Social Suicide.

I wonder how many times I’m going to start a blog post with “my friend’s Patrick’s such a bad influence…”?

Yes, here I am again, showing you something that Patrick showed to me. I was musing about clothes for keeping cool in the summer, and he sent me the link to Social Suicide’s new “Holidaze” collection.

The jackets are lightweight denims and cottons, some striped like deckchairs. There’s an inside pocket big enough for a paperback, a metal-lined pocket to stop your phone from ringing, and a pocket for your sunglasses which is lined with microfibre to keep them clean. The linings are printed with game boards, so you can play chess, backgammon and even sudoku – if you can bring yourself to write on it!

If it gets too hot to wear a jacket at all, you can simply roll it up neatly inside its own sleeve – and a carrying strap magically appears. The numbers on the strap? That’s for you to keep score of your games, of course.

Intriguingly, each jacket has its own social networking profile:

…they are all members of Facebook: each jacket ships with a login and password and is, in turn, a member of a group. So all of our Summer collection of jackets are ‘friends’ on-line. Why? We’re not sure, but we’re hoping you’ll work something out!

Then, as I was wandering through the Social Suicide blog, I stumbled upon this little gem. Sharp suit? Check. Eyeliner? Check. Bright pink shoes? Check.

It’s official – Social Suicide are now on my wish list.

Patrick and I are just going to have to rob a bank (or win the lottery) before we go on our shopping spree.

Gypsy Music

I was walking past a music shop on my way home from work today, so I popped in and asked whether they had any books that might help me with learning to play the concertina. They didn’t, but I spotted this tucked away amongst the violin music.

I promise I didn’t only buy it for the beautiful artwork on the cover. (Just mostly.) It’s by Rima Staines, whose blog I follow and whose artwork I adore.

To be honest, I think this book was a bit of a rash and ambitious purchase. I’ve only been learning the concertina for a week, and here I’m looking at pieces in 11/16, in very peculiar keys, and with notes that may not even exist on the concertina. Talk about throwing yourself in at the deep end.

The book also comes with a CD, which I am currently transferring to my iPod so that I can listen to the tunes on my bus ride to work. Hopefully I’ll be able to sneak the music into my head, so that when it comes to getting it past my fingers and out through the concertina it’ll be a tiny bit easier than it looks on paper.