Brixton news, rumour and general chat - January 2015

[editor]

Truly massive.

 

[editor]

So who's out in Brixton tonight and where are you going? I'm thinking I'll warm up at the Albert, and maybe see some friends at the Effra Social, and possibly pop over to Jamm for a friend's birthday (if I get the energy to traipse to Brixton Rd). Probably end up at the 414 if my Hamlet post-the match celebrations haven't worn me out.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Stay! The amateur hour hypocrisy is what keeps on bringing me back. That and I the fact that i appear to speak to buscador & friendofdorothy more on here than I ever get to in the pub.

Hi snowy! Sorry we been missing you, but we can't afford to go out as we used to.

 

[el-ahrairah]

So who's out in Brixton tonight and where are you going? I'm thinking I'll warm up at the Albert, and maybe see some friends at the Effra Social, and possibly pop over to Jamm for a friend's birthday (if I get the energy to traipse to Brixton Rd). Probably end up at the 414 if my Hamlet post-the match celebrations haven't worn me out.

where the fuck do you get the energy from? you're 10 years older than me ffs

 

[cuppa tee]

So who's out in Brixton tonight and where are you going

I stepped out after a week laid up with a nasty virus, the first people I clapped eyes on were three bearded gentlemen in superhero outfits carrying plastic inflatables, instead of heading back to bed I went to the crown and anchor, a low key but enjoyable drink was spoilt when a bloke in a rugby shirt asked if we could swap tables despite there being another table big enough for his group available .....i got the hump because imho he didn't see that one just the one occupied by two plebs [me +1 ] which he just had to have, maybe I'm para after my sicknesses.........on my return I was struck by the numbe of half drunk bottles of corona beer littering the street.

 

[SpamMisery]

...i got the hump because imho he didn't see that one

Can't really get the hump if he didn't see the other table, can you?

 

[Tricky Skills]

Some snaps from a walk up / down Brixton Road.

BBuzz piece in full.

 

[shakespearegirl]

Reported in the Sunday times business section that Honest Burgers have sold a 50% stake in the company for a £7million investment which they are using to double the number of restaurants

 

[cuppa tee]

Can't really get the hump if he didn't see the other table, can you?

I think you can if the table in question is big enough to seat 8 and is in plain sight........

 

[Miss-Shelf]

I think you can if the table in question is big enough to seat 8 and is in plain sight........

I think you can get the hump just because you've got it full stop

If people in London stop getting the hump where will we be?

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

I think you can get the hump just because you've got it full stop

If people in London stop getting the hump where will we be?

We would be living in a city where all the men were called Humphry?

 

[editor]

where the fuck do you get the energy from? you're 10 years older than me ffs

I've no idea to be honest but I'm grateful I have it! I ended up in the 414 which was hugely busy. It seemed busy all around Brixton: Dogstar was rammed, Albert was heaving as was the Queen's Head.

 

[Mr Retro]

I've no idea to be honest but I'm grateful I have it! I ended up in the 414 which was hugely busy. It seemed busy all around Brixton: Dogstar was rammed, Albert was heaving as was the Queen's Head.

I was working day and evening all weekend and to help with the pain I went to the offie about 7pm yesterday. The place was fucking packed. Queues for the bank machines were 20 people long. Outside the tube was like there was a major sporting occasion about to start.

What happened to being skint in January?

 

[editor]

I was working day and evening all weekend and to help with the pain I went to the offie about 7pm yesterday. The place was fucking packed. Queues for the bank machines were 20 people long. Outside the tube was like there was a major sporting occasion about to start.

What happened to being skint in January?

Loads of lolly slopping around vibrant Brixton these days. And loads of fights too.

 

[han]

where the fuck do you get the energy from? you're 10 years older than me ffs

10?!
[emoji3]

 

[Gramsci]

Black Cultural Archives have new exhibition in conjunction with V&A. Both free.

Inspired by Peter Fyrer’s seminal text Staying Power, The History of Black People in Britain, this exhibition focuses on a period of time when photography served as an archival tool to capture historical moments. From documentary to portraiture to staged allegorical photographs, Staying Power documents experiences from post-World War II through to the 1990s, covering topics from mass migration to hip hop fashions of south London.

I have not read Peter Fryers book. They had copies of it in the BCA bookshop. Its was written a while ago but is considered to be classic history of Black presence in Britain.

I went to see the one at BCA on Saturday.

Its a collection of photographs taken from post war onwards by Black photographers (mainly post 70s at BCA). Its a mixture of styles. Fashion, street photography, press photography, photos as diary and art based photography. Surprisingly given the diversity of styles this works really well as an exhibition. Its the best curated of the exhibitions I have seen at the BCA.

Not to be missed are the cases showing the photographers old cameras with comments from the owners. Below which are shelves you can pull out containing old press and articles from BCA archives. Items that complement the photos. Also show how a lot of left wing press there was about in 70s and 80s. Several of the photographers contributed to these magazines.

The photos are mainly London based. Some from Brixton. Its an uplifting show but the London it represents is going. Which is sad imo. What comes across strongly in the exhibition is the humanity of the photographs and the photographers. The exhibition shows the power of photography.

Whilst the exhibition is not overtly political its a fascinating historical record. Part of the "Staying Power Project" was to collect oral history along with the photos. If you have mobile phone you can scan to listen to the oral history at the exhibition.

Just to add BCA now have cafe open on Saturdays.

 

[CH1]

Black Cultural Archives have new exhibition in conjunction with V&A. Both free.
I have not read Peter Fryers book. They had copies of it in the BCA bookshop. Its was written a while ago but is considered to be classic history of Black presence in Britain.
I went to see the one at BCA on Saturday.
Its a collection of photographs taken from post war onwards by Black photographers (mainly post 70s at BCA). Its a mixture of styles. Fashion, street photography, press photography, photos as diary and art based photography. Surprisingly given the diversity of styles this works really well as an exhibition. Its the best curated of the exhibitions I have seen at the BCA.
Not to be missed are the cases showing the photographers old cameras with comments from the owners. Below which are shelves you can pull out containing old press and articles from BCA archives. Items that complement the photos. Also show how a lot of left wing press there was about in 70s and 80s. Several of the photographers contributed to these magazines.
The photos are mainly London based. Some from Brixton. Its an uplifting show but the London it represents is going. Which is sad imo. What comes across strongly in the exhibition is the humanity of the photographs and the photographers. The exhibition shows the power of photography.
Whilst the exhibition is not overtly political its a fascinating historical record. Part of the "Staying Power Project" was to collect oral history along with the photos. If you have mobile phone you can scan to listen to the oral history at the exhibition.
Just to add both V&A and BCA exhibitions are free. BCA now have cafe open on Saturdays.

I went to a similarly themed free exhibition at the V & A last week - prompted by a lunchtime lecture.
"In Black and White" in rooms 88a & 90 has some Chris Offili plus a range of pop-level art from 1970s Black Panther posters to African and African-influenced materials from the post-colonial period.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3339/in-black-and-white-prints-from-africa-and-the-diaspora-4770/

No doubt a visit to the V & A could combine both.

 

[Gramsci]

I went to a similarly themed free exhibition at the V & A last week - prompted by a lunchtime lecture.
"In Black and White" in rooms 88a & 90 has some Chris Offili plus a range of pop-level art from 1970s Black Panther posters to African and African-influenced materials from the post-colonial period.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/3339/in-black-and-white-prints-from-africa-and-the-diaspora-4770/

No doubt a visit to the V & A could combine both.

Thanks for this. Looks interesting.

 

[cuppa tee]

should strike a chord with some here........ http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/londons-poor-fetish/

 

[Manter]

should strike a chord with some here........ http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/londons-poor-fetish/

The name of the site is apposite.

