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Gosh Tarn it
Hiya!

How's things with you?

Yup, we're still moving - endless trips to the local dump and reinforcing cardboard boxes were punctuated with a kind offer from our friends, Kathrin & Gonzalo. Would we like to spend the weekend in a nice house in the Tarn? Did we ever!

We spent a lovely couple of days doing very little. We made new friends and drank fizzy lemon drinks in sun loungers. The kids played in the pool. All was going well until my car key broke and I spent the next ten hours on a sub Homeric quest to get our car fixed and at the very least, a hire car. A classical scholar might regard this as nemesis inevitably following hubris, but in the Angle household we call a spade a shovel, and call this situation 'a massive pain in the arse'. But some sort of major nervous calamity was averted by a number of things:

- The good fortune of having David Sedaris' diaries, 'Theft by Finding' on audiobook.

- Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY I met on my odyssey was friendly, obliging, and very helpful. When people (myself included) go on about French people being mardy, they should have been with me as I travelled from garage to breakdown truck, to taxi, to car hire. Everyone I met was a total star.
 
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Britain's first motorhome - Look at this beauty!

Raw - Bit of an odd one this. It's a tale of cannibalism in a French veterinary college. Whilst not completely horrifying as such, it dwells more in the realm of the unpredictable and the arresting visual (horse intubation anyone?). Puzzling, but well worth it.

Car Share - On the polar opposite end of the scale to Raw is the second series of Car Share. The first series was genius - The absorbing comedy of lifts between two northern supermarket employees. I was impressed by how emotionally involving it was. Pathos, romance, subtle sight gags, and some pleasing cameos.




 

Lots of love,



Merrick
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September 20, 2017 by merrick angle

Roll up, roll up....
Hiya!

How's things with you?

Before the hell of moving begins and robs us of any will to live we went on holiday, spending a few days in St Sebastian in Spain. The Basque capital was exactly as I remember it - sophisticated without being wanky, full of stylish old people and good shoe shops. One of the highlights of the holiday for me was the funicular railway up Monte Igueldo. On top of this fin de siecle tourist trap is a hotel and a decrepit  amusement park. Literally, this place must have been the inspiration for every haunted Scooby Doo funfair ever.

Now I LOVE an off brand, down at heel 'Adventureland', but this place takes the biscuit. The staff looked sedated, everything looked confused or dangerous, and the music was tinny Dire Straits and George Michael's 'Careless Whisper'.

I was in heaven.

 
The kids looking niiiiiice and relaxed on the ancient funicular railway.
Proper 60's acid freakout art work at Cosmicar.
Nice views mind you.
Sadly the 'Pirata Park' was closed.
The haunted house - Featuring a stuffed boar on a broomstick.
Since we got back four little kittens have taken up residence in a tree belonging to my in-laws. Clem has been obsessed, and kitten based hysteria has reached a pitch where we have caved in and adopted one.
The Lion Queen
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Mr & Mrs Nabokov - All marriages are unknowable, and none more so than the creative/personal partnership of Vladamir Nabokov and his wife Vera. This fine New Yorker piece does shed some light on The V's and their oeuvre.

Pink Trombone - Strange speech synthesis that displays how our mouths make the sounds we need to speak. Fun!


 

Lots of love,



Merrick

 
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September 20, 2017 by merrick angle

Horror House of Hell
Hiya!

How's things with you?

Well, it's official - we are on the move! The Swiss family Angle are going be residing in the pretty town of Treignac. It's about half an hour away, closer to work and secondary schools. But wait until you see the place we are buying, honestly 'shitpile' doesn't do it justice. That said, it is a step up from the last place I renovated - That one had half a dozen dead birds and a carnival next door blasting 'Blurred Lines' at Guantanamo volumes.
See what I mean??
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

You're The Worst - I have been really enjoying this sitcom about a tentative love affair between two reprehensible LA types (Him - A self involved English writer. Her - Mentally unstable publicist). Often too much of American entertainment requires protagonists to be likeable. This has completely unlikeable characters at it heart and still manages  to have real emotional weight to it.

Chromatic Typewriter - A typewriter that types with colours instead of letters. Absolutely stunning.

Lots of love,



Merrick

 
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September 20, 2017 by merrick angle

Look at the Stars

Hiya!

How's things with you?

Regular readers of this newsletter will know one of it's continuing themes is 'strange shit you end up volunteering for because of your kids'. I've made medieval cakes, driven covered wagons, even gotten a certificate for being a mermaid. All because I don't have a 9 to 5 job and lack the necessary French to talk my way out of things. Last Friday night was no exception - A parents group we belong to were organising an astronomy evening. So we said 'Why not?' and the next thing you know you are eating cold spaghetti bolognese from Tupperware and waiting for the sun to go down. 

