Bean and The Sprout

Ballard Of is a cracking little magazine full of loads of interesting news, fashion, art, music and people and its them that i have to thank for my now somewhat dented bank balance. A fan of their regular blog postings i stumbled across Bean and the Sprout and OMG its beautiful! A small line of beautiful accessories that have both the new and vintage factor ,mainly down to Christine's dedication to making each piece by hand from vintage materials and always ensuring each piece is one-of-a-kind. A perfect touch to any outfit - wether it be a special occasion or just a day hungover lounging in the park (don't deny it ! we all still like to look our best even if hungover!)

Bean and the Sprout

and if you don't know it already check out the magazine Ballard Of www.balladof.co.uk

BLANCO : WOLVES

Multimedia danceable choons and beautiful graphics from collective who's melodies, timings and musical formulas are not complete without their signature styles,art and graphics.....www.blancocollective.co.uk

LAST NIGHT A DJ...

DID NOT SAVE MY LIFE...INSTEAD HE GOT ME DRUNK!

Last night was the preview of the new Firetrap S/S11 collection. It was an up and down mixture of summer staples - well put together and with the grungy edgy firetrap stamp ever apparent. After having been blown away by a great winter collection last season and seeing a new direction from the high end highstreet label - i was expecting a bit more than the standard firetrap pieces....while some pieces failed miserably (awful camel skirt Tammy Girl Circa 1996!) it was made up by the incredible bright green tie dye maxi dress, the printed summer dresses and a beautiful little simple white number. Collection aside - Firetrap know how to throw a nice little party, Hot barmen serving up some very well shaken cocktails, gorgeous venue, a well executed catwalk show, brilliant turn out (not to short not to long) and a steaming little BBQ that wasn't your standard Cargo burger crap! But alas there is always more to the story and my single self thought it would be a fabulous idea to rally behind the bar, shake my own cocktails and get everyone doing tequila shots! Great at the time...not so great today!

Would highly recommend you check out a few of the key items from firetrap and definitely would recommend the venue to anyone looking to throw a party! Birthday round the corner...but shame a pay rise to afford it isn't!

http://www.thedairy-london.com/

KOUDLAM

After a night of a lot of very beautiful people, drinking, swings, smoke, cocktails and some amazing tunes pumped out at the pre party courtesy of Jameela Jamil at the the Vice Style launch i needed to find something to sooth my head. So like musical paracetamol for my morning Koudlam floated miraculously into my life....perfect. A french symphonic composer who merges industrial electronic sounds, classical strings, vocal sound samples with videos that captivate and intrigue. A futuristic blend of colour, tone, texture and layer i completely zoned out watching the videos....now back to reality that is work with a hangover! arhh

www.myspace.com/koudlam

BONJAY BOMB INTO THE UK

Bonjay were first introduced to me by the legend that is behind Slingshot Soundsystem and when he puts his stamp of approval on something you know you have to give it a listen! Born in a basement at Ottawa's disorganised blow your head off parties, this Duo know how to make you party, their eclectic blend of influences from underground scenes, dancehall reggae, 90's RnB and their own personal cultural backgrounds. They have remixed for Mad Decent, Ninjatune and XL recordings and collaborated with the likes of Dazed and Diplo. But alas rarely do we get to experience the live Bonjay magic in full glory...but then my little slingshot birdy told me this week they have headed into the UK as part of their mini European tour and will be playing at The Camden Barfly on Thursday 24th June! These guys will out party most of us and so with a knack for throwing some brilliant parties and with liquid energy being the only drug they take..expect some heavy beats, AMAZING soulful driving vocals and a lot of dancing, drinking and goodtimes!So screw the gym or park run and work out with Bonjay and a Beer! Attendance is a must but if you miss it - check out their EP Gimme Gimme featuring some awesome remixes from Poirier and Grahmzilla... i advise speaking turned up full!

www.myspace.com/bonjaymusic

One Trick Pony's New Tricks

New Tricks at Orange Dot Gallery

Formed in 2001, the off-shoot of original graffiti crew OTP, One Trick Pony collective is comprised of artists, web/graphic designers and illustrators who now boast residency in both London and Yorkshire. Although OTP stay true to their graffiti roots and remain inspired by the culture that helped raised them, their art and design seamlessly crosses the boundaries from the underground into the commercial world. They are packing together their latest body of work and taking it to the Orange Dot Gallery for the whole of July!!! The guys’ (to name just a few) have worked with the likes of Stussy UK, Universal records, Virgin Records, BBC, Brit Awards, Hideout Store, HMV, MOBO, Lethal Bizzle and Gimme 5 - producing a wide range of work all with the OTP signature.

