Last night I saw a fox on the streets of London, in Whitechapel where I'm staying with two old friends of mine. I was standing at the window at about 1am and I saw a sleek little fox emerge from the lower level of the block of flats opposite me and slowly edge its way onto the street. A fox in the middle of the city... They are land based carnivores, not like possums, mere tree dwelling omnivores, so it was an amazing thing to see. Ive also seen squirrels in Hyde Park (rats with cute tails) and a tern fly past the flat.
It made me think tonight about how I am the last person asleep and how many nights I am awake, late, just thinking,pondering,just awake. Nine times out of ten the last person asleep. Maybe I'm also the last person awake. For that reason I hate creaky floorboards and the sense of people maybe awake waiting for the next noise I make. One day I'm going to live in a treehouse i swear. Nothing but swaying trees and rustling leaves all around.
So other things that have stuck me about London... in no particular order... I drank today in the pub where one of the Kray Brothers shot another guy/gangster for calling him a fat faggot. That's one of the more extreme ways of dealing with homophobic harassment I guess. It seemed to have done the job though. All the staff these days are skinny gay boys. Its called the Blind Beggar in White chapel. Right outside the pub is a daily market mostly run by Bangladeshi guys selling crap clothing and seemingly hundreds of mobile phones. On the outskirts is a little army of people selling bootleg copies of whatever new release movie you want, Sex in the city, the hulk, all of them. I like their initiative, but am unsure what the quality of their DVDs would be like, camcorder in the theatre or a rip off from the original digital copies. London is an enterprising city.
Today I wandered up to the Spitafields markets by accident and walked through the antique section, past a million things that would send Aussie customs crazy, like ivory knives, fox/deer paw cheese knife handles, boar skulls, stuffed weasels and deer horns. Some of the more dodgy carnie folk I've ever seen in my life were running stalls selling the most craptacular collection of old shit I've ever seen in my life. I think theres still a line between old and antique. Some of this stuff was sadly just old, desperately old. 15 more years and it'd be collectible, but still not antique.
So I resisted the temptation to buy a range of monkeys/monkey related kitsch (damn you Luke and your infectious monkey related obsession) and stumbled into their fashion section, which is when I realised how many fucking fashion designers were in the average city. I think its one in every 1000 people is a fashion designer. I chatted with a woman who was just starting out at the markets, selling shirts and patches (patches, tiny one colour for 3 quid=$8 Aust dollars). By those standards I bought over about $2000 worth of stuff in a little shopping bag.
I wandered around some more and looked at a few more dozen stalls, realising that Im bored by so much of what goes on fashionwise. (Here i hold my hand to my head dramatically and look whimsically towards the sky looking for textile salvation....) That's why most of my laundry is black. Such a pomo faggot cliche non?
I turned a corner and found the art district, about 15 stalls in a row. That was interesting, especially as i am helping organise the Newtown 'Walking the street' art fair in late September in Sydney. There was much good art for sale, and if Id had money, there was one piece I would have bought and two more I would have tried to get someone else to buy. I need more upwardly mobile friends, so I can go to their places and look at the art Ive encouraged them to buy...
Then I wandered out of there and down Brick Lane a major Bangladeshi area and weekend market spot, I came across a place with 2 pound pints and I had one and read my book. A real old school English pub... The romance was broken when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and there was a mouse on the cushion of my booth...
That's it for today....tomorrow or later...how I learnt to love my reading glasses again, the free media infestation of London and my trip to the Tate Modern. I'm off to Birmingham tomorrow on a random mission to see an old friend....
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