Little Walter

Little Walter was a god. I want to dance every night in the Black Gardenia to songs like this...

Diddly diddle dum

I have just discovered celtic mouth music or "Puirt-a-beul" - Gaelic dance music that grew up in the 18th and peaked in the 19th century. I'm obsessed. This is the kind of stupid songs I make up all the time around the house... obviously living up to the Gavin in my name.

"In Cape Breton there is a dance and puirt about a loom weaving. In this dance, the dancers are squatted or crouched and leap up to simulate the rise and fall of the harnesses on the loom, whilst others weave in and out to indicate the shuttle flying back and forth. In Cape Breton also, people perform step dances around a row of lighted candles, which they extinguish one by one with the soles of their feet while dancing."

This is my favourite Josie McDermott's The Collier's Reel

followed by Gordon Easton, The Drunken Piper

(illustrated with a good craggy pic of Brendan Behan)

The Thrill of the 80s

I'm a huge fan of Bob Peck. I accidentally bought his TV almost-debut Edge of Darkness, thinking it was another brilliant thriller that was on TV years back. It is so contemporary. He was an hypnotic actor. All craggy Yorkshire nose and unblinking eyes. I've gone a bit of a BBC political thriller spree now - Natural Lies and Alec Guinness in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in the post...

Kelley Kandors

I love Mike Kelley's work at the moment - gives me goosebumps. The best weird trippy Superman inspired art going. There's still a show up in Paris this month at Galerie Hussenot I so hope a book of this work comes out soon... been wanting that since the Jablonka show in Berlin a couple years back. When I got this lovely invite at the bottom:

Graham's goodies

Graham Hudson so kindly gave me an artwork today - one of his heraldic series. Its bloody gorgeous - a bucket with roses, plastic snakes and swords coming out of it. Yet to be hung but you get the vibe. Can't wait to see his work alongside Paul McCarthy at the Frieze Sculpture Park next month.

the week

Its been fashion week and design week and I've been dipping my toes in. Sneak preview of the Ryan McGinley/Tilda Swinton film (which i'll be writing about in the forthcoming Twin out end of October) at the Pringle show. B Store magazine launch tomorrow night featuring modelling by Paul Pieroni and Kris Latocha. Shelter Haunch of Venison playing card launch Thursday and some woolley wonders from wearecraftwork.com at Exposure gallery. My top night of the week however was Sunday, dancing til 1am at Vivienne Westwood after party to Rage Against the Machine and Easy Lover... So hard to decide which to choose....

New Psych

My labour of love, a big 8 page feature I wrote on a new wave of psychadelic art featuring Mark Titchner, Jimmy Joe Roche, Ben Jones, Jim Drain, Trenton Doyle Hancok and Takeshi Murata is out one shelves now. Go buy.

Lookalike

Went to Matthew Brannon opening last night at The Approach - the work was like Bret Easton Ellis' Glamorama fused with Saul Bass. Was chatting to the lovely Jennifer Higgie from Frieze afterwards at an amazing dinner at Mark Hix'. Talked to her about my awe at meeting Lucien Freud the other week when she stopped and noted how much I look like his first wife (Jacob Epstein's daughter Kitty Garman). As if I wasn't already slightly obsessed by him.

I was a bit awestruck when she sent me this today... its stupidly like me. All big eyes, side parting and stripes...

Five Fingers

I wish I had another hand. Or maybe two brains. Here are some rather classical images of fingers. The image above comes from this exhibition

Rodin - my mum used to own one pretty similar to this in the 70s. But of course it was gone before I was born.

Durer

Work and TV

Lots of work out there at the moment. Interviews with Thomas Demand and Ryan McGinley in the Megan Fox issue of Wonderland magazine. One of my latest small pieces as contributing art editor at Elle on Damien Hirst's forthcoming show is also out

When i jumped off the train from the Excess show in Paris I also went straight to BBC World TV and was interviewed live about graffiti... (the clips get out of sync a bit so press pause then play to refresh)

And keep an eye open for the next issue of Dazed for a real labour of love piece on a new wave of pyschadelic art....

From Paris

People always ask me for Paris recommendations, here's my latest recommendations after the Excess trip:

Drinking
-La Perle 78 Rue Vielle du Temple 75003 Paris (+33142726993)
-Stolly’s, 16 rue Cloche-Perce, 75004 Paris
-La Palette, 43, rue de Seine 75006 Paris Tél. +33 1 43 26 68 15
-Rosa Bonheur, inside the Parc de Buttes Chaumont Metro Botzaris (Line 7b) (get there before 930 for giant park lock in!)

Food, Coffee
- Nanashi, 57 rue Charlot, 75003
-Au Vieux Colombier, 65 Rue de Rennes 75006
-Rose Bakery, 30, rue Debelleyme 75003
-Salle 1e etage outside. Rue de Vaugiraud, near corner of Jardin du Luxembourg (there’s a bus stop outside).
-Hotel du Nord, Canal St Martin www.hoteldunord.org
- Café de la Mairie, 8 Place Saint-Sulpice, 75006
- Café Charlot, Rue Bretagne, corner of Rue Charlot. 75003
- Les Philosophes. 28, Rue Vieille du Temple
- Chez Marianne, Rue De Rosiers (for felafel)

Shopping
Streets – Rue Vielle du Temple in the 4th, Rue Bonaparte, Rue de Rennes in the 6th
Precursor, 35 rue des Blancs Manteaux 75004 weareprecursor.com
Bon Marche www.treeslbm.com
OFR, 20, Rue Dupetit Thouars 75003 Paris

Galleries
Musee Rodin www.musee-rodin.fr
Musee Quai Branly www.quaibranly.fr
Fondation Cartier fondation.cartier.com
Palais de Tokyo www.palaisdetokyo.com
Yvon Lambert www.yvon-lambert.com
Bugada + Cargnel (formerly Cosmic Galerie) www.bugadacargnel.com

Excess

I have finally returned from Paris where i was curating a pop up exhibition at Pret a Porter about the concept of Excess. The other half of the cavernous space was curated by the awesome and exceptionally creativeAlexandra Senes, around the concept of Less.

I got some great people to contribute to the space. It was overall designed by James Lambert. My sister Seana Gavin who created a wall full of afro-punk Voodoo Dolls and a textured giant wall collage. Chrissie Abbott designed a totem pole. Telegramme made colouring book images. Simon Owens of Off the Uncertain Button made a music programme. I created a wall of videos by Jimmy Joe Roche, Pierre Debusschere and Hudson-Powell. There was a bright yellow floor and kaleidoscopes in the walls...