Tales from the Pie 'n' Mash

Archived for the nation ...

2010-05-10T09:37:00.004+01:00

Cowslip at Wroughton (Science Museum)
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

I spent a really interesting day on Friday at the Science Museum large object store at Wroughton where Karen and I's project An Artists' Impression is now to live. Aside from the fascinating insight into life as a conservator for the museum (!) I was really struck by the amazing display of wild cowslips growing all over the enormous site!

First cut flowers of the season

2010-05-04T19:10:00.001+01:00

First cut flowers of the season
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

These are my first floral harvest from Abbey Gardens this year. I grew the aquilegia from seeds taken from my late Father-in-law's allotment.

Get over it ...

2010-04-14T23:00:00.001+01:00

Lunch La Isleta
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

This trip to Spain has been my road to recovery in more ways than a bit of Sun. It has also seen a return to seafood after a particularly nasty food poisoning 'incident' some weeks ago I felt to weak too recount at the time!

Some mussels, kindly purchased and deliciously prepared by Mr P&M (from that seafood stall near Hackney Central incase you are wondering) resulted in the most virulent food poisoning I have ever experienced. I was the second to go down with it and perhaps therefore a little underprepared. Getting up in the morning I felt a bit 'odd' and thought I'd just sit down for a minute on the spare bed. When what could have been anytime later I came to cold and sweaty lying on the carpet I just figured I'd forgotten lying down.
I returned to bed to join the first victim, who was disgruntled that I was no longer able to bring up hot drinks. Some hours later, it became clear from what can only be described as a huge strip of carpet burn on my forehead, that I must have passed out rather than sitting down. Later that week when I finally crawled into work even careful fringe management couldn't disguise the damage and I decided to mention it upfront in tutorials rather than leaving the students to speculate on the cause.

This week on the fantastic Cabo de Gata I finally ate another mussel, surrounded by other delicious seafood. That evening, on a very odd camp site, any problems lying down were only caused by the fact I'd let the batteries on the auto-air-bed-inflator run down.

"Green" Travel

2010-04-14T22:55:00.001+01:00

Ferry Dog Deck :-(
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Since that last posting leaving Hackney has become pretty hard: The car never returned (now presummed stolen); I was knocked off my bike (I was fine, bike was not) and the overland train that normally takes us anywhere has packed up for months (no doubt part of 'Olympic preparations' a current catch all for anything buggered in the East End) so going anywhere by green means or otherwise has been pretty tricky.
In search of some flight-guilt-free sun and time off from the leaking P&M roof, we have been to Spain for Easter by boat. Yes, by boat and that means across the Bay of Biscay - the reputation of which failed to reach me prior to booking. Once we had the tickets everyone we know of course wanted to relate the nightmare they have had on this particular stretch of sea so why should I hold back?
Basically I had been 'off colour' prior to departure anyway so at the first lurch about 5 minutes out of Portsmouth I took to my internal cabin mini-bed, and there I basically stayed for the entire 24 hrs of heaving up and down. My only trip out was at around dawn onto the 'dog deck' to see a couple of the poor confused animals illegally running in circles around their owners on the helipad. They can surely have been the only things feeling worse than me! As we disembarked in Santander I would have happily bought a flight back on the spot ... And yet I type this now on a sunny return deck, 3 hours in and I'm risking a small glass of wine with olives ... This is more what I had in mind.

A quick postcript to the bike/car saga was that the repairs to my bike cost almost exactly the same as the insurance money we got for the Saab -(£250) and not quite as much as two ferry tickets to Spain. The price of green travel it seems.

Saab Sadness

2010-02-10T12:50:00.004Z

Saab Sadness
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Have you seen this car parked on a Hackney Road near you!? Sadly I haven't ...

After a few days of disbelief I have had to accept that our much loved Saab, has, it seems, been stolen from near the P&M household.

Or was it? The whole saga has fuelled a rather paranoid "****ing council" element to my personality which I would rather not have encountered.
The saga began on the 19th of this month when I stepped out to drive over to Abbey Gardens and found that where I had left it a week or so earlier on Valentine Road there was now a series of road works and no car. After some rather worried calls to the council car pound etc. it seemed no one knew what had become of the car.
The next morning we took the approach of just directly asking the road works team what had happened. They gave us a scribbled address of where it had been lifted to and sure enough I found it in a disabled bay on Holcroft Road, I drove it back and parked on Poole Road a short distance from the road works.
A few days later I again went to find the car and found it gone, assuming the same thing must have happened (despite it not being in the road works area) I again went round the council car loop and no one had a record of moving it ... but come to that the company that must have moved it the week before also denied that.

Anyway to cut a very long saga short ... we have eventually had to accept that it was really stolen this time - or if it wasn't we will never find out where it was moved to until it's too late!

If it is parked on your road do let me know ... as I said to the police "I'm not saying the council stole the car I'm just saying it's all a little bit odd".

It's over ... Oh no it isn't ...

2010-01-13T16:37:00.001Z

The holidays really are over :-(
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Oh yes it really is ...

The last piece of Christmas Cake really does mean for the home-worker that the holiday spirit is over and you might as well knuckle down for January.

As is now traditional in the P&M extended family we went to one of the last Panto performances at the truly fantastic Hackney Empire. So fantastic this year (Clive Rowe as the Dame is just the best) I just sent them some fan mail - I don't suppose it will cheer them up, if I think facing my January admin is bad what must the staff there feel like?

Guess what I got for Christmas?

2010-01-13T16:29:00.001Z

Christmas flask!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

I also went to Mull ... very nice too.

Florists VPL

2009-09-17T22:41:00.002+01:00

Gill & Pam with Karen & I
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

This week in Jaywick I learnt that "can you see my Oasis?" is basically the flower arrangers equivalent of "does my bum look big in this?".

Mull Historical Society

2009-09-05T19:10:00.003+01:00

I love a local gig nevermind a "homecoming" and Colin Macintyre didn't disappoint last night in Tobermory. You can't really knock a gig where the support band look about 14, but are actually pretty good, and the audience are either about that age or over 50. I particularly enjoyed the way folk shouted out "well done" in between songs (without irony). Karen has a special way of saying this learnt at guides or something ... Perhaps it's a Scottish thing.

Rainbow saturation

2009-09-04T17:25:00.003+01:00

Rainbow
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

I never thought this would be possible but it seems on Mull you can see so many rainbows in one day it's possible not to photograph them as you are fed up of taking the camera in and out of your backpack.

Scooter

2009-09-04T10:29:00.003+01:00

Having a lovely time on Mull although bringing our bikes might have been a touch over keen. As Mr P and M pointed out yesterday I might as well gave bought an adult size scooter as I basically walk up the hills and freewheel down. It would certainly have been easier to keep getting on and off.

Home Sweet Home

2009-08-18T09:43:00.001+01:00

Dead Mouse
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

We're back in London, the cats had considerately left us a present from the Hackney countryside to welcome us back.

Mistake?

2009-08-15T10:47:00.001+01:00

Just booked a hair cut in the local village for one hour before the wedding we're going too ... Hit or miss. The girl sounded nervous on the phone.

What ever turns you on ...

2009-08-13T21:17:00.006+01:00

Despite almost inevitable disappointment with a regional art gallery experience at home or abroad (see below) I still seem to find myself drawn by an invisible magnet to the over priced ubiquitous security of the art gallery cafe experience. Today in Eastbourne we sat alone on the pristine balcony of the new gallery there ... Very nice too. Not though as appealing as an air show, because meanwhile on the beach it was standing room only for the display. I would insert here an image taken from the terrace at Bexhill pavillion (I'm nothing if not consistent) of the fading pink smoke from the red arrows but I can't as yet attach pictures from my iPhone ... In fact just typing this much takes an age.

Late addition the Red Arrows - if you can see 'em
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

I get a kick out of you ...

2009-08-13T20:49:00.004+01:00

As a (slightly sad) teen I could get a kick out of seeing great paintings in the flesh, now in my forties I find a 'moving' art moment somewhat hard to come by. Yesterday we visited the GREAT great Dixter (Christopher Lloyd's garden now run by Fergus Garrett) and I had that same excitement to see something 'in the flesh' that you've seen in lots of reproductions. The garden more than surpassed my expectations, in fact I had to leave for an off site cup of tea half way round to pace myself.

Pell's Pool

2009-08-12T21:43:00.005+01:00

After many painful nights of futile searching on the Internet we failed to book a holiday abroad, and so I find myself in Sussex for a week. By way of perking myself up (about my inability to make adecision rather than Sussex) I went to the uk's oldest lido on our first day ... Nice, but I didn't stay in that long. It was a little bit chilly and the sock on the bottom was putting me off my stroke.

"Keep your mind in hell, and despair not"

2009-07-31T12:34:00.003+01:00

Monastery of St John the Baptist - beautiful orchard
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

I forgot to mention a strange coincidence that happened while we were at the Monastery of St John the Baptist. In the room where we had the wheat soup the frescoes on the wall showed a man holding a scroll with the words: "Keep your mind in hell, and despair not" ...
I kept looking at this and eventually realised that I'd previously read it in the book Love's Work by Gillian Rose which I'd given to my dear friend Marie. The book is amazing and I think if I had to make the 'desert island book choice' this would be the one I'd choose. Anyway the phrase had always struck me as interesting and it emerged that it comes from Staretz Silouan who left his papers to Elder Sophrony who eventually founded the Monastery of St John the Baptist.
The sister who explained the paintings to us gave her understanding of the text which rather differed from my own, but it was an interesting coincidence none the less.

To this ...

2009-07-28T23:11:00.002+01:00

Monastery of St John the Baptist - garden & rainbow
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

With 50+ miles on a bicycle in between ... Ritualride

Yesterday Mr P&M and myself joined my ex-student Steven Ounanian on the first leg of his Ritualride project.

It had the potential to be hell (lots of rain, heavy traffic, getting lost, desperate shelter in a mega-Tesco cafe, narrowly avoiding a dual carriageway, the furthest I have EVER cycled and inadequate clothing) but somehow by the time we arrived 9 hours later at the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex it seemed something like heaven.

I really have little idea why I enjoyed the experience so much. I do like a challenge but not normally of this kind. It could be just that I was so scared I would have to chicken out and get the train that I was just glad to still be on my bike by the end, but it seemed more than this.

The monastery was genuinely surprising and beautiful, covered in contemporary frescoes and mosaics by the nuns and surrounded by a huge productive garden, kept by the monks. We were soaked to the skin for a final time just before arriving, and it was pretty bizarre to be greeted by a nun under a big umbrella in a downpour after we'd been cycling since 9 am. At first the place seemed rather low key but we went in to their refectory set for the evening mean and it just looked amazing. They made us wheat soup and talked about the paintings. As we went back out to the garden the sun came out over their orchard.

From this ...

2009-07-28T22:58:00.002+01:00

Ritualride - day 1 Setting off from Abbey Gardens
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

What happened next ...

2009-07-28T22:56:00.001+01:00

Ciggy & the Blackbird Eggs
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

No prizes for guessing why the same Blackbird might have abandoned her second batch of eggs. Sadly located in an even more visible location (and constructed largely with plastic bags bits as far as I could see) the cats basically kept up a constant vigil below the next nest waiting for the inevitable 'fledgling fall out' ... maybe she decided to quit while she was ahead with a high score of 3/3 with the first batch.

In the mean time ...

2009-07-28T22:47:00.002+01:00

Blackbird fledgling in our yard
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Life has been going on in the 'garden' at the Pie n Mash with our first batch of Blackbird fledglings hatched earlier this year and thankfully trained to fly in the back yard with the cats locked inside for a few days.
It's amazing to me if these three were anything to go by that any Blackbirds survive, they literally spent three days beak diving into the patio before they got the hang of it.

It's been a long time ...

2009-07-28T22:45:00.001+01:00

Our allotment in June
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

and this was taken last month - I've been too ashamed to take any photos since then as the weeds have taken hold in a big way :-( and I haven't been able to keep on top of it, same as my Blog it seems.

