Comic Book Guy

Yesterday was my first real run as a comic book guy. Jasmin and I had tables at the South West Jumble at the Tooting Tram & Social http://www.yelp.co.uk/events/london-south-west-jumble-3

Jasmin sold a bunch of her hand made jewellery, which made me very happy and proud, as it was her first foray into direct selling of the stuff she had made. I managed to sell one item, a collected Farside cartoons book. for £1.50. Great. See you on the beach!

But that's not what was the only great thing about yesterday. For me it was the discovery of what a great job being a comic book guy really is.Sitting in what is essentially a huge comic book and memorabilia collection, reading new and re-reading old comics all day long, seems like the best fun an old geek like me could have, and get paid!

I'm sure many of the operating store owners in the business right now would have a thing or two to tell me about the reality of such an enterprise, but I'm not listening. lalalalalalala!

For now, I'm just basking in the afterglow of a Sunday afternoon spent reading comics and having an excuse to do so. And I was spending quality time with my missus simultaneously, how's that for a slice of fried gold?

The Devil's Cellar

I cannot extol enough, the virtues of the fine red that is Casillero Del Diablo - Pinot Noir.

I have a bottle with me in the studio right now and am in danger of drinking the lot if my beloved Jasmin doesn't collar me for a due share. She's a one-woman frenzy of activity as I write, preparing for the South West Jumble on Sunday. The flat is her workshop and I'm consigned to the computer table where I can do no harm nor obstruct. This suits me just fine. This wine is absolutely gorgeous. The review on Oddbins has the following tasting notes: : Aromas of strawberries and toasty oak precede a medium-bodied palate with good structure and lengthy finish. http://www.oddbins.com/products/productDetail.asp?productcode=75208

Which is fair enough. I don't have the nose nor the buds to taste any strawberries in it, but I can taste the oakiness a mile away. naturally once the idea of strawberries is suggested, I can taste them more and more with every sip. Typical wine buffs, they're all hypnotists I tell you!

Uber Junkies

With Eminem's 'Not afraid' doing it's thing in the charts right now, it got me to thinking about uber junkies again. Mega stars with prescription addictions are nothing new; Elvis and Judy Garland come to mind and I suppose laudanum-heads like Byron and Shelly are earlier examples still. So why is it, after all these scandals and overdoses, the likes of Eminem and Michael Jackson have so recently fallen into the Rx pit, when they should have and could have known better?

I understand the need for painkillers for performers and athletes, because the show must go on. I assume that the doctors near these stars must issue the necessary drugs to their customers to get the job done, otherwise some other, less scrupulous medic would take thier place and garner the kudos and fees they command.

So is that how the slippery slope starts? A pill here or a shot there, gets the job done. Then a course of pills to take on tour for that ongoing ache. Then a whole slew of different drugs for different ailments real or imagined?

Take Heath Ledger for example, no less than 6 different drugs in his system at the time of death. Diazepam AND Tamazepam among them. No wonder some thought that was suicide, that's just a mental drop!

I can understand maybe celebs getting on the Rx carousel to avoid the scandal of getting nicked for traditional illegal highs. The Doherty method is not for everyone. But seriously, Rx highs have to pale in comparison to a good spliff or a nice uncontaminated E or two.

That's what gets me; all that money and they get addicted to pharmaceutical company products, bah, it's just not rock'n'roll is it?

The Kapoor's new clothes

Berlin today.

You may remember an installation at the Tate Modern that looked like a huge red trumpet-thing. Pretty cool when you see it up close. It was by an artist called Anish Kapoor.

So here I am in Berlin with mum, and we see there is an installation of Kapoor's called 'Memory'.

Duly in to the Guggenheim we went and were confronted by this, as soon as we got the door:

Okay. It's a big metal rugby ball. Interesting enough.
The 'charming' lady (not in shot) behind the counter (not in shot, but in the same room) told us the tickets were €4 each.

Fair enough, it's an art exhibition, or so we thought. So we cough up €8. (which is pretty much 8 quid these days, if not more)
Here is what the €4 ticket looks like:

Now then, the rugby ball is big and impressive. It is also too big to walk round unless you crawl under the gap by the wall. We gamely tried to do so, but were stopped by a couple of attendants who told us we had to go back outside and down to a second door to continue. Fair enough, all sounds rather unusual and unconventional.

Out we trotted and down the street to the other door.

This is what we found when we went in:

That's right. The other side of the rugby ball.

There was a helpful old custodian/ticket ripper who tore our tickets for us so we could see this, which was very helpful.

After enjoying the other side of the rugby ball, we looked around to see where we could go on to see the rest of the exhibition, and found a stairway which led to...

...the gallery shop and cafe.

We took one look, and without further ado, gtfo of there in fits of laughter at what looked to be a gigantic swizz.

We had to really. The alternative was to cause an almighty but ultimately futile stink.

I kept the tickets because on closer inspection, i.e. looking at the back, I saw this handy map of the exhibition;

My apologies for the poor quality of the scan, but I trust you get the gist.

Apparently there was a third aspect of the piece, which was a window that looked into the sheer blackness of the rugby ball's interior. To access this portal of wonders, one would have had to go through the shop and cafe. Without this esoteric knowledge, on account of not looking at the back of our tickets, we gtfo, as mentioned earlier, full of wonder at kapoor's moxy.

(full cobblers about the reason Kapoor did all this is available from the Deutscher Guggenheim website http://www.deutsche-guggenheim-berlin.de/e/ausstellungen-anishkapoor01.php )

A-block Alkie beats the recession!

I spied a new empty can deposited on the stairs of A-Block today.
Every time I take the stairs instead of using the lift, I see an empty can placed on the third or fourth step down, round about the 2nd or 3rd floor. I can almost see the poor soul, sneaking out at whatever time, drinking the one solitary can of tramp juice, placing it neatly upright on the stair for the cleaner to collect and making his or her way off to wherever, empowered by the hit of booze required for normalcy. The can is always tucked into the step where it meets the wall, almost unobtrusively. Almost.

In a run-down estate or derelict building, this may not look so out-of-place. Du Cane Court, however, is pretty damned far from that. This is a very well managed building and the service charges are certainly evidence of that. The apartments here rise in value year-on-year and the location on Balham High road is exquisitely convenient. There is a feeling of pride to be living here, or at least a feeling of having paid for something and expecting appropriate quality.

Our Alkie neighbour (if indeed it is a resident here. the alternative is that it is a regular visitor or bizarrely enough, someone who comes in from outside each day to have a drink in the relative warmth of the stairwell) seems to have had a windfall or at least is not affected by the current financial unpleasantness. Rather than the usual Diamond White cider, it was a can of Fosters.
I'll admit I've not done a price check on the two brands, but I'm fairly sure that the beer costs slightly more for slightly less alcohol. So at least someone has reason to say cheers!
I just wish s/he would pick up after themselves.

Welcome to Ducania!

Hello and welcome to Ducania, the blog from Du Cane Court.
I say THE blog, as this is the only one of it"s kind as far as I know. No doubt I shall be corrected in due course.