshots:

Numero Uno is Doors by Hatchadapol Mucannoo.

This one is at Duke of York Square, is called Elephant in the Room and is by Anna Masters. And that's Emma.

This is the first of two at Sloane Square. Josephine by Patrice Moor.

This is Kingdom by Rebecca Campbell.

This was at night time after a gig I went to see so is a bit slap dash. Gives you an idea of Benjawin Sang-Gnernchai's Daisies though.

Louis Vuitton Opening New Bond Street (amongst other things)

2010-05-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Where do you put a red carpet brimming with some decent celebrities and a couple of slebs? In the new Louis Vuitton Maison bien sûr!! Which, apparently, rivals the flagship on the Champs Elysée; the architect Peter Marino worked on both projects.

Features of the 1500 sq m store are as follows:

The ground level is entirely accessories. Acting as backdrop to these are original artworks by artists who have collaborated with Marc Jacobs (Louis Vuitton Creative Director of 12 years) in the past. Names on the wall here include Richard Prince and Takashi Murakami.

The lower level is devoted to menswear and can be reached via an LED glass staircase.

Onwards and upwards leads to the womenswear and shoes. Here is yet another sight to behold and investigate. Artists Chris Ofili, Gary Hume and Anish Kapoor have been selected to create bespoke commissions to adorn the walls. The Librairie - also situated on the first floor – will house the most admired British contemporary art books and some bespoke pieces for sale for up to £3000.

The second floor, in case you were wondering, is only accessible to those with an invitation. Private Client Suite. Sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it.

Somewhere amongst this incredible structure is included a two storey wall made from trunks. Thinking about it, they’re probably those beautiful old Louis travelling trunks and maybe not vertical tree trunks as I originally imagined. Idiot.

The theme of the store is the mood of 21st century London (obviously not keeping in mind the impoverished, recession-ridden Londoners amongst us) to bring together innovation, heritage and fashion which, CEO Carcelle says ‘are all values that are important to Louis Vuitton’.

A quote from Marc Jacobs on the night runs as follows:

"Clearly it's gross if you carry on spending in an insensitive way when people are being laid off or having a hard time. On the other hand, wanting to shop and experience the finer things in life are both natural instincts… The question is how to indulge those impulses in a way that's sensitive to others and doesn't ultimately ruin the experience by leaving you feeling guilty."

I do agree to a certain extent. Hundreds of surveys have been carried revealing thousands of statistics showing that the great British public has been being super careful with their spending sprees. The general consensus is that the average shopper (and I include myself in this bracket) don’t want to go to Primarni and spend say £80 on a lot of very cheaply made clothes that will inevitably be threadbare within a week. Instead, people will go up a price bracket from their normal budget and buy a beautifully made, much better quality piece that will last not only over time and wear but also carry through seasons.

This is another point about how we have changed to acclimatise to our economic surroundings. The two issues are very closely linked. The shopper buying the piece that will last, may well also be in the bracket of ‘Fashion Girl’ or, if we’re being crude, ‘Internet Knowledge Whore’. Ie people who spend their days researching the newest collections from designers as well as any other scrap of knowledge that they may come across.

This issue must be a complete nightmare for designers who have stuck to the schedule of SS/AW for decades. Fashion Girls with their infinite internet knowledge have everything they need so accessibly at their typist fingertips. Then they go and post on their blogs (ahem) for the rest of the consumers to pick up. This is what the fashion houses have to overcome.

It’s not good enough now for them to manufacture flimsy trend based collections that can only last a few weeks because people are much more likely to spend the cash on a staple dress or jacket that will see them through a couple of years. Take the Burberry Jacket or the Alexa Mulberry that could take over the world given the right iPhone app judging by the clamorous following they’ve gathered. A 9000 person strong waiting list is currently in circulation for that stunning Alexa and Burberry controversially created a facility for their AW show earlier this year where the pieces were available to buy straight off the catwalk causing the obsession with the sheepskin jacket.

