Magic

Friday was such a magical night! Remember back in September I told you about a day out on Clapham Common with Superduck, my boys and a bunch of their friends where he filmed them "lip-synching" to imagined backing vocals?

So glad to have another reason to publish this photo which I LOVE! Anyway, Friday night was the night of the actual Sigur Ros gig at Alexander Palace. Now, the boys have never been to a proper gig before and the fact that their first one would feature themselves is quite a bizarre and of course wonderful experience (I hope they don't expect that from every gig in the future!!).
Superduck was slightly nervous as to how his films had been edited for the show....would all the children feature? Would they be distorted and rendered unrecognisable? Would there be a mass meltdown of the under tens before they even got to see their tiny moment in the spotlight???

Here's Duke and Grace demonstrating to anyone who'll listen their excellence in the field of "oooh"s and "aaaah"s...

When the moment actually came it was magical....as Jonsi Birgisson asked the audience to join in, there all the children appeared projected behind him, all the kids started to gasp "it's US!" and clambered up on shoulders to get a better look. It was so perfect.

Here's the svengali himself with his cast.....

It would have been great to stay for the whole gig but we'd already done pretty well and thought it best to cut our losses, plus it was quite a schlep home so off we went into the night.....big thanks to Michael, Melanie, Ness and all the kids for making the night go so smoothly, to Johnnycakes for playing daddy and being an extra pair of shoulders but most of all to Superduck for asking the kids to get involved in the first place. His visuals with Sigur Ros really meld into something quite extraordinarily poetic and beautiful and I leave you with the trailer for his documentary "Vid Spilum endalaust" which is going to be available in limited edition to accompany a new book about the band...I've seen the whole film and it's breathtaking!

If you want to check out more of his work....http://www.nicholasabrahams.com/

Madame x

"Superduck Day"

An update on Nick Abrahams' Sigur Ros comings and goings.......of course we know him as Superduck, but let's get professional here.....

This Thursday (2nd October), as part of the Concrete and Glass music and art festival they will be running a short loop of "Vid spilum Endalaust" , a film Nick has shot on Super 8 of the band on tour, alongside photographs by Eva Vermandel at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Whitechapel Road 6.30 - 9.00pm. Vermandel has spent four months with the band during the recording and performing of their latest album. You'll have to wait until November for a proper screening of Nick's film in its entirety but I for one will be nipping down to the Whitechapel pre-George and Dragon for a teaser.....



Madame xx

Nordic num nums

Emma came by the other day at lunchtime with a brown paper bag full of Nordic specialties for us to share....

What a treat! We both love the pickled herring, beetroot, dark heavy dense bread thing which is quite an acquired taste so she knew I'd be clapping my hands with delight as she unpacked our picnic. I got my ceremonial doily out of the cupboard as befitted the situation and we shared a salmon tartare roll and a pickled herring and potato one which were so amazing, then a cinnamon bun to share with our Flat White coffees......deeeelicious! If any of you like this kind of fare get down here, if only for a cinnamon bun, they're covered in a thick sticky sugar glaze and are amaaaazing. Superduck came down in time for a bite and agreed, although he wasn't as excited as us about the pickled herring aspect.


Super!

Madame x

Happy Birthday Superduck!

I missed his drinks at the French last night but Superduck came by today for Birthday cake and it was as though Maison Bertaux had created a new cake in his honour!!! I've never seen this Chocolate Montblanc before...it was filled with chocolate stuff instead of chestnut and cream and then dusted with chocolate powder...

Splendid isn't it??!!
So, Superduck needed to ready himself for the huge treat he was about to take on...

And as I watched him eat it hopefully I'm afraid I was only offered but one mouthful...


Still, it was his special day, not mine....

Madame xxx

STRANGE IDEA OF LOVE

So I made a new video - this time of Pippa's band All About Eve Babitz. One night they performed at Paul Gorman's Lost Society party and Superduck and I filmed it. And another night I chased Pippa around Soho and then left it a few months. Finally yesterday I edited it all together.

This is my favourite All About Eve Babitz song. And I am really pleased with the video. I was on the phone to Superduck last night while he was stuffing envelopes at his high flying desk job and he told me that to edit the video's we shot together would be easy. I didn't tell him that I was actually trying to sync the live performance to an MP3 studio track and that the songs were at different tempos. FYI Nick Abrahams. Then he went on to tell me about bee keeping in Iceland...

xx Emma

Bigger and Better

I'm writing this lying on my bed eating a slice of my mum's christmas cake, a hulking great wodge of which I brought back to London....As I fold back the tin foil and the characteristic christmas smell comes wafting out I feel sad the whole festive hoo ha is over but also optimistic about the year ahead.

