Claire Tayler, or just Claire. Works as a social media writery type. Sometimes words make it onto this blog too. Her own views obviously. It would be ridiculous to have a blog otherwise.
Likes digital media, tech and advertising. Also likes adventures, music, making colourful food stuffs, and knitting socks, so content's a mix.
In her other bits of spare time, writes things for Bitchbuzz and Bored of Brighton, a one-a-day guide to Brighton.
Kinetica, a number of Saturdays ago, was a mad mess of flashing lights and things that swirled. I love that it counts as art. I spent the day joining the league of irritating people with cameras, toting an EP-1 that’s never left the house – and thus have video footage.
Beside the robot that served you beer, my favourite bit was a block of hanging lights that reacted to sound. Simple but wonderful to watch. As part of the league of camera holders the adults lined up against the wall to do camera jiggery pokery, whilst a small kid ROARED at them. It was lovely, but I failed to hit the record button or some more technical error (very sad). May have to practice my button-pressing. Video on way – my laziness with it has already delayed this brief post. It will appear one day.
I did some work (and continue to) for (untitled) over summer during which they were idly plotting Toby Triumph, art friend and cohort of graphic designer Dudley Wild, coming in to draw illustrations all over the big white studio walls. Toby does nice pictures of giraffes and fat people. He did the wall this month, and the video is lovely. With lots of posing.
I no doubt appreciate this much more after living with five lovely male housemates for the last half year; all into DJing, dubstep and drum and bass (as one must be if) from North East London. They’re all fab.
I still love this after a week – especially the Pink Floyd shorts, which terrify me.
I finally saw Fantastic Mr Fox this week which gives me the excuse to post Wes Anderson’s stop-motion acceptance speech from the The National Board of Review awards. I liked the film – a bit of George Clooney adventure romp in quick pace (i.e. ocean’s Eleven) and it was subtly different from the books, or what I imagined but captured the rompishness pretty well. I’m a bit of a die hard Roald Dahl fan (idly muttering “Bogis and Bunce and Bean, One fat, one short, one lean” before it came on, which seems to have embedded itself into my memory from a young age). But it was very good, as you have no doubt seen.
Beth Jeans Houghton played at Komedia on Wednesday. I wouldn’t have found this gig without Jonathan writing an entry for Bored of Brighton which is good because she was fantastic. She’s like Gaga’s outfit, but wonderful and singing excellent music. I can’t think of a better description than his really:
“Her songs – and Beth herself, if you take her interviews as evidence – inhabits a creative world which is winningly magical. It isn’t the wistful, wide-eyed universe of a Bat For Lashes, but rather an arch, colourful terrain which seems to owe more to Cindy Sherman or Tony Hancock than it does Kate Bush.
Her musical palette – she is a young, female, folk singer – may seem familiar at first glance, but she has practically nothing in common with the likes of Laura Marling, Emmy The Great, Florence Welsh et al. First, her voice is more interesting – an effortless, husky hum which recalls 70s icon Bobbie Gentry, and her music is informed by deeper, darker, more esoteric strains of folk, country and progressive rock; by the likes of Tunng, Pentangle and Melanie.”
Here’s my hand-held video from the gig (new E-P1 cam does far better recordings than my point and shoot, unsurprisingly, though I wasn’t expecting sound to pick it up as much as it did). Stornaway, the main band, were less exciting but Beth J Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny (her band) were fantastic.
