willc.me

As I look round London I’m filled with despair. What used to be the cultural capital of the world, edgy, exciting and vibrant has now become a parody of itself.

East London, which at the turn of the Millennium was a hive of artistic and fashion activity is now filled with fashion and art students trying to emulate the lifestyles of those trailblazers. They say that East London is cool, but people who move to a cool area are trying to be cool and therefore aren’t cool at all. They’ve diluted and watered it to nothingness.

It isn’t much better at the other end of the spectrum either. The West End club scene is a shadow of its former post recession glory. The decadence has been replaced my scrabbling anxiety and targets. There simply isn’t the amount of money there used to be in the capital to sustain all of them.

It seems that the next area to have all the impoverished residents displaced by high property prices is South London. Musicians and wannabe’s flood there in droves. But the spark is lacking.

Maybe I’m being to hard on my beloved home city. Maybe everywhere is like this during a recession. Drab and uninteresting with carbon copy people and parties everywhere you look. Or maybe people just need new saviors who will bring about a new renaissance. Or move somewhere where there is a tangible tang of excitement.

Caffeine is possibly the most consumed drug in the world. Throughout history, we have built society around it and it is regarded as normal or even desirable to drink the bean.

Coffee was around and active at the heart of our society long before Starbucks was even conceived of. The first great gentlemen’s club (the posh ones where men with white hair meet as opposed to a nightclub or strip bar) Whites, was named after a man named Blanco who ran coffee shops in Renaissance London. Coffee was expensive and a preserve of the rich. It therefore became a drink associated with money and even power.

Coffee, which was until recently one of the few forms of caffeine, has been revered as a commodity. An expensive and sought after drug.

That was until Starbucks came along. At the end of the last century the coffee chain sweep across the world, a success of capitalism. It put caffeine at the heart of society once more. Their earthen coloured walls and comfy sofas became a place meet and socialise once more. It all paints a beautiful and romantic picture.

That is until you come to energy drinks. Energy drinks aren’t quite the little perk that coffee is. It’s the crack of caffeine. Relentless, Rockstar and Red Bull all leave nothing to imagination with their titles. They are for people who cane it. But they definitely work.

It’s obvious why people have grown to consume and love caffeine. It keeps you awake and the more we do and the harder we push ourselves in life the more we feel like we need an energy boost. But it doesn’t actually work like that. The low after the high is worse for you and a dependence on caffeine will mean you feel tired on days that you don’t drink it.

It’s often been said that London and New York are like twins. Both are eclectic cultural melting pots and both scream talent and creativity. Unfortunately we also were both bombed in 9/11 and 7/7. The last two weeks have seen the fringes of Carnaby Street be tuned into a little slice of the big apple, where you can get the tastes, sights, sounds and shopping of New York.

The last 2 months has seen a sort of foreign exchange program of designers happen between the two cities. Two pop up shops have popped up in the Newburgh Quarter off Carnaby Street. They contain 30 independent boutique designers from New York’s ultra trendy Lower East Side.

In August we sent over a load of the designers from the Newburgh Quarter to the Lower East Side. They included Beyond the Valley, Blaqua, Chateau Roux, Concrete, Cowshed, The Face, Fred Perry, The Great Frog, Hurwundeki, Joie, Peckham Rye, Social Suicide, Savage,  Twenty8Twelve, and Van den Berg.

Now, until 1st of November we have Adrienne’s, By Robert James, Earnest Sewn, Hairy Mary’s Vintage & Design, In God We Trust, Kaight, Reed Space, Shut Skateboards, Still Life, Wendy Mink Jewelry and Zarin Fabric Warehouse.

There are also events going on:

Sunday 18^th October

New York style Block Party – 2-5pm
New York style block party with guerrilla catwalk show
Vote for your favourite LES (Lower East Side, not lesbian) look as styled by a guest NYC stylist, for your chance to win the outfit
Live LES entertainment
A Taste of New York street vendors
Hail the ‘Wish You Were Here’ New York cab for a free ride to the Newburgh Quarter

Saturday 31^st October

New York Halloween Closing Party – From 6pm
New York Halloween Street Party
Prizes for best in show outfits
Pumpkin Carving Contest
Live music from LES DJ’s and in-store entertainment

This comes at a time when New York and London are seemingly ever closer. We’ve had a replica of Central Perk to celebrate the launch of the Friends something or other (aren’t people over that yet?). We also had the Telectroscope designed by artist Paul St George that linked New York and London by what appeared to be a giant telescope.

So if you’re looking to get your winter wardrobe together, why not go to the Newburgh Quarter to stock up on New York’s latest designs. And that Halloween party doesn’t sound too bad either!

