Up And Down Till I Vomit
Another week has flashed by in the wink of a naked eye. The last week has had a terrifying mix of ecstatic highs and crushing lows. It makes the rollercoaster of life into a worrying metaphor. I think I shouldn’t dwell on the lows online however. Instead I shall confess to a startling weariness unrelenting despite going to sleep and lying in bed. Never mind – last week did have some cool stuff in it which washes away the crap and nonsense.
Up T’Sheffield
On Wednesday I crawled out of the gloom and we entrained ourselves off to Meadowhall, surely the most confusing shopping prison devised so far (with the possible current exception of the cardboard tunnel mess of Birmingham New Street / The Bullring). We made a day of it. The special trick of building up (geddit) to visiting the Lego Store is to put it off for as long as possible during the day. So we got over there at lunchtime, had a nice slow pizza and beer at Zizzi before trundling around The Lanes and a few odd shops. We even went past the Lego Store to find that the Entertainer has closed up shop, leaving the Lego Store and The Build-A-Bear Workshop the only toy shops in the vast complex.
My god, the joy of bricks. We spent several hours in that single tiny shop, giggling over the minifigure combinations we made and the beautiful, shiny, well packaged and immaculately injection moulded brick sets. We got quite a lot of stuff, though I did genuinely restrain myself from the things I most desired… And we got freebies! Lego Friends Disney Princess Rapunzels and this Martian Manhunter dude from DC (I’ve never heard of him, but it’s a great figure). A really, really happy-making day.
Art, or Arse?
We finally got round to catching The Nottingham Contemporary‘s recent exhibition: Marvin Gaye Chetwynd. I’d been interested because the main window into the gallery has been showing her life-size Brain Bug sculpture (from Starship Troopers) for months. I was hoping for more stuff like it. The gallery guide told us that many of the works begin as props and costumes for various performances. It didn’t touch me as I’d hoped. Most of the costume props are just creepy and scrappily made. I quite liked the series of Jabba The Hutts made out torn strips of cardboard but most of it just left me cold. I admire the rough tossing together of materials and can appreciate that what looks rough close up can seem very different from further off… but maybe it just wasn’t for me. The videos of the live performances some of the works were featured in seemed like spoofs of performance art, clumsy and amateurish. The work I really enjoyed is a sequence of small oil paintings – the Bat Opera. These were lovely! Apparently they go for about six grand each.
The other gallery had an exhibition from Tala Madani. I liked this one even less… the artist has a peculiar obsession with men urinating and defecating. Almost every piece featured men urinating, crapping and crawling around. It swiftly removed any further interest I had in the artist.
I have to confess to being dramatically under-impressed by either exhibition. I enjoyed the gift shop much more. They had the most recent collection of Slinkachu‘s charming little sculptures – he’s the guy who sets up tiny dioramas in ordinary and unusual places. I liked that…
♥Last Week’s Scribbles
This week, Monday 17th March 2014 – tiredness and stumbling along.
Lego Blog: The Lego Movie Giant Brick Storage Boxes – you know I like anything involving Lego, right?
Lego Blog: Microscale Castle Building – some neat videos for simple microscale buildings.
The Desert Crystals – Part 28: Easy Ways To Die – will they all die?
Events and Excitement
Friday 28th March 2014
MissImp in Action – live improv comedy show
Thrilling all-action end of the month show sporting the best of MissImp inventing scenes and playing games.
The Glee Club
The Waterfront
Canal Street
Nottingham
8.30pm (doors open at 8pm) – £4.50 in advance/£6 on the door (£3 students/MissImp)
https://www.facebook.com/events/678044378896597/
Thursday 10th April 2014
Gorilla Burger – Improv Comedy Carnage
Jam show – a chance for anyone to get on stage and have a go at improv games and scenes for the first time, or the fiftieth!
The Corner
8 Stoney Street
(off Broad Street)
Nottingham
7.30pm – £4
Bring Your Own Drinks
https://www.facebook.com/events/219306464925221/
