Friday 28 December 2012

Never judge a book by its cover!

Merry Christmas, Teen Dreamers! 
Hope you've enjoyed the festive season so far!
I made the above bunting to hang on my shelves when I'd done all my wrapping. 
Am rather tempted to leave it up all year. 

As the nights draw in and it's cold, I always find seem to find myself outside a second hand bookshop.
Today I ventured into Any Amount Of Books, which is always fun to visit.
I'm trying to be better with book buying/spending so I reluctantly put down three Enid Blyton Circus books that would have been just perfect for a friend and started to rifle through their film shelves.
The fun about these places is that you never know what will be on the shelves.

oooh, what's this?
Oooh, let's have a look inside!
That's....not what I was expecting.




In the back is a portfolio of the artworks with titles, dates and an essay from the artist, Dawn Mellor on Michael Jackson's appeal to her as a black teen. She stopped when his songs were turning too 'seductive' and 'predatory'.
I thought this was such an unusual book, I bet some Michael Jackson fan/collector would like to have it. 

 The rest of Any Amount has lots to discover in piled high shelves, boxes, tables and corners. I was tempted by this New Women In Rock book in the half price basement. You can't go wrong with Grace Jones, Heart, Siouxsie and others! 



I ended up with this amazing new book on Bowie, published this year, Any Amount had it for half the retail price and it's a gorgeous little book. Can't wait to read more of it this weekend...


and I shall be bringing you new magazine treats in the new year! 
Ohhhh... Yesss indeed.

Oh, I noticed a few people have been leaving comments with requests, I shall have a few posts up soon!

Sunday 18 November 2012

Scott and Olly's great Silhouettes Showdown!

Oh, I love the Internet, just the fact that you can find, follow, support and interact with talented, creative people who do something you like!

My last Twin Peaks entry left me wondering what Scott Campbell was doing now and was ecstatic to find out he was doing a signing of Great Showdowns at Forbidden Planet the next week!
He wouldn't be alone either as Olly Moss would be signing his new book too, Silhouettes of Popular Culture.
Just look at that amazing cover on Olly's book

 and can you name all the movies on Scott's?

I followed Olly Moss's work ever since he did that amazing minimalist black and red movie graphic set on Flickr (how much do you love the Indiana Jones one, sigh), that infamous Spoilt shirt and he started doing posters in Empire magazine too.

I couldn't turn that opportunity down to see the two of them in one place and especially when Scott C emailed to say he was bringing Twin Peaks prints to sell alongside signing his books, I just had to go!
The signing was only for an hour from 6-7pm so I was anxious that I may not get there in time as I finish work at 6.

Luckily Forbidden Planet is just down the road from the office and the queue was starting to wrap around the horror and supernatural romance shelves by the time I stepped down into the basement. So many lurid covers to giggle at.
As I peered around the people nearing the front, I could see the artists themselves taking their time to talk to people, drawing portraits in books, doodling and signing away and how did I never know that Scott C looked like Jason Sudeikis?! Um, helloooo.

I saw a girl in a West Ham scarf manning Scott's portfolio as people flipped through. Alas I had no cash on me(self, stop doing that) but I was able to reserve the last print of Concentrating on the Js that Scott had in his portfolio, hooray! She kindly took it out and put it in an envelope for me to pick up after the book signing then I carried on waiting in the queue and flicking through the books.

As an 80s pop culture fan, these two books are a total delight, both very striking in their artwork and a real joy for anyone who is a fan of films and artwork. Olly's book of silhouettes riffs on the art of profile silhouettes by showing the profiles of famous characters from films, television and video games. They are strikingly beautiful and it's amazing how well Olly is able to get characters down to the bare details.

Great Scott! 
Where's your brain?

Scott's Great Showdowns has a more whimsical watercolour take on the showdowns that happen in our favourite films, all with smiley faces painted on.

I feel funky

The cheque's in the mail!

Lots of people were there for Scott and Olly, I was also hoping that Kate Beaton may make an appearance and had brought her brilliant books, Hark! A Vagrant and Never Learn Anything From History.
I later stood off to the side to purchase my Twin Peaks piece  and saw Kate Beaton talking to Olly!

 I waited to be sure it was her, she introduced herself to someone as Kate and then I managed to catch her eye and ask if she would sign my books? She walked over and said hi as I took my books out, I had one of the original books of History and she was excited to see it, noting that it was one of the original runs and thanking me for taking care of it. We talked a little about history, comics and being in London and she drew a pair of my favourite characters of hers, The Mystery Solvin' Teens!


Needless to say the signing completely overran and there were lots of happy people clutching their signed books. Thanks to Forbidden Planet for running it all smoothly and to Olly, Scott and Kate for their time and signing so many books and prints! I cannot wait to frame my Twin Peaks art, it is even more beautiful close up.

I popped into Forbidden Planet at lunchtime on Friday to get some more copies of the books as Christmas presents for friends, and was delighted to see a stack of signed Kate Beaton books for sale.
Here are a few of the characters she drew! I really do recommend her Hark A Vagrant book for fans of history and literature, they're such fun to read.

I love the 80s Power Dressing Woman!

Do you have any favourite webcomics that you recommend? 

Saturday 3 November 2012

Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary Art Exhibition

"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it. Don't wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee."

Twin Peaks is such a fantastic, off beat and creepy show. Who can forget David Lynch and Mark Frost's show populated by a cast of delightful characters ranging from Agent Dale Cooper, to the Log Lady and the delicious Audrey Horne?

Too young to see it when it first aired (if it even had a proper showing here?), I'd always heard about this seminal influential show especially as I was an obsessed X-Files fan and got a chance to see it when it was one of the first programmes they ran on Channel 5 when it started here. I still find it so unsettling and funny at the same time. 

I found out about a 20th Anniversary exhibition happening at the Menier Gallery through Twitter and was eager to go, especially since it was on for such a short time. It closed today and the curator (Suet May Ling) herself was in attendance talking to the exhibition attendees about certain pieces on the walls and selling some great looking (but expensive) merchandise. I would have loved to have an RR mug or a Log Lady tee, all officially approved by David Lynch, but not to be. 

Jo came along and we met outside the Southwark Cathedral to make our way to the exhibition. Jo had 'Poor Man's Rum' whilst I had a Chai Latte to fend off the freezing wind. 



 It's a small exhibition space but the artworks were pleasingly spaced out and ranged from different mediums from printed scarves, oil canvas hangings, photographs, intricate fine paper cuts, framed postcards with inked drawings on the back and large woodcuts. 
At first I wasn't sure if we could take pictures but we saw others do so with no rebuke, so I took a few snapshots of my favourites. There weren't any labels with titles of artworks or author so no information unfortunately. 

The creators of Twin Peaks themselves: David Lynch and Mark Frost. (I thinking of him as Mark Snow, heh, that XFiles fangirl side coming through) 







  I remember this one was called 'Black Lodge'. 

The exhibition was definitely worth seeing and made me remember why I liked the show so much, it really made me want to sit down and watch it all over again!  A few friends have been going through Twin Peaks phases too, check out Riikka's Lynch themed housewarming

Talking of Twin Peaks and art homages, you can see others here, my personal favourite Twin Peaks artwork is by the brilliant Scott CampbellHe painted this watercolour "Concentrating On The J's", which has been my laptop wallpaper ever since I saw it on his blog.

Afterwards, Jo and I explored Borough Market and had lunch next to a ship!
Have you been to any exhibitions lately or have you given yourself a present today?