Gigs, Trips, Sewing & Potatoes

Hello!

Sorry posting has been a bit sporadic of late. Been busy!

Anyway, thought I would pop up a little post about exciting things that have happened/ are coming up.

Wales
Firstly, me and Anders went to Wales! It was lovely. We just went for a weekend up to Abersoch, and had a really wonderful time. We paddled in the sea, wandered on the beach, pottered round little villages, went out for really good thai food, watched TV all snuggled up on the sofa and visited Portmeirion. Anders has wanted to visit there for years since watching the Prisoner, so it was dream come true time! It's a really fascinating place - like a small European village (a bit like Prague in some places, italian in others - a real mix) but scaled down by about 20%. All the doorways and arches just skim the top of your head and houses look really big til you get up close and realise it's just a bungalow behind a grand facade. It's in a really beautiful location and uses a really fabulous colour scheme.

So, we had a great time and there was a real magic in being away from home and work, just the two of us. Here's a few pics from our trip:

Gig
Last week we saw Fists supporting Sparrow & The Workshop at the Bodega Social in Notts. It was an early show, which I was disappointed about initially, but actually made for a really good event. The crowd were clearly sober and as a result were super quiet during the bands' sets. It made for an unusual atmosphere, and gave a really good chance to appreciate the bands' music, and not just the performance. Often with unsigned/unfamous bands people are a bit chatty throughout - it's hard to keep your attention wholeheartedly on a band when you don't know any of the songs and I guess you're not invested in the music and performance the same way as you are when it's a band you really love and know well.

I really really enjoyed the Fists set. There were some different tunes in there, including "Roll back my eyes", which, in the hushed atmosphere, came across incredibly well. The band seemed relaxed and at ease up on the stage and there was a real warmth to both their & Sparrow and the Workshop's performances, which seemed borne out of a great bond they had forged during their week touring. I love to watch Fists, and often I'm really proud to see a group of my friends doing something great together like that. Every so often when watching I kind of forget that they're my friends and just enjoy watching a band I love. That's my favourite and that was what Friday's show was all about.

I really enjoyed Sparrow & The Workshop too, although I don't know their songs so I was a little bit less committed as a viewer. Their chemistry was really nice to see and I really liked that the drums played a strong part in their sound and the visual. For me I might've liked it to be a little more rough around the edges, but I guess with a beautiful clear perfect voice like the lead singer had that is tough to muster. Their harmonies were lovely and the songs never outstayed their welcome.

Sewing & Potatoes
Now for sewing and potatoes... two topics close to my heart this evening as I am off to my sewing class in Sherwood tonight and I'm thinking about which fabrics I want to take with me to make a cushion cover. I'm really enjoying my class so far and can't wait to get my own sewing machine. It's a bit like when I first learned to bake - a strange alchemy where some basic ingredients get turned into something wonderful to eat/wear/use. I know I'm doing it, but there's always a moment where the things I've combined come together through the oven or sewing machine and a little bit of magic happens and I'm surprised to see a perfect finished product like you'd find in a shop. (well, perfect to me)

The reason potatoes are close to my heart? Me and Anders harvested a little tub full of potatoes which we grew in our own garden and we're going to eat them tonight! I'm really quite overly proud of our small, randomly sized potato harvest:

 So is Anders...

GIGS Coming Up

There are 3 Hello Thor gigs/parties coming up:

21st Oct - Jumpers for Goalposts - Magical music & craft night with Cecille Grey playing live and a monstrous craft competition - FREE

24th Oct - Hockley Hustle - Visit the Jam Cafe for a great Hello Thor line-up of cool bands at this nice charity festival!

30th Oct - Hello Gore II: The Return - This is our paean to Halloween and all things spooky. 8 bands playing live - a gory cover & a song or two of their own. Dress to Distress - FREE.

Click here & go to the Hello Thor website for more info about all the gigs above.

Love Bex
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Tate Modern, Zombies & Stuff

Me and Anders went down to London at the weekend for a couple of reasons:
- Some of our ACE friends live there and we don't get to see them enough
- I arranged it as a birthday present for Anders and got him tickets to see Daniel Johnston at the Union Chapel
- Fun

We drove down late on Friday and arrived in Dalston just late enough to chat a small amount with Jamie & Chloe (some of the afore-mentioned ace friends who we were staying with) before sleepytime.

Saturday we had big plans. Anders had a list of about 20 record shops he wanted to go to and I wanted to buy nice things that you can't buy in Nottingham. However, we also wanted to stay in our PJs and hang out with j and Chloe while eating bacon sandwiches, so we didn't actually make it out to start the big plan til about 1pm. We headed straight to Brick Lane and Rough Trade which is pretty exciting. It's a big warehouse-y type shop, all painted white and a bit scruffy with tons of records & cd's and lots of things on listening posts. This is pretty much the most exciting thing in the world to Anders, so he was off and lost to me for the next 3 hours. Whilst in there I saw something pretty cool:


In case it just looks like a record shop this is the Fists single in Rough Trade! As Tez said... "British European..F.....". Indeed.

