Saturday, November 15, 2008

lovely video of cartoonist iconoclast/iconophile steve bell hard at it












the goddess of small things hath brungen home a second-hand postcard carousel ... every home should have one


NB we are living in a time when one of the great paradigms is "shifting" ...


our changing understanding of mind and brain were "illuminated" in this week's "in our time" discussion on BBCradio4, which was about neuroscience

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00fbd26

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_change


fortnum and mason's xmas window 1a




dear diary ... to fortnum and mason's at four in the morning to photograph the window display ... it is the best time of day because there are few passers by along the narrow pavement, and because the darker street doesn't present such a complication of reflections ... even so, you have to wait for traffic to pass, but can't avoid the reflections of the brightly lit shops across the street, a vast black screen held behind the camera by a team of assistants also wearing black would be helpful ... i made a technical mistake and should have used a smaller aperture, so sometimes the camera has autofocussed on the window pane rather than on the tableau within ... i'll go back soon and try for some sharper images ... click on these pictures for fuller detail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christen_Andersen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17860/17860-h/17860-h.htm#Plate_02

last years christmas windows were on november 10 2007 and november 17 2007

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-mason-windows-on-less-windy_17.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-mason-windows-on-less-windy.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-twelve-drummers.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-ten-lords-leaping.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-eight-maids-milking.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-six-geese-laying.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-four-calling-birds.html

http://emotionalblackmailers.blogspot.com/2007/11/fortnum-and-masons-two-turtle-doves-and.html

fortnum and mason's xmas window 2a


fortnum and mason's xmas window 3a


fortnum and mason's xmas window 4a


fortnum and mason's xmas window 5a


fortnum and mason's xmas window 6a


f and m's xmas windows 1b


f and m's xmas windows 2b


f and m's xmas windows 3b


f and m's xmas windows 4b


f and m's xmas windows 5b








f and m's xmas windows 6b
















just as in real life ... she's got her eye on you


ah ha ! i see that joe hyams has generously donated his last bottle of krug to the raffle ...


insomniac photography ... fortnum and mason's cafe


insomniac window shopping in jermyn street

sorry girls !

this is not a declaraton of intent !

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

antique lettering revealed during a refit at 91 lavender hill, apparently carved



a very special exhibition












an art exhibition at croydon clocktower with a specific historical text featuring some wonderful paintings by former patients of psychiatric hospitals in the area, notably richard dadd and louis wain, but with many other works that engage, delight, perplex, and even move one to tears
i include a link to bethlem hospital's short page on william kuralek and the leicester gallery's and the wikipedia article on the same

Sunday, November 09, 2008

singing or whistling ?






as a child in north wiltshire, i would stand beneath the telegraph posts besides a quiet country road and listen to the soft whistling of the wind in the wires, believing it to be the composite sound of many voices whizzing back and forth between malmesbury and tetbury, faster than the invisible jet fighters ( hawker hunters from kemble ? ) that sometimes used to break the sound barrier far above us on sunny days

domestic frivolity, clapham common north side


insomniac photography, chapter 24, volume 7, page 365