These pieces are going down a storm because they are very beautiful with gorgeous design, are hopefully manufactured to the same standard and are reasonably basic. The basic element to this nods towards how hopefully these pieces will be accepted in fashion circles for longer than a month.

Now follows a small selection of loads of images of beautiful people that I swiped from the Vogue site as well as why they made my selection. (Apart from the fact that they obviously frequent Louis Vuitton flagship Maisons.)

Speak of the devil - Alexa thought she'd pop in.

Bill Nighy and James Purefoy - because I met James Purefoy when I was thirteen and fancied him a Lot.

Catherine Deneuve because I love her and think she's probably one of the most beautiful women as well as an incredible actress.

Dominic Cooper - because who wouldn't? Though doesn't look that hot in this shot.

Gemma Arterton - because I recently heard an interview and I think we should be friends.

Gwynnie and Elle - because they look great and I enjoy GOOP quite a lot.

Kirsten Dunst - because, how amazing does her hair look?!

And Paloma Faith because she manages to be absolutely everywhere at once and someone should give her some credit for efforts. Not looking as eccentric as usual here...bar the lampshade.

Graduate Fashion Week

2010-05-25T02:29:00.000-07:00

I’m excited about this one. Whilst London Fashion Week is mostly for the well established designer to showcase his or her latest genius, GFW is debatably more exciting. Running since 1991, it holds shows from all the up-and-comingers from 61 universities up and down the country so if you have an eye for it, you’ll be picking out the designers of the future as they saunter down the runway for the first time.

Matthew Williamson, Christopher Bailey and Stella McCartney have all shown at Graduate Fashion Week. River Island have sponsored the event for the last six years. The graduate who is crowned GFW ruler wins £20,000 to kick start their label; some of the key pieces from their collection are also put into the limited edition section of the River Island flagship on Oxford Street. The prestigious Gold award for Womenswear was won by Myrto Stamou last year.

The event aims to promote the talent of BA Graduates and is a progression from the Smirnoff UK Fashion Awards that used to be held annually in the 80’s. The event has had a tough time with sponsorship in the past and at times, it was left to the participating colleges and universities to pay their way forward. Thank God for tuition fees. The Heads overcame the problem by registering the event as an educational charity in 1994.

GFW takes place at Earls Court on the 6th to the 10th of June, click here to see details of ticket prices and dates.

Kate Moss for Topshop (again)

2010-05-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

She's baaack and I'm so excited. I think the last round of Kate Mossness was those lovely pretty jimjams, brilliant idea. I've only seen the video that Topshop have put on their blog so far but I'm sure it will be full of shine, sheer and hopefully injecting a bit more of Kate's own hard edge that made her personal style so famous. Considering this collection would have been designed nearly a year ago and the world and their pre-season bolero have intimate internet access now, it must be so hard to produce something of note. Especially for a high street brand that has to be affordable and not too out there for likes of the normal folk.

So, that video again:

More Alexander Wang

2010-05-13T07:54:00.003-07:00

These just jumped very comfortably into my inbox. Sharing is caring after all and seemed to want to be put up after yesterday's post.

Alexander Wang Comfort Fashion

2010-05-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

God bless Alexander Wang - he has unashamedly pinched trackies and planted them on the catwalk. Everyone loves something with a waistband that welcomes more than a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Definitely can't get away with anything but heels here though, much like hareems, but you can't have it all. I think men are a bit scared of women in hareems and it is tricky to make them into something that you'd go out in. These joggers though (if people are brave enough to venture out of the house in them) are surely a progression from hareems and primarily tapered trousers. They're not quite as loose and unfeminine but definitely need some killer heels for a fierce look. I'm sure they'll be in Primarni shortly.

I quite fancy these Topshop sandals with 'em.

The Human Centipede

2010-05-08T01:56:00.000-07:00

This is taking over the internet. Beware - not for the faint hearted. I'm judging myself a little that I am actually posting this. Seriously sick minded stuff.

Kafka on the Shore

2010-05-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

This is my friend Biu and his latest musical venture and it is truly brilliant. Enjoy.