 

[editor]

should strike a chord with some here........ http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/londons-poor-fetish/

The illusion is delicate and fleeting, though, because as soon as a place becomes inhabited with too many white, middle-class faces, it becomes difficult for any of them to keep playing penniless. The braying accents crowd in and the illusion shatters. Those who aren’t committed to the working class aesthetic—yuppies dressed in loafers and button-downs rather than scruffy shoes and vintage wool coats—begin to dominate, and it all becomes just a bit too west London. And so the Zeitgeist must roll on to the next market, pool hall, or dive bar ripe for discovery, colonization, and commodification.

Not all businesses understand this dynamic, however. Champagne and Fromage, an explicitly bourgeois restaurant, waded into the hipster darling food market of Brixton Village in late 2013, upsetting locals and regulars alike. Attracted by the hip kudos and ready spending of the area, the restaurant’s premature arrival inadvertently pointed out that the emperor had no clothes, that the other restaurants were simply a collage of meaningless symbols and aesthetics, shorn from their original contexts to create a faux-working-class experience—an experience that was nothing more than an illusion.

 

[editor]

Misty Miller launches Independent Venue Week at Brixton’s Windmill, Monday 26th Jan

I really like Misty, so might try and come along to this.

 

[teuchter]

This is the romantic illusion that these bars, clubs and street food markets construct; that their customers are the ones on the edge of life, running the gauntlet of Zola’s Les Halles, eating local on makeshift benches whilst drinking beer from the can. Yet this zest is vicarious—only experienced second-hand through objects and spaces that have been sanitized enough for the middle classes to inhabit. Spaces that have been duly cleansed of anybody who is actually working class; the former clientele both excluded by the increased prices and relegated to the roles of service staff.

The illusion is delicate and fleeting, though, because as soon as a place becomes inhabited with too many white, middle-class faces, it becomes difficult for any of them to keep playing penniless. The braying accents crowd in and the illusion shatters. Those who aren’t committed to the working class aesthetic—yuppies dressed in loafers and button-downs rather than scruffy shoes and vintage wool coats—begin to dominate, and it all becomes just a bit too west London. And so the Zeitgeist must roll on to the next market, pool hall, or dive bar ripe for discovery, colonization, and commodification.

First paragraph: reality of what we call old skool Brixton.
Second paragraph: what we call nu Brixton.

 

[Pickman's model]

what in the name of tarnation would possess someone to pretend to be an american fed in brixton?

 

[Tricky Skills]

£33,000 for a new Director of Housing at Lambeth Council?

That's just the recruitment cost. The full whack is £147,000, plus 'oncosts' of 28%. The Prime Minister is paid £142,500.

Lambeth Council is broke btw.

BBuzz piece.

 

[Pickman's model]

If people in London stop getting the hump where will we be?

a city without people that's where this non-humping will get you.

 

[Manter]

£33,000 for a new Director of Housing at Lambeth Council?

That's just the recruitment cost. The full whack is £147,000, plus 'oncosts' of 28%. The Prime Minister is paid £142,500.

Lambeth Council is broke btw.

BBuzz piece.

Oncosts are tax etc- they are unavoidable.

 

[Pickman's model]

£33,000 for a new Director of Housing at Lambeth Council?

That's just the recruitment cost. The full whack is £147,000, plus 'oncosts' of 28%. The Prime Minister is paid £142,500.

Lambeth Council is broke btw.

BBuzz piece.

so's the country but you don't see people shaking their fists at comeron because of the amount he's paid.

 

[Tricky Skills]

so's the country but you don't see people shaking their fists at comeron because of the amount he's paid.

I'm not going to defend Cameron. ABSOLUTELY NOT. No way.

But on balance, *any* PM is probably worth £142,500.

 

[Pickman's model]

I'm not going to defend Cameron. ABSOLUTELY NOT. No way.

But on balance, *any* PM is probably worth £142,500.

any p's m, anyway