Looking for something to do this coming bank holiday weekend?

Wanna go for a boogie?

Something low drama?

Something with great music?

Well the HomoElectric boys are back in town for a bank holiday Sunday special on 06 May.

After their March event I posted about how much I enjoyed it and and every other HomoElectric party I have been to over the last decade.

So, nows your chance to find out for yourselves.

See you there, yeah?

HomoElectric is at The Shacklewell Arms, Dalston, E8 2EB

on Sunday 06 May 2012 – 10pm until 3am

Sunday.

No hangover.

Paul makes an executive decision.

Skylon for Sunday lunch.

Works for me!

Hadn’t been to Skylon before. For some reason I always thought it was uber expensive and it looked kinda dark inside from the outside on the South Bank. However, whilst £25.50 for a two course Sunday lunch isn’t cheap, neither is it expensive, especially considering how nice it turned out to be…

The place is much more bright and airy than it looks from the outside, has great views of the Thames and the staff are very welcoming and friendly.

To start, Paul and I both went for the rabbit. To be precise it was ballotine of ‘rex de poitou’, pancetta, pistachios and plum compote. Beautifully presented with crushed pistachios and a sprig of pea shoots. Delicious!

The main event of any Sunday lunch, though, is the roast. Skylon did not disappoint.

I went for the beef (pictured) and Paul for the pork.

Beef – roast sirloin, carrots, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding and red wine sauce. A meltingly tender slab of beef sirloin with a rich sauce and perfectly cooked vegetables, to say nothing of the enormous yorkshire pud.

Pork – spiced pork belly, parsnip mash and purple sprouting broccoli with a spiced sauce that Paul thinks contained juniper. A generous and stickily delicious portion of pork belly with a sweet and creamy parsnip mash.

Faults? Don’t really have any. A great experience!

They even brought us a little stand of petit fours at the end of our meal – cute and tasty!

Skylon is at The Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank.

One does like a cocktail…

This tasty looking specimen is Regalitea.

As far as one can figure, a Regalitea is a twist on the classic French 75.

The twist, as the same suggests, is that it includes tea. Earl Grey tea, to be precise. Plus a couple of other added touches.

The full list of ingredients is Earl Grey infused Beefeater 24 gin, Madagascan vanilla sugar, lemon juice, peach bitters, topped with champagne.

Truly delicious!

One can sample Regaltea at The Blind Tiger (a.k.a Lost Society), along with an array of other spiffing cocktails and culinary wonderments.

I have been meaning to post this for over a week, but better late than never, huh?

On Sunday 01 April 2012, our friends Ben & Murray got married.

Paul and I met the boys through London’s Burning Man community, but we have become hugely fond of them over the last year or so.

Great to see them so very happy and that they have decided to spend their lives together. Wishing them a long and happy future.

One thing did come up at their celebration…

When the registrar had finished the ceremony Ben and Murray were pronounced husband and husband. This is something I had not even considered. It actually made me a little choked up…

As same sex couples we are not allowed to legally call ourselves married here in the UK. We are allowed a civil partnership that grants us (almost) the same rights as married couples. So I had not realised that the ceremony could end with that pronouncement.

I can’t wait for our ceremony in November and for Paul and I to be pronounced husband and husband too!

My good friend Karla Chameleon had a birthday recently.

It was a significant birthday.

Hence the name of the party and this post – The Big Someything-Oh!

I shall neglect to specify just how significant the ‘Oh’ to spare her blushes…

So, we took over the big room upstairs at The Dogstar in Brixton and presented a night of music and cabaret, followed by an eclectic bunch of DJs. Guitar and ukelele playing singers, Simon & Garfunkel tributes, story telling accompanied by flute and origami, some jazz, a crazy german and some death and murder ballads. All followed by some electro-swing, some rock’n'roll, some pop and some house & techno to finish.

Paul and I looked after decor and sound – Paul mostly decor and myself mostly sound. The place looked great – something between a big-top and a bunting festooned garden party.

Such a great fun night and I think we gave Karla the party she was hoping for.

However, the party was significant for another reason… My DJ debut under the name Nonym. Mine was the house & techno (& pop remixes) set to finish off the night. I have DJed small gatherings and whilst hanging out at home for years, but this was my first time out through a proper PA. I think it went pretty well… Wanna play again soon!

