Fantastic findings!

Today was probably the most efficient day of my life! Thousands of errands to run, wrapping things up for my trip to Central America which begins... this Wednesday! Bloody hell..! :D

Here are snapshots of my day's non-chalk achievements:

What is this you ask? Quite possibly the best thing for a trip you could ever imagine randomly finding in a charity shop! Inflatable crossword beach ball IN A CAN!!! £1.49 :)

Bargain vintage painting (£15!) I got from the new junk and furniture shop on Clarendon Park Road. I forgot to note down what the shop is called - it's only been open for two weeks.

Oh yeah! For a few months now some empty/abandoned shop fronts around the city centre have been functioning as Leicester propaganda galleries. The old SPAR on Granby street is definitely a gem ;)

Upon my return I was pleased to find Mr. Orange has had a very busy day also.

CHALK TALKS

A further installment of CHALK TALKS snapped around town today:)

Haha, this one would probably be more legible in another colour;)

The Singing Adams

The Singing Adams have my badge of approval - when I saw them at Leicester's The Musician Pub earlier this week I even got their record! (I'm usually way too precious with my pounds to spend them on musical whims;). They are really pretty good! Great vocals, good beats (female drummer, of course!;P) engaging, witty. And this song has been haunting me for a few days now:

They sound even better (more raw?) live! Here's a taster of their live performance:

+++ I need your mind Live @ The Local London 2010 +++

Gigs!

Today (Sunday) I got a last minute tip-off about a good band doing a gig at The Musician Pub. It took very little persuading to get me out of the house (I am often bored shitless). In fact, I can't believe how little it took to completely transform my dreary Sunday evening routine into an awesome, spectacular night! Absolutely magical! A very good performance from the supporting That's Not Me (local band from Lincoln, fantastic bouncy pieces featuring an electric banjo! I had real trouble sitting still:) was followed by the delicious main act - the San Francisco's best indie alternative-country band: Or, the Whale! They were amazing! Both bands were so SO enjoyable live! And the cosy, ambient and under-crowded Musician was the perfect place to see them. It's quite possibly my favourite venue ever! It has such an intimate vibe, it always feels like the band is playing just for you:)
I am very tempted to return tomorrow night to see Polly and the Billets Doux! Who's with me?:)

Polly and the Billets Doux
@ The Musician Pub, Leicester
support: Hi and Lo, £7 at the door
doors 8pm, music 9pm

Leicester Comedy Festival: George Ryegold

George Ryegold: The Ordeal Of Dr Ryegold
@ The Criterion Pub
Weds 15th Feb
doors 7.30, show 8pm

Sounds good!:

Pioneering stand-up comedy from the eminent physician and polymath. 'As sick as Jim Jeffries, but with the vocabulary of Stephen Fry... some of the most hilariously bad taste lines of the festival' **** Chortle. 'Comedy's answer to a burst colostomy bag'. Guardian. 'Wicked, twisted, deliciously dark'. Time Out Over 18's Only.

Chalk Talks

Sunday entertainment!!!

Live music and burlesque this Sunday in town! Whoop whoop!

VENUE: Crumblin Cookie High Street, Leicester (next to Dominoes), ZUBEN (pop up party)
BURLESQUE: talulah blue, valerie vegas, coca lola
LIVE MUSIC: Jessica-Lee Hopkins, ollie kennette, markus reeves, G funk, danny orton (carnival clowns)

VINTAGE STALL: goldrush

Book hunt!

Here are my trophies from a recent visit to Clarendon Books - my 2nd favourite used book store in Leicester. I hanged out there for about half an hour, perched in a narrow spilt between two dusty towering shelves, picking through the good, the bad and the mouldy, amused by the sounds of a little girl 's (pink tutu and a plastic crown in place) heated dispute with her toy poodle on the subject of their upcoming marriage engagement:)

Item 1:

The Adventures of the Black Girl in her search of God
written by George Bernard Shaw, 1st edition, 1932
designed and engraved by John Farleigh
£4.50

Chosen for its amazing illustrations, and soon appreciated for the story itself: a thoughtfull funny fable based around the good old journey motif. Quote:
"The black girl, a fine creature, whose satin skin and shining muscles made the white missionary folk seem like ashen ghosts by contrast, was an interesting but unsatisfactory convert; for instead of taking Christianity with sweet docility exactly as it was administered to her, she met it with unexpected interrogative reactions which forced her teacher to improvise doctrinal replies and invent evidence on the spur of the moment to such an extent that at last she could not conceal from herself that the life of Christ, as she narrated it, had accreted so many circumstantial details and such a body of home made doctrine that the Evangelists would have been amazed and confounded if they had been alive to hear it all put forward on their authority. Indeed the missionary's choice of a specially remote station, which had been at first an act of devotion, very soon became a necessity, as the appearance of a rival missionary would have led to the discovery that though some of the finest plums in the gospel pudding concocted by her had been picked out of the Bible, and the scenery and dramatis personae borrowed from it, yet the resultant religion was, in spite of this element of compilation, really a product of the missionary 's own direct inspiration. Only as a solitary pioneer could she be her own Church and determine its canon without fear of being excommunicated as a heretic."

