Friday, May 16, 2008

Wandrin' Friday

Toora-loora, down to Tottenham Court Road and into Rare and Vintage Guitars to ask if it's OK to do some photos there next week. I was delighted that Flea knows me anyway so that's all sorted- it's such a funky shop, all oldfashioned and non-hi-tech, just the job.
I wandered through Covent Garden in to the Diesel shop to see if they had those olive green overalls, but they didn't. There was a remarkable headless sales assistant lounging on a seat that I discovered was a shop dummy, but I'd been impressed for a second or two until I realised.
I looked in Paul Smith Women- too posh and lady like for me, and the Tintin shop, aimed at chaps and not tomboys (verily, we are two different breeds) and the Camper shoe shop (too little-girly, I'm afraid). I passed Stanford Maps and thought what fun it would be to use their stuffed world-map globes as cushions on my non-existent sofa.
So the next scheduled stop was meeting my friend and mentor Dave Laing in a tapas restaurant. I had never had tapas before, but I have now and it's nice. Dave is always full of news about mutual friends, usually academic ones, and he is also a writer (who is working on a book about Elton John at the moment). He's the person who wrote possibly the best book on punk, One Chord Wonders, which I hope will be re-printed in the near future. He is a very good writer who manages to write about some quite complex academic theories while at the same time being very entertaining. His section in the book on tartanry- the style of singing that Johnny Rotten ( I am an anarchiste-AH!) shares with vintage Scottish singer Harry Lauder (roamin'-ah in the gloamin'-ah!) had me laughing my boots off.
Which reminds me, I must polish up my Andy Stewart sings Edith Piaf routine: ah, that wink and the kilt-flicking leg!
Here I am back home, lounging, having employed a cleaner for the first time in my life. I used to be one, you see, and it's hard to have someone do it in your own house. But she's better than me and those 8-hour cleaning stints were killing me on top of working.
What shall I have for tea? Stuffed world-map globes, doncha know, with aioli dressing (whatever the f*ck that is), yum yum!

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