I recorded my set and you can listen below, or by clicking this link. Enjoy!

Its not often that I go to an exhibition and it totally blows me away.

However, the Yayoi Kusama show at the Tate Modern did just that.

It is wonderful and bright and energetic at times, yet at the same time is somehow dark and even a little disturbing…

The show walks you through (literally – there are 14 rooms!) the first works from key phases of Kusama’s career, which spans over 60 years. The artist has worked in many media, with this show featuring paintings on numerous surfaces, sculpture, film and large installations.

The works I liked the most were the distinctly phallic Accumulation Sculptures, where domestic objects sprout her stuffed tentacle-like forms and developed into some of her later larger tentacle sculptures; some of the bright large scale paintings with the repeating not quite abstract patterns; plus the large room installations.

The show has a wonderful ending. The last room is a darkened infinity mirrored room. You walk through in a seemingly endless space of hovering colour-changing points of light. It is a little disorienting and very trippy. When we walked through there was a young couple carrying an infant. The look on the child’s face was magical – pure wide eyed wonder.

The installation in that last room is titled ‘Filled with the Brilliance of Life’ and thats just how it left me feeling…

The Yayoi Kusama show is at the Tate Modern until 05 June 2012.

Q – What have black pudding, smoked haddock and a boozer on Old Street got in common?

A – A breakfast of kings provided by What The Dickens? What else?

If one should find oneself in need of a hearty breakfast on a Saturday and one is in the region of Old Street, or even if nowhere near there, one should definitely head over to The Reliance.

Whilst I do know the guys that created What The Dickens? and I do think we should all be supporting our independent businesses, their quality food stands up on it own – no hype needed.

Click image to download sample menu

This weekend I went for the Full English - Dickens own sweet-cured bacon, victorian recipe sausage, continental black pudding, poached egg, secret recipe baked beans, grilled filled mushroom, homemade potato bread and sourdough toast.

T’other half went for the kedgeree - A buttery rice dish with smoked haddock, mild Indian spices topped with a poached egg. A traditional Victorian Anglo-Indian breakfast and a What The Dickens? speciality.

To quote a number of people I know who have been, ‘best breakfast ever!’. I couldn’t agree more!

Go try it for yourselves…

You can find info about What the Dickens? at their website or like them on Facebook. You can call in to try their wares at The Reliance, 336 Old Street, London EC1V 9DR on Saturdays between 10am and 2pm, or visit their stall on Chatsworth Road Market in East London on Sundays from 11am to 4pm.

For Homos, Heteros, Lesbos, Don’t Knows and Disko Asbos.

Yep – pretty much does what it says on the tin.

Saturday at HomoElectric lived up to its strap line and delivered its usual eclectic ensemble of electricians. A damned refreshing change as I am not a fan of clubs where one has to be part of the clique to fit in.

I discovered HomoElectric a little over a decade ago up in Manchester and met Luke (Unabomber) a short time after at one of his other creations, Electric Chair (another Manchester institution – RIP). The two clubs rapidly became my favourite nights out.

Then I moved to London in 2003 and that was the end of that…

Thankfully, Luke now brings HomoElectric to London every couple of months and its home (at least for now) is The Shacklewell Arms in Dalston. Posh it aint, but thats just how I like my clubs. Decor has never been a priority for me when it comes to clubbing. All I really care about is good music and that there is a fun crowd. HomoElectric delivers both in bucketloads…

Music policy? Not really sure there is one in the strictest sense, as you might hear “disco, house, techno, rock ‘n’ roll trash, outsider pop, dirt, and glamour” to quote their website and they aint lyin’… It somehow all comes together to create a great fun party and thats all that really matters, right?

So, check out HomoElectric via the links below, throw off your pretensions and come along next time. It’ll be hot and sweaty and damned good fun!

You will find HomoElectric on their website, Facebook & Twitter.

Its not often I have chance to get out of the of the office for a full lunch break, let alone go out somewhere to sit down and eat. So when my friend Jessie suggested a lunchtime catch up, I was more than happy to accept.

But where to go?

Good question… I asked t’other half as I fancied trying somewhere new and I was stuck for ideas.

The Riding House Cafe was suggested. Having heard good things I decided to give it a try and I am glad we did.