Item 2:

Omens - Poetry Magazine,
Volume 8, Numbers 1&2, December 1978,
£3.95

bought immediately after finding this poem in it:

"The silence of a candle"

(Jazz Suite, no.9, after R. Towner)

unbroken in the growing motion of
this finite room.

Outside, somewhere
children divide up
pieces of the moon.

Here you chew on the roulette wheel
an old woman holds between her teeth.

There are blocks of ice in your bed,
& you wager on which will melt first.

Noisy as an eskimo
taking apart the snow

you are speaking in light.

You are the light

I wet my fingers

to extinguish.

- Michael Carlson

Item 3:

The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler
£1.80

bought for a) the title, b) this juxtaposition of cathedrals and gargoyles:
"The creativity and pathology of the human mind are, after all, two sides of the same medal coined in the evolutionary mint. The first is responsible for the splendour of our cathedrals, the second for the gargoyles that decorate them to remind us that the world is full of monsters, devils and succubi. They reflect the streak of insanity which runs through the history of our species, and which indicates that somewhere along the line of its ascent to prominence something has gone wrong.":)
and c) for these quotes opening chapters XI and XIII:

"When you don't know where a road leads, it sure as hell will take you there"

- Leo Rosten

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"

- Oscar Wilde

Item 4:

the Book Fair flyer
for its awesome design


totally going up on my wall:)

Item 5:

Travels in the Interior of Africa, by Mungo Park
£5.95

Chosen for the illustrations, the time-space background of political incorrectness, and this insight into the origins of the expression "Mambo Jumbo":

"I arrived at Kolor, a considerable town, near the entrance into which I bserved, hanging upon a tree, a sort of masquerade habit, made of the bark of trees, which I was told on inquiry belonged to Mumbo Jumbo. This is a strange bugbear, common to all the Mandingo towns, and much employed by the pagan natives in keeping their women in subjection; for as the kafirs are not restricted in the number of their wives, every one marries as many as he can conveniently maintain; and as it frequently happens that the ladies disagree among themselves, family quarrels sometimes rise to such a height that the authority of the husband can no longer preserve peace in his household. In such cases, the interposition of Mumbo Jumbo is called in, and is always decisive.
This strange minister of justice (who is supposed to be either the husband himself, or some person instructed by him), disguised in the dress that has been mentioned, and armed with the rod of public authority, announces his coming (whenever his services are required) by loud and dismal screams in the woods near the town. He begins the pantomime at the approach of night; and as soon as it is dark he enters the town, and proceeds to the bentang, at which all inhabitants immediately assemble.
It may be easily be supposed thet this exhibition is not much relished by the women; for as the person in disguise is entirely unknown to them, every married female suspects the the visit may possibly be intended for herself; but they dare not refuse to appear when they are summoned; and the ceremony commences with songs and dances, which continue till midnight, about which time Mumbo Jumbo fixes on the offender. This unfortunate victim being thereupon immediately seized, is stripped naked, tied to a post, and severely scourged with Mumbo's rod, amidst the shouts and derision of the whole assembly; and it is remarkable that the rest of the women are the loudest in their exclamations on this occasion against their unhappy sister. Daylight puts and end to this indecent and unmanly revel."

Live music @ The Musician

The best (and perhaps the only:) small live music venue in Leicester (The Musician Pub) has some tasty soundbites for show up in June. I think these are my top choices for a refreshing night out:
Thu 3: Field Music £8adv
Fri 5: Murder by Death £7
Tue 8: Jack McNeill & Charlie Hayes + O'Hooley & Tidow £9
Thu 17: Kirsty Almeida £5

Chalk Talks

New Walk and whereabouts:

Oh Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.

- St. Augustine

What if this weren't a hypothetical question?

Under my second favourite Leicester chestnut tree, next to New Walk Museum:

yes is a pleasant country
if's wintry
(my lovely)
let's open the year

both is the very weather
(not either)
my treasure,
when violets appear

love is a deeper season
than reason;
my sweet one
(and april's where we're)

- e.e. cummings

Clock Tower:

Victoria Park:

When I pronounce the word future
the first syllable already belongs to the past
When I pronounce the word silence
I destroy it
When I pronounce the word nothing
I make something no non-being can hold

- W. Szymborska

WE WILL ROCK YOU UP!

Locations: