ILE Picnic In The Sky 21/7, RSVP!

...oh yeah. To save me putting my home address on the world wide interweb, I'll mail it direct to people who want to come along nearer the time. Cool?

Going on up to that party in the sky, that's where I'm gonna go when I die. When I die and they lay me to rest I'm going to go to the place near the Spitz.

This is by way of a yes.

Yay for Suzy's idea, given that my office is in EC1 opposite the Betsey Trotwood and I'm working part of the day on 21/7.

Hurray for the roof for it is closer to the rain. I am very paranoid about being rained on at the moment having rashly decided to spend this Saturday 1) having my hair done then 2) getting it all soaked and frizzy in the grate outdoors.

Also hurray for the roof as since Pete is going I can push him off it, ha ha!

Totally in.

Yes, please.

This is the best idea that anyone has had all week! Hooray! Count us in! We'll be there with bells on (well, at least we will until Paul has to leave to go soundcheck Spearmint) and bad promos in hand. How much am I bid for this "Aquarius" cd? How much for this rare Pulp 12" remix? mwah hah hah.

Bit scared of meeting so many new people - only know Tom E - but would love to attend. Who's bringing the Free Jazz?

We need volunteers to bring the following:

A ghetto blaster, big bag o' plastic cups, an industrial-strength blender, a really loooooong lead to bridge the gap between MY ROOF and MY FLAT. I'll be able to find a large bin for ice but will need help with filling it up. Ice runs are easy-peasy as garages nearby.

Drinks and food are up to whoever brings them. I'm still dithering about whether to have a grill for carnivores, but pre-made things can be warmed up/kept that way at mine. I have a good collapsible table for the roof.

Also, should the party continue later at SF? Our fave part-time promoter could sort us out with a cheapie ILE list and then won't miss out completely because of having to leave at 3pm.

what a splendid idea, I love roofs (sp. please I'm having a mental block here)

it now looks like i will be unable to attend either the pub on the 20th, or the freejazz-rooftop-picnic on the 21st (although i may possibly be able to strange fruit on the eve of the 21st). hope there's more fun things in the phuture

Ahem. Well our booze picnic in Brixton sounded JUST as appealing!!!

Aye-hem.

Curses.

Shandies all round...

Advance notice to all -- hold the weekend two weeks after that wide open (August 3 through 5). Trust me. :-)

Ned, is your secret the same as my secret?

Sorry Sarah, didn't mean to take a dump all over the Ruskin Park idea.

You will come along, won't you?

I'll come. I should be back by then. Any special requests to bring back from Italy?

ITALY! Hooray, I've just been in Venice and it RULED.

Prosecco, prosecco, and prosecco! Bellinis are so civilised.

I'm not sure what a bellini is but prosecco I can do

Got me, Ed. All I know is that that weekend is another long-planned/threatened event, Triggerfest. Which I expect *all* of you in the UK to attend, no matter what shape it takes.

Oh well no then. But I should know more about my thing by next week and it might be worth keeping diaries open for. Can't say more till then though.

ed, are you talking about that rave in devon?

This sounds wonderful and I would very much like to come.

As the divine LC would say, this idea is 'the titties'. Meaning very good indeed.

Coming to SF sounds like an ace idea. Don't know about guest lists though... I'd have to pretend you were all press to avoid annoying Spearmint (putting you on a press list for reduced entry). I'll have to ask some of you to review it.... It *really* depends on numbers.

However, I do have an idea that I can promise on. I'll be DJing after the bands, so bring records that you'd like to be played, or mail me requests. I'll do an all-ILE-request set if you like.

Kinda sucks I have to go at 3pm, now. Hmph!

Oh, but I'm sure Dickon will keep you company, ALLLLL afternoon long.

Paul: Let's wait and see how many people come to my roof before raising the issue of guesties for SF again.

I'm still looking for people willing to bring some items mentioned above. Bueller...anyone...anyone?

Happy to undertake to bring a big pile of plastic cups, if that helps. I'll be buying them, so if someone else has access to a huge supply of supercheap and or superbrilliant plastic cups then either (a) let me know or (b) bring them yerself.

Indeed. Volunteers? I'll get the big bag o'plastic cups.

