Seinfeld fans behold…

…someone has immortalised the 9-series show on some posters that look pretty good as it goes.

The ‘Seinfood’ posters are by artist Rinee Shah in celebration of her favourite food jokes from the show and you can buy them – and more – here.

A confession: I was late to the Seinfeld party. As in, I basically watched Curb instead. But, if I imagine someone doing this to 30 Rock (‘I’ve got ears and a heart haven’t I’) or Spaced (‘Skip to the end’) I think i’d be behind it.

Real fans, what do you say – trend or travesty?

Zip it

While reading about a new range of very pretty hand drawn wallpaper by Abigail Edwards, my eyes were offended by number 8 in my Top 100 Most Disgusting Interiors Ideas list. Can you guess what it is?

No, not the little boat (that’s number 76). No, not the precariously balanced books (don’t try and rest a mug of tea on them for goodness sake). Of course, it’s cut-up jeans masquerading as a design feature. To quote that Christmas Ab Fab episode, it looks like your jeans exploded. Travesty.

Pastels, the right kind

My jeweller friend was having a minor rant lately over the fact that every year the fashion press heralds pastels as a new trend for the coming summer. Fashion folk, is this true? Well anyway, here is some crockery in dull, dull, not too pretty pastels that can be in every year if it wants to be.

Ceramics by recent Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Kirstie van Noort which, like our previous post, could form the perfect colour scheme for a room.

Colour combinations

These images are by photo-realist painter Paul Winstanley. These chairs recur in various combinations in a number of pictures, and each grabs me as a surprising and pleasing mix of colours.

It reminds me of Farrow & Ball’s new colourcard, released last year:

But I’d also add in the pink of these curtains….

Stuff I did

I’ve been getting through winter blues and maternity madness by hitting the (art) shows. So far Hockney – lovely, full, posh visitor – and Grayson Perry – funny, full, multi-visitor.

Yesterday was bonanza day with a visit to The White Cube Bermondsey and Waste Not by Song Dong at The Barbican. Two opposite experiences, here’s the first:

I went for the building more than anything – a former warehouse reworked by Casper Mueller Kneer Architects – and guess what, you’re not allowed to take photos inside. It’s just as you’d expect probably – vast, white, polished concrete floors and a bit of a quiet relief. I confess the Anselm Kiefer exhibition was a bit much for my frazzled brain. And so to Song Dong:

For his first major London exhibition, the Chinese artist has installed over 10,000 household items in one room partly in tribute to his mother Zhao Xiangyuan, who, like the rest of her generation, learnt to hoard as a way of surviving poverty during Chairman Mao’s revolution. It’s an extraordinary collection of her stuff – empty toothpaste tubes, broken plant pots, paint brushes, fabric samples, bottles and bottle tops, pegs – everything you can think of.

After the death of his father in 2002, Song Dong wanted to pull his mother out of her grief by engaging her in creating this work and she helped to instal Waste Not in Bejing before she sadly died in 2009.

*

Now, when Song Dong remakes Waste Not his sister and wife help him so that the family is always a part of the work. Go see, it’s incredible.

*Chinese Calendar supersize!

Get thee to a car boot

I’ve just been round to see a house to write about it, and found myself gripped with jealousy over their lovely collections of ceramics, from Rimini blue…

 to Gurgling fish…

and Poole Pottery…

I loved the bright blue of the Rimini, available in reissue at Heal’s, and will be scouring car boots, old barns and the bins behind church halls for anything similar, but on a budget.

 

Life is a Cabaret

Did you know that the marvelous movie Cabaret turns 40 this month?

Here’s a little known fact connected to that film: Both your correspondents have, at different times, dressed up as Sally Bowles. Hot pants and all.

The film, directed by Bob Fosse was famously based on the musical that was adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s brilliant The Berlin Stories, which My Friends House (this half) only got around to reading last year. As you probably know, it’s set in 1931 at the tail end of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis, and it centres around boho American singer Sally (she’s English in the book) and propa Englishman Brian Roberts, who live in the same apartment. Cabaret clubs in Berlin today by the way, are almost as barking as the Kit Kat Klub depicted in the film.

Here are some snazzy posters of the movie, which get weirder as you scroll down…

Definitely worth sticking on your Love Film if you’ve yet to see it or it’s been a while since you have. Happy 40th Cabaret.

Images from here.

White plimsolls

I know this is no kind of a fashion blog, but I have to let you know that for me spring has officially started. No it’s not crocuses, nor is it the sound of a cuckoo in my garden. It is the official run-up to spring because I have bought the year’s first pair of white plimsolls.

It’s something I’m mildly obsessed with. I saw many summers in and out in multiple pairs of £2 sneakers from Primark, all identical, until they changed the design… So this year I’ve been forced to go completely wild and splash out £6 on their new deluxe model. If you have a similar fondness for the smell of cheap rubber then the Plimsoll$t@r flickr account which features these is the place for you:

If you’re not so keen, then please be kind enough to let me know what your ‘start of spring’ ceremony is. We’d love to know.

Nope

When is it ok to use an easel as a piece of furniture in your house?

NEVER. Not ever. Not even if it is by Jonathan Adler.

The only possible reason for having an easel in your life is if you are an artist. And even then for crying out loud you don’t need that lamp part. Still having doubts? Check out the tv easel brought to you by My Friend last year.

I’m not even going to ask: TRAVESTY.

Spring palette: Neon blancmange

I don’t know abut you, but around this time of year I like to start thinking about painting a neon stripe round the thigh of a table leg…

Forcing a delicate lilac wall to make peace with an acid yellow sofa…

And finishing it off by draping my 2012 wardrobe around artfully…

These colour combinations seem just the tonic for this frickin’ freezing February. See more at Australia’s HomeLife magazines’ lovely website.