<a href="http://kafkaontheshore.bandcamp.com/track/everybodys-favourite-selkie">Everybody's Favourite Selkie by Kafka On The Shore</a>

Please download his album here. ITS FREE!!

Kassidy

2010-05-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

I have been going through the artists that I haven't heard of who are performing at the festivals I'm going to this year. Weirdly enough I'd just looked these guys up yesterday because they were in the Times Culture magazine.

I bet they'll be massive after a full summer of festivaling. I like them a lot - a bit Kings of Leon but more Scottish. I don't think they take themselves too seriously - I'd be upset if they did and really their whole image is amusing. Jesus lookalike x2 plus slightly Axel Rose inspired skinny jean and headband carrier plus lovely blonde chap who, in my very humble opinion, can'y quite get away with the Kurt Cobain hair. But high five to the music chaps - I'm super excited to see them at Latitude.

Oh and here's a link where if you sign up for their newsletter, you get a free download.

Where on Earth does one find a good bum bag?

2010-04-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

Continuation of the festival theme here. I went to Reading and had a trusty bum bag from Pound World that served me very well throughout the festival but unfortunately didn't make out the other end.

I'm on the hunt for a noo 'un and haven't had a lot of luck so far. My first obvious port of call was Topshop but theirs aren't really that hot.

Comes in white too.

Watch this space. I shall report back with findings of interest.

Booties

2010-04-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm on the hunt for festival gear for the summer. Everyone ideally would like to look like Kate Bosworth at Coachella:

But in general that doesn't happen for us normal folk. I did spy these Vivienne Westwood wellies on Coggles.com today though so if I did fancy turning up to Secret Garden or Latitude in £75 booties, I could. I reck they'd be a bit out of place though:

MGMT

2010-04-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

I was uber excited to hear a while back about MGMT's new album Congratulations. It came out last week Wednesday I think and I've been listening to it on repeat on mipod ever since. Not bored yet.

Here's Flash Delirium:

Catchachoo

2010-04-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

Anyone up for a good ol' steeplechase? I'm not sure how busy this will get, but if you fancy some new Jimmy Choo trainers get involved with this competition. Click here for the Twitter updates or here if you're backward and still on Facebook.
Yum.

The North Circular

2010-04-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

I enjoy Lily Cole, she's really beautiful, looks amazing pretty much all of the time, she's a model with big boobs and she does all this whilst still fitting in uni at King's College Cambridge. I'd say that's quite inspirational.

So why not launch a knitwear range hand made by all her favourite granny recruits in the UK? Why not indeed. Cue The North Circular. My mother is a knitting machine, I never really got into it to be honest but I slightly wish I had now esPECially after seeing that one of the beautiful Necklace Scarves goes for £148.

Marjorie

2010-04-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I trekked down to Forest Hill (which by the way is bloody miles away and definitely does not count as London if it includes a train to East Croyden and then anOTHer train to Forest Hill’s delightful station) and picked up and paid for a bike that I found on Gumtree. Here it is, I've decided to call it Marjorie.

I don’t think I got ripped off either which is always a lovely thing to behold. So I hadn’t really got a lot of London cycling experience under my allegorical belt apart from carrying said bike up steps at Forest Hill and transferring at East Croyden and getting to Victoria and cycling home from there. This morning however I decided to tackle the bridge and cycle to work. It was really lovely, cycled up the Embankment and over the bridge and then through Battersea Park.

Perhaps not as glamorous as this though. Wouldn’t say no to a Radley bike or those shoes.

MAGazines

2010-04-15T03:06:00.000-07:00

I’m going through a bit of a dangerous phase for magazine subscriptions. I can never quite bring myself to subscribe to Vogue because I can buy it anyway and I’d rather do it that way than wait for Royal Mail and pocket money seems more wisely spent in small doses.
POP has just received nearly 24 of my best British Pounds for four issues over a year. Money well spent I think. These ones are a little harder to come by in Sainsbury’s so won’t be tempted to pre-empt Royal Mail in their delivery.

