February 2017

Did you know there are two hundred and seventy London Tube stations? This very clever group manages to mention every one of them in this 3:09 song.

And don't forget Marie also intends to visit everyone of them and while I was initially doubtful, she has made a very good start, having completed one line and well on her way to completing another. Ealing Broadway was quite an interesting recent exploration.

The February 2017 issue of DNA magazine features my special personal 8-page farewell to George Michael. There's also my interviews with UFC gay fighter Timmy Guest, hotly-touted Icelandic band Fufanu and "accidental activist" producer/screenwriter Adi Hasak (the man behind the TV series' "Eyewitness" and "Shades of Blue"). I also get to review the latest album releases from a bunch of too-cool-for-school artists who don't go by the names their mothers call them.  Heretics! For more please go to ...

We hired an apartment in St Michel in Paris. It is an awful lot like the "Taken" Apartment, do you think that is a good sign, or bad sign? I'm taking it as a good sign, of course.

We deserve better

Crown St Grocer is a bit of an institution, selling high-quality and slightly expensive Italian food and deli products. They have a great range of cheese.

And the coffee is just fine. What better outlook on a morning in Surry Hills than to watch the world go by at Crown and Albion?

Work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Thursday and Friday off. Lovely. I like it. 

I'm going to go for a bike ride. Then I might go to Ikea and get some clip frames for some pictures I have for the collage of paintings I am working on for our study wall. Then I might go to the second hand record shop in Brunswick Street and look for the 2 Rolling Stones albums that I don't have.

Then I'll make lunch for Sam.

It is cool and overcast. 

I have to book an apartment in Paris and an apartment in Amsterdam and I have to book the Eurostar to London, for our trip in a few months. 

And what I don't get done today, well, there is always tomorrow.

Let me describe my day today…. woke up at 6am, worked for 2 hours drinking a bunch of coffee, 8am got my snowboarding gear on, 8:30, rode gondola up Breckenridge, 11am, finished snowboarding and got back to Kip’s place.  11:30am, stripped snowboarding gear off and sat on Kip’s deck wearing nothing but a pair of black Corka speedos.

And that is where I am right now as I write this post for you guys.

I didn’t think that I’d be working on my speedo tan in the middle of a Colorado winter but it is gorgeous outside.  Not a cloud in the sky, no wind and it is about 8 degrees C.  That seems cold but it isn’t.

Kip and I have a tonne of new movies being added to my site SwimmerBoyz.com.  I’ll have some more time over the weekend to share some of those new movies with you guys, or you could just join now and watch them all, it is only $4.95.

...

I met our visitor from the country through our blog connection. She had lived in London for years when we first came across each other but was soon moving back to Australia, via a longish holiday in India.

Twice she has hosted us when we have travelled in country Victoria and it was now our turn to reciprocate. With some family she visited Heidi once in Melbourne and she arrived at The Highrise Friday evening, and after a moderate bottle or two glass or two of wine, we ate a nice meal prepared by R. I always worry that people don't sleep well when they stay, but it was not a problem and we all slept well.

After a relaxed Saturday morning breakfast at home, we headed to the National Gallery of Victoria to see a much looked forward to exhibition of the works of David Hockney. While I knew very little about him, I just loved his work.

The entrance to the gallery usually has an large piece of ...

SMOT


Works by Smot are usually easy to identify as they are printed onto lace doyleys which are then pasted up on the walls of Paris, often around Menilmontant.
It's hard to find much information about Smot but I did find a good article about him here:

http://www.lumieresdelaville.net/2016/01/13/les-rencontres-street-artistiques-de-miss-acacia-arsenic-et-vieilles-dentelles-de-smot/

A brief summary of the article for those who do not speak French:
 He did 4 years of study at art school in Paris and became a graphic artist but felt hemmed in by the demands of his professional life, so street art became a means of self ...