I got a call around noon Sunday from Imageyenation posse-member and local celebrity DJ 12XU.

He told me he'd been asked to supply turntables and a PA for a pre-show in-store by rising Washington D.C.-based Hip-Hop star Wale at local streetwear retailer UNITE before his live date at Pearl Street Nightclub in Northampton later that night.

He also wanted to know if I wanted to tag along.

My answer; “sure, the least I can do is snap some pictures.”

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A couple weeks ago, I got to see the culmination of a lot of hard work and effort. An art exhibition that I had thought up, organized and curated opened just off Brick Lane in East London. The show, which was called "Wandering Geese" revolved around the theme of how women appropriate urban space. In other words, the daily experience of being an "urban woman." Austin, the gallery, was just off Brick Lane, in the trendy Shoreditch area of East London. It's run by Ben Abbott who is the founder of artkandy, an organization that helps young artists sell and exhibit their work.

"Wandering Geese" consisted of my photographic work and the paintings of Laxmi Nicolas, a friend of mine who also happens to be the mastermind behind the ultra cool, ultra up-and-coming t-shirt line Candy Coated Jewels.

We also had some collaborative pieces which incorporated my photographs along with Laxmi's painting. We based these collaborations on the Crossbones Cemetery. Located in the Southbank of London, Crossbones was the burial ground for "single women" (prostitutes) that was closed in the mid 1800s. The location is currently in a dispute between real estate developers and a group of local residents who would like to create an official memorial for the women buried there. The residents have already made their own unofficial memorial by placing homemade placards, flowers, personal notes and ribbons all over the front gates that were put up to prevent people from entering the grounds. It's actually quite cool to check out if you are ever in London and want to see something a little off the beaten path.

At any rate, at the request of a few people, I'm posting pictures of the exhibition and the private view. The amount of people that came out for the event was really amazing and the reception we received was completely positive. In fact, it's inspired me to try and have a few more shows in the next coming months when I return to the States. Hopefully, I'll get the same reception back Stateside as I have received here.

More photos after the jump.

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My friend and I were hanging out on Dray Walk just off Brick Lane. He went to throw something out when he came across this priceless piece of treasure on the sidewalk.



In case you can't read what it says, this specific can was infused with "Milk Thistle."

Pussy Drinks is indeed a real company...Check out their website

From February till now, things have been pretty hectic. Between job hunting, going to interviews, going out, as a result, getting the flu, food poisoning, a court summons and finally getting a job, I haven't really had time to post much about my adventures in London. But still, the past few weeks months have been pretty good. I've met lots of interesting new people, seen lots of pretty cool things, and been to some really awesome parties.

Because there are a lot of photos in this post, I'm going to continue this after the jump.

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Last night I went to an in-store event at Supra, a streetwear shop in London's ritzy area of Notting Hill. It was in collaboration with clothing companies Trapstar and A.I.NT , two British labels that are on the rise. They make cool shirts, jackets, you name it. Anyway, the event was like any other in-store, guys and gals standing around drinking beers, checking out each other's clothes. I was there with some friends chilling, jamming out to the good tunes...I figured it was a good idea to take pictures so I could post about it here.

After the jump, check out some more of the shots I took...

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Last weekend me and DJ12XU took some records out to Providence, Rhode Island for the Providence Record Show and Rock & Roll Yard Sale at AS220 community arts center in an effort to stack some much-needed dough for Easthampton, Massachusetts' own Flywheel, the non-profit arts collective and community arts space 12XU is currently the "president" of. While we were there we met up with Providence-based Imageyenation affiliate and hand-made craft queen Marlena, who brought some of her handcraftery to the sale as well.

You can see how it all went down "after the jump."

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If you don't live in the wilds of Western Massachusetts you'd have no reason to know that all of the Wendy's restaurants in the region have been closed since the Summer. Apparently they were all owned by a single crooked businessman from the Midwest who went bankrupt, stopped paying his employees and suppliers and basically ran them all into the ground.

Both Emeyesi and myself enjoy Wendy's restaurants cost-effective fare, particularly their Spicy Chicken Sandwich, so you can imagine that the closure of all the area stores came as a blow to us. There was hope when the Wendy's corporation itself announced they'd take over many of the stores and the rest of the locations were auctioned off.

That was months ago though, and in the meantime we've only been able to partake in Wendy's hot juiciness when we happen to be in Worcester, Enfield, or some other nearby location not effected by the bankruptcy. That is, untill this week, when the second of the local Wendy's, and the first that was truly local to us, located on St. James Ave. here in Springfield, Massachusetts, finally reopened.

See how it all went down after the jump!

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The extended Imageyenation posse (including such long-lost members as Cereffusion and Zahira) all went to see Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A., at The Avalon in Boston during the height of her hype back in the Summer of 2005. We were late getting to the show, walking in shortly after she'd taken the stage, and while it was exciting to see her perform her hits live, her stage-show wasn't the most amazing thing we'd seen. Then James Murphy and his LCD Soundsystem took the stage and totally blew homegirl out of the building.

Being that she was so hyped it took a while for her sophomore LP 'Kala' to really resonate with me. It's been on the bubble since it dropped, but in recent months it's really blossomed into one of my favorite records of the year. A few months ago I probably wouldn't have been all that psyched to see her live again. But when Emeyesi told me she was coming to nearby Worcester I jumped at the opportunity to get tickets. And when I saw Chicago Rap minimalists the Cool Kids were on the bill as well I almost lost my mind.

This past Wednesday the posse (this time reduced to myself, Emeyesi, Miss Behavin', and DJ 12XU) mounted up once again to hit Worcester's Palladium nightclub for a night of bamboo bangin' and galang-a-lang-langin'. Sadly, the Cool Kids dropped off the bill, but they were replaced last-minute by our Boston homies Big Digits who brought the requisite energy to the big stage, at the big venue, and totally wrecked the big crowd. We were proud. Then M.I.A. took the stage, backed by a DJ, a back-up dancer/hype woman, guest vocals from Baltimore emcee Rye-Rye, and a giant video screen flashing video clips, animations and other arty video, and totally crushed all our expectations by absolutely destroying the huge assemblage of hipsters in attendance with her infectious chants, booming 808 beats and firebrand personality.

We were all more than impressed by the marked improvement in her stage-show, not to mention how she finally encapsulated her skills as a visual artist with her musical art in the live setting. And if you get the chance to see her on tour anytime soon we wholly recommend that you do so.

More pictures from before, during, and after the show "after the jump."

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El Keter just posted a track from DC-based artist Muhsinah. He also posted a great write up about her on Okayplayer.

I remember a couple years or so ago seeing Muhsinah perform live for the very first time. If my memory doesn't fail me, she opened for DC rapper extraordinaire Kev Brown. For a first time performance, Muhsinah was brave. She went up on stage all by herself with nothing but a mic in her hand. I remember thinking at the time that watching her felt like watching a young woman singing to herself in her bedroom, her mirror her audience and her hairbrush her microphone. I also remember thinking that she was definitely going places.

Now, maybe two years later, she has a debut album that is probably one of the better albums out this year. Along with her solo effort, she was also a guest on Hezekiah's 'I Predict A Riot', Little Brother's 'Get Back', and she also worked on DJ Roddy Rod's project 'Cuba After Market'. Basically, Muhsinah has a lot going for her and probably has one of the brightest futures in the underground music scene right now.

This past Saturday, Rock Slinger Inc. and The Couch Sessions (the DC blog I used to write for) hosted a listening party for Muhsinah's newly released 'day.break' including a live performance at the District's historic Bohemian Caverns. The who's who of DC talent showed up to support one of its own. Being in town, I went to see the show and got some great photos. You can see them after the jump.

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Meet Ugly Billy. He's a down on his luck guy who just wants to get the girl that he likes. He also happens to have one of the most fantastic beards of all time. Billy's on a mission to get his girl and he's documenting it all in a series of video blogs and podcasts. He also has a MySpace page where he has some other videos.

One of his video blogs (Episode 9) took place over the summer in London's trendy Brick Lane area, where he interviewed people on the street to find out what fashionable people thought about his style.

It just so happened that yours truly, Lady Glock, was in that area doing some work on her dissertation. I saw Ugly Billy a few times wandering around before I stopped and asked him what he was doing. He told me (and my friend who was with me) and then asked us to take part.

You can watch me dispensing fashion advice around 0:28



You can watch more videos at UglyBilly.com

I was coming home tonight from going out with friends and had to pass through Bank to get to my place in Elephant & Castle. I was walking down the platform when I looked up and saw this:



For those of you who have been living under a streetwear rock, The Hundreds is a group/blog/store dedicated to streetwear. And apparently, who ever made this sticker thinks they killed streetwear.

This past Sunday, a friend of mine took me to "Kojo's Comedy Club" which is held in a tiny wine bar just off of Oxford Street. What I didn't realize was that the whole evening was actually an audition where some of London's best black comedians auditioned for Def Comedy Jam's Stan Lathan. Tim Westwood was even there to open up the show with a DJ set.

The main event for the evening however was the promise that Dave Chappelle was going to do a set. So the place was packed. Everyone sat paitiently through a number of comedians, some of whom were better than others. When 11 PM rolled around and there was still no sign of Dave Chappelle, I figured it was alot of false hope. But then Kojo, the host, assured everyone that Chappelle was in a cab on his way over. Sure enough, a little while later there was a clamouring at the door and lots of cameras flashing before a bewildered Chappelle walked on stage and took the mic. When he lit a cigarette as part of his act, security told him to put it out and even gave him an unlit cigarette to use instead.