Ketamine is undoubtedly the drug of my generation. It seems like everyone has done it to a varying degree. The demographic ranges from the club kid to the stoner. But ask a group of people and you’ll get a wildly varying answer as to whether people like it or not. Do it right, and I hear that you can “touch God”.

The problem, or blessing about the drug is that it’s so medicinal. Doctors use it at the scene of accidents when firemen cut people out of their cars so that it disassociates them with their surroundings. In a powdered form, a small difference in quantity will produce a large difference in experience.

Likewise, alcohol has a large effect of the properties of K. Drinking will send you spiraling into a vomit filled K-hole that you’ll never want to re-enter. Being in a stressful situation also doesn’t help as K removes your ability to think externally from a situation. You just can’t comprehend it so it’ll freak you out if you try.

So what is a good situation to do K in? Well, sitting with a few friends in a safe place is somewhere good to start. Begin by doing small lines and waiting for it to kick in. There is no rush and doing too much will mean you don’t get the full experience. When you start feeling it you’ll know.

So what does it feel like? Well, after extensive online research, and a few trusted sources, I can tell you. You start off with the intensity of senses that you would get from weed. Vivid colours, images and sounds. Then everything will start to slow down or get a delay. If you jump, it feels like you sink into the ground a little as it takes time for your brain to take in the fact you’re on the ground again.

If you’re watching a movie, it’ll feel like you’re actually in the movie. People who take K enjoy movies where journeys take place as on K people feel like they are going on journeys. Lord Of The Rings or 10,000 BC will really get the party started.

Then, if you’ve taken enough you’ll enter a K hole. It seems like the immediate surroundings are the only thing in existence. It’s difficult, and sometimes stressful, to contemplate the outside world. This makes you take an introspective journey. Situations in your life get laid before you and you can think about them in extreme depth. You will literally think with absolute clarity.

It feels as if you are touching God. A divine spiritual essence. Some people feel like they’re flying or going through a desert. It allows you to be alone with your Id, your true self. You are stripped of ego and laid bare before yourself.

So that’s K. I hear it’s pretty intense but if you do it right then it can be incredible. And as with anything. If you’re going to do it, do it in moderation!

How can you sum up the raw energy, sights and smells of Notting Hill Carnival? The vibrant colours and the smell of Caribbean cuisine in the air. There are two very different sides to Carnival. There’s the tourist side that is Notting Hill Gate, dominated by the white tourists with cameras and the trendy Notting Hill set and then there’s the North side of Carnival. They both offer very different things.

South side Carnival is where the tourists go to have a gander. Set amongst the large terraced houses it’s the yuppie set that rule supreme, viewing the crowds from their balconies with barbeque’s in full swing. The music is very different too. It’s more world Carnival vibe with more house and samba as opposed to reggae and harder beats. You also get more tourists. In fact, it’s mostly tourists. If you really wanna get into Carnival spirit with a nappy on then this is a good area to start off with.

True carnival is North of the west way, this is where you’ll get the proper Afro-Caribbean vibe. To most people it’s a little more “edgy” to use a word that would be used by the Guardian to describe it. The food is better, the music’s better and it’s more like being in the Carribean. Trendy terraced house in Notting Hill Gate are replaced by council estates.

The best thing about North carnival is the music. Without a shadow of a doubt the best sound systems are located around Kensal Rise. Sancho Panza, Good Times Bus and, if you can hack it, KCC. Good Times is the place to be during carnival. The sets are massive and they DJ from a double decker bus parked next to the infamous small tree. The music is pumping and everyone, and i mean everyone, is looking to party. Plus it’s only a stones throw away from Sancho Panza, which is also great.

Such is the scale of awesomeness of Good Times, invariably the police block it off at about 3 in the afternoon as so many people try to get there. Last year on the Monday I tried dragging my friends from around Notting Hill Gate up to Good Times where my mum was partying with her friends. We managed to walk all the way north only to be stopped a 100 yards from the bus by a wall of police. They told us the party was too big and they’d blocked it off. Not what you wanna hear at Carnival, your mum is at a better party than you!

What are the bad points of Carnival? Firstly the shop keepers who basically create extortion rackets and raise the price of booze by a pound. It’s better to bring in a bottle of spirits. Which is what I did at Reading. In fact, any large event which goes on all day with jacked up booze prices, top tip, smuggle in a bottle of spirits. Secondly, the crowds when you’re going the wrong direction. Carnival sucks when you’re trying to get somewhere. But when you do get there it’s truly awesome. Shame it only happens once a year. I enjoy raving in the streets.