Espin

I love this Ron Burgundy sketch....

The Cinematic Orchestra

One of my favourite bands at the moment is The Cinematic Orchestra. I was introduced to them about 6 years ago by my then flatmate Calum when I tagged along to seem them play live. It was an unusual gig, which played on the name of their album 'Man with a Movie Camera' (taken from an experimental 1929 silent documentary film of the same name by Russian director Dziga Vertov.)

The band were hidden behind a screen and played along to the film. They only revealed themselves at the end of the film when the screen lifted up. Like everything else these days though, rather than tell you about it I can just show it to you. (You might recognise the tracks from my USA trip DVD - sorry Burt, I still haven't sent you your copy!)



They sound much like their name suggests, cinematic and orchestral, but with a contemporary jazzy sort of feel, with looped samples forming the basis of a lot of the songs. The band consists of a 'conductor', if you will, who acts as a front man and plays the various looped samples, an awesome drummer, who's pretty amusing live, a cool saxophonist, a double bass player and a guitar player. They don't sing on any tracks themselves, and as a result a lot of their work is instrumental. They do, however, tend to collaborate a fair bit, bringing in male and female vocalists.

I've seen them twice since that first gig. Once a couple of years later, on my own, and earlier this year with Laura, who is also a fan. The opening act that night was a Canadian band called Patrick Watson (he's the lead singer and plays piano). They were pretty good. The lead singer came on to sing with TCO for a few tracks. Turns out he sings on a couple of songs on their latest album, Ma Fleur. In fact he sings on the opening track. Here's a live version of it. Unfortunately they didn't play this when we saw them. I think it's a beautiful song. Ironically, TCO don't play on this at all (they do on the album track). You can see them just off to the right in the shadows.

Chill FM

You may or may not recall that I was never really one to listen to the radio much when we were growing up. Not on a regular basis anyway. Mainly because I couldn't find a station that played the kind of music I liked, and I got annoyed by being forced to listen to wacky DJs and tons of ads, so I tended to listen to tapes and CDs. That stuck with me through my student years, and until fairly recently.

We've got a couple of DAB radios in our home and they're great. There's so much more choice, it's easy to find stations (they tune in right away and tell you the name of the station - and information about what you're listening to), and the reception is clear and perfect, no fuzz. But there's one station we've discovered in particular which has changed my perception entirely about listening to the radio. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they play the kind of music I like, with interesting stuff I've never heard. Best of all there are no DJs or ads, just the occasional call out to remind you who you're listening to and where to find it. It's called Chill FM. You should check it out sometime. It's really easy to access. Just click on 'listen live' and it pops up with a separate little media player.

The McCartney Years

Thought you might be interested in this Wayne?

Penguin Parade

I stand corrected. Laura tells me that the number of penguins on parade is entirely dependent on the willingness of the penguins. The zoo keepers open the gates and let out as many penguins as want to come. I guess it was too cold for most of them at the weekend.

A Day at the Zoo

Laura's birthday is on Monday. But, as it's the weekend, we thought it'd be nice to do something to celebrate it a couple of days early. I'd booked a table for dinner at a French restaurant in town, Cafe Saint-Honore, later in the evening, and as Laura had never been to Edinburgh Zoo before and wanted to see the penguins, we went there for the afternoon.

It'd been a while since I've been to the Zoo myself. I'm not sure where I stand on the whole zoo thing. Yes, I hate the whole caged animal thing, and some of the animals we saw clearly looked bored / pissed off, especially the big cats who were pacing back and forth in a pretty disturbing and sad kind of way. But there's also the whole ' zoological society' / educational aspect, where they're helping to preserve / maintain endangered species in some cases. Good and worthwhile work I'm sure. But it's fair to say that in today's society the idea of keeping animals locked up in a cage for human entertainment is questionable.

Nevertheless, we had a nice day. It was bad timing in a way as it's the winter season, so the park was a little quiet, and some areas were closed, partly due also to building work going on; there's a new Chimpanzee House under construction at the moment - looks great. Also, there was only one restaurant open, so our choices for lunch were limited. I use the term 'restaurant' loosely. It was more like a high school cafeteria. By the time we got there (we wanted to see the penguin parade at 2:15 so it was a late lunch) most of the hot food was gone and we had to settle for a couple of scones and a packet of crisps. A third of the eating space was also taken over by a kids jungle gym (which parents had to pay to use!) so it was a little noisy and chaotic. A sign of things to come perhaps! I joked with Laura that it felt more like being in a zoo than it did out in the park.

Anyway, that was the low point. The high point was probably the penguins. They were very entertaining. They had a little penguin parade, which involved two penguins being chaperoned around a circuit of pavement just outside their compound, led under close supervision by a couple of zoo keepers. Very cute, but not quite what I'd call a parade. But funny nevertheless. Afterwards we checked out the main penguin house. It's pretty nice, has a big pool and everything! They were pretty photogenic too. One in particular with funky yellow hair. There was also a bit where you could check them out swimming underwater through thick glass. Pretty cool.

There were plenty of monkeys. Dom would have liked it. I'm sure we'll go back again when the wee one's out and about. It's a good day out. I've posted some other photos on my flickr site if you want to have a look.

