Helen McCookerybook
Papa Was A Rolling Pin.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Sunday, October 27, 2024
God Is In The TV Review of The Chefs
But how did they guess that Mary McCookerybook is not my real name? 😂
Friday, October 25, 2024
First Airplay from Showtunes from the Shadows: Three Cheers for Gideon Coe!
Three Cheers for Toytown was played by Gideon Coe last night!
Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0023w7r
And the album is here: https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Just Arrived: Showtunes from the Shadows Puppet Badges
Buy one or a whole choir!
Spookily Hallowe'enish, not by intention.
https://helenmccookerybook.bandcamp.com/merch/showtunes-puppet-head-badge
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Monday, October 21, 2024
Friday, October 18, 2024
Stephen Appleby at Space Station Sixty Five
Tucked away in a yard off Kennington Lane is Space Station Sixty Five, an airy little gallery with exceedingly friendly staff. If, like me, you wondered what happened to Steven Appleby after apparently disappearing from the pages of The Guardian newspaper, then this is the exhibition for you. It's the exhibition for you even if you didn't wonder that. It's full of funny, warm and often slightly disturbing art that massages your sense of normality while quite comfortably straddling the boundaries between that, and what some people would regard as deviance.
There is so much to see and be inspired by here. Steven's line drawings seem to have been drawn with a pin: wiry black lines on a white page, sometimes with a smudge of colour flown in. Sometimes, they read from left to right, sometimes upside down and the right way up, sometimes tempting your eyes to dart about, as though it is you yourself having these thoughts and daydreams in your mind's eye.
The text is part of the whole, playing with words and ideas (why didn't I think of that? Maybe I did, but Steven has articulated it in real life). Everything is challenged, just when it's looking really cosy. The work is sexy, sexual, real, and dreamy all at once, with a 'normality' in the representation of humans and a sense of humour underpinning the whole that makes you laugh your way into hidden areas of your soul.
Steven's been working as an illustrator, graphic novelist, musical collaborator and practically anything else creative you can think of. I bought his graphic novel after being riveted by just a quick glance inside it. There is much more here than just the line drawings, too. What a breath of fresh air he/she/they is. He doesn't care what you call her: what a wonderful reaction to the screaming bigots!
It made my day seeing this.
I messaged the Offsprogs straight away to go and see it. I'm going to go again (it's on till December), because it turned that frown upside down, especially because we went to the Regency Café for a late lunch afterwards.
And the sun was shining too.
Official Release Day: the Chefs Compilation
Big thanks to Damaged Goods, Alison Wonderland, Lee at Yuba and not forgetting Claire Barratt whose photograph graces the front cover.