The local astronomy society met us there and brought their various telescopes to set up. 
Big boy telescope.
The moon.
Snacks in a field.
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Young man loses it to Bon Jovi at a sporting event

By The Book - The New York Times' regular 'What's on your bookshelf'? column. Some interesting recommendations if you dig a little.

Leonard Vierling's war diary - Cannot remember for the life of me how I came across this fascinating document. A young radio operator details his unit's advance through Germany in a stolen diary.
 

Lots of love,



Merrick
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September 20, 2017 by merrick angle

Dog Days

Hiya!

How's things with you?

We're going through something of a heat wave here, or the 'Canicule' as they are called in French (originally from the Latin 'dog days'). Everything has a strange holidayesque sheen to it, made odder by the fact that everyone still has to go to work and schools won't break up for another three weeks. 
 
Fishing for crayfish.
Chillaxin'
Baby Hugo getting buried in the gravel.
The old lavarie (place for washing clothes) in Uzerche.
So hot even the horses have to sit down.
Angry looking taxidermy fox.
Things Flora does when there is no telly.
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Barbie collector I was struck by the random memory of an article I read twenty years ago, in the library at school. It was about a an Israeli gentleman who was one of the world's leading Barbie collectors. He had one eye, an eye patch and claimed that he would 'kill a man' to get his hands on the first black Barbie. Anyway, I happened upon this article as I searched for news of this loveable, yet elusive scamp.

How the Babadook became a gay icon - This made me laugh mainly for the reasons given ('he likes closets' 'he enjoys wearing hats')!

 

Lots of love,



Merrick
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September 20, 2017 by merrick angle

The Show Must Go On...

Hiya!

How's things with you?

Things here are a magical cocktail of REALLY busy and REALLY tedious. We are currently trying to sell our house which means constantly cleaning in a manner that suggests a demanding but poorly paid part time job. Tempers are frayed and even the once chipper Framboise is starting to rebel (see below)
"Framboise is not happy about having another viewing"

Also, this month sees my stint as a quasi drama teacher come to an end. I'd been helping out with a local kids drama club that Flora and Clem go to. The whole thing reminded me of a very low stakes episode of Ray Donovan, with me as the burly, unwilling Ray sorting out the problems of teary, midget starlets. Never. Again.

One highlight though was Flora's turn as The Boat:
Flora as The Boat
Last year Charlie Gladstone of Pedlars got in touch, he asked me if I had anything to put on Pedlars Marketplace. I did, and I have been selling stuff through them ever since. As it is the start of the Vide Grenier ('carboot sale' in foreign) season here, my shop is full of treasures, so feel free to have a little look and see if there are any bargains....
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

The Globe Radio I'm not really a fan of the Kickstarterization/TEDtalkifying of everything on the internet. You have seen one inspirational webinar/revolutionary expresso maker/ergonomic keyboard you have seen them all. Occasionally though something sticks out - this time The Zooom Globe radio. I knew the site and the concept (click on the map, set the decade and listen to the sort thing that was on the radio then), and this is just the concept made 3D. Ace!

Download 200+ Artbooks for free from the Guggenheim This comes straight from mon petit frere, Ewan. Absolutely stunning.

Gerhard Steidl Carrying on with the theme of Art books and monographs, my friend Clive sent me this fascinating article about Gerhard Steidl. I like a driven, obsessive character, I didn't quite buy his 'Living close to my work stops me being a concentration camp guard' schtick, but hey ho...
 

Lots of love,



Merrick

 
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May 18, 2017 by merrick angle

The north remembers...

Hiya!

How's things?

We are just back from a trip back to the motherland, we met up with my family, ate an enormous amount of fish and chips, explained to the kids what a Geordie was, argued with Alice about the correct use of the term 'scally', bought some books and made a film:
Northumberland 2017
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Interview with Warren Ellis - I LOVE Warren Ellis. He's the frontman of one of my favourite bands (Dirty Three), chief collaborator with one of my favourite lyricists (Nick Cave) and he also has another career as a composer of stellar film soundtracks, which is what he talks about here.

Trading cards of revolutionary thinkers - This made me laugh!

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann - My brother Ewan bought me this for my birthday. I'm only a quarter of the way through but I am GRIPPED. It's an account of a series of murders that involved oil, native Americans and the nascent FBI.
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May 04, 2017 by merrick angle

Animals strike curious poses

Hiya!

