Why Am I Me?

Image from Gentlemen of Bacongo

Just bought a book called Gentlemen of Bacongo, it is utterly nuts. The book contains photographs taken by Daniele Tamagni of the Sapeurs of Bacongo, a group of elegant, colourful and immaculately dressed dandies from Brazzeville in the Congo and has a preface by fashion designer Paul Smith.

The images are a real twist on the concept of satorial elegance set against a most incongruous backdrop. Great stuff, it’s made me want to go out and get a pink suit, some white brogues, a cane and a smoking pipe.

I Just read this really interesting article on a book published by Thames & Hudson, The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the Way we Live. The maps in the book depict the world demographically. Both the information itself, and the way that the information distorts the maps, is fascinating.

Housing prices

World Map of House Prices

Thought this was a fairly topical one at the moment.

The size of each territory shows the total value of all housing, adjusted for local purchasing power. Western Europe contains the most expensive housing, while Africa and South Asia has the cheapest, even after allowing for the fact that money goes further here.

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Adaptation/Translation – Elms Lesters Painting Rooms

I went to see Adaptation/Translation, an exhibition of work by the Brooklyn based artist José Parlá at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms in Flitcroft Street, London last night. For anyone who has never been to the building, it is an amazing space. Aside from the gallery space itself, there are two huge scenic painting rooms with massive motorised stretchers, which can be used to paint large scale theatre back-drops. I think the largest stretcher is around 20 square metres. I was lucky enough to do work experience there many years ago as the gallery owner, Paul Jones, is an old friend of my father.
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