London Adventures #8 - Russian Around

Galleries and Gigs, the actions of a design rockstar.

That is what my day consisted of; well mostly anyway. I started the day really, really, really slowly.
Somehow I managed to sleep in until about 11am—which was about 11 hours sleep, and really rather impressive for me. I woke to find that Ella – one of the humans that lives in the house, the house that hosts the sofa I'm calling home for these two weeks, was still in after feeling too sick to go to work. We had a sort of lunch/breakfast thingy-ma-bob and set off out, as I was heading for the Saatchi Gallery and she needed to go to the Library, so could act as a guide for me.

On the way, we made a stop at Central Saint Martians for free coffee (thanks girl) and a browse of a canal boat book shop; yeah I know, I didn't believe it either. But it exists; and it's gorgeous.

It was lovely inside, with lots of old books, a few rarities and more importantly, a loud sound system playing what sounded like Charles Mingus—of which pleased me greatly. We only had a quick look around because my motion sickness got the better of me and within minutes I felt like a shaken Martini being slowly poured down the throat of ill health. 

As you may be able to see from the photo, for some reason London was bloody lovely today, it was like 8 degrees and sunny as anything. MADNESS! Anyway, from there I got back on the tube and made my way to the Saatchi Gallery, walking down the worlds poshest road in the process of reaching there.

Vincent Walden's Professional Gallery Review - Saatchi Edition:

Venue: Rather nice, if not a bit posh

Artworks: Really interesting and rather different

Overall opinion: Because of free entry, strong subject matter and well executed 8/10 

From there, I then trecked to the Tate Modern in search of more interesting things to look at, and there I found something quite odd. Both galleries focused quite a lot on Russia and it's militant past. Other than current affairs and the shear beauty of the harsh reds and strong politics, I'm not really sure why.

Excuse the terrible photo, but bloody hell that is some good type.

Vincent Walden's Professional Gallery Review - Tate Edition:

Venue: Bloody brilliant

Artworks: Mostly shite with a few exceptional pieces

Overall opinion: Full of crap, but saved by some brilliant free pieces 7/10 

I won't waffle on, but the photography there was flippin' fab and then the rest of the rooms were full of general Tate crap. Excluding the little bits of photography and typography.

I wasn't allowed to take images, but this was worth the risk.

I did so much today, and this post is already super long so I'll move on. I met up with Ella again after being at the Tate and she said took me to find a gallery in Shoreditch/Bricklane—which was a really good exhibition, but I may just think that because I'm a mega-hipster-tron 5000.

To end the day, we spontaneously decided to go to yet another gig—this time we decided to go all the way to Shepards Bush to go to a gig of Milky Chance. Instead of being prepared and having the tickets ready, we had to haggle a man outside for the tickets, but that didn't make it less enjoyable at all.

I didn't originally know the band or the music, but I have to say they were very enjoyable; very enjoyable indeed. The music style is sort of chilled, ambient, elctro-indie, and all supported by a strong German accent. They had a strong stage presence and they brought a bloody brilliant support act with them by the name of Kafka Tamura. Both bands had the crowd slowly bopping along, with the three hours spent there feeling like a relaxed slip into an electronic nirvana.

Let's see what NME has to throw at me tomorrow, night y'all!