20 Nov 06 Entertained
Anyone who keeps a casual and personal blog understands how it feels when there’s not much in the brain itching to be written about yet when you write nothing, a nagging pressure mounts to pick a random topic out of the ether and get over the slump. So here’s my random topic: entertained.
Not all of my time in the past while has been spent shooting pictures or editing pictures. Matt and I have been out patronising galleries and theater and cinemas, as well we have lounged a bit in front of the TV. Some recent highlights include:
The Fischli and Weiss exhibit at Tate Modern
A sincerely fun retrospective of these two Swiss artists that have collaborated for 30+ years and who I’d never heard of before this show. My favourite section is the enormous room set up as what appears to be the artists’ working studio - miscellaneous tools, crates, pizza boxes and assorted junky things. The twist is that none of the objects in this room are ‘real’, but sculpted fabrications of the real things. Having not realised this until days after we visited the exhibition, I had to return to scrutinize it all for signs of imitation. Even the rubber boots and gloves looked real, it’s a complete mind-bender. Also, separately entertaining to see is the installation of giant slides in the Turbine Hall which have attracted swarms of eager and vocal kiddies.
One Man Star Wars
Nutty Canadian Charles Ross is touring his one-man spastic interpretation of the original Star Wars trilogy. We caught the show at the Garrick Theater and were generally impressed by the unpretentious wackiness of a solo guy playing all the pertinent roles plus the spaceships as though he were performing in a livingroom for a bunch of friends for a laugh. The audience loved it but, for the few who might not have, Ross offered an apology at the end mentioning how easy it could have been to misinterpret the title of the show and have expected something different… :P
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Hysterically ridiculously belligerently funny movie, yes it is, and the humour is so way over the top to be judged only ‘politically incorrect’. Any person easily offended by pretty much anything should probably never see this flick. Just when I needed lots of laughs this movie came through, however I would happily take back five of the six (or eight) minutes I spent watching that nude wrestling scene. In light of the controversial revelations regarding the making of the film my thoughts are: Sacha Baron Cohen tricking some frat guys into drinking too much - OK whatever - but swindling an entire village of poor Romanian gypsies is perhaps ethically questionable and not entirely a practice I’d like to pay money to support.
Breaking and Entering
A London-filmed movie with Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn and Juliette Binoche - some actors I quite like to watch. Unfortunately there was no baring of Jude’s bum for this one but the interesting story and clever pacing made for a decent evening out. We have a newly opened cinema / multi-purpose community arts facility in our area, Rich Mix, where tickets cost only £6 (versus £12.50 at Leicester Square)!
In the Face of History: European Photographers in the 20th Century at Barbican
Spent a few hours wandering through this enormous and engaging photography exhibit, primarily featuring exciting and moving documentary-style images. Aside from Atget and Brassai whose images of Paris I am familiar with, top highlights for me were Henryk Ross ( represented by a series of shocking images which he took in secret while imprisoned in the Lodz ghetto in Poland during World War Two) and Anders Peterson, whose photographs taken in Sweden at “Cafe Lehmitz”. Some of those pictures are the best I have ever seen, ever, and I discovered this afternoon he was here in London giving a lecture ten days ago… aaargh!
BBC’s Planet Earth series with David Attenborough
It’s nature programming at its absolute best and intriguing, really, and you can buy it on DVD. It’s equally amazing to watch the ‘diaries’ segments that document some of the trials of making the series. Unbelievably these filmmakers have suffered near attacks by lions and polar bears and extreme cold all for their commitment (and producer-pressure, I think) to record unforgettable footage. Last night’s rainforest episode had the photographer waiting 120 hours in a covered hole in the ground (not in one go), waiting with a male six-wired bird of paradise to meet a female mate. The results were worth it!
6 Nov 06 Fireworks
Fireworks have been exploding nightly for the past two weeks across the street in the Altab Ali park behind the fire station - first in celebration of Diwali then last night for Guy Fawkes day.
Each time they begin I have to assure myself those bangs don’t mean a gunfight. Last night I feared some unlucky souls had their faces blown off, as the fire trucks were out every half hour. No deaths reported in the city of London though, so that’s good news.
On a somewhat related note, a few Londoners I’ve spoken with since coming here insist that London does not experience fog. This is a lie! The same people wonder how it’s possible the city has been coined “The Big Smoke” or where the term “London fog” originated…
It’s been so foggy here in the mornings I don’t know who to believe. Maybe all those fireworks are kicking up smokey foggy.. smoke fog?
6 Nov 06 right then
I’ve just finished a bath that I think has soaked off the month of October!
:D Feeling good.
I promised to show the photos that were selected for the exhibition. Here they are:
To keep up with my latest street documentary photos visit my photo home page.
30 Aug 06 Days go by
Summer is nearly a distant memory already! The heatwave has long passed and morning chills have set in.
I’ve just finished pulling together my submission for the annual London Independent Photography exhibition coming up in mid-October. I made five prints from images I took for the Street Photography workshop at Tate Modern awhile back, all black and white, 12×18 and mounted for framing. I drop them off tomorrow and should find out by September 10th if any are selected. So cross your fingers for me ;)
This past weekend was great fun with a bank holiday on Monday, which also happened to be Matt’s birthday! We ventured out into the woods for another country walk, this time to Saunderton. The weather was so variable that our trek alternated between clopping through mucky forest paths under a bit of rain to crunching across dry harvested hay fields. In the wetlands we saw hundreds of snails and a few slugs; in the dry it was (you guessed it) sheep, numerous pheasants (that run around in zig-zags), the odd rabbit, horse and a single fawn. There was a surreal minute in the forest too, when rounded the path and entered the Matrix! About 50 feet ahead of us we spotted two goths dressed in long, swinging black leather coats. They slowed down to take photos (and, of course, to give us the opportunity to get a closer look at their outfits). Both wore black leather caps, dark sunglasses, leather pants and boots - all this for a stroll in the country! Surreal.
We stopped through West Wycombe to tour the Hellfire Caves and Tearoom. Sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? The chalk caves were excavated between 1748–1752 “to provide work for unemployed farm workers following a succession of harvest failures” and for the owner of the land, Sir Francis Dashwood, to hold underground meetings with his member-buddies of the Hellfire Club. The caves are impressively enormous and wind deep underground, though I can’t recall how deep - perhaps 100 meters. Disappointingly, the place is a certifiable tourist trap swarming with kids tearing around in the dark, narrow corridors, so it’s difficult to get a sense of how creepy the caves might have been in the mid-18th century.
In other adventures, I spent part of the weekend visiting with my friend from Chester whose samba band rolled into town to play the Notting Hill Carnival. The band, called Batala, numbered nearly 150 players gathered from the UK and France. Saturday night was kind of preview celebration with all sorts of carnival players performing in a sweaty community hall, and Sunday was a 6+ hour Batala rehearsal at a small university gym.
This section made up about a quarter of the band. It was difficult to photograph in the low-lit gym and because of space limitation I shot down from the observation balcony. Anyway, this day all these players worked incredibly hard preparing for their 4-5 hour carnival parade on Monday. Tuesday morning they were rewarded with a double-page photo spread of their performance in the Guardian! Hot stuff.
20 Jul 06 Out the Window, right now
Just snapped these shots, the view from the front window. No exercising at the moment, just soaking up the sun. (this post is dedicated to Mary!)
10 Jul 06 Spending: pounds vs. dollars
Using today’s currency conversion rates, I thought I’d share a few examples of how much stuff costs here. If you’re traveling to the UK from the US, you might want to save any purchases until you return home! Or take the eurostar to Paris and do some euro shopping there.
Book
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris: £6.39 vs. $9.72
US price is £1.14/$2.11 less
Digital SLR Camera
Canon EOS 20D Body: £829.00 vs. $999.95
US price is £288.80/$534.57 less
Movie/cinema
Weekend Ticket: £12.50 vs $10.75
US price is £6.69/$12.37 less
Matt and I planned to see Pirates of the Caribbean Saturday but couldn’t bring ourselves to drop USD $46 on just two tickets! Yes I know it’s just the cost of entertainment consumption here, and we usually avoid any temptation to convert currency, but this seems such a scam, no?
30 Jun 06 It’s (nearly) Canada Day!
But here in London the Canada Day celebrations are happening today from 2:00 til 7:00 in Trafalgar Square. A bit strange to hold festivities a day early, right? In past years on July 1st, Canadians in London have overtaken the Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden and partied in the street throughout the day, I’m told. The change this year is apparently due to the conflicting Pride parade and police will be enforcing normalcy on Maiden Lane tomorrow. The Maple Leaf will still draw big crowds though I’m sure, as I think it’s the old standard pub where Canadians here gather (even though it’s authenticity as ‘Canadian’ and overall quality as a pub is much debated).
Moving the party to Trafalgar Square, though, has the upside of being higher profile and much larger in scope, considering the tens of thousands of tourists and local bodies that crowd the square on a daily basis. The downside, unfortunately, is people who work Friday won’t be able to attend. Ah well, now there’s two days of celebrations :O) Bonus is the weather is outstanding, sunny, with temps expected to hold above 30 for the next few days.
I wonder, what are the chances there will be a clash between the Canadians and protesters of the seal hunt who have been demonstrating in front of Canada House which is directly adjacent to Trafalgar Square? They have been spreading leaflets and chanting shame on Canada, boycott Canada….
I’m bringing my camera :)
9 Apr 06 Morning with Tate
This morning we visited Tate Modern to see the Albers and Moholy-Nagy exhibition From Bauhaus to the New World. Peruse the exhibition room guide, and it’s almost like being there… well not really, but a good number of the pieces are represented in (poor quiality) photos in the order they are displayed. There are no images, however, of two of my favourites from the show - two posters by Moholy-Nagy, this one for London Underground:
and this one for Imperial Airways:
We also recently saw the Martin Kippenberger exhibit - Room Guide - which holds a large selection of drawings he did on hotel stationery.
Back in February we bought a ‘Member and Guest” membership that gives us access to all paid exhibitions at both Tate Britain and Tate Modern, so the plan is to attend as many shows as possible. It doesn’t take many visits before the membership pays for itself, especially if you want to return to the same exhibition. You also receive advance mailings of a bi-monthly guide to what’s on and a quarterly glossy magazine full of arty analysis…
At Tate Britain, Gothic Nighmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination is on until May 1st, and there’s certainly enough memorable material there to cause nasty dreams. I have yet to see the Tate Triennial 2006 showcase of New British Art.
Today I signed up for a Street Photography workshop taking place over two Saturday mornings in May at Tate Modern. It’s in collaboration with iN-PUBLiC, an excellent website promoting the art of street photography and work by a selection of current photographers. I’m quite excited for the workshop as I need some new inspiration!
Some natural, outdoor inspiration is upcoming though. In the morning I’m off to visit York until Friday, with at least one day trip planned to Bridlington for a seaside walk on the cliffs to Flamborough Head and perhaps as far as Bempton Cliffs. Check out this guy David Cotton who has walked 6200 miles of UK coastline! Amazing.
3 Mar 06 UK keyboard standards a.k.a. Nerdy computer observations
At different internet cafes I’ve seen two variations of computer keyboards: one had all the same keys as the North American standard keyboard, but with the proper currency £ key instead of $; the second was the same, plus switched “ and @ keys.
Since I’ve now got my own computer back I had to do something about my frustration of having no £ key, and discovered the utility of Window XP’s “Regional and Language Options” in the control panel.
I switched my default settings to UK English and I’m almost set, with the exception of now having to adjust to reversed “ and @ keys and the apparent loss of the backslash (now #) and that vertical line symbol thingy (a key I really enjoy, which sadly is now a ~)!
Oh vertical line symbol thingy, I hope we meet again someday!
28 Feb 06 History of Whitechapel, Tower Hamlets
Unfortunately it’s practically impossible to recycle in the district we live in and I’ve been harrassing the Tower Hamlets council (only via email thus far) for information on how to get the mounting recyclables out of our flat. I’ve filed three official requests and still no resolution, but I’m determined.
This morning I discovered some brief historical info on Wikipedia about our borough of Tower Hamlets and more specifically our area of Whitechapel.
The Tower Hamlets page has an overview of the geography, demographics and politics of the area, which seems slightly skewed by the fact that the Docklands development is a part of it. Docklands is somewhat like Vancouver’s Yaletown, filled with upscale condos and the tallest buildings (bank towers) in London. By the way the tallest habitable building in London, and Britain, is 1 Canada Square.
Honing in on Whitechapel, though, some historical nuggets are interesting:
1888 saw the depredations of the Whitechapel Murderer, later known as Jack the Ripper. In 1902, American author Jack London, looking to write a counterpart to Jacob Riis’s seminal book How the Other Half Lives, donned ragged clothes and boarded in Whitechapel, detailing his experiences in The People of the Abyss. Riis had recently documented the astoundingly bad conditions in the leading city of the United States. Jack London, a socialist, thought it worthwhile to explore conditions in the leading city of the nation that had created modern capitalism. He concluded that English poverty was far rougher than the American variety.
Not long before our move here I finished reading How the Other Half Lives to learn more about New York history, so it seems logical I should now read The People of the Abyss. I doubt people in the neighbourhood were battling for recycling services at that time.
GET FED: