Week 20

So it's Sunday morning, the sun's pouring in and we're enjoying a slice of marshmellow pie for breakfast and it has to be said, life is pretty fucking great.
Because if you can get out of bed in the morning and see just one interesting thing and have one person to call to let them know about your discovery then I'd say things are going well. We hope you have a million little moments this week, and in case you're not sure what the criteria for a 'moment' is, they include, but are certainly not limited to: fresh mozzarella on bread from the bakers, a kiss on the forehead, seeing pretty strangers, wearing most forms of knitwear and cracking monkey nuts out the window.
Go on, be happy just for a bit.

























Happy birthday Miranda panda.


This week we love...

A couple of weeks ago I met a sailor. Now I'd never met a sailor before and thought of them either as dapper young shmoozers with slicked back hair and chlamydia or burly old men with drinking problems, and while this one had a shaved head and a fir amount of tattoos, he'd also just finished reading 'War and Peace', so I thought I might be onto something. This is Ben, merchant sailor, engineer and fan of moules marinieres.



I imagine that I'm not the only person to find your job quite a novelty, why did you choose such an exotic career?
Over a girl (ha!) No, well I originally did a degree in IT but then a couple of years ago I met a bunch of people my age who'd just started their training for merchant sailing and it all sounded so exciting and my girlfriend at the time was being...well a woman (no offence taken there, we all know exactly what he means) so I told myself I'f giver her a week to sort herself out and if she didn't then I'd join the navy. And she didn't, so I did, and here I am.

Can you give us an outline of your day to day routine?
Well I wake up at 3.30am, grab some food then head to the engine room for 4 am and work there until 8am. Then there's breakfast and back to work from 8.30 til 12. After that I've got 4 hours 'free' time during which I have lunch (usually some sort of curry dish because most of the ship's officers are Indian) and then back to my cabin to read or write or more likely than not, sleep.

Would you say it's quite a solitary life?
Yeah definitely, I mean there's this unwritten rule that you do not disturb people while they're on their break. They're in their cabin and what they do in there is their own business, it's the only time that you get any sense of privacy. Because you're all stuck on a ship together it becomes really quite important. I think I'm quite a solitary person anyway so the lifestyle suits me but there are times where I miss England, because most of the crew are either Indian or Philipino and while they speak English you can only ever get to a certain level of conversation. You just don't get the same sort of banter as you do at home.

So you sail from Singapore to Cameron through Malaysia, Thailand, China, Korea, South Africa, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and back again, have you seen any mind blowing sights?
Of course. This one time we were sailing into Cape Town and we could see about 5 whales and all these seals and dolphins having a party. No seriously, it was like this massive aquatic mash up with all of them jumping out of the water together and looking like they were either playing together or having a massive orgy. It was amazing.

That sounds incredible..
Yeah, you get moments like that, or like when our captain organised a basketball court on the deck and you're sailing along the West coast of Africa playing basketball and drinking beer, and everything's great. Then you get moments like when we were caught in a storm for 4 days and the ship was constantly at a 20 degree angle and everything's sliding out of place and you have to hold onto your plate at dinner. Or when you're down in the engine room and it's 46 degrees and you're sweating away in your hard hat and overalls and there's just no way of refreshing yourself because by the time you climb upstairs to get a drink and back down again, you've sweated it all away again.

What about safety-wise, I mean have you come into any scrapes?
Well merchant sailing is actually the second most dangerous job (first being deep sea fishing), because of storms and what not but also because of pirates. Harbour pirates are pretty common. Essentially they target boats that are waiting to come into the docks, sneak up on them in tiny speed boats and steal whatever they can. I was on pirate watch for a few nights along the West coast of Africa and spotted 3 or 4 attempts but you just need to signal the person upstairs and they shine a massive light on the them an they duck down and scamper off. You have to be really careful though, I have a friend who got half his hand cut off by a pirate with a machete. And that's just harbour pirates, if you get attacked out at sea you're pretty much fucked. they climb on with guns and stuff, steal the ship and take the crew as hostages, so yeah, dangerous stuff.

Well if you see the year out, what are your plans for the future?
I've got a year left of training and after that I'll be a fully qualified engineer and can start applying to work on whatever ships I want. I'd really like to work on either of the ships that are part of the British Antarctic Survey. You get to sail around Antarctica transporting equipment and supplies and scientists so I think that'd be pretty interesting.

I think it's fair to say he's put everyone's 9 til 5 jobs to shame, so next time you're queuing up for the photocopy machine or filling in a spreadsheet you can remember: adventure is out there.

Wonder-Lisa Mitchell

Pretty much the only worthwhile person to have come out of a talent show since Olivia Newton-John (back off, Sandy's great!) Lisa Mitchell is just lovely. At just 19 she's compiled an album of 'candy coated folk pop' with just a little bit of something bitter in the middle. Everyone loves a little bit of xylophone (Neopolitan Dreams) and then there's your fill of synthesiser in 'Coin Laundry' which ranked 7th in Triple J's top 100 of 2009. After that you've got your standard 'sad but beautiful, I'm sad this didn't work out' love song in 'Love Letter' and a bit of a pick me up from 'Clean White Love'. Nothing to complain about really although I think it's fair to call it chick music. Think Laura Marling, Regina Spektor and Feist put in a blender and served in a milkshake glass.


Circo- Aaron Schock

For 100 years the Ponce family have been touring Mexico with their travelling circus 'Circo Mexico'. Tino is ringmaster, his daughter contortionist, his 3 sons acrobats, trapezists and lion tamer and his brother rides a bike in the 'incredible sphere of death'. Over a period of 21 months film maker Aaron Schock follows the family in their fairytale lifestyle and while certain moments are extremely comical, he also reveals the economic hardships of rural Mexico, the fading of long standing traditions and the parallel dissolution of a family. Visually stunning and incredibly put together, Circo introduces us to an unbelievable cast if characters who not only constantly offer little nuggets of wisdom but really remind us of what's best in people. Favourite character has to be Tino's tiny niece. She's so sweet she'll make you smile until your cheeks hurt.

You know when you're vaguely interested in something, and all of a sudden you just seem to see it everywhere. This week it's been stuffed animals. They are fucking everywhere. So if you're into dead things with glass eyes or, more likely, would like to avoid them like the plague, here are a few places to note:

Get Stuffed- 105 Essex Road N1 2SL

It all started here because I wanted to talk to the owner and find out about his clientele and what not because, let's face it, having a shop full of stuffed animals in the middle of Angel seems like a strange business move. Turns out the staff are complete wankers and won't even let you into the shop without an appointment but lucky for us you can see everything through the windows. It's a weird melange of household pets and exotic beasts including some puppies, a swan, an ostrich, a massive turtle, some monkeys, a couple of wolves and a whack load of crows. Worth a peak if your in the area just because there's something so sinister and out of place about it.


Viktor Wynd's Little Shop of Horrors- 11 Mare Street E8 4RP

After the disappointment that was Get Stuffed we walked along Regents Canal to this strange little gem. Part shop, part curiosity cabinet it's a tiny haven packed with the weird and wonderful from pickled aliens to 'the cunt colouring in book' to a load of magazine clippings about Garry Glitter. There are obviously quite a few stuffed animals although a lot of them look a little worse for wear and are by no means the most impressive things in the shop. Ended up buying some butterflies and an old bottle of gin (we're extremely practical people) and will be sure to drop by again for one of the events they host. See website here.


The Museum of Everything- Sharples Hall St, Camden Town, NW8

Am a little bit in love with the Museum of Everthing. It's their third exhibition and this time has been drawn from Peter Blake's bizarre collection of objects and artefacts so when you walk into the building (which reminds me of those 'Fun Houses' you get at the fair) you'll see Tom Thumb's shoes, a lot of pictures of show-midgets, clown costumes, old arcade games (there's one where you shoot tin cats off roofs), an electronic automatic palm reader, carousel horses, enormous circus banners and some very strange taxidermy. The animals originally came from Walter Potter's Museum of Curiosity but Blake bought a considerable amount of the exhibits and so we are treated to a very strange sight: stuffed animals in clothes and assembled in little scenarios, like two squirrels bare fist boxing in a ring or kittens at school or my personal favourite: toads having an aerobics class. The caption next to the montage reads: "Athletic Toads" Common English toads- 18 of them- enjoying a sunny afternoon in the park with swings and see saws (mechanically driven). Fucking great.

Also...



Cath Kidston cowboy flannel. Thank you Ginny.