Happy Halloween

Okay....this is one I made last year. Just didn't get round to it this time. Anyway, have a good one.

A Secret Wedding and a Birthday Surprise

A few weeks ago I received an invitation from my friend Dave (he's the one on the right) asking if Laura and I could meet him and his partner Barbara (she's the one on the left) for a 'pre-birthday' drink in a pub not too far from where we stay. I used to work with Barbara at Gaia Architects, back in 1999 / 2000, and met Dave through her, so I've known them both for a while. (I think you would have met them at my BBQ Wayne if you remember). Dave is also an architect who works for the same company my old flatmate Calum works for, but I digress...

Now, I only received the invitation by email in the morning of the day of he wanted to get together, so I didn't exactly have much notice. Nevertheless, they're good friends and I wanted to make the effort to meet them. Dave's email was also quite insistent that Laura and I should both go and that he'd really appreciate it if we could be there. As it happens, Laura doesn't work too far from where we were supposed to meet, and she was free that night, so we agreed that we would go along.

Barbara's always been good at buying me cool gifts over the years for various occasions, so I wanted to try and get Dave something better than just a lousy card. There's a store that sells great designer stuff just around the corner from my office that opened not too long ago, so I nipped out at lunch time to see if I could find anything suitable. As soon as I walked in this caught my eye. It's called the 'Dombo mug', for obvious reasons, designed by a guy called Richard Hutton. (Coincidentally featured in this month's issue of Dwell, Dom.) I also found a cool box of cardboard drinks coasters made up of metal elements from the periodic chart called 'What's your poison?' I got both of these and a card and headed back to the office to get some lunch.

By coincidence I also work with a mutual friend of Dave and Barbara's, Heather (bear with me, this gets confusing), and I'd assumed that she would be going along too. I bumped into her in the sandwich shop carrying a gift she'd bought from the same store, which as it happened I had also contemplated getting Dave. I mentioned this to her but she seemed utterly perplexed and scurried off back to the office with her lunch. When I got back shortly after she quizzed me about it and wondered what present I'd got for Rob. "Who's Rob?" I replied. The plot thickened.

It turned out that we had both been fed different stories about the reason for the get together. Rob, as it turned out, was a friend of theirs who was turning 40 the next day. Dave's birthday, however, wasn't for a couple of weeks after. Also, it turned out that Barbara's parents were visiting from Germany. When Heather called them to probe the issue there was lots of mumbling and excuses. It soon became apparent that something else was going on.

When we turned up to meet them they revealed that they had in fact gotten married at the weekend! Which to be fair we'd figured out, but still a nice surprise. The picture of them was taken when they were signing the registry book. One of the funniest wedding photos I think I've ever seen. Haven't gotten them a wedding present yet though. I'm still bitter about them lying to me. :)

Paul Live at the Roundhouse

I caught Paul playing live on tv this week. He played a whole set...check it out!

R.E.M. Live

I was drawn in by the latest REM CD. You get a live album AND a DVD (of the same set - recorded in Dublin on their last tour) all for the price of a normal CD. Not a bad deal. I also saw them on this tour (in Loch Lomond, not Dublin) so I thought it would be a nice memento. I've only listened to the album once and haven't gotten round to watching the DVD in full yet. It's OK. Mike Stipe sort of yells a bit more than usual. But for the price it's worth it. Tourfilm is still way better though.

Fonejacker: Fridge Freezer

I love fonejacker. The premise is simple. An actor makes a series of prank calls to complete strangers under the guise of a number of different characters. It's juvenile, but relatively harmless fun. This is one of my favourite clips and characters; Terry Tibbs, a used car salesman with a knack for bartering, trying to buy a used fridge freezer...

www.fonejacker.tv

An apartment in Paris

It's funny the amount of people who, when they find out I'm an architect, ask me for a bit of advice about changes they want to make to their home, whether it be an attic conversion, or an extension, or even a new house! I imagine it's a bit like working in the medical profession, giving people casual advice about their aches and pains, but without the perks of a huge salary. Now don't get me wrong, it's flattering to be asked, and I enjoy designing, so I'm usually happy to try and help, especially as I've taken a temporary break from mainstream practice and don't get the same opportunities to design and draw stuff. (I'm more of an architectural critic / report writer these days). But these things can grow arms and legs and take a hell of a lot of time, and I've been burned in the past, so I'm more wary than I used to be about taking on private work or dishing out advice, but that's another story.

Some friends of Laura's live in Paris. In Montmartre to be precise, near the Sacre Coeur. We visited them a couple of years ago. He's a translater and she's an artist, and they have a very sweet daughter. Anyway, they're moving to a new apartment, still in Montmartre. They've bought what is basically a two-storey empty shell, into which they can design their own interior. So they asked for a bit of advice about how best to fit in the number of rooms they wanted and where to put them.

I took a shot at it this weekend and emailed a sketch to them. It's pretty straight forward, I think. Anyway, it was quite nice to pick up a pen, a piece of tracing paper and scale rule and actually do some designing. I miss it.

Blogs away...

Everyone seems to be blogging and I feel like I'm missing out. So perhaps it's my turn to give it a go...so here goes.