POLITICALLY INCORRECT FAIRY TALES

The Forest of No Return concert, part of the Meltdown festival curated this year by Jarvis Cocker, was one of those things you can only see possible if happening in London, and then only just. When I bought the tickets for me and Vania as a birthday present for her (cunning trick to make more of London night-life – buy tickets for events as gifts), I just knew that it was some guests singing Disney songs. What we got was everything.

Jarvis Cocker dancing like a monkey (literally) whilst singing the monkey song from the Jungle Book? Check (And he still managed to look cool – how can anyone look cool whilst pretending to be a monkey?!).
Peter Doherty, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave and Shane McGowan howling at the moon (“Home, Sweet Home” from the Lady and the Tramp)? Check
Ed Harcourt singing a song from Snow White, looking every inch the prince, to then “spoil” it by prancing to the piano to play a crazy instrumental whilst wearing a giant rabbit head? Check
Grace Jones turning up in an(other) incredible costume to sing the snake song from the Jungle Book? Check
Nick Cave and David Thomas transforming “Heigh-Ho” into a real miners’ song, i.e. a song that shows that people (or dwarves) wouldn’t be very happy if they had to work in a dark mine for 14 hours a day? Check
Gavin Friday being a cat whilst singing the Siamese Cats song from the Lady and the Tramp? Check
Beth Orton transforming “Second Star to the Right” (Peter Pan) into a torch song? Check
Shane McGowan transforming Zip-a-dee Doo Dah into a very dirty-sounding song indeed? Check
Peter Doherty singing the chimney-sweep song from Mary Poppins and looking and sounding much more like a real Cockney chimney-sweep than the original? Check


This is less than half of the line-up, you understand. The attitude was amazing despite the sound problems and was basically what you would get if you were at a drunken house-party with very good friends and they decided to start singing and acting their favourite Disney song. Considering that your friends would be Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave, Peter Doherty, Grace Jones, etc. None of these and the other stars was afraid to look silly, and actually went out of their way to act, well, like Disney characters. But in giving their own twist to the songs, they made them much closer to the original fairy-tales on which they were based, i.e. very adult indeed.


Someone took some nice photos of the gig. I, as usual, had left my camera at home. A more oficial review here. And a video of one of the songs here.

Visit to Richmond

The last Sunday in April went for a walk around the gorgeous Isabella gardens in Richmond, after a lovely meal with Ali and Hilda at Nick and Simon's equally gorgeous house in East Sheen. Managed to take a little bit of Richmond park on the way back as well. More photos in the photo-album link on the side.

London evening

Remembering that I'm in London for other reasons besides work, and knowing that you can still do stuff here without a disposable income (my case at the moment) if you know where to look, I did a couple of hours yesterday enjoying London's culture for free. First of was meeting Aliki for an arts show that she was participating in, and that had a private view. This coincided with a gallery open day at Vyntner Street in Hackney. Several galleries full of contemporary, crazy artwok, people meeting up on the street, catching up, etc. Walked from Old Street to Cambridge Heath, i.e. including the full length of Hackney Road. Nice to discover a new (if very grotty and slightly scary) part of London.
Then a first for me - I went to a bar by myself. Ok, I only stayed for 15min as I was by now quite tired, but still nobody ate me up so definitely worth it. Also because I saw a brilliant act - Bev Lee Harling - as part of the City Showcase. It was free, and the in a nice and handy bar near Tottenham Court Road that I didn't know - the BarFly, and not crowded!
Recommended all in all.

More on the circular bridge over Aveiro

So I got curious about this circular bridge, view from above here:

In case it's not apparent, there is a perpendicular canal to the one seen on the picture, so the aim of the bridge being circular is that you can cross two canals with one bridge, rather than build two separate bridges.

I prefer to think that the architect (Luis Viegas) thought:

"what can I do to make a different bridge?" then answered himself "make it round!" then someone said: "why?" and he said "why not?" There are definitely not enough why nots in the world.

Or you could think that, considering Portugal's obsession with roundabouts, since they couldn't build any more on land, they just built one on water. Brilliant!

Anyway here is the more sober explanation from Wikipedia:

A ponte pedonal circular de Aveiro, promovida pela AveiroPolis, une as quatro margens de dois canais, S. Roque e Botirões faz a ligação entre o Canal da Praça do Peixe (canal dos Botirões) e o Canal de São Roque, abrangendo as margens do Cais dos Mercantéis e do Cais dos Botirões.
A ponte é única em Aveiro pela possibilidade de permitir atravessar dois canais e pela forma e desenho.
O projecto é da autoria do arquitecto Luís Viegas, da Faculdade de Arquitectura do Porto e do engenheiro Domingos Moreira, que desenharam a obra.
A geometria em planta da Obra de Arte é composta por um circulo com 26m de perímetro, a eixo, com 2,0m de largura, localizando-se na tangencia às três margens, materializadas pela confluência do Canal de Botirões no canal de S. Roque.
A obra de arte pode ser caracterizada por um tabuleiro circular suspenso por tirantes metálicos desde o seu limite interior até ao mastro inclinado, que por sua vez é sustentado por barras metálicas amarradas a m maciço de betão. A solução adoptada para as fundações indirectas do mastro e do maciço de amarração permitiu a quase completa eliminação de forças horizontais transmitidas ao maciço geotécnico, que não apresenta características competentes de fundação nas suas camadas superficiais.
A ponte permite a circulação a pé, de bicicleta e a utilização por utentes de mobilidade reduzida, pela existência de rampas além do acesso por escadaria. O pavimento de madeira e os tabuleiros encontram-se suspensos por cabos a uma mastro composto por dois elementos que configuram, no ar, o anel de amarração.
Dos materiais utilizados destacam-se o mastro de estrutura metálica de secção variável, o passadiço em estrutura metálica em perfis compostos de forma a fazer a geometria circular e as guardas exteriores em vidro curvo.
Com iluminação nocturna, a guarda do tabuleiro é composta por um vidro laminado curvo e transparente de forma a não constituir um obstáculo visual à leitura espacial da envolvente e a expressar uma condição de conforto ao nível da fruição do utente.
Devido à singularidade da ponte foi efectuada a monitorização da mesma levada a cabo pelo Departamento de Engenharia Civil da Universidade de Aveiro. A monitorização foi efectuada com ensaios dinâmicos e estáticos, salientando-se a utilização de sensores em fibra óptica.
Obtido em "http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_Pedonal_Circular_%28Aveiro%29"

Sarah's visit to Portugal

From May 26th to May30th. Whirlwind tour (as if I ever could organise some other kind) taking in Porto's nightlife, Aveiro and some of Porto's major sights. Highlights for me were Plano B, a quirky nightclub in Porto made even more surreal by the company of Mario in a pinstripe suit and a Venetian mask (think Eyes Wide Shut), and Aveiro's circular bridge.

More photos in my photo-album, link on the right