Who’s Jack blog moves home : correct address

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Instore wars

 

FOR A LONG TIME NOW THE INSTORE GIG HAS BEEN THE GO-TO PLACE TO GET UP CLOSE AND STALKY WITH THE ARTISTS WE LOVE BEST. WHETHER YOU ARE DEDICATED ENOUGH TO CAMP OUT ON

OXFORD STREET TO CATCH A FLASH OF LADY GAGA, COOL ENOUGH TO KNOW WHEN THE DEITIES OF THE INDIE PANTHEON PLOP IN TO DO A SECRET SHOW OR LUCKY ENOUGH TO STUMBLE IN ON SOMEONE NEW AND SPECIAL PLAYING A START-UP SET, THEY ALWAYS PRESENT AN EXCITING EARLY NIGHT OPTION FOR A LAZY WEEKDAY.

SO, IN THE NAME OF INTRODUCING AN UNNECESSARY SPIRIT OF COMPETITION INTO THE ENTIRELY SUBJECTIVE, WE AT WHO’S JACK DECIDED TO FIND OUT WHICH OF THE CAPITAL’S MUSIC SHOPS WAS KING OF THE INSTORE CASTLE.

For the breakdown of the best instore gig venues see Harry’s round up in issue 30

The making of a pinata

As I was intending to go Mexican for the upcoming Cooking with my Greg Mexicalli Special, I decided to make a Piñata. My idea of a Piñata was a Donkey made of some type of material that you hit and sweets fall out of it, which is pretty much correct, except that these Pinata’s are not the traditional style which is essentially a star shaped object with kids party hats stuck to each point. While I love the idea of tradition I couldn’t help but love the idea of sculpting something using papier mache more. I checked the web for inspiration and saw some crazy designs but we decided after much deliberation to make a great big f*ckoff SKULL like in the Mexican festival El Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. This proved harder than originally anticipated.

See the rest of the steps here

See Marco and Alberto making pinatas on This is Jack TV

************MOVING HOUSE**************

THE WHO’S JACK BLOG IS ON THE MOVE : FIND US IN OUR NEW HOME, HERE

My 2-4-6 pound life

So… it is back to the old routine and utter turmoil of procrastination. It is the first week of uni and I have already exhausted the BBC iPlayer. ‘Eastender’s’ and ‘Snog, Marry Avoid’ have begun to look appealing, which means that I have reached the bottom of the academic barrel far quicker than I had hoped or imagined. I’d love to say that the social life really balances things out, but then I would be lying.

 

I have spent an awful lot of my university life so far standing in a crowded, sweaty Walkabout-type pub or club, turning my mouth WKD blue while willing myself to want to dance or at the very least muster an awkward shuffle. It is the kind of drinking where your eyes go wide, you get brain freeze and you’re standing there wishing and praying you were more drunk so you could at least do something. Fat Man Scoop is playing and everyone is dressed in some kind of hilarious fancy dress. There is a cave-girl, a playboy bunny, a nurse, all the classic side-splitters and they are having a WILD time. Carelessly throwing their hands in the air and dancing round pillars pretending to be a strippers, garter flapping in the wind. You can’t talk to anyone because the DJ is raising one arm in the air to triumphantly signal he has just put on ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ for the third time that evening (the crowd is mad for it) and the only people left out tend to be angsty lesbians and people being sick into their own pint, forgetting and chugging it back down again. I am supposed to enjoy being bumped and grinded on, and having a greasy chav rub his erection into my back while he grabs my boobs. I am supposed to throw my head back and cackle when a bog-eyed rugby player puts his knob on the table. Somehow I can never work up the energy or even determination to metaphorically piss into the wind and join them. I had heard about a really good house party going on just down the road and last night I decided it was time for a change.

Read the rest of Lucy’s column in Who’s Jack Magazine

A death to remember..

 

What with Halloween falling on the last day of October, the glut of horror films released for the occasion tend go on well into November. Grisly deaths can become ten a penny; we see so many heads blown off, limbs removed and necks sliced that we become desensitised to all but the most elaborate of demises. Well, here at Jack, we have thought long and hard about some of our favourite film fatalities and would like to present out top five…

1. Shogun Assassin (1980) When the Master of Death is defeated by Lone Wolf with a slash across the neck he still manages this impressive monologue for a man with a sliced jugular: “When cut across the neck, a sound like wailing winter winds is heard, they say. I’d always hoped to cut someone like that someday, to hear that sound. But to have it happen to my own neck is ridiculous.”

 

2. The Wizard of Oz (1939) The Wicked Witch of the East is crushed by Dorothy’s house landing on her. Clearly not of the opinion that this statistically highly unlikely death is humiliating enough, Dorothy then half-inches her ruby red slipper just to rub it in. No wonder the Wicked Witch of the West sends flying monkeys after them.

See the other three in issue 30 here

 

A morning with Josh

I just got back from a photo shoot with the amazing Josh Weller. Josh, Stuart and I did the shoot at the Hob Salon in Camden. Josh, who has played along side everybody from Paloma Faith to the Maccabees was funny, sweet and didn’t even get moody with me when I promised to get him a cigarette from John all the way back at the office, just to trek in the rain to find that John didn’t have any and it was a wasted journey.

 

Check out the interview with Josh in January’s issue but until then you can catch him playing with Paloma Faith in the coming weeks all over the UK and check out his music at www.myspace.com/joshweller. Oh and next time Josh, my tube tickets on you.

 

Trend Obsessed nation

 

PICTURE THIS:  YOU ARE WEARING WHAT THIS WEEK’S DAZEDDIGITAL.COM HAS PREDICTED TO BE THE HOTTEST THREE TRENDS OF A/W 09, IN ONE OUTFIT. YOU ARE EXPERIENCING THE FIRST POP-UP VIRTUAL MUSIC FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL LONDON, AT THE CENTRE OF WHICH IS A

HOLOGRAM OF FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE, BELTING OUT HER LATEST TUNE. OF COURSE, YOU ARE RECORDING IT ON YOUR

IPHONE WHILST TWITTERING AWAY ABOUT HOW AMAZING IT IS. LATER YOU BLOG IT AND ADD ALL THE FOOTAGE TO FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE. IN A SINGLE

SCENARIO YOU ARE A MASCOT FOR SOME OF THE LATEST TRENDS IN MUSIC, FASHION, CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY. CHECK YOU OUT! BUT DON’T GET TOO EXCITED, YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO BASK IN THESE TRENDS FOR VERY LONG.

What is most visible about trends is their ever-increasing transient nature: no sooner has one trend come along, another is appearing on the horizon and we want to know about it. So why the obsession and how are they all

affecting us?

If we look at evolution, consider the ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane’ era for a moment, social cohesion, adopting modes of behaviour and appearance and being part of a community is human nature.

This explains the desire to follow trends in order to ‘fit in’ but has the over-exposure to so many trends and the speed at which they change, invited us to want to, not only stand out from the crowd but ahead of them? I spoke to Tom Savigar, a director (and fountain of knowledge about the future) at leading trend forecasting agency, The Future Laboratory.  He tells me that, “trends of the attitudinal type, such as those involving style and those formed by opinion, evolve faster. The amount of cultural references we are exposed to is so many, that people become more fickle and thus attention spans become shorter.” This results in ‘an appetite for change’, and thus we all end up pursuing new trends faster. On top of this it seems, no longer content with just jumping on the bandwagon, we also want to be the first to adopt new trends and even be the instigator of them. A hard lot to please, no?

 

Read the rest of Ruthie’s piece in issue 30 here

Why yesterday was a sad day

Myself and Lu are pretty massive Robert Pattinson fans. The beautiful man that is the star of the Twighlight films is fondly known in the Who’s Jack office as R.Patz aka the love of Lu’s life and aka fast becoming the love of mine. So when we found out he was in London yesterday imagine how excited we were… pretty excited I can tell you. We tried every trick in the book to get an invite to the Twighlight fan party which went on last night in Battersea but to no avail and sadly we went home R.Patzless. Sads.

And to make matters worse yesterday we brought the winning lottery ticket and came into work looking forward to seeing millions of pounds in our bank accounts just to find out the people over at the national lottery pulled out the wrong numbers e.g. ones that weren’t ours. So now we have to spend today trying to contact them to make sure they ammend they’re mistake. Drinks are on us when they do.

Pick and mix, mince pies and a freezing warehouse

Yesterday five models, two hair and make up artists, a photographer, three members of the Who’s Jack staff and two little helpers all gathered in what can only be described as THE coldest place in Britain (an abandoned warehouse in Camden) to create a beautiful Christmas fashion photo shoot.

The day began with myself and Lu running around like two massively mental women trying to get last minute clothes and props while Mark ran off to get our delicious Christmas banquet which was provided by Cook And Butler. It was then onwards with assembling a table and some chairs before we called ‘Action.’

 Check out the results in Decembers issue of Who’s Jack.