Holding on to The Wire

If you read my post on Christmas wants or if you have seen me anytime in the last 5 months, you'll know my recent love is with THE WIRE. Perhaps I'm a bit late to the party but you have to remember, I have never subscribed to HBO and I live in the UK plus I have a pop culture blind spot as J tells me.

For Christmas, I received the 5th Season of the Wire. We watched it in about a week and even watched all the crap extras (they were crap). I have since researched the actors to see what they were doing now or who they were before The Wire. I found out that that McNulty (Dominic West) is actually English and Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) who I thought was from Hackney (my neighbourhood) is actually from Newham. In any case, yay for East London!

But now there's nothing - an emptiness. I yearn for more. So, on Monday when Joy came by my desk, I noticed her T-shirt. I had to have one and of course I did. Here is the one I got for me, but it was cuter and tighter (this is the boy version).
I thought as it was J's birthday I should get him something too. Having matching t-shirts is a bit lame so I bought him a type related one given he has his new typography blog.
So, now I feel I can keep my obsession with The Wire living just a little longer. Thanks to Joy for the tip.

Talent! Talent! Talent!

This video is jam packed with talented people. The film-maker, the actress, the stop-motion editor, the musician. If you don't like it, I would love to know why.

I discovered it through this amazing french blog called Fubiz. The guy who puts it together continues to find creative gems every day. I was visiting his site today and found this video and LOVED it. (how did I find Fubiz? Thanks to Shamir from Flickr)

.

My Ever-Growing List of London Must Do's

Given it is January and it's time to start new habits and bin old ones, I decided to clear out our back office (interpret: shed). So far I've managed to clear out a stacks of Time Outs.

Every year when our subscription comes up for renewal, we discuss whether to renew it. My instant (frugal) reaction is NO. Then, we talk about how fabulous it is: jam-packed with great things to do, shows to see, music to discover. We both know we never manage to read more than an article let alone the whole thing.
J argues,

"but it is full of fantastic things to do. How will we keep up with what is hip in our adopted city?"

Then I point out what we typically do each weekend i.e. spend our time close to our hood, visiting our regular haunts and drinking in the same old pubs. Hmmm. Is there really a need for this weekly London Bible?

YES. We've decided to renew again. That means I have to make room for the onslaught of new issues. The old ones have got to go.

But maybe, we'll want to refer to the ideas from past issues?

Here's my solution. I'm going to keep track of those things that sound interesting here. Perhaps we'll use it to plan our weekends. Maybe, I'll even cross off the things we did - like My Santa List. Here goes (in no order whatsoever):

1. Dress up & dance in 1950s prom style at the Bethnal Green Working Man's Club
2. Tap dancing at Pineapple Dance Studios or Urdang Academy (still need to find some shoes at eBay)
3. Visit an exhibit at the Wellcome Institute
4. Go the Highgate Cemetary
5. Make it to the First Thursdays Art Night in East London. This should be easy given I work at Old Street tube.
6. J wants to the Imperial War Museum (What is the fascination with guys and war?)
7. Finally, make it to the Saatchi Gallery where perhaps I can see my friend (introduced via Burke), Matthew Carver's, piece on display. He had one of his graduate pieces bought by Saatchi.
8. Take a shoe-making course or better still a boot-making course (Tamsin at work has made a beautiful pair of shoes)
9. Dennis Sever's House. It is a step back to the early 1800's London. It sounds a little like the visit that the girls and I made to the Tenament Museum in NYC.
10. Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey
11. The British Museum has been said to be the best gallery/museum in London and I've never been.
12. Visit Buckingham Palace INSIDE. The Queen opens it up each summer and in 2010 there's a special exhibit.
13. Bike over and see the construction site of the 2012 Olympic Site.
    
14. MORE TO BE ADDED AS I WORK THROUGH THESE TIME OUTS. At least I've started.
    

I've slowly started to strike them out as I've done them.

Dear Santa, I'm making my list

I know I'm supposed to be buying everyone gifts and not thinking about what I MIGHT like. However, I'm often asked what I want for Christmas. Well actually, it is usually just my Mom. So I thought I would create a post that I can update as I think of ideas. In fact, I might keep this list way in to the new year to remind me what I need

Don't worry I'll be busy buying little gifts too. So, to get what you really want be sure to tell this Santa what you would like -- post in comments.

Now for me:

• black socks (and other colours too). It may seem boring but I need them. **update: my MOM and Aunt Kathy bought me some - yay!

• donations to Wen-Do or any legitimate charity with a special focus on women and girls' lives around the world.
  
• a cashmere shawl - I'm not sure what colour but I want a really soft and fuzzy cashmere shawl. I'm thinking burgundy, gray or even fuscia. (I need to keep warm at work)
  
• scales for our kitchen - this is really for J as he does the cooking. In the UK, they use grams rather than cups and sometimes we are really at a loss as to how much chocolate we need to put in to our desserts
• acrylic shoe boxes - last year J bought me 12 of these for Christmas. I loved them but I've been busy buying more shoes and need more boxes
  

• The Wire - Season 5. Have you heard I'm totally addicted. I've been holding out from watching the last season as I don't want it to end. Oh well, Lost is coming up soon. [ed. Yes, it's true. I got season 5 for Christmas. Whoohoo! The season will start Jan. 5th]
  
• A bell for my bike. I think this one is kind of cute but I just want it to work. Update: I just bought a new bike bell at sportsdirect for £0.99 at the Boxing Week Sales.

