Currently cat-sitting and flat-sitting in Holloway once more, while recovering from a minor operation on my shoulder. I’ve had a suspicious-looking mole removed, just in case. Though I’m arguably London’s most sun-avoiding man (even the Camden Goths go out in the noonday sun, particularly by the canal), I never put anything past Nature’s sense of irony.
One of the more medical downsides of living alone is that there’s no one to notice any changes to your body’s blind spots. Doctors ask you to check your skin moles for changes, but what if they’re on the areas of your back or shoulders where it’s difficult to see them, even with a mirror? Admittedly, it’s not much of a chat-up line: ‘What I’m looking for in a relationship is someone to keep an eye on my less accessible moles.’
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To the Natural History Museum’s new butterflies exhibition to try and catch their rare dual-gender moth. Alas, the poor thing has died of old age, after about a week. It’s known as a gynandromorph rather than a hermaphrodite, as both genders are present but half-formed. The moth is neither one thing nor the other. In fact, the gender split is right down the moth’s body, so it has a boy wing and a girl wing.
Info: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2008/may/news_14417.html
Still, the rest of the exhibition is a delight anyway: an educational children’s maze followed by a more adult-friendly hothouse where all manner of colourful butterflies flutter around one’s head unfettered.
I also take a peek at the museum’s Darwin’s Canopy show, which features various artists’ proposals for a permanent ceiling design, based on a Darwin theme. Though a panel of judges decides the winner, there’s a guestbook wall for visitors to nominate their favourite on slips of paper – or say anything else they like.
I rather like Mark Fairnington’s panels of animal eyes, a simple idea which gazes down on visitors while encouraging them to guess which animal belongs to which eye. This seems more in keeping with the NHM’s reputation for providing things to do for kids. And Darwin was, after all, a detective.
But going by the wall of pinned slips, the runaway favourite is the offering by United Visual Artists: a sculptured mass of foliage around a sun-like globe, based on a 3D computer simulation of growth.
Info: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/darwins-canopy/artists/index.html
Then to the former Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, for Middlesex University’s Art & Design Degree Show. Phoebe Allen’s coursework includes a series of photos of myself, posing around Hoxton as if for a fashion magazine shoot. Happy to be of modelling use to friends, this is the second time I’ve seen my face on the wall of a degree show. Last time it was Central St Martin’s.
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Other social events lately: a club night at the Green Carnation bar in Greek Street where the DJs are three generations of women from the Parkin family. Turban-topped Molly Parkin (in her 70s), daughter Sophie (40s), and granddaughter Carson (late teens). The clientele spans the generations accordingly and the night is given a rather delicious pun: ‘The Parkin Lot’. Turns out that the Green Carnation is a Wilde-themed gay bar, but without the requisite piles of Boyz or The Pink Paper, or loud dance music pumping away. The upstairs bar has plenty of plush sofas and armchairs, fireplaces, upholstered panelling and tasteful wallpaper, all with the look of a Victorian salon. A new place to meet friends, then.
While Molly Parkin is DJ-ing, John Moore tells me he’s thinking of asking her to play Bo Diddley. I presume he is referring to Mr Diddley’s recent demise, only later I discover the legendary musician was actually one of Parkin Senior’s paramours.
My source is this article by Sophie P, concerning the lot of an erotic adventurer’s offspring:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-452348/Oh-mum-PLEASE-stop-talking-sex-life.html
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A Fosca track review from the blog In Love With These Times, In Spite Of These Times:
http://kisschase.blogspot.com/2008/05/highgate-cemetery-in-rain-theres-ever.html
Fosca “We See The World As Our Stunt Doubles”
Talking of million-year waits… they’re back, you know, with a new album called “The Painted Side of the Rainbow”. What this rather spangly should-be single is off of… We would argue that Fosca are needed more than ever before.
Rather apt that the blog entry starts off talking about Highgate.