The keys to the kingdom ...

2009-03-15T19:50:00.002Z

End of weekend 3
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

of allotment heaven ... were handed to us a couple of weekends ago, and we are now paid up members of the West Ham Allotment Society. This is the state of our plot after about 6 days of digging and building ... I rather anticipate the whole endeavour taking a serious toll on my ability to engage with any other 'hobby' projects.

You don't see that every day

2009-03-15T19:43:00.005Z

The news bells of St Magnus the Martyr
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Last Friday we made a special trip down to the city at the end of the day, to see the brand new bells soon to be hung in the tower of St Magnus church (where my friend Nick is the verger). A couple of years ago they kindly let us record their hand bells in the church crypt for the sound track to our film ... Nick remembered my enthusiasm for the whole event and rang with the tip off about the new bells. They were made at the Whitechapel bell foundry - I bet they don't make that many full sets of 12 these days.

Cold Climate

2009-02-11T11:14:00.005Z

Yesterday turned into quite a day. Started with a very chilly swim in the lido, then an arduous cycle to work (at the Royal College of Art) then I went into town to see a very long Chinese documentary - Crime and punishment (2007), by director Zhao Liang.

All of these elements seemed to have a great commonality - all cold, and only really enjoyable once they were over.

New Blog on the block

2009-02-11T11:00:00.004Z

I'm really enjoying an additional 'group' in my life - now with a virtual presence in the form of a Blogumentary.

I don't think the 'ladies art group' (my most established group endeavour) will ever go this way ...

Ohhh ohhh afternoon delight ...

2009-01-05T15:27:00.003Z

Petit Trianon - "Farm"
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

For New Year 2008 I returned to travelling like a student thanks to the crushing effect of the Euro vs Pound, I found myself in Paris after about 20 years still eating packed lunch baguettes and skimping on coffees.

This time I made it to Versailles, I've wanted to visit there for so long I was scared that the final reality of Marie-Antoinette's petit domain would leave me less impressed than my teenage encounters with moody paintings in the Louvre. Not a bit of it, we had a perfect day sunny but icy enough to slightly thin the crowds prepared to hike down to the Petit Trianon estate, there were even moments when you couldn't see another tourist! After the delights of the farm we returned to the palace bracing ourselves for the crush.

Bear & Policeman
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

I knew the Jeff Koons show was on (one of the motivating factors for taking the train out despite microwave induced food poisoning!) but I wasn't prepared for just how great it would be! I would love to have been in on the hundreds of meetings no doubt endured to bring together this inspired overload of lavish extravagance. God knows why people have complained about the sculptures being shown here - they look as if they were made for the place. Who'd have thought contemporary art could improve on such already over-the-top excessive ridiculousness - afternoon delight indeed - shame we couldn't afford to eat cake.

Coll to Chile ...

2008-09-18T14:59:00.005+01:00

My Great Great Great Grandparents grave
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

For years my Grandfather has been badgering other family members to travel to Chile in search of the rest of his extended family who emigrated there from Scotland back in 1880's. He's mainly motivated by the mysterious fact his father changed his name from Gilchrist to Thompson (not an obvious choice!) and no one seems to know why.

Some years ago I visited Coll (A Scottish Island!) with my collaborator Karen as part of our project A Hypertext Journal (now identified as a pre-blogs blog) anyway at that time my motivation was that we were diligently following Boswell & Johnson's journey to the Western Isles and I only spent about 4 hours there due to both our gruelling schedule and the quite bizarre Cally Mac options.

It was only after I got back that my Grandftaher revealed that this small island was in fact where my Great Great Great Grandparents had lived for some years before departing for the other side of the world. Since then I've always wanted to go back and look into this, so the run up to my 40th seemed as good a time as any.

Otter beach on Tiree
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Mr. P&M (otherwise known as 'Eagle Eyes' but that's another story) managed to find the grave in question within about 40 minutes of us arriving on the island. As it then rained for the next 5 days consistently that left a lot of time to peer through the downpour at illusive shapes in the sea (mainly waves) fantasising that we'd spotted a killer whale or at least an otter. I did see one in the end (it was on Tiree in fact) at a distance, but the sort of scamper it did up the beach gave it away.

You can see the little fellow's paw print as evidence on my Flickr photos, as well as the incredible range of wild flowers we saw despite the rain.

Faulty at Forty

2008-09-04T14:47:00.003+01:00

I'm going to be Forty tomorrow and in honour of the planned celebrations I have developed the worst spot my forehead has seen this side of teenage years. One smart arse suggestion was to suddenly insist on a pirate theme for the 'do' ... I'm considering cutting my own fringe as a cover up device ... probably also a mistake. I've spared you an image.

Folkestone Triennial

2008-08-21T12:30:00.004+01:00

Anna & Rona enjoy Sci-Fi!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Now I know that various readers are using this Blog as a guide to successful day trips from the big smoke (!) So I feel obliged to mention last Saturday's very enjoyable trip to the Folkestone Triennial.

I went with my 'Ladies Art Group' (or LAG as it's affectionately known) and we had a great day despite group difficulty in relaxing enough to go 'off art-map'. My personal favourite was the Heather & Ivan Morison converted fire/house truck full of sci-fi, although I always wish with these spaces that you didn't have to have an invigilator - although the one in here was very pleasant (in fact all the staff seemed extraordinarily young/helpful) you can't help but see them as part of the work, or indeed listen to their interpretation (albeit I'm sure the 'official' one in this case). I would have liked to just sit in the van and in fact wonder about who owned it, and why it might have been made ... the imagined context for a mobile home with robot fabric curtains and chunky wood furnishing.

David Batchelor's Disco Mecanique
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

Surprisingly I also really liked David Batchelor's Disco Mecanique - not really my cup of tea normally - but in the glorious setting of the former Metropole Hotel ballroom it really was delightful. Although by the time we reached it I was pretty windswept and I did know a cup of tea was next!

Jaywick revisited

2008-08-08T12:33:00.002+01:00

Nice decor shame about the sausages!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope

We went back to Jaywick for the windiest 'carnival' experience I've ever had last weekend. Click the photo link to see more images of the impressive animal kite display in a high wind against a grey sky. Here Mr P&M braces himself for the Jaywick fried breakfast experience ... those glasses didn't help ... no wonder the majorettes were so 'chunky'!

Jaywick Carnival

2008-08-08T12:27:00.001+01:00

Allotment Envy

2008-08-07T12:27:00.003+01:00

Apparently I'm very near the top of the list for West Ham allotments now ... in the meantime my Sister-in-law Maria has been tormenting me with photos of the bounty from her Southampton plot. Apparently this is one day's harvest.

Typically, as soon as I get an allotment it looks like I will also have the 85 x 25M site that is Abbey Gardens to contend with.

Vat 'O Fat

2008-07-09T22:32:00.005+01:00

Judy & Barley - Best in Show
Never to be for Ciggy & me!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Karen & I have recently been doing some very early stages filming at 2 big cat shows. Any hopes I may have secretly hosted that my own bundle of joy Ciggy Fag Ash (to use his full name) might ever make the show bench were cruelly dashed this week.

Early in the morning I heard Mr P&M go down to feed the cats then a gasp of horror as he spotted Ciggy dripping in an unidentified sticky substance - cue complete hysteria on my part as I imagine he has had something thrown over him by an evil neighbour - cue even more crazed hysteria as I hear the noise he makes as I try to hold him in the bath and wash off this substance which turns out to be cooking oil ... lots of it.

After two goes in the bath both lasting approximately 50 seconds before he escaped we faced up to a humiliating and expensive trip to the vets. To be honest I thought £70 was quite a bargain considering the task they faced. Poor soul is still rather sorry looking and greasy about the ears and legs despite their best efforts for an hour with the shampoo. The offending source of the problem is in next door's back yard. Apparently they have to keep the used cooking oil outside to be collected, I assume he jumped onto the lid, it gave way and judging by the state of him, he went right in.

I'm told by the Cat Fancy club that the 'dolly's hairdressing' required to get a long haired cat into show condition ends with 2 hours under the hairdryer. I guess that also means more than 50 seconds held under in the bath.

Flat Roof

2008-05-15T10:47:00.002+01:00

Grizedale Arts at Grand Designs!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Last week in an attempt to prompt action over our leaking flat roof (which we want to 'green') we went to Grand Designs 'Live'. I'd been gripped all week by just how rubbish the show was when translated to a live format but of course had watched it anyway!
The 'show' itself was wildly 'diverse' (to be generous) and we didn't find any info about green roofs ... we did enjoy a surreal cuppa with the Grizedale Arts gang though watching the planes coming in along the river to city airport . We finished up with a spot of Kevin 'performance building' watching.

Set up Shop

2008-03-31T14:43:00.003+01:00

Wind damage to our shop last week
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

The tinkling threat of local regeneration became a deafening crash during the recent storms, as a long-out-of-date "For Sale" sign came away from next door's wall and in through my studio sky-light. The glass smashing down and embedding into my (very nice) 60's table gave me quite a jump.
After some panic I decided to call the number on the sign (!) and eventually the sign company came to patch it up. Not it seems to much effect as evidenced by Karen's now wet laptop left on the table below.

My own guilty part in the dubious gentrification of Well St. can currently be seen documented at Hackney Museum. The film Len Cook & I made together is showing there as part of "Set up Shop - From Hoxton to Homerton, Haberdashery to Hair Extensions". It's only a modest short but it's an affectionate portrait of Len & records a day we spent together before he retired - also one of the last days of the building as a working Pie 'n' Mash shop. Look out for the shocking 'liquor' close-up!

The 'secret nuclear bunker' - a great family day out ...

2008-02-20T12:21:00.005Z

Entrance to the 'secret nuclear bunker' ....
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Well at least I thought it had all the makings of a wonderful day out along with Mr P&M, my brother-in-law and Mother in law ... Let's just say I judged my choice perfectly for 75% of the party the last 25% was still shivering and laughing nervously sometime later in the car.

This photo was taken before I saw the signs saying you had to have a permit to take photos! Worth going back for one I'd say now.

Personally I can't recommend it highly enough as a day out ... I'm not going to give a huge amount of detail as it's well covered already in "Bollocks to Alton Towers" and if you're into these sort of visits you probably can just read the review in the copy you already have.

The thing I mainly enjoyed about the whole experience was the home-made nature of the place (take a look at their website if you want a flavour of this). So home-made there are no 'staff' just you and an audio guide and an honesty box at the end. There seemed something wonderfully in-appropriate about the government selling off their top-secret bolt hole where 600 of them would sit out 3 months of a potential nuclear winter ... and better still selling it back to the farmer who's family had originally had to 'sell' the land to the government.

Exit from the Bunker at Kelvedon
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

The other thing I really wanted to spend more time looking at where the films that the new owner has collected together there. I've seen most of the protect and survive ones before ... but seeing them inside this bunker just made the recommendations for your average home owner seem all the more ludicrous, sinister and pathetic ("bush any fall out off of your food", "cover your bath full of water with an old door"). They also had a really interesting film I *think made to be shown in the bunker to calm people down if they were stuck in there for 3 months. Shot in the bunker it showed a sort of Hollywood meets stiff upper lip version of events where the characters (supposedly those you were now trapped underground with) pushed about little models and monitored blasts and fallout drift in an enthusiastic and purposeful way.

I guess it would be no good grumbling down there, even with the chemical loos and tinned food for 600 ... there was also a good supply of coffins although I couldn't work out in the rush to leave how they ejected those into the outside world.

Jago-wick

2008-02-08T17:43:00.002Z

House opposite the pub
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Last weekend we fancied a day out of London and decided to go to Jaywick, situated on the coast in Essex and the only small piece of the East Anglian coastline I have never been to before.

I was sort of prepared for the place as a couple of years ago I toyed with the idea of applying for a job as the arts officer there ... God knows why I have no desire to be an arts officer but I did have an odd feeling that I wanted to work in Jaywick. In the end the pay was so low (even by arts standards) that I could almost not have covered my travel costs to get there ...

ANYWAY having visited on Saturday I'm not altogether sure what an arts officer might offer the place. It does have some amazing homes, and a fascinating history but I suspect it also has a pretty amazing set of problems - as evidenced by the high standard of burnt out houses, rubbish and dog shit around - even by Hackney standards the place is undeniably a mess.

Jaywick beach
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I've read lots of accounts of the great community spirit there, but I have to say it might be hard to find. The sheer density of cctv cameras bristling from some of the more loved seaside homes didn't point towards great community cohesion.

Oddly it made me think of the novel I'm reading at the moment about 'Old Nichol' the Jago 'slum' that once stood where East London's Boundary Estate now stands. I'm currently trying (with Mr. P&M) to make a 'song' there for the bandstand on the central circus. Through our search for musicians I get to see lots of different people there trying different versions of community spirit. They may still have a problem with dog shit on the circus but it's come a long way since 'A Child of the Jago' was written by Arthur Morrison in 1896!

Morrison's novel caused a scandal at the time and he was accused of dramatising the problems in the area. Now though it's commonly felt to be almost documentary in nature as a work.

The Jago as a place was somewhere that people could easily 'disappear' and you couldn't help but feel the same about Jaywick. I've been wondering what a novel/documentary would make of life here in 2008.

Martello tower/art center/fortress!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

As we were leaving I saw the Martello Tower where I'd have been based if I'd got the job. I don't think I could have stuck it - it seemed more like a fortress than an 'arts centre' - isolated and windswept at the end of a caravan park where every window displayed a sign that all valuables had been removed. Not really the right spot to really get to know Jaywick from.

Local films for local people ...

2008-01-10T15:45:00.001Z

Just before Christmas Karen & I heard that our film Living with the Tudors has been accepted for SXSW film festival in Texas, so possibly another trip there this year. Meanwhile all my activities of late have been focussed on a rather more local level...

Before we moved to the Pie 'n' Mash in 2002 I spent some time with Len Cook who had run the shop and was about to retire. We spent a funny day filming his routine built up over 20 odd years. After we moved in we were swamped with trying to turn the building into a home (the flat above was more or less derelict) and studio. Five years later I finally managed to edit together a short film from my footage which I sent to Len. Yesterday I took copies to the Hackney Museum and Hackney Archives. In the archive I looked through the 100 odd images they have of our market street, it made me rather sad to see that only 20 years ago the street market was still thriving, and that our shop front is now the only original one in the short run of shops at our end of the street. It's particularly sad that Tescos at the end of the road probably has a lot to do with the loss of the stalls when you know that Jack Cohen (Tesco's founder) started out with a stall on this market.

Anyway as I cycled back on a miserable Hackney evening I thought about our market street (which I love) and what it means to be 'local', how places change and if these changes can really mean 'improvement'.

My other 'local' activities recently have really increased my sense of confusion about our own street and the part we play as residents here. Tim & I have been trying to make a project on the Boundary Estate called 'A Song for a Circus'. The Estate and the bandstand at its centre (Arnold Circus) are a unique part of East London. Built in the 1890's as one of London's first council housing projects, the buildings there now completely replaced former slums (the Jago) made up of tiny streets. Researching in the fantastically appointed (and not in a 'Ideas store' way) Tower Hamlets archive, I came across a list of the jobs held by all the inhabitants of the area before and after the estate was built. They are just lists, but somehow they are much more than this ... the lost occupations such as cats' meat sellers, japanners & wireworkers, box makers and French polishers speak of the changes in the area to me in quite a beautiful way.

I can't deny that we are part of the changing face of our East End market street, how you participate in this change is I guess up to each individual. Anyway, if you want to see our film by an artist and a Pie 'n' Mash maker take a trip to Hackney Archives and ask for us.

"But is it really REAL?"

2007-11-28T21:08:00.000Z

During my summers at Kentwell hall 'working' as a Tudor Limner I would be asked this question an awful lot ... about the most surprising things. Apparently when my fellow limner Kate used to bring her large and smelly (& obviously animated!) dog to the re-creation people would stare in wonder ... "But is it REAL".

I'm currently traveling back from the 'reality' overload that is IDFA, the amazing documentary festival held each year in Amsterdam. Where else could I spend only 3 real-time days but what seemed like many months in contrasting 'realities' as diverse as the Antarctic (Herzog's 'Encounters at the end of the world') a plane fuselage submerged in snow (Gonzalo Arijon's extraordinary epic 'Stranded') a premature baby unit (the Lataster's 'If we Knew') and a dutch school Garden project (Roel van Dalen's 'Green Paradise') Ironically only this morning's offering 'Mechanical Love' took me any where near my own 'reality' and that was about Robots!

No wonder I'm tired.

Anyway watching all these docs. back to back obviously makes you think about different ways to make situations real for people and reminded me that I've been meaning to write something on this topic regarding Penny Woolcock's film 'Exodus' which I saw a couple of weeks ago at the Barbican. I already had a kind of 'connection' with the wider context of this project, as I (like many of London's art day trippers) had been in Margate for the burning of the giant Anthony Gormley figure made of rubbish. Despite 'enjoying' the day out with a dip in the sea and the amazing spectacle of the burning man plus thousands of people waving camera phones at him, I was really intrigued and somewhat cynical about how she might convincingly weave this event footage into the narrative of the film - of course in my miserable-artist capacity believing the fact that Art Angel had persuaded Anthony Gormley to 'design' (?) this prop to be an irritating and pointless bit of PR.
However, much as I'd have liked to have used this as a space to do a bit of blanket-public-Gormley bashing the way this particular aspect of the film worked surprised me. (Actually just as an aside if you want to really have a cringe-worthy Gormley meets public moment just look at the 'making of' doc put together to supposedly promote this part of the piece and shown on channel 4 despite it's terrible production values and content!) ...

ANYWAY this wasn't what was surprising or disappointing about 'Exodus', in fact this huge rubbish edifice and the whole of the 'rubbish' set created at Dreamland were part of the film that I loved. I also really admired the ambition of the piece & the fact that (as we are led to understand from all the publicity) the film was made almost entirely in Margate, with folk who live there, many of whom had never been involved in anything like it. Sadly though, this is also the big disappointment of the film. It's of course an epic and at times surreal tale & I could have taken all this in the Margate/contemp. setting if the acting had been better. I know many of the stars were first timers (and some of the 'discoveries' like the glue-bag kid were fantastic) but at times I just couldn't take the film seriously as their on-screen personalities were so unreal - ironic of course as they really were 'the people of Margate' whatever that means. Sadly I've only seen clips of the directors other films which also use non-actors in a mix of documentary-style fiction which (from the brief bits I have seen) were all too convincing ... but here it didn't work for me, and I spent the whole film unable to relax and go with it because of this.

A few days after this screening one of my new first year students presented a really interesting piece of work at their first crit - I don't as a rule write about student work but this is more about the approach than the content. Anyway, in order to convey a rather complex future scenario where two 'remote cleaner-robot operators' illegally trace each other and meet IRL as well as on the floors of the museum they nightly clean together via remotely controlled robots (I told you I spend time with robots for 'real') he had put together an extraordinary piece of video work to tell their story.

Utilising a piece of Korean (I believe) day time TV footage which he'd had managed to persuade someone to download for him, he had subtitled an actual exchange between a couple and a chat show host. As there was (surprisingly) no Korean speakers in our current group we still don't know what they were 'really' saying but he had managed to subtitle their exchange in such a way as to make them appear to be telling the story of how they met through these cleaner robots they both worked from a distance. I was amazed to see how convincing the exchange seemed - and to give the student his dues he had done a really good job of the subtitling and responding to the couple's body language - somehow because the exchange we were witnessing was both 'real' and familiar if linguistically impenetrable to its current audience, we completely bought into the story that he then over laid onto their actions with the subtitles. What we were watching wasn't , of course, entirely real but their actual natural body language managed to convince us that this future scenario REALLY could be very real. It's going to be a hard act to follow as the usual fare of students 'acting' in other students films (& believe me this can be far worse than the good people of Margate gave) is somehow not really going to cut the mustard now.

One for the lady listener

2007-10-08T17:48:00.001+01:00

Parrot Speaker
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Spotted at the great Amberley Working Museum (just before an impressive display of static electricity sparks) this speaker was apparently made by Royal Doulton for Artandia in the 1920's as an overt bid to encourage ladies to take an interest in speaker technology.

It would certainly work for me! Beats the various 'vintage' monsters we have cluttering up the P&M on a promise to be repaired.

An impossibly good experience in a mask?!

2007-09-26T13:38:00.000+01:00

Now here's something you won't often see on these pages - a 'theatre review' and what's more a positive one at that.

Punchdrunk's The Masque of the Red Death ...

Ordinarily (despite being involved in the uber-embarrassing world of 'live art') I'd rather watch telly than go to the theatre. For some reason I find the whole experience really difficult - all that earnest acting & make-up and (in my case) unwilling suspension of disbelief.

Anyway after a long day of conference-style discussion around 'engaging the spectator' for public art the last thing I felt like doing on Saturday night was being engaged as a spectator myself. Imagine my horror when we arrived at BAC (with our friends Andrew & Tilly who'd generously bought us tickets despite my known antagonism towards theatre) and were give those white Venice/Horror style plastic 'Masques' to wear ... oh Lord, I thought how can this be anything but REALLY bad. All of my worst 'live art' audience experiences have started with being handed some sort of mask.

But as evidenced by this scary image of Mr & Mrs P&M at the end of the night not only was I forced into changing my mind but quite quickly I was even convinced that the masks were actually a brilliant device for disguising the ramshackle collection of enthusiasts that is a theatre audience (I still thought they were awful to actually wear though).

The 'promenade' style performance is apparently based on an Edgar Allan Poe story but I couldn't tell you a scrap of information about any kind of narrative despite being 'in' the performance for the best part of 3 hours. What's perhaps more surprising though is that I didn't really care, I was having such a great visual experience being inside the set (although it's more like an installation) that any regard for narrative soon evaporated. To try and get an idea of what it's think Mike Nelson meets that spooky house scene from 'Eyes Wide Shut' meets the best living history event you've ever been to, then throw in some more smoke machines and a film sound track!

At one point you find yourself back-stage of a small theatre/bar squeezed in with various characters coming on and off stage and changing, peeking round a door you can see from behind the stage out into a rowdy bar where some hour or so later I found myself (with some relief) having what was by then a much needed stiff drink. I spent ages watching from the top of a large stair case while various seemingly unconnected filmic scenes unfolded below me. Some annoying audience members did try to (literally) chase a narrative or character action but my reticence to get involved may have been why I was singled out for a 'one-to-one' theatre experience ... being locked in a room with one actress (and also when I eventually took off my blindfold I realised an actor too!) and getting kissed and soaked wasn't exactly what I had in mind at the start of the night. I found this all slightly amusing but I have to say it also left me a little shaken - cynical as I wanted to be about theatre participation I did feel slightly panicked by the lack of an obvious exit after this incident. Anyway, as I said, I did re-find Mr P&M at this point who as always knows where the bar is even when he's involved in a live improvisation.

Rather oddly it also reminded me of the absolute best bits of being at Kentwell (the Tudor re-creation of 'everyday' life I've taken part in & filmed). When we first came in and I was trying to orientate myself as I simply encountered various rooms and characters I felt like the punters I see at Kentwell as they come into the smoky bake house or the stink of the dairy and see people just going about their business. The difference being that at Kentwell the 21st century visitors stick out like ... well people in cheap summer shorts amongst well-dressed Tudors ... but here the masks did actually stop you being constantly visually distracted by the audience.

At the very end of the night we were cleverly shepherded into a huge space I can only assume is the more usual theatre area (God knows what normally happens in the other 20 odd rooms we went through) & the cast performed the nearest to a set piece of physical theatre we'd seen all night, just as the audience were about to applaud the lights came up a band started to play and the whole thing turned into a party as people (some reluctantly) removed their masks.

The final weird twist to the night came when I saw Mr big-hair-polarbear in the audience and then 5 minutes later he was playing on stage. I'd have ordinarily bought the ticket just to see him drumming. Apparently it's already sold out but if you can get a ticket go ... I'd even wear evening dress now.

Wedding Bells

2007-08-22T17:17:00.000+01:00

Here for the curious is a pic from our big day ...
(Taken very kindly for us by Nick Clark)

Mr & Mrs P & M

We had a wonderful time, there's actually a big party
going on behind us!

Bride-zilla?

2007-07-18T15:28:00.001+01:00

Bunting table
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Just say if I'm boring you on this topic ... just thought I'd share this term that Dorian mentioned to Karen for outrageous pre-wedding bridal behaviour/demands. I think I have narrowly avoided a tough of bride-zilla by handing over the manufacture of our sofa loose-covers to a professional (don't you love the Internet) when 3 days in it all seemed to be going a touch tits up. I am enjoying the bunting preparation & collating though ... the cat quite likes it too.

Just an old fashioned girl?

2007-07-04T13:33:00.001+01:00

Wedding Bells
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Or ... Wedding Bells?
Yes please with embossing & silver details!

I may not want an old fashioned millionaire and all the other crazy stuff Eartha was after but yes, for those yet to hear the announcement, the author of these tales is to Marry ... Tim Olden ... from here on to be known on these pages as Mr P&M!

So "old-fashioned" as getting married at nearly 40, after years of co-habitation might seem, I did not - until recently - ever see myself as old-fashioned. Hey, I teach new technology as a 'profession' and I'm "not afraid of the future".

However, the process of planning a wedding is making me seriously doubt my full embrace of all things contemporary. Now, if I had been planning this event my whole life, or even if I'd had more than 8 weeks (now 3 to go) to plan things I might have made a better stab at it, but the way things are shaping up, I find myself with increasing regularity pining for vintage quality and be-moaning the lack of good old fashioned traditional services ...

Congratulations
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Let's start with wedding invitations (a warning here that this could be a long post, I've a lot to get off my chest but I promise not to bang on after this one). I have an idea of what I'd like something simple and nicely printed, I try the man who seems to still do letter press on Roman Road ... no he says, no demand now "your best bet is to go to a well-known high street stationers and see the book". This book (or books in fact) contain 1000's of designs - all of them are disgusting and I wouldn't consider sending my cats. But help is at hand, I visit the soon to be P&M in-laws (Norma & Derek) and they have kept all the cards that they received for their wedding. They are beautiful, embossed with silver foil and shaped edges. I spend nearly three weeks thrashing my printer, buying different card, digging out silver powder from my dark printmaking past, and attempting to hand cut a patterned edge. Eventually I accept I can't reach these design heights compromise and get them in the post.

Then there's the cake (I hardly dare mention this as it's causing so much controversy with friends and family - apparently no-one likes fruit except me) but anyway never mind the taste what should the damn thing look like. Having rejected most popular London-contemporary-wedding options due to the lack of air-conditioning/a big fridge in our lovely home, I leave the world of chocolate frilly towers and decide a traditional 3 tier wedding cake will be just the job ...

Lucky Horseshoe
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Or so I thought. After hours of on-line research I remember seeing the most amazing looking 'traditional' cake shop in Walthamstow. I call ... yes they can make the cake at short notice, yes any design, yes I can taste it. We cycle there on a sweaty Saturday, excited despite the 40 min. ride. It all looks promising (fabulous fantasy castles, hearts and tiered affairs line the shop window) until we meet the lady in question.

"You need to know exactly what you want"
"Do you have any pictures we could look at?"
"1000's"
"Shall we look at them then?"
"No point, there's too many you need to know what you want"

At this point her friend in the back of the shop starts to shout out random comments - I think attempting to be helpful, but actually seeming a bit unhinged ...

"Heart shaped"
"Sponge layer"
"Ohhh no NOT pink ribbon"
"Heart shaped ..."

"Shut it" says our friend ...

Eventually we make some decisions and she gracelessly gives us a price and refuses to deliver. I ask if she does indeed have the sample of cake she promised. A cube of cling-wrapped fruit cake is pushed over the table. Sensing I am at breaking point and might panic order, Tim takes charge of the situation and suggests we go for a cuppa and try the cake while we decide.
As we attempt to masticate the dry fruit disaster, I look down at my tea and mutter "we have to start looking again don't we?" "Yes" says Tim ... "I think she had dog hair on her leggings". We sheepishly try to unlock our bikes from the front of the shop and sneak away unnoticed. I never did find a nice old fashioned cake maker up to the job.

Speaking of smart technology

2007-06-26T13:49:00.000+01:00

It's your last chance to see the work of my lovely students from this year, at the RCA Design Interactions show ... it's all in a tent in Kensington Gardens (I'm not joking) open until this Thursday & highly recommended of course.

This is a still from Ginger Jess's project FATE - The Futures Association for Therapy & Entertainment - with her facilitating a Delphi Party. You can read more about it here.

Midi Music ...

2007-06-26T13:45:00.001+01:00

Smart Technology!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Fantastic example of 'smart technology' seen recently on a trip to Exbury Gardens near Southampton. It's a home-made 'Dutch Street Organ' created by the gentleman seen in the picture controlling it via midi files on his PDA ... better still it's powered via the car's fag lighter!

Where's my motivation?

2007-05-15T17:25:00.001+01:00

Evening on Derek's allotment
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

My work/gardening balance seems to have gone wrong and my motivation is lost in some packets of seeds, my Father 'in law's' allotment and the 3 tons of top soil we have finally had delivered to our own back yard here at the Pie & Mash.

Jinxed

2007-05-01T14:59:00.001+01:00

I'm back ...
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

If I was a superstitious person I'd think I jinxed our last few weeks ... amongst a raft of problems, the car sale fell through and the cat is just back from a 5 day stay in the pet hospital ... fingers crossed paid for on the aforementioned pet insurance.

I think things are going to get better from here though.

Alternative Cat Carrier

2007-04-12T20:42:00.001+01:00

Cat transport
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

We're selling our car on Sunday ... I guess it's going to mean this is the shape of things to come.

Cat vaccination - vital OR a rip-off cooked up by vets and pet insurers -discuss!

'Waking the Dead'

2007-02-17T17:32:00.001Z

Now I love a TV murder mystery but during the middle of last week the back yard of the Pie 'n' Mash started to look like a scene from one.

We've lived here 5 years now and we've only just got round to this bit of the building - which when we first moved in was almost entirely covered by a walk in fridge-freezer - a useful resource for scaring people at parties, but not much else. Obviously having the yard dug out has reminded me of all the dust, mess and pain of when we first moved in - but at least this time I'm not that involved. My friend Andrew (who's a garden designer) is doing most of the digging.

The other reason I have been thinking about when we moved in a lot is that I have finally managed to edit the short film I wanted to make of Len, the Pie 'n' Mash's former charismatic owner. When we bought the shop we underwent a fairly a-typical exchange process, part of which included me spending a very enjoyable day with Len filming his routine cooking the pies etc. that he did each day. He's actually a great 'presenter' of what to him was a daily routine. Unbelievably after finally finishing the film (and posting him a copy thank God) I lost the whole lot when the 'Pie 'n' Mash back up disc' packed up ... Apparently if I want to go through 1000's of unlabelled recovered files it's in there somewhere but so far that's a level of super sleuthing I've resisted.

At a friend's 50th last weekend I actually met the editor of 'Waking the Dead' my favourite murder-mystery, I think he thought I had something of the pathologist/stalker about me as my questions moved out of the territory of polite fan into obsessed person stuck in a long film edit with an extra-ordinary memory for cuts and techniques witnessed during what should be casual TV viewing.

Return to Toge

2007-02-17T15:35:00.001Z

Toge winter house
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I also made a weekend visit back to Toge (where we stayed for a month last summer) with 3 of my current students and (fortunately!) one of my former Japanese students. We enjoyed unbelievably generous hosting, and ate some food that even topped our summer cooking exploits ... follow this link to the Flickr photos and check out the hot rice-based lollies we ate for breakfast.

Robot Parade

2007-02-17T13:35:00.000Z

Kiddy Land Cats
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Asimo performs
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Paro
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I saw a surprising number of robots in Japan ... from the Kiddy Land pet/toy/robot cats to the rather jazzy dance steps of Asimo - surely the biggest robot show-off to date. The most interesting was actually Paro the 'mental commit robot' who looks a bit like a grubby seal cuddly toy. Look closely though and his whiskers are sensors, touch him and he'll sort of respond. Compared to the sub-human dance routine that Asimo put on I thought the way that Paro tried to retreat from the hoards of kids casually patting him was rather convincing. I think the idea is that he's used a bit like 'pat cats' to calm people down and provide a friendly response ... As it says on his website (where there are some photos of him looking much brighter) he's the world's most theraputic robot (As certified by the Guiness book of records 2002).

Email from Number 10

2007-02-16T20:35:00.000Z

Amy & Ella
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Just a quick update on the Manor Garden Allotment Campaign mentioned in an earlier posting ...

In January I went to their New Year Feast, a chance to meet people and catch up on their struggle to remain on the Olympic site. Pictured here are my friends Amy Plant & Ella Gibb - artists who have become involved with the campaign there ...

The Allotments have a great site about the protest AND a link to where you can take full advantage of your new right to e-petition No. 10 about the potential move at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/manorgardens/

Maywa Denki's Sellotape

2007-01-31T09:13:00.000Z

Maywa Denki's Tape!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I'm in Tokyo with Fiona Raby and our students from the 1st year of the RCA design interactions course. It's a flying visit with plenty packed in ... yesterday's highlight was a visit to the rather charming world of Maywa Denki and his (slightly nippy) garage-style studio/workshop.

The man himself was very sweet, slowly unpacking some of his amazing objects and products and allowing us to paw his sketch books. One of his co-workers made us tea and he chatted in broken English and bits of Japanese whilst between us we took about 1000 photos of everything from his packing cases to precious objects.

My favorite thing was his packing tape collection

Christmas Creep

2006-12-28T20:18:00.000Z

Boxing Day - Deflated
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

The Christmas lights of Beverley Heights didn't make for such an impressive show this year ... still they are always a welcome escape from the fug of Christmas TV, constant food, booze and wind.
They do, however, seem to be spreading right across suburban Southampton.

Foggy London Town

2006-12-22T20:09:00.000Z

Helter Skelter
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Just out delivering the last of my Christmas cards - it has to be said unlike Heathrow, Hackney sure is improved by fog.

Actually I'm gutted that I spotted the Hackney Council Christmas Cards too late to purchase - think of the photoshop hours, card, glue and scalpel blades I could have saved. I'd like to think they were a deliciously ironic introduction on the part of a savvy staff member but sadly this is probably not the case ... still I might get a pack for next year.

The search continues ...

2006-11-12T17:53:00.000Z

Lovely old labels Louise found at the allotments
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Thanks to Gordon & Louise for showing Lizzy and I around their lovely allotment on Saturday ... the highlight of an otherwise sneezy, cold & bed bound weekend!

Liz & I's excitement at a possible application to the West Ham Allotment soc. was only tainted by the sad news that they too (Like Manor Garden Allotments) are having to move some of their plots over the next few months as the Prescott Channel is going to be widened ... no doubt partly also to accommodate the Olympic construction traffic ...

I made a great potent chilli soup from the parsnips they gave me.

An Opening and Potential Closure

2006-10-29T11:34:00.000Z

Pink Dahlias
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

A while back I vowed to post more about Hackney (and due to recent press never has there been a better time to try and say something good about living here!) ANYWAY this week without, I have to say, any kind of fanfare the London Fields Lido finally opened. The timing for me could not be better I'm about to start on 6 weeks of editing and there's nothing like sitting on your arse in an edit suite arguing and eating cake for weeks on end to pile on the pre-christmas pounds. I would love to include a photo here but obviously cameras, like petting, are now banned from pools.

Cosmos
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

The other thing I've been thinking about sorting out to compete my Hackney life is getting an allotment. This is no casual undertaking and I spent Saturday doing some serious research - my nearest site is the slightly bleak patch on Overbury Street, which looked perfectly alright until I arrived at Manor Gardens. Now this is right on the edge of Hackney, but sadly for the plot owners it's slap bang in the middle of the 2012 Olympic site. I had actually confused the site with one I'd visited years ago belonging to friends (which turns out to be further along the canal) but I knew before I arrived the allotments are under threat. Due to a manure delivery the gates were open and we wandered in to look around. The site is huge and really impressive. It REALLY does fulfill the cliché of an urban oasis, made all the sharper by the fact you walk through what must be some of the most bleak bits of light industrial London to get there.

Dahlias in front of one of the allotment sheds
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Eventually (realising we were now locked in!) we chatted to some of the people working on their plots. One woman had continued to work her husband's site after he'd died and proudly showed me the interior of his shed complete with a full cooker. Another man tried to joke with me about now having to move his rhubarb which almost broke him when he moved plots within the site 18 years ago. It really was heart breaking to think that the site will now disappear, I suspect that a lot of the older tenants won't brave the move - and the new shed and £300 compensation seem like rather a pathetic exchange for the community they will be potentially loosing. I can't pretend to know a lot about the ins and outs of all the plans, but failing to include the allotments and the innovative alternative ideas they've put forward does seem incredibly short sighted of the Olympic team. By the time we left, the incredible display of Dahlia's running riot across the site had taken on a slightly funereal autumn feel.

Ghost Train

2006-10-29T11:14:00.000Z

William Belson's Ghost Train
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Ghost Train
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Tilly & I on the Ghost Train - part of Brendan Walker's Thrill Laboratory at the Science Museum ... I think my teeth are more scary than the ride. The ride itself looked amazing outside in Kensington, isolated from other regular fairground chaos. As part of the evening there were some great talks the best being Dan Howland on the Disney ride that took you under the microscope and Norman Bel Geddes fantastic Futurama

One Day in History

2006-10-18T13:27:00.000+01:00

Domestic Life
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I love the idea of this project, and spent ages thinking about what to write for it. I recommend a browse on the website, although most of the entries are utterly mundane there's still something gripping about them - even without the added drama of passing time.

Most of the re-enactors I know would probably give anything to read the Tudor equivalent of this archive.

You can read what I wrote on the Sometime Later Blog ...

I can't recommend highly enough ...

2006-09-27T10:28:00.000+01:00

Seven Samurai dinner plates!
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

The other thing that's been cheering me up is the rice cooker I bought in the Vietnamese supermarket in Hackney, giving me a chance to stop moaning about UK food and to say something good about living in Hackney (which I've begun to feel is getting a bad blog-deal from me). One of these good things is that you can buy most objects and services you need in life on our street, and if you can't get them here they may well be in this supermarket on Mare Street! I am going to make an effort to love Hackney more on my Blog and Flickr ... but if they would open the Lido on London Fields soon that would really help.

Ulva Scallops

2006-09-27T10:23:00.000+01:00

Ulva
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I think I am coming back from the brink ... only a few days after the Thirsk episode we were on holiday for a week in Mull. The whole trip was fantastic (in part due to taking up the challenge of following Ms & MS 's walks around North Mull) but some of the highlights were food based. If you're in Tobermory 'scallops and chips ' from the van on the sea front are amazing and if you go to Mull spend the extra £5 on the one minute ferry to Ulva ... not only is the Island a wonderful place to find food (we collected Mussels to cook that night) you can also buy some of the best oysters and scallops tasted in the UK at the small cafe by the Ferry. So thanks to the 12 odd folk who live on Ulva for restoring my faith in rural UK food.

Soba Sadness

2006-09-27T10:08:00.000+01:00

Airplane Cloud & Landscape
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

It's a long time since I've blogged and it's started to feel like a long time since we came back from Japan ... I'm scared though that I have been permanently scarred buy the experience, and since it's unlikely I will be spending a great deal of time in Japan in the near future I'm not sure it's in a good way!

Ordinarily (as I think I mentioned earlier) I am so pleased to be back in Britain that tears prick up in my eyes as we fly in over London. This trip was no exception and as we approached Heathrow I felt exhilarated to see London spreading out below us, familiar landmarks floating past and changing scale as I imagined myself in amongst them at ground level. There was obviously a slight hiccup in home-coming relief as Karen and I tried to negotiate her onward passage to Madchester airport with our 8 bags and the new hand luggage ban, but I perked up no end at Paddington where a full band of 30 odd musicians were playing on the concourse of the train station. 'Now this IS weird' I thought, as I waited to be collected and relaxed back into the warm embrace of UK eccentric extreme-hobby behaviour (by now I'd gathered this wasn't a one off and they play there every Friday).

It started though the next weekend ... we travelled up to Scotland for Jamie and Aiko's wedding party and driving up the A1 took so long that instead of camping somewhere gorgeous on the coast as I'd anticipated, we ended up in Thirsk - not, as advertised, on this occasion beautiful James Herriot country but actually a bog standard UK town symptomatic of all that is depressing at times about Britiain. Now usually I can rise to an odd B&B situation and squeeze enjoyment out of the bad decor and eccentric service. Here though I found myself intensely irritated by the over friendly man running the B&B, despite the many photos of his recently deceased Alsatian, I just felt horror rather than intrigue at his obvious desire to 'share' for any amount of time I'd like to chat. Things got worse when we went in search of food, ordinarily a rural curry - no matter how ropey - is a sure fire way to cheer me (or in fact Karen) up ... and a cheap prawn dhansak has been the saving grace of many a disastrous day's filming/travelling. Not so in Thirsk ... I felt irritated by the people around us and slightly depressed rather than cheered by the food.

Thirsk Rose
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

As they bought me a wilted rose and dish of After Eights with that white christmas-chocolate mildew look, something in me snapped. I realised that since my return every mediocre dining experience I'd clocked up (and let's face it it quite easy to pack them in here) has been haunted by the vision of the soba noodle trays served at our favorite roadside cafe near Toge. Somehow this tray with a neat basket of noodles, bowl of dipping sauce, walnut and soya snacks and best of all mountain vegetable tempura is all I can now dream about in the way of 'modest' food.

Soba Noodles & Mountain Vegetables
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I have tried to recreate this exact meal in my own kitchen with some limited success (the lack of mountain vegetables in Hackney being an obvious problem) but I really think it's made me turn a corner in food appreciation that there maybe no way back from. The accommodation, hospitality and food we experienced in rural Japan may not be fancy but it's I think the best I've ever enjoyed. Thirsk is probably not the only UK small town that won't seem the same again for a long time.

Cat World and Edo Wonderland

2006-08-04T07:03:00.000+01:00

There never seemed to be any time in Tokyo to blog … not because I was out seeing the sites, far from it, I barely left Ikebukuro (where we were performing) but any time left after researching our houses project was absorbed by preparing for the live events – even though most of our role was documentation.
The two ‘tourist’ trips we did make were interesting, if a little disappointing. Despite having revved myself up for Cat World (at the top of Tokyu Hands) in reality it was rather unremarkable, aside from the eye watering smell inside - which most Japanese visitors seemed to be ignoring. A cross between a local vets waiting room, a cat rescue home and a slightly shonky theme park even my love of cats couldn’t make me into a fan of ‘Nekobukuro’. The Japanese obsession with all things kawaii (cute) just doesn’t go far enough, in my opinion. I wanted the cats to be practically operating the oven in ‘cat kitchen’ or at least wearing outfits, not just lying in baskets in loosely themed areas.

Our other slightly misguided, but highly enjoyable, detour was the very long off-route journey to Edo Wonderland, that we enjoyed on the way back to Toge. Fortunately Jamie had somehow managed to escape the clutches of our Ikebukuro host and his karaoke habit (‘Funky Monkey Baby …’) which the rest of us had encouraged until 4am. Too over tired for an immediate return to the village, Jamie and the on-board ‘Navi’ (computer says yes) took us to Wonderland.
Bearing in mind Karen and I have recently been subject to the rigors of the stringent ‘authenti’ rules of a Kentwell re-creation (hand-sewn costumes, only Tudor food, all conversation conducted in ‘Tudorese’ in the first person etc.) the shameless wigs, nylon ninja and rows of retail outlets that line main street Edo Wonderland were a bit of an eye opener. As Tim commented it was more Isle of White circa 1980 that Japan circa 1700!
We did, however, at last get the chance to try out our costumed 7 Samurai photo opportunity … the hilarity could only have been increased if we’d still had Ben, Marcus and Barney for company … although there wouldn’t have been enough bad wigs to go round. The 2 kimono clad ladies who ran the joint offered a stern service and the minute we’d slipped of the plastic shoes and had our wigs removed (‘don’t touch the hair’) the computer printout in special display frame was in our hands as we were firmly directed towards the exit from Edo Wonderland. The giant Samurai cat put up a good show at the exit though.

Toge - Tokyo

2006-07-29T07:19:00.000+01:00

Seems from the communal blog entries from the "Seven Samurai" we were all a bit tired and emotional on leaving Toge for Tokyo. On the way here in the car with Jamie, Aiko and Tim I commented on how grey weather usually makes me feel homesick, but here in Japan I have found something strangely familiar and comforting about it. Once after traveling in Brazil for two weeks, it began to rain for the first time as I was sat in a coach station waiting to make a long journey. I was so over whelmed with homesickness at the sight of rain that I began to sob irrationally. Everyone else in the Toge car thought this was mad, as I’m sure my fellow Brazilian travelers did at the time.

I haven’t to date been homesick here (unusually) but I am quite daunted at the thought of the next two weeks, when Karen and I will return to the village without the rest of the Samurai for company.
More generally on this trip for the first time in my life I have felt a little sad at growing older. Usually I can never understand people who get up tight about birthdays or ‘getting on’, as to date I have enjoyed life more and more as I’ve grown older. Being around Ben, Barney, Jamie and Aiko though I felt a little envious of the 10 years they have on me. Karen and I have only recently ‘found’ ourselves as documentary film makers (of a kind) and whilst I wouldn’t wish away the 10 years we’ve had working as artists I feel quite scared that approaching 40 I might have only just found the thing I could be good at. Being a late-developer is fine but actually not having enough physical energy to carry through what you want to do is not!
Sitting painting with them in Toge, I felt rather envious of their apparent easy conviction with their work, and being with the Juneaus here in Tokyo has made me a little nostalgic for Karen and I’s early collaborative art days … sometimes I wish I could still get worked up about making art in the way I now do about making films.

Lots of our past work has been made during or about journeys and despite being a reluctant traveler I have to acknowledge there is no better way to think about work/life - ideally whilst being driven through an unfamiliar landscape and on a grey day.

Supermarket Pets

2006-07-25T07:42:00.000+01:00

I’m in Japan taking part in Grizedale Arts project Seven Samurai. We’re north of Tokyo in the remote village of Toge – a picturesque rice growing location with idyllic slopes of tiny paddy fields – which we’ve actually managed to see today as it’s stopped raining for the first time since we arrived 5 days ago.
Yesterday under the thin disguise of some project research I joined the group trip to the Tokamatchi Mega Mall in search of a pet shop. The Japanese evidently have a different attitude to the UK in relation to live pet sales … in the middle of Mushasi (the massive hardware/in fact ‘anything you really might want’ emporium) are live pets for sale. Their large price tags are somewhat at odds with their casual distribution amongst the aisles of make-up And bar-b-que equipment.

The brown dog was in a small open pen, literally in amongst the rows of pet food, behind him sat rows of cats, rabbits, ferrets, stag beetles, mice etc etc.
Behind all of these sat a glass-fronted salon where the local pet elite were being washed and blow-dried!
What I really liked was the above aisle pictorial signage - where you’d normally expect to see DIY, food, toiletries & gardening pictures here you could also see pets.

Homesick

2006-06-03T23:04:00.000+01:00

Wood-look shoe?
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I've hardly been at home of late and I'm just back from the Zlín Film Festival (CZ) and a return visit to the spiritual home of Bata-ville. Despite staying in a lovely (& stuffed!) hotel and generally having a good time the visit was so close on the heels of Kentwell WW II that I am ...

a) Glad to be home
b) Glad to be in 2006

... at least for the next two weeks before Karen and I join the Tudors once more for the summer 3 week 'main event'.

As I draw near to any big project I always find it hard to switch off to anything related & this week I even found myself pinching one of my students text books during a tutorial for reference. It certainly wasn't hard in Zlín to find many things re-enactment-related ... at the shoe museum both 40's and potentially Tudor.

Hamster shoe
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

This number topped the cross referencing interests charts though ... part hamster, part shoe, part historic and top weird. Apparently it showed of the Zlín shoe maker's extreme craft skills.

Lovin' Latvia ...

2006-05-01T15:10:00.000+01:00

Baltic Beach Hotel (& us!)
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Photos & chat from our Easter 'romantic mini-break' ... I bloody loved Latvia: beautiful beach, sleepy seaside resort of wooden summerhouses and soviet blockbuster hotels, lots of smoked fish, mad museums (see below), sunny weather and an abandoned spa town ... what more romance could a girl want?

Double Dog ...

2006-05-01T14:57:00.000+01:00

More than just friends
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

As mentioned above Riga and in fact Latvia seems to be rich in the most fantastic array of small and eccentric museums. None less so than Stradins Museum of Medical History ... I knew the 'double dog' was in there so I have to admit to speed-skimming the first 3 floors of exhaustive medical displays to get to these boys ... who seem to be just a pair of friends from the front but then reveal their rather horrible literally joint internal secret from the side. To compliment this exhibit (?) you can also see what I assumed was the gear they kept the little fella alive with before they stitched him on and 'Space Dog Veterok's cabin'.

Stradins Museum of Medical History
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

They love a display ...

2006-05-01T14:16:00.000+01:00

Small cafe in Bulduri
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

... in Latvia it seems, especially at Easter time, and so do I. By the end of our stay I'd begun to drive Tim mad with inappropriate documentation in small cafes.

No cafes in Kemeri ...

2006-05-01T14:15:00.000+01:00

The Abandoned Kemeri Spa Hotel
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

In fact there's not much in Kemeri at all, except for this (magnificent) ocean liner of an abandoned hotel/spa. Lured by the (otherwise rubbish) Rough Guide mention of an essentially deserted town we decided to take a train there on our last day. As the guide had been either wrong or out of date on every occasion so far I assumed we'd find the 'renovations' it mentioned complete and anticipated enjoying cakes of wild luxury in the fully restored glory of this Eizens Laube 1930's dream boat.
Instead our rather pathetic 'cafe?' question in the village shop was greeted with hysteria and I was very glad to have packed an emergency banana. Even the 'National Park' that the hotel and village lead to seemed to be essentially closed (I guess we could have climbed over the barriers) ... none of this really spoiled the day though.

A stones throw from this Sanatorium
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

The comparison between the gleaming white empty hotel and the odd patch of bulbs still pushing through in the extensive wilderness that was once the Spa gardens with a completely derelict tower block sanatorium plus numerous follies was fantastic. The only question is even when it is restored why (unless you never leave the building) would people now come here? Even if the spa waters could be encouraged to flow through the gardens again (and this looked a long way off when you peered down into the dark black streams full of ice and litter) will Latvians come back to this seemingly forgotten town?

Jazzualty

2006-03-22T09:29:00.000Z

Polar Bear & The Beastie Boys

Music Fans vs Art Audience

I've been meaning to write something about the fantastic Polar Bear gig I went to at the Spitz for ages. Karen's brother Sean introduced us to their music and we have both in this instance fallen victim to what our editor would describe as Jazzualty status. We love them so much we're going to ask them if they'd like to work with Tim on our next film score!

Anyway I could give lots of detail about how great their Spitz set was (and that of Miso Soup an unexpected bonus band for me) but actually I wanted to comment on the way it made me think about an audience vs. fans. For regular gig attendees this would have come as no surprise but for someone more used to the low expectation levels of an art audience (and often it has to be said low returns!) being in a crowd of Polar Bear fans was as refreshing as Seb Rochford's brilliant drumming or Leafcutter John's Max/MSP manipulations ...

Basically what I really enjoyed was being in a fairly diverse audience of people who were out to have a good time. They love the music, they know the band and they have a pretty good idea that they're going to see - something of high quality. Most of them (except me!) had little to no interest in other members of the audience, and were happy to do their own thing - grooving at the front, indulging in some saxophone playing envy or just sitting at the side with a drink. I guess what I'm saying is there's a lot to be said for a fan base.

I was feeling rather pleased with this revelation (although unless I'm going to seriously revise my own musical abilities it means I'm in the wrong business) until I went to see the Beastie Boys latest offering at SXSW. Described as a feature doc (directed by Nathanial Hornblower AKA Beastie Boy Adam Yauch) you would need to be a serious fan to sit through this - as it's more a very long bootleg concert video than a feature doc. But as you can image in the SXSW audience there were fans by the cinema full. Much as I found the non-stop v. poor quality hand held video (captured on 50 cameras given to fans none of whom apparently knew how to work them!) hard going, the experience of seeing it in the cinema with such a hard core Beastie audience was ... well, weird!
They cheered every song (and admittedly the actual concert sound was pretty 'awesome') and most were obviously itching to dance about. Any filmic innovation (ie. following one of the camera operators to the loo) were met with whoops of delight, despite the terrible relentlessness of the camera work & quality. Now I know that this isn't the point, and the point was to make something innovative and distributed that felt like it was made by fans BUT it could have been SO much more interesting. At moments we were allowed to see a glimpse of the footage from all the cameras simultaneously and this was interesting ... you were immediately drawn into both the audience and the stage, but for most long stretches of the extreme-zoom-grainy-shots of the 3 Beasties I found myself willing them to switch to a camera that was focussed on anything other than the stage!

The real horror/interest came with the un-mediated 'Q&A' with the Beasties at the end - this was when the true hardcore fans were allowed to let rip with evangelical zeal: "That was truly Awesome", "I ****ing love you" "you're the sound track to my life" ... I could go on. In the end I just wished I could have been actually at the gig, rather than this dissected version.

I wonder what a Polar Bear Q&A would sound like?

Eels Pie and Mash

2006-03-21T14:28:00.000Z

I first met Chris Clunn through his book of photographs that document all the Pie 'n' Mash shops in London - including the one that is now the Somewhere London HQ! Once I'd unearthed a copy of this book I also discovered that Chris has an amazing collection of photographs he's taken of London's alternative Royal Family - the Pearlies.

I went to visit him at his studio and he gave me lots of the contacts that lead us to the Pearlies who eventually took part in our project 'It's an East End Knockout' - what was even better is that he came along on the day and took the photographs of the games.

Chris has a wonderful new website with many of his folios featured ... Karen & I head up the Mugshot section (in the company of Boy George & J G Ballard!) and if you've ever been to the Somewhere HQ you'll recognise it in Eels Pie and Mash. The Pearly Way is my favourite though.

SXSW

2006-03-20T19:56:00.000Z

Cinema Star
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

There's been an obvious gap in Pie 'n' Mash postings due to Karen & I's trip to Texas for the fantastic SXSW.
You can read more about it on the Somewhere Blog or see my photos on flickr ...

Branksome Bespoke China

2006-02-18T19:27:00.000Z

Seems ceramics are a theme in the 'Somewhere Blogs' at present ... a few weeks ago I visited the Branksome China Factory/Shop/Total experience in the New Forest at Fordingbridge. I'd noticed some of their china in (one) of my friend Claire's collections & she recommended a trip to the factory - I was not disappointed.
To the uninitiated the best of Branksome looks a lot like Poole Pottery but for Gods sake don't mention that once you're on the factory tour, especially not if it's on a Saturday and the guide is the founder's extremely sparky widow "My husband loathed that stuff" Elaine ... I can't go into the full story here but for any ceramics buffs out there I'd recommend the history page of the company website. I'm not sure what I liked more the lady herself or the story: her husband basically after working for Poole and designing utility ware & two tone couplings leaves, invents a china harder than earthenware or bone china and made in a much thinner section, not only does he invent the 'secret' clay recipe and a kiln to fire it at super high temperatures but he makes all the moulds, equipment & designs that they still use 60 years on at the factory.

An image from the early Branksome years - snapped on our factory tour - I'm intruiged to know if this was our now sprightly guide in her earlier years?
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Informing us that he (Ernest) would be 101 if still alive today ("I was quite a bit younger") she rattled us around the most informative and sharply delivered factory tour: making cups, turning out moulds, explaining the incredibly efficient processes, talking us through their designs, and showing their recent mini-museum where they have begun to collect ("have you heard of ebay?") many of their pieces that pre-date their current line which hasn't changed much since the 50's. All of these insights were interspersed with the rather shocking sight of seeing this elderly lady in a twin set smashing (but of course not breaking) a cup, saucer or bowl onto any available surface to repeat demonstrate the true durability of their product!
Other than the lady herself what I really liked about the whole set up was the personalisation of both the product/consummer relationship and the very intimate feel of the factory itself. It was the kind of place in another life I would have loved to work, there was a reassuring familiarity to all of the processes and each had been worked out to a level of timing and physical precision that was truly admirable "whilst the cups harden for X minutes the girls pour the handles into moulds ... whilst the clay sets in the bears for exactly 20 minutes they pour the butterflies etc. etc.)

Branksome Bears
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Their distribution model was fascinating, fed up with the demands of selling to shops and outraged that they continually wanted to change the styles of cups etc. the company basically 'downsized' in order to just sell direct to customers and to be able to supply people who had broken a cup from a set which they had treasured for years to replace it with a new one exactly the same ... "In 1966 at the age of 62 Ernest finally "dismounted his tiger" and moved production to a former workhouse and Regal cinema in Fordingbridge, on the edge of the New Forest. With a small staff, he was finally doing what he'd always dreamt of, producing porcelain of the highest quality for discerning customers who came to the factory, or shop, specifically to buy his wares."

Branksome bespoke cups
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

This cup that Elaine pointed out in passing at the end of the tour summed it up for me - where else could you talk directly to the manufacturer of your china for an OAP home, and they would suggest adding an extra handle to the cups for easier handling of those much needed cuppas?

Burden of Dreams

2006-02-12T17:36:00.000Z

I'm getting really excited about seeing Grizzly Man at the cinema this week - Karen saw it in the videotech at Edinburgh and has been talking about it ever since. With this in mind I took out (in a rush) what I thought was Fitcarraldo this weekend - it turned out to be City of Dreams (the image of Herzog and the boat on the cover was evidently all I looked at in the film shop!) but in a funny sort of way this was almost better than seeing Fitzcarraldo.
Post-Bata-ville and Edinburgh Karen & I have both confessed to getting more out of DVD 'extras' than even actual documentaries. It seems once you've managed to make a film, the blind optimism you must have employed to acheive this disappears to be replaced by a deep felt admiration for anyone who can actually pull off making a film - never mind a feature film - shot over four years, in the Amazon jungle, using native people as most of the cast, and Klaus Kinski as the lead - as was Fitzcarraldo. This amazing and tortuous process is in turn documented in Les Blank's Burden of Dreams.

So if you can easily become obsessed with just the sort of details contained in DVD 'extras', you can loose yourself completely in Burden of Dreams, an entire documentary which on one level just unpicks the process of film making and the somewhat crazed vision of Herzog to re-create the original madness of his lead character based on Fitzgerald an Irishman with a passion to build an opera house in the Amazon. I won't go into detail here about all the set backs faced by Herzog and the ins and outs of the film (well documented in other reviews) but I wanted to mention this film and one other (Etre et avoir)as I can't stop thinking about them.

With both it's not so much the actual films but the film makers relationship to the 'cast' or 'subjects' or 'participants' that I've been thinking about. Actually you can't help but think about Herzog (who it seems I share a birthday with - watch out Karen that 4 year shoot could be on the horizon!) after seeing this, as he is such a bizarre and seductive character - not least because he has the most amazingly compelling voice - in each of the three languages you hear him speaking.
You can not help but be traumatised by his relationship to the people in the film though - to cut a long story short it reaches breaking point when the engineer who's trying to help them literally drag an enormous boat through the jungle quits for fear of loss of life, and Herzog just presses on regardless.

On the surface of it Nicolas Philibert's Etre et Avoir couldn't be less similar to Herzog's epic. Shot in a tiny French school with a small class of children and their charismatic teacher Georges Lopez this low key film's rise to box office success has become documentary legend. It is a lovely film (the quiet scene of two terrapins making their way slowly across the empty classroom carpet was my favorite and serves to show how far from the Amazon jungle we're talking!).

In the DVD extras for this, which I of course avidly consumed, Philibert talks of his method of making a film with rather than about a group of people. I felt some resonance with our own approach in this - but it seems, post block-buster-success, the school teacher did not. Apparently fed up with the huge income the film was generating due (it has to be said) in no small part to his 'performance', it seems he took the producers to court for a share of the profits.

Our own current project at Kentwell will be the first piece where we have made work with a group of people who haven't actively 'signed up' to take part in what we're doing. With all our other projects from Broadcast to Bata-ville we arrived at our group of pilgrims to passengers via an application process and in effect a mutual contract. I have always felt this was significant in the way that the projects developed. It is with some trepidation that we are moving away from this model for the first time with our next film.

Holy Island - New Year's Day

2006-01-24T21:54:00.000Z

A Couple of Gardens

2006-01-24T21:05:00.000Z

Now I know gardens are really Karen's more regular territory (although her own amazing patch doesn't seem to feature in her blog too often) but I've visited two really interesting ones recently so thought I'd post some images here but more on Flickr ... she'll be interested even if it's a bit 'off track' for other readers here!

The first was actually more of a park than a garden ... it's the one that forms the Thames Barrier Park which is a good new day out from Hackney as you can now get the DLR right to the park and there's a nice cafe. The park is actually almost bleak, lots of space and mature trees, but then right through the middle is a really interesting sort of glorified ditch filled with this odd topiary (you can't have enough topiary in a garden for me). Apparently the various levels of the hedges represent the previous level of the ground pre-development.

By contrast the second garden is a more intimate affair but certainly (on New Years Day this year) also rather bleak but beautiful. It's the garden Gertrude Jekyll made on Holy Island (Lindisfarne) if you look at the panorama below it's the sort of blip in the wall you can see, which shows you how exposed it is. Basically it's a tiny walled garden in the shadow of the castle with fields and the sea around it ... a pretty amazing space - I'd love to know more about the history of it.

If you're interested in gardens there's more images on Flickr (including the shed and planting plan that it seems even the great Gerty needed!)

Gertrude's Garden

2006-01-15T20:33:00.000Z

Blog Backup ...

2006-01-15T17:41:00.000Z

Over the Christmas and New Year period I've built up a terrible Blog Backup of wish-list entries, not to mention a potential iphoto problem ...

One of the causes of this has been my own self-confessed inability to relax. Karen and I were working on editing the footage from our re-enactment work right up to Christmas Eve, and for once I left for the New Year break feeling pleased we'd finished this and potentially with not much 'holiday' work to do.

Slightly panicked by the thought of a week long expanse of leisure time I convinced Tim that it wasn't a good idea to buy some costumes on ebay for the children we were going away with (a present I had for some reason become obsessed with finding) and that it would be much more fun for all involved if I made them, especially as my new 'Elna' sewing machine fits neatly into any luggage situation.

Needless to say I spent a few evenings cursing the puff sleeved design of my 'simplicity' Wizard of Oz pattern whilst the others enjoyed late night DVD binges ... and have only just finished one 'Dorothy dress' for my God daughter Ruby.

So if you like the look of this one you can either order the pattern from the States (yes for some inexplicable reason you can see it in the John Lewis books but they won't sell it to you) or get in the queue which I dare say will now be carrying over to next new year behind the Lion, tin man and Glinda still on my list ... by which time Ruby will have no doubt grown out of Dorothy.

Let this be a lesson (in case I need one) regarding my Kentwell Tudor costume this year ...

Beverley Heights

2006-01-10T22:24:00.000Z

Snowmen lawn
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Before I forget, if you find yourself in Southampton at Christmas time I can not recommend strongly enough a trip along the (once a year) one-way system of Beverley Heights & Broadwater Road. Increasingly there are many that try to emulate their multi-bulb glory but they remain top of my Christmas lights tree!

Ginger rides again ... ?

2006-01-04T14:11:00.000Z

The weirdest thing happened when we arrived back home from our New Year holiday last night ... we've been to Northumbria (which was great and more of which later) with a regular gang of friends plus we had a visit from the (former) owners of Ginger who featured to popular acclaim some weeks ago on these pages ... I didn't make a formal announcement at the time ... but sadly Ginger passed away a shortly after his Blog debut.

Anyway back to last night, we got home about 1.00 am having collected our cats from an unplanned (on their part) holiday at my Mum's, let them out their baskets and were pleased to see how quickly they reverted to their old selves. So quickly that I became instantly convinced we had mice, as they paced the patch of floor by the washing machine. Moments later I heard Tim sigh and shout out that Liquor had already caught a mouse ... No it's a mole ... No it's a ... HAMSTER!?

Near to hysteria I scrabbled to keep the cats back and control Tim's rather over zealous 'spade-capture-technique' (he had thought it was dead) and we got the poor thing into a box. Now the question is where did it come from and what do we do with it?

Could it be an escapee Christmas gift from the flat next door & how did it get in? I did wonder if kids had shoved it through the letter box, or worse still flipped it over the back wall from the estate ... but these seem unlikely.

Despite the ordeal it's happily tucked into Christmas nuts, but sadly (as you can see) not ready for a Ginger-style photo call as yet ...

Ladies who Lido ...

2005-11-13T11:45:00.000Z

Anyone who knows me will confirm that I am very keen on swimming, and especially out door swimming. To date I have almost managed to keep this in the 'hobby' area of my life ... although I was, for a while, a member of the 'artists swim club' that met once a week at York Road under the careful guidance of Kat our artist/tutor located via artist Ella Gibbs 'Spare Time Job Club' - so still arguably in the 'spare time' area ... but another story.

Anyway my friend Rona Lee doesn't keep swimming just in the hobby area and is fast developing a network of swimming contacts that only art research can garner! Yesterday she invited me to come along to the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead to see 'City Swimmers' a film made I think by Margaret Dickson , although the credit on all the publicity was to: "Hampstead Heath swimming ponds campaigners and a team of North London film-makers, TV and radio professionals". This kind of tells you everything you need to know about the film - which wasn't the most amazing piece of cinematography I've ever seen but did provide one of the most enjoyable 'I'm glad I live in London' days out I've had in ages.
Considering it was apparently made completely by volunteers (all found via shooters!) and organised in a very short time period (as was the campaigning strategy) it was a charming film, there's some great bits of women swimming amongst the ice in the ladies pond, and the New Years day swim with game old ladies sporting tinsel on their bathing caps! I do think the Hampstead ponds are a great London asset and I wish them every success in keeping them (now optionally) free and open.
My most amusing visit there ended in being attacked one summer by a Persian cat whist sun bathing. This again tells you most of what you need to know about the barmy atmosphere there ... you are sun bathing amongst a unique mixture of young couples, foreign tourists and Hampstead ladies ... one of whom, I have to assume, had bought her fluffy cat along. The cat took a lung at a pigeon missed it and ended up caught up in my hair ... all quite shocking when topless for some reason ...

ANYWAY ... this gives me a great opportunity to feature two images from the pack of postcards you can buy at the ladies pond (a snip at £1.50) I hope they won't mind me featuring them, as they're fantastic images, I always look at them and wonder about the different women featured and what in the 1930's they did when they weren't tearing round Hampstead Heath in sensible bathing costumes with dogs and bikes...

This post gives me a chance to provide a link to one of my favourite websites ever: Oliver Merrington's superbly researched Lidos in the UK

More info on the London Pools Campaign for those interested here.

One of their success stories, which I really do hope will come true, is that London Fields Lido is said be re-opening next summer ... that really will make me glad to live in London.

"Makes those who try cry ... "

2005-10-16T13:26:00.000+01:00

getting ready
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Last weekend I went with Tim to Battersea Park for the "Knitted Wedding" of my friends Freddie & Ben. The event was an art work by 'radical' knitting group Cast Off and part of the show "Ceremony" that Freddie has curated at the Pump House Gallery.
I always cry at weddings, no matter who the couple are, where the event is or how inappropriate it seems (draw your own conclusions as to why this might be). Freddie is also a woman prone to tears and I hardly dared look across at her when we arrived and squeezed into one of the tiny packed upstairs galleries, where she was being 'prepared' for the big event. Obviously I knew this wasn't their 'real wedding' (this took place a little while ago) but even an art-wedding seemed to do the trick and I found my eyes brimming at the sight of Freddie looking worried in her knitted dress, dripping in the little tags attached to each knitted piece sent as a separate donations.

Which brings me to the title of this post: On seeing people responding with tears (or not!) to Karen and I's film "Bata-ville" Adam came up with the phrase "Makes those who try cry". During the film the Bata-ville passengers who've endured a gruelling week long art-bus-trip (with us as their hosts) struggle to express their confusion and in some cases gratitude for the cathartic experience we have 'provided'. One scene, in particular, can still drive me to tears despite having to view it over and over in the edit suite until practically numb. Anyway, the fact Karen and I would have to cough back tears behind the editor every time it appeared did not guarantee that others would be moved by the same scene or emotions.

What Adam observed though was, in many ways, very accurate. Most people who you'd think of as 'tryers' (as in God loves a tryer) are moved to tears by the scene, whilst others can sit through it seeming to feel little empathy with the woman struggling to express herself on screen. Does this reflect on the film or in fact the person watching and what they bring to it?

At the wedding I don't know why I felt like crying maybe the sight of grown women in bad underwear and unflattering shades of slightly grubby white knitting? It could have been, but more likely it was caused by seeing how many people had pulled together to contribute their knitted dove, bow or cake layer to the 'big day'. Fortunately their were so many knitters present we couldn't even get into the ceremony - thank God, I'd have probably blubbed over the knitted altar.

knitted bubbly
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

A couple of weeks before the wedding Freddie called me in the middle of the day ... "I watched your film" she said, "Nina it's so fucking sad I couldn't stop sobbing".

Knitted Wedding Paparazzi

2005-10-16T12:12:00.000+01:00

A Record of Fear

2005-09-27T10:26:00.000+01:00

Orford Pergodas
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

As if all that Grizedale excitement wasn't enough last weekend this Sunday I got to visit Orford Ness a trip I've wanted to make for years ... These images were taken there - it's Europe's largest vegetative shingle spit (!) and site of secret military activity from 1913 into the Cold War.

I went to see artist Louise K Wilson's excellent sound work A Record of Fear which as was fantastic as the site was interesting. Have a look at the other photos on Flickr and try to imagine the lighthouse completely painted in camouflage during the war.

Jesse Whaur's yer troosers

2005-09-27T10:08:00.000+01:00

Following on from Bedwyr ... Brian Dewan conjured with a small but dedicated audience for a performance on the enormous stone xylophone lovingly taken out from its local museum home for the first time in years.

By the time we reached the evening and Jesse Rae's set only the dedicated few remained. All I can say to the inhabitants of Coniston is you missed yer selves! As a teenager growing up in a small village I'd have thought the word had spun on it's axis if an evening's entertainment half as intriguing as Jesse's highly profesinal yet bizarre performance had come to Papworth St Agnes. It seems Coniston youth have better things to do though than watch a world class bass player (Doug Wimbish) and amazing live band travel between musical areas as diverse as Jesse's 'dark' new tunes to his own version of yes ... Donald Whaur's Yer Trousers.

swing
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I particularly like this image from the night of Jesse in full kit (yes he still NEVER takes this off) and my friend's daughter Ellie dancing with Polly the photographer.

An After Art Dinner Speech ...

2005-09-27T09:43:00.000+01:00

I've been out of town so often lately that the posts about these events have been sadly delayed. I have though seen & heard some of the best 'art' in non-art venues I've been to in a long time.

Karen and I hosted our It's A Lake District Knockout up in Coniston (nearest village to Karen's house) which seemed to go down pretty well. Whether anyone thought of it as part of an arts festival who knows ...

It was followed by a set of strange and fantastic events that the audience (which was dwindling with every new turn) evidently didn't either appreciate or care if it was art.

Following a dinner for all the It's A Knockout contestants cooked by (the industry that is) Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall of River Cottage (I'd like to say more about how weird this was but may require a separate post) Artist Bedwyr Williams addressed the crowd with An After Dinner Speech about food golf and I think Wales. It was fantastic - the super long delay between his speech and the amplified version of it that eventually fed back to us from the enormous PA for the games which was sending it out to the mountains and bouncing it back, only added to the surreal quality of his already dry yet hilarious commentary.

us with bedwyr
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Sadly it proved a step to far for the contestants who left the table in nervous droves as Bedwyr pressed on valiantly alternately striking golf balls through a welsh harp and recounting disastrous local restaurant occasions. By the end about 8 of the audience remained and as evidenced by this image Bedwyr was hardly in the mood for competitive costume photography

Slippery Slope - Pet's Corner?

2005-08-31T12:40:00.000+01:00

Ciggy + Licksey
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Now I've posted the Hamster up why stop there - these are my cats Ciggy (Fag Ash) + Liquor (the black one), I've been wanting to add them on for ages so here, with very little excuse, they are ... How long before Karen puts Tomas and Maurice on?

Anstruther Cappachino

2005-08-31T12:38:00.000+01:00

Lovely Fife
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

On a great weekend out from the Film Festival (more of which on the Somewhere Blog) Tim and I headed out to sample the delights of the Fife coast for the weekend. The last time I drove this route across the bridge and along the coast was 9 years ago with Karen when we began A Hypertext Journal. It was great to see it all again - I have an awful memory so when stuff does actually resurface I'm always delighted. I do remember we didn't have a decent cup of coffee in the whole month we spent on the road - this visit saw the best cappachino and croissant I've had in ages sitting on Anstruther Harbour! I did have a really awful meal there later though so some things haven't changed.

By contrast my time in Edinburgh was marked by one fantastic meal after another - all cooked by my friend Ruth the Chef behind Faking it in Edinburgh a home delivery dinner party service I can't recommend highly enough (+ owner of ginger below). When I looked back over the start of Hypertext Journal I realised she and Al were the first people we visited on our journey back in 1996 - sadly I had forgotten this!

Little Creatures

2005-08-31T12:32:00.000+01:00

Ginger
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Sorry I couldn't resist posting this totally gratuitous image of my friends Ruth & Al's girls hamster Ginger! As soon as I arrived there last week to stay in there fantastically hospitable Edinburgh home, out came ginegr and into the Barbie car ... I think the girls sense a more than willing audience for pet tricks with me.

I'm hoping tonights lecture by my friend Lucy Kimbell: One Night With Rats in the Service of Art (at Camden Arts Centre) will provide more rodent entertainment!

Blogger's Bar-B-Q

2005-08-14T17:29:00.000+01:00

On friday night arrived back from Grizedale and went straight to Borough Market for the annual Bar-B-Q there ... I still have a soft spot for the market since we had a studio there back in 1999. The area is now unrecognisable and a good summary of the change is that what was once Backspace (home to much early net art) is now a Starbucks! Anyway the Bar-B-Q is held by the market traders for the tenants of the Peabody Estate there, where our friend Tony lives ... and this year we met some of his other mates one of whom (Simon) has a good blog with photo-montages of London - including our night in the market. Funny what you get to chat about over an ostrich burger ...

1940's armpit dress shields anyone?

2005-08-04T14:23:00.000+01:00

Kentwell Hall
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I'll soon be switching posts on this topic to my re-enactment Blog to be kept on Somewhere with Karen ... but in the meantime a short update on what we've been up to.

Tomorrow we leave for Kentwell in Suffolk, where we've been doing some 'research' into re-enactment over the last three years - joining the huge annual Tudor Re-enactment they have there. This year we're turning research into a live project called "Sometime Later ..."

Sometime on Saturday we will be joining their WW II re-enactment for the first time and I am currently experiencing the extreme costume/lack of historical knowledge anxiety that I felt pre-tudor re-enactment 3 years ago. Where, for example, am I going to find some authentic seamed stockings, a dark green beret and a solution to my short hair cut before Saturday morning? Also no sign of the WVS repro. badges ordered to go on our new itchy WVS uniforms yet. As if to top it all the usual pre-event mailout arrived from Kentwell this morning stating that if we have no 1940's plate and cup we will not be eating or drinking ... that's that then!

At least our shoes are on the way. Our ever fabulous assistant Jane trekked across Hertfordshire yesterday to the home of Claire's parents (our also fabulous tailor) ... all of whom have now been caught up in the quest for two similar pairs of 1940's shoes. We are raiding the stock-pile hoarded by Claire during her days as a fashion student when she based her collection on the 40's ... for which we are eternally grateful as size 6 vintage shoes are, it seems, like Hen's teeth.

Hopefully it all comes together with camping kit and our blogging keyboards Saturday at Kentwell - let's hope it doesn't rain but also that it's not too hot, those WVS uniforms are wooly.

Rirkrit Tiravanija's Kitchen

2005-07-19T11:28:00.000+01:00

Thai Green Curry Anyone?

A couple of months ago the Serpentine Gallery asked if I'd like to do an artist's talk about their forthcoming show by Rirkrit Tiravanija - this name might not mean much to you but the fact it didn't ring a bell with me was pretty humiliating as he's the 'leading light' of 'socially engaged practice' ... Anyway we got into a double bluff - I admitted I didn't know who they meant, but they were then too embarrassed to withdraw the offer - result I do lots of research but also work myself into a total twist about the whole scenario. I went to the opening and felt really critical of the show - this didn't help.

Rirkrit Tiravanija's Kitchen
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

So spent Saturday morning resentfully doing some last minute swotting up and speed reading Relational Aesthetics (not recommended) - finally decided to actually cook something in the show in order to at least try and engage with the ideas behind the piece (which consists partly of two 'mirror' replicas of the artist's New York apartment, supposedly fully functioning with stocked fridges for cooking Thai Green Curry, the artist's speciality). Find on the phone the fridges are un-stocked, trawl round supermarket, travel across boiling London with mood to match and then of course thoroughly enjoy myself - showing off, arguing about the show and in the end having a curry cooked for me by the tour group. This including Illia, a Newcomer to London from Estonia, who likes the show so much he's practically moved in - yet none of the staff have spoken to him yet! I hope he's there now making pastries as promised when we all parted company 2 hours later.

We are not afraid (.com)

2005-07-11T13:21:00.000+01:00

I seem to have spent a lot of time since Thursday thinking about both what actually happened in London and people's diverse reactions to the situation. On Saturday I went with a friend to the Living Museum on the Mall - a huge make-shift display in tents devoted to marking the 60th anniversary of the end of WW II. This trip was partly research for a forthcoming project Karen & I are doing about re-enactment, but last weeks events gave the whole day a rather surreal, and I have to say sad and at times rather disturbing edge.
The first thing we saw coming down onto the Mall were a series of WW II trucks, fire engines etc. Many with slogans on "1945 - 2005 London can take it". I found these pretty disturbing on lots of different levels and I think it rather tainted the whole visit for us. It's quite hard to articulate why I think these comparisons seem offensive but I suppose the bottom line is they seem so unconstructive and to infact distract from the specifics of two very different, if both tragic situations.

WW II truck
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Once inside the exhibition the strange atmosphere continued, recorded airraid warning sirens served to put people on edge and I found the museum style 'browsing' of the exhibits and people casual and confusing. At one moment you'd be engaging with a cheery young re-enactor telling heart-warming stories about London buses during the blitz, and the next straining to understand what a frail elderly man dripping in medals was doing in a hot tent surrounded by barging crowds ... and how this was helping to 'commemorate' the end of the war.
It didn't do much to move me towards an understanding of the motivations of WW II re-enactors.

On Sunday I dipped into the press for the first time since the bombings, amongst the deluge of mobile phone images the news of a new website www.werenotafraid.com jumped out at me. Apparently started actually on Thursday it contains 'plucky' images from around the world showing just how unafraid of terrorists people claim to be. As the site more or less shares the name of our most recent film "Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the future", I found it hard to stop thinking about it.

If I'm perfectly honest on Thursday I didn't really feel afraid, and it was only when I actually started to think through the fact that friends & relatives would only 'know' who the victims were when they failed to make contact that it really even started to sink in. The significance of a lack of contact in a day overloaded by communication. The site (I guess as I can't get onto it!) probably again emphasises that 'plucky' Londoners will carry-on regardless of terrorist activity and pull together in some spirit-of-the-blitz way ... but what does this really mean ... surely not messages of defiance chalked onto WW II trucks parked along the Mall?
I certainly think that people outside of the city (bar those unfortunate enough to be affected by the bombs) were more afraid than those of us who live in London. In fact one of the things that typifies many non-city dwellers (for me) is in fact this type of un-specific fear - fear of crime, of change, of anyone different to them. The question is are 'Londoners' not afraid through choice, due to their natural 'grit' or just because they have to get on with it ... and today many of them have to get back on the tube?

Liquor with that?

2005-07-07T14:53:00.000+01:00

First post pressure has now been mounting for some time ... My students have Blogs, my mentee is a queen Blogger, friends have Blogs and now Karen (my 'art collaborator' ... not that she isn't a friend!) has a Blog (Tales from the Rural Laptop) ... in short this is long over due ...

On Tilly's Blog (That's Dr. Tilly Blyth to newcomers - Curator of computing at the Science Museum) TechStyle she mentions Karen and I's early web based project A Hypertext Journal as a Blog predecessor - well as it's nearly 10 years since we made this, so I think it really is time to move on and get with posting. The only trouble is that since then I think Karen may have become funnier than me ... and I no longer have the starting advantage of being the only one to know how to write HTML at the off-set (not that our Blogs will be at all competitive).
Sometimes at random moments gems from our original Highland Journey still float to the web surface ... they have been there so long fragments seem to be lodged at the top of obscure Google searches. My favourite is when Karen once tried to show an Interweb-virgin-colleague the power of the search: ask me anything she quipped ... anything you want to know about and I'll type it in .... OK 'Salmonella' she replied ... first Google entry to appear had been written by Karen herself during a particularly unpleasant bout of food poisoning we suffered near Aberdeen. This did not seem to convince her colleague of the 'power' of the Internet.

Whilst this might seem an odd day to be starting a Blog, it might also be apt. As I type in London, communication networks all around are jammed with news of the bombs/explosions that happened here this morning and I can't really work as the phone is ringing every five minutes with friends and family checking up on us. The day we started our Scottish journey the Dunblane Tragedy hit the news, within days one of the first on-line book of condolences sprung up amongst the, then young, UK web user base. The thing I remember from 9-11, is it was the first time I was really aware of watching something awful happen live on our studio TV. During the recent war people have been searching for news on Blogs rather than radio or TV. Today I have seen images of an exploded bus on Flickr and read news on the BBC posted by people 'on the ground' rather than reporters. I know everyone at work at the Royal College is OK because all the staff and students in my department checked into one ichat to swap messages.

It might be a weird day to start a Blog ... but it's better than listening to the slow drip feed of bad news from the BBC.