Next on my list is biannual AnOther Magazine. £25 for two is a bit steep I think though. It sounds amazing and I really want it but I’ve got to be a bit careful about spending loads of money. This is the link for subscription. This is the link for AnOther's site; I think this and Pop are in the same boat, maybe the same publishing house.

Then there’s also Volt for £8 an issue. I can’t seem to find it as a running subscription which is a bit irritating but here is the link to the per issue page. I can’t find out how often it runs either but I assume biannually.

Sample Sales

2010-04-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

A bit of info on some Sample Sales coming up in London:

Ted Baker Sample Sale, The Camden Centre, Bidborough Street. From 14th April to 15th April 2010.

The Luxury Bargain Sample Sale, W1, on the 19th April 2010. In order to find out where this one is, you have to register with Fashion Forward, they will then email you the address. There are limited free spaces available, so register quick!

Chelsea Treasure Sample Sale, SW3, Tuesday 20th April. Again, click here to register with Fashion Forward to receive further info.

Ghost Warehouse Sample Sale, The 20th Century Theatre, 291 Westbourne Grove, W11. From 5th to the 9th May 2010. Click here to go to the Ghost Website and see their range of beautiful soft colours and drapey fabrics.

Designer Sales UK, 85 Brick Lane, The Truman Brewery. From 22nd to the 25th of May. A huge range of designers including Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace all at up to 80% discount.

formspring.me

2010-04-12T08:03:00.001-07:00

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/heatherandjelly

Topshop Make Up

2010-04-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

I'm unashamedly a Topshop fanatic. I find it surprising if I'm not wearing something from Topshop everyday. Today its my new crochet jumper, very summery, its the first time I've worn it and its already snagged on anything and everything.

But I am super excited about Topshop make-up though...these images are from the Topshop Blog.

It doesn't say when it launches but click here for the link to the newsletter to stay up to date.

Photo Shoot for Handpicked Collection

2010-04-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

I got back at 10pm absolutely exhausted from a two day shoot for work. It's great fun, I really enjoy the styling and a nice break in the country is always lovely but I think a lot of people, before they experience it (me included) don't realise how massively exhausting it is. This was the third shoot I have been on for the Handpicked Collection catalogue in one year. The two before were much harder work and less successful. I think it really depends on the people you have with you because you live in such close quarters with each other so it’s vital that everyone gets on. This was the first shoot we've done on location outside of London. The last two were shot in the Creative Director's house. I get along well with her.

This time we went to a beautiful big house in Cambridgeshire so it meant that we all slept in the house, ate together, shot photographs for over 12 hours together, came up with ideas together and managed not to annoy one another during all of this. Quite a feat I think.

There are two main aspects to styling. First, is the obvious - setting the scene and showcasing the products in their most attractive light (basically making it look pretty). This in itself can be so draining. I'm not a wimp, I swear but constantly trying to visualise things, being very spatially aware for hours at a time and being creative with themes, concepts and finishing touches all whilst not getting frustrated when the photographer tells you to move tomatoes back and forth by a millimetre for twenty minutes really does take some endurance. It's exciting though, being in an environment where the main point of call is making products look as beautiful as possible. There is a certain amount of logic that is needed to balance it all out too.

The second part to it is the completely unglamorous side of raking leaves, heaving massive croquet sets across massive lawns, running in and out of the house fetching things, running up and down stairs, making cucumber sandwiches with stale bread, getting up at six in the morning to catch the light and working for twelve hour days. Worth it though.

Here are some signature blue shots from my Blackberry of the set up for the shoot. Unfortunately the photos aren't ready yet, but I'll put them up once they've published in the Summer Catalogue for Handpicked Collection.

This shot took us near on three hours to set up. Turned out very well though. This Handpicked's Creative Director Amanda and our Photographer Dan.

There is always endless adjusting and reshuffling to be done. So once the scene is set up and is looking nice, you'll take a shot, see how it looks on screen and then take out about two thirds of the products that are on the table and redo it all again and keep going until its perfect. Below is an image of Dan and Amanda in the middle of this operation.

Mflow

2010-04-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

SO I've just signed up with Mflow. Their much used slogan is 'like a cross between iTunes and Twitter'. Admittedly I haven't bought anything from it yet and I haven't sat down to figure out how it all works. At the moment you have to request to join and then they send you a code, mine arrived a couple of days after I requested it.

The idea, as far as I can work out, is that you buy music (for the same price as iTunes) then 'flow' it to your followers if you're cool enough to have any. Incidently, you can also follow other people. Mflow hasn't really taken off just yet, I'm sure it will in the near future though. They've jsut launched an app and I think they are planning on taking away the request step from joining but don't hold me to that. The Radio 1 DJ's are some of the big people of there and to put it in perspective, on Mflow Zane Lowe has 1000 something followers and on Twitter he has 55,000 something followers. Give it a couple of months.

The other good thing is that if you buy music on Mflow then you can transfer it to your iTunes so you don't have to buy it twice and you can have fun new music that you've discovered from your friends on your ipod. Good times.

Gosh, nearly forgot the best bit. If you get lots of followers and become a very popular person (albeit solely on the computer) and your followers buy the music you've flowed them then you get 20% of the money they spend on the song! Wowzers. So, assuming its a song that isn't really popular (because that's the point after all, to discover the undiscovered) then that's 20% of 79p. Nearly a whole 16p!! 15.8p according to my calculator. That's 15.8 red bootlaces or 15.8 flying saucers or 15.8 cola bottles or 15.8 sherbet straws...the possibilities are endless...

Anropologie

2010-04-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

YAY! it's the long weekend! I feel as though I'm on half term from school. I went out in Putney last night and was feeling a little delicate this morning, desperately needed to buy late birthday presents for my sisters so went for a mosey down King's Road. I was reasonably successful in buying things for them; Chanel Nail Varnish and fur gilet etc. I remembered after my trip to John Lewis/Peter Jones that the new Anthropologie shop might be open. They had big boards in front of it for aages. My very good friend was very irritated that they were opening in the UK because she's shopped there for years from America and now she thinks everyone will have her clothes. I'm sure she's right though because it really is the most incredible shop.

I spent a good hour in there this afternoon, I came out having only spent £20 but the interior of the shop is so so beautiful that I really had to go round taking photos of the place. Bad ones, as usual. I started off trying to be sneaky but then in the end I really didn't care and had my Blackberry in full view pointing at the ceiling in the middle of the check out queue. Here are the photos...

Huge range of things in there, clothes, books, jewellery, plates, glasses, bedding...

It's so inventive, really liked this clock painted straight onto the wall..

Gorgeous scene settings.

And the most incredible bits and pieces that someone has obviously put a great deal of time and effort into arranging...

And yeah, check out the bloomin garden!! It's unbelievable.

THE most beautiful styling. Stealing ideas for work, check.

It's huge space with lots of little rooms at the front too like this funny little room, all it had in it were lovely old books all round the wall with some cool lamps and then these bad boys-

Thing is, I don't really know what angle they are trying to take with it. Fair enough that I did spend a decent amount of time in there, more time in fact than I spent in John Lewis/Peter Jones, a massive department store, but I still came out only having spent £20. Which really isn't that much. Another point is that I writing about it now and will definitely be telling my friends so its all getting the word out there. I think they have slightly overwhelmed everyone and some things are a bit expensivo but then also there are some fairly priced products. I'm not mad mad mad about the clothes in there but its more about the shop itself. I'd love to know who came up with it. I suppose what they're trying to do is "create an experience" which they have succeeded at, but I'm just not sure if they've focussed too much on the experience than on the products which they are meant to be selling. Still great fun though. I'll be going back.

Gallery Magazine

2010-03-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

Gallery Magazine snuk onto my Big Love X list t'other day with little announcement. Thought I should give it a shout.
Gallery is a free monthly Jersey based magazine, 'written by the islanders for the islanders' and all that. It's a brilliant read with some terribly witty contributors. I get my stepmother to send it to me each month.

As can be imagined, when living on an island nine miles by five, you tend to know quite a lot of people. Here are a couple of covers with my friends Hannah and Holly on looking beautiful...

Weekend in Jersey

2010-03-30T03:20:00.000-07:00

These are some images from my weekend that I spent in Jersey. Various siblings and parents make appearances.

The Wanted

2010-03-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

I predict these will be the next people to hit our radios everyday until we throw them out the window:

The Wanted. Unfortunately can't find any music on the Internet. The single comes out 5th July and apparently will hit the radio hard in the face in about a month. They played their first gig yesterday I think. But click here to go to their website where they've all had Twitter accounts created for them so the unsuspecting public can follow their every move. Cool.

Trendy Recession - Ugh.

2010-03-29T03:12:00.000-07:00

Not a hugely original idea for a post but still trend reporting just the same. Style magazine yesterday had an interesting article about how the recession has changed people’s minds about mainstream fashion. I can’t remember the wording but it got me thinking. I don’t really like using the word recession and despise ‘Credit Crunch’ even more. Ew gross – far too much of a cliché. It’s like the word ‘trendy’, honestly gives me a shiver of revulsion. The worst one though and I can hardly bring myself to type it – Shabby-Chic. Gross gross gross.

Anyway that’s out the way now, back to the point that Style made yesterday. It is very true that many more people have started to hunt out bargains from all the nooks and crannies of streets from markets to charity shops and then the far flung corners of the web too with so many tiny boutique vintage shops that have discovered, perhaps not a thriving business, but definitely a stable income through their own sourcing and selling onto the customer.

People have always frowned upon Topshop and even more upon Primark and over the last eighteen months or two years, it has become essential that if wearing one piece from mainstream high street it needs to be carefully disguised. Whether hidden behind one-off pieces, your mum’s shell suit jacket from the 80’s, your botfriend's shirt or blazer, charity shop or vintage finds or just whole load of attitude, high street is always one step behind. The rule is that now, if you want to be chic then its all about juxtaposition. These two tie in well. For great one-off things, there's always Beyond Retro and LoveMissDaisy is perfect for lovely vintage things. I found them about a year ago and follow them on Twitter, so happy they were featured in Style yesterday. I really hope they do well out of it. theOutnet.com is fabulous. Still a bit beyond my budget but there are stunning discounts off designer gear. The website is celebrating it's first birthday in April, you can register to receive a link to sale where everything is going to £1 in celebration. Click here. I'm excited, as I've mentioned earlier about Lily Allen's new line of vintage clothing.

Moreover, it’s about a well thought out outfit that looks like your whole wardrobe is brimming with beautiful clothes so it takes you no time at all in the morning to pick out something beautiful. Well, that’s what I aspire to anyway. Its not going so hot right now though.

Hi! Sushi

2010-03-25T07:18:00.001-07:00

SO I went out for dinner last night to Hi Sushi on Frith Street in Soho with a friend. Feeling that familiar end-of-the-month strapped for cash niggle as I am, I wanted to go somewhere cheap. My friend assured me that it was an all you can eat sushi buffet for under £15. Thought it sounded ok so off we popped. I met her outside and we were shown into a small room, brightly painted with lots of people shouting and waving chopsticks around the place. We went downstairs and were shown to our seats. Now I hate to start on a bad note, but this is honestly my only complaint that I have about the place. It's just that I like chairs, they're easy, comfy and are obviously so abundant because people find them such. So I wasn't much looking forward to sitting in a small space between wall and table which we were sharing with a whole load of people we didn't know. But sit I did and only made a tit of myself when getting up at the end of the meal.
As a general rule I enjoy sitting on the floor, its one of my favourite places in the world, and once I was down there, I had a great night.
So we ticked a whole load of random boxes and they brought us out the corresponding dishes. I love sushi and it was reeeally good sushi. The lovely staff brought out the first plate of food and I was thinking gosh, that is a lot of fish. So we dig into that with our wine and after a California Roll or two had been consumed, another platter was presented to us full of fried calamari, spring roll kind of things, tiger prawns and sweet potato. Yumski. Slightly overwhelmed by the amount of food sitting in front of me I whipped out the Blackbezza and snapped a pretty awful shot. I really must improve my photography if this is going to become a regular occurrence. Despite the hideous photo that you can barely see, I feel it still gives an idea of the gargantuan amount of food:

Amy does Fred

2010-03-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

Just found these illustrations courtesy of Volt Magazine. It's the new line that Amy Winehouse has designed for Fred Perry due to hit us full in the face in October of this year. It all looks like its come straight from Amy's wardrobe, lots of figure hugging but angular shapes with hourglass shapes and nipped in waists. True of all of these bar the jumper dress. Can't really work out where that fits in. New Look meets golf caddie? Definitely love the double checked mania of the shirt and mini skirt. I'll have me one of those please.

Le Cool

2010-03-24T07:56:00.001-07:00

I silently added Le Cool to my Big Love list the other day after having sworn that I would add nothing of significant value without giving it a little bit of an intro. Le Cool is a well written online magazine with lots of fun suggestions for things to do in London. I look forward to receiving the newsletter every Thursday, it gives some good suggestions and most of the time at least half of them really appeal to me.

Bad times though, most of the things happen in East or East Central. There are a few in West and then everyone loves a bit of V&A.
MMmmmust go and see the Quilt Exhibition at the V&A soon. Mental Note made.

New Young Pony Club

2010-03-23T03:28:00.000-07:00

I like this whole posting about what I'm listening to malarky. This morn on the train started with a bang and new NYPC album, The Optimist. I love it. This is Lost A Girl, the first track on the album...

Coco Sumners

2010-03-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

There are only three Coco Sumner songs available on itunes at the mo and four on Spotify. I've had them on repeat on mipod for the past week and I'm slowly getting a bit bored of them. Below are two of them, the original version of Caesar, I Blame Coco featuring Robyn and then the Miike Snow remix which I think I prefer. There are lots more songs on Youtube but not the other one I've got, the acoustic demo of Ritalin. It's a shame, I really like it. Enjoy.

Sunday - Best Day of the Week

2010-03-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

My dad, stepmum and 4 year old brother paid me a visit this weekend. Lovely to see them but unfortunately, they didn't tell me they were coming until Thursday. I had planned a big weekend, a few friends were having a birthday party then I was planning to host a tea party and make lots cupcakes, use my favourite Christmas present, a three tier cakestand, whip out some champagne and get some cucumber sandwiches in the mix. Due to the unexpected presence of the parentals, this was not possible.

Saturday evening and the party went well. Lots of people and a few different venues ensued including gallivanting back and forth over Battersea Bridge. I stayed at my friends' house where they live in Battersea Square.

We all woke up and the Sunday activities began. Cheap breakfast and a pint of lemonade later, headaches were banished and Emily and I made our way back over the blooming bridge to the Trafalgar for the replacement of what I was originally meant to host. We only stayed there for half an hour or so before heading back to Lucy's house on the Fulham Road for chocolate cake and a cosy bed. Here is Lucy, Anna and Emily in Lucy's bed. I would be sitting next to Lucy but reluctantly got up to take the photo.

And the top notch Asda cake...

My dad picked me up shortly after this and we went to The Ship across Wandsworth Bridge which I love, it really is a good pub.

We took the Sunday Times with us. I read, as ever, Style whilst my dad amused himself with the grown-up bits. I didn't really think that people honestly read the Money section. It was the men's issue of Style Magazine but still good. Mainly because Robert Pattinson is on the front cover and did this interview (now on my bedroom wall) but also a good interview with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.

The Blind Side Again

2010-03-16T02:15:00.000-07:00

So I went to see The Blind Side last and I really enjoyed it. I won a competition through LoveFilm which got me a pair of tickets to a private screening in the Warner Brothers building near Holborn last night.

I don't really know what I was expecting, on the email that was sent to me, it said I didn't need to bring a ticket as my name was on the list. I thought there would be hundreds of people in a big cinema but I was happy to discover that it was a more intimate affair.