Helpful staff on the phone when I called to check if we needed to make a reservation. A friendly welcome when we arrived and a certain sociable buzz in the atmosphere.

Interesting menu too. Theres a sample lunch menu at this link, but ours was a few items different when we arrived.

I went for the baked cod fillet with polenta chips and spicy tomato sauce. A really tasty alternative to the standard Friday fish and chips. Decent sized fillet too.

Jessie went for chorizo hash brown with mushroom and poached egg. Looked as tasty as it apparently was.

Service was a bit odd in part, with the guy taking our order not seeming quite on the same planet, but not unfriendly and everyone else seemed earthbound.

A very good, if not cheap and cheerful, lunch experience. A 4 out of 5 on the Haus of PandA approval scale and I will definitely go again!

The Riding House Cafe is on Great Titchfield St in central London. See their website for more details, or follow them on Twitter – @RidingHouseCafe.

I think we would all agree that the Burning Man Organisation fucked things up royally with this years ticket system.

But before we judge too harshly, maybe we should take a step back and at least attempt to look at things with a dispassionate and logical eye. Maybe even take a look at ourselves too.

Heres my two penneth worth…

Before I go any further and by way of full disclosure, I should point out that both Paul and I were lucky enough to have been allocated tickets to this years burn at the lottery stage, as have the rest of the small group of people we are planning a camp with. I point this out as I am very aware that people might think what I am about to write is very easy for me to say, as a person with a ticket. Yes, I have a ticket, but I have written and re-written this post a number of times in order to try to convey how I feel about this situation. It has not been easy to put into words AT ALL!

• Yes – the system has failed in terms of key core groups of people who provide infrastructure and quality theme camps being short of tickets.
• Yes – BM Org should have listened harder to people in the community who were trying to warn them of potential problems.
• Yes – there are a lot of upset/disappointed folks who do not currently have tickets and who might not end up with tickets.
• Yes – this years burn is likely to be different as a result.

However, what has struck me the most is the way that some people have reacted.

Let me get this off my chest – NONE OF US has an intrinsic right to a Burning Man ticket. Not me as a guy planning his third burn. Not the newbie who got one instead of you or your friend. Not the 20 year veteran who puts many hours of work into creating something amazing for the event each year.

There… I said it.

I have been appalled by the way some people seem to think they ‘deserve’ a ticket – suggesting that BM virgins should be limited, or that theme camps/long time burners should get first shot at tickets, or that they will never go to Burning Man again as they did not get a ticket this time. Hardly radically inclusive or self-reliant and in danger of sounding distinctly elitist…

I get why emotions run high – I was stressing terribly on the night they started allocating tickets. This years burn will be mine and Paul’s pre-civil partnership honeymoon (we get hitched this November). More generally, this is a very special event for thousands of us, where many of us learned a lot about ourselves and it changed the way we live our daily lives back in our default communities. Our event is a success because we all make it so.

I wonder how many of the people without tickets realise how those of us with tickets are feeling? Something akin to survivors guilt! Overly dramatic? Maybe, but some of us do feel somewhat guilty to have tickets when so many people we know do not…

The solution?

Who knows? But we need to face facts – Burning Man is a success (in terms of attracting numbers) and as tickets are limited in number (due to BLM licensing restrictions), demand will now exceed supply.

Maybe the BM Org does need to look again at how tickets are allocated… One person = one non-transferable ticket – possibly with some option to block book tickets for named core people in theme camps.

Or maybe it is time to fracture the event and focus more on regional events – take away what we have learned and practise what we preach. In Europe we have Nowhere (in Zaragoza, Spain), with which many of my friends are heavily involved. There are many more… look them up… there might be one in your region.

Whatever the solution, lets work with BM Org to sort it out, rather than waste time apportioning blame.

But what about right now, for this years burn?

We should all pull together and use the community we have built.

For tickets – Use STEP – Do not buy from secondary ticket sites – Communicate – Redistribute spare tickets at face value amongst your own friends/campmates/contacts – report scalpers so that BM Org can try to block them next year.

For those of us already with tickets – we need to work together to ensure we provide a fantastic event for each other.

Burning Man 2012 may well be different, but we can still make it great! Lets make that choice… together!