Tue 11th August 2009 6.40PM

Inna me khaki suit an ting

Best record ever?

4 comments

Sat 8th August 2009 8.17PM

Amy Blakemore

Just saw an exhibition of Houston artist Amy Blakemore's photographs taken with a Diana camera. I think the diana is a bit like the Lomo camera, it only uses a little bit of the film and takes really nice out of focus snaps that look like loosely planted memories.

Yeah I know, "memory and loss" the default motivation for the artist but this is defo worth seeing if you're ever in Houston, it's on at the MFAH.

God, lump in throat at the portrait of her dying father.

9 comments

Sat 8th August 2009 5.33PM

Swearbox uploads number 1

Horace Andy once asked me where the toilets were at a festival in Switzerland.

5 comments

Wed 24th June 2009 3.42PM

Emerik Fejes

From the exhibition I saw today at the Museum of Naive Art in Zagreb.
Egg tempera on paper, not oil on canvasas I previously twittered.

Oh yeah...get on our Twitter, I'm doing it from my phone now.
Twice nightly pearls of wisdoms, I tell ya...
https://twitter.com/franz_Ferdinand

P x

38 comments

Mon 8th June 2009 12.15PM

We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thang

i usually reserve this blog for all things life affirming but waking up this morning with the knowledge that 2 members of a neo-Nazi hate group masquerading as a legitimate political party are to represent the country where I live in the European Parliament has kind of left me feeling horrified, embarrassed and ashamed.

I couldn't help but notice how one of the 2 elected, Nick Griffin's rhetoric has shifted towards describing UK residents as "indigenous peoples". The BNP is a "whites only" party, make no mistake, it's a smokescreen, he's talking about racial purity here, much like Adolf Hitler did in the 1930's and on the anniversary of D-Day when Britain finally defeated the threat of fascism, many dying for the cause. I dunno, It's kind of insulting.

So yeah, not exactly a fan. Anyway, that's me off the soapbox. I'm going to add my face to those opposed to the BNP and their "policies". If you feel the same, then do so too. Just saying.

action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/notinmyname

P

33 comments

Mon 27th April 2009 11.41PM

Kansas City

Dbl Winstead w/cheese, pickles, onions, mustard, ketchup.

Checked out a couple more joints since we arrived here yesterday afternoon. Town Topic was about an hour's walk away from our hotel, in the middle of nowhere but well worth it, the best of the trip so far. A tiny little stand that seats about 8 inside, I didn't take any pictures as it felt like I was in someone's living room and would be a bit lame and touristy of me, well, I mean I am a tourist but y'know.

Winstead's is regarded by many KC local's as the best hamburger in America and it was pretty good.two steak patties whacked flat with everything on top.
It's hard to work out a ratings system now when the overall quality is so high. One thing's for sure, I'll never find anything as good as these in the UK or even Europe for that matter. i'll have to settle for the dreaded gastropub "gourmet" version with about 15 different fillings spilling out of all sides and held together with a wooden skewer and not a hope in hell of finishing the damn thing.

And to those of you who've been asking if I've gained weight at all..No i haven't. Been burnin' it off every night baby!

31 comments

Sat 25th April 2009 10.02PM

TEXXXAS

I know from the pictures above there is no evidence I actually ate in either of these establishment but take it from me and my intestines, I did. Believe.

Burger House, Dallas lies in a idyliic suburban neighborhood called Highland Park. It's a little redbrick shack that's been there since 1951 and has gone on to become a chain within Dallas. I had the double cheeseburger which came with mustard, pickles, onion and tomato, "famous" fries which come sprinkled in their secret seasoning, which to me tasted like salt, pepper, garlic salt and a bit of chili powder, could be wrong though.
Pretty good, possibly the best yet on this trip. Nice soft bun, 2 flat patties, perfect burger to bun ratio all laid out in one of those red plastic baskets lined with greaseproof paper.

In Austin now, which is a relief, especially when you see people actually walking. Dallas is a sprawling anti-pedestrian megapolis of skyscrapers and SUVs, i must have walked about 5 miles while I was there and like LA, the only people who travel on foot are the homeless and dogwalkers.... and me obviously, the palest guy in Texas.

About 2 blocks from La Zona Roza is Hut's Hamburgers, another restaurant recommended by George Motz. Inside it's heaving, we have to leave our name with the waitress and wait for her to call it once a table becomes available. It's saturday and everyone's come to eat hamburgers, finally I know what day of the week it is.
We (Bob and I) joined Alex from El Paso, who's studying photojournalism here in Austin as he had a table already. He's entertaining his pals who'd driven 8 hours from El Paso to come see us tonight. They recommended the Dagburger, a double cheeseburger with onions, pickles and god knows what else. It was pretty big, I didn't finish it, the patties were fat and greasy soaking the bun through.

Back in the bus now, loving air conditioning. I have 6 hours to digest this beast.

Tonight should be fun, Saturday night in Austin, what do you reckon?

29 comments

Thu 23rd April 2009 1.02AM

Lunch in the Mile High State

26 comments

Mon 20th April 2009 1.25AM

Tempe

I'm sat in the passenger seat at the front of the tourbus right now, as we pass through the desert, past Picacho (sic?) peak en route to Tucson, Arizona.
Through the bug splattered windscreen I can see about 100 abandoned aeroplanes, a graveyard for commercial aircraft. Imagine living in one, like Swiss Family Robinson, only in the desert.
Our driver's name is Scott, a good ol' boy from Kentucky. He reckons we'll have covered 10,000 miles by the end of this tour. After the show tonight we drive for 800 miles to Salt Lake City, where I hope to hit up Crown Burger, home of the Pastrami burger.

Last night we played the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, which I'm guessing is a student town judging by the atmosphere on Mill Street, the main drag. Pretty much like Sauchiehall street on a saturday night, except underdressing is advisable in the interests of common sense due to the searing desert heat, which doesn't really let up come evening time. People in Glasgow like to show off a bit of flesh in order to snare a mate for the night (they all want to breed, they just don't know it) or cos they'll invariably lose a coat if they leave the house with one. I decided to wear a jacket last night, even though it wasn't necessary, I just need pockets to put my phone, my wallet and my camera and house keys which I insist on always carrying around for some reason, even though I'm thousands of miles from home. they're attached to a key ring made from a real toad I bought at the Koala sanctuary in Brisbane. It has googly fake eyes which I picked out while we were posing for photos. It doubles as a purse too and gets good reactions from people when I get it out in shops. The woman in the offie on Stoke Newington High Street nearly took the boak.

Last night's show was a good one, pretty loose, Nick is still confined to a barstool, he has to keep the weight off his foot for a week. When he's not having to endure insufferable pain he's off his mong on really strong meds but i quite like him that way, he's cool. This morning his ankle has swollen up like an OAP's, I wonder what it would like in a popsock? It would more than likely look like a pensioner's foot.
We were told that the "coolest" saturday night hang out was a bar underneath Hooters, Tuscon's only duelling piano joint. I guess the parameters of cool are measured a little differently here must be the metric system or something. So we and the Born Ruffians headed out after the show. We showed our IDs, which I always find weird, being a 30 something father of 2, paid a $6 door charge, ordered some beers and margaritas and were entertained by 2 guys on grand pianos playing requests for cash to a room full of merry revellers who all knew the words to Sweet home Alabama, which has got to be up there as my Achilles song, nothing fills me with inertia quite like the words "honky tonk" and all that it entails. Plus the lyrics diss Neil Young and I'm having none of that. oh and the movie of the same name was a load of bobbins too. After that stopped being fun we decided to leave and find somewhere a little quieter.

Our search didn't really amount to much so we hit Fatburger instead, "America's last great hamburger stand". I ordered a Fatburger w/cheese, skinny fries and a vanilla shake. All the guys flippin patties were big, buff, boisterous and Mexican. They did this thing where they put a pan lid over the burger while it was frying on the griddle, I'm not big on culinary science but which I guess it steams the meat in it's own juices. It comes to you wrapped tightly in greaseproof paper with a third of it peeking out of the top. Looks good and more importantly tastes good. We ate outside so we could watch the action on the street.

11 comments

Tue 31st March 2009 1.16AM

Wavves - So Bored

Wavvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvves

Wavves album is awwesome (as is their logo) as is this tune.
Makes me want to drink Pabst out of a brown paper bag and hi-five all my friends.
Here's to the 2nd summer of slacking.
I'm sending shockwavves round the blogosphere, "Fuck man! now dude from Franz Ferdinand is in on it!"

10 comments