UNLEASH HELL!

NORI SALON

My first day at Nori Salon. I introduced myself to my workmates and became familiar with the routines of the shop. Everyone was extremely welcoming and interested in the ideas behind the Nine Trades Project. As it was generally a quiet day in the salon, I had the opportunity to have a blether with all the staff members and it was not long before the conversations veered away from the formalities of my initial introductions into the areas of chat that really count - High Heels and Disco Injuries, Festival Anecdotes, Twisted Geography, Genealogy, Bombs on Buses, Bongs on Buses, Grannies Even Driving Buses! Tattoos, Translations and Trivia. A heady mix of personal histories. All ready to be absorbed and remixed into new narratives. The core material of what brainy Frenchman Nicolas Bourriaud would call 'Docu-Fiction'. 

 

I've been reading Gordon Burn's recent book, Born Yesterday - the news as a novel. It opens with a quote from Milan Kundera:

" Man is separated from the past (even from the past that is only a few seconds old) by two forces that go instantly to work and cooperate: the force of forgetting (which erases) and the force of memory (which transforms)...

   Beyond the slender margin of the incontestable ( there is no doubt that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo), stretches an infinite realm: the realm of the approximate, the invented, the deformed, the simplistic, the exxagerated, the misinformed, an infinite realm of non-truths that copulate, multiply like rats and become immortal."

DUNDEE'S FINEST

 Alexander Solzhenitsyn; Repressed Russian. Author of the harrowing Gulag Archipeligo. Survivor of the forced labour camps in the Soviet Union, said this of his fellow inmates and their body art - " They surrendered their bronzed skin to tattooing and this way gradually satisfied their artistic, their erotic, and even their moral needs: on one another's chests, stomachs and backs they could admire powerful eagles perched on cliffs or flying though the sky. Or the big hammer, the sun with its rays shooting out in every direction; or women and men copulating; or the individual organs of their sexual enjoyment; and all of a sudden, next to their hearts were Lenin and Stalin or perhaps both..."

Liam; Senior Hair Stylist at Nori Salon. Methodical master of his craft. Head-o-nistic party animal, had this to say of his decision to have "Dundee's Finest" tattooed at the base of his spine during a fortnight of debauchery in Ibiza - " well, I didn't have a clue what to have done when the boy asked me, so on the spur of the moment, in a drink fuelled haze, I chose this..( pulls up t-shirt, pulls down Calvin Kleins- bum nearly showing)

Liam says his next tattoo is going to be on his neck, where he plans to have the word 'Freedom' etched in Norwegian in homage to his Norse ancestors. I'm hoping that maybe I can help Liam come up with a design for his new artwork.

HACKNEY WICKED

See an article HERE on an interesting 'travelling museum' based in the area they're re-organising for the 2012 Olympics in London. 

MOUSTACHE!

Check out some good facial hair on this blog:

tiremobigode.blogspot.com

BAD HAIR DAY

RYAN

" So these days I brave the barbershop. And I mean 'barbershop'. I don't do hair salons - especially futuristic hair salons where the staff themselves sport fashionable asymmetrical haircuts that make them look like the cast of Battle of the Planets. You'd have to be mad to subject yourself to that."

                                    Charlie Brooker, Dawn of the Dumb 2007 

Ryan (pictured) is my barber. We have an agreement - he cuts my hair in exchange for drawings. Ryan's living room looks like an Alan Grieve retrospective. He lives in the same street as Scots actress Shirley Henderson ( Trainspotting, Harry Potter).

Ryan loves football. Until recently, he played five-a-sides with notorious local side, The Kaiser Chiefs, helping them to consecutive Division One titles in the Thursday night Powerleague. 

 

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Starting next week, I will have a 'comment of the week' wall in Nori Salon. Here, I will display various texts and drawings illustrating my thoughts and ideas each week. These thoughts and ideas are likely to be very random bursts of inanity, much in keeping with my method of working as an artist. 

Favourite Movie Haircuts 3

A pumped up Tom Hardy ( Stuart: A Life Backwards, RocknRolla), offers little in the way of hair style with his portrayal of serial offender Charles Bronson. One has to applaud the choice of facial hair, though. This, and his anachronistic wardrobe make great viewing. Look out for the scene featuring the Pet Shop Boys track, 'It's A Sin'...

Watch the trailer here.

Twitter Art

http://www.guardian.co.uk/charlottehiggins

Small Talk 101

An old post from an Australian doctor..

17thSeptember2004

Hairdressing Small Talk 101

Categories : Culture |

It seems to be an almost universal thing amongst hairdressers - the gift of the gab. I wonder if they have a module in Hairdressing college entitled “Small Talk 101″ or something similar. It must get pretty tiring to have to maintain an endless stream of conversation with a succesion of clients all day long. In my job I have to talk to people all day, but it’s generally pretty focussed discussion on their health problems so it usually takes care of itself.

In case you were wondering what prompted this, I had my long overdue haircut today, the last weekday of my mini holiday. The conversation ranged from the weather, my hairdresser’s cousin’s legal education and mental health problems, her best friend’s health problems, her menstrual cycle and what contraceptive pill she’s on, tax and tax deductions, and the usual “so what are you doing this weekend?” I was pretty tired out by the end of it, and all I had to do was mostly just sit there and listen - she has to keep on like this all day long (hopefully minus the gynaecological elements for the rest of her clients.) So I tip my hat off to her and other hairdressers - there’s much more to that job than just cutting, combing, and blowdrying.

fringe 2009

Snakebite Peter Wright

In a sport renowned for it's stylish men, Peter Wright follows in the footsteps of blokes like Bobby 'Bobby Dazzler' George, and Jocky 'on the oche' Wilson as a larger than life Darts character.

His wife Joanne is a hairdresser, and the one responsible for the flourescent barnet created for last month's Las Vegas Classic.

The crazy mowhawk's interesting, but i'm having real difficulty deciding where the crass Hawaiian shirt stops and the tattoos start.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEE! 

Favourite Movie Haircuts 2

" Granddaddy used to handle snakes in church, granny drank strychnine. I guess you could say I had a leg up, genetically speaking." Max Cady

Robert De Niro as Max Cady in Martin Scorcese's Cape Fear, offers a slicked-back Demi Wave (the original soft perm - just wash and wear!). Don't be fooled by those beautiful tumbling locks - Max Cady is a tattooed psychopath, ready to seduce your daughter. Check out the swarthy madman here.

Something for the weekend, sir?

I found this photo in the newspaper of a dude in the Sudan having his regular trim. As his barber is nomadic, appointments are a logistical nightmare.

Kinky Afro

Favourite Movie Haircuts 1

Javier Bardem sported what the Coen brothers referred to as a 'Bi-Historical' haircut in his role as Anton Chigurh in the movie No Country for Old Men. The Medieval Jester meets 70's pageboy for a big screen tonsorial masterpiece. Find out more about the man my wife loves here. 

Exhibition in a Hair Salon

Alan Opens Appointment Book

Wednesday 29th July – Alan Grieve’s first day cutting hair at Nori Salon. To book call Nori’s on 01382 220870 and ask for a Wednesday appointment with Alan. Student discount on Wednesdays of 30%