More Space closing

Juicelog Tues 311006: What's not to love about the best car park in the world?

Trade Goes Legal

Juicelog Sun 291006: Sixteen years ago it gave birth to the addictive buzz of afterhours and a new meaning to Sunday mornings. The term "Trade Babies" was coined to describe its loyal followers and devotees. Now being of a legal age, this morning Trade attracted many from the shallow murky depths of insentient beings to the pulsating throb of Farringdon.

A few of us bought our DC10 fans along to the club in an attempt to import this Ibizian trend into the London club scene. The magnetism of the club is the rave like atmosphere in this big labyrinth venue. Paranoia kicked in when I kept imagining a freaky bunny rabbit stalking us as we floated back and forth between the different rooms and corridors.

Fat Tony played a devastatingly smokin’ set in the lite lounge this afternoon as the club wound down to an end. Whilst breakfast in bed freshens up the body for the weekend, Trade on a Sunday morning provides sublime relief for the soul to finish off the weekend.

Not so La Troya

Juicelog Sun 291006: Step two of my Saturday agenda was not implemented due to not being allowed into Area (for the La Troya night) from my heavy exposure to alcohol.

Slouched on the pavement I hung my head inbetween my knees questioning how I ended up in such a state. Knowing that I had defiled my flawless record, I clenched my buttcheeks as tight as they could go and prayed to the almighty one for help and guidance. Two minutes later my prayer was unanswered. With my last ounce of focus I managed to compose a help text message and shortly later my egregious knight in chavvy armour came to my rescue.

The scally shell is upgraded:

Daddy Dick & Lola’s Housewarming

Juicelog Sat 281006: Being the proud owners of a new property in the middle of Brixton Hill my mates Daddy Dick and Lola have recently acquired a Victorian terraced house in the Brixton Hill area. During the tour of his big and beautiful pad, I had a heart warming moment when Daddy Dick showed me his bedroom. He finally got round to getting himself a kingsize bedstead and a proper (visco elastic memory foam) mattress. With nuts, crisps and hefty amounts of booze we initiated Saturday night proceedings.

When I Grow Up…

Juicelog Sat 211006: My preferred method for keeping warm on a chilly Autumns nightfall is to dangle outside East Putney tube station busking with a group of friends whilst helping the aged. The stumbling 60yo drunk that Jeremy assisted at the tube station is what I wanted to be as I was growing up. As we can see not everyone at Jamie and Bouncy Boys bidet had the same ambition (or standards) as me:

Caroline, or Change

Juicelog Tues 171006: Taking up half off Row O tonight a group of us went to check out Caroline, or Change at the National Theatre. Written by Tony Kushner (who gave us the brilliant Angels in America) this musical touches upon the civil rights movement in the Southern states around the time of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Caroline is a black maid who works for a Louisiana Jewish family, the Gellmans. As well as being a stoical and uncompromising woman, she is also a divorced mother of three. During the play we get to see how Caroline develops an awkward relationship with Noah (the young son of this family). With the death of his mother, Noah looks up to Caroline as a mother figure and idol. Offering no solace to his son, Noah’s father deals with his loss by playing the clarinet. Rose (Noah’s step-mom) is struggling to develop her relationship with Noah. She attempts to assert her authority with trying to teach Noah a lesson, by allowing Caroline to keep any money she finds in Noah's pockets whilst doing the laundry.

Rose’s Marxist-like decision eventually leads to the deterioration between Caroline and the Gellmans. The money soon arouses within Caroline an inner battle between pride and financial need. A battle ensues between Caroline and Noah when she refuses to give him back $20. This mini battle paints a portrait of the complex relationships between blacks and Jews and the issues of economic and racial equality during this period of time. There is a suggestion that blacks and Jews have never really seen eye-to-eye even on topics such as the death of JFK. The Gellmans see Kennedy's as a martyr whilst Caroline's daughter views him as a disappointment and broken promise.

Musically, it is a modern opera in parts mixed in with gospel and Motown throughout the fragmented sung through score. I felt that the various song styles (which included 1960’s, Christmas and Hannukah music) didn’t always connect with the characters that well. The parts where it did work was with the Gellmans chit-chat, Caroline’s rebellious daughter and the glamorous Supremes-like trio.

Caroline, or change is definitely an acquired taste.

Smiths

Juicelog Sun 151006: In attendance for brunch at Smiths this afternoon was a fairly large group of us. Our table was on the top floor which had a different décor, look, sound, feel and taste to downstairs. Dance music could be heard in the extremely busy packed out ground floor area of Sunday morning newspaper reading and eating Farringdonites. Whilst sitting on the leather sofas I could feel the trains arriving and departing from the tube station.