Anyway, after Anders' mammoth record binge we trundled off to Wahaca. It's the Mexican restaurant set up by the funny posh lady who won MasterChef - Thomasina.
It was GREAT. I don't think I've ever eaten Mexican food before... not like that anyway. I had a mole (as well as about 12 other things, we rather over-ordered), which was rich and chocolatey and really well-spiced and just amazing. I also had Pork Scratchings, which were like huge quavers and not at all like the things you get in the pub. Mmmm delicious.

Saturday night was Halloween party night, which in London doesn't mean hopping in a cab for five mins to get into town. It means traipsing for an hour and a half on bus, train and foot to get to your friend's house. We had much fun dressing up and knew our costumes had succeeded when a small child on the street said "you guys are scary". The most fun part though was the train journey. Lemoncello zombies are the coolest:



At the party there was a Queen of Darkness, a mad doctor, 2 spiders/octopi, various generic halloween-y creations, Cruella De Ville and, of course, Boris Johnson.



Looking good Boris.

Sunday was a lovely day of relaxing, croissants for breakfast and catching up with the X-Factor. A trip to the 3 Crowns in Stoke Newington and dinner with all our lovely friends. I really miss everyone who lives down there and it was so lovely to get time to sit and catch up properly with Mark & Emma and Lewis and everyone. After we hung out with John for a bit laughing at clips on YouTube of Flight of the Conchords and Demetri Martin then after he left we went proper Sunday, snuggled down with cups of tea and watched Strictly Come Dancing and the X Factor results. Brilliant.

Monday we visited Tate Modern. London on Mondays is lovely, I'd recommend it. We saw the Pop Life exhibition which features Warhol and artists since and kind of focuses on art & money as it's theme. It was an exhibition which all four of us had mixed feelings about. There was some interesting stuff there, but a lot of it I didn't like or just couldn't really respond to as art. I touched this:

and set off an alarm. Oops. There was more Jeff Koons stuff there too, but a lot of it was just horrible graphic sexual images of him and his porn star wife. I can't really repsond to that. I really found the recreation of Keith Haring's pop-up shop intersting, particularly as I normally hate Haring's work and find it a bit trite and dull. Somehow seeing a room covered in it blasting out 80's hiphop made it suddenly feel relevant and fresh again. I also enjoyed seeing the Warhol stuff in the flesh and seeing two twins sat in front of Damien Hirst's Dot paintings - despite the fact that the exhibition made me dislike Damien Hirst overall. There were interesting ideas, but a lot of it left me a bit cold.

The best thing we saw was actually in the Turbine Hall.
"Miroslaw Balka's black hole at Tate Modern is terrifying, awe-inspiring and throught-provoking. It embraces you with a velvet chill." The Guardian
This is a really great summary of the black hole currently in the Turbine hall. You walk into a big construction, a bit like walking into the back of a lorry and inside it is blacker than night, blacker than anything I've ever seen. It's so dark it's almost a feeling rather than a sight. It's physically affecting and a bit scary. Read more here.

Anyway, this is turning into the longest post in the world ever. Basically, London was lovely, we saw some art, Anders heard some music, we caught up with friends and ate lovely food and were very well looked after by our wonderful hosts Jamie & Chloe. Five stars!

x bex

Hello Gore... The Aftermath

Hello Gore. It was great wasn't it? Best Halloween Party EVER!

If you'd like to see some pics click here.

If you were on a pic and would like a copy, just let us know. There are some amazing photos and costumes, take a look!

To give you some idea of what kind of party it was... After Hello Gore (feeling green around the gills on Sunday) we swept up:

- Talc
- Straws
- Sweetie Wrappers
- Popcorn
- Cobwebs
- Fairy cake cases
- Fake Hair
- Feathers
- Plastic spiders
- Pumpkins
- Set lists
- Broken glass
- LOTS of safety pins
- A fake wound

Brilliant.

Coming up with a good Halloween costume is harder than you think...

... especially when you only have about five minutes to make it and no time to buy materials!

Me and Anders are going to have the lamest costumes at the party, big time!

Hope to see you Friday at Hello Gore - Bunker's Hill. Great bands play spooky songs, Fists, Cuban Crime Wave, Joey Chickenskin and MORE! Free for fancy dressers, £3 if not. It's going to be ace. Plus the Hello Thor boys will be embarrassing themselves onstage with their terrible Tom Tomas Club vanity project... well worth a watch!

Bex
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