glamour and showbiz under the OXO tower
Yes, I'm...
Back in London!
Caught up with Maria (
penguin_dodger) yesterday before she dashes off to Moscow. Naturally, the heady mixture of our magnetic personalities lead to a quite media buzz around the South Bank, though we declined most of the clamouring media attention save one slickhairedguy (he may not've been slickhaired, but I have an interpretive rather than literal memory..). He offered us a tenner.
Slickhairedguy: Could we just take two minutes of your time for an interview? Go on...
Me and Maria: Hm... I dunno...
Slickhairedguy: I let a few go past you know.. but you two looked... artistic. Go on..
Me: Heyhey, I used to schmoose articles off people. Shameless flattery gets nowhere..
Slickhairedguy: What if I was to say... a tenner-
Me and Maria: Yeahsurewhynot *smiles*
We're so easily bought -__-;
So then this photographerguy comes over and starts taking pictures of our clothes, bags, bracelets, hairthings... even the scary-starey cat (Frank) I have hanging off my my pocketwatch (you know, Clement..). Slickhairedguy then comes over and ushers us in front of the camera. The mic swings and nearly whacks me in the face while the camera came in so close the lense nearly touched my glasses. I flinch slightly.
Interviewguy: So what are your hobbies? What do you like doing?
And so the interview began. I made up some stuff about being caught between the virtual and real world and e-stalkers which made the director hop and mouthe 'yes', and when Maria mentioned Banksy he seemed to go into some kind of ecstatic seizure.
Then slickhairedguy surruptitiously stuck a tenner into our hands and suggested we visit Tate Modern.
Apparently the interview was for some sort of market research into current trends and stuff by something called the Oyster Group. A Google search suggests they're some kind of brand-building/marketing company or similar. (or possibly the Blue Oyster Cult (hot rails to hull), though I think that might be a band..)
Hm... should've told them about my cult...
hehehe
Then we went to Santa's Ghetto - the Banksy squatshop on Oxford Street. A guy there took a shine to Maria, I think, and kept trying to guess where she's from and getting it wrong, then trying to persuade her to toss a hoop over a rotating statue of the Virgin Mary.
Life is so surreal when I go places with Maria.
(actually, life is pretty surreal in general, but that was quite impressively outthere, I think)
I'm not sure about this Banksy character... I mean, the shop seemed so anticommercially... commercial. I don't blame him for making money out of it all, but so much of it - and perhaps its visitors - are so achingly, self-conciously 'hip'... that it just felt... well... flat. Though I suppose there's little Banksy can do about the atttitudes of his fans..
But what is he thinking? Does he really have a message..? Or is it just the same antiestablishment rebellion trend in the hands of a witty and accomplished artist?
Witty, cool, clever...
but what's it for...?
(mindyou, if it can be witty, cool and clever I'm not sure it really needs a message or purpose)
Back in London!
Caught up with Maria (
penguin_dodger) yesterday before she dashes off to Moscow. Naturally, the heady mixture of our magnetic personalities lead to a quite media buzz around the South Bank, though we declined most of the clamouring media attention save one slickhairedguy (he may not've been slickhaired, but I have an interpretive rather than literal memory..). He offered us a tenner.
Slickhairedguy: Could we just take two minutes of your time for an interview? Go on...
Me and Maria: Hm... I dunno...
Slickhairedguy: I let a few go past you know.. but you two looked... artistic. Go on..
Me: Heyhey, I used to schmoose articles off people. Shameless flattery gets nowhere..
Slickhairedguy: What if I was to say... a tenner-
Me and Maria: Yeahsurewhynot *smiles*
We're so easily bought -__-;
So then this photographerguy comes over and starts taking pictures of our clothes, bags, bracelets, hairthings... even the scary-starey cat (Frank) I have hanging off my my pocketwatch (you know, Clement..). Slickhairedguy then comes over and ushers us in front of the camera. The mic swings and nearly whacks me in the face while the camera came in so close the lense nearly touched my glasses. I flinch slightly.
Interviewguy: So what are your hobbies? What do you like doing?
And so the interview began. I made up some stuff about being caught between the virtual and real world and e-stalkers which made the director hop and mouthe 'yes', and when Maria mentioned Banksy he seemed to go into some kind of ecstatic seizure.
Then slickhairedguy surruptitiously stuck a tenner into our hands and suggested we visit Tate Modern.
Apparently the interview was for some sort of market research into current trends and stuff by something called the Oyster Group. A Google search suggests they're some kind of brand-building/marketing company or similar. (or possibly the Blue Oyster Cult (hot rails to hull), though I think that might be a band..)
Hm... should've told them about my cult...
hehehe
Then we went to Santa's Ghetto - the Banksy squatshop on Oxford Street. A guy there took a shine to Maria, I think, and kept trying to guess where she's from and getting it wrong, then trying to persuade her to toss a hoop over a rotating statue of the Virgin Mary.
Life is so surreal when I go places with Maria.
(actually, life is pretty surreal in general, but that was quite impressively outthere, I think)
I'm not sure about this Banksy character... I mean, the shop seemed so anticommercially... commercial. I don't blame him for making money out of it all, but so much of it - and perhaps its visitors - are so achingly, self-conciously 'hip'... that it just felt... well... flat. Though I suppose there's little Banksy can do about the atttitudes of his fans..
But what is he thinking? Does he really have a message..? Or is it just the same antiestablishment rebellion trend in the hands of a witty and accomplished artist?
Witty, cool, clever...
but what's it for...?
(mindyou, if it can be witty, cool and clever I'm not sure it really needs a message or purpose)