Here's Max sweeping up the last of the needles after taking down the christmas tree at the shop...he actually managed, with Superduck's help, to force it into a garment bag, quite impressive when you saw the size of the tree, and then take it to be recycled.....

One of my favourite christmas memories is the boys' faces when they opened the costumes Stevie and I made for them( I say I, what my role was was making tea and snacks and sewing the odd oversized wool stitch). There's always the danger with children that you can think you've got the perfect present then their face falls and they look at you as if you're insane for thinking they'd want THAT! There's no sugaring the pill when you're five, no siree, "don't like it!" and on to the next present....but we however, got it spot on with Duke's Jedi and Joe's cat"person" (he's actually obsessed with Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns but we drew the line at a snap-fastening pvc leotard and instead made an androgynous-ish tunic, which looks quite Edward Scissorhands and cat-mask!).

Duke the Jedi took up his perfect position under the tree so as to get access to his presents with minimum legwork:

They're now obsessed with Stevie's studio, we were in there on Saturday and they were sticking glitter on denim with the promise they can come back and make them into jeans next time....they were trembling at the thought of course and now harbour aspirations in fashion design....

The best thing about starting work is when your mates pop by to say hello again. We had one of those brilliant coffe-morning type gatherings the first day back which was so lovely with Sarah, Superduck and Lucy and I all vying for attention with Sarah snapping away with her brand new camera...


So pleased she gave me the soft-focus treatment...I should always insist on it!!

One of my low points over christmas was eating a promotional item as I was SO hungry! Beth very kindly sent me a YMC biscuit of a coat and I hadn't brought my packed lunch that day so....


Well I was tired and hungry and very cold by the look of me in the picture! That reminds me, Michael Murphy sent me a funny thing the other day, a timesaving device that I'm sure we could all do with slipping in our handbags!

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!! I don't know how I haven't lived without one frankly!

So, this is the year I get things done, and to prove it, I'm being very regular with my blog as you can see and also exploring other creative outlets....witness if you will the little movie I made during a shoot with Constantine last week....Only last Thursday and already edited and blogged! That's the new me!!!

Three of my most beautiful,statuesque blonde girlfriends agreed to me exploiting them in a shoot Constantine asked me to style....we had so much fun loping about in the basement, dressing up and allowing bonnetising without so much as a murmer! Can't wait to see the pictures but here's an idea......

So big thanks to Alex, Gwen and Johanna, I'm so lucky to have such beautiful friends! And enormous thanks to Stevie who let me pillage the Bodymap archive AND rifle her costume store! Steve and Claire at Rellik for pulling out all the stops and letting me run off with their Laura Ashley stock at Christmas! Nathaniel thanks for being my silent assistant in a hood, and you will notice a smattering of Spring/Summer Eley Kishimoto in there too!!!!

Oh yes, this is the year to get things DONE!!!

If you haven't visited the sale yet, it's all 50% off!!!! See you soon.

Madame xxxx

All The P's!

Well the girls' night out at Paul Gorman's Look Presents...at the Lost Society was p-p-p-perfect!!!

Those nights always feel like your friends houseparty with special guests, it's wonderful! Also I had the honour of being billed as one of the special guests as I was djing, so even better!

Here's Paul giving as good as the girls, bare breasts n all, with Caz, me and Pam Hogg:

Poppy and the Jezebels played a fabulous set of their dreamy pop songs, cor they dress really well too!! They look like little Biba models and they've just released a mini-album "Follow me Down" which I would recommend you buy ASAP! Here they are with Pam:

And talking of Pam....The Hoggdoll not only performed some of her dark, rockabilly-tinged songs giving her gold-clad ALL, she then rocked the house with a dj set that ticked all my boxes!!! You've gotta love this woman!

Having planned an early exit due to fatigue I found myself dancing myself dizzy! Mark Eley was a latecomer who made up for it quicksmart and Superduck even shuffled his brogues after threatening a no-show!

Caz is one of the best dancers I know and the way she was shaking her tush I couldn't resist!

