I meant to exhort those of you kind enough to read the blog to vote for Bedlam in the Daily Telegraph's poll of "Best Independent Shops in Britain" but voting closed at midnight last night. We moved house last week and are without domestic internet for another ten days, and you may recall my Blackberry was stolen a month or so back. At the shop we have a fragile hop-on Openzone internet. All of which combined to make "keeping up" with the blog even harder than normal. It was Megan, for whom we made a Barclays Bank boardroom appropriate dress and jacket, who Tweeted the first campaigning on our behalf. I noted it with a degree of pleasure not unduly hectic. But then something switched in my brain and turned all X-Factor competitive. Our hustings was Facebook, where most of Bedlam's activity is recorded. If you dally on that forum, our page is here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-of-Bedlam/157642327606726
Still, we garnered a little clump of local endorsement - if exit polls are to be believed (check your favourite political stats on www.hustings.com. ) One of my old school / band mates, Jeremy Deller, (together we changed the course of music in the "Avant Gardners"), when pressed on his vote confessed to having been stumped by the online form. "How did he ever win a Nobel prize if he couldn't manage that?!" queried Mr Wesley incredulous. Well that would be because he won a Turner Prize for which literacy is not required. I noted with some incredulity myself recently that on the Haywood Gallery's forthcoming schedule is young Deller's "Mid-Career Retrospective". MID-CAREER?! Who's half way through already??!! Feels like we just got started.
But for those who did manage, on Thursday night we shall stay open until 10pm in gratitude of the support and to warm our community's cockles with mulled wine (and in the hope that sufficiently fuzzy people might do a little seasonal shopping). As one of my friends in LA, and a fellow independent store owner (the boutique ME and Blue in Venice Beach, CA), posted recently, if you really want to occupy Wall Street and unseat the bankers (not wishing to lose Megan her job of course), shop local and pay cash! We are still on the hunt for some sort of electric samovar to keep the wine warm, not having a kitchen at the shop. If you have such a thing spare and handy please do alert us via the normal channels. What has arrived, the day after ordering no less, is a box of joy from the best supplier of stylishly antique adornments, Cox & Cox www.coxandcox.co.uk, full of traditional games, decorations and masks. Mr Wesley tried them all on and we agreed it was just plain creepy when he fixed Audrey Hepburn to his face. He was ecstatic with Ziggy Stardust and the illusion of high hair (if you want to know what to buy him for Christmas, you wouldn't go far wrong with a toupée). Charlie Chaplin was the perfect fit with bowler hat and bushy brows.
I voted myself in the Daily Telegraph poll and having nominated Earl of Bedlam in the menswear, babies and ladies categories that left a couple free for other local businesses:
Kennington Book Shop on the Kennington Road (for books); the redoubtable Blissetts hardware store on the Brixton Road (in the "Interiors" category); Marianna who works in the basement of the chiropodist on the Kennington Road (next to the book shop) for best Beauty / Salon treatment - her massage is the best I have had ever anywhere in the world; and Mimi's Deli on the corner of the Brixton / Prima Roads, across from the churchyard where the Saturday Farmers' Market is held. Mimi is going to provide some of her world class panettone on Thursday! Strangely I can't remember who I put as best wine supplier - of all things you'd think I'd recall, but it's just a blur, as I fear is our invitation above, but maybe it will sharpen up when I post in a moment. Oh! I remember, I nominated Gerry's on Old Compton Street for liquor - they are about the only place in London where you can find Mr Wesley's favourite Provencal pastis, Henri Bardouin. My first port of call was Fortnum & Mason's and what a fine and generous establishment that is to be sure, for the gentleman server called up Gerry's to ascertain they had it in stock to ensure I would not walk further in vain. That's the kinda service I'm talkin' about. We shall strive to emulate.
Hope to see you Thursday!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Earl-of-Bedlam/157642327606726
Still, we garnered a little clump of local endorsement - if exit polls are to be believed (check your favourite political stats on www.hustings.com. ) One of my old school / band mates, Jeremy Deller, (together we changed the course of music in the "Avant Gardners"), when pressed on his vote confessed to having been stumped by the online form. "How did he ever win a Nobel prize if he couldn't manage that?!" queried Mr Wesley incredulous. Well that would be because he won a Turner Prize for which literacy is not required. I noted with some incredulity myself recently that on the Haywood Gallery's forthcoming schedule is young Deller's "Mid-Career Retrospective". MID-CAREER?! Who's half way through already??!! Feels like we just got started.
But for those who did manage, on Thursday night we shall stay open until 10pm in gratitude of the support and to warm our community's cockles with mulled wine (and in the hope that sufficiently fuzzy people might do a little seasonal shopping). As one of my friends in LA, and a fellow independent store owner (the boutique ME and Blue in Venice Beach, CA), posted recently, if you really want to occupy Wall Street and unseat the bankers (not wishing to lose Megan her job of course), shop local and pay cash! We are still on the hunt for some sort of electric samovar to keep the wine warm, not having a kitchen at the shop. If you have such a thing spare and handy please do alert us via the normal channels. What has arrived, the day after ordering no less, is a box of joy from the best supplier of stylishly antique adornments, Cox & Cox www.coxandcox.co.uk, full of traditional games, decorations and masks. Mr Wesley tried them all on and we agreed it was just plain creepy when he fixed Audrey Hepburn to his face. He was ecstatic with Ziggy Stardust and the illusion of high hair (if you want to know what to buy him for Christmas, you wouldn't go far wrong with a toupée). Charlie Chaplin was the perfect fit with bowler hat and bushy brows.
 |
| "Cheap red wine from us will be cunningly disguised with spices and genuinely delicious panettone is to be generously provided by Mimi's Deli" |
I voted myself in the Daily Telegraph poll and having nominated Earl of Bedlam in the menswear, babies and ladies categories that left a couple free for other local businesses:
Kennington Book Shop on the Kennington Road (for books); the redoubtable Blissetts hardware store on the Brixton Road (in the "Interiors" category); Marianna who works in the basement of the chiropodist on the Kennington Road (next to the book shop) for best Beauty / Salon treatment - her massage is the best I have had ever anywhere in the world; and Mimi's Deli on the corner of the Brixton / Prima Roads, across from the churchyard where the Saturday Farmers' Market is held. Mimi is going to provide some of her world class panettone on Thursday! Strangely I can't remember who I put as best wine supplier - of all things you'd think I'd recall, but it's just a blur, as I fear is our invitation above, but maybe it will sharpen up when I post in a moment. Oh! I remember, I nominated Gerry's on Old Compton Street for liquor - they are about the only place in London where you can find Mr Wesley's favourite Provencal pastis, Henri Bardouin. My first port of call was Fortnum & Mason's and what a fine and generous establishment that is to be sure, for the gentleman server called up Gerry's to ascertain they had it in stock to ensure I would not walk further in vain. That's the kinda service I'm talkin' about. We shall strive to emulate.
Hope to see you Thursday!
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