• Non-stick frying pan - again this one is for J. I made some pancakes this morning and realized it is high time for a replacement We just picked up one at Home Base. Wow, what a difference!
• Plastic Spatula - J again. We keep wrecking our frying pan with our metal flipper.
  J got it from me for Xmas, but we still need a new frying pan Not anymore see prior comment.

Well as you can see I'm finding this incredibly easy. Why can't my nieces and nephews provide me with a list of what they want. I keep asking and they say "nothing". I don't believe it. Do you? What would you like? Do tell and don't be shy.

..

Christmas Lights for Rodwellian

I think I've waited long enough to put up the Christmas lights. It's time. In most stores, there have been decorations since mid-October. So, today I'm going to get out the decorations for our house (I bought some new beautiful bulb yesterday at Liberty's)


So, before I run downstairs and start cursing because the lights don't work. I thought I would spruce my blog up with some London-inspired decorations. Taaaa! Daaaa! (through the magic of photos)These Victorian era angels hang high above the streets around Seven Dials.The covered market at Covent Garden had vertical lights changing colours to make it feel like it was snowing inside.

Some of the flying stars on Regent Street, London this year.


This is a combination of the street lights on Regent Street and the lights in the window at the National Geographic Society Store. (it's an amazing place for great photography and stuff for the adventure-minded including NG holidays)





This little guy reminded me of the Stay Puft Marshmellow man. He can be found on Carnaby StreetInside Liberty London, you can find this corridor of lights in their Christmas shop.




Finally, the traditional candle lighting La Trouvaille, our favourite spot for a cozy glass of wine after a day of shopping.

Ahhhh.....

Going Nude on Fancy Shoes Friday

I thought that headline might catch a few people. Yes, it's true on both accounts.

1. Friday is Fancy Shoe Day
   
2. I'm going nude this Friday

OK, a bit more detail.

High heels were not always welcome in the studios. When we were at the old offices I would teeter around in my heels on the beautiful wooden floors to the glaring glances of my co-workers. Imagine the equation:

office with high ceilings + hard wood floors + heels does not equal soothing work environment

Things, got better after we moved in to the new offices at the Silicon Roundabout. My heel-wearing is now much less of an issue as we have carpet there. In fact, other women in the office started wearing heels. Whoohoo! Bring on the mutual shoe adoration.

Now, every Friday, the women at work hold Fancy Shoe Fridays. That means we are encouraged to wear all those ridiculously high, impractical but oh-so delicious shoes that we really don't have a reason for wearing any other day. Thanks to Tamsin and Joy for this brilliant idea and an excuse to go nude this Friday.

OK ... NUDE. Well, you know I'm not that crazy. Of course there is a double meaning.

I will be wearing my new pair of shoots (shoe/boots) from United Nude. This wonderful line of shoes first hit the scene and my shoe rack back in 2003 with the Möbius shoe. The Möbius shoe was designed by Rem D Koolhaas (the architect) and Galahad Clark. I've had this first pair for 5 years now and still feel it is the coolest thing in my wardrobe. That probably explains why it was pretty easy to hand over the Amex card on these new babies (despite the fact I was supposed to be Christmas Shopping for others). These particular shoes are called Fold. They are described as follows on the United Nude site:

Like the physical concept of the Möbius, about the fluent movement of a single strip. The strip folds around the foot front-to-back-to-front like a scarf. The Fold’s are made on a comfortable last with some space in the toe-box to fit normal to wider feet. The uppers are made with custom designed elastics and the shoes have all leather lining.

I'm counting down to Friday. (I have a feeling I won't go that long to go nude)

..

Swish Titles Looking for a Film

If you know me personally (which of course 99.9% of my visitors do), you know that since we moved to London J has been reinventing the work he does. After years of working with printed fonts, logos, packaging, book covers and brochures, all a bit static, he is finally giving those designs some movement. Of course he still pays the bills with his beautiful graphic design work as his portfolios demonstrate.

Dinnick & Howells Packaging Design 08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: graphic branding)

But the exciting thing for both J (and actually more for me) is that he now feels he has a body of work ready to unveil -- 'moving designs'.

I say it is exciting for me because being the spouse of a creative perfectionist I have had to be very patient about the time it took to finalize his reel (that's what the portfolio is called). Personally, I felt he was ready a year ago. However, perfection is not quickly achieved and in fact it takes many many hours/days/weeks of studying (that's what J calls watching movies).

In any case, J has now finished two portfolio reels including some commercial video work and also some yet uncommissioned movie titles. We just need someone to write and produce the films and we'll be in business.


Reel, Spring/Summer 08 from Jonathan Howells on Vimeo.


Reel, Autumn/Winter 08 from Jonathan Howells on Vimeo.
Yes. Of course, I am very very proud (I'm convinced I must have had some impact with all my forceful encouragement).