What They Could Do, They Did

at Escape, Herne Hill

26th March 2009

1 - 3 Albumen Records
4 - 9 Alice Theobald (Dance Spectacular)
10. The Duchess and The Demon
11 - 16 Trashkit

seen last week...

Over the past few months, an increasing number of WTCD denizens have been weaving themselves digital abodes in the cloudy realms of the blogosphere - and there's been a massive flurry of recent activity.

• Mimi has been developing a series of sketches based on her current explorations of the Australian outback
  
• Julia has been photologging circus scenes from Glastonbury 2008 and industrial sites along the Thames Path
  
• Kathryn's 2009 productivity continues in overdrive with new designs for Attitude and WTCD, plus the forthcoming They Did Issue 3...
  
• Dan has been writing about electrostatic fabrics, USB audio smartpens and lost Belgian sketches for the internet
  
• Watch Tom's new film, No Bracelets For The Tentacle Kid
  
• Five have new microlists of legumes, constants and Gallicisms
  
• Scott has written up the fantastic new "ludicrous vocal disco" EP by Optimo signings Den Haan
  
• Sid is back on the blogging wagon, writing about snow and dSLRs
  

I was devastated to discover that Greenwich Village Market is to cease trading after this weekend (21/22 March) — to make way for a housing development which is no longer to take place. As the Evening Standard reports:

The land was originally earmarked for housing but the recession stopped that. The developers have pulled out. Yet the owners of the site, Capital and Counties, have still given the market notice to quit.

There is talk of Greenwich University buying the land but even if it happened, the site would be vacant for years while a proposal is worked up and taken through the planning process.

For those who aren't familiar with the Greenwich markets, the Village Market is the slightly scruffy outdoors part towards the station, open on weekends with myriad antiques, record and bric-a-brac stalls of the type that can be eminently rooted through for a full afternoon. It's adjacent to the fantastically nichey Old Bottle Shop, and has long been my favourite of London's markets, nestling between the overpriced tourist-magnets of Portobello and Spitalfields and the glorious rock-bottom junk hoard of Deptford.

And yes, it's being turfed out to remain derelict for the foreseeable future. Thanks, developers. This weekend is the last weekend that they will be trading, and I urge people to make a swift visit before it's gone.

There's also news that the venerable Brixton Market almost befell the same fate, with London Associated Properties attempting to steamroller it into a "West End-style shopping precinct", but it has received a temporary reprieve thanks to the onset of recession and protests from local traders. There's a current attempt to get the site listed to make this arrangement permanent - here's hoping...

It's recently been announced that Her Maj herself is to take up twittering. There's no sign yet of any activity, but there are a whole load of other London-centric twitter feeds to dig into...

Here are some favourites, each in 140 characters or less.

• towerbridge is a brilliant feed of announcements each time Tower Bridge is lowered or raised.
  
• se1 covers the postcode area around London Bridge, Waterloo, Blackfriars, Borough & Bermondsey.
  
• Londonist is run by the eponymous website, covering culture, food+drink, etc.
  
• DowningStreet features all things related to the PM and his cohorts
  
• uktr_southeast is an unofficial feed of disruption to Southeastern Railway rail services
  
• and londontraffic does similar for road systems.
  
• bbcbreaking broadcasts the BBC's breaking news from around the UK
  

o yes, and

• theydid is our very own feed, covering SE21/SE24/SE27/SW2 and nearby arts etc.

Pecknam writes about one of those all-too-rare things, an upcoming South London warehouse party. It's run by Lucky PDF (link down at time of writing), an arts collective based in Camberwell/Peckham who have recently taken over Peckham High Street's UNITY centre as a space for exhibitions and events.

Details: Friday 20th March, till 4am, entry around £6 or cheaper with a flyer (which, they assure us on the facebook event, will be lying around outside the venue on the night).

Lineup includes:

» MY PANDA SHALL FLY (WILDLIFE)
» BUDAKAN (FABRIC, MATTER)
» DEAN TYNAN (UNIVERSAL)
» STR8 NECKLIN ALLSTARZ (MATTER)
» BOOGALOO CREW (TROUBLE VISION)
» OFF MODERN DJS
» JEAN GENIE (XFM)
» ONLYJOE (DJ SET)
» THE KIDS (PO PO PUNK)
» JULIETS (PUSH DJS)
» HAPPY SCHOOL DJS (WONDERLAND FESTIVAL)
» CONCEPT (BUKKAKE)
» ELUSIVE (BUKKAKE)
» IDEALIST
» BEZOOMYAZURE (BUKKAKE)

More info: Facebook.

oh yeah, it's also about time we mentioned that we are experimentally starting to twitter after hestia's glowing peeps about it. Follow us, we'll be micro-charting all of our southlondon adventures!

Tomorrow night at the Marlborough (SE5), Wimbledon College's costume kids are running a degree show fundraiser which promises to be packed with costume parades, dancing and plentiful music.

Lineup includes:

Black Tongues www.myspace.com/blacktonguesband
Super Tennis www.myspace.com/ilovesupertennis
Sound of Rum www.myspace.com/soundofrumband
Bogus Gasman www.myspace.com/bogusgasman

plus DJs Mr Hovis and Popcorn Charlie.

Saturday 14 March
7.30pm - 1.30am
The Marlborough
67 Sedgmoor Place, Camberwell, SE5 7SE

More on the facebook group...

This Sunday Peckham Space hosts a tour of artists' projects in the local area. The walk will encompass diverse venues including a housing estate and a pub.

Artists Harold Offeh, Jessica Thom and The People Speak and the think tank Demos will be present at locations along the way to converse with members of the tour. The afternoon culminates with a gathering at the Bun House pub.

The event is free, but with registration required. Contact 020 7514 2299 or info (at) peckhamspace (dot) com.

It all starts at Camberwell College of Arts, 45 - 65 Peckham Road at 12 30pm.

More information here.

Due to soaring energy costs we are being forced to sell all our beautiful things. Come and buy them, you will find all kinds treasure for cheap, and it will be fun!

Saturday 14th March 11-3

132a Croxted Road (driveway)
Herne Hill
London SE21
map

Nearest train: Herne Hill, West Dulwich
Tube: Brixton
Bus: 3, 201

P.S if its raining don't come

Continuing our nuclear season, H pointed me to this Google mapplet which estimates the range of thermal damage caused by a hypothetical nuclear attack.

Following this, I keyed in the postcode for Peckham Rye station, and was told that the fallout from a modern 340 kiloton B61 bomb would stretch from London Bridge to Clapham on the west, Crystal Palace in the south, and beyond Catford to the east. Zoiks.

(disclaimer: notwithstanding the fact that these figures are for a primed nuclear weapon at optimal detonation altitude, rather than a dirty bomb with the non-weapons-grade material on board these transport services)

For March, Londonist has selected the Horniman Museum as its Museum of the Month. And it's well-deserved: the Horniman has that magical aura of a secret trove, with its lovingly-preserved menagerie of stuffed beasts, musical instruments museum, and beautiful gardens.

As the author comments,

What is charmingly old-fashioned is the odd mix of topics covered, with one wing dedicated to the (stuffed and mounted) animal world, one to human artefacts, and a delightful aquarium in the basement. The museum doesn't try for completeness in any one area, but instead reflects the whims of its founder, indiscriminate of nature and culture. It's this hodgepodge approach that endears the Horniman to so many Londoners.

The latest article draws attention to the Horniman's overlooked but extensive library, via some beautiful excerpts from a 19th century Japanese book of illustrated fairy tales.

The Horniman is also currently hosting an exhibition of Polish wycinanki or paper cuts. In conjunction with the Polish cultural institute.

Wycinanki originated as an inexpensive means of decorating the homes of Polish peasants and were popular from the mid 19th century. They were generally made by women using sheep-shearing scissors and any readily available paper and replaced each spring when homes were whitewashed. With the advent of communism, Wycinanki were promoted by the new administration as an example of non-bourgeois art and enjoyed enormous popularity along with other forms of folk art.

On till September 2009, this makes for an essential spring/summer trip.

It's with a mixture of delight and sadness that we are to be one of the last tenants of the current incarnation of Shunt Vaults, a landmark of London's cultural landscape.

However, fear not for the future of this inveterate venue: it has recently been announced that they have been granted permission to inhabit a former cigar warehouse just down the road in Bermondsey, with a three-year lease, opening with "a large-scale, site-specific Shunt theatre production". Image of the building here.

As our doomed country continues to dovetail with the Great Depression of the 1920s, we can't help but cast our minds back to those halcyon days of prohibition America -- and so it is that, this Saturday, What They Could Do bring to your our very own take on smokey subterranean vaudeville and sleaze with THE FREAKEASY...

Taking place within the underground tunnels of SHUNT VAULTS, we'll be featuring the spooky B-movie cabaret of THE CAPSIZED SMILES, the molasses blues of KARDY, other-wordly refrains from THE TEA AND TOAST BAND, the lunatic country of THE LONESOME COWBOYS FROM HELL, and the
fruit-based titillation of MADAME MARIE.... plus, as always, much more.

Read about it here:

www.theydid.org.uk/2009/shunt/

The Freakeasy is also just one part of the four-day Allfours festival
curated by Brighton's Beatabet collective. Access to the whole night is
included in the ticket price; info here:

www.beatabet.net/Microsites/all_fours/allfours.html

GETTING HERE...
Shunt Vaults, London Bridge
Saturday 7 March
8pm - 3am
Entry £10 pounds, photo ID mandatory!

see you all underground...

Second post in a week on the nuclear front: according to a timetable published somewhat irresponsibly by Greenpeace a couple of years ago, trains carrying nuclear waste travel via Peckham, Denmark Hill and Lewisham en route from Dungeness to Willesden Junction before heading onwards to Sellafield. From the schedule (PDF), you can catch them passing through these stations around 7pm on Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays.