Come on, boy, d'you want a ride?

[venta]

Saturday started well, with brunch in a local cafe.

Maggie's diner arrived in Ealing a few years ago - I think it's technically a chain, because there is another one of it in Chiswick, but basically it's a local business. [Edit: ah, not so much. It's one of a larger London group of pubs and eateries.] They serve diner-y sort of food - two for one burgers three nights a week - and cocktails, and they have music-themed decor and friendly staff. I like it. Also, at weekends, they serve brunch till five which is jolly civilised.

We sauntered in for brunch, and slightly to my own surprise I ditched what I'd planned to order in favour of a new dish called Eddie's Smash Hits (by new I mean it wasn't on the menu when we last went, which was ages ago). My brunch was an amazing pan full of roasted butternut squash, chorizo, eggs and kale and I hoovered through it in no time.

I am, by the way, one of the very few people who actually like kale. I even liked it when I was a kid and my Dad grew it on the allotment.

Anyway, my breakfast was great, but it's not the best breakfast ever. ChrisC ordered that - it appears on the menu as Supertramp. It is, in fact, a US-style short stack of pancakes, drowned in maple syrup, and interleaved with a full English.

It is... a generous helping. I know this because I was drafted in to help out. If you live in West London, come to Ealing and have brunch at Maggie's. And tell us so we can join you :)

We wombled around the independent record labels' fair in Spitalfields - and bloody hell was it busy. It seemed also to incorporate all of London's independent brewers (beer is very like records) and the place was heaving. And then we moved on...

As often happens, ChrisC asked if I wanted to go to a Thing. As often happens, I said yes without the least idea what it might be. A brisk walk from Spitalfields, we arrived in a very unpromising backstreet, and there was a door.

A model village? Here? Oh right, a model village made by Jimmy Cauty. Now I am not at all surprised.

Jimmy Cauty was half of the KLF. If you're still not keeping up, that's the erratic, Eristic duo he formed with Bill Drummond in the 90s which stormed the charts before self-destructing and burning a million quid. Cauty and Drummond have been collectively and individually doing peculiar and batshit things in the name of art for many decades.

If you are not only keeping up but ahead of me, you'll know this model village was originally on display at Dismaland.

Anyway. The "village" recreates a non-specific bit of Bedfordshire following a non-specific catastrophe. Vehicles lie wrecked on motorways, shops have been looted, electrical lines are downed and the church is on fire. Tower blocks stand semi-ruined ("every window individually hand smashed by the artist!") and everything is covered with scale-graffiti. Police are everywhere, the whole thing lit by hundreds of tiny flashing blue lights. This is not Bekonscot.

Apparently it was originally on full display at Dismaland, but had to be fenced off because people kept nicking the figurines. In London they've gone one further, barricading the whole thing so you have to peer through peepholes.

Which is great, because it allows them to force perspective.  And not great because bloody hell are your eyes tired by the end. Also, the lowest peepholes are around four feet of the ground at my guess - I'm not sure you'd want to take children smaller than that, but I suspect it might put it out of the range of an adult in a wheelchair.

I strongly suspect a lot of people will hate the village; I loved it. I love looking at models, I love the attention to detail - which extends to the wrecked details of Cauty's dystopia. I love the fact that everything except the model has been done on the stringiest of shoestring budgets, and the room is dark and grimy with a broken entry turnstile. I love the fact that the titular New Bedford Rising - the new, utopian tower being built to replace the shattered landscape - takes the form of a building site. It is not a half-finished model, but a model of a half-finished building (cranes, Acrow props and all). The modellers, and Cauty himself, were milling about, drinking tea and beer and chatting, and working on the new tower. It should be finished before the exhibition closes.

If you have the height, and staunch ciliary muscles, you can appreciate it as a political statement, or just enjoy it as a bit of unusual model-making, until the end of January.

Comments

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I like kale! And if I'm ever in Ealing for brunch (a minor miracle to get where I'm supposed to go before coffee), I'll let you know.

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I would love that! I have a minor obsession with all things miniaturised, and that's several shades cooler than most of the twee tat you see. Good one, Cauty.

Also PS yes I love kale, too. Not sure if I did as a kid, but they make a thing called Grünkohl in north Germany that is probably it, and I loved that.

Okay, I'm looking it up: Brassica oleracea var. sabellica L., which allegedly is curly kale. Yep.

[shermarama]

Kale is much more common in the Netherlands, where it's something you mostly buy pre-prepared in bags and the bag size goes up to big family value pack, kind of like the enormous bags of economy frozen peas; my ex loves kale, so was really happy about that. I wouldn't go out of my way to find it now I'm back over here, but if I saw a dish of that and butternut squash and chorizo and eggs on a menu, I'd be sorely tempted too.

[mansunite.livejournal.com]

I love kale, especially the curly kind of kale (ah, alliteration joy...). It's got such a nice buttery flavour to it.
And I love purple sprouting. By far my favourite brassicas.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

This model village is an excellent thing to know about, thanks for the heads up, I'll try to arrange a visit in January with my model village fan contacts.