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I’ve been listening to a lot of Iain Archer lately, in anticipation of his upcoming gig with us at Big Pearly Gates in a couple of weeks.

If you haven’t heard of Iain Archer, then a) play the video at the top of this blog, and b) You haven’t heard of Iain Archer?! Seriously?!?

You can have a listen on Last.fm, or Spotify, or iTunes to get a sense of his work if you’re not familiar with it.

To fill you in on some background: Iain is someone who has been around for quite some time, knocking out brilliant singer-song-writer-y tunes since the 90s. I have some good memories of him – I can remember seeing him floating around Greenbelt when he first started out, and I have the dubious honour of once ending up drinking cocktails with him on a boat at 2 o’clock in the morning in Thames Ditton (maybe if I ever get as drunk as I did then, I’ll tell you the whole story).

Anyway, he disappears off the radar every now and then, and next thing you know he’ll be jamming with Snow Patrol, or writing songs with Peter Buck from REM. Yes, really. He’s that good.

So good in fact, that he was awarded an Ivor Novello for songwriting duties on Snow Patrol’s “Final Straw” album, as well as having his songs pop up on shows like Grey’s Anatomy.

He’s playing Big Pearly Gates, which is a new moot event. If you like what you’re hearing, it’s going to be a fantastic intimate little gig, with tons of atmosphere, right in the middle of London. Tickets are selling pretty fast already, so make sure you get in now before they all go.

Also playing are Lovers Electric and The Social Services who are also very good, and I’ll be blogging about them next week.

POSTED 15.07.10 BY: artbizness | No Comments

Dear Mooters, we need volunteers for the The Mind Body Spirit Fair. This is the biggest new age type event of it’s kind in the country, running from 26-31^st May. Every year we help run a stall offering prayer, feet washing and readings from the ‘Jesus Deck’ (a set of tarot style cards based on the gospels).  It is an amazing opportunity to serve and bless people whom are genuinely searching for spiritual truth, but often wouldn’t ever go near the church. Please do consider giving a half day or so helping out. Yes, washing feet is humbling, but that is the point. I guarantee you will be blessed by blessing others! Also, we are putting the stall up on the 25^th and would appreciate help with that as well. If you are interested in helping, (or would like more information), then please contact Tim Dendy, details on Moot contact page. And please note all training will be provided.

Many thanks.  Tim

POSTED 09.04.10 BY: ianmobsby | No Comments

Dear Mooters, we need volunteers for the The Mind Body Spirit Fair. This is the biggest new age type event of it’s kind in the country, running from 26-31^st May. Every year we help run a stall offering prayer, feet washing and readings from the ‘Jesus Deck’ (a set of tarot style cards based on the gospels).  It is an amazing opportunity to serve and bless people whom are genuinely searching for spiritual truth, but often wouldn’t ever go near the church. Please do consider giving a half day or so helping out. Yes, washing feet is humbling, but that is the point. I guarantee you will be blessed by blessing others! Also, we are putting the stall up on the 25^th and would appreciate help with that as well. If you are interested in helping, (or would like more information), then please contact Tim Dendy, details on Moot contact page. And please note all training will be provided.

Many thanks.  Tim

POSTED 09.04.10 BY: ianmobsby | No Comments

David, Fiona, and myself completed the full circuit. The Radcliffe’s seeing us up to Shoreditch. (sort of like the booster rockets on a Space Shuttle launch, except fueled by penguin biscuits, not petro-carbons.).

Anyways, we saw many delights. The graves of William Blake and Daniel Defoe in the Bunhill cemetery. The chintzy splendor of The Bridge coffee shop on Kingsland Road. And a section of the Regent canal looking lovely in the fading light. Finally we finished at Mile End road and went over it’s ‘park bridge’ (- a personal ambition of mine completed!). We didn’t meet many people on our afternoon out, (a few cyclists etc), but as you will see we did encounter Timmy the dog, off to his holidays in Bath.

See you on the next one.

POSTED 02.02.10 BY: admin | Comments (2)

David, Fiona, and myself completed the full circuit. The Radcliffe’s seeing us up to Shoreditch. (sort of like the booster rockets on a Space Shuttle launch, except fueled by penguin biscuits, not petro-carbons.).

Anyways, we saw many delights. The graves of William Blake and Daniel Defoe in the Bunhill cemetery. The chintzy splendor of The Bridge coffee shop on Kingsland Road. And a section of the Regent canal looking lovely in the fading light. Finally we finished at Mile End road and went over it’s ‘park bridge’ (- a personal ambition of mine completed!). We didn’t meet many people on our afternoon out, (a few cyclists etc), but as you will see we did encounter Timmy the dog, off to his holidays in Bath.

See you on the next one.

POSTED 02.02.10 BY: admin | Comments (2)

Greasy East-end London street

I have recently become aware that many feel alone at this time of year. Next Sunday I shall be following one of the London Development Agency’s published walks through the East end. The invitation is open to everyone. I shall be advertising this in several places. If you are feeling alone, or just feel the need to get out of the house, please come along.