The top floor was the rooftop restaurant which had a splendid view of the local Smithfields market area. Accompanying this scenery was a more expensive menu. Food was top notch though. My starter was a really flavoursome salt and pepper squid served in roast garlic sweet chilli sauce. Feeling adventurous I plumped for a tasty leg of black faced lamb served with girolles for my main.

Missed Evening

Juicelog Sat 141006: Having not had much sleep last night I settled on a night in tonight. This meant I missed the Londan braces off celebration evening of fun and games. More importantly I wanted to check out the Caucasianess (i.e. whiteness) off his teeth as the photo he had sent me looked a bit Chinese (i.e. yellow).

Neighbourhood

Juicelog Fri 131006: Just when I thought I managed to escaped unharmed on this unlucky day I got dragged out by Beverly W (one of the lovely ladies I met in Ibiza) for a little West London fun. Swung by Shepherds Bush for some champagne with her mates (Nick, Lizzy, Tasha and Jim) before heading over to Neighbourhood.

Colin (Bev’s mate who worked at Neighbourhood) sorted us out with our own little corner in the club. Norman Jay rocked it with his distinctive brand of Good Times music. This ranged from funky electro house (Bodyrox “Yeah Yeah”) to 80’s (Donald Byrd “Love Has Come Around”) to Salsoul (First Choice’s “It Ain’t Over”). Everything he played was right up my street.

Mobile Clubbing

Thurs 121006: Am gutted I missed this even though I got an e-mail yesterday from my London By London mailing list. Anyone want to join me for the next one?

E saves the day

Juicelog Wed 111006: Cynthia accidentally revealed to Daniel (one of the IT guys at work) what my nickname was. Daniel called me up this afternoon to speak to me about some work stuff. As the conversation came to an end Daniel probingly mentioned that he had been speaking to my half sister (i.e. Cynthia) about me. Sensing his curiosity I elegantly adjusted our topic of conversation to what we had been watching recently. E is now officially my latest hero.

Big Britain @ Little Britain

Juicelog Tues 101006: Tonight a handful of the Big Britain lot (Ashley, Richard B and Christie) went to the live Little Britain show at Hammersmith Apollo theatre to celebrate Christie’s Christmas.

Matt Lucas and David Walliams delivered a spot on show using popular characters from the series mixing it up with new material and brilliant improvised side gags. The quick costume changes in between each sketch was incredibly impressive given the amount of time they had to work with. Hecklers were dealt with in the way drag queens crush their victims. Time whizzed by and before we knew it Daffyd wrapped it up with a song and dance routine.

A Sharp Solution

Juicelog Mon 091006: Well it’s been about a month now and I still haven’t had caught Mickey/Minnie yet. Perhaps it’s too clever for my traps. Or maybe it is in hiding. There could be the possibility that it might have found a Brazilian mouse and is too distracted to even think about the food in my flat. Whatever the reason may be I am still currently experiencing tiny moments of anxiety and feeling jumpy.

With conventional methods failing me I have resorted to an alternative solution:

It might not be humane but it sure is big and impressive.

Mac’s Bidet

Juicelog Fri 061006: Mac assembled a big group of us round his place tonight for his birthday dinner. To warm us up from the cold outdoors we were given grassy Polish vodka. After the latecomers finally located Mac’s place in Queen’s Park we sat down to dinner. About half the diners were new faces whom I’ve never met before.

For our main course we were served up non-organic tarragon chicken and potato dauphine. It was simply impressive given that this was Mac’s first attempt at cooking this dish. For dessert I had tonnes of rich chocolate cake (from Paul).

Post dessert I was given a mini horticultural lesson (and seeds) on how to grow my own passion flowers. I won’t find out until Spring 07’ as to whether it has worked or not.

Blue is..

Juicelog Thurs 051006: Blue is what I’m feeling right now. Blue skies and sea enveloped Bora Bora’s surroundings. Blue is not the kind of stuff they would pump in Ibiza. Blue Peter once demonstrated that a small shindig could be created with some sticky back tape, an Italian granny and a sturdy table. I think we need abit more sticky back tape....

Last Circoloco?

Juicelog Mon 021006: Dan E had to persuade me to attend the Circoloco closing party. The rumour at yesterday’s breakfast table was that this was going to be the last Circoloco @ DC10 as the venue was closing (due to the building of a motorway).

On arrival we were searched by the police where a sacrifice of a bottle of G was made. The club had also converted their carpark into an additional dance area to accommodate the large numbers of clubbers. Security people at this club were quite tough with the clubbers consuming narcotics. The trend this year as demonstrated by the Italians were personalised clothes pegs and mouth piercings.

The sexiest postman I have ever met:


A violation of the toilet rule: