Merry Xmas

My folks put up a huge Xmas tree this year, the neighbours are jealous, it might win an award.  Go parents!  But, shock & horror it was so laden down with tinsle, baubles and lights that it toppled over during the night last week.  Happily though we re-erected it and securely tied it up in time for Xmas.  aaah how jolly, seasons greetings everyone : )

More Yeah Yeah Yeahs...

The YYYs opened the recent ATP festival with a full gallop through their life changing debut 'Fever To Tell', coming on 30mins late to the rumblings of a hungry crowd the atmosphere was charged.  Like a, cheesy metaphor alert!, storm about to break.  Cue band coming on looking pretty wasted and hyped, playing a savage set that included Karen O spraying champagne intot he crowd and my face.  I live for those live moments where everything is teetering on the edge of oblivion and you're their taking photos in no mans land between crowd and band.  Fun fun fun..

Victoria Park, London

Here's a view of the canal by Victoria Park at about 5pm, taken just near Approach Road. Felt very olde London with steam drifting up from the boats. 

This is exactly NOT how I was feeling at 1.30am this Monday while at ATP Fest in Minehead getting my brain churned into cream by Lightning Bolt.  Pics coming up soon.

California Dreaming...

So many of my favourite things, places and people come from California, permanantly fixed in my pysche from long hot summers in the central valley.  In the same way Mummies were left food and objects to take with them on their long journey to the afterlife, if I found myself in a small boat on the styx I'd happily settle for somewatermelons and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  My grandparents old house in Davis, California, is made of Redwood, the outside was aged and dark until recently when the new owners painted the whole outside cream.  But I just discovered that the google streetview footage was taken before this - it's a timecapsule of how I always remembered it.  Have a look.

Here's a couple California landscapes.  First from just outside Ferndale an old Victorian farming town that prospered from butter production, then almost vanished before being reclaimed and now preserved as it once was in former times of glory.  Friendly place but there's something just a little spooky about it.  It's also incredibly wet and the grass is greener than you could imagine! 2nd photo is from Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park, it's named after a cowboy, the amazingly named Kendall Vanhook Bumpass who literally stumbled into the hot springs.  After nearly burning his leg off he crawled miles back to the nearest town and then later returned and again fell in.  What a guy.

wtf...vol.1

(Southfields)

(South Thames College)

(I studied here)

(Animal Calenders - Oxford St)

(Honda - Newman St)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs 1st Dec 2009

Only the best band in the whole wide world but with added inflatable eyeballs.  I might just have simple tastes but really what more could one want??  I caught them at Shepherds Bush earlier in the year but having the full expanse of the Brixton Academy stage to run amok on created a glittery spectactle that left me even happier.  Nice light too, well done lighting peeps..

Click on the slide show below to open pictures in a bigger view...