Decorating inspiration from Graceland

Our visit to Memphis included many awesome experiences. Visiting Graceland was always on the list (how could it not be) but none of our group are bona fide Elvis fans so it felt like a little bit of a tick box thing. Especially as we did it an hour after a visit to the Full Gospel Tabernacle where we heard Al Green sing a bit of 'I'm so tired of being alone'. But more on that later...
 



Graceland turned out to be a pretty special place, the highlight being the outrageous interior decor which was oddly inspiring. I wonder if a terrace house in Croydon would look good with a jungle room? I also now want a bar in every room and a triple TV media lounge. In yellow and navy blue, of course.

Check out the photos below...


Kitchen





Jungle Room*

*Yup, like in the Cher song









Television Room





Billiard Room



 Dining room and lounge

Maltby Street Market and LASSCO Ropewalk

These are some photos taken during a quick walk around Maltby Street Market on Saturday. The place is getting so popular and there are better stalls every time we come. (Pro-tip: have a lie-in, go late and get BOGOF bread from the lovely people at Comptoir Gourmand).



We also visited LASSCO Ropewalk for the first time. This is the latest outlet of the famous salvage company. The Bermondsey shop is a bit of a wonderland of old school furniture (including some desks with very rude graffiti on them), old flag, baths and doorknobs. I'm not making it sound as good as it is, so I should also mention that it has a secret room where you can listen to live jazz and take swing dance lessons. The whole shops reminds me of a more practical version of the legendary antique shop, Uncommon Objects in Austin, Texas. I have a feeling that I'll be spending a lot of any available disposable income here once I move into out new house.





 I also spotted this aggressively hip collection of novelty pigs.



After walking around for a while and eating a lot of bread, we were tired and in need of feeding. So we swooped in on Pizza Lupa London Bridge for their little known collection-only offer (17 inches of pizza for less than £12). We then consumed this in a park with beers. Fine holiday fun!

Under the Skin

We saw Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer's new film, last night. It is a slow burn but very inventive and disturbing. It will really stay with you, especially the incredibly cold-hearted scene involving a family on a beach and the last five minutes of the film, when you finally get a hint of what is going on/under the skin of Scarlett Johansson's character.

I'm not much of a Johansson fan, but what I've heard called her 'detached cool' works well in this film. The sequences when she is trying to charm Glaswegian men into her car are a bit like You've Been Framed. The fake English accent she puts on and TV presenter charm are as alien as if she had grey skin and an ET neck. It all works against the background of Sauciehall Street and gangs of pre-teen neds perfectly.

 The other big draws to this film are Adam Pearson (a fellow Croydoner) a disfigured man who is preyed on by Johannson but ends up inadvertently triggering a switch in her journey. Also the eerie soundtrack by Mica Levi.

This film is a brutal Kubrick, Lynch, Morvern Callar type mixture. Watch it!