Simon Tait’s Mews No.8

Tim’s little shop of chuckles

Ever realised there was a product you absolutely needed but that didn’t exist? The kind of thing that chaps used to send new apprentices off to the stores for, like a jar of elbow grease or a bag of shoulder chips – only seriously? Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.7

Yule mewscasting

HQ CMT is a secret central London location known only to a few thousand cognoscenti, and they all seemed to be there for the Christmas spell casting. This is where making magic is serious fun, and the CMT Christmas gathering is the summit meeting for devoted funsters. I’m not talking about magic tricks, sleight of hand and now-you-see-now-you-don’t; this is about pure ingenuity, Magic Circle rules do not apply. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.6

Wanna tell you a story…

If you’ve been following the Magic of Cabaret day by day you’ve got some idea of the range of what CMT does, and elsewhere on the site there’s a bit of history, but I think you ought to know the real story about how the whole thing came about, and that’s Sue Jackson’s story. I warn you, though; it’s a breathless roller coaster we’re boarding. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.5

Jungle drums, cogs and sprockets

There’s a lovely little volume called the London Jungle Book by a Gond artist called Bhajju Shyam, all about his trip to London (to decorate an Islington Indian restaurant). Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.4

Viva Carlos!

It happens. Struggling artist in a strange country just about making ends meet working in a warehouse by day and painting by night pictures that he can occasionally sell, gets a creative block. Can’t paint any more. Disaster. Body and soul threatening to fall apart. Loyal and loving wife goes to London, to Covent Garden, and discovers Cabaret. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.3

The human side of Paul Spooner

If you ask Paul Spooner to fit a project brief don’t expect anything, because whatever you expect isn’t going to happen. What you can be sure of is that whatever does happen is going to be a delight. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.2

I call it sciretance

Here’s an interesting work of art to mews upon. It’s a sculpture by the eminent French artist Jean Tinguely and he called it Meta-Matic. It must be a work of art because Read more

Bernie Lubell in the UK

If you are in the UK this summer it is worth visiting San Francisco
based artist Bernie Lubell’s ‘A Theory of Entanglement’ exhibition Read more

At Home with Automata

We had a chat about collecting contemporary automata with TV personality and interior designer, Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen today. Read more

Simon Tait’s Mews No.1

This is the first in a series of posts from the journalist Simon Tait. He will be musing on all things mechanical once a month.

The family way

How closely related are mechanical theatre and the latest generation of robots? Is the connection the art, the mechanics, the humour? Read more