Here's Paul and her front:

Max left before the snapping frenzy but as usual played up a storm...hadn't realised he was such a fan of Blank Generation unitl now....enough said about that Mr-Richard Hell never heard of him-Karie!
In fact Mark will be djing at the next one which is the first Thursday in September (the 6th) and All About Eve Babitz are rumoured to be playing so I know you won't want to miss that!

That's about all my news except to say the AW APC has just arrived-you'll love love love it!-and Duke learned to ride without his stabilisers at the weekend....

.....madame xxxxx

Scrambled Head and The Lost Society

Not sure why but I feel like my brain's been whisked briskly with a fork....or something...I keep putting things down then forgetting where, and I've got a ton of things to do, but it's that one step forward two steps back thing going on......

So I think I'll just post some pics from the last couple of weeks in no particular order. There's been lots going on, celebrations, birthday parties, my boys turned five, Nick turned forty...but still undresses in public with the vigour and vim of a teenager...

Sonja took all the photos except this one which I love because Sonja and I look like very expensive dominatrix's..

It was upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood and very victorian sitting room...

and the impromptu photo-session was a right laugh.
I also went to Ronnie Scott's for the first time to see Jimmy Scott with Nick which was wonderful...at least it was in the second set when we asked to be moved as we noticed some people left and promptly got seated at the very front! So that's my Ronnie Scott's tip...lie in wait for the early leavers! Suddenly we were on intimate terms with Jimmy and he seemed to be singing to us alone...Motherless Child made me well up indeed, such a beautiful voice out of such a frail frame, in fact he really is delicate, can't stand to sing anymore......GO AND SEE HIM IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE!!!! If you don't Nick'll have something to say about it!!!

Our friend Emma Forrest came by the other day out of the blue which was a lovely surprise! Haven't seen her for what seems like years, we've spent some wonderful times in LA at the Formosa or just hanging out at magic hour, shopping at Trashy Lingerie, getting tattoos, in fact we all shared a hotel room once rather memorably.....Anyhoo, she used to live in London and used to come to the first Shop where we met when she was barely out of her teens and a rather accomplished rock n roll writer, following the Manic Street Preachers and Wu Tang Clan amongst others. Now she's a screenwriter in Hollywood if you please and about to have her FOURTH novel published, called Damage Control - out soon!!!

Here she is getting into a bit of Andre the Giant.

Duke and Joe turned 5 last weekend which would have been more fun if we weren't indoors due to the freezing cold and flash flooding! However James kindly lent his house and we had a party all the same, picnic and pass the parcel on the kitchen floor....probably still covered in glitter thanks to Joe and his glitter wand!

Duke made his share of mess with the water-filled canary warbler!

I like those Antony Gormley figures on Waterloo bridge and the south bank, they look lonely, sad, optimistic or post-apocalyptic depending on your mood as you walk by or trundle past on the bus....they're quite friendly too, Nathaniel struck up an interesting conversation on the way home the other night.....


Next Thursday do come to the Lost Society in Clapham for an evening chock-full of entertainment! Not only are the wonderful All About Eve Babitz playing but Kevin Rowlands is djing along with Paul Gorman, Max and Pippa, should be marvellous! Get your glad rags on and come south of the river, this bar is fast becoming THE place to hang out!


see you there!
madame xxx

I did it again...

Folks yes it is true - idiot here did it again! Superduck [Nick Abrahams] came down with a friend of his that he has been having afternoon tea with in Maison Bertaux and being a bit tired and over excited cause Superduck was here [he always makes me laugh] I was being quite ridiculous making lewd jokes - SuperD was saying "Your jewellery case is nice" and I said "Yes! It is Pippa's" following it with "Yes - Pippa has a nice case too" [at least I found it funny] and SuperD made some remark about Pippa's shoe collection [men from all over the world have ogled them, and I'm sure women have too but maybe not with the same wishes] Anyway - so you get the vibe of the afternoon!! Then after the two gentlemen made their purchase [Sonia by Sonia Rykiel patent bow brooch] and left I realised who the other guy might be... I did a Google image search but still wasn't sure so I had to send Superduck a text message. Yes I had just asked Brit artist Jeremy Deller "to be my finger" while I was tying the ribbon on the box. I'd be embarressed if after 34 years of being an idiot I hadn't come to terms with myself... Pippa please forgive me!!

xx Emma

P.S. It must be noted Jeremy Deller was quite happy to be my finger for that moment.