Ruskin park turned into all day cheap boozing, involving the Coolest Drinks In London - various shandies. A Waggledance shandy was asked for at one point in the night! And I bet you can't guess who. Thanks pinefox! If it rains, can we shelter under ridiculously large umbrellas?

OH! I wonder if I can steal my friends LASER KARAOKE SYSTEM!!

All the way from Manchester!

Probably not.

Of course I'll be there. I have a plastic cup collection from the Box Wine incident. See Tim and I on the day. Oh, and DG too! The best cups win,'n'that. Rain contingency plan? After Saturday morning, I consider it best to have one...

It's a little-recognised truth that the shandy has become the most fashionable drink in London. The Face will be onto this in no time, and Time out a couple of months later.

A Guiness shandy will never be fashionable, however, or (for that matter) nice to drink.

*assumes crap Estuary weathergirl voice*

In the event of inclement weather on the day, please check the board for travel updates and other information.

*end of weather report*

Gawd, we certainly don't want to wind up like the cannabis marchers. Leave me to come up with an alternative, I have to work hard for the next week or so.

Wow, check the response on the placcy cup front. Ghetto blaster? Great big long lead? I ask this because my CD player just DIED. The Hello Kitty grim reaper from the Shamrio tarot deck is swinging by for it tomorrow.

Actually, Tim, there was a Face article about it sometime last year.

We have a ghetto blaster! (No, we are NOT going to bring the decks and Vox Amps configuration that we used at the Betsey, we are going to bring a Boombox.) How long a cable do you need? I have loads of long cables because of all the bands equipment, but I mean... they're not like, *miles* long.

I'll definitely be there, and if the SF Gods smile upon me will also be playing requests later on in the evening.

I shall also use this meet to get my revenge on Mark S. His punishment will be swift, brutal and very very silly.

If newbies are allowed, please count me in.

Will Mark S really be there? Cause I really don't believe he exists.

And I can vouch for Chris's housetrainedness. Really. Just don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth, and you'll be fine. ;-)

As you may have noticed from the other meet up thread, I have to be in Finsbury Park for a proportion of the day, desparately trying to find some students for our college as we have not as many as we expected, which means we could be in DEEP POO next year, I'm sure a free festival is *just* the place to find the sort of people we're looking for.

Anyway, the point being, do we have any sort of time of day for these shennanigans to take place as no doubt i can nick off half way through the afternoon with a bit of luck.

I'm preparing for people to be at mine from noonish, because Paul Strange has to blow at 3. The rest of us will doubtlessly gluttonize ourselves until SF time. Sound good?

I might turn up if I can get out of bed that day

Of course I'll be there: the Free-Jazz ILE Picnic is MY KEWL KONCEPT — tho the Free- Jazz ILE Picnic-in-the-Sky is an amazing and gratifying variation I had not anticipated: I tht we wd be dug into a reluctant consensus plaguepit somewhere...

You will know me by my simultaneous resemblance to Momus and Pikachu.

Just what is the Sinker obsession with plague pits, may I ask?

Oooo. Could you put me down as a "maybe"? I'd like to be there (assuming nobody minds) but there are transport issues, plus it will probably involve staying up all Saturday night, which may be slightly foolish, since I'll have to go to work on Monday and there will be nobody else in the house to force my lazy arse out of bed and onto the bus. Of course, if anyone else planning to be there would rather I wasn't there or thinks I'm too new to appear at a meet or whatever then please say and I won't intrude. (Really, please do say, I won't be offended, and I'd hate to gatecrash.)

(If it's any consolation, my sentences are a lot shorter in real life. Most of them are so short they don't even start. Most of the rest consist solely of the word "sorry". Oh no, wait, I was trying to make myself sound less annoying in person, not like I'll sit there in the corner contributing nothing interesting to conversation and apologising irritatingly often. Erm. Oh well.)

Looks like me and Rebecca will get on fine. Everything she said, except transport looks OK, but knowing my sleep patterns I won't wake up till it's all over.

Kate, mucho cool about the ghetto blaster/lead thing. I'm on the first floor, la terrasse counts for sixth. Bring the longest lead available and if it doesn't reach from mine I can negotiate with my ILE/M- friendly neighbour Feargus, who is on three.

I volunteer to make little name tags so we all know who everyone is. Is anyone allergic to the gluey stuff on post it notes?

I fear that I may have to miss the event because going to see Deacon Blue / Go West.

Ah the joys of the office stationery cupboard. I'm probably going to buy a 30m cable reel for the office soon anyway, so I could probably rustle that along. And I have a massive supply of Placcy Pint glasses too so they would possibly do the business for like free.

Of course if someone wants to drive from Russell Square across I can also supply an number of amplifiers, decks, CD mixers and some rather cheap and dodgy whirly lights - but I think that might be getting us above our initial station.

OK, Pete can bring the really long cable. Pikachu? Pikachu? Is that one of those scary yellow things with fangs that Paul has a stuffed one in the cupboard that he brings out and menaces me with every now and then? I'm scared!

And where does one get the knowledge of where Plague Pits used to be? I'm now convinced that Tooting Common is a Plague Pit. I know that Tooting Graveney was once a Plague Pit cause it's got GRAVE in the name, for fucks sake. Or maybe that's just cause Lambeth Cemetary is here.

Deacon Blue and Go West. At the same time? Yowsers, I've got to be there. "We close our eyes, we never lose a game...."

If one were to crossbreed Nick Currie and Pikachu, the result is certainly Nicholas 'Acid Casuals' Blincoe. But I don't really want to think about gene splicing experiments featuring any of them.

Plague pits: Blackheath and one near Farringdon as far as I know. Ask Feargus at the picnic, he gives these very camp walking tours of London, eg. Sleaze in Soho! and has even more useless info packed into his brain than I do.

All we really need is a ghetto blaster with CD capability; I find drunken attempts at mixology have an alarming tendency to go psycho. And to invite them: my neighbours are oblivious largely because there's a heavy meths contingent among them, and I don't want a situation where they fancy their chances with OUR alcohol.

Can I confirm my attendance as security for Tom E. ie to stop him falling off the incredible floating picnic in the sky after one too many fancy drinks...

Cool, Alex. Tom's said nowt about coming so far!

*sniff*

Tom's being eaten by goats in Greece. I am sure he will be there (as his envoy on Earth) and undoubtedly he will confirm this himself come the weekend.

isn't he still on holiday, wondering why he allowed himself to be persuaded into buying a victor pelevin book?

Indeed. What's the betting he comes back and complains that all the books recommended to him were rubbish. Whereas in fact he has been playing Pokemon all week, and has not so much as opened Gravity's Rainbow.

When I get my copy of London the Biography back i will consult it re: plague pits. There's one off th Goswell Road, my school playground was on it.

Is it in London's Biography? My bassist was reading that all of last year. I will have to try and borrow it off her. Goswell Rd. is right by our rehearsal studios... I bet The Joint is one big plague pit, oh yes.

(Reading Gravity's Rainbow) & (Playing Pokémon PROPERLY) = the same thing

Dotted around there are loads of references to plague pits. Lon don: the biography is well worth the effort reading, although not in one go, interspereseit with other things, if only for the OH MY GOD i never knew that about that/that was there/that happened there factor. But also it gives a really good insight into why london is how it is.

(Apologies for the wee hype)

Picnic admin: as ILE's resident gastropornographer, I have alerted y'all to the existence of the WHITE RUSSIAN MILKSHAKE. It is even more beautiful than actual White Russians.

However, I am in danger of being labelled a gourmet tease because at this writing we have NO BLENDER.

Waaaaah! I wanna jerk the soda! It's been a *long* time...

1) Plague pits - two I know of are Bunhill Fields and what is now Trinity Green, at the junction of Mile End Road and Cambridge Heath Road. Lovely.
2) Although I've said it indirectly, I would like to take this opportunity to explicitly confirm my attendance.
3) What's more, I've commissioned my mum to bake us some cakes! Yay!

I wonder if it's worth overcoming my fear of Amazon to venture in and order that book... or else maybe they will sell it at the Museum of the City of London? Oh wait, I take a different route now that goes nowhere near the Barbican. Mmmm, Barbican. London wall fragments.

Kate, just join your local library. Order it and steal it. That's what I used to do as a child.

Tooting has bookshops doesn't it? Its been a while since I was down there I must admit - Hippos Pizza though - its a must.

The only bookshops that Tooting has are Islamic and Hindi bookshops. Not even a WH Smith. Trust me, it is Tooting's biggest fault.

As to stealing from the library... GRRRRRRRR... there are very few things in the world that make me go more purple in the face with rage. I should, however join the Tooting library, but I need something with my new address on it first... hmmmm. However, if this book is as good as everyone says it is, I will want my own copy. Oh, and I needed to order one of my friends' latest novels from the states as well, so it was just as well to order on Amazon.

Amazon have worked well for me in the past, but I much prefer a proper bookshop but there are precious few of those left. Try Bookbrain they search all of the bookshop sites and find the cheapest for you.

*whistle*

just trying to keep the thread up where folks can see it.

It'll stay up as long as DG doensn't nix it.

We have blender, hooray! Thanks to Epicure Ed, we're sorted. My cunning plan to harness lots of blender energy hasn't worked...yet.

Wondering...Madchen? Ou est vous?

Why would I nix it? This event has to go ahead so I can get my revenge on the Sinker.

Well, exactly. I've got to chip for a few days to get some work done, so I'll do a mailout next week of where to go, etc. It's looking really good.

can we have Vodka espressos?

eh Tim?

I don't know what you mean. No, I don't.

This event has to go ahead so that I can have my faith in Sinker as a real person confirmed.

no 'spressos, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, the panic, the vomit indeed...

My vodka espressos didn't contribute to Vomit and panic, they contributed to witty banter and perfectly decent behaviour, oh apart from when I was drinking it, ok then, point taken.

*some more whistling*

Doing my bit to keep this thread up...went to the most amazing restaurant yesterday...Burmese! Imagine a Thai/Indian cross with dishes like twice-cooked fish curry. Fantastic!

Hmm, does anyone know where to get those plastic pitchers so drinks can be made in batches?

Your local pound shop will probably do big measuring jugs for not much money. Not very stylish, granted, but they'll do the job.

Yeah, it's hard being an aesthete;). There are really fun ones for cheap in Indian supermarkets, bright colours and patterns stamped into the plastic. I love all forms of Asian plastic; when the Hayward had Cities On The Move up, they ran a curated pound shop and I was in Heaven. Unfortunately, no pound shops in Clerkenwell, not even in Leather Lane.

Ed: Edgware Road is only really dodgy above the Westway, but there's the Regent Café which is pristine Italian 50's joint with interior to rival the New Piccadilly in Denman Street. And a great suit waiting for me in a charity shop up there which I've only just remembered NOW. Later!

Hello hello oh look I cannot sleep because of mosquito (or GOAT) bites. Yes I will come, of course. AND to the karaoke AND should I perhaps remind you all that it is club sussed iii on Thursday for the hardcore decadents? Which friend or relative of mine will waste a whole night chatting up one of Sarah's friends THIS TIME? You will have to be there to find out.

Anyway yes yes I say yes. Now where's that bite cream?

Someone must bring a camera. I *demand* it.

just a warning its looking 50.50 wether I make it or not. I'm trying very hard to take some exams but I can't find any professors to take them with. So just to say you might like to secure a blender from somewhere else. If I come I will have a camera buy default.

Erm. What time does Strange Fruit end? I foolishly didn't realise that it was a Strange Fruit Presents (which I've never been to before - sorry) instead of the other variety of SF until I read the Fruitbowl this weekend, and the website doesn't seem to mention closing times. Unless I'm being extremely unobservant, of course, which is not unheard of.

Not at all sure I can go, so you will probably be spared, but details of SF closing time would be appreciated so I can attempt to formulate plans and daydream about them despite the fact that they'll never work. Ta.

'SF presents' normally go on until 1am. The fact we've only got two bands playing menas it'll be more like a club night than the other 'presents' have been.

More importantly, do I bring the DG pipe o'doom, or will you all laugh at me?

Were you to bring Angels and Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim, Powers, Dominions and [insert temporarily forgotten angelic stratum], all continually crying, "Hosannah in the the Highest, Lord God of Pipe," *I* would laugh at you, DG.

Then I would smite you, Sinker boy, but that's going to happen anyway. You know it.