Space invader

On West Central St, near Tottenham Court Rd, location of the comedy night I'm at tonight (of which more later). Interesting venue - there's a hoop and a trapeze hanging from the ceiling...

White Night festival in Brighton

James and Sarada took us to the White Night festival on Saturday night in the centre of Brighton. We wrapped the boys up warm and headed out into the dark, encountering pumpkins in the churchyard (you could carve them, or make chutney and lemon curd, and they had a good fire going), graffiti at a new venue on North Street (Logan and Stanley loved running round the rundown building) and music at the library (although it was a bit loud!).



Some of the smaller art projects going on in the streets were interesting - one couple were sending messages from one end of a street to the other with a giant torch, while at the Pavilion a penny slot machine was projected onto the wall.





My favourite event was the graffiti exhibition at the Old Music Library (a temporary gallery attached to Prescription). Not often you get to watch street artists at work!

There was a limit to the events we could experience with the boys in tow (the swimming pool was showing movies, and was open until 2am, and there was a choral recital by the West Pier at dawn) but it was still a great way to spend an evening.



A parade through the streets (they had attached clip bulbs to a bike and a lamp shade).

Katy hearts Obama

I've been doing tonnes of work on the presidential inauguration events starting this Sunday - how much do I wish I lived in Washington, D.C. right now? Or even in the US, so I could organise a Neighbourhood Inaugural Ball and hook up with the main Obama one by text message.

As it is, I'm going to have to content myself with buying the official inauguration CD/DVD box set, Change Is Now: Renewing America's Promise, available from the Presidential Inauguration Committee online store.

It includes tracks from Wilco, will.i.am, Ozomatli (who blew me away at Glastonbury a few years ago), Stevie Wonder and India.Arie, while the DVD contains eight of Obama's most rousing speeches, including this one from Philadelphia last March. It's $30 but shipping is only an extra $8.50, which is a small price to pay for a little bit of history in the making.

And if that's a bit pricy, check out the Shephard Fairey stickers and pin badges instead (I wish I could afford the $100 poster!).

Did any of us really believe what could happen when will.i.am released his "Yes We Can" video last year? Show's you what positive change can be brought about when people really believe; for once the cynic in me can't help but be swept away by some good old-fashioned American optimism. Until next Wednesday at least.

Mark's birthday jaunt

Breakfast at Chorak



The jukebox at Big Red rocks, but I suck at pool, boo



Big Red toilet graffiti



Sake bomb! Dinner at Charuwan, just what we needed after an epic movie and a snow storm



Mark's folks AKA The Babysitters