Screw the haters, this will be an awesome summer to be in London

http://d4k7s9ho8qact.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/shardlights.jpg?9d7bd4

Now that the Jubilee is safely receding into the distance and it's hopefully stopped fucking raining for a bit it's probably the right time for a catch-all thread to flag up all the cool stuff that's going to be happening in London over the next couple of months.

I guess the actual sporting side of the Olympics will be covered on another thread but there's so much cultural stuff going on that I probably don't know about yet, and also to just generally talk about the entire world descending on our city for a month.

Thread rule = NO WHINING. Anyone complaining about public transport will be banned from the thread. (Yes I know too well that if you are about to lose your job or have no prospect of getting one in the first place or are having your housing benefit cut then this is probably going to be a shit summer to be in London or anywhere but this isn't the thread for that).

fuck the olympics

just joking (though i mean it) it's always an awesome summer in london though, is my positive opinion here.

wtf is that picture?

I'm looking forward to it. Mainly because I get two weeks sitting around in front of the TV and going to the pub early 'working from home' during the Olympics.

Also timely because at the weekend London Pleasure Gardens will be opening for the first time and in a couple of weeks there'll be the opportunity to rave on an actual East German industrial ship and next week they'll be shooting massive lasers off the top of the Shard and it generally feels like a pretty great time to be here.

tell us more about these massive lasers already

I'm looking forward to it. Mainly because I get two weeks sitting around in front of the TV and going to the pub early 'working from home' during the Olympics.

i hate the whole "working from home" concept, not least cos i can't do it and it's a byword for "doing a shit job" when anyone else does it.

http://londonist.com/2012/06/shardopens.php

^^^ Great rejected Russell T Davies setups of our lifetime.

I'm mostly wondering where will be the best vantage point in London from which to watch it. Maybe on top of the National Theatre or something?

I'm thinking about heading up to Hampstead Heath, if it's clear that evening, to see it.

Might just stroll up to Waterloo Bridge. The public terrace on the NT is on the north & west sides so no great view from there.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8148/7447346934_3b39d30404.jpg

This thing in Greenwich last Friday was pretty fucking cool as well. That's the Maritime Museum in the background behind the giant C3PO.

Wow. Is that the Sultan's Elephant people or a different bunch?

Some Catalan dudes I believe, not the Sultan's Elephant guys. There were like 30 people hanging off a crane with fireworks going off around them by the end. Also they did this:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7132/7425809394_84be2a52b3.jpg

"Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station skyscraper!"

I'd probably get more excited/happy about it if I heard about the cool stuff in advance, rather than someone posting photos a week later going "this awesome thing happened..."

(But given that crowds are very difficult for me, it's probably better if I just look at the pictures afterwards.)

www.google.com

I'd probably get more excited/happy about it if I heard about the cool stuff in advance

Point of the thread innit.

Remember when ILX used to be full of helpful Londoners who would let each other know about cool stuff going on in the town, and maybe organise get-togethers (like indeed the Sultan's Elephant) instead of just being sarcastic assholes?

Yeah, stupid of me to remember that kind of thing.

x-post to Ronan being a twunt

Because Matt, I was hoping that would be the case.

you should try google, i'm serious. lots to discover.

god you're a cunt ronan

All this is seriously testing the boundaries of 'no whining'.

Should be quite a few interesting cultural events tied in to the Olympics. The Czech delegation is taking over the Business Design Centre in Islington for the duration with art, music and stuff.

http://www.businessdesigncentre.co.uk/czech

this looks good to me, at the goethe institut: http://www.hot-dinners.com/Gastroblog/Latest-news/top-international-supperclubs-partner-in-london-for-one-off-dinners-with-supperclub-summit

There's acrobatics and theatre (but sadly precious little juggling this year) outside the National Theatre at lunchtimes and early evenings:

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/wts

and still some stuff at the greenwich & docklands festival, the extravagant finale is tomorrow at woolwich:

http://www.festival.org/festival/overview/1/2012/

And dancing at Canary Wharf:

http://londonist.com/2012/06/preview-dancing-city-at-greenwich-and-docklands-international-festival-30-june.php

Is anyone off to the Grand Opening of the Pleasure Gardens this weekend?

I'm going with a few people if the weather's good. Not sure quite what to expect - it's run by guys who do the Shangri-La area at Glastonbury isn't it? That's a pretty good sign.

There had better be enough beer tents.

Going for the Saturday night of Bloc the following week as well, attempting to avoid clunky post-dubstep DJs.

I really really really really wanna go to Bloc, but I'm not sure which day, and I don't know that many people who are going (mostly acquaintances and colleagues rather than mates). I'm also a bit put off by the sheer expense of it. £55 is pretty steep. But then the quality of the event is beyond awesome... Very torn.

who you gon see at bloc? and whats that pleasure gardens thing on this w/e

wanna see Binh on sat night but dunno if i can make it - also daniel bell is playing at secretsundaze but....a) secretsundaze, b) sunday, c) 2 hour set? and no interest in anyone else on bill

Orbital, Levon Vincent, Ellen Allien, Cosmin TRG, there appears to be some kind of Modeselektor/Dettmann/Shed back-to-back thing going on as well. Is Jeff Mills any good these days?

Think the thing this weekend is just a free-for-all open day thing. Probably quite family-oriented I'd guess.

http://i.imgur.com/39k8I.jpg

I sort of interested in going down to pleasure gardens this weekend. I'm going to BLOC on the Friday.. line up looks more my thing, not knowing what to expect with Steve Reich!

the picture in the original post is intriguing, rather reminiscent of enter the void except in london rather than tokyo, with aluminous mandala limning itself across the city, the apogee of the shard emitting pure being unto the second order financial monoliths, the spiritual nexus of st pauls, impliedly the temporal nexus of westminster

iow screw the haters, this will be an awesome summer to be a second rate psychogeographer(*) in london

(*) there is no other kind

iow?

isle of wight

exactly

friday Bloc does look more up my strasse. I have work that day though and get out at 5.30. Will I have missed much if I'm coming down from Kings X?

the times for BLOC are on FB. Earliest set times showing are 17.00..

Mills was apparently v v good at corsica last month

This should be good:

http://europe.eurostar.com/eurostar-traction/

Tellier, Baloji and a bunch of other people.

oh, I forgot to get tickets for that..

Still available, i think.

I rarely send detailed negative feedback to PRs but I have to say those three paragraphs about London Pleasure Gardens were very satisfying to write.

There is literally no way I am going back there. Including for Bloc. Desolate dust storm hell selling you vastly overpriced drinks, grim festival-grade fast food and pointless tat. Seriously, the dust, unbelievable. IT'S BY THE RIVER IT'S GOING TO BE WINDY how do you not think of that?

Yeah very disappointing, although the site was visibly unfinished and only half open. Still, unless you had an interest in the music there just wasn't very much to to do. It felt somewhere that would be alright for a big rave if there was no wind but certainly not somewhere you could take kids to or just lounge around for the day.

That said the fireworks off the old grain silo were fucking amazing, probably the best I've ever seen first-hand in London. They let people onto the grassy bit for that and that was a lot more pleasant. The whole site looked a lot better at night as well. I'd kind of expected the whole thing to be like park and didn't really understand why it wasn't. They hadn't even attempted to make the main section feel even remotely like a garden at all.

The problem that won't go away though is having to pay £4.50 for a can of lager.

Any open-air screenings to know about?

‏@TimeOutTheatre: Opening night of London pleasure gardens: no pleasure, no gardens and no booze, except beer. Might be ok when it's finished...

Haha OTM.

has anything good happened in london this summer yet? everything has turned out to be a bit disappointing so far?? (apart from wimbledon)

mainly thinking of shard, bloc, and weather

i've had some great nights at Rowan's but that's kind of all year

Blockbuster events have been shite yes.

I'm still stuck on this idea of a giant inflatable theme park based on folksongs of the British Isles, as mooted on the other thread.

(n.b. any parents leaving babies got by their own true loves in the rubber inflatable Greenwood Side-i-oh do so at their own risk.)

Blockbuster events have been shite yes.

thread traitor

This thread was never just about the big events. It's actually mostly for the smaller ones that might go unnoticed.

i went to the ICA today expecting to find loads of sound art as part of their soundworks thing. turns out the pieces are all online, not in the gallery. lol. they do have a cool bruce nauman thing though, i zoned out in it for about 10 mins.

...and bloc goes into administration:

http://www.factmag.com/2012/07/11/bloc-goes-into-administration/

Came here to post that. Surely without refunding anyone and probably not paying all of the scheduled acts they are rolling in cash? I just feel like London (No) Pleasure Gardens and Bloc were on to a good scam. I might put together a rip off of the Sonar website, hire a couple of marques, stick them up on an abandoned building site and start collecting in some cash. It's seems that's all they did!

*marquee

I feel like Bloc Weekend 2012 was dance music's answer to the Lapland themepark

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2011/Feb/Week3/15936405.jpg

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2009/Feb/Week3/15223891.jpg

Well, maybe if they hadn't successfully run the festival in another venue for five years running, that might be a valid conclusion.

Wondering if the festival or the "pleasure" gardens were not adequately insured. Because based on ticket sales alone, you can't both refund punters and pay artists. The same money can't be assigned twice to two different sets of creditors.

Wondering if projected profits from alcohol sales were supposed to meet a big chunk of the costs?

I would imagine that cash for the drinks would go to the venue, not the festival bookers.

That is, if festivals work the same way as every other venue in the UK. Promoter makes their money from ticket sales, venue makes the bulk of their money from alcohol sales.

Fair enough.

I think there was little incentive to refund people. It's not as if Bloc were going to come out of this with a good reputation whatever the outcome. If they pay the artists then at least some of the individuals involved will have a career left. LPG have other events lined up, judging buy the 'no frills' space they have there I'm sure they'll make a tidy profit over the next few events. Newham Council will need to learn some serious lessons.

lol at google maps
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=london+pleasure+gardens&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

can't believe they thought that was a good venue for bloc

haha

and lol at bloc party's new single getting unexpected free twitter mileage.

I'd imagine that any insurance claim will take a while to go through, while punters and artists will both want paying now please.

If the rumours of the staggering overselling are true, then I imagine that they can handily pay the artists and still be rolling in cash - just not enough to actually refund all the tickets. Which is where you go into receivership, I suppose.

via fb

Is the Bloc Inquiry the new Levenson? Can't wait to see Snoop Dogg and Richie Hawtin summoned to the Terrace at DC-10 to explain themselves

walked past bouncy stonehenge this morning (ravenscourt park). was 75% inflated. they were busy anchoring it to the ground.

that's my lunchhour accounted for...

Damn, I'm going to miss it this weekend coz I'm going to Bristol. I should try to get to the Crystal Palace one. Let us know how it is, Koogs!

The Julian Opie show at the Lisson Gallery (http://www.lissongallery.com/#/exhibitions/2012-07-11_julian-opie/) is lovely, and something of a departure for JO (at least as far as I know) - sculpture! texture!

What time is it in each park until? I could probably get to Crystal Palace for 7ish.

I can't find a schedule? Maybe the Bromley Council site has times.

http://sacrilege2012.co.uk/venues_stone_henge_bouncy_castle_jeremy_deller/9th-august-crystal-palace/

i am so unfit.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8152/7683823634_753ab97851.jpg

oddly accurate. there was one 'stone' towards the back that was on a slant. i thought it was only partialy inflated but, no, it's like that in the original. is it life-size? feels like it might be.

10 minutes, taking it easy, or trying to, and i was gasping. you can't just walk on it like a human, you have to do the astronaut thing. concept is great, is well made, and is fun.

is there til 6 tonight, but i don't know about elsewhere

Looks fun! I wonder if I can get to Crystal Palace by 6 or I should just skive out of work early.

Caught By The River give it a thumbs up:

http://www.caughtbytheriver.net/2012/08/sacrilege-in-the-capital/

it's almost as if there were no future in "England"'s dreaming

Got to say, I'm loving London now that all the miserable Evening Standard reading twats have fucked off for a fortnight.

The public transport seems ... easier? Provided that you can find some love in your heart for people who are looking forward to loving London but are a little dazed upon changing at Seven Sisters.

yeah, things seem a little quieter at rush hour - tubes aren't murder, buses moving really quickly outside town at least - and cycling along the no-car roads like constitution hill and south carriage drive is a blast.

It'd be quieter at this point in the year anyway, being August and all, but my train was half empty today.

Ditto here. I get a bus from n16 to fleet st- I've never had such pleasant commutes as this week and the end of last. It's a dream!

Got me some SACRILEGE at Hampstead Heath today, just as the sun came out. My friends' preschool-aged kids didn't want to get off (and it's big enough that nobody stumbles into others). It's at Clapham Common tomorrow. Go, just go.

cycling has been amazing for the past week - rush hour positively pastoral. I for one welcome our new slightly drifting and bemused pedestrian, public-transport-using friends.

Only the slightly sinister periodic sight of trains of Locog vehicles snaking round the empty lanes causes a brief unease.

there was even an Olympic marshal with a megaphone in Hyde Park telling idiot cyclists who insist on treating the park like a velodrome to SLOW DOWN. It's a place where people may wander in thought, find repose and take energetic pleasure in life, not a goddam arena for you to
show how you coulda won the Tour de France.

fuck outta my cycle lane, pedestrian

there was even an Olympic marshal with a megaphone in Hyde Park telling idiot cyclists who insist on treating the park like a velodrome to SLOW DOWN

Could have been some of the triathlon folk doing a bit of training/sussing out the course (Just for those who don't know, it all takes place within the park - women's tri is on Saturday morning, men's tri is on the 7th. Both of these events are FREE to attend iirc apart from entry into certain ticketed areas, and there is HUGE gold medal potential for GBR with Helen Tucker and Alistair Brownlee the respective favourites in each)

All the same, these people should still slow the fuck down if there are other folk around.

this was no triathlete. and it was v busy with tourists wandering a bit confusedly around, as is natural. don't think the triathlon goes on this particular bit. ach, I just get annoyed with middle-aged alpha male GET OUT OF MY WAY cyclists in the park - gives us a bad name!

also, marathon swimming in the serpentine! big It's a Knockout style bobbing inflatables set up around the lake. doesn't seem like much of a spectator sport tho.

there is HUGE gold medal potential for GBR

I have to be honest, the lack of gold medals for Team GB has certainly aided my awesome summer to be in London.

http://www.factmag.com/2012/08/03/london-pleasure-gardens-to-go-into-administration/

What the fuck am I doing indoors right now!?!?!?!

oh right, trying to write my dissertation.

Anyways, are there places that are particularly better or worse places to get a laptop in the UK, keeping in mind that I'm just gonna get a cheaper PC. Or are all the places like John Lewis/PC World all the same?

I got mine in Tesco! That was after comparing prices on loads of websites etc, they had a very good offer. Worth a look.