Their last exhibition and the launch of their collab tee for Stussy was a huge success and very good (but drunken) night and so this next exhibition already looks set to be a winner too!

A D T Shirt Launch

Last week i popped along to the Topman Stylist lounge for a lovely little launch of their new AD T Shirt range. Artist Joel Clifford was on site to bring us a live screenprinting showcase - the bags of which he was printing we got to keep! Love a good canvas bag and glass of champagne !! Its a range of men's tees but with the joys of unisex fashion they would still look great on a girly...and only £16!!!

Joel Ripper - independent artist, designer, graphic designer at Topman and the guy behind the designs, focuses and takes inspiration around great moments in British History, such as jack The Ripper, The Black Plague and in this new collection The Great Exhibition of 1851. Loved what Joel was doing so hopefully going to have some special events coming up with Joel in the future...watch this space.

CIRCUS SUNDAY SHENANIGANS

There was brick lane, there was drinking, then there was a P Party - more drinking. Somewhere in-between the above i decided it be a great idea to get a ticket to go along with my friends to see this performance - all i knew was it was kinda circus related. The tubes were fucked, the hangover kicked in and we were having to get 5 trains/buses to get to this place. Was unimpressed and trying to remember why i decided this would be a good idea (the girl in it my friends knew, i didn't!)

BUT what a brilliant surprise and amazing show! Walking in to a random room and then through some circus to an industrial open warehouse room rigged with trapeze artists, hoops, a beautiful set, poles, netting - it was most definitely living up to its Boudoir name! The show MADAME PAINS BOUDOIR CIRCUS was a mix of weird and wonderful spectacles. A butch cross-dresser (inflicting weird pain on himself), comedy, fire, pole dancers, trapeze artists, hope girls, silk and rope work...everything! Unfortunately it was the last showing on sunday night and whilst it took a while to get there (due to shit TFL) it was definitely worth the trek...i'm even considering getting involved myself and signing up to one of their courses.

This event was to raise funds for the ‘Heat the Hangar’ project in aid of the Hangar Arts Trust , home of Aircraft Circus (the amazing team/acts behind the show!)

www.aircraftcircus.com

www.hangaruk.com

CEO

Intriguied.com - Im so cynical when it comes to mysterious artists - working in the world of pr and marketing i cant help but look at everything as a ploy and therefore i have built up a programmed response to anything like this and adopt an instance dislike. But it is a truly love hate relationship - i hate how something beautiful and good has to be warped into a marketing ploy but at the same time i talk about it more. Especially is the case with musicians and artists. randomly saw this link - followed it and ended up in a weird virtual space. I haven't heard any of his music (apart from i think the video track is his) but from what im getting so far its a black and white blend of shades of weird swedish influences and dark, modern electronica sounds and im kinda excited about this...!www.ceoceoceoceoceo.com

AROUND THE WORLD IN ONE NIGHT

So this is what i woke up to on friday morning and I think this is what happened....

(apparently i was so hungover on friday i forgot to actually publish this...but better late than never!)

FIRST STOP - WEATHER-SPOONS / LONDON - classy i know! good old catch up with the FW girls.

SECOND STOP - GLASSWORKS NEW YORK STYLE POP UP SHOP/APARTMENT LAUNCH

www.glassworks-studios.com

An online boutique that has set up shop just near Covent Garden for the next few weeks. Owned and set up by the lovely Lauren Lewis and former Harvey Nics buyer Damien Paul, the space has taken the best of online and popped it up in a plush New York apartment style setting. Whilst i didn't really see this myself the space (it was basically a shop) it was still beautiful and the brands and clothing on offer are a pretty fit mix of some slightly more established - Olivia Rubin/Karen Walker/Sass and Bide, some staple boutique favs - LnA / C.R.A.F.T and a glimpse of a few new little gems coming for AW10.