And while everyone from the management to the host to Stan Lathan was telling people not to video tape his set, you know someone did. Chappelle even mentioned somethng about getting "YouTubed." So here below, along with a couple of photos is a recorded video of Dave Chappelle's act.

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A few weeks ago, my friend Mz. Bivigou told me that Talib Kweli and Jean Grae would be performing at Deal Real. We both decided this was an opportunity we could not miss out on and made plans to meet up. When we got to Deal Real on the day of the show, we saw that people were literally spilling out of the shop (as it is a small space). Fortunately, there was a couch outside the shop we could stand on and watch through the window. Of course, Talib Kweli and Jean Grae were not there yet, so the organizers were having an open mic. Some guy kept screaming into the microphone "Who's here to see Talib Kweli and Jean Grae?!" and when everyone would scream back, he responded with "Ok, well they are ON THEIR WAY!"

Now, the shop is just off one of the main shopping streets called Carnaby Street. Actually that whole area is called Carnaby Street, and it's a pretty popular area to go hang out. So, there were tons of people walking by because they saw a huge crowd waiting outside the store. For some reason, all these people who were passing by felt the need to approach Mz. Bivigou and myself in order to ask what was going on. When we responded that the rapper Talib Kweli was performing, we mostly got confused looks. One man asked us if he was going to be interviewed, to which I responded "Nah, he's gonna be rapping." Another girl asked if she should take photos for Heat Magazine, to which Mz. B and I both said no.

We had been standing outside Deal Real for about forty-five minutes (in the rain no less) when I looked down the street and suddenly realized that Talib Kweli was just chillin' on the corner with some people. I tapped Mz. B on the shoulder and asked her if that was really him or perhaps maybe a body double. She confirmed my suspicions, but we decided to investigate a little further. We wandered down over to the small crowd hanging around him and just sort of stared for a bit. We saw Jean Grae wasn't there, and as it turned out, she apparently (according to the guy we overheard talking) had not even been told about the event.

Eventually, Talib and his boys (one of whom was rockin an Okayplayer t-shirt) rocked up to Deal Real. The hilarious thing? No one outside the store (or in for that matter) actually seemed to notice that Talib Kweli had arrived. I guess people may know his music but they wouldn't be able to spot him on the street. The show started and Talib performed a few songs. And then talked. A lot. It was hard to hear what he was saying through the muffled sound of his voice through the speakers and over the numbers of people chatting outside. He maybe did four or five half-songs tops, which was more than a little disappointing. Still, it was pretty amazing, just for the fact that we were seeing a performance in such an intimate setting. After the show, there was a line to get Mr. Kweli's autograph/photo/hug/whatever.

Mz. B. had him sign her copy of Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation, which I felt was pretty classy. I just wanted to get a picture to post on here. Which, as you can see, I did:



More tales of "Studying in London" soon...

Dear Diary,

On Sunday, I went to see Kid Sister.



She was performing at the Good Magazine block party in San Francisco. Admission was a $20 subscription, and all the money went to charity. Yay!

Diplo was there.



A-Trak was there too. He's Kid Sister's boyfriend. Don't they look like they have a lot of fun?



Don't you love her Pro Nails?



Oh, and she performed my favorite song of hers, "Damn Girl!"



I'm sorry in advance that the video quality is so bad it might give you epilepsy.

People danced.



And then I met her and she said Imageyenation gave her "good vibes!"



Oh Diary, it was the best day EVAR!!!

I've realized that I am not posting as much as I probably should be. I've also realized that I keep titling these posts as "Lady Glock Gets Her Study On" when in actuality they are more about my daily adventures, where very little academic studying takes place.

No matter. I'm still learning tons, right?

So a few weeks, I went to see KRS-One perform at Plan B in Brixton. (For those of you who don't know that much about London history, Brixton has played a central role in a variety of histories.) Music and Brixton go hand in hand like peanut butter and Fluff. Or perhaps Nutella.

Even though its a rather large space, Plan B is actually quite an intimate venue. My two friends and I were literally right next to the stage at one point. KRS-One came on and gave a really good show, even though it seemed like he never finished a song to its entirety. No matter. It was still fun. At one point, my friend tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to my left.

"Isn't that the guy from Faithless?"

And sure enough, it was indeed Maxi Jazz of the UK musical act Faithless. He even came over and jumped around with me and my friends. I plan to get a photo of him at some point (he is, after all, a fixture in Brixton).

After KRS-One finished performing, DJ Sarah Love was on decks, providing music everyone could dance to. It was a spectacular night.

Check out some more photos after the jump.

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