Join me at Bank undergriund station, where we will walk up through the city, to Moorgate, then onto Rivington st, Old St, and up to the famous Hoxton square. The walk will then take us up the Kingsland road, (where we could stop for food in a Vietnamese restaurant, if so desired) onto the Regents Canal towpath. From there, a chance to visit Broadway Market at London Fields, eventually arriving at Mile End Tube Station. On the way there will be the chance to visit galleries or stop for a drink if so desired.

Meet at Bank Tube Station (Exit 6) at 2pm. Sunday 30th Jan.

Walk finishes at Mile End Tube between 4pm and 6pm. (depending on speed of walk and how many times we stop.)

Dress appropriately for the weather. After I shall be returning to the monthly Eucharist at Moot. If you would like more information, please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

POSTED 29.01.10 BY: Aaron Kennedy | No Comments

Until Sat Mar 28

Based on psychologist Oliver James’s definition of affleunza as ‘a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more’, this timely exhibition (held in a temporary gallery space in Farringdon) features work by 30 multidisciplinary artists, plus a series of talks on subjects such as ‘How to de-brand your life’. The exhibition is the brainchild of photographer and Samaritans volunteer Hege Sæbjørnsen, who reached burn-out in 2007 due to excessive working and other challenging life events.

Affluenza, was a subject we touched upon at moot last year. I have not yet seen the exhibition so if anyone is interested in going, let me know.

Ironically, this is one of the few exhibitions in London that has an entry fee. Good thing it’s only £2

There is an interesting event happening tomorrow evening called Happy Designs for the Future. Designers from different fields will talk about how they incorporate emotional well-being into their work, followed by a discussion about the future of design in the context of Affluenza.

http://www.theaffluenzaexhibition.org/home.html

POSTED 23.03.09 BY: admin | Comments (1)

Just a reminder that the dance performance I have been devising with a choreographer from the London Contemporary Dance School will be performed this coming Tuesday and Wednesday in the Robin Howard Theatre at The Place, Dukes Road, Euston.
This is a piece of work for my BA in Design for Performance at Wimbledon College of Art. The night comprises of seven ten-minute pieces which were are part of the same dance/design collaborations project the two schools join together for each year.

Tickets are free but need to be booked. 02071211100

POSTED 21.03.09 BY: admin | Comments (4)

Those of you who follow my blog may or may not know that I set myself a project over the summer.

Right at the beginning of the summer, I witnessed a rather horrific occurrence outside my window. I wasn’t at all sure how to respond, or indeed if I could respond, so I decided to do what I know I could do well – make paintings. With the advent of the summer holidays, I felt pretty sure that there were going to be lots of kids hanging around with nothing to do, pretty bored, so I hit upon an idea.

There’s a website of artists’ work called Free Art Friday. Basically the idea is that you leave out a piece of work on the street on a Friday, for anyone to just pick up and take home to put on their wall at no cost. It’s a great idea on many levels – art for the masses, etc., So I decided, where time permitted, to leave some work out on the waste ground outside my flat every Friday. In the end, I made 4 works out of old boards and any other stuff I could find that had been left out on our estate as rubbish.

PAX Trinity. Put out Friday. Various kids came and looked and commented all good comments. They were shuffled about from time to time, and finally disappeared the following Wednesday.

Ethiopian PAX. Put out on the Friday. Mostly stayed where it was for the weekend. On the following Monday night, it was attacked by two kids with bricks, and then was thrown about for the rest of the week. It’s made from pretty rigid materials so, it wasn’t really easy to break up, so it floated around the estate for most of the summer.

Evolution of PAX This lasted most of the weekend and I overheard lots of good comments, then it disappeared for couple of days before it re-appeared in small bits later in the week.

PAX Target. This lasted the shortest amount of time. It was put out at 6am on the Friday, and by the time I came home at 4pm it was also smashed up.

So, what did I learn from this? If you’re not careful, something like this can just re-inforce your worst fears and beliefs about a situation or a group of people. Our media has spent a lot of time demonising kids, but in a situation where funding for youth clubs have been cut to nothing, kids are bored and having options for expressing themselves reduced by the minute.

It’s a sad state of affairs that for some, they feel that the only responses open to them are violence and destruction, but it’s important not to forget that a lot of good comments were made by many kids, and people did come and sit and just look.

The subject matter of PAX or peace was a deliberate choice, and was a prayer of hope from me. It was helpful to think that in some way I am able to contribute to my environment, and frankly I’d rather they hurled rocks at my artwork instead of cars, windows or people (all of which I have witnessed on occasion). But I shudder to think what will happen when these people grow up and find their options limited further still. This generation is not being looked after properly, and the consequences may well prove disastrous. As moot looks to move to an area that has its own share of socio-economic deprivation, I am still pondering the possible implications, if any, and whether creatively, we can model something positive and Christian for people.

POSTED 18.09.08 BY: admin | Comments (7)