Badeschiff

Juicelog Sat 310508: Berlin has got some great hang outs and one of them is man-made styled bar beach (near Treptower Park station) called Badeschiff. Packing them in this sunny Saturday afternoon, buff boys and girls lounged about on the sand, the pier and in the swimming pool whilst Hed Kandi styled chill out music was piped through the surrounding speakers.

I Love Vauxhall

Juicelog Sun 250508: Cloudy skies and the grey weather was not enough to deter us from bopping down to Foxhule for some gay street merriment. It was fun dancing around to disco beats being pumped from out from a double decker bus. It was even more amusing watching the gazes of the passing commuters going past on the trains up (above the arches).

As the beats wore on, my body nose dived slightly and I ended up being carried home by Pudz.

Grant Roger’s Travels Through Australia

Juicelog Tues 200508: Leading on from the tights, we went to Grant’s Works On Wall Paper exhibition at La Galleria (in Pall Mall). Having a strong affinity to animals, Grant has moved onto flies this time. This stuff was much more preferable to the dog paintings I saw last time. A lot of this seemed inspired from the middle ages and nature, he made doilies and works created on Australian wallpaper.

Laddering Malevich's Tights

Juicelog Tues 200508: The Larma, Cynthia and myself weaved round the streets of central London locating the Air Gallery to check out Dorian Ker’s Laddering Malevich's Tights exhibition. We analysed the large silkscreen prints in detail working out how they were constructed as we were thinking about replicating in the square motifs for a Blue Peter session.

Paul’s 40th Bidet

Juicelog Sat 170508: Re-adjusting our compasses pointing to point East I rickshaw’d down to the Dog House pub (in Kennington) for Paul’s soiree. Filling out the top floor with his fragrant friends, we admired a very unique birthday present. Paul works as a plumber for a living, and one of his friends designed and made a bling bling spanner for him.

Listening Post

Juicelog Tues 130508: Danny, Martial and I went down to the Dana Centre (in South Kensington) for a private view and Q&A session with Mark Hansen & Ben Rubin (creators of the Listening Post). The Q&A tonight was carried out by video linkup (done by Skype). After a few technical hitches we got a chance to quiz these guys about their installation. Basically, they wrote a programme which randomly takes samples of online chats/conversations which are then converted into multiple electronic and sound projection. I quizzed Mark about this piece of artwork as I’m not too sure whether something like this contains enough artistic merit (even though it might fulfil the Turner Prize criteria). After viewing the installation afterwards, I did not feel like I connected with it because it just did not have enough to engage me emotionally.

One of the things noted tonight was that use of expression "I Am". Apparently it is one of the most commonly used phrases during online discussions. This phrase is incorporated into their artwork. Words and text are extremely difficult objects to work with artistically and this piece really did not do enough to take it beyond today’s IT savvy generation. Technologically, there is no denying that the concept is interesting and would no doubt be one of the new mediums that would spawn a new generation of artists.

Afternoon Archery

Juicelog Sun 110508: Robin (Cindy’s mate) gave us a basic archery lesson this afternoon. I found the whole experience extremely cathartic. Fiddling around whilst trying to get the arrow into the bow and mentally getting yourself to fire takes you into a different mental state of mind. A lot of physical strength is required (for the arm that is holding the bow) as well as a steady nerve (for the mind). All of us first timers found the metal bow much easier to use than the wooden one.

Feeling pumped up from the summer heat, Pudz let me cut his hair after our archery session. Was rather proud of my effort even though there was a lot of room for neatness. Had some Chinese chorizo for dinner tonight. It was not as meaty or tasty as I described in the adverts.

DB's Bidet

Juicelog Sat 100508: Slid down to Bloomsbury Bowling (underneath Tavistock Hotel) in Russell Square for DB’s bidet. On entering the Bloomsbury Bowling you’re greeted by an old styled cinema. Walking through the 1950’s retro design of the place (which included pool tables and milkshake/hamburger diners), we picked up our bowling shoes before heading down to the bowling lanes.

As well as bowling, this place also had a lot of people decked out in the fashion of teddyboys/girls, who were socialising and dancing along to groovy rhythm’n’blues and bebop music.

After bowling we tied up the evening with a couple of drinks at the Green Carnation before calling it a night.

The Merry Widow

Juicelog Wed 070508: Me and Danny B. stayed for the first act of The Merry Widow at the English National Opera. Not being overly enthralled by the production tonight we decided to skip the remaining two acts of this operetta. The production had an antiquated feel to it (which showed with the crowd it attracted tonight) and produced some lukewarm chuckles during the comical moments.

Picking up Pang from Foyles bookshop we had a mildly amusing dinner experience at Viet (cheap Vietnamese dinner on Greek Street). As soon as the waitress realised that me and Pang both spoke Chinese, she became a lot more friendlier and chatty with us.

Daddy Dick’s late bidet

Juicelog Sat 030508: Waving goodbye to Pudz (before his relocation to Berlin), I made my way back to London to initiate the weekend proceedings. Alex B cooked a delicious Gordon Ramsey risotto recipe tonight for Daddy Dick’s bidet dinner gathering. Stuffing our faces full of grub, we ditched dessert and topped our bodies up with some vitamins and cold remedies.

Chicken Pie

Juicelog Fri 020508: Taking the role of his sous chef, I assisted Pudz with cooking a chicken pie (Nigella’s recipe). Got a bit carried away with the wine and ended up with the sauce being a bit too runny.