Viva Brighton Issue #39 May 2016

BITS AND BOBS
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MAGAZINE OF THE MONTH: LUNCHEON
As we all know, it’s festival month,
or fiesta, or feast. For as long as we
know, people have been creating
celebrations for their community to
mark something of natural, religious
or artistic significance.
Usually, it means that people are on
the top of their game, too. There’s
not much point celebrating with
poor food or bad dancing. It’s got to
be good. Which is why if you haven’t
got Festival tickets yet it’s worth taking
whatever is still available. Whatever you think
about it, it is unlikely to be rubbish.
In some ways, our little shop is a mini-festival of its
own. Beautifully produced, independent mags that
cause people to talk about them, swoon over them,
savour them and keep them for much longer than
they might keep other magazines. And true to all
festivals, only the good ones last.
So choosing just one magazine this month is especially
hard. Fortunately, a new mag has come into
the shop that has had people swooning from the
moment it arrived. It’s called Luncheon.
Their little trick is to organise
the magazine around five themes –
Catch of the Day, Hors D’Ouevre,
Main Dishes, Classics and Desserts;
although it’s not a specialist food
magazine.
Their big trick is in the quality of
what they have produced. It’s large
format on lovely, lovely paper with
illustrations and words to die for.
They have an eye for the different
angle and every page catches the attention. And the
content is right up there at the top of the tree with
Oliver Messel, Maria Valverde, Lee Miller, Snowdon,
Frank O’Hara, Patrick Proktor and more,
more, more.
Whoever is behind Luncheon (and we still don’t
know at the time of writing) they know what they
are doing and how to do it. It’s a brilliant first edition
in so many ways and a perfect complement to
our own amazing festival here in Brighton.
Martin Skelton, Magazine Brighton, Trafalgar Street
TOILET GRAFFITO #16
With the city gripped by festival fever, and Fringe
venues getting ever more obscure, there’s every
chance that this isn’t toilet graffiti at all but actually
a playbill… and that an angry Sumo Baby is about to
burst in to the cubicle… slugging away in a participatory
piece of immersive theatre… sending the loo
paper flying and pinning you to the cistern. Awkward.
Best keep your foot on the door just in case.
But where might you meet this badass baby?
Last month’s answer: The White Rabbit
Feel free to send in your own examples of Brighton
toilet graffiti… but don’t forget to tell us where you
snapped it.
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