Christmas Covers Party Poster

Now playing: Girl Talk - "Triple Double"























Really looking forward to this!

I lick things

Young Morrissey: SO HOT.
 

I'm not really into Morrissey's solo stuff but my god, The Smiths are just one of these bands whose music I could not live without ♥

Silly projections

Now playing: Galaxians - s/t

Hello.

I haven't posted anything here in a million years so here is a photo of something I drew. It's my friend Aaron standing in front of a screen onto which iPads drawings and animations were projected, and I did this one. It was a REALLY fun thing to participate in!

( David Stockwell took  this photo)

Laterz!

How I Learned to Stop Worrying, etc

Now playing: Arvo Pärt - "Summa"

This summer will mark the 6th year anniversary of my moving to the UK. Right now I am in a state of ill-advised tipsiness, which usually makes me want to do stuff I wouldn't usually do ; in this case, write a blog post about the country that I've come to call home.

I came to live here almost on a whim, two years after I first "met" over the internet the man that would become my husband. (He was writing a blog of weird short stories in broken French, and I liked them so much we became online-pen pals and eventually met up, messily fell in love, and subsequently started going out. I don't think it's a particularly interesting story so I shan't bored anyone reading this with more details. Unless they ask.) I was a student in Toulouse and he was doing a degree at the University of Nottingham, so our relationship was a long-distance one - which, as anyone who's had one can tell you, is kind of exciting but also complicated and sometimes a pain in the arse, so after a while it became obvious that we had to live a bit closer or split up. And so I moved. I found myself a job as an au-pair, packed a box of stuff and a bag of clothes and took a flight to East Midlands airport. Here I was, with my reasonably good but exceedingly shy english, feeling a bit like an alien but looking forward to experiencing new things and learning about this strange backwards country ("Why do they have to do EVERYTHING so differently to everyone else?!" - my Mum, during her last visit where she seemed to get very angry about left-hand driving, the price of parking, plug sockets, the weather and paying up-front in pubs).

I love England, and the UK in general. I love it the way you love an adopted country - at first, you're a bit scared and weirded out and you wonder if it was the right choice, but then you start discovering all the idiosyncrasies and the subtleties and you transition from the vague, stereotypical vision you had to the warm, complex feelings you get from getting to know things first-hand and learning how to love them.

I think the best thing about it is how open and tolerant most people are of difference. I remember learning the word "melting pot" in english class when I was about 14 and not quite getting it, and then I moved here and understood why such a term was invented. Multiculturalism is a wonderful thing, and there are only a few idiots here that will say otherwise. The vast majority of people don't care about your accent, the colour of your skin, the way you dress, the way you talk, they tend to just take you at face value and if you're a decent human being they will see through the surface stuff and embrace it. It is to be noted that, at the last general election in 2008, the BNP got less than 2% of the votes (let us not dwell on the fact that 18% of French people voted for the loathsome Front National at the first round of the presidentials last Sunday, because that makes me so sad I almost cried when I heard about it on the news).

I'm not saying that everything is perfect and everyone is filled with love, but generally speaking there is a level open-mindedness that I find really awesome. Take the fact that here, if you are friends with someone, you will frequently hug them to say goodbye or hello - when I compare it to the ridiculous "bise", these pointless air-kisses that I always found irritating, it's just a no-brainer. Or the fact that the differences between formal and informal registries are almost non-existent, and that pretty much everyone calls everyone by their first name, even your boss or your bank manager. Or the way the language itself is so flexible that learning and speaking it is like a really fun game.

So I decided I was going to settle down here for the foreseeable future, I married the man with the broken french, and I started eating baked beans for breakfast on Sundays. I miss France a lot, and I love going back, and I think I might still live there again, but for now this is my home too, and I'm very fond of it.

Blergh

Bande-son:  The Gerbils - Are You Sleepy?

I tried to draw something today and failed. Got annoyed with it and threw it away. All I seem to be good at these days is getting depressed and getting drunk... Never mind. Here is something I did for a friend's band called The Nurse Novels. I drew it just after reading A Farewell To Arms and it's kind of what Catherine looks like in my head.

New gig Poster

Feat the excellent Papier Tigre, RM Hubbert and Cantaloupe. (I don't know about Crash of Rhinos, I've never heard them) (What, I'm not organising the blooming thing!)

 

Also, I'm very much looking forward to my gigtastic weekend: Grouper on Saturday and Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat on Sunday. Yesss

Edit: I didn't go to Grouper cause Simmo was too tired, but Aidan Moffat was all kinds of wonderful so I will try to draw something about it...

Endearing madness

Once a week we do our fruit & veg shopping in a greengrocers called "Thompson Brothers", which is run by - I kid you not - a completely bat-shit crazy pair of 50-something identical twins. They never stop talking about the most ludicrous things, always have inane anecdotes they just have to tell you, and constantly lie for no apparent reason. Oh, they talk in old money as well. I think Simmo is in love with them. Here is an article about them from the Left Lion and a drawing I did of what it's like to go there (a bit like a weird acid flashback, actually):

Here is something that cheered me up the other day

Bande-son: Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain

Sometimes cats will take a break from being selfish arseholes and will comfort you when you feel like shit...

Fighting a losing battle

Bande-son: Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

me VS the ol' reptile brain

New Poster

Bande-son: Geeshie Wiley - "Eagles on a Half"

Check out my terrible guitar drawing skillzzz!

Doodle-o-rama

Bande-son: Kraftwerk - "Kometenmelodie 2"

Doodles!

Bande-son: Television - "Marquee Moon"

Wedding invitation teaser...

...(no-one cares!)

Bande-son: Smog - "Permanent Smile"



I'm working on my wedding invites... Quite happy with how they are turning out so far. Will post them here when they are done, although I'm afraid it will mean strangers will come and crash my party. (As if anyone actually reads this blog!)

------------------------

30/01/12 edit: I forgot I said I would post the invitation, but here it is. There actually were two different versions but I will only post this one only as the other wouldn't look any good flattened (it was a double-side folded affair, you see).

I have to say I'm pretty proud of it, I think we did a good job on this!

And here is a picture of us on the day, probably the only one I like (I photograph really, really badly):

The story of my life

Wild Punch by Creston Lea
Published by Turtle Point Press

Encore des vieux trucs

Bande-son: Nat King Cole - "When Sunny Gets Blue"
J'ai fait de nouveaux dessins, en attendant de les scanner et les mettre en ligne voila un fond de tiroir:

Des Trucs...

...histoire de combler le vide. Voila une série de dessins faits circa 2005. A l'époque, j'habitais encore à Toulouse et l'Angleterre me manquait beaucoup alors j'avais décidé de faire une liste imagée de divers produits typiques d'ici. De nos jours ça n'est plus si exotique vu qu'on en trouve au rayon de bouffe internationale dans la plupart des supermarchés, mais bon... (je suis une fille qui finit ses phrases par "mais bon", oui, je sais, ça craint)

A noter que le Branston Pickle c'est facilement LE truc qui me dégoûte le plus au monde. Rien que l'odeur me donne méga-envie de vomir. Simmo adore en tartiner partout dans ses sandwiches bien sûr. Tout ça pour dire que c'est pas forcément des choses que j'aime donc. Par exemple le Salad Cream c'est un peu la mayo du pauvre et le chocolat Cadbury c'est assez naze... Tavu Hélène Guide Touristique (Martine-style), vous regrettez pas d'être venus hein!

Bande-Son: Mohammed Rafi - "Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil"

Which part of "this morning" don't you understand??

Bande-son: The Kinks -"Strangers"

Still trying to figure out this graphic tablet thing so I did this little comic about work... I don't think it will make any sense to anyone though... ehnn... Also sometimes at work I am a grumpy twat.

Me vs. technology

Trying to learn how to use the graphic tablet that I was scared to try on since I got it for my birthday last year... Gnnnnnnehh...

A polemic on name change

Bande-son: Animal Collective - "My Girls"

For some reason I seem to be reading lots about how women should not change their last name when they get married. Apparently if you do you can't call yourself a feminist. But... What I just feel like it? I;m definitely a feminist, and so is he, but as a personal choice I think I would enjoy taking his last name. So maybe that's a flimsy argument, but I'm getting married in the first place for seemingly equally flimsy reasons. I don't have to get married, I don't feel obliged or pressured, and neither do I have any real profound meaningful reason behind it. It just seems nice, and a good excuse to have a big party, surrounded by the people I love.

Changing your name, or not, should be a personal choice, and I think either option is fine as long as you make it informed, and your own.

I wish I was a battlefield nurse

She's got eyes like a battlefield nurse
The kind that keep you calm
When all around you things are getting worse
She's got eyes like a battlefield nurse
The kind that keep you calm
When all around you things are getting worse

Dying all around me
Can I save but one or two
He reaches out to touch me
It's the last thing he'll ever do

Sometimes I feel like a battlefield nurse
It's a role that I was born for
And did not need to rehearse
They say: "Lady, tell me, how bad is it?"
They grimace and curse
And I say: "Don't worry soldier
Things could be a whole lot worse,"

I hold his body and wonder
Was this comfort that I gave?
I felt him drowning in me
He believed he was being saved
So I told him I am not the battlefield nurse
I have never saved a soldier
And the war keeps getting worse
There is no kindness to be found here
These eyes are just a curse
The nursemaid is a liar
She's the chauffeur of your hearse

She's got eyes like a battlefield nurse
The kind that keep you calm
When all around you things are getting worse

She's got eyes like a battlefield nurse
The kind that keep you calm
When all around you
All around you
All around you
Things are
Getting
Worse

How to ruin your housemate's romantic dinner

Bande-son: Radiohead - In Rainbows (bé oui, sans blague il est chouette cette album! et moi qui croyais que l'ado boutonneuse en moi était loin derrière me voila bien attrapée...)

Salut les losers! (imaginaires puisque personne ne lit ce blog)

Voici un dessin représentant Élisa et moi en train de faire des gargarismes dans sa salle de bain pendant que son infortunée colocataire essaie de manger un dîner romantique avec son copain dans la pièce à coté. Classe un jour, classe toujours.

Les gars je me suis fait offrir une tablette graphique en septembre et je l'ai même pas encore essayée, je suis vraiment une grosse truie. Elle est là, sur ma table de salon, elle me dit "Ben alors?" et je la regarde fixement avec un air idiot. Je crois que j'ai peur de m'en servir?? N'importe quoi.

J'espère arrêter d'être débile bientôt afin de faire le poster pour le concert des Bitter Tears qu'on organise au printemps avec Clique Clack, c'est pas gagné mais sachant que ce groupe est ridiculement bon ça devrait me motiver. Sérieusement, il FAUT ecouter Jam Tarts in the Jakehouse, un album tellement génial qu'il a fait son entrée une entrée directe dans le top 15 de mes albums préférés de tous temps.

Je vous laisse, je vais me brosser les dents. Bizou lol.

current music crushes #2

Beach House - Devotion

Cass McCombs - Catacombs

Smoke - Heaven on a Popsicle Stick

Trop chaud

Bande-son: Micah P. Hinson - "I’m Waiting For The Day"

7 Hertz poster

De La Juste Température des Choses

Bande-son: James Kochalka Superstar - Monkey vs Robot

- Le thé brûlant quand il fait froid
- Se tortiller un peu dans le bain pour mieux apprécier la température de l'eau
- Se laver les mains à l'eau très froide quand on les a eues moites et sales
- Le sol tiédi par le soleil quand on est pied nus
- Se passer un gant imbibé d'eau chaude sur le visage pour se réveiller le matin
- Retourner son oreiller pour qu'il soit bien frais
- Le soleil doux à travers les branches au début du printemps, quand il fait encore froid
- Enfiler des chaussettes chaudes après les avoir laissées sur le radiateur
- Les cheveux propres encore humides mais tièdes sur le cou
- Un verre d'eau glacée quand on a très soif

~~ In other news ~~

Je crois que mon scanner est cassé, j'ai bien les boules. Je sais pas trop comment je vais faire, à part en faisant des listes sans fin de ce genre ce blog va devenir encore plus désertique qu'avant. Déjà que c'était le bordel et que j'arrive toujours pas à me décider entre écrire en anglais et écrire en français, on est pas sortis de l'auberge les potos (genre y'a encore des gens qui lisent cette page). Le truc déprimant c'est que j'ai plein d'idées de BDs mais pas du tout la motivation de les dessiner, à fortiori si je peux même pas les scanner et les poster! JE SUIS UNE GROSSE FLEMMASSE, oui. Je passe la plupart des mes journées à jouer à Tomb Raider en pyjama comme un geek crasseux, je me fais honte vraiment. Il est 3h40, Simmo rigole dans son sommeil et je n'arrive pas à dormir alors j'écoute des chansons idiotes. Je suis toujours au chômage sauf que j'ai touché plein d'assédics (ici c s'appelle JSA) d'un coup et que je suis illusoirement riche. Voila l'état de ma vie. Bisous lol.