Lisa Swerling's Glass Cathedrals

I was reminded today of a link someone sent me at my old internship and it put a smile on my face on a grim Monday morning.

Glass Cathedrals doesn't conjure up an image of a massive glass-fronted box with one or several tiny people inside but that's exactly Lisa Swerling has created.. With a multitude of designs, including a vast blue expanse on which is a woman on a lilo:

A collective of nuns:

And my personal favourite, a customisable one on which you can put the hikers on any part of the UK you wish.

Ok, so they're a bit pricey at around £400, but it's a really cool idea for the minimalist type. If I had money and a large amount of white wall, I'd definitely buy them.

All images copyright 2001 Lisa Swerling's Glass Cathedrals. 

http://glasscathedrals.com/

What's In A Name?

That which we call a rose... Sorry confused Shakespeare fans, this is not about Romeo & Juliet. This is about my actual name, which is a constant source of irritation to me (and occasionally a talking point). I was trying to think of a name for this blog and this is all I could come up with. It sounds er cool or something though?

I was christened Charlotte but I HATE it. I don't hate the name - very nice, normal name, but I hate being called it as my family decided when I was three that they were all going to call me Poppy (no explanation until I was about ten, it's a very boring story) and I got so used to this that I started to hate my name because it was no longer 'me'. Thing is, it suits me. I mean, you don't get opium from me, have a red face and green furry body but you see what I mean.

But how do I introduce myself formally? Can I really be bothered to explain EVERY time? Some people I've been emailing for ages have no idea that I hate my name with a passion. And why should they? Trying to establish my career as a journo, I simply don't want to confuse people as I am terrified of being credited with the wrong name - and lets face it, would you believe it was me if I showed you a newspaper with someone else's name in and claimed it to be me?

And thus, if I don't get in there straight away with the fact that I want to be called something different (and no, it's not my middle name), it's a bit weird (and largely irrelevant if I never meet them) and no, I do not want to change my name to deed poll. Far too much paperwork. So I'm stuck with two names and bemused looks from strangers I'm introduced to...

Shimmering Stars & Novella @ Lock Tavern, Camden

I have been going to Camden pretty much every week (and the North of London, for that matter), owing to the fact that someone's been planning all sorts of things that are near them in the North. Which, except for being rather convenient, is actually pretty awesome. I LOVE CAMDEN.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see Shimmering Stars with Novella supporting. The venue itself is pretty cool in itself - it's a bit of a rabbit warren on the QT, with separate upstairs and downstairs bits, a fairly spacious bar area in the main part and a tiiny room on top for bands to play in. It was pretty packed but it's my favourite kind of venue - cramped and close enough to your neighbour to smell what deodorant they're wearing.

So Novella (all-girl dreampop band) came on and started playing and I was instantly captured by their likeness to Sky Larkin, but in a really good way. As the set went on, I realised that they were much more dreamy, very cool and calm and kept the low riffs coming throughout - there was a lot of non-vocal time which was actually really interesting, and I found myself really concentrating on the guitars - dreamy, melodic and absolutely perfect.

Unfortunately, we only saw a little of Shimmering Stars (also dreampop but different) but from what I remember, were charming, fun and jangly-sort-of-indie-pop thing - not really my kinda thing but easy to listen to and pleasant enough.

Dream-pop was really fun, and great venue too (also, it was a FREE gig).