How's things?

Since my last missive I have been on a lightning quick tour of London. Just a couple of nights, ostensibly to have a bit of a get together with some of my oldest friends. 

Friday saw me meeting up with my reformed petty criminal brother, Jack. Jack, you may remember has undergone a transformation in recent years from a sort of Dickensian/Gangs of New York figure to reinventing himself as a bearded gentleman of design. He now has a career and love of a good woman.

Due to a broken nights sleep the night before, I decided to to plonk myself down in nearest spot to where we were meeting. A pleasant if too clean looking pub. Little did I know that over the next two hours this place would ratchet up the gayness to the point where Armistead Maupin would have needed a lie down in a darkened room. Jack merely walked in, looked at the barmen in their vests, the drag queen roaming the floor and raised his eyebrows. Merrick does it again!

One is a tired looking bear, the other is an artic mammal.

A nearly 9ft tall drag queen who took a liking to my friend Jamie...

The fun did not stop there, As we were to meet Richard and Daisy at a place called The Kings Head - Apparently there was a whiff of secrecy and the promise of taxidermy. My interest was piqued!

Tiger and peacock bathroom tableaux. Sadly the rather urbane gentleman was not in our party.

On Saturday night it was off to meet Jamie, Andy, and James. Old, old friends from Warwickshire. We hadn't all been in the same room for nearly four years. 

Here we look like a photo from a brochure for a men's counselling service.

 

Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Eric Andre and Hannibal Burress hijack each others Tinder accounts - Came across this the other day completely by accident. Had. Me. In. Stitches.

Tickets Please! - Gorgeous collection of old cinema ticket stubs from around the world.

 

Lots of love,

Merrick
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May 03, 2017 by merrick angle

Snow Business

Hiya!

How's things?

We went skiing - Alice won a holiday for us to go skiing in The Pyrenees. It was a bit random as none of us are adept skiers (it always strikes me as an expensive way to break a leg), so we enlisted the help of my old friend Jamie, who is only marginally more experienced to come with us. We had a jolly time, taking in the scenery, enjoying odd mountain towns, eating food laden with melted cheese. 
 
The Milk Tray man had really let himself go.
Spanish snow.
Mysterious girl, I wanna get close to you.
Dudes sledging.
Strategic! - New A3 Print

Print comes in A3 (11.7 × 16.5 inches) size, and part of a signed, numbered edition. There will only be 100 hundred of these made.

As ever, the prints are made to the highest quality possible - professionally printed with archival quality inks on 220 gsm watercolour paper, and shipped in the sturdiest of cardboard tubes. 

60 euros.
Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Shura - Nothing's Real This was the soundtrack to our mountain sightseeing. Ebullient R&B inflected retro pop from a bleach blonde girl from Manchester. 'What's it Gonna Be' could be on the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. '2Shy' sounds like 'Diamonds & Pearls' era Prince (no bad thing in my book). Stick this on at the first sight of Spring sunshine.
 

Lots of love,



Merrick
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March 13, 2017 by merrick angle

She Wolf in my Closet

Hiya!

How's things?

It's Flora's birthday today and this weekend saw us fire up the charabanc to the Loups de Chabrieres wolf park. Flora is obsessed with wolves, so it really was the perfect birthday treat....
 

We're off to see some wolves!

Clem finds a small goat that perfectly matches her coat.

A tired looking mummy goat having a rest.

Miniature Vietnamese pigs!

Just in case you forgot were in France, here is a sign explaining the sexual undercurrents in Red Riding Hood.

Flora getting indignant about the gift shop prices.

The birthday girl.

 

Interesting? - Links and recommendations 

Home - If you are similar age to me (pre millennial, non digital native, remember rotary phones and keytars yada yada) you remember what absolute shite Saturday morning tie in cartoons could be. Mostly they were extended adverts for whatever crap Mattell was shilling. So when the girls started watching the cartoon of 'Home'. My expectations were low as the original Dreamworks film was pretty weak to start with. But blow me if it isn't great. Great big slices of surreal nonsense, where aliens coexist with humans in Chicago. My favourite scene so far is the secret nightclub where aliens go to dine on kitty litter!

The History of Food in One Hundred Recipes by William Sitwell
So, so readable. Sitwell charts the evolution of British cuisine and it's myriad influences, from the origins of Egyptian bread through to Tudor dining, right up to the 20th century obsession with French and Italian cuisine. I'm not one of those 'I keep cook books on my bedside' types by any means, but this kept me enthralled.

 

Lots of love,



Merrick

 

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February 14, 2017 by merrick angle