So my friend Sophie and I arrived to friendly Love Film people and a friendly free bar. We chatted to some people and then were shown in to the screening room. It was like a cosy cinema, a very big screen with about 25 or 30 big leather armchairs.

I really enjoyed the film. It's the first time in a while where I haven't been to see a film without hearing a thousand reviews beforehand which usually instill doubt and give me a bad outlook on the film. I was expecting it to be very sad and a bit soppy. Again, my expectations proved to be way off the mark. It was emotive, Sandra Bullock did a great job of portraying the hard exterior and rock of the familiy whilst showing through a huge wealth of emotion that the real Leigh Anne must be made of. Sandra Bullock has proved before that she can do the comedy thing to, and there were some hilarious lines and moods in the film giving it a much lighter image than I had expected.

Defintely worth a trip to Cineworld. Or a subscription to LoveFilm.

The Blind Side

2010-03-15T02:21:00.000-07:00

I've managed to land myself tickets to a private screening of The Blind Side tonight. The London Premiere isn't until 23rd March. I'm rather excited.

Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in it as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a role which took John Lee Hancock a year to convince her to take. It's based on the true story of the protagonist Micheal Oher (Qinton Aaron) and Leigh Anne Tuohy. Leigh Anne Tuohy takes in Oher when she finds him after he's been kicked out of home wandering the streets. There's something about football in there too (the American version that has nothing to do with feet, that is) and that's all I really know so far. Watch this space.

There was a lovely interview with her in the Sunday Times Style yesterday where she'd gone back to her normal dark hair. I wasn't really a fan of the blonde in the Blind Side. This one of the pictures from Style yesterday:

And the film:

POP up

2010-03-12T08:42:00.001-08:00

Just found David Browning's site with marvels such as these bad boys:

And this:

I do love pop up books. There is the most amazing pop up Pirate Ship that we sell at work which I actually gave to my little brother for Christmas last year. It's a lovely gift idea from Handpicked Collection and really went down very well. To be honest, I don't know very many four year olds who don't like pirates, treasure hunts and giant squids especially when they pop out of a book to be half a metre tall.

Goodwood

2010-03-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

House of Faye Goodwood. It's definitely something to aspire to. Ranging from furniture, fashion, installations, window displays to zebras, chanderliers and massive warehouse spaces its just all so exciting! And no wonder projects include Liberty, Habitat and Dover Street Market just off the top of my head. It really is a stunner. I don't want to become someone who 'finds interior design spaces that inspire me' but these really are amaazing.

This is cool too

and may have something to do with justifying these glasses I just bought from Bitching and Junkfood. That's not me by the way, their image.

And anyway, everyone loves a good zebra.

Affordable Art Fair - Battersea Park

2010-03-11T01:52:00.000-08:00

The time is nigh for Battersea Park's Affordable Art Fair. Conveniently enough for me its right round the corner from work. Bonus. Within the depths of SW you will find artwork ranging in price from £50 to £3000. I’m not really planning on investing in a masterpiece from the Delaroche of tomorrow but I think it will definitely be worth a visit. Ticket prices are pushing the boundaries of my wallet anyway. I plan to pop in on my lunch break which allows a weekday discount. The fair runs from today (Thursday 11th March) until Sunday 14th March, from 11am until 6pm. Ticket are available on the door for £12 on a weekday and £15 on the weekend.
I’ll let you know how it goes.

Great Little Place

2010-03-10T01:58:00.000-08:00

Great Little Place is a great little site that started out not that long ago on Facebook. They've very recently (last week or so) banged up a proper website. There are a few kinks in the armour still but it's defo worth a look.

Originally, it was just in London, great for me and the other 8 million who live here, but I assume that someone somewhere must have felt left out so they expanded to include other parts of the country.

What's so lovely about it is that the whole site is made up of viewer input. The idea is that if you find a cool place like a great pub or cosy tearoom then comment or send them an email, they then go check 'em out and publish reviews about the best ones. They also credit the person who gave them the tip. Sharing is caring, drugs are hugs and all that.

This is the link to the newsletter sign up as well.