Flaws = Perfection

I think Kate Moss is appealing because she is almost just an ordinary girl from Croydon & somehow this makes her more engaging doesn't it? Perhaps this because women can love her too & we just don't feel the same way about Claudia or Giselle.

Kate 2003

Wise about her business, Moss has managed to ensure her profits aren't hit by adverse publicity but she is interesting because her business is beauty & Moss seems content to disabuse us of her perfection. She has posed Lucien Freud & now appears in the exhibits of Chuck Chase; both are masters of the exposure of flaws.

Untitled Torso Diptych 2003

We know Kate loves her girlfriends, we can imagine hanging out with her, and now we know she would look a bit rough the morning after too. We have become so accustomed to viewing airbrushed beyond belief celebrity images, even to the degree of adjusting our gaze to accomodate the surgically enhanced, that this is blissfully refreshing and enhances Kate's image all at once. Untitled Torso Diptych 2003

'Family and Others' by Chuck Close @ White Cube in Mason's Yard

Behan Banter

Janet chats to Libby about her play!

Matilda's Daddy Died

Just very sad.

Reclaim the Night

Kate Pullinger writes about the city at night that the Home Secretary is scared of; "At night it's as though the city's history comes alive, bubbling up from where it lies dormant beneath the tarmac: when the crowds are gone, modernity slips away, and the city feels ancient and unruly. How could anyone not love London late at night, or early in the morning? How could the wide black Thames with the city reflected upon it not remind you of everything that is most desirable and glamorous in life?"We walk where we feel safe, & it doesn't matter if that is Hackney or not, for me it was. For me, the world was mine at night, but I did once get a lift home from the police who decided I was not as safe as I thought I was. Their car zoomed across a green open space, with no trees for the bogeyman to hide behind, as I walked home from my birthday party with balloons. A few yards from my front door, they took me to it, but the police see the worst of the world.

The night is also about boys with guns and knives and women's vulnerability. We need to be seen out on the street, the alternative is to stay in our houses, and be held hostage by fear. Choose your risk, know your beat, & reclaim the night.

One Sheet Wonder

Entries for an art contest at the Hirshhorn Modern Art Gallery in DC; artists could use only one sheet of paper.

deshabillé

How would I avoid looking like I have gone out in my pyjamas?

Victoria's Vice

It may be a crude analogy, but I sort of feel like this is what VB has been doing for the fashion industry for the last decade. Opening her legs and welcoming all comers with no actual regard for what works for her.

I just thought Marc was classier than this, I loved Marc, now I want nothing to do with him. No good telling me this is tongue in cheek, inversely chic, or anything other than an homage to our Vicky B. I may take this post down later if I decide I am being a bit of a bitch. I may. Or I may decide today is the day to be a bitch.

Should Hillary Inherit?

A Hillary win would not even strike a considerable blow for women's rights. It would merely set a precedent for ascension to the presidency by marriage. Lionel Shriver in The Guardian today.

A Little Late?

It is interesting that the democratic candidate for the presidency will be either a woman or a black man. I truly am inspired by this, but aren't we also a little ashamed that it has taken so long? It is entirely civilized that the civil rights movement of the 50's & 60's got us here. It is not so laudable that that was half a century ago. I know a lot else has happened in the meantime, and we have legislation to reflect that now, but isn't it shockingly slow progress we now witness.

My Friend's Play!

No apologies for shameless publicity due to excitement.

Arts Ireland and Riverside Studios present

Brendan at The Chelsea

Directed by Adrian Dunbar and Rosalind Scanlon

Written by Janet Behan

It’s the 60s, New York and we are in that legendary bohemian bolt hole, The Chelsea Hotel. Arthur Miller is just across the hall, the sound of Ornett Coleman is drifting down from the penthouse and the symphony of 24th Street is rising up and in through the open window of Brendan Behan’s room. He’s hung over, he’s broke and way past the delivery date of his latest book, the first line of which he has yet to write. He was told to stop drinking or he’d be dead in six months – that was two years ago.

Today is not going well. Lianne, the Latino dancer charged with looking after him, is not putting up with his bullshit. George, his composer friend from upstairs, won’t play ball with any of his bleak assessments of life. His mistress keeps ringing, the bills aren’t paid and a wire arrives from Dublin with the kind of news that’s guaranteed to put his blood pressure through the roof.

Brendan at The Chelsea, a new play by Janet Behan starring Adrian Dunbar, is an anarchic and searing reassessment of the myth and the life of one of Ireland’s least understood sons. A man who kept roomfuls of people laughing with his stories, he could strike up a conversation with everyone from the Astors to a bum on the Bowery. Arguably the world's first media star reporters bent on entrapment pursued him everywhere, a man who was jailed for being in the IRA, a sexual conundrum, a hostile working class hero who put the great debates of the day into the mouths of ordinary people for the first time.A man so scared of anoniminity and so charged by the disease of alcoholism that running through the foyer of The Bristol Hotel naked, was minor on his scale of outrageousness. Shane MacGowan and Pete Docherty take note, you’re only in the halfpenny place.

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 50 minutes (including one 15 minute interval)

Studio 2

Tuesday 15 January

to Sunday 3 February

(no show Tuesday 22 January)

Tuesdays to Saturdays: 8.00pm

Sundays: 7.30pm

Except Thursday 17 January: 7.00pm (Press Night)

Saturday matinees: 3.00pm

TICKETS:£15 (£12.50 concs.)

Previews: £10 on 15 and 16 JanuaryEarly Bird: £12.50 (if booked before Friday 4 January - please quote EARLY BIRD when booking

AGE SUITABILITY
Suitable for ages 12+.

LATECOMERS POLICY
Please note there is a strict no latecomers policy operated for this show.

Britney's Breakdown

Britney is ill enough & distressed enough to be taken away in an ambulance. How many photographers are there to witness it, do they think they are relaying news? They are vultures; I can read about this event & understand it, I think you could too? Maybe we can just hope now that she gets the help & support she needs, whatever that is.