THIRD STOP - GIRAFFE - An eclectic blend of yummy food from around the globe

AND FINALLY WE WENT ON SAFARI

www.myspace.com/thisissafari

Balloons, zebras and flamingos adorning the stage, Safari made their way on in true african safari style - emerging from the side with bongo drums and wooden instruments click clacking. One of my favourite new bands at the moment, it was the night of their single launch for Quicksand (a brilliant track!) The boys - all looking very hott, performed their hearts out and ended a truly splendid world tour night in style! If you haven't seen them or heard them yet....check them out!

.....and to top it all off the night was complimented by several - 6 maybe 7 bottles of wine - where they were from or what type i have no idea. But from the headache i have then i'm assuming no two bottles were the same!

It was a journey in more ways than one....

HEALTH

Health - We Are Water / USA Boys

Formed in 2005, HEALTH are forwarded thinkers in the realms of noise and rock. A rock dance fusion with fast flowing veins of drama, dance, ghostly synths and spurts of beautiful chaos and powerful pop. Their more rock influenced sounds are not top of my list but their new single 'USA Boys' is a trippy noisey brilliant mess of dance, pop and wicked electronic beats. For some reason the USA boys video is no longer up...but kinda prefer this weird fantastical creation for We Are Water.

VISUAL TREAT / MUSICAL DELIGHT

Apparatjik - Antlers

Apparatik have created a package and its one i would happily head down to the post office to collect if i had missed its delivery. Producing not only a range of weird mathematical musical equations in sound, they bring to together all elements of art, tech, sound and sight offering up music, videos and even a website that is a confusing delight on your brain, eyes and ears...

SCREENPRINTING EVENT AT ORANGE DOT GALLERY

One Off event as part of the Zine Archive Exhibition - Screenprinting with Wasteyourself and Zineswap. Another little gem from a little gem of a gallery ...first special one off of many!

SCREEN PRINTING EVENT

FROM THE PAST, FOR THE FUTURE

Dream and Awake select, collect and refine vintage dresses from around the world. The idea - to transform something forgotten and beautiful and make it a strong and new unique garments. Its not a vintage store but a swedish label and whilst like most vintage style stores its all a bit random when you visit their online store....their range of dresses are pretty well priced and really quite cute. What i love the most is that not only is it vintage and you know you are getting a one off piece that NO one else will have, but that each piece has been tended to and reworked by one of their team of transformers! I know there are similar things out there but i love the idea, and there website is a bit more than just a space to sell clothes. They have lots of pretty pictures, a pretty cool diary of what they get up to, a gallery of photoshoots which document all the clothes before they are sold and they work with the red cross on special collections! Like in a good vintage store ...make sure you have a good rummage through the site.www.dreamandawake.com/

Worth a little look...

ZINE / DOT

Put on by the cool peps at Zineswap with the help from the cool peps at Orange Dot Gallery, ZINE / DOT is a new exhibition showcasing Rob & Gords (Zineswap cool people that run it, innit) amazing collection of contemporary zines. Its a pretty cool concept and wether you are a zine maker yourself or not its a massive and really interesting look into a host of different creatives and personal styles.

I got very drunk at the private view last night, my head hurts slightly and everyone in the office seems to have now gotten the zine making bug. Im not sure if i want to make a zine - but if i did it would probably just be a documentation of me. I like me and wine.

www.zineswap.com

www.orangedotgallery.com

GOING ON SAFARI....

...I wish! But instead i will lose myself in the amazing sounds of Safari. A new london band i've been having a little listen to over the past few weeks these guys are producing some pretty good sounds. Don't know too much about this band at the moment and im quite hungover so im not going to ramble - but they are from London, there are 5 of them and they make good music, and new single 'Quicksand' is out next week on This Is Playground Records. Their single launch is next Thursday 10th June @ Old Queens Head in London...get yourself down there and check them out and check out this sweet little remix of Quicksand by Matty Moon......

Quicksand (Matty Moon Remix) by this is SAFARI