House of Gerrish International » Observations

We should all wear Surgical Masks

ricky — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:47:17 +0000

The Chinese do it. And everybody knows they are on to something . The casual nature with which we in Europe and America treat everyday diseases, sharing them willy-nilly as if they were Christmas gifts, is somewhat worrying. Most Chinese wear surgical masks not to protect themselves from others’ communicable diseases, but to protect others from the disease they themselves have. This for me suddenly casts a much more noble light on the silly appearance they have as they go about their daily lives looking like a bunch of deranged surgeons.

Recently I worked on a film shoot at a…

LA

Matt — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:24:13 +0000

“Cities are distinguished by the catastrophic forms they presuppose and which are a vital part of their essential charm. New York is King Kong, or the blackout, or vertical bombardment: Towering Inferno. Los Angeles is the horizontal fault, California breaking off and sliding into the Pacific: Earthquake.”
- Jean Baudrillard

“Los Angeles is just New York lying down”
- Quentin Crisp

“I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.”
- Andy Warhol

“I’d move to Los Angeles if New Zealand and Australia were swallowed up…

I Know Now Why You Cry

Simon — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:58:35 +0000

Last week I watched Terminator Salvation, sat mostly submerged in a frothy bath of water with 4 lit candles and a glass of Banrock Station Cabernet Sauvignon (£7.99). Immediately a number of questions should be entering your mind.

Firstly: “What on earth is Simon – a man of no small stature with a testosterone count roughly equal to the cast of Predator – doing immersed in the sort of scenario you‘d encounter in an episode of Sex & The City?

Secondly: “£7.99 for Banrock Station? You’ve been ripped off mate”

Thirdly: “I wonder what Simon looks like naked?”

Fourthly: “How…

2000 – 2010: splintering scenes

hugh — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:30:45 +0000

Just reading this Guardian piece debating whether Pitchforks 200 albums of the decade is a significant list that we should take note of. The answer for me from both a music fan and cultural observer angle is yes definitely. Those guys went beyond the guitar based music with the odd exception mindset that the NME and Q had to one where any album, whether it was from a Norwegian disco producer or Brooklyn 4 piece was listened to and assessed on a level playing field.

I’ve got to be thankful to them for some of my…

The Polar Bear Club of Coney Island

Matt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:07:47 +0000

I recently took the half-hour trip across Brooklyn to visit Coney Island. Over sprawling neighbourhoods and cemeteries the F train rattled until it reached its final destination, a platform suspended on stilts with the sound of gulls and sniff of sea air. To the beach I walked, along quiet streets, packed away for the Winter months, past empty markets, fairgrounds and beer gardens, till I hit the boardwalk, the wooden arc and beating heart of Coney Island. To my surprise, there in front of me, gathered on the boards was a small group of smiling, half-naked men, clad in rubber…

New York….The Cutting Edge of Fashion

georgie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:08 +0000

I know my first post should be intellectually stimulating, set the tone for deep and meaningful observations yet to come but i just couldn't resist sharing this fine fashion moment witnessed one Saturday on the New York subway. The yanks may be at the top of their game sartorially speaking but this guy is in a league all of his own! Nifty suit jacket...bit of ring bling...all topped off with possibly the most ingenious bit of head gear i could ever hope to exist. Forget the fedoras doily swimming caps are back in the game... please please please may this catch on!

Lil Wayne

Matt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:48:03 +0000

I’ve been living in New York for a few months now. I can’t help but notice the widespread adoration for Dwayne Michael Carter, aka Lil Wayne. This does not just include preppy kids in average nightclubs, but intelligent, self-conscious connoisseurs of culture, such as my flatmate Greg, who prides himself on an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things, from the smell of children to lox bagels, roofies to Ryan Phillipe.

But when we bring up Lil Wayne, formerly of ‘Hot Boys’, he seems to melt like a knob of butter on Beyonce’s inner thigh. Why, I ask, do you worship…

What would you do?

sam — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:15:16 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I was playing football for my Sunday League team, against some stunningly over-competitive old boys of Worcester College, Oxford. The second half of that sentence is totally irrelevant to the story, it’s just therapeutic to emphasise what utter gits they were.

Midway through the first-half, we trailed 2-1 when one of our forwards struck the ball into the face of an opposition defender. The referee – 32 stone, partially blind and with a mouth like a 15th century sewer – was unsurprisingly not in the best place to see what happened and awarded a penalty…

The Awkward Truth

ricky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:45:22 +0000

In years of financial depression, people turn to the cinema as a source of diversion, and often what they are seeking most is a laugh. One need only look at Charlie Chaplin’s successes following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in classics such as ‘City Lights,’ (1931) ‘Modern Times’ (1936) and ‘The Great Dictator,’ (1940) to see how when the wheels of despair turn, comedy shines its head and lightens the mood. Apart from anything, comedies are generally cheap to make. The 2008 economic collapse has called for a new wave of comedy. But modern audiences, more cynical and jaded…

Bloke to Bloke text x’s – really?

miguel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:37:49 +0000

It’s a strange phenomenon – your phone bleeps, your email pings – it’s a message from a friend – a guy, suggesting a pint/gig/game of coits, all is well, as it should be, the usual bantering trot of the message is in its allotted place; and yet…

An ugly blot blights my pleasing pixellations – like an illiterate’s signature, or a hairy pirate’s treasure mark. X! X!

What does he think he’s playing at? Since when is it ok for men to kiss men? We’re not in unrepressed South America, We are English! An Englishman